We’ve been working on Fuse, our first new console game IP since Resistance: Fall of Man, for several years now. The wait is almost over — Fuse launches May 28th on PlayStation 3. For an early taste of Fuse, grab the demo — it launches on PSN next Tuesday.

The demo will allow you to experience lethal teamwork with up to three friends online (or 2-player split-screen). Overstrike 9 has tracked the stolen Fuse source to a remote Raven base in Pakistan’s snowy Karakoram Mountains. The team must stop rogue group Raven from carrying out its horrific plan to form a new world order. The section of the demo comes from around the halfway point of the game, so we’ve powered up the four characters a bit to give you a sample of all their capabilities (and you can level them up further!)

Now, some of you may be asking, what is this game? We’d like to say Fuse is what you’d get if you took the dry humor and lethal teamwork from Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and combined it with the alien weaponry from District 9. It’s a uniquely Insomniac universe, one where villains occupy strongholds in exotic locations around the world and a volatile alien substance powers weapons you won’t see in any other game.

The game stars four unique class-based operatives – Dalton Brooks, Izzy Sinclair, Jacob Kimble and Naya Deveraux, who each have their own special weapon, skill tree and progression. With 1-to-4 player drop-in-drop-out online co-op (and 2-player split-screen!), the game is awesome to play with friends. But if you like to play alone, we have a unique feature called LEAP, which gives you the ability to jump between your characters at will and experience four different ways to play the game.

Besides the campaign, the game also features Echelon mode. This is our take on a wave-based mode. Each game is comprised of 12 rounds of randomized objectives, designed to test your agents and teamwork skills. Even better: Fuse’s progression system carries over between the campaign and Echelon mode.

Don’t take my word for it, check out our latest trailer at the top of this post — and keep an eye out for a new trailer from the demo next week! Download the Fuse demo next week and let us know what you think. Also keep an eye on the Insomniac twitter account and Facebook page, as we will be having specific playtimes where developers here jump online to play Fuse with you!

If you have any questions, I’ll do my best to answer as many as possible.

One of the biggest questions we’ve gotten in the last few years is “When are you going to make a Ratchet & Clank movie?” The truth is, we’ve wanted to do a movie for a long time! Ratchet & Clank’s action, humor and galaxy-spanning adventures have really been the basis for a fantastic game series, and we think it’d translate perfectly to the big screen.

We’ve been looking for the right partner to help us bring a Ratchet & Clank movie to life, and we’re thrilled to announce that Blockade Entertainment and Rainmaker Entertainment are currently in production on Ratchet & Clank’s first cinematic adventure. Insomniac is honored to play a hands-on role with the film’s production, screenplay, character development, and animation consulting. Furthermore, our own Ratchet & Clank writer, T.J. Fixman, who has written all of the recent Ratchet & Clank games, is writing the script for the film as well.

But don’t take my word for it — check out our teaser above.

In additional celebration of the film’s announcement and to tide you over until the premiere, we’ll be offering a sale on all Ratchet & Clank games on PSN the week of April 30 – more details to come! Speaking of more details to come, we know you’re still patiently waiting for Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault and Ratchet: Deadlocked. While we don’t have any news to share today, stay tuned!

There will be much to come on the Ratchet & Clank movie as we get farther into production and closer to its release. Thanks for all your support of the franchise over the last 10 years, without you, there wouldn’t be a movie!

As a special launch day treat, we’re sharing a few pieces of concept art which inspired the look, characters and environments that you’ll see in the game. We hope you enjoy checking them out!

This fun-sized adventure is one of the best values we’ve ever offered, featuring a campaign you can play single-player or in co-op (split screen or online). It’s classic Ratchet & Clank gameplay with a base defense twist. Even after you play it once, you’ll want to try again to improve your scores and times! On top of the campaign, Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault has a new multiplayer mode that you can play 1v1 or 2v2. We’re really proud of it, and we’ve been working hard to bring additional skins as well as new bonus multiplayer maps to the game, and you can expect more details in the coming weeks.

For those of you who also own a PlayStation Vita system, the game supports cross-buy, cross-save and competitive multiplayer cross-play. If you purchase Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault for the PS3 system, you’ll be able to download the PS Vita version at no additional cost when available in January 2013.

Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Ratchet & Clank series this year has been a blast for all of us at Insomniac. From the release of the Ratchet & Clank Collection, to playing the Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault beta with you, and even sharing the iam8bit Ratchet & Clank screenprint program (keep an eye on G4TV this week for the “making of” the first print, and a reveal of Print #2), it’s been a great year for Ratchet fans. All of our fans getting to celebrate the anniversary with a new game this week is the cherry on top. For a taste of the action, be sure to check out the free demo for Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault which will be available for PS3 on PSN starting today.

See you online!

This holiday season just got better. Resistance Collection is hitting stores starting December 5th for $39.99, and it makes a great gift for any shooter fan who hasn’t had a chance to experience one of the best FPS trilogies on PS3.

Resistance started as I-8, a return to Insomniac’s roots making first-person shooters (Disruptor was our first-ever game on PSOne). It evolved from a space opera featuring lizard-like aliens into an alternate history World War I shooter, before eventually evolving into the 1950s-era game that launched alongside PS3. Over the three titles, we had an incredible experience developing the Resistance franchise for PlayStation fans.

From Resistance: Fall of Man’s 40-player multiplayer, to Resistance 2’s 8-player online co-op, to Resistance 3’s heroic survival of Joseph Capelli in a brutal world, everyone at Insomniac is incredibly proud of what we accomplished with the Resistance trilogy. For all of you who haven’t had the chance to check them out yet, the trilogy gives you the opportunity to experience them now

The collection includes Resistance: Fall of Man, Resistance 2, Resistance 3, and all the DLC listed below.

• Resistance 2 Aftermath Multiplayer Map Pack
• Resistance 2 Skin Bundle
• Resistance 2 Wraith Skin multiplayer weapon
• Resistance 3 Brutality Pack
• Resistance 3 Survival Pack

Enjoy your Thanksgiving and keep an eye out for Resistance Collection starting December 5th!

Our friends at Tin Giant have been working hard to bring Insomniac’s PS3 game to PS Vita and to ensure that your experience is packed with all the action and polish you’d expect from a Ratchet & Clank game. In order to provide the best gameplay experience possible, the PS Vita version of Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault will be coming out in January 2013. The PS3 version will still be available for purchase at participating retailers and on PSN starting on November 27, 2012.

As a reward to fans for their patience, we will be giving them the first piece of DLC for the title, the Mini-Boss Skin Pack, as a bonus with their purchase of Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault for PS3. This skin pack features three fan-favorite boss characters from past Ratchet & Clank games, including Chainblade from Going Commando and the Two-eyed Tyrhrranoid from Up Your Arsenal. Take a peek at these new skins in the screen below.

Thanks for your support and patience for the PS Vita version of Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault. We can’t wait to see all of you online unleashing the multiplayer mayhem on PS3 starting November 27, and then on PS Vita in January 2013.

The 10th Anniversary of Ratchet & Clank is coming up next month, and it’s been a lot of fun this year reliving the memories from our original PS2 games in the recently released Ratchet & Clank Collection. We also had a blast playing the beta of Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault with all of you earlier this fall. Since then, we’ve gotten a flood of e-mails, tweets and Facebook posts asking when you can get back to exploring the battlefield and defending your base in FFA.

We’re happy to announce Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault will be available on November 27th on the PlayStation Store and at retail. That’s right, you asked and we listened: Full Frontal Assault will be available as a retail copy for those of you who love physical copies of your games! Both the download and retail versions support cross-buy as well, so your purchase gets you both the game on PS3 and a digital copy for PlayStation Vita.

The other big question we’ve gotten a lot is “How much will the game cost?” As you know, Full Frontal Assault is a “fun-size” project that’s similar in scope to Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty. But Full Frontal is actually bigger than Booty (sorry, couldn’t resist), as we’ve added tons of new features, including the new base assault and defense elements. An even bigger addition to Full Frontal Assault is the replay value we packed in with online / split-screen co-op, and online competitive modes. Most importantly, while the experience itself may be more condensed, the game quality is bursting at the seams. We’re very proud of what we’ve created.

As such, we’re especially excited to announce that Full Frontal Assault is launching for just $19.99. Considering you get a brand-new Ratchet & Clank game for your PS3 and PS Vita, with cross-save and cross-play support for the game’s co-op and competitive multiplayer, it’s a deal that’s hard to refuse.

That’s all for now! We hope you’re excited about Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault’s launch on November 27th; if you have questions, we’ll try to answer them below!

In terms of things that constitute A BIG DEAL, the arrival of a new Insomniac game is right up there. The California-based studio boasts one of the sturdiest resumes in gaming, with past works including Spyro, Ratchet & Clank and Resistance, and its latest effort – spectacular third-person shooter Fuse – looks every bit as distinctive.

