Ratchet and Clank PS4/PS3/PS2 Graphics Comparison

Digital Foundry:

Dave and Tom mull over the evolution of Ratchet and Clank, from its PS2 beginnings to its PS3 remaster through to its brand new PS4 remake.

[Genuine-User]

This has to be the best re-imagining of any game. What a stunning visual treat it is.

Don't get me wrong, the original looked great for its time but with this re-imagining Insomniac are almost touching CG.

[OpenGL]

Agreed, the visuals are absolutely gorgeous. I actually can't believe this game is only $40. Sure it's a remake but it's a substantial remake with entirely new content, it's not like those haven't been full priced before.

[Genuine-User]

They are indeed. Sony started the $40 trend last gen with the likes of Sly Cooper and Puppeteer.

[Wallstreet37]

I got it yesterday and im having a blast with it!!!! Love the gameplay, the world, the graphics, controls, etc... Its really a great game. Im just mad they didnt include no co-op play.

[darthv72]

Wow, and I thought the improvements made to the Ratchet collection were impressive. This is not just a remake or a remaster but a whole re-envisioning.

[Bathyj]

@Wallstreet37
They did include no co-op play ;P

[Kingthrash360]

Man this is a great buy..40 bucks well put together jaw dropping graphics. This game needs more people talking about it..it's a 60 dollar game easy,for 40 bucks looking like a pixar movie..I've sent many screen shots and people are thinking it's cgi. This is truly a next gen game.
It's similar to the old games but with so many new parts and switched story lines and origins. It feel like a new game not a remake. Must buy for psi owners..and if you've never play the the original games now is a great time to jump in.

[sonarus]

I really wanna buy this but i'll be patient and wait for discount

[SonyWarrior]

this game only $32 for amazon prime members cant wait for mine to come in

[bouzebbal]

i played the collection the other day. Still plays like a dream and actually aged well. That's the strength of the platformers.

[BiggCMan]

Did anyone catch the easter egg for Spyro and Resistance early in the game? I was laughing so hard.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[SniperControl]

Nine days is going to be agonising! I need this game now.

[Deadpooled]

Yup April 22nd in the UK :((((( The game looks awesome and from what I've seen it plays fantastically aswell (the digital foundry gameplay video didn't do the gameplay justice when encountering enemies, didn't use the useful wrench boomerang thing and any new and wacky weapons)

[-Ghost]

I decided to order it rather than wait. It looks too good to pass up and the price is no complaint for me (38$)

I recently completed the HD remaster, so to see how much the game has improved will be an amazing experience.

My copy should be here any moment now :)

[TwoForce]

Trust me,pal. You will have a blast.

[Trekster_Gamer]

It's awesome no doubt but Halo 2 and Gears Of War still have top honors for me...

[LordMaim]

Imma let you finish...

[ProfessorCrab]

So I've never played Ratchet and Clank. Would I be fine to play this over the original first game if I want to go in order?

[ReLLiK]

I've never played the first ones, so I don't have a real answer for you. I just picked this up the other day because of all the praise it was getting and it's definitely worth it. The game is fantastic and the visuals are outstanding. I just move the camera around sometimes because of how good it looks.

It feels great to play a platform/adventure game with some many shooters and the like always coming out. I highly recommend it.

[Ilovetheps5]

The story in the game is very different between this game and the original game, but the levels that you go to are very similar. So if you are after the story, you can still play the original. But, each game in the series has a story that stands on its own with small references to previous games in the series. I hope that makes sense.

[Kingthrash360]

It's a revision of the first game so I say it's totally fine...like Iloveps4 said things have changed but the sequels didn't touch on the past much. You can start here and enjoy it perfectly fine. We may get blessed with the sequels as well...I hope so.

[3-4-5]

* Games with appealing art styles always hold up over time compared to "realistic" games.

[InTheZoneAC]

ps2 ones were never known for graphics, just colorful worlds. It wasn't until the ps3 versions where I was amazed at how good the world looked.

I bought the new one, have yet to play it, but I'm expecting it again to amaze me.

[Toiletsteak]

absolutely stunning. Can't wait to play this on the 22nd.

[InTheZoneAC]

it's out already

[Toiletsteak]

Not in the UK :(

[sullynathan]

The remake would have benefited from being 60fps like its predecessors.

[sullynathan]

I'm guessing that the people disagreeing don't think this game would have benefited at all from being 60fps. wow

[MrDead]

Could the disagrees be that people are just excited to play one of the best received exclusive titles to come out this gen and they don't agree with your comment?

