Wow, we're in it. E3 is finally happening but it feels very unceremonious this time around. I don't mind though, seeing as this week has been hectic as shit for me personally. Of the events that have happened so far (Summer Game Fest kick-off, Ubisoft and Devolver), there's not a lot that stands out to me. Elden Ring might be the only thing I'm truly hyped for, most of the stuff shown has been kind of "Yeah, I'll play that some day". I have been playing a LOT of games this week though, despite it maybe not being in my best interest due to the previously mentioned hectic as shit week I've had. But I went and did it, I bought a scalped Playstation 5 just in time for Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.

Astro's Playroom

Upon setting my PS5 up, the first thing I did was fire up Astro's Playroom which I've heard nothing but good things about. And all the praise it's been getting is definitely deserved. Stripping away all the tech demo-y aspects of it, where every mechanic seems to be specifically crafted to show off specific features of the DualSense, it's a really solid 3D platformer. Turns out, I'd be spending a lot of my time this week playing this specific genre so this served as a nice appetizer.

It's a very brief game, made even shorter by the fact that I didn't bother getting every single collectable. Don't get me wrong, the things I did find were most of the well designed, self-contained puzzles or platforming challenges in and of themselves. I was just chomping at the bit to get to the other games that I played that I feel like I didn't give this game the full attention it deserves.

There's a lot to like in this little adventure. The trip down memory lane with all of the old Sony hardware you get to see rendered beautifully (shout out to the EyeToy Camera), the levels themselves being really well designed and all the things they do with the controller. The tacticle feedback of basically every event in the game was spot on, both in the vibrations and in the sounds emitted from the DualSense.

There are some really clever and inventive sections, like the climbing monkey sections, that had a real Nintendo vibe to them in the sense that they were designed to fit the hardware really well.

All in all, hats off to a pack-in product that's way better than it needs to be for the purposes of demonstrating the hardware.

Ratchet & Clank

No, your eyes do not deceive you. I'm gonna come clean here and say that I hadn't played a single Ratchet & Clank game prior to this weekend, if you don't count repeatedly playing the same level from the first game on a demo disc some almost 20 years ago. Suffice it to say, it's been a while. I don't think I've willfully ignored the series, it has always looked really interesting, but it kind of never aligned. In the PS2 era, I was a kid with little to no money to buy games with, so when World of Warcraft came out I gravitated towards that ("I can play this one game forever, I don't need to spend money on any other games!"). In the PS3 era, where I feel like most of the Ratchet & Clank games came out, I was on team Xbox 360 and missed out on the whole library. I do own a PS4, where I originally picked up a copy of this game that sat unplayed on a shelf for about 4 years.

Until now! I started off on the PS4, but the day after was when I finally was able to get my hands on a PS5. Thankfully, I didn't have to worry about carrying over my save or anything since I was so early in the game, I just re-started it. At 60 fps this time. Boy does this game look good, even for a 5 year old game!

I feel like the intention with this game was to, besides tying in with the movie, introduce new players to the franchise, and it did so really well. I'm not sure how much of it is lifted from the original first game (my guess would be most of it?), but I played through this in 2 days and felt ready to tackle the newest entry in the franchise.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Finally, my first proper PS5 game. I've spent a lot of time just gawking at the pure fidelity of this game. I shouldn't be surprised by this level of technical prowess, seeing as I primarily play games on a pretty beefy PC, but it just looks so gorgeous. Of course, I'm playing on the performance mode with 60 fps and I feel like I'm happy to make that trade-off.

I'm about 10 hours in and pretty close to the end, and I'm kind of kicking myself for not getting into this franchise earlier. The combat feels REALLY good, in a way that Ratchet & Clank (2016) wasn't able to. It just tightens it up somewhat. The DualSense is in large part responsible for this, I think. Having that tacticle feedback makes it really natural to use all the different functions of the guns in a seamless and effortless manner. The gameplay is also really varied. There's the combat sections, there's extended exploration/traversal/platforming sections (mostly when it comes to finding the collectables), and some novel mini-games (and what might very well be the best hacking mini-game ever).

There's a lot to absorb when it comes to the lore and the world, being as new to this series as I am, but this game does a good job of making sure that the bulk of the story is in character moments, with the exposition being baked in in an expert manner. If I would try to describe the game's plot from the beginning to where I'm currently at, I'm fairly sure I could do a pretty job of it. Which says a lot about how well they have managed to weave in their exposition with moments you truly care about.

Rivet (the blue-ish lombax to the right on the box art) is a wonderful character, and I hope we get to see more of her. Maybe a spin-off series? That would be kind of rad.

I'm looking forward to finishing this game up, and probably going for the platinum trophy and generally trying to do everything there is to do. When the basic gameplay feels as good as this does, it's hard to not want to squeeze every bit of content you can from the game.