The set-up is simple – you play as one member of a four-strong squad of special agents, each armed with a high-concept weapon powered by a mysterious alien substance called Fuse.

There’s beefy Dalton who wields a weapon that allows him to generate a force field. Naya’s assault rifle generates a mini-vortex which sucks in enemies. Izzy wields a shatter gun that freezes foes on the spot, allowing colleagues to step in and vaporize them. Finally, Jacob sports a crossbow that fires molten projectiles capable of turning the opposition into a pile of ash.

It might sound like a rather familiar set-up on paper, but in action it’s an extraordinary sight to behold, with each outrageous weapon interacting with each other to create uniquely over-the-top action. Take a look at the announcement trailer below then read on to find out what Insomniac founder Ted Price has to say about the project.

PlayStation Blog: What was the seed of the idea that later grew into Fuse?
Ted Price, Founder of Insomniac Games: Brian Allgeier, who’s our creative director on the project, proposed a four player co-op game featuring a team of agents who would travel around the globe infiltrating various facilities, lairs, and such like.

PSB: And when did you add in the fantastical Fuse powers?
TP: That was a relatively recent occurrence. We always had a McGuffin that we were chasing – ostensibly an alien substance but we hadn’t defined it very well. It wasn’t until fairly recently that we realized there was something of a disconnect between story and gameplay. Story was living separately. That was a hard realization for us, because for a game to really impact people, we believe story and gameplay have to be tightly meshed.

“For a game to really impact people, we believe story and gameplay have to be tightly meshed.”

So we started developing Fuse, and we started looking at it as something that powers gameplay as well as story. We made it the driver for the weapons and we made it the core of the progression system. When we did that everything started to click. That was the time when we made the tone shift as well.

PSB: Yes, the game was first revealed at E3 2011 as the more family-friendly Overstrike, but you’ve since given the concept a bit of a make-over. Explain how that happened.
TP: When we showed off the trailer in 2011, that was for the promise of gameplay that we had then. It was very story-focussed and less gameplay-focussed. In the intervening time we started really thinking harder about what the game was and where it was going to get its greatest impact.

That was when we started experimenting with Fuse. We created more visceral impact for our weapons, took a page from Resistance, went over the top with the visceral nature of each of the weapons and rethought the story in a slightly more grounded fashion.

The world is still very ‘Insomniac’ – it’s stylized in its own way and doesn’t adhere to any realistic conventions that we see today, and it is in no way a military sim. And it still has humor, but it’s a very different kind of humor to the campy, cartoony approach we originally took. I understand too that the change upset some of our fans who saw the trailer in 2011 and expected something very different. But what we have now is actually a better, deeper experience where we have gameplay and story tied more closely.

PSB: Gamers are really spoiled for choice when it comes to third-person shooters these days. How hard is it to make your game stand out from the crowd?
TP: That’s where we focus a lot on gameplay, where we do things such as introduce Leap where you can move back and forth at will between our four different character archetypes. It’s why we’ve created these Fuse weapons which have multi-purpose functions where not only is, say, the Shatter Gun is a great crowd-control weapon, but it’s also a great healing device. This creates layered gameplay for each of the four characters that you can control in the game.

But we understand how competitive the environment is; we’ve been there. Just a few years ago we were releasing Resistance games into what was at that time the most crowded market! We roll with the times!

PSB: Each of the four characters has its own distinct gameplay system. How difficult was it balance these mechanics so that they interacted with each other in an entertaining way?
TP: It’s hugely challenging. It took us a long time to get it right. We had a lot of failed attempts at creating weapons that were not only fun to use but also balanced and worked together.

It’s really easy to take the default approach where you give everybody an assault rifle or a giant cannon and everybody is firing the same weapon. We absolutely did not want to do that but that did make the problem tough to solve. Creating differentiation without making one weapon better than the others was the result of prototyping – lots and lots of prototyping.

PSB: Fuse is clearly built around co-op play – is there much here for the single-player gamer to enjoy?
TP: I mostly play Fuse in single player. I play it a lot, because as part of the team that’s my job. In single player you get a great experience because we spent a lot of time on the bots. We know how important it is to have great AI bots in a multi-hero game. Our bots – we hope – strike the right balance between bots that support you well and bots that don’t kill-steal or get in your way.

