Hi everyone! This summer, we know you’ll be looking for ways to spend all of those lazy days. With an awesome selection of titles in the both “Greatest Hits” and “Favorites” collections, there’ll be no shortage of entertainment on-the-go. We’re always looking for ways to add value to your PSP experience and today, we’re very excited to announce the new PSP “Dual Pack” software line, which features two PSP games from our most popular franchises in one package for only $14.99 (MSRP). YES, just $14.99!

Starting this week, you can buy Dual Packs with Secret Agent Clank and Daxter; Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow and Killzone Liberation; and Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs: Fireteam Bravo. These PSP Dual Packs will be available at retailers nationwide and on the PlayStation Store in downloadable form.

Which ones are you interested in picking up? Let us know in the comments… and enjoy!

Just wanted to let you know to look for Secret Agent Clank on the store shelves beginning today! Sanzaru Games did a fantastic job of bringing this game to the PS2 adding and increasing textures, geometry and just raw numbers of models to make a more beautiful, richer game experience. Characters and the animation for them were rebuilt and augmented.

Couple this with an all new camera system, customized controls for the DualShock 2 and a whole lot of additional polish and love from the team and you end up with a really great game.

You might ask yourself, why bring PSP games to the PS2? The answer we’d tell you is there are a lot of folk out there that are still hungry for content. We believe Secret Agent Clank will deliver this. Sanzaru did a fantastic job of really customizing the experience for the PS2. They went in and rebuilt whole sections of the game in order provide for a deeper richer experience.

Even with all this change, we kept the fantastic game that High Impact Games put together for the PSP, just now taking advantage of everything the PS2 has to offer.

We are really lucky at Sony to get to work with top tier developers. This is our first game with Sanzaru, but as you can see from the quality of the screenshots alone, we’re eager to do more!

Seven of us started Sanzaru Games in January 2007 with a mission to bring together a group of talented individuals to share a common vision to develop fun to play, visually stunning and technically spectacular console games. Over the last couple of years the team has grown to nearly 30 and will continue to expand as more talented and experienced developers are drawn to the studio. The name Sanzaru refers to the famous 3 wise monkeys – the founding philosophy for Sanzaru Games is that great games are a function of good design, beautiful, clear visuals and a strong technology base to deliver these. Should any one of these three pillars be missing then the game will suffer.

We are all huge fans of the Ratchet and Clank series of games and when Sony talked to us about helping bring Secret Agent Clank to the PlayStation 2 we jumped at the opportunity. Insomniac has created one of the most awesome and enduring console game experiences ever and it has been an honor to help add to the series!

High Impact Games put together an awesome game and we wanted to make sure that all the great gameplay moments from Secret Agent Clank were preserved from the original PSP title. We have therefore focused a great deal of our time and energy on rebuilding all the levels, characters and effects to take advantage of the additional power of the PlayStation 2. Here are a few screenshots to give you an idea of the visual changes.

Also given the different controller we wanted to bring back the lock-strafe camera mode seen in previous games, since a lot of us have enjoyed using it to great effect to blow stuff up over the years! We hope you all have as much fun playing the game as we have had making it, and we look forward to working with Sony to bring you more action, adventure and blowing-stuff-up good times in the future!

Cheers,

Glen

A lot can be said about this new entry into the Ratchet and Clank series, but in honor of Clank, I’ll let this holo-vid do the talking for me.

Also, check out the downloadable demo of Secret Agent Clank on the PlayStation Store.

This consisted of the Designers saying something like “We would love to see Clank stealthily going through a Rio de Janeiro-esque carnival level,” and as the creative types we are as Artists we would say “that’s neat but how about a Space Circus?” After their laughter died down we would bounce ideas around until we all settle on a common vision such as a bird-people carnival level.

So for the carnival level it started as simply as having a tropical, but not beach, level that Clank would stealth his way through. Then the Art Director, Lead Artists, and the Environment Artists would get together and throw around some inspiration (art work, movies, tv shows, books, crayon art on napkins, etc) till we all could envision the level. Once that was settled on then one of the Artists create the concept art that you see below strictly in a 2-D painting program, sketch pad, oil paints, etc.

