Ratchet & Clank demo now at GameStop
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ Sep 14th 2007 at 11:15PM }
On the bright side, if you don't like the demo, you can look at it that you saved yourself $55. Then again, if you have a little bit of patience you can get the demo for free on PSN in a couple weeks. Oh the vicious questions of a gamer: Pick up everyone's favorite Lombax now at a cost of $5 and whet your appetite for some solid platforming gameplay in a month? Or wait a couple weeks for the free demo and decide to get the game a couple weeks later? The choice is yours.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Eye_of_Judgment-The Crimon Knights @ Sep 14th 2007 11:20PM
5 bucks and a free demo disc... Thats pretty neat. I wish I had gotten one for Lair. This game is something I definetley want to pick up before xmas.
Vidikron @ Sep 14th 2007 11:40PM
I picked it up at EB Games earlier today.
Matt B (SDF - White Gold Ring) @ Sep 15th 2007 2:18PM
Same here. When I picked up Heavenly Sword, I got the dik too.
Matt B (SDF - White Gold Ring) @ Sep 15th 2007 2:18PM
*DISK*
fester @ Sep 14th 2007 11:55PM
Super! If this R&C is as good as it looks; it will justify PS3 purchase. All will be forgiven and I will apologize to the game gawds for all the nasty things you guys said about Sony....Hmmm.....LAIR??!!...*&%##%&%$#*@%!!...hey-wait a minute!! lol
RoboChamp @ Sep 14th 2007 11:56PM
Aw crap. These are one of those games where I don't want to spoil myself with demos and too many reveals till I actually buy it. But this... I... I am weak..
Adv2k1 @ Sep 15th 2007 12:10AM
lack of rumble makes game worthless. all the explosions and heavy weapons won't feel right.
Guybrush Threepwood @ Sep 15th 2007 8:15AM
LOL.
So most games before last gen and every game before the PS1/N64 gen was worthless?
Right.
Oh by the way, the Wavebird didn't have rumble either. No one had a problem with that.
Mak @ Sep 16th 2007 7:35PM
It must hurt badly when you see games like this on PS3, and realise other consoles won't be capable of it, so I suppose bring up lame comments about rumble is the only natural reply.
I think you need to accept the PS3 is now flexing it's muscles, and there will be plenty more games, not even possible on 360.
HaleysComet @ Sep 16th 2007 10:17PM
Lol...what a joke mak.
If you don't think rumble is a key part of games and doesn't add to the fun factor of a game like R&C you are the one thats in serious denial here.
R&C looks like a great game graphically. But not extra ordinary can only be done on the ps3....if such a thing even exist.
You sony fanboys keep claiming that stuff yet we haven't seen anything that even hints that its a reality.
The truth is that R&C could be on the 360 and look JUST AS GOOD. It would just take more discs and I have no problems with that...especially since I'm not a fatass.
Please note that I KNOW R&C is a sony owned property or made by a company that is either sony owned or sony enslaved.
blooh @ Sep 15th 2007 12:18AM
wait for the free demo folks. gamestop is a fucking horrible company
you certainly don't need the preorder, any decent retail shop will have plenty of copies on release day, and they'll be mint in box too
CaptCrunch06 @ Sep 15th 2007 12:35AM
^ tru dat. it won't be flying off the shelves like halo 3 or anything, just make sure you get it on release n u should b fine.
OrganicShadow @ Sep 15th 2007 12:33AM
Big Ratchet fan. Couldn't wait. Preordered and got one. It's awesome. Speaking of which...
elmersglue @ Sep 15th 2007 1:02AM
Graphics for this game look fantastic based on the screen shots.
nate @ Sep 15th 2007 1:05AM
shut up dude...if they want to pre-order it, let them pre-order it...don't get your panties in a bunch...and hey, check this out.....maaayyybbeee just maayybeee their PS3 isn't online...WOW what a thought, oh and yeah check out all those extra copies of Skate at retailers on the games launch...ooo wait..NO...the demo sucks in a graphically sense BTW...there's crazy tearing...probably worse than Metal Arms had (if anyone ever played that), hopefully it's because its running off a disk, the gameplay is sweet though
samfish @ Sep 15th 2007 1:23AM
Remember when you used to be able to rent consoles from video stores?
I miss those days.
