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Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus hits PS3 Nov. 12, pre-order bonuses outlined
The budget-priced end-cap to this generation's stable of Ratchet and Clank games, Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus, will bring zany weapons and robotic antics to the PlayStation 3 on November 12, to the tune of $29.99. Folks who pre-order from "participating retailers" will receive Ratchet's "Pyronox Armor," which reduces incoming damage by five percent. Amazon pre-orders also include "roughly $30" worth of Ratchet and Clank items for PlayStation Home (according to the PlayStation Blog), though the exact nature of said items is not specified. Meanwhile, Insomniac also released this faux-VHS orientation video detailing Ratchet's hands-on involvement in the series' development process, including his failed mo-cap suit made out of DualShock 3 controllers.
Ratchet and Clank writer T.J. Fixman leaves Insomniac
Pen-behind-the-lombax Todd 'T.J.' Fixman announced his departure from Insomniac Games yesterday, saying he wanted to focus on mediums other than gaming. In a blog post, long-serving Ratchet and Clank writer Fixman said his "relationship" with Insomniac will continue, at least because he'll still be working on the Ratchet and Clank movie due in 2015. Fixman joined Insomniac in 2007, going on to become a senior writer at the studio and work on nine games including the Ratchet and Clank Future series, All 4 One, and Full Frontal Assault. Fixman said a surge in feature screenwriting opportunities over the last year had left his workload too great to keep his position at Insomniac, but added that the move is also about finding a new challenge. "I can look at my time at Insomniac and feel like I've done what I set out to do there," said Fixman. "As for other mediums, I feel like I'm just getting started. I'm excited by movies and television. I want to get back into graphic novel writing. I want to develop different projects with new characters and stories and worlds I can explore. Right now I have the opportunity to try all of it, and when you're handed a gift like that, you have to grab onto it with both hands." One of Fixman's last duties as an Insomniac employee was to write the script for new entry Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus, which rockets onto PS3 sometime this holiday.
Insomniac on working with Microsoft Studios for Xbox One exclusive, Sunset Overdrive
Insomniac Games' new open-world shooter, Sunset Overdrive, is exclusive to Xbox One and published by Microsoft Studios – and this partnership may require some explaining for "longtime fans," Insomniac CEO Ted Price writes. "When we first began discussing this idea with Microsoft, we were initially hesitant to shift back into an exclusive arrangement," Price writes in an Insomniac blog post. "But as the Microsoft team began introducing us to the abilities and philosophies driving the development of Xbox One, we knew that Sunset Overdrive was a perfect fit. The Xbox One and Xbox Live will support our ambitions to create an ongoing two-way dialogue with our community. It will also allow us to have quicker production cycles, enabling timely content updates for new weapons, characters, storylines and even pop culture-relevant content like memes based on social commentary." Independent studios aren't allowed to self-publish on the Xbox One, and Insomniac is definitely independent, Price says. This means the studio doesn't have to abandon its PlayStation roots or classic franchises such as Ratchet and Clank. "Insomniac has been, is, and will continue to be 100 percent independent. We have treasured that independence for the last 19 years. It now allows us to own and control our IP, and find the most suitable partners to make those IP a reality. While we are excited about partnering with Microsoft on Sunset Overdrive, that doesn't mean we can't or wouldn't make games with our longtime friends at Sony." Sunset Overdrive has an official site, and the trailer from Microsoft's E3 show is now viewable in our announcement post.
Insomniac's Sunset Overdrive is our first look at a cloud-infused Xbox One game (update: video)
Insomniac is usually busy developing games for Sony hardware, but company head Ted Price hopped up on stage to reveal Sunset Overdrive. In development with Microsoft Studios, the title is billed as a "open world shooter where the experience can change every day." Though we're told gamers will be able to affect what happens in the world by using the cloud, we're still short on details regarding how that'll happen and what changes. For now, screenshots with hyper-stylized graphics and Mirror's Edge-like parkour will have to sate our curiosity.%Gallery-190849% Update: Head past the jump to catch the entirety of the teaser trailer. Follow all of our E3 2013 coverage at our event hub.
