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Oddball world of Fuse: Splicing the Insomniac DNA with Smash TV
Fuse is a difficult game to preview; it's a busy experience with plenty of interconnected systems and a HUD that brims over with symbols, numbers and meters of various sorts. Insomniac's coming shooter thumbs its nose at the current era of clean user interfaces, which attempt to disguise vital information in natural ways, in favor of the bright-as-can-be notices found in old-school arcade games. It's a retro style that, in the face of modern titles, feels decidedly fresh. Further complicating the experience is the ever-present nature of your squad, working together as a foursome set out to destroy enemy lines.The trick with Fuse is that the four-person squad is always present: whether you're playing with friends, computer-controlled bots, or a mixture of the two. Fuse features a "Leap" system, allowing players to jump quickly between each character to command their unique skills. Insomniac says its goal is to give players the opportunity to fill every role."We've built this game from the ground up with that in mind," Insomniac president and CEO Ted Price tells Joystiq. "We wanted to make sure that there are always four characters in the game but you can have just as much fun by yourself, or with one friend, two friends, or three friends. So that's been our design mantra from the very beginning."%Gallery-179118%
Fuse delayed to second quarter of 2013
During EA's fiscal third quarter earnings call, CFO Blake Jorgensen revealed that Insomniac's PS3 and Xbox shooter, Fuse, has been delayed."We've decided to move the launch of Fuse to Q1 of fiscal 2014," said Jorgensen. That puts the release of the futuristic co-op shooter somewhere between the beginning of April and the end of June in calendar 2013. Fuse was originally slated to launch in March.The delay will allow the team at Insomniac put some "extra work" into the game, said EA COO Peter Moore.
Fuse trailer sticks its beak where it don't belong
The leader of Fuse starring squad Overstrike 9, Dalton Brooks, has a blanket set of rules he likes to follow – too bad his set of rules don't apply to alien weaponry and waves of murderous occupant soldiers.
Insurmountable odds in Fuse's wave-based 'Echelon Mode'
Echelon mode in Fuse is what Insomniac CEO Ted Price calls "co-opetitive," a variant on the Gears of War 'Horde' mode. Players must survive twelve waves of increasingly more difficult enemies – the exact configuration of each wave is randomized, though you're always guaranteed two boss battle waves.Price calls Echelon "co-opetitive" because while you're ultimately working together to ensure group survival, the constant money drops – essentially experience points – are something teammates will scramble to grab. With collected cash, players can purchase and upgrade abilities, and progress in Fuse carries across all game modes."Part of our goal here is to make this a friendly game – if you've had experiences in multiplayer games before where you jumped in and had your head blown off in the first couple seconds, we don't want that to happen in Fuse," Insomniac CEO Ted Price told Joystiq. "We want Fuse to be a game where you're actually working with players and competing for cash and status. But it's always a friendly competition."
Insomniac boss Ted Price explains Fuse's box art
As soon as it was revealed, commenters on popular gaming websites and communities around the internet called the Fuse box art out, citing its odd aesthetic of cutting off the four main characters' faces and intense use of the color orange."I'm very clear on what the reaction has been from some of our critics to the cover, but we wanted to pull attention to the Fuse weapons: the Xenotech. That's why they're featured prominently," Insomniac CEO Ted Price told Joystiq during a Fuse preview event showcasing the multiplayer mode Echelon."Fuse is – the game revolves around 'Fuse,' storywise and gameplaywise. I think that we wanted to do something that was different. Cutting off characters' heads is not something you see in other game covers. The standard approach is to have the full character, front and center, right in the middle of the box – and we took some creative risks with that. I think some people have spoken out about the fact that we took a creative risk. Some people liked it, some people didn't."The cover itself was created in collaboration with Petrol Advertising, an LA-based outfit whose clients include Activision, Capcom, Konami, Nintendo and numerous other gaming entities. "We worked with them and came up with a whole bunch of different approaches," Price admits. Eventually both parties decided on the image above."Our goal was to very clearly indicate that this is a four-player game, a four-character game. We also didn't want to do something that looked like Charlie's Angels," Price joked. "I think the temptation with four characters sometimes is to have a very high-action shot where they're posing. And we would've been raked over the coals for that."
