Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools Of Destruction Review

Ratchet And Clank Future: Tools Of Destruction

Des Manttari
Editor-In-Chief
Phoenix Genesis

June 2, 2009

“Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools Of Destruction” is the first installment of the stellar franchise into the Sony PlayStation 3 entertainment system. Once again, Insomniac Games has proven their expertise in providing a truly spectacular gaming experience. Even without the 720p high definition audio and visual experience that this game offers, gamers with outdated TVs will be pleased for the sheer game mechanics, level design, storyline, and length of the game. However, the high definition experience truly lives up to the New York Times claims of a “Pixar movie experience.” Insomniac inserts a bit of tongue-and-cheek humor when one of the characters exclaims that he almost didn’t recognize our heroes in high definition.

For those new to the Ratchet and Clank franchise, “Tools of Destruction” follows the familiar intergalactic exploits of our favorite wrench-wielding Lombax Ratchet and his robotic sidekick Clank. Once again, Captain Quark and a few other characters make their appearance as well. Packed with action and humor, our heroes race through the galaxy to battle their way to victory against the evil despot Emperor Tachyon. This time though, Insomniac gave fans a surprise with a cliffhanger ending that is ripe for their upcoming sequel slated for November 2009.

Not only are the character designs first rates, but so is the voice acting. David Bergeaud returns with the perfect music score to supplement the pleasing gameplay sounds and voice acting. The cutscenes are seamlessly placed so as not to disrupt the gameplay experience, but to enhance them. Not only is the length of the game more than satisfying, but if one patiently sits through the credits, one is given the treat of saving the game and replaying in Challenge Mode. The second go-around sports a higher difficulty level as well as new armor and Omega versions of retained weapons. Also, the gold bolts found in the previous game are carried over.

Bonus goodies abound, including the options to play as a number of different characters including one of Insomniacs former game developers, a mustached version of Ratchet, various enemies, or even a snowman. Keep collecting those gold bolts to unlock these characters! Cinematic cutscenes are open as well as artwork. Addtionally, skill points achieved during the game are tallied up.

Gameplay mechanics offer the usual platformer experience of previous Ratchet and Clank installments including the necessity of playing as both Ratchet and Clank. There are bolts to collect, hidden bonus gold bolts, shooting through intergalactic mazes, a Geo-Cycle to ride, and a grind rail to navigate. Additionally, there are enemies to defeat, crates to smash, breakable objects, and huge boss battles. But fans of the series will not be disappointed as Insomniac makes full use of the PlayStation 3 wireless motion sensor controller. The usual puzzles to unlock become even more difficult when one has to navigate an onscreen metal ball by tilting the controller. The motion controller also includes flying challenges (thanks to the Robo-Wings) and a Geo-Laser that must be tilted to cut through rock to move through levels. In my opinion, this gave the already high definition experience of this game a more real hands-on feel.

The gameplay mechanics and flawless controls shine. It is almost a seamless experience with rotating around the playable character’s environment, accessing the equipped weapons, switching to Ratchet’s wrench, or locking on to enemies. Ratchet has the ability to quickly leap backwards and sideways, jump up, or hover away from enemies. Also, Insomniac makes incredible use of the three-dimensional space of the game, rotating the environments upside down or sideways.

The levels themselves are interesting and diversified. There are space stations, pirate hideouts (complete with a “Pirates of the Caribbean” type score), the familiar Metropolis, asteroid fields, lava areas, a prison complex, and a dinosaur planet. Maps ensure that players always know not only where they are, but where they need to be. Insomniac makes full use of landmarks to further aid in navigating these huge and colorful levels. A battle arena allows the player to hone his fighting skills while acquiring prize money in the form of bolts.

But the meat of any Ratchet and Clank game is the arsenal of interesting and powerful weapons at one’s disposal. Once a new weapon becomes available, it can be upgraded not only through use, but by spending Raritanium crystals to enhance features such as more power, range, and ammunition capabilities. In the challenge mode, omega versions can be purchased which continue to upgrade with use. In addition to the staple OmniWrench 3000, Ratchet can purchase such novelties as devices to turn his enemies into cute and cuddly penguins, a disco ball appropriately named the Groovitron to make his enemies stop fighting and groove to the beat, a Tornado Launcher with which to command the forces of nature, and the Nano-Swarmer that infests his enemies with swarms of killer bees.

If one desires sheer firepower, there are the Buzz Blades, Shard Reaper, Pyro Blaster, Alpha Distrupter, and Negotiator to name a few of my favorites. If the player wishes to take out his enemies Indiana Jones style, there is the Shock Ravager electrified whip. Stand back by tossing a few Fusion Grenades or get close and personal with the Razor Claws. Choices abound for combat, but I found that each serves its purpose in various scenarios.

