And head over to the DCUO MySpace and Facebook sites where there’s a video and blog entry featuring Executive Creative Director Jim Lee on the development of DCUO live.

Throughout the course of the show, attendees could check out the Krell Canyon demo at the PlayStation booth. There were also photo opportunities with Ratchet himself, as well as swag: an inflatable replica of Ratchet’s Omniwrench 2000.

All of this built up to Sunday, when we revealed all of this and much more to the public in our panel session. Creative Director Brian Allgeier, Project Manager Bryan Bernal, and Writer Todd Fixman were joined by voice actors James Arnold Taylor (Ratchet), Armin Shimerman (Dr. Nefarious), and Joey D’Auria (Allister Azimuth). The panel was moderated by Gamespot Editor-In-Chief Ricardo Torres.

We led off with some exclusive videos that those of you playing at home won’t be able to see until the final game releases, one involving Captain Qwark, and the other an unlockable video about the Agorian Warriors. Allgeier and company then discussed the story, and its theme of “throwing caution to the wind,” especially relating to the effect of Ratchet being with an older Lombax for the first time. One of the early highlights involved a verbal spar between Taylor and Shimerman, using the voices of Ratchet and Dr. Nefarious, respectively, as they sat together on stage talk about Nefarious’s temperament issues.

Discussion then turned to Clank and his whereabouts after being kidnapped at the end of Tools of Destruction. Bernal revealed that Clank is being held at the center of the universe (give or take fifty feet), in a secret facility known as the Great Clock. Clank gains new time abilities and has some brand new indie-inspired time gameplay.

For more about Clank and the first footage of his gameplay, check out this video:

Next came a topic that is a series standby: weapons. The beginning of the discussion centered on the Weapons Contest event that occurred on Wednesday evening. The Spiral of Death was revisited and shown in case attendees hadn’t seen it. Winning fan designer Jackson Finley was recognized by Bernal, and the crowd gave him a huge round of applause. If you haven’t seen the Spiral of Death in action, check this video out:

Torres then moved onto the world reveal of a brand new line of weapons for A Crack in Time, The Constructo weapons. Brian Allgeier discussed how fans really enjoyed the ability to specifically tailor weapons to their own playing-style with modifications in Deadlocked and Up Your Arsenal. He announced two new weapons, the Constructo Pistol and Constructo Bomb Glove, and revealed some mods that longtime series fans will love – the video below shows and explains more.

The voice actors discussed their work on the game and how much fun they have had working with these characters over the years. James Arnold Taylor discussed how Ratchet’s voice is really his voice, and as such it’s really one of his easiest characters to jump into (which he did repeatedly throughout the panel). He also mentioned that it was only during this past year that he met David Kaye, the actor who voices Clank, as game voice actors typically record their sessions separately.

Armin Shimerman told attendees he generally has to take the next day off after recording Nefarious due to the amount of screaming a session involves, especially due to his perception of Nefarious screaming a lot more in this game. However, this didn’t dissuade him from screaming for the audience, including the classic yelling at his butler, “LAAAAAAAAWREEEEEENCE.” Newcomer to the franchise Joey D’Auria discussed voicing the first new male Lombax in the series, and how much he’s learned from the other voice actors, particularly Taylor. He also discussed how Azimuth’s character arc and how impressed he has been with the evolution of gaming as a storytelling medium.

We recently announced that we were partnering with DC Direct to bring fans the first Ratchet & Clank action figures. These long-awaited figures, including Ratchet, Clank, Nefarious and Qwark, were brought on stage to give fans a chance to see them before their release on December 2nd.

Before the Q&A, attendees were treated to the world premiere of the brand new trailer for the game, which you can watch below. The trailer includes the first glimpse at a new level in the game, Axiom City.

Finally, the group then took some fan questions. Highlights included a young fan who asked about the RYNO. Before anyone on the panel could answer, the fan proceeded to remind the panel of what each RYNO from each game did to crowd laughter and applause. Allgeier confirmed the RYNO as well as the Tools of Destruction fan-favorite, the Groovitron, will return in A Crack in Time. A fan asked if multiplayer would be included, to which Allgeier said the team was focused on closing the story arc started in Tools of Destruction and Quest For Booty while creating an epic single-player experience (also bringing applause). Another fan asked if The Plumber would return, to which Fixman revealed that he indeed would.

Everyone on the panel had a fantastic time. We here at Insomniac want to send a big thank you to all of our fans who came to see us and asked questions and came up afterwards to chat with us, ask for autographs, and take photos. We also want to send out a big thank you to James, Armin and Joey for taking the time to participate and see their fans. A huge thank you goes out to Ricardo Torres for moderating the panel, as well. We also are grateful to everyone at Comic-Con for giving us the opportunity and space to present new features and video directly to our fans. Finally, we want to thank everyone at Sony Computer Entertainment who helped put this together, including all of our PR/Marketing folks as well as all of the event folks who helped us out on the floor when trying to hand out thousands of inflatable wrenches.

That’s all for now – we hope you enjoyed this recap of the panel and the videos. Next up for us is GamesCom in Cologne, Germany, where we will reveal a bunch more new stuff, including the first look at our Space gameplay.

We’ll try to answer your questions in the comments – but as I’m writing this from a plane, Bryan Intihar may chime in as well.