After this was settled on and everyone agreed that this was the amazing level that Clank will be spying, fighting, platforming, and just plain being a super robot spy guy in then we created it in 3-D so we could run around in it. The final product of which ends up looking like is the shot below.

The bird carnival level is actually one that stayed very close to the concept art. Some however just use the concept art for color palette, themes, etc. One of the later levels in the game, the half desert, half ocean planet is a good example of this. The concept art is very well done. But the level itself is actually just inspired by the concept art and not a spot on image of it.

The actual level turned out similar but is definitely different. Sometimes this happens. Once you get it up in actual 3-D and running around it feels different or needs of the level change throughout development. Regardless, it retains the overall feel of the concept art but has is different feel.

Other level fall somewhere in the middle. The 3-D levels aren’t dead on to their concept art counterparts but they aren’t completely different either. The nighttime skyscrapers level is a good example of this. The concept art was open enough but also had a great feeling to it.

So once it got into full production we ended up changing a few things. But keeping the tone, look, and overall feeling of it. It’s definitely much more similar to the concept art than the half desert, half ocean planet is but also not spot-on like the bird carnival level is either.

Whether the final level is a splitting image of its concept art, similar to the concept art, or vaguely like the concept art, the whole team is proud of what we’ve been able to push the PSP to in Secret Agent Clank and look forward to seeing what the fans think of all the cool, exciting new worlds that we’ve come up with here at High Impact Games.

One of the coolest things about Secret Agent Clank is that not only do you get to play Clank in a starring role, but that you also get your Ratchet fun in with the prison arena challenges, some quick thinking Gadgebot puzzles, and even a chance to suit up with the big guy and have Qwark pummel a few bosses into submission.

High Impact Games has done a fantastic job in keeping the fun that is Ratchet & Clank, but taking the game in a new direction. We hope you’ll agree that the team really outdid themselves in taking all that is cool about spy technology, exciting chase scenes, and even a bit of stealth gameplay and wrapped it up into the thrill-ride that is Secret Agent Clank. The funny thing is, I’ve only listed some of the great moments from the game, and there’s way more to come…

While most of the High Impact team are finally getting a chance to take a breather, we thought we’d clue you in on an exciting promotion we’re doing with GameStop. Basically, head over to the nearest GameStop and pre-order the game to get your Secret Agent Clank figurine (while supplies last – yes, I was told to say that)

If you guys can’t possibly wait until the game hits the shelves, you can download the free (yes, I said FREE) Secret Agent Clank demo that High Impact put together that showcases some of the Clank gameplay directly from the PLAYSTATION Store. While you’re there, you might as well grab the free PSP theme they made! If you happen to be the person that was sitting next to me on the plane this morning, yes, this is where I got it. ;)

Download the FREE demo on both the PLAYSTATION Network and PLAYSTATION Store for PC later today. This demo features the first level of the game. It’ll have you sneaking into a museum, dodging lasers, subduing guards three times your size, and even tossing out a tie-a-rang or two.

Check out www.ratchetandclank.com for more information… hi-yah!

We let them play for a little while before opening up the tables for more old-fashioned competition in the form of a blackjack tournament.

The winners of the blackjack tournament were Teresa Dun from PlayStation: The Official Magazine, Sam Bishop of TotalPlaystation.com, and Blake Morse of GameRevolution. Apparently I am now to blame for their newfound gambling addictions. I apologize.

Back to the game, Secret Agent Clank previews have started rolling in from IGN, GameSpot, GameSpy, MTV Multiplayer, GayGamer, and GameHelper. On Thursday, we took Lesley and Ken Strickland to GameSpot for a segment of OnTheSpot where they demonstrated some of the Captain Qwark gameplay (starts at 13:20). Everyone seems really excited about this game, so look for more previews on your favorite sites. Secret Agent Clank hits retailers June 17.