[sullynathan]

@MrDead so again, people are disagreeing with the fact that this game would have benefited from being 60fps like its predecessors. After all, that is the body of my comment, it was nothing about "one of the best received titles of this gen"

[MrDead]

@sullynathan

Your main focus is that it's not 60fps, but others just care about it being fun..... which it is .....hence your disagrees

[harypotr]

@MrDead

"but others just care about it being fun..... which it is .....hence your disagrees"

So you know what every person who disliked thinks and their reason for disliking? You speak for everyone?

Jesus what a dumb comment.

[MrDead]

@harypotr

In a comment about FPS you would expect the agrees and disagrees to relate to its content.

Also "others" doesn't mean "every person", now re-read my comment with this new found knowledge and you might not have cause for your little rage.

Anyway, enough! lets just look forward to playing a fun game.

[BitbyDeath]

Wouldn't have benefitted for me, I don't see any difference between 30fps and 60fps.

Both look super smooth to me.

[sullynathan]

@MrDead so again, people aren't disliking my comment for what is in the comment but for other reasons? That makes no sense at all and is just stupid.

[InTheZoneAC]

when people click disagree without giving a reason, they are trolling...regardless of their opinion compared to yours.

It is simply trolling to spam disagree and create an argument between others about what someone else thinks because they failed to provide any logic or insightful reasonings.

[Imalwaysright]

The game looks gorgeous on the PS4 and is one of the most beautiful games of this generation but you can clearly see the difference between 60 FPS and 30 FPS in this video and how that difference affects gameplay.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

Except when you are playing it nothing really matters. Played the game a lot yesterday and still have exploration and couple maps to go over. 60 fps my ass. It is as smooth as it gets

[Imalwaysright]

It does matter. If you played most of your games at 60 FPS or even beyond 60 FPS and you start playing a game locked at 30 FPS you will instantly notice the difference. If I can clearly see the difference in a video I will definetely feel it while playing a game.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

I Played the original and platinumed it one week before this one. That was many hrs put. When I played this at midnight it felt right, responsive, and better with the visuals. There are more animations and effects. I actually think the pace of the game play is faster than the original

[TwoForce]

Do you think every games need 60 fps ? I agree that 60fps bring a better experience, but some of them are not good. I don't care fps thingy, it's about gameplay and story that i care about. Ratchet and Clank is an excellent reboot.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

Yeah but the PS4 can't handle it. Locked 30 FPS is still good.

[Imalwaysright]

Yes it can. Devs choose eye candy over FPS because it helps them sell games.

[OrangePowerz]

In Singleplayer I take the extra eye candy and 30fps over 60fps.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

And the trade off was worth it! The game is amazing.

A crack in Time didn't have advancements in graphics. One of the things that annoyed me was the lackluster textures, still amazing game.

Devs can't just release a graphically outdated game this gen if consoles can't handle next gen graphics and 60 fps. Sacrificies must be made. A pixar-like game like this one needs to look eye candy

[Imalwaysright]

As someone that started gaming in the 16 bit era when devs focused on gameplay above all else I have to disagree. To me 60 FPS are more important than eye candy because it makes gameplay better.

In this video the PS4 version seems to be stuttering when compared to the original and I doubt that when you played the PS4 version that it felt as responsive as when you played the original.

"Devs can't just release a graphically outdated game this gen if consoles can't handle next gen graphics and 60 fps"

Not only they can but they should. They know that 60 FPS is better. Naughty Dog didn't say that TloU didn't felt right or as responsive at 30 fps. They went as far as saying that it felt broken when comparing with TloU remaster at 60 fps.

http://www.gamespot.com/art...

Devs know that 60 FPS is better but they also know that when the commercials start rolling that the eye candy helps them sell games. Devs also know that if their game doesn't look graphically impressive that many gamers will shit on their game as evidenced by this article from yesterday.

http://n4g.com/news/1891348...

[OrangePowerz]

Responsiveness has a lot more factors not just framerate, the latency being a huge factor. Best example is Killzone (I think it was KZ2) that had an insane latency. You can get very similar responsiveness with a fully stable and locked 30fps if you keep the latency as low as possible as 60fps.

Sure 60fps is preferred, but the trade off isn't always worth it. That the video looks like it's stuttering might have also something to do with the poor YouTube encoding. That's why direct feed is always better than crappy YouTube.

As for TLoU. The original probably feels "broken" because it does not have solid 30fps and many many dips in framerate. There are many instances where it dips far below 30fps especially during frantic firefights. A better comparison would be the Uncharted games and the UC Collection where both versions play very good. If ND would feel 30fps would be inherently broken they would have opted for 60fps for UC4 singleplayer.

Back in the days people turned down the graphics settings in PC games when playing online that made the game look like crap to get a good framerate and turned them back to higher settings when playing the games offline to get the good visuals at the expense of framerate.