We want to avoid those annoying traits that you see so often in bots because as a single player with three bots the potential problems are multiplied. So, one of the great aspects of playing a single player is that you can leap between all four characters at will and it gives you many different ways to approach our different combat scenarios.

PSB: Insomniac Games are known for their wicked sense of humor. Is Fuse going to make me laugh?
TP: We have a lot of subtle, sophisticated humor throughout the game. We definitely play up the strained relationships between our various agents. Dalton is probably the funniest character in the game. I really like Dalton because he doesn’t take himself too seriously. The characters do evolve in the game – we try hard in the story to show how they’re coming to terms with their situation. We hope players appreciate that as we have spent a lot of time trying to flesh these guys out and create a compelling story.

PSB: Of all the franchises Insomniac has created, do you have a favorite?
TP: It’s difficult to answer because I have been heavily involved in all of them. Shoot, I’ve been creative director on Ratchet games, Resistance, heavily involved with Fuse, I love Outernauts as somebody who has been peripherally involved with that, and Spyro… They’ve all been really fun and challenging as someone who has been part of the development team.

So, my current favorite – and this sounds like a suck-up answer – is Fuse, because I’m playing it a lot, I’ve been heavily involved in the process and I’m really proud of what the team has pulled off, especially in light of how much we’ve changed it in the last year.

PSB: All of your games have a very distinct personality. They’re all very different but all unmistakeably bear you mark. What specific quality defines an Insomniac game?

“We’ve developed a reputation for creating over-the-top crazy weapons.”

TP: It’s a great question. I don’t know what the right word is. Every one of our games has a quirky nature no matter how serious it is. Even Resistance in its own way was a bit quirky. But when you ask players and fans they’ll probably point to weapons first and foremost. For us, we’ve developed a reputation for creating over-the-top crazy weapons. And Fuse is not a departure from that at all!

PSB: Do you go back and play your old titles much?
TP: Not as much as I’d like to, but I have a lot of kids and as a result I get to relive them through their eyes, and that’s really fun.

PSB: Is that a painful process? Do you just see things that you wish you’d done differently, or done better?
TP: I think there are always improvements that I know we could have made in our games. Ask any developer – if they say they’re completely satisfied with their creation, I would question that. Mostly because there is never enough time to do everything we want to do in any game. But I’m always proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish with the resources we have, and I’m really grateful for the fan response we’ve had to each our games. It keeps us going – it’s why we make games.

]]> http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/10/25/fuse-interview-ted-price-introduces-insomniacs-shape-shifting-new-shooter/feed/ 36 http://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/10/8121534579_be14e5b17d_b.jpg 2.58SCEE Blog Manager 36 9 http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/09/12/insomniac-games-lights-the-fuse/ http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/09/12/insomniac-games-lights-the-fuse/#comments Wed, 12 Sep 2012 13:00:13 +0000 Brian Allgeier http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=84786 Hi everyone! After a long journey navigating the sometimes-challenging waters of new IP development, we’re proud to reveal Fuse. Fuse, formerly known as Overstrike, is a third person, four-player cooperative game that centers around a volatile energy source that has fallen into the wrong hands. The substance, called Fuse, has been acquired by a terrorist organization known as Raven and Overstrike 9 has been hired to track down and stop it from setting off a deadly arms race.

You can play with up to three of your friends, and each member of Overstrike 9 has its own signature Fuse-powered weapon. Play as Dalton Brooks, an ex-mercenary who has a Mag-shield that acts as portable cover and unleashes a devastating blast that liquefies opponents. Take on the role of Naya Deveraux, who can cloak to flank enemies and fire out mini-black holes that implode its victims. As Jacob Kimble, you can keep enemies at a distance with the Arc Shot and shoot out charged bolts that chain react and fry enemies. Then there’s Izzy Sinclair, who can either launch out med beacons to heal teammates or fire her Shatter Gun to crystallizes and explode nearby threats. If you’re not sure who you want to play, you can use the LEAP feature to instantly switch to any available character. A good tactic when you’re in a pinch!

As you take down targets with both Fuse and conventional weapons, you’ll earn valuable points than can be used to upgrade your weapons and character abilities. You’ll earn more points on executing cooperative kills and these points and upgrades are beneficial across both campaign and another mode we’ll be revealing at a later time.