This is a game that can be played at one’s leisure, but given its appeal on many levels, it is hard not to play until one’s eyes drop from exhaustion and one’s fingers tingle from holding the controller for hours on end. Add to this the eye candy of 720p resolution and the high replay value, and it is hard not to give this game a perfect 10. For those who have yet to play the game, I highly recommend picking it up before the sequel debuts this November.

(c) 2009: Phoenix Genesis/MBS LP

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Animal Crossing: Wild World Review

Animal Crossing: Wild World Review

Des Manttari
Editor-In-Chief,
Phoenix Genesis

June 2, 2009

“Animal Crossing: Wild World” is perhaps not only the highest selling game for the Nintendo DS handheld system, but it has a huge fan base. Several extensive websites can be found online where fans of the game can provide clothing pattern ideas, custom town musical themes, and strategy and information for the game. In fact, the game feels more like a living breathing world experience than a simple game.

Wild World is more of an open-ended sim than a traditional game. Even when the game is allegedly completed by paying off one’s mansion, one can keep visiting the colorful animal inhabitants and interacting with them in various ways. The world lives in real time, changing from Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. There is even snow on the ground in Winter. Even if one were to rush through the basic mansion building aspect of the game, he or she would still want to visit the world to experience the changing seasons and the surprises that accompany each cycle of nature.

The game starts by naming one’s world and choosing one’s sex and basic disposition and name. A taxi ride takes the player to the new town. Given the answers the player provides to the cab driver, the sex and look and feel of the character and determined. A total of four characters can live in one’s new home as roommates, although only one character can be played at any time. When I named my town “Nintendo,” the cabbie responded that I had a sense of humor.

Once dropped off in town, the character is urged to meet the Mayor and to find his or her home on the town map. Tom Nook, a friendly raccoon, not only owns the general store, but he conveniently owns your home, which is nothing more than a simple shack with no furnishings but a cardboard box and a candle. Tom offers to help you pay off your mortgage by working for him, to learn the ropes, including deliveries to various animal inhabitants. Although numerous animals move in and out of town, only about eight residents reside in the town at one time. Depending how you treat them and the amount of time you interact with them, they could stay in your town for months or get sick and tired of your town and you and move out fairly quickly.

Animals will invite you to their birthday parties, urge you to write to them, and even send them gifts. Of course all this effort is not forgotten, and even rewarded with photos of them for you to place in your home or gifts for you to keep or sell. Animals will even hint at gifts or furniture or clothing they would like to have. Each animal character has a different personality, from grumpy, to friendly, to jock, to bizarre, and it is your job to win them all over as best you can. Animals even offer you challenges as to who can catch certain fish or butterflies first. You can even eavesdrop on various animals conversations. If you offend any animal, it will walk away mad, but answer the right questions and your animal will walk away singing or even give you a little gift or some much needed pocket change.

Eventually, Tom sets you out on your own to earn your living. In addition to receiving gifts from other animals, you can do deliveries for them, catch fish, spiders, insects, and butterflies to sell, sell off their gifts, dig up fossils, or grow your own orchards and sell off the fruit of your labors literally and figuratively. You can even plant flowers to sell and cross-pollinate. Seashells will also float onto your shores to collect and sell. Each town starts out with a random native fruit. From there, you will receive imported fruit or even find coconuts will wash onto your shores to plant. Fruit includes peaches, pears, cherries, and oranges. Some trees can be shook to disclose money or valuable items for your home. Trees can be chopped down and planted as desired.

Fossils dug up can not only be sold for huge profit, but they can be donated to the local museum towards its dinosaur exhibit. In addition, the museum gladly accepts insects and butterflies and fish to supplement its collection. There is even an art gallery. There is also a planetarium where you can create your own constellation. In addition to building your museum and beautifying your surroundings with trees and flowers, you can create your own town tune and custom flag.

In addition to these yearly events, there are specific seasonal events. One day in winter, you will be surprised by snow on the ground and the ability to make talking snowmen who will quickly rate your snow-building skills. In August, every Saturday the Mayor will give you fireworks to set off and you are treated to a fireworks display at night. There are also periodic “bugoffs” in which you collect bugs and compete for a trophy for the biggest one. There are also fishing tournaments that also offer trophies you can display in your home.

Wild World also offers specific events during certain times of the week. One day a week, specified by the player, a fox will put up a tent and offer questionably acquired items for sale. He will sniff around for the police while requiring you to provide a password for admittance. But beware, some of his paintings are forgeries. On Sunday mornings, the radish vendor will make her appearance to offer both red and white radishes. Head her warnings to religiously water your radishes.