In the end you can get good, responsive and smooth results with 30fps as long as you keep the latency down, have a solid 30fps lock and don't have frame pacing issues (Dark Souls).

[Imalwaysright]

@ OrangePowerz

TloU remaster has the option to go with a rock solid framerate at 30 fps. ND knows that 60 fps is better but gamers expect graphically impressive games from them so 30 fps.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

When you started gaming you didn't care about any of this stuff. It was all about fun. Gaming was fun before everyone became a self centered critic and a fps technician.

Yeah 60 FPS is better but sacrifies must be made with these consoles. That doesn't stop R&C from being awesome.

Hit square in the original and then do that in yhe remake. See who swings faster ;)

[Imalwaysright]

"When you started gaming you didn't care about any of this stuff"

Why would I? Most games in the 16 bit era ran at 60 fps.

[OrangePowerz]

Not in Europe where PAL TVs had for a long time only support for 50hz. Going with 30fps would not have made the game look better because there was a fixed amount of how many items you could draw no matter the framerate. If you got to that limit you would get slow downs where the game ran in slow motion or graphical glitches like flickering sprites.

[Imalwaysright]

@ OrangePowerz

Games still ran at 60 fps in ntcs regions and 50 fps in pal regions is still much better than 30 fps.

[OrangePowerz]

But there wouldn't have been any graphical gain by going for 30fps because the hardware wouldn't have allowed for better graphics even when going for lower fps.

[SniperControl]

Does a game like this really need 60fps though?

[yezz]

I doubt that it needs it but it definitely would've given a different experiece concidering the massive amount of particles.

When I was playing the originals as a kid, I didn't know anything about frame rates but I remember thinking that for some reason, those Ratchet & Clank games feel more fluid than the other games.

I'm usually not the one shouting for 60fps but in this case I'm slightly dissapointed. Probably just because I used to remember this series with that "higher fluidity".

Still going to buy it and get some great nostalgic feelings though!

[sullynathan]

I'd think so. If it's predecessors were 60fps why shouldn't the remake/successor be?

[bf000777966]

I'm not a big fan for 60fps. If the extra 16ms could make the game looks better, why not?

[Lamusiqa]

True, I do think the original's 60fps makes it look lot more fluid and responsive however I think Insomniac decided to lock it at 30fps to increase the graphical fidelity to match the CGI movie as well as providing a comparative viewing experience for both since the movie is 24fps, closer to 30fps. If the game is 60fps, it may appear a bit too different than the movie.

[showtimefolks]

not every game needs 60FPS and insomniac have always gone for 30FPS over 60 and made awesome games

[akiraburn]

Actually, I don't mean to offend, but that's not completely accurate. During the PS3 era, Resistance 1 and 2, as well as both Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and A Crack In Time were all 60 fps titles. After R&C: A Crack In Time" was released, they posted a statement saying that they were not going to be making any more 60 fps games, essentially because it was more work and framerate isn't something that sells games as strongly as certain other visual upgrades based on the data they had collected. (mentioned here: http://www.insomniacgames.c... )

Personally, I feel like that higher framerate really helped them early last gen. Not only did those games really look and play incredible, but if for no other reason than when framerate dips would occur, it was a lot less noticeable at 60 than when it happened in their 30 fps games.

I've really, really enjoyed Insomniac's games over the years, but for me, playing Resistance 3 and Ratchet All 4 One at 30 fps with the kind of framerate drops those had were very often problematic situations. And even with Into The Nexus being a return to their traditional style of Ratchet game, the change away from 60 fps was definitely felt, though it didn't have the same drops that Resistance 3 did. And again, I think they do awesome games, but I'd like to see them and more developers offer a 60 fps option in the menus for people like myself who prefer framerate over things like higher resolution, more particle effects, and a lot of the like.

[showtimefolks]

my mistake didn't know that but i remember reading about insomniac wanting to stick with 30 fps

[Imalwaysright]

The game I played the most last gen ran at 60 fps, was also one of the worst looking games and was made by Insomniac: RFoM.

@ akiraburn

Thanks for that link. It proves what I was saying above. Eye candy helps devs sell their game but fps do not.

[BEASELY]

The pixar-like visuals would be inachievable at 60 frames. ToD and ACiT were both 60 frames. They deliberately made the push to 30 to make a significantly better looking game, and they absolutely made the right call.

Thank God you have no say. These graphics are incredible.

[HAHAHAHAHAHAHA]

WOW that is all!!

[oasdada]

I think Darksouls3 + Ratchet and clank are best games to go hand in hand!

[Wallstreet37]

i got both yesterday lol and spent like 6 hours after work playing both lol smh My Mlb The Show sadly didnt get any love:(

[Movefasta1993]

I think it's the best looking game on the ps4.

