Just as I was ready to write the PlayStation 3 off as a disaster of Dreamcast proportions, Sony release quite possibly the first game that’s ever come close to looking like a real CGI film (that doesn’t involve shooting people from a first person perspective) – and that game is Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. Does this mean the horsemen are around the corner?
This is a very awkward moment. It must be what it’s like to find out your mum just came top of FHM’s 100 Sexiest Women. Since Sonic has given up the goat, and Nintendo are happy to make all of their games for 20th century hardware, I suppose it makes sense that the graphical generation leap would be made by Sony or Microsoft. But finally seeing it, and admitting that – graphically at least – this generation’s Mario 64 is a Ratchet & Clank game is a little bit… strange.
Don’t believe me? You can download the Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction demo from the PlayStation Store now (assuming you’re one of the few who bothered to buy a PS3). It snuck up on us rather quietly.
This doesn’t mean to say that Ratchet & Clank is this generation’s Mario 64 – it’s still the same old repetitive “whacking the crap out of robots” romp which is quite obviously designed by Americans (though disco dancing pirate robots does put this ahead of other generic platformers). But just looking at the game, playing it and having your jaw dropped by cinematic camera angles, utterly detailed environments and spectacular graphics… it should satisfy the graphics whore in all of us.
But at the same time as this breakthrough, the Xbox 360 and Wii are both currently outselling the PlayStation 3 by over 400% – that’s after the 178% sales increase brought on by the PS3’s price drop and ‘redesign’ in the US. Which makes it look like Sony are doing a bit of a Sega…