Profil de JerseyCaptain

Hello!  I am a gamer going way back to the 70s (as a little kid, if that reveals my age enough...lol) when I had an Atari 2600.  Which was THE popular game system in the late 70s.  I loved those old 4-byte games (and the larger, and more complex, coin-op arcade games I played in the 80s), which can still be played if you purchase them through the PlayStation store.  

In the 90s, I had a Nintendo NES, and my favorite game types became more of what I preferred to play in the arcades...mostly platform games (i.e. Donkey Kong, etc.).  The Super Mario Brothers trilogy were my favorite games of this era.

I took a long time off from gaming after that, and took to other hobbies.  History and living history became big things for me in college and afterwards, and I became an American Civil War reenactor and living historian, doing battle reenactments and also living histories at state and national parks (such as Gettysburg, Andersonville, and Fort Delaware).  I founded and, eventually, led the 8th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry Regiment, based in New Jersey, and being a living historian encompassed some of the best years of my life, meeting so many great people, visiting so many great places, and doing such great stuff!

When it comes to history, I am also passionate about the Titanic, and also the Alaskan gold rush...leading up to the 1925 Nome Serum Run (for which I have created a website linked in my profile).  I greatly enjoy discussing these!

In 2016, I purchased the PlayStation 4 system as a bundle, because I was curious about the Ratchet & Clank game and the movie (which I also purchased).  I like both very much, and it was they that led me eventually to hunger for more Ratchet & Clank.  I then purchased a PS3 (used but in great shape), and started accessing more titles...first the Future trilogy, which I love.  Then Into the Nexus, and finally All 4 One and Full Frontal Assault.  I'm not so crazy about the last two, but I actually do love Into The Nexus, and I find the Future trilogy to be, easily, the best storytelling and graphic style of ANY of the Ratchet & Clank games, bar none...specifically A Crack In Time...the storytelling is thorough and unequalled.  I TRIED to get into the Ratchet & Clank collection, which has the first three R&C games in it remastered for the PS3, but I found the graphics and engines to be clunky and primitive, and the game play unnecessarily difficult in some places...which leaves players stuck without a way out unless they keep at it until each section is completed.  Plus, in the original game, Ratchet is an arrogant little cuss who's NOTHING like he became in the later games.  And unlike those R&C fans who have nostalgic hardcore love for the first game, I find the first game to be ridiculous compared with the later games...and I even find the storytelling and character development in the 2016 game to be better.  Sorry, gang, but I do.  And I have written plenty of fan fiction in other genres, and studied writing and production in college, to know this.  

I am eager to connect with people here, but know that I am NOT a hardcore gamer, and do not care to pick nits and muddle over things the way most hardcore gamers do.  I don't have a YouTube vlog channel where I post five billion-and-one gameplay walkthroughs...I find myself disgusted by those who trash incessantly on the 2016 game and movie...and I don't compete in online gaming, or care much about collecting and amassing trophies and accolades.  I am a CASUAL gamer.  I enjoy gaming for its own sake.  To enjoy it...not to obsess about it.

My games on the PS3 include: Ratchet & Clank Deadlocked (which I am not that crazy about); Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction; Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest For Booty; Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time; Ratchet & Clank Full Frontal Assault; Ratchet & Clank All 4 One; Ratchet & Clank Into The Nexus; The Ratchet & Clank Collection (which, as I have already commented on earlier, I really don't like that much at all); Sly Cooper Thieves In Time; and Back To The Future.

My games on the PS4 include: Ratchet & Clank (2016); The Last Guardian; Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series (parts 1-5), Rayman Legends; Atari Flashback Classics, Vols. 1 & 2 (encompassing most of the classic Atari 2600 games, as well as many coin-op arcade games they made); Lego Dimensions (which I almost never play), and Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (which I also almost never play).

I hope to be as active on the forum as time will allow.  I have participated in other fan forums before, both as a member and, occasionally, as a moderator.  I don't troll, and I prefer to keep the peace with folks so long as they can do the same with me.  I write fan fiction from time to time, and used to do fan videos, though it's been a long while.  I will attempt to contribute in that way here when time and circumstances (and creative sparks) allow.  I will not tolerate myself or anyone else being beat down because of the fact that I came into the Ratchet & Clank fandom and gaming through the 2016 game and the movie, and that I happen to like the 2016 game completely over the original 2002 game.  I respect that others, for nostalgic reasons, like the original better.  That's fine.  Respect my reasons for liking the 2016 one better as well.  You WON'T change my mind about the 2002 game anymore than I presume I couldn't (or might not) change yours about the 2016 game if you happen to dislike it.   

What do I consider the best Ratchet & Clank game?  By far, A Crack In Time is the best in terms of character development, story and graphics/animation out of ANY of them.  Period.  Yes, the graphics in the 2016 game are amazing, but the CGI animation is a bit...wanting, and in need of some development.