Because I would totally rent a PS3 to play this game.
blooh @ Sep 15th 2007 1:26AM
they'd charge like 60 bucks a day or something though
samfish @ Sep 15th 2007 2:02AM
Every time I ever rented one, it was like $30-40 bucks and you had to put down a deposit for the cost of the system (but they gave it back, obviously).
samfish @ Sep 15th 2007 2:02AM
$30-40 bucks for a certain amount of days, I should say.
marcandrer @ Sep 15th 2007 1:26PM
Video game rental stores still do it over here.
You have do make a 500$ credit to them but you get it back when you bring the console back. Last time I rented a 360 it was 60$ for a week.
Shmil @ Sep 15th 2007 11:41PM
I remember renting a N64 from blockbuster so I could use play 4 player mario kart those were the fucking days
Tsunami @ Sep 15th 2007 1:33AM
It doesn't cost anything to preorder. It's five bucks down TOWARDS the game. Nothing extra. You want to make sure that you get a copy? All places that preorder send that information to the publisher for allocation reasons. Supply and demand, guys.
blooh @ Sep 15th 2007 1:52AM
lol, gamestop earns interest on all that preorder money. you could keep your money in your own bank/stocks/whatnot and earn more yourself.
and if gamestop is sold out (which they always are, since they only order as many as preorders), just head over to fry's, bestbuy, target, toysrus, etc. they almost always have tons of copies of games on release day, and they don't open the boxes and put the cd's behind the counter either
KiraXD @ Sep 15th 2007 12:30PM
as much as this is gonna seem lame.. i try and support my friends over at one gamestop (its a really good store, he always lets me take home games before street date)so 5 bucks outta my pocket isnt anything... (and interest on 5 bucks < a month or two is pennies so who cares)
hell he would just give me the demo without any preorder probably anyways. (on top of my 17 preorder games i have currently)
B1gC72 @ Sep 15th 2007 12:35PM
yea i was just about to bring it to everyones attention that the demo is COMPLETELY FREE. the $5 down is subtracted from the total when you actually go and pick up the game. and another plus is that if you decide you don't want the game after playing the demo (which is crazy in and of itself) you can just move the preorder to some other game you want.
this definitely warrants a trip to gamestop for me as this is one of the games ive been waiting for. rather play it now then wait til oct. 4 for the PSN demo. plus preorders are the only way to get games on launch day where i live. they only order as much as the preorders and places like walmart dont even get the games for a couple days later. sucks ass really.
LaughingTarget @ Sep 15th 2007 2:33PM
The interest on that $5 is almost non-existent that it hardly matters if we do it or not. If 1 million people put $5 down at an average of two weeks in advance (hardly anyone preorders more than a month out), the entire interest at a healthy 15% would amount to $28k. GameStop isn't making huge wads of cash on pre-orders. And this is all assuming the $5 per person actually goes into an interest bearing account and that interest bearing account actually returns 15%. The $5 itself is way too fragmented, coming in from thousands of stores, to be able to effectively move back into the company to utilize before the game actually releases. If anything, the $5 you put down just ends up in the hands of the game's publishers given the delay it would take for it to arrive in the GameStop main accounts.
Besides, I prefer to drop the $5 to know I can walk in and pick up a popular game without much of a hassle. I also do it with games (particularly Atlus ones) that I know are limited run and may not be able to get due to low volumes.
bigsim @ Sep 15th 2007 2:41AM
Damn, I guess I'm gonna have to buy a PS3 for this game.
*sigh*
You win again, Sony. You win again.
Sam @ Sep 15th 2007 4:33AM
screw gamestop, they suck!
Bradley Marriner @ Sep 15th 2007 6:35AM
Already pre ordered two weeks ago. Yesterday my local GameStop store manager called and said for me to come down for the Demo. The game ROCKS!!! I'm definitely spending an addtional 55 bucks! The demo was a lot longer then I would have thought. I wonder if the PSN demo will be the same or different? (PLEASE MORE, MORE, MORE) The only thing I have to get used to is pressing triangle to select your weapon (groove - a - tron, transformer, blaster.) That's kinda hard as over 8 of the AI are attacking you!!! Overall the game is really put together, Sony you have a game that's game of the year material!!!