I’ve been at Insomniac for more than 13 years and was part of the development of the first Ratchet & Clank for the PS2. It’s never easy developing new gameplay, an engaging storyline, and new technology from scratch. But at Insomniac right now, we’re having a lot of fun both evolving and playing Fuse. I believe the telltale signs of a signature “Insomniac” game are in full force. We’re diligently working on making sure each character and gameplay mechanic is satisfying to play. Our story is filled with intrigue and contains exciting plot twists with a touch of that classic Insomniac humor. And there won’t be a shortage of replay options thanks to our LEAP feature.

We hope you’ll feel the same way when Fuse launches in March 2013!

You can look for more information on the official site, follow Insomniac on Twitter or like the Fuse page on Facebook. We’re excited to show you more of Fuse soon.

]]> http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/09/12/insomniac-games-lights-the-fuse/feed/ 99 http://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/09/LEAD_FUSE.jpg 2.85Creative Director, Insomniac Games 99 23 http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/08/15/ratchet-clank-full-frontal-assault-unzips-ps-vita-support-and-competitive-mode/ http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/08/15/ratchet-clank-full-frontal-assault-unzips-ps-vita-support-and-competitive-mode/#comments Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:01:51 +0000 Shaun McCabe http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=82515 Insomniac Games’ North Carolina studio. Since this is my first PS.Blog post, I’ll briefly introduce myself. I joined the company in 2003 during the development of Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, but I’ve been an Insomniac fan going all the way back to Disruptor on the PlayStation. As you may have heard, yesterday we announced that our dynamic duo’s latest adventure, Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault, is coming to both PS3 and PS Vita! Working closely with our friends at Tin Giant, who are helping bring the game to PS Vita, we’re delivering full cross-play and cross-save support.]]>

Hey everyone, I’m Shaun McCabe, production director at Insomniac Games’ North Carolina studio. Since this is my first PS.Blog post, I’ll briefly introduce myself. I joined the company in 2003 during the development of Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, but I’ve been an Insomniac fan going all the way back to Disruptor on the PlayStation.

As you may have heard, yesterday we announced that our dynamic duo’s latest adventure, Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault, is coming to both PS3 and PS Vita! Working closely with our friends at Tin Giant, who are helping bring the game to PS Vita, we’re delivering full cross-play and cross-save support. So, the ever-popular, “Well, I’d love to be playing Ratchet & Clank right now, but am stuck at the bus stop/office/police station/etc.” can no longer apply. Not only will the game feature cross-play and cross-save, but it’s also part of a super-cool promotional offer where anyone who purchases Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault for PS3 via PlayStation Network will be able to download the PS Vita version of the game from PSN at no additional cost and vice versa.

And today, we have even more news to share. A few weeks ago, we revealed the first gameplay details about Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault. We even teased a new online mode, and now it’s time to expose it all right here.

Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault is returning to the classic camera, weapons and third-person Ratchet gameplay that the series is known for, while adding a new base defense element that will have you building and defending a base against invasions using your ultimate Ratchet & Clank arsenal.

Well, the further we got into development, the more we felt like we just had to add a player vs. player mode. We’re big fans of the multiplayer modes in Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal and Ratchet: Deadlocked and got excited about the opportunity to bring back competitive play to the franchise. The result of our efforts is an intense, strategic and “Ratchet-y” experience that combines classic Ratchet & Clank mechanics with MOBA-style head-to-head action.

The Full Frontal Assault competitive mode will support 2-4 players and feature ranked and custom games. A match will consist of rounds that are divided into phases. First, there’s a Recon phase where you’ll capture nodes in the battlefield. Then, in the Squad phase, you’ll build your base defenses and minion squads. Finally, it’s time to get nasty. In the Assault phase you’ll annihilate your opponent by attacking their base. The game ends when one side has destroyed all the generators in the opponent’s base.

The game has really taken on a life of its own, and we can’t wait for you to experience it for yourself when Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault launches this fall. Of course, if you really can’t wait, just remember that the Ratchet & Clank Collection hits the U.S. on August 28th.