[Wallstreet37]

It definitely is a looker and art style plays a big part in it but Infamous, Drive Club, Killzone, The Order imo are still the graphics kings on any console. Of course its debatable.

[Movefasta1993]

And Ryse,i have it on pc it's just as good looking as the games you mentioned.It sucks lol i haven't finished it way too repetitive ,but it's the best looking pc game i have.

[Wallstreet37]

Movefasta...

Yeah ive heard Ryse and AC Unity look really really awesome on a good pc rig. Sorry to hear you didnt get through Ryse lol I heard alot of negatives about it in terms of repetition, restriction gameplay (just like Order got slammed), etc.....

[MJunior]

While I really like the 60FPS in the first R&C, the PS4 remake visuals are so great. Impressive achievement.

[PR_FROM_OHIO]

WOW!!

[SynestheticRoar]

It awesome. Tell your friends.

[Germany7]

Some people (trolls) are still complaining about 30 fps, lol, but the fans of the series are having a great time with the new game and i will not be surprised if it's a GOTY contender already.

[corroios]

Its the only bad thing that they can say, but this isnt a racing game.

It would much worse if the game was called groudbreaking and run at 720/30 in 2016...

[Izalith]

@Corro

I saw what you did there! :p

[Germany7]

Exactly, you said it all, lol.

[Majister-Ludi]

First it's too much of a remake to take GOTY votes from other bigger titles releasing this year. Second I prefer 60 minimum on any game I play, it just feels better then 30. This isn't saying games can't be good at 30 but saying it wouldn't be better at 60 is asinine.

[Relientk77]

Like a Pixar movie, just stunning and spectacular visuals in every aspect

[jeremyj2913]

Can't wait to play this game.

[SavingPvt_Highon]

I've always loved these games. It looks absolutely gorgeous on PS4.

[Elda]

I'm having a blast! The game looks & plays beautifully!

[Izalith]

I live in Europe and I think I have the game either in 13 hours or on friday!

It sure looks great, best graphics update on all remakes/remasters by far!

[Bathyj]

Man, the PS3 version was already quite a nice jump, but the PS4 version is not even comparable. The amount of action going on and the amount of particles and debris flying around is impressive.

Cant wait for this, and so glad its so cheap as full price for a reboot/remake/remaster would put off buyers. I hope it sells well for the developers sake. It feels like its been a while since they had a hit. Welcome home Insomniac.

[marioJP87]

PS2 - 60 FPS
PS3 - 60 FPS
PS4 - 30 FPS

[TwoForce]

Who care ? It's about fun.

[marioJP87]

Who cares? Welcome to N4G.

[MagicBeanz]

Oh so frame rate matters again, LOL. Was that really your best attempt at downplaying this game? By the way Sunset Overdrive was 900p and 30fps so I guess according to you that was a bad game too.

[marioJP87]

Haha. I dont give a crap about sunset overdrive. Why are you telling me? I have all systems and a PC.

[Jag-T1000]

30 fps or 60 fps, I can't tell the difference.

[GoldPunch-TR]

Really? U didn't notice difference?

[marioJP87]

Yeah, right you can't.

[Father__Merrin]

Nothing like this on PC, the only equivalent is The Last Tinker

Graphics are amazing, had this been on Steam I can bet you PC gamers would be letting everyone know...

[higgins78]

OR, if it had been on the Wii U everybody would be saying a handful of great exclusives just isn't enough AND trolling it for not being 60fps. Fact.

[higgins78]

First, looks great, truly. I have it preordered and can't wait for it to arrive and have some spare time put aside to give it a fair crack of the whip. However...

People scoring disagrees for commenting it would have been better had 60fps been implemented is ridiculous - fan boys at their very, very worst. Of course 60fps would have improved this game. Also, the 'difference' between PS2, 3 and 4 games...I should hope as much.

[Chaos_Order]

I remember when I played a demo for the first game and the graphics blew me away. I would spend ages watching all the flying cars and admiring the cityscape.

We've come so far, and in a way, I find it kind of sad. All that work that went into the PS2 games, and nowadays people can look at them and say they look like crap. Expectations are just so high, and they'll only get higher... Sometimes I like to transport myself back to when I was a teenager and admire the little things that were amazing back in the day. Kudos, Insomniac, for making one of my favourite game series of all time.

[WheatBread]

This looks fantastic. I'd like to see a re-imagining of Crash Bandicoot.

[Raposaninja]

I do not know whether to be happy or sad about this game . It is beautiful , but have the same game only with graphical differences for 3 generations is very sad.

[WarPuppet96]

Who needs a backwards compatible ps4 when they can release games over and over for each system and polishing it till it's a 10 out of 10. I will bite of course because I like the beauty of this game and it should be blast, family time game.