Microsoft launches Socl into Beta, brings the part(ies) to social networking
Microsoft has unleashed Socl into beta for all comers to probe, bringing it out of the experimental stages and a step closer to a full-fledged site. We first heard about the project back in July when it was dubbed Tulalip, and MS Research's Fuse Labs officially launched it internally and into some universities back in October last year. The site carries the Windows 8 tile-like look, and Fuse says that imagery is emphasized over "blue links" for search, helping democratize the site "even for people who speak different languages." That lets you find others via posts, a people gallery, or someone's page -- where new posts, people and interests can be viewed all at once. A nav bar allows articles to be created by topics like web, videos or news, and users can create "parties," where they can chat, create playlists or watch videos with others in a similar fashion to Google Hangouts. The project was coded using Redmond's Java-hued Typescript to allow for rapid coding changes, according to Fuse's blog in the source below. To try it out for yourself, check the "more coverage" link.
Fuse combines bonuses with pre-orders
Fuse has a few pre-order bonuses for those extra keen to join Overstrike 9. Developer Insomiac Games revealed pre-orders include four Hyperion Prototype Agent armor skins, four Hyperion Prototype weapon skins, and a Quickdraw team perk which buffs up your squad's one-handed weapons.Last month we spoke to Insomniac's Ted Price about the continuing changes coming to Fuse even following its post-Overstrike makeover. We'll see how all those changes work out when the game amalgamates with PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 disc drives in March 2013.
Fuse screens head to cooler climes
Insomniac has sent along a group of new screens for Fuse, which you may remember as Overstrike. In the shots below you can see the Overstrike 9 team up close in the tech lab where they initially find the Fuse weapons, and in a new snow-swathed landscape. The game's coming to Xbox 360 and PS3 sometime next March.
Even after Overstrike, Insomniac's Fuse continues to change
Even if you happen to be the biggest fan of Insomniac's Fuse, formerly called Overstrike and coming to consoles next year, you may have missed one little detail in the brand new video released by Insomniac and EA yesterday. Izzy Sinclair, the hacking and healing main character, has a brand new look to her clothing, something that's a little more casual than the tactical gear she was wearing on the previous preview footage.That's a change that came directly from player feedback, Insomniac's Ted Price told Joystiq yesterday, and he says there may be more coming. "We're continuing to tweak the game's look and colors," he suggested. Insomniac's fans have been very vocal about the change from the game's original concept back when it was called Overstrike, and Price admits that "there are always going to be questions about our tone shift and that's just something we accept."But Price also says that despite the back and forth about the game's tone, the development team is also getting clear input about the gameplay itself. "The most gratifying feedback we have gotten recently, he says, "has been from our playtests, where we see both the press here and overseas and then occasionally consumers play the game. We've been really positively surprised with how quickly people pick it up, how readily they begin working as a team and just how happy with how much fun they're having."%Gallery-168274%
Insomniac's Ted Price takes you through 18 minutes of Fuse
Insomniac Games president and CEO Ted Price narrates this video for Fuse, taking you through the four playable members of the Overstrike squad, their weapons, and their skill-based progressions. Also covered are the co-operative elements, including 'Fusion' mode which as Price puts it lets all four players become "Fuse-powered wrecking balls."
Dish Network settles Voom HD lawsuit, AMC comes back on the air tonight
Dish Network customers have been without AMC and its family of channels since July 1st, but thanks to a settlement between the satellite company and Cablevision's former Voom HD unit, AMC will be back on the air starting tonight. The possibility of a settlement leaked out late last week via a court filing, and it looks like Dish CEO Charlie Ergen will avoid taking the stand Monday after all. According to the terms, Dish will hand over $700 million in cash plus its 20 percent stake in Voom, and receive 500MHz of video and data spectrum licenses in 45 areas. In a separate deal, Dish and Cablevision spinoff AMC Networks have a new multiyear deal that should bring back AMC (on channel 131) in time for The Walking Dead to air tonight, and all of its other channels (IFC, WE tv, Sundance and for the first time, Fuse) starting November 1st. While Dish had previously claimed the channel deal was being held up by AMC's distribution of its shows via iTunes, Netflix and Amazon, now that lawsuit is over those concerns seem to have faded away.