Metareview: Fuse
Fuse didn't light up Dave's life. He gave Insomniac's latest just two stars out of five in our review, deeming the game "satisfactory at best and frustrating at worst, and a bare-bones shooter without any personality or flair." Of course, we're not the only outlet you can wire into. Here's a brief meta-view of the mixed review-verse discussion sparked by Fuse. Escapist (80/100): "Some of Fuse's flaws, like the grindy boss fights and a storyline that takes itself a little too seriously at times, can harm the experience, but it's a well built third-person shooter that's fun to play solo or on a team." GameSpot (70/100): "Fuse is calibrated for people to play together, designed in such a way as to be merely serviceable for solo players, but solid fun for groups of gung-ho mercs." Polygon (65/100): " The core of a great third-person shooter is present in Fuse. The team-based insanity offers a unique take on the genre, and Insomniac's reputation for inventive weapons and creative combat helps too. But Fuse only comes together with three or four players, and even then, the late game combat design and boring-to-fight enemies stand in its way." Giant Bomb (60/100): "Fuse's bland art design and overall lack of personality are disappointing in the context of that initial reveal trailer, but under the hood it's still a generally well made third-person shooter with a clear emphasis on co-op and the imaginative weapons Insomniac is so good at dreaming up. But there are too few of those weapons, and a few too many irksome issues, to lift Fuse significantly above the many, many other cover-based shooters it's competing with." Destructoid (40/100): "Whether it's true or not, Fuse does feel every bit like another victim of the heavily focus-tested, leader following, perpetually terrified mainstream game industry. It's every cloying and desperate element of the retail console market, brought together -- fused, if you will -- to create a factory standard example of a game that tries to be everything the hypothetical mainstream consumer drools over, and ends up as nothing remarkable...That's Fuse in a nutshell."
Fuse review: Shoot first
Fuse is that bad movie your friends like to sit down and slice apart. It's best played with friends, where teamwork and some interesting weaponry help dull the blunt impact of bad game design, awkward animations and a lack of atmosphere. Without friends, Fuse is nearly intolerable, hampered by inept AI teammates and even thicker enemies. By yourself, every animation quirk and odd design choice frustrates as you wonder who could have seen the same problems and given them the thumbs up.%Gallery-170888%
PSA: Fuse demo sparks up XBLM, PSN today
The demo of Insomniac's Fuse, formerly Insomniac's Overstrike, melds with the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network today. It's already available on XBLM (all 1.45GB of it), while PSN gets it later today. The demo lets you play a portion of the four-player shooter's campaign either offline with AI partners, or online. If you go online you can play solo with the option to invite friends, or with friends able to join you at any time. You can also play co-op via matchmaking.
Fuse demo available May 7
Co-op shooter Fuse will let you take it for a test drive on May 7. Available through Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, the demo supports solo play, four-player co-op (or two player split-screen), allowing a group to try out the four operatives of the Overstrike squad. "When it comes to Fuse, the biggest thing we've noticed when sharing it with others for the first time is that playing is believing," said Insomniac CEO Ted Price. Players can use the LEAP function to jump between the four characters, making it accessible to solo players as well. Fuse is scheduled for retail insertion and home extraction on May 28 and 31 in North America and Europe, respectively.
Fuse reportedly does many things in latest trailer, won't iron wrinkles
Fuse will change the way we go to war, the way we hunt, the way we profit. It will topple governments and show the world vulnerability. However, there's a wrinkle. Fuse does not scotchgard or starch shirts. Prepare to iron May 28.