Saturday nights are my favorite time to play the game as a dog named KK Slider will grace his presence at the local coffee shop where you can request a song or let him pick one for you at his discretion. Of course he will reward you with a CD of your song so that you can kick back at your pad at home and listen to it with your favorite mode of music device including a jutebox, boom box, stereo system, etc. His music collection is both extensive and eclectic, so there is something to please everyone.

There is a clothing store where you can not only buy clothes and accessories such as hats and glasses, but you can submit your own custom clothing designs for display and sale. It is fun to see an animal resident appear wearing one of your designs! If you befriend the two porcupine sisters who run the shop, they will provide you with personal information about their lives.

But the heart of the game is to turn your one room shanty into a mansion that will be the envy of all the animals in your town. They will periodically comment on your home and even drop in for a visit to critique your choice of furnishings. On certain times, you can even sell off some of your possessions or drop into their homes to do a little bargain shopping. What is one person’s trash is another one’s treasure.

However, be forewarned that if you do not play the game for any length of time, weeds will grow in your town which must be plucked and cockroaches will infest your home that must be exterminated. Also, you animal residents will become irritated at your lengthy absence and comment accordingly. They even know precisely how long you have avoided them!

In order to make your dream home a reality, you must work hard in both paying off your ever-increasing mortgages with Tom Nook as well as buying items with which to furnish your home. There are themes you can create to give your home a certain feel or you can completely create your own look and feel. Not only will your neighbors let you know what they think, but the Happy Room Academy will send you letters rating your home.

As you continue to grease Tom Nook’s pockets, he will invest in larger and larger stores to accommodate your lavish lifestyle. During Christmas, he will offer holiday candles and even Christmas Trees. You can buy some interesting items to supplement your usual furniture such as a dog house, surfboard, snowboard, boxing arena, fireplace, jack-in-the box, Lunar Lander, etc. Various televisions purchased will play TV shows for you to watch if you tire of listening to your music. Of course no house is complete without wallpaper and carpeting. You can even keep your prized fish or tarantula you caught and display it in a glass enclosure. The sky is literally the limit.

To add to all this single player bliss, you can interact with your real life friends as well. So long as they have created a Wild World town on their own Nintendo DS, they can come visit your town and vice versa. If they buy something from Tom Nook, his greed will kick in and he’ll give you an impressive Macy’s type store expansion complete with a hair salon where you can pick a variety of hairdos to wear to match your clothing and accessories. And you will want to change your outfits periodically as the local residents will comment about how long you’ve worn the same old thing. To keep your extensive wardrobe, a closet can be purchased from Tom Nook. You can even store extra furniture and other items that you are not currently using.

If you are a real packrat, then you can even stash your junk in your storage space at the town Post Office. The Post Office also serves as your stop to make donations to a good cause, change your town tune, learn your town rating, mail your letters, pay your mortgage, or save for a rainy day in your bank account. Depending on what time of day you pop in, you will be greeted by the cheerful clerk or her belligerent sister.

If all this isn’t enough for you to enjoy, special characters will make their appearance offering select items and other entertainment. A slingshot can even be purchased to shoot prizes down from the sky. Don’t forget to look up at the ever-changing sky as you may be surprised to find a rainbow, a glorious sunset, or even rain or mist or snow. You can purchase designer umbrellas for those rainy days or sport a tan during the summer.

This game is simply amazing. Parents who enjoy an educational and non-violent gaming experience for their child while keeping him or her occupied for a year (without them whining that they need a new game) should leap at the opportunity to purchase this game. Given the portability of the Nintendo DS system, the player will never miss out on those special events when on the go. You can take your living, breathing world with you wherever you are and there is something new every day as Tom Nook rotates his inventory and you never know what you will find.

However, the only downside is that the game gets a little tedious and repetitious after awhile. It took me about a year before I found myself not visiting ever single day. Due to this, I give the game a 9 out of 10.

(c) 2009: Phoenix Genesis/MBS LP

Feel free to link or print this; just include the SAVE SMC URL: http://savesmc.blogspot.com/

Secrets Of The PS3

Secrets of the PlayStation 3

Des Manttari
Editor-In-Chief
Phoenix Genesis

May 21, 2009


When Sony first introduced the PlayStation game console to the world, there was a great deal of excitement. Games such as Final Fantasy VII raised the bar with its expansive world, well-crafted gameplay, and compelling characters and storyline. Not only could the player pop in a CD of a game, but one could play music CDs as well. Having a controller that vibrated was a real treat. The only thing I could envision for the future was to have my gameplay graphics one day match the quality of my cinematic cutscenes.

I was first in line to purchase my PlayStation 2. With better graphics, backwards compatibility for my PSOne games, and the ability to play DVD movies, I was more than satisfied. With the introduction of online gaming, one’s gaming world was expanded considerably. The only improvements I looked forward to with the PlayStation 3 would be enhanced graphics.