Insomniac wants Fuse players to 'take the universe seriously'
Insomniac's Fuse began as Overstrike, a colorful co-op spy game with a humorous flair. Fuse continues the co-op direction of the game, but has shifted its look to a style that tilts more toward realism than fantasy.Some internet reaction has labeled the new style powering Fuse as just another 'standard military shooter,' but Insomniac says it's not totally shunning the game's fantastical elements."We have our underwater bases. We've got missiles and volcanoes. We have a lot of exotic situations but at the same time we want people to take the universe seriously," Insomniac Creative Director Brian Allgeier told Joystiq at the 2012 New York Comic Con.But over-the-top elements still exist in the more mature-looking multiplatform game, as evidenced by the game's weapons and abilities.%Gallery-168274%
Fuse melds into new trailer
The new Insomniac IP formerly known as Overstrike is now called Fuse, and publisher EA just released a new trailer to solidify its rechristening. The video sees the Overstrike 9 team (made up of four people confusingly) come together to bring about carnage with a sci-fi twist. Fuse is scheduled to come out March 2013 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Meet the new, familiar faces of Fuse's Overstrike 9 team
Insomniac's Overstrike team-based shooter has turned into a game called Fuse, due out in the first quarter of next year on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. And the four characters in the game's co-op team are in many ways the same four that we saw in last year's trailer, but they've changed a lot as well. The names might be the same, but the looks (in some cases) are different, and the weapons, now powered by the alien element "fuse," have seen changes.So here's your guide to the four co-op characters in Fuse, that make up the "Overstrike 9" team, dedicated to fighting the villanious Raven force around the world. Players will be able to play any of these characters in online co-op, and Insomniac has also created a function called "Leap" that will allow any player to jump, at the press of a button, into any character not already being controlled (so a solo player can jump into any character, two players can jump into either free character, and so on). And all of these characters not only earn experience upgrades as they play, but they also build up fuse power into a "fusion mode" (activated by anyone on the team) that then rewards unlimited ammo and extra functionality in their fusion weapons. Finally, in addition to each character-specific fuse weapon, each character also gets two conventional weapons to wield (one heavy and light, per character), and grenades to throw as well.Read on to hear where these four characters come from, and what you'll find their strengths and weaknesses are as you play through Fuse.%Gallery-165036%
Insomniac's 'Fuse' briefs all four members of team Overstrike
Okay Insomniac, now you're just being gratuitous. In the studio's latest bit of Fuse media – a mission briefing taken from the game – all four members of Overstrike's team show up after some gruff discussion about a "contact team." You know, "clean operatives with no ties to government" – sounds familiar, doesn't it?Those four operatives are listed as "Overstrike Team 009." It's sounding more and more like whatever "Fuse" is has at least some ties to Insomniac's Overstrike, a four player co-op shooter first introduced at E3 2011.Company head Ted Price wouldn't admit as much in a recent interview, but he was quick to point us to the official Fuse countdown site when asked about the whereabouts of his studio's new EA Partners game.