Report: EA Partners label to close
EA is reportedly shuttering its third-party co-publishing Partners label, responsible for bringing out the likes of the Crysis series, Shadows of the Damned, Alice: Madness Returns, Bulletstorm, Brutal Legend, and the Rock Band series among many others.According to Game Informer, who note "multiple anonymous sources close to the matter," the Partners label will be terminated "soon." Game Informer's sources say the purported closure shouldn't affect Insomniac's Fuse and Respawn Entertainment's unannounced project being released, despite both games being tied to the label.The report follows news of widespread layoffs at EA earlier this month, as well as the apparent retirement of its Playfish line. There are also reports of the EA Mobile Brazil and BioWare Social studios closing, as well as one in based in London, UK.We've reached out to EA for comment.
The pleasures of the empty time
It's just a fact that raiding normal or heroic raids is a communal activity. When you said "I cleared Heroic ToES before the patch" what you mean is "We cleared Heroic ToES before the patch" because unless you have a Martin Fury in your bags, you didn't solo it. Progression raiding is always about the group. You don't accomplish things we do. The same is true for arenas or rated battlegrounds - these bastions of elite PvP are group activities, and your success or failure is shared with others. World of Warcraft is an MMO, after all. Even LFR or random heroic dungeons or scenarios are group dependent, it's just that in these cases the groups are assembled for you by the game. You may well queue up for each of these alone, and you may leave and go about your business afterwards just as alone, but the actual raid, dungeon or scenario will have other players in it with you. This is an inescapable, inseparable part of the WoW experience, and it is one of the things I enjoy about the game. However, as much as I do enjoy group activities, as much as I love raiding and going into a dungeon or raid zone with a group, there are times I just want to be alone. And it is this desire to sometimes play at my own pace, to my own schedule, that has me reconsidering my expansion-long disdain for the daily quest structure of World of Warcraft.
Fuse lights up May 28 in NA, May 31 in EU
Delayed until the second quarter of 2013 last January, Insomniac's Fuse has found itself a couple of new release dates: May 28 for North America, and May 31 for Europe, EA announced.Pre-ordering the game will grant armor and weapons for each of Fuse's four characters, including "Hyperion Prototype Agent Armor Skins, "Hyperion Prototype Agent Weapon Skins," and a "Quickdraw Team Perk" that increases the damage done by one-handed weapons for everyone in your party.
Insomniac files 'Sunset Overdrive' trademark [update]
Insomniac Games, developers of the Ratchet & Clank series and the upcoming Fuse, have filed a trademark and registered a domain for Sunset Overdrive. NeoGAF user Kifimbo noticed the trademark, which is for "computer game software, Entertainment services, namely, providing an on-line computer game."There's also a website registration for sunsetoverdrive.com by Ryan Schneider, who is the marketing director over at Insomniac.We've followed up with the company for comment.Update: "As you can imagine, we're an idea factory and we submit for trademarks pretty regularly," a spokesperson for Insomniac informed Joystiq. "There's nothing to announce, but thanks for checking in on it."No problem, Insomniac. No problem at all.
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 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."
Resistance Collection invades retail on Dec. 5
The Resistance Collection, a bundle of all three of Insomniac's Resistance games for the PS3 will be available at retail starting on December 5.On top of the three Resistance games, there's some DLC in the package – the Aftermath multiplayer DLC pack, Skin bundle and Wraith skin multiplayer weapon for Resistance 2, plus the Brutality and Survival DLC packs for Resistance 3. All said and done, the Resistance Collection will set you back $39.99. (Or, about 14 Chiktumbs in Chimeran currency.)
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.
Ratchet and Clank: Full Frontal Assault begins Nov. 27 for $20
Ratchet and Clank: Full Frontal Assault will bare all on PSN November 27 for $19.99. The "fun size" adventure, which is similar in scope to Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty, is said to actually have more junk in the trunk than the previous bite-size experiment, according to the PlayStation Blog. It will also be released at retail for the same price.The Ratchet & Clank Collection, HD updates of the first three PS2 games, launched in late August to celebrate the series' 10th Anniversary, occurring next month. We should also probably note that, in case you never played them, the full-blown Ratchet and Clank PS3 adventures, Tools of Destruction and Crack in Time, are both available at retail for about the same price as this amuse-bouche.
