u/Made-In-Slovakia

After seeing hoverbike race track is scaled down to 1/4, we would think that maybe truck convoy section on Siberia is scaled too. It is not, entire section is 1:1. My guess is that level is so small that it was not necessary to do any memory saving tricks.

What is really worth noting is that truck convoy actually moves on a circular track where it goes around and around endlessly until Ratchet reaches the end of section. It may not seem unusual to you, but it is often done the other way around in games, so that the surroundings world move and convoy is static. This is to make things easier for the developers so they do not have to deal with a lot of problems that arise when objects and effects that are otherwise stationary suddenly have same momentum as convoy.

A good example is Aranos where level is static but the surroundings (mountains) move and create feeling of movement.

In screenshot you can see how part of explosion effect from the Gravity Bomb does not have momentum and it end up quickly behind center of explosion. Not sure if bug or not, but it gives it pretty good impression of movement.

As a bonus, I am adding few screenshots from truck convoy section with levitating trees that testers missed and now I can not unsee them each time when I play this section :)

Source: uselesspodcasts YT channel https://www.youtube.com/@uselesspodcasts Video about this specific topic with timestamp https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=455&v=7dMiICXX3qY

Edit: Added paragraph about Aranos.

I never understood why Insomniacs used same helmet for all armors in Ratchet & Clank 2. Just using the biker helmet skin makes the Electrosteel Armor look a thousand times better.

We recently saw that hoverbike race track in Ratchet & Clank 2 is actually scaled down to 1/4 and Ratchet is shrunken during hoverbike race. But that is not everything unusual about hoverbike race:

1. Ratchet is scaled down but Clank, helmet and other equipment are not scaled down, they are just invisible
2. Hoverbike is actually driven by different model of Ratchet and original model is invisible

which creates a very funny pictures if we turn off invisibility.

You might have suspected it from fact Ratchet on hoverbike always wears Commando Suit and not armor equipped in the game.

IMO reason for this that Ratchet has various complex animations while riding hoverbike, animations that are not necessarily needed in the normal game and developers decided that it is easier to have two separate models with two movement sets.

I heard you like a challenge. I'm giving you a new one for R&C2. Challenge mode (a.k.a new game plus) in a true new game. Clean new run without any bonuses from the previous run (no bolts or upgrades) but with everything that goes with challenge mode, like enemies have more health and do more damage. I had a lot of trouble finishing the tutorial level and ended up running through enemies. What about you?

For the best experience: 1.start a new game, 2. activate patch, 3. deactivate patch, 4. save the game to memory card, 5. load the game, 6. waste all your ammo on the first enemies, 7. die repeatedly in one hit, 8. swear what a stupid idea this is, 9. keep playing.

Manual how download and install patch is here https://github.com/Made-in-Slovakia/rac/tree/main/PCSX2

If you are interested in my other mods and cheats for R&C games, check out my GitHub repository https://github.com/Made-in-Slovakia/rac/tree/main/PCSX2 You can also follow me here on Reddit or follow GitHub repository directly so you don't miss any news or updates.

It do not understand how they missed this typo after so much testing.

The bug is in both PAL and NTSC versions of R&C2, including the Platinum/Greatest Hits editions.

Edit: Just for clarification. Hoverbike race was coded by single developer during whole development of R&C2. It was tested multiple times and nobody noticed this.

Did you know that in Ratchet & Clank 2, hoverbike race track is actually scaled down to 1/4 size? Ratchet and hoverbike are shrunk down at the start of the race to fit on the track. This is different from hoverboard racing in R&C1 where track was at 1:1 scale with the rest of level.

The reason is rather simple, track is too big to fit in memory.

For fun, I am attaching a few screenshots to visualize how small the hoverbike and track actually are.

Vote up for more fun facts in the future.

Source: uselesspodcasts YT channel https://www.youtube.com/@uselesspodcasts Video about this specific topic with timestamp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28bpyrLOAmA&list=PLBE216F8E761D085C&t=250s This video mentions scale down by 50% which is not correct.

I do not like this guy, who you have to pay your cold hard bolts for single transmission. Also, I am not a fan of cheats in single-player games, but when even the developers admit that a game "feature" does not make sense, it is time to remove it. That is why I made a mod that reduces the price of all items needed to progress in the game to 100 bolts.

Currently, it is available only for the NTSC version of R&C2, PAL version will be available, eventually.

Manual how download and install patch is here https://github.com/Made-in-Slovakia/rac/tree/main/PCSX2

While working on this patch, I made a few more, which I will publish gradually. Stay tuned.

If you are interested in my other mods and cheats for R&C games, check out my GitHub repository https://github.com/Made-in-Slovakia/rac/tree/main/PCSX2 You can also follow me here on Reddit or follow GitHub repository directly so you don't miss any news or updates.

Hooked on Onyx is a paint job for Ratchet's ship in R&C2, cut from final game and later used in R&C3. Skin is still in the game and can be activated by changing values ​​in memory or using my patch for PCSX2.

Manual how download and install patch is here https://github.com/Made-in-Slovakia/rac/tree/main/PCSX2

Information about unused/cut content is sourced from https://tcrf.net/Ratchet_%26_Clank:_Going_Commando

If you are interested in my other mods and cheats for R&C games, check out my GitHub repository https://github.com/Made-in-Slovakia/rac/tree/main/PCSX2 You can also follow me here on Reddit or follow GitHub repository directly so you don't miss any news or updates.

I created PINE client in Go. It is my first bigger project/library in Go after years with Java (and other languages) and I would appreciate any constructive feedback for improvements. Thank you

Link https://github.com/Made-in-Slovakia/go-pine

More about PINE https://github.com/GovanifY/pine