Guybrush Threepwood @ Sep 15th 2007 8:17AM
Actually, if you preorder a game from GameStop and/or you get it within a week or so (or more, probably) of when the game comes out, you get a sealed copy.
blooh @ Sep 15th 2007 12:19PM
at some stores, maybe
i'd rather just avoid the hassle and go straight to bestbuy or something where I know there are tons of copies waiting, still in the box. sometimes they even knock off a few bucks on opening day
Guybrush Threepwood @ Sep 15th 2007 12:36PM
True, I suppose.
GameSpot should just put all new games behind glass cases so they never have to open them.
Arno @ Sep 15th 2007 1:56PM
So... in order to get the demo that should help me decide if I want the game in the first place will require me to pre-order the game itself. Wonderful, Sony.
Marlos Hill @ Sep 15th 2007 2:02PM
its not sony dude...grow up
Guybrush Threepwood @ Sep 15th 2007 2:07PM
...Or you could wait a month and download the demo for free.
At least they're offering a demo in the first place. Where's my Super Mario Galaxy demo?
blooh @ Sep 15th 2007 2:41PM
no space to store the demo on the wii harddrive, lol
Lord Chako @ Sep 15th 2007 3:17PM
Marlos.
I'm pretty sure it's up to sony to decide whether psn or gamestop gets the demo first.
Also given the fact it's released first on a pressed disc, as opposed to direct download, means sony had more involvement than you'd like us to believe.
Food for thought,
If you have to put any money down (even for a preorder), technically, it isn't free.
If it really was free, anyone could walk in and get a copy of the demo, without giving any money.
Mr Khan @ Sep 15th 2007 3:44PM
Huh, looks like same ol' Ratchet and Clank
That's a good thing
NomadStanger @ Sep 15th 2007 3:59PM
Hey, anyone thinks this game is a little kiddish? I'm a type of guy who likes nothing but raw hardcore blood-boiling and hair-raising violent and mature games and kiddish fun and entertainment is not what I prefer at all. I'm new to the console world of gaming but I have been playing PC games for more than 4 years and they have all been hardcore. Can anyone please tell me if this game is rated M or not?
Sean @ Sep 15th 2007 4:21PM
It's not rated mature but that doesn't stop it from being a fun action packed shoot 'em up/platformer.
bl13 @ Sep 15th 2007 4:58PM
No, you won't like it. Save your money for Manhunt 2.
thebigwhif25 @ Sep 15th 2007 4:12PM
OMGDZ YOU GUYS
THEY ARE TEH EVIL FOR BEING A PROFITABLE COMPANY, OMGDZ!!!!!
BURN THEM!!!!!!
sarcasm aside gamestop manager is holding one for me since i proeorderd it, he said itll be here for me when i get there. And am i glad i preorderd skate. my local gamestop got 1 extra copy, they said they turned away 20-30 customers lastnight at about 8pm throughout the day. i didnt have to drive around though, was very convienant.
i guess target/BB in the area got hardly any.
Preorder FTW!
and the gamestop profit on new games is so small after shipping and labor that they do that 5 bucks to help gain interest to help make a profit off of new games.
its called business people.
blooh @ Sep 15th 2007 5:06PM
yeah but they make a fuckton of cash by buying used games for half their cost, then turning around and charging double what they paid
and that best buy probably had more copies than you think, they always do in my area
LaughingTarget @ Sep 15th 2007 6:11PM
Not really a "fuck ton". You do have to realize GameStop does buy back numerous games that will never get sold. How much do you think they make on the millions of copies of old Madden games? Little to none. They'll buy them back at $5 and never sell them. Same goes with numerous other high-profile bombs (Lair, Perfect Dark Zero), pack-ins (Motorstorm) and sport games. The high markup is needed to counteract the losses taken from those trade-ins that will never sell.
shivr @ Sep 16th 2007 3:28PM
I don't really have a problem with the Gamestop buying old games thing... but I do have a small problem with them buying out any other gamestores in existance, removing a little thing called choice from purely VG brick and mortar visits... Without competition beyond big box stores, gamestop is pretty much free to do whatever the hell they want with pricing and buyback on used games, which can be pretty bad. I know my local GS is still trying to sell GBA and even GB games at 10-15$ a pop, and that just ain't happenin for me...