Stick to this space for all the latest Ratchet & Clank news this summer and fall as we continue to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our favorite Lombax and his diminutive robotic pal. You can also like Insomniac Games on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

]]> http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/08/15/ratchet-clank-full-frontal-assault-unzips-ps-vita-support-and-competitive-mode/feed/ 88 http://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/08/LEAD_rc.jpg 4.68Production Director, Insomniac Games 88 28 http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/07/19/the-full-monty-on-ratchet-clank-full-frontal-assault/ http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/07/19/the-full-monty-on-ratchet-clank-full-frontal-assault/#comments Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:20:36 +0000 Sid Shuman http://blog.us.playstation.com/?p=80384 All 4 One. But with Full Frontal Assault, the storied series will undergo what is perhaps its most sweeping metamorphosis yet, creating what developer Insomniac Games is calling “action tower defense.” Yep, Ratchet’s going all PixelJunk Monsters on us. This is a logical, some might say inevitable, evolution when you consider the series’ gameplay trajectory, which despite its myriad twists and turns has focused squarely on two core elements: ludicrously powerful weaponry and freakish alien foes. In other words, the raw ingredients for a mean tower defense game. ]]>

Though fundamentally a third-person shooter, the Ratchet & Clank series has rarely shied from bold genre experimentation: witness the progressive competitive and co-op modes of Ratchet: Deadlocked, the brain-busting temporal puzzles of A Crack in Time, even the four-player feuding of last year’s All 4 One. But with Full Frontal Assault, the storied series will undergo what is perhaps its most sweeping metamorphosis yet, creating what developer Insomniac Games is calling “action tower defense.” Yep, Ratchet’s going all PixelJunk Monsters on us.

This is a logical, some might say inevitable, evolution when you consider the series’ gameplay trajectory, which despite its myriad twists and turns has focused squarely on two core elements: ludicrously powerful weaponry and freakish alien foes. In other words, the raw ingredients for a mean tower defense game. “One of the things we wanted to explore with Full Frontal Assault was large, sprawling battlefields,” Production Director Shaun McCabe told me. “The large battlefields in Up Your Arsenal and A Crack in Time added a lot of player choice. The decision to add tower defense felt organic…exploring large open battlefields and then returning to your base to set up defenses.” McCabe cited tower defense games like Dungeon Defenders and Orcs Must Die as key inspirations for Full Frontal Assault.

Though Insomniac Games isn’t allowing any hands-on play just yet, I learned much about Full Frontal Assault just by watching a few minutes of the game in action. The core gameplay looks to be plucked directly from fan favorite A Crack in Time; everything from the camera view and controls to those intoxicating hoverboots will make series traditionalists feel right at home. The story-driven campaign, which you can play solo or co-op, is strung together with traditional adventure sequences that combine shooting and platforming as Ratchet scours the surface of the planet Ebaro looking for secret weapon caches while fending off attacks from rampaging Grungarian marauders. So far, so good, until the monstrous mercenaries decide to attack your base — that’s when those tantalizing tower defense events kick into gear.

Your home base serves as the tower defense battlefield, and the floor is scattered with pads that enable you to deploy three basic types of units: Turrets, mines, and barriers. You’ll fend off multiple waves of incoming Grungarians by strategically placing these defenses, which you can combo together to devastating effect: a slow-mo mine combined with Combuster turrets can ravage a tough enemy before he breaks through your barrier. Enemies will come in all shapes and sizes, from swarms of tiny Grungoids to tough melee-centric Brawlers to crafty Engineers who seek to sabotage your defenses. Turrets, mines, and barriers will also come in many flavors, though Insomniac Games is remaining frustratingly tight-lipped about specifics for now.

Though you’ll need to monitor your base defenses carefully, you’ll hardly be dependent on them — Ratchet is a potent fighter and can swoop in to turn the tide in a besieged area. The combination of Ratchet’s exotic weapons and the effects of various turrets, mines, and barriers promises to create some unexpected and devastating combinations.

Between tower defense events, Ratchet will need to venture back into the battlefield to seek out more powerful weapons. “Most of the weapons in the game are ‘Ratchet classics,’” McCabe teased. “Our goal here is to give players almost more weapons than they can handle.” Upon finding a weapon pod, you’ll be forced to choose between unlocking one of two possible weapons. Plasmabomb Launcher or Warmonger rocket launcher? Decisions, decisions.

True to tower defense form, Full Frontal Assault awards you medals based on your performance in the tower defense segments, encouraging you to replay them again and again until you’ve completed them perfectly. The medals will unlock promotions, too, including new armor and perks for Ratchet, Clank, or Qwark.

Oh, and they’ll be a competitive mode, too, though Insomniac is saving those details for another occasion. “It builds on what we’ve shown here today,” McCabe teased. “And…I’m pretty good at it.”

]]> http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/07/19/the-full-monty-on-ratchet-clank-full-frontal-assault/feed/ 54 http://blog.us.playstation.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2012/07/7593653578_123fdee8ed_b1.jpg 4Social Media Manager 54 0