'Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart' is coming to PC on July 26th

Fresh on the heels of an in-depth look at Marvel's Spider-Man 2 gameplay, there's more news from the Insomniac Games camp. The studio's previous title, 2021's Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, is coming to PC on July 26th.

As is often the case with PC versions of PlayStation exclusives, there are some extra bells and whistles here. There are new "ray-traced shadows for natural light in outdoor areas" which allow for "realistic shadows with natural gradients in softness," as Julian Huijbregts, an online community specialist at Nixxes (the Sony studio that's working on the port), notes on the PlayStation Blog. The gameplay and cutscenes have been optimized for ultra-wide displays, including aspect ratios of 21:9, 32:9 and even 48:9 for triple-monitor setups.

Along with unlocked framerates, there's support for upscaling tech including NVIDIA DLSS 3, AMD FSR 2, Intel XeSS and Insomniac's own Temporal Injection, as well as NVIDIA Reflex and NVIDIA DLAA anti-aliasing. You can opt to use a keyboard and mouse with fully customizable controls or a controller. Plug in a DualSense, and you'll be able to experience the same haptic feedback and dynamic trigger effects that you would on PS5.

I finally got around to playing Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart after it hit PlayStation Plus recently and enjoyed it immensely. It's a breathtakingly gorgeous game with strong combat, captivating characters and a smart script. Insomniac also makes better use of the DualSense's capabilities than most studios.

Fingers crossed that Insomniac and Nixxes can avoid the kinds of technical issues that have plagued PC versions of other Sony games. The Last of Us Part 1 (Iron Galaxy worked with Naughty Dog on that port) and Horizon Zero Dawn, which Nixxes helped to fix, both had notable problems at the outset on PC.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart relies on the speedy load times of the PlayStation 5 to make the dimension-hopping feature work seamlessly. With that (and the stellar visuals) in mind, it's likely that you'll need a beefy gaming rig to get the most out of the port. So, it's probably worth waiting for Sony to reveal the PC specs before locking in a pre-order on Steam or the Epic Games Store.

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