Thus why I turn to online for used game purchasing, which has its own hassles when you have to return a non functioning product :/
KiraXD @ Sep 15th 2007 6:41PM
Picked up the demo.. i can say this: Graphically this game is amazing. heres the toy story/incredibles graphics that people have been waiting for (more on par with incredibles... toy story is actually pretty weak since its one of the first cgi movies of its time)
the demo of course has OMG-GASP bugs in it its a demo thats released pretty early. This demo build has good framerate, but tons and tons of Page Tearing (so much that it takes away from the beautiful graphics, and makes it painful to even play)
im not really sure how all that works though... can something have really good framerate but really bad page tearing? or is page tearing a result of crapy framerate?
Thats the only thing that im worried about... if they can stop the page tearing, and lock the framerate at 30fps the game will totally be awesome.
Burnt Meatloaf @ Sep 16th 2007 1:32AM
Page tearing is the result of the framerate not synchronizing with the television, so you end up with "old" frames being drawn on the screen. The solution is called vertical sync. Vsync is an optimization, though, so it's usually not used in alpha builds, or games where benchmarks and bragging rights are more important than gameplay (ie, PC games running on $600 cards). PC developers, including those working with the 360, are notorious for tearing. It's a developer's issue, and is not in any way releated to hardware.
If a game has frame tearing, it's because the developers either haven't gotten around to optimizing it, or they just don't give a damn. I don't think "don't give a damn" is part of Insomniac's vocabulary, though. ;)
I must say I'm surprised that the demo is based on such an old build. Tearing makes a very bad impression, IMO.
LaughingTarget @ Sep 16th 2007 8:39AM
No, PC developers normally don't turn it on by default. Most of those bragging rights games have a Vsynch option available to them which can be turned on (cursory install of old PC games in my library show it used no later than 1999, could have been used earlier than that). When it comes to the faster cards, the refresh rates those monsters are able to pump out overwhelm higher resolutions on monitors. My 8800GTX can refresh around 100 Hz at the maximum resolution of my monitor, but the monitor can only handle 60. As such, everything I run is at monster resolutions and I turn on Vsynch in each one of them. This causes other issues like artifacts if Vsynch is not used. To counteract this, PC developers force the game to refresh at the same rate as your desktop. There just isn't an existing automatic software system that dynamically adjusts Vsynch on the fly.
Because the PS3 and 360 have to deal with multiple resolutions now, PC developers have the advantage for the moment. They've been programming with Vsynch in mind for 9 years at the minimum (again, based on me pulling out old PC games and finding the option in the graphics menu). Console developers, who have traditionally only had to worry about one resolution, aren't adept at it. If the PC developers were the ones that had the problems, the 360 would be the console experiencing the problems, not the PS3, which is dominated by mostly console-exclusive developers. Insomniac is not a PC developer, which doesn't surprise me that R&C even has these issues in this build. PC developers use Vsynch as almost second nature and would have been in there in an early build, a console developer will need more work since it is a foreign concept to them, thus why it will show up at a later date.
However, the gap will quickly close as console developers figure out how to make their games work over different resolution levels.
Leshrac @ Sep 15th 2007 8:38PM
Picked up the demo. Looks nice, although to be honest the PS2 games looked pretty damn good too. There's a bit more going on in this one, which makes it look a bit more dynamic.
There are some v-sync issues here and there, as well as some weird stuttering on some of the big "jumps". For whatever reason I think this demo is the same one from E3, or even earlier... so hopefully these issues have been ironed out.
I was also disappointed with how short it was. It's not Heavenly Sword short, but there's no boss fight despite the fact that the demo sleeve says its the entire "first level". I seem to recall some videos of battling a big robot in the city... perhaps that's a different "level".
Also still wondering whether this is worth a $60 purchase. If it had multiplayer it wouldn't be a question for me, but without it... just not sure. The last 2 Ratchet's for PS2 were $20 cheaper AND had multiplayer. This was a must-buy for me not too long ago, but now I'm wondering if it's a must-rent instead (with perhaps a buy down the road when it's $20).
-Jeff
http://alinktothefuture.com
blooh (CDF - Ass Ring) @ Sep 16th 2007 1:09AM
but the last 2 ratchets weren't nearly as good as the first 2, because they diverted resources to multiplayer. I personally never played ratchet online, nor cared to. The story and the normal levels are too awesome, along with all the weapons and gadgets.
Man I loved that black hole gun from the 3rd one, that was awesome