Another question many of you have been asking is: will there be a demo? And, the answer is yes. We’ll have more details on when and how the demo will be available shortly. Stay tuned for a new trailer next week as well of loads of other inFamous goodies from the Sucker Punch crew this month…

• Today, October 16th, the public beta for Resistance 2 will begin in North America. The beta will offer gamers a glimpse at Resistance 2′s online competitive and co-op modes ahead of the game’s launch on November 4th. We will be admitting players in two waves: a Premiere wave which includes those that pre-ordered at GameStop, individuals who subscribed to QORE for one year and/or bought the episode featuring Resistance 2 and a recent contest from GamePro.com. Those of you in the Premiere wave should be receiving an email with a registration code between now and tomorrow afternoon. A second wave is starting in the middle of next week, and you apply to be a part of it by going to beta.myresistance.net once the site goes live (later tonight). For those of you across the pond in Europe, the public beta will also begin next week.
• The Beta will include competitive maps from three locations in the game. These maps include 60-, 40-, and 20-player maps from Orick, 40- and 20-player maps from Chicago, and the 10-Player map Sub Docks (Bay Area). New modes Skirmish and Core control will be supported, along with Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. The co-op portion of the beta will focused on Orick, and will support randomization of your play-path. Both co-op and competitive will support matchmaking and class/character progression up to level 10. This will allow unlocking of new equipment, upgrades and berserks for character customization.
• Speaking of beta.myresistance.net, the beta version of our new community site goes live tonight as well. Customizable leader boards/user profiles, individual blogs and ‘ticker’ that provides players with up to minute information of happenings on the site are just some of the features the beta site has to offer. Leading into the November 4th North American launch of the game (and the months to follow), we’ll be adding several more features that will make MyResistance.net the destination for all Resistance fans.
• And, finally, Resistance 2 has gone gold. As a special treat, the below image gives all of you PlayStation Blog readers an idea on just how big just the online coop campaign mode is :)

That’s all for now. Keep your eyes open for more R2 announcements as we lead into launch. If you have any questions, write them in the comments sections and I’ll do my best to answer them.

In other news, the Insomniac Games podcast, The Full Moon Show, returned for it’s second season earlier this week. The first episode can be found here. In this episode: a new co-host revealed, an interview with a studio that recently reclaimed its independence and possibly a tidbit or two about this Resistance 2 game.

That is all. Well, for now.

Map pack two, which contains Axebridge and Bracknell, will cost $4.99. For time being, the maps will be available via the standard PLAYSTATION Store and not the in-game ‘Purchase’ option. We are also releasing a bundle of both this and the first map pack together, which will run $7.99.

Next time: I don’t know… maybe something Ratchet. Maybe something… else (cue evil laugher).

As some of you may have heard, a new patch for Resistance: Fall of Man will be hitting soon.

How soon you may ask? As soon as this afternoon!

Major changes are listed below and full patch notes can be found on myresistance.net.

-Ability to take screenshots in game using a USB keyboard.
-Weapon balance changes and new round balancing options -Dual Shock 3 support added for online AND single player.
-Password protected custom games.
-Numerous bug fixes.

If you try to login and cannot, it means we are staging the patch for deployment. Or California was hit by another earthquake. One or the other. We now return you to the scheduled finale of RCF: TOD: the
Developer Diaries. And go watch the new Uncharted trailer while you’re at it :)

But I digress, so without further adieu, Ted’s dev diary on Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction!

Additional Insomniac interviews:
Ratchet & Clank Future Developer Diary #5 (Bill Parmenter and Brian Mathison)
Ratchet & Clank Future Developer Diary #4 (Giac Veltri)
Ratchet & Clank Future Developer Diary #3 (Mark Lee)
Ratchet & Clank Future Developer Diary #2 (TJ Fixman)
Ratchet & Clank Future Developer Diary #1 (Brian Hastings)

Please also read our previous PlayStation.Blog Ratchet & Clank Future posts.

In this video, Bill and Brian reveal the funniest pre-release glitches (which were fixed!), the differences between the Japanese and North American Ratchet characters, and how becoming a tester affects your skills in other games.

In other news on this “official” Ratchet & Clank Future launch day, check out the Resistance: Fall of Man community site to download special Ratchet & Clank bangles for R:FoM online. Grab Ratchet’s wrench, Clank’s backpack and Magna-boots (no, they won’t help you run up Chimeran nodes).

And, if you listen to Insomniac’s “Full Moon Show” podcast, they’ve got a special edition launch day episode complete with more in-depth Ratchet & Clank Future news, Resistance: Fall of Man online updates and a contest to win a VERY rare Ratchet & Clank statue.

In this dev video diary, Giac reveals how RCF’s demo was made, the tension of “going gold,” and how the game kept making him laugh even late in the development cycle.

Mark will be discussing keeping RCF’s frame rate rock solid and lessons the team learned from Resistance: Fall of Man in this dev diary.

TJ discusses the challenges of writing for a video game, where he’d like the series to go in the future, and songs about pirate booty.