Right now the PS3 just doesn’t have any compelling games to justify its price tag and I keep reading/hearing rumors over compatibility issues with PS2 games, namely my Guitar Hero not working. I’m confident there will be a GTA equivalent for PS3 that will make it a must have console, the bigger question will be when. Until then, I’m putting more mileage on the PS2 with the catalog of games I haven’t finished as a surrogate for the Dish TV ending recently.
Several days ago, I finally defeated the first sequel to the Sly Cooper franchise. I wish I knew how many hours it took. Either the game doesn’t track it as Ratchet & Clank does or I completely forgot how to find it on the memory card. It would’ve been still nice to know since I noticed the completion times getting lower in the R&C games for me. This meant they grew progressively easier or my skills improved, probably the former.
I can’t remember the specifics of the first Sly game’s patterns or style of play but SC2 fell into a rather dull, repetitive string of tasks in all eight stages: take recon photos, pickpocket guards for keys, bug the boss’s office and hack the computer systems. The only changes made are the settings and it doesn’t ease the annoyance of how redundant this is. The final boss battles are expected in all video games so I have no complaint there. I did enjoy the more frequent use of Sly’s companions Bentley and Murray on completing particular mission elements and each is used at least once to fight in a boss battle. Sly dancing in a tux with his nemesis Carmelita was pretty amusing. However, I seriously hated several frustrating stages involving a chase or collecting; their start-over points were practically starting all over.
Still, I enjoyed it and felt that sense of accomplishment when Clockwerk’s successor was defeated.