I was surprised by the 7.5 from Gamespot when virtually every other reviewer seems to love it. The text of the review doesn't offer much support - complaining about too much variety seems a tad bizarre.

Methinks someone had incredibly high expectations and was disappointed by a game that was just very good instead of GOTY material.

Renting from Gamefly, should ship today.

Gametrailers gave it a glowing review. The big downside was that it was like the previous games in the series.

They probably gave it a lower score because it's not on the 360. Everyone knows Gamepsot has a huge hard on for the 360. Wasn't Gamespot caught taking bribes from Microsoft to bump up Xbox scores?

Gamefly says mine has shipped. Been really looking forward to this one.

As I posted in my other thread, I also have my copy. Probably won't get to play much tonight but tomorrow I'm hoping to sit down and play a bit.

I'm glad to hear the game hasn't changed much. In fact, if anything the reviews confirm exactly what I wanted to hear: the series is returning to what made it so great in the first place. The last couple of games started to push more towards multiplayer and focused less on the single player experience. Going Commando, the best in the series, hit the perfect blend of storytelling, length, pace and fun. It's never been a particularly challenging game... the fun has always been in the experience. Working through the levels, seeing the sights, leveling up your weapons and killing enemies in new and creative ways. That's what the game is all about and it sounds like they even cranked up the story element a bit more this time around.

Guess I'll find out for myself soon enough I won't be surprised if this turns out to be GotY material for me though.

Yes, there was some news on that... or should I say, more of a speculation by someone that the Halo3 Review Bag can be considered as a bribe considering the package was valued at $800. However, that story didn't single out Gamespot and mentioned that all Major sites received this bribe to get hight scores for Halo 3. Overall... it was one of those M$ is teh evil, blah, bah, blah, stories!

Personally, I think Gamepot marks everything lower regardless of the platform... but it's their opinion.

As for the game, still trying to download the demo... at my rate I might as well rent it.

Yeah, it isn't available anywhere up here (including Best Buy, Future Shop, Microplay and Amazon) until the 30th. That sucks cause I was really stoked to play this game this week. Even though it's only 10-12 hours and by all accounts is really easy, I'll probably still buy this. I own the whole series thus far and Insomniac just puts together such top-notch games, I feel like they earned the money.

EDIT: Hunh. The futureshop.ca website still shows this as releasing on the 30th but the site also says it's in stock at the store behind my house. Ace Combat 6 too...might have to make a trip over after dinner.

Dear Sony,

Every time I have to update my firmware, I hate PSN just a little bit more. Quit iterating every little change, give me a big update every few months. Jerks.

Ye gods, another one already? As Legion said, it wouldn't be so bad if they could just do small patches (and if you didn't have to power cycle your controller, plug it in via USB, do jumping jacks, and stand on your head every time you did an update) but each update takes like an hour or two to download and apply.

So, here's an update.

I was only able to put in 20-30 minutes last night, but I love the game. It's really pretty. The environments are very detailed, with tons of things going on in the background. The game is also loads of fun so far! I'm on the second planet, and wish I had called out sick so I could be at home playing it right now.

I don't even have an HDTV to display it on!

I'm still enjoying the game, but I just encountered my first crash. I had entered the ship as I was preparing to leave the 4th planet. The game played the normal animation sequence, and zoomed in on the dashboard display. It then dropped to a black screen and displayed:

Get:
Put:
Ref:

Pre: 7000000000
Post: 7000000000

Nothing happened after that. The controller wasn't responding (PS button did nothing), and it took about 15 seconds to shut off when I used the console's power button. Kind of frustrating. I haven't tried to reload that game, so I don't know if I'm going to have to start over, or if it can be worked around.

Further bulletins as events warrant!

The game is downright pretty.

Also, in the level where Ratchet makes his way to the hall of knowledge (early level, like 2nd or 3rd one), did anyone get a "Portal" flashback as the voice said something to the effect of how hard the traps were that you shouldn't even bother trying.

Having a blast so far with the game.

I'm not sure at what point in the game I'm at but much like other R&C games, I am having a blast and have to force myself to put it down. It looks absolutely amazing and runs at a solid 60fps for the most part. The only bug I experienced is during my second round of challenges at the arena, when I would try to start my next challenge, it kept bringing me back outside. Minor at worst but still there. I'm probably going to finish this tonight and despite it being only about 10-12 hours, I'm very happy I bought it instead of renting it.

I had one cut scene that had the audio lagged by a good second with the animation, but the next time I played the cut scene it fixed itself. Otherwise no other bugs yet, but it is interesting to speculate if it is the platform or the game.

I have also seen the audio lag behind the cut scene. Interestingly, Bioshock had this bug too.

I have only played about an hour and a half. I would be playing more, but I have to wait for the World Series to end.