Insomniac's 'Fuse' likely to be a reworked 'Overstrike'
With Insomniac president and CEO Ted Price obliquely teasing an unknown project called "Fuse" during his PAX Prime 2012 keynote last week, it wasn't too difficult to put together the teaser image he produced and the teaser video released last year (above) for EA Partners project Overstrike. Price wouldn't admit as much to us during a followup interview last week, but he didn't really need to."I'm gonna point you to Fusegame.com," Price answered when asked about Overstrike's long absence from the public eye. Is it still a current-gen game (it was originally announced for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3)? He wouldn't say. When directly asked whether Overstrike and Fuse are the same game: "I'm being cagey here because I want to be consistent with how we're answering these questions," he said, deferring to his PR manager.The PR man offered a bit more than Price would. "We're very deliberate in what we're showing right now, and that's why we're just pointing people to the website and saying, 'Hey, this is a process. We're going to share more information with you, stay tuned.'" That said, why in the world would the two guys be pointing us to a website for Fuse when we're asking about Overstrike? The answer seems pretty clear to us.Price additionally refused to answer whether Fuse is an EA Partners project – Overstrike is an EA Partners-published four player co-op game.Unsurprisingly, Game Informer is also positing that Overstrike is now named Fuse, calling it a "reworking" of the originally announced concept (what that means is up to your own interpretation). We'll presumably find out for sure when the Fuse website's countdown clock runs out in another seven days.And wouldn't you know it, there's an upcoming Insomniac press event offering hands-on time with an unannounced game. Sounds like we'll find out what the mystery is all about soon enough.
'Fuse' teased by Insomniac CEO
Details are seriously lacking, but Insomniac Games founder Ted Price announced something called Fuse at PAX Prime today.All the info we have right now on the game includes the screenshot above and an 11-day countdown clock.The man in the Fuse image is wearing a similar suit to that of a character from Insomniac's previously announced game Overstrike. We haven't heard anything about that game in over a year. So, this could just be a name change. We should have more details later Pacific time.
Synaptics Fuse concept hands-on
Good news and bad news: the good news is that we got to look at Synaptics' Fuse concept phone, which pairs capacitive touch overload with tilt sensing, squeeze sensing and a fair bit of haptics. The bad news is that Synaptics is holding off on showing the actual UI until MWC in February. So for now we've got a working prototype that demonstrates that the sensors really do work. It's an abstract affair, involving the formation of little 3D spheres that roll around on the screen and can be tweaked, pushed and generally confused by the various input methods. Everything works great, with wonderful touch sensitivity on the back of the "phone" being one of our favorite elements we'd like to see in more devices. One thing that became clear while playing with the phone is that while it's targeted at improving one-handed operation, it's actually impossible to actuate all the various sensors simultaneously with one hand, which we suppose Synaptics should see as a mark of distinction. Check out a couple videos of the demo in action after the break. %Gallery-82499%
Second Fuse UI video shows wild, dynamically lit 3D interface
We only got the briefest of glimpses at the new UI approach in Synaptics' collaborative Fuse concept handset, and now TAT (The Astonishing Tribe, the folks behind the original Android UI), has posted a brief clip that gives a better idea of the full UI. It's pretty wild, with some sort of rendering engine that really emphasizes depth, lighting and motion. We're not sure it's the most usable UI on the planet, but it's certainly one of the oddest we've witnessed. Check it out in motion after the break.
Synaptics Fuse concept handset puts a new squeeze on touchphone interaction
In case you weren't aware, Synaptics dabbled in the touchscreen handset game way back in 2006 with the Onyx concept, before phones like the LG Prada and Apple's iPhone came along and proved the idea so convincingly. However, Synaptics thinks innovation has stagnated since, and has girded itself once again to attempt another trend-setting concept. This one's a bit more wild: the "Fuse" involves contributions from Alloy, TAT, Immersion and Texas Instruments, and includes squeeze, tilt and haptic interaction. The big idea is to approach single-handed and no-look operation on a touchscreen handset, no small feat to be sure. The result is a pure kitchen sink of sensors, including a touchpad on the back of the phone, touch and pressure sensitive strips along both sides of the phones, dual haptic feedback motors, a 3-axis accelerometer and of course a new-generation Synaptics touchscreen in front. The TI OMAP 3630 processor powers the TAT Cascades 3D UI Engine which attempts to contextualize UI interaction with perspective tilts and fancy motion, and the haptics feeds back to let you know where your finger is on the screen -- an attempt to emulate feeling out the correct nub for keypad orientation on a button phone. We'll have to play with it to find out if Synaptics is really on to something, but even if the Fuse isn't the next best thing, we could certainly see somebody using some of these sensors to improve existing handset interaction. Check out a quick video after the break.