Thanks for all your support! It was great to see so many of you at Comic-Con!
JS

I am thoroughly impressed and excited by this game each and every time I see it, so definitely watch this vid from beginning to end.

And in case you missed it, yesterday, we we’re pleased to announce a LittleBigPartnership with our amazing friends at Marvel. Check out the pic below from the Marvel Video Games panel and a sneak peek of a few DLC costumes in the works.

Here’s the official release for more detail:

Iron Man, Wolverine and Captain America Invade LittleBigPlanet; Marvel Partnership Announced at Comic-Con.

July 27 – Sony Computer Entertainment and Marvel Entertainment officially announced that they will be collaborating to create original LittleBigPlanet content based on the Marvel Universe. The news was revealed yesterday at Comic-Con International in San Diego during Marvel’s panel discussion highlighting the next generation of Marvel video games. To help illustrate what might be in store for fans, concept art of possible costumes were shown incorporating Iron Man, Wolverine and Captain America, however other characters will be considered.

With “Play, Create and Share”, LittleBigPlanet has established the Creative Gaming genre and the game continues to grow and evolve, helped by partnerships with marquee brands such as Disney and now Marvel. The customizable nature of the unique PlayStation title allows players to alter characters and build entirely new objects and levels; then share and play them online as part of the LittleBigPlanet community. In fact, the sharing nature of the game has become so embraced, it has attracted fans to publish more than one million levels to the PlayStation Network since the award-winning game launched last October. Put another way, one new level has been published roughly every 21 seconds since LittleBigPlanet hit shelves.

We cornered the kind folks at The Behemoth for a little back and forth, so take a look at the video to find out why you need to keep your eye out for Castle Crashers. And get to know these guys because they promised to come back on the Blog when they have even more to talk about.

CHAOS IS COMING to the San Diego Comic Con this week! God of War will be showcased at this year’s comic con giving fans access to one of the most highly anticipated games of 2010.

Play God of War III
Show up to the Sony booth any day of the show and get hands on time with God of War III! That’s right you can play the code that everyone has been writing about at E3. Make sure to arrive early. Lines will be long.

God of War Comic Book Signing and Giveaway
Last week we announced the blockbuster deal with DC Comics bringing Kratos to life in comics. Now is your chance to get your hands on a Limited Edition double sided poster of the God of War comic and signed by Marv Wolfman (Writer) and Andy Park (Cover Artist).

Autograph Schedule at the Sony booth
Thurs. July 23rd 1-2:30pm *Marv Wolfman ONLY*
Friday July 24th 2:30-4pm
Saturday July 25th 1-2:30pm

Also wanted to let you know that today we announced a cool partnership with United Cutlery. That’s right an authentic Blade of Chaos. The scaled replica of Kratos’ Blades of Chaos, stretches 20 13/16” overall and is designed with a 12 7/16” blade constructed from solid-cast zinc aluminum with a custom-etched mold texture, and unique fantasy grindings that mirror the piece used in the game. The handle grip is injection-molded and surrounded by an intricate, detailed cast-metal guard and pommel. The Blades of Chaos replica includes a custom display stand with the God of War logo. Pretty sweet stuff!

Check out the merchandise section on the official God of War website to check out more information on United Cutlery’s Blade of Chaos. To learn more, go here.

In addition, if you are at Comic-Con and interested in meeting Naughty Dog or some of the voice actors in UNCHARTED 2 – including Nolan North, Claudia Black, Emily Rose and Robin Atkin Downes – they will be taking part in a panel this Thursday, July 23, at 5:30 PM in room 6A on the Upper Level of the San Diego Convention Center (maps can be found on the Comic-Con website.) Greg Miller of IGN will moderate the discussion on how the Naughty Dog Engine 2.0 and the innovative motion capture process at Naughty Dog enables them to create the first active cinematic experience in a video game. With this group of personalities, I guarantee it will be a lot of fun and we will be unveiling some new footage that you will not want to miss.

Lastly, for the collectors out there, I am happy to tell you that we have entered a partnership with ESC-Toys to create Nathan Drake vinyl toys. The man behind the design is Esc-Toy’s founder/designer Erick Scarecrow. Erick is well known in the industry for creating some of the most sought after customs, vinyl and plush collectibles out there. He is also well known for the work he has done for recording artists, including the late and great Jam Master Jay of RUN DMC, Bad Boy Entertainment, Def Jam, and others. I have included a few images of the vinyls below.

Let us know what you think! More info to come on release timing but we are aiming for this Fall, they will be limited to 2500 pieces world wide, so start stalking your local vinyl stores!

We’ve created a Flickr folder with all the great entries here (a super-mega thanks to all who participated!). And now we need your help to determine the winners — it’s time to get in there and vote up your favorites. Just like MLB All-Star voting, there aren’t any specific rules. All you have to do is view one of the photos, and that counts as a vote. If you like it, rack up the page views, get your friends to view it, etc. — we don’t care how it happens.

The comics with the most views from today until noon on July 17, will be picked as winners. Specifically, the top 25 will be receiving an awesome Schwag Bag, and the top comic creators that will be in San Diego area, will be granted access to the July 22 Insomniac Games and SCEA Comic-Con community event, as well as the July 23 exclusive PlayStation event where you’ll go hands-on with some of our biggest upcoming titles.

So get voting because the clock’s ticking! All details and rules are here.