When I finally broke down and picked up my PlayStation 3 about three weeks ago, I was shocked to see all the new improvements that Sony had so thoughtfully integrated to make my console a true multi-media entertainment system. Given the fact that GameStop offered an instant $100 off with a trade-in of my old PS2 and a few old game titles, I could not think of a reason to hold off any longer. If my third generation system were backwards compatible with my old PS2 games, I would be in complete bliss. However, discovering that my system was backwards compatible with my favorite PSOne games and that I didn’t need to worry about a memory card given the built-in hard drive, I was thrilled. Now I could play both PS3 and PSOne games for the price of one system. Waiting three years to buy my PS3 gave me the added bonus of picking up some great titles and bargain basement prices.

And there are some fantastic games out there. Having just finished playing through Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools Of Destruction, I have delved into both of Insomniac’s Resistance games, Grand Theft Auto IV, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots, Fallout 3, and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Next year will even give owners of the PS3 more to be excited about with the introduction of God of War 3 and Final Fantasy XIII. Even this year there is the highly anticipated Batman game, Sucker Punch’s Infamous, and the Ratchet and Clank Future sequel. With Internet connectivity, there are even a handful of downloadable games that look appealing. And many games offer online multiplayer capabilities and interaction with one’s PSP handheld gaming device.

The wireless motion sensor controller that still offers that great vibration feature takes the system to a whole new level of gaming experience. Add to that the fact that the High Definition gameplay experience of 720p and even 1080p full HD with its accompanying eye candy visuals and aural heaven, I have never been more excited about playing games. However, now I am saving my pennies to buy a high definition television to compliment my system. But even on my old rabbit ears TV set, the games look stunning and are fun to play.

But the PS3 does more than play games. Much more. Not only does the Blu-Ray drive play high definition Blu-Ray movies, but one can still watch good old DVD movies and play music CDs. See that USB port at the front of the console? It will become your new best friend if you have a Fat 32 formatted external hard drive. Western Digital now offers a whopping 500 GB external hard drive the size of my iPod classic for only $119. With that kind of size, I can have an entire DVD library (remember those digital copies they offer with most DVDs these days?) at my disposal.

To play your digital movies, simply plug in your external hard drive to your PC computer and make sure they are in MPEG-4, avi, or DIVX format. Unfortunately, QuickTime and MKV files are still not compatible. Even raw avi files shot from one’s digital camera will play on the PS3. When you are done transferring your movies from your computer to your external hard drive, plug the drive into the USB port of your PS3. On your TV screen, choose the Video menu. Your hard drive will pop up. Make sure to hit the triangle button and select the Display All feature. If you have organized your movies into folders, you can go into those folders and you will see the title of your movie. Not only can you quickly rifle through your movies, but the load times are amazingly fast. Of course you can pause and fast forward through your movies as well.

Do you own an iPod? If so, then you will probably have a good selection of mp3s to choose from. If not, download the free iTunes program from Apple’s site and start ripping your CDs to mp3s. I suggest ripping them at 320K to get the highest quality sound with your high definition sound system. Now you can throw out your CD player and listen to tunes on your PS3 while you clean the house.

But there is still more. Load on all of your jpg image files and you can quickly view family photos and photos of your latest trip on the big screen to show to family and friends. Are you into the digital comics scene? If so, you can read your digital comics on your TV as well. Most digital comics are in a format known as CBR or CBZ. With a PC, the comics are read with a variety of software known as comic book readers. By downloading an open source free program known as 7-Zip, you can extract these compressed files to jpg images. Keep each comic in its own folder, preferably named the title of your comic and the issue number, and you can now read them on your TV thanks to the PS3. As with the PS3 controller functionality, it is easy to zoom in and out to get an overall view of your comic page or to zoom in to read text.

With all these enhancements to the PS3 from the PS2 console, I cannot even envision what Sony has in store for us in the future with the PlayStation 4. Whatever it is, I am confident that I will not only be pleased, but awed. If the technological trends follow their logical course, I can guess that we will see price drops, slimmer consoles, more hard drive capacity (most likely in solid state form), and even the ability to have full Internet access. Given that Blu-Ray movies are starting to offer free digital copies with the discs, I can see Sony making compatible hard drives that play files larger than 4GB. Currently, the NTFS format is not compatible. So what are you waiting for? Go out and buy your PlayStation 3 today. You will not regret it! Without PS2 backwards compatibility, I give the system a 9 out of 10.

(c) 2009: Phoenix Genesis/MBS LP

Feel free to link or print this; just include the SAVE SMC URL: http://savesmc.blogspot.com/