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Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty Out Soon

Tim Grube — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 08:15:27 -0500

According to GameSpot, Insomniac Games is hard at work finishing up the first downloadable Ratchet & Clank game entitled, Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty.

Picking up after the events of Ratchet & Clank Future, Quest for Booty will put a greater emphasis on puzzle-solving and platforming elements.

The game will be released on August 21 with a price of $14.99

Insomniac Expands To East Coast With New Studio

Zach Lott — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:08:13 -0500

GameDaily has revealed that Insomniac Games, the developers behind the Ratchet and Clank series as well as Resistance: Fall of Man and its upcoming sequel, will be opening a new development studio in North Carolina, marking the first time they have expanded outside of their current Burbank, California location in their 14-year history. They currently plan to have it up and running by early 2009.

The studio will be built in the Raleigh-Durham area, which is known as the "Research Triangle" and is home to a wealth of game companies, including development studios owned by EA, Ubisoft, and Epic in addition to various other independent developers and publishers. Insomniac chose the area for the new studio because they found it to have a "great combination of talent, great quality of life, and great cost of living."

To head up the studio, Insomniac plans to send Chad Dezern, their art director, and Shaun McCabe, their lead gameplay programmer, to the new location as studio director and production director, respectively. The two are currently working on Resistance 2, but they will leave for North Carolina once the game is completed to hire 25-30 new developers and prepare the studio to begin work on new and existing intellectual properties.

"This is a fantastic opportunity for us to start a new group with the same philosophy that we've built up over the last 14 years at Insomniac, which is to have a team focused on top craftsmanship and attention to detail," said Ted Price, founder and CEO of Insomniac. "What's great about this team is that it's an opportunity for Insomniac to expand without increasing our number in Burbank. It's great to have a team that has that start-up mentality with a small group of people who are very focused on creating AAA games, but on the other side of the country. It gives us a great opportunity to bring on folks who may not have the ability to make it to the West Coast or who prefer the East Coast to the West Coast."

Price also added that the team in Burbank will be shrinking once Resistance 2 is finished and that the new team, while consisting of only around 30 people, will be able to create full PS3 games. He wouldn't, however, reveal what the studio's first game would be, saying that he doesn't want to "make big promises or big statements without being able to back them up" and that he wants "to be absolutely sure our team is up, operational and going before we announce what project we're working on."

New Resistance 2 Interview Videos

Shiva Stella — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:09:13 -0600

Video footage of a recent interview of Ted Price and Colin Munson of Insomniac Games regarding Resistance 2 (dated for 2008), the sequel to the best (or second best, depending on your love for Call of Duty 4) shooter on the PlayStation 3, has hit the Web.

Hit the jump to view all three of them, but keep in mind that the quality level is a little low.

The game is said to feature:

A huge co-op component featuring eight player story-driven campaigns over PSN (two player local) alongside single-player campaigns.
Sixty player competitive modes with a focus on squad-versus-squad combat set in huge United States landscapes.
New enemies including Chameleon and Stalker with total cloaking ability
Multiplayer class system. Three basic templates - tank with heavy weaponry, special ops for distance (bullseye modified with zoom) and medic.
Online matching - standard difficulty discarded for scaled challenges for team skill.
Partially randomised geometry making levels different with each play through.
Insomniac have been listening to players complaints about the first game and are also further tapping the power of the PS3 to give more enemies onscreen and improved AI. They are also working on a solution to the long checkpoints and health system.

GB Review: Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)

Shiva Stella — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 18:17:44 -0600

Ratchet & Clank: meet Gorgeous on your new PS3.

Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is yet another beautiful, action-packed, humorous adventure for PlayStation fans, boasting numerous gadgets, guns, and lots of alien things to shoot at. Its minigames have been adjusted to feature sixaxis support and Insomniac has even tossed in dancing pirates, but despite how gorgeous the game looks or how well the gameplay mechanics function, we've been down this road before - five times, six if you happened to splurge on the PSP version.

While I've always had a soft spot for our furry hero and his robotic pal, I'm afraid that Tools of Destruction has done it for me. This is the same experience, the same gameplay, lackluster plot, annoying save system, and patch-work minigames that I've been through since the franchise's inception. In summation, I am all Ratchet'ed out. If you were looking for a new, refreshing direction for the series' PlayStation 3 debut, this isn't it.

Click here for an explanation of our review and scoring format.

Tools of Destruction offers yet another instance in which I'm forced to scratch my head and wonder if I've been immersed in the industry so long that I'm now out of the touch with the average gamer. It's one of Sony's (and Insomniac's) flagship titles, and people seem to love it. In a sense I understand their infatuation: it's classic R&C humor, the same simplistic gameplay mechanics at work (collect this statue, turn that bolt, slaughter these boxes, etc), those same breathtaking visuals now transplanted to the PlayStation 3, and so on. I doubt that anyone could effectively argue that the title isn't playable, enjoyable, or a success ("success" being defined here as a complete single-player experience that doesn't feel pushed out the door), it's just that it's the same game.

At this point I've collected a trillion bolts, played a hundred rounds of "beat this minigame to open a door", and explored who-knows how many planets while popping virtual caps into aliens/robots/alien robots. I've made the bad guys dance; I've turned them into various creatures and whacked them to death with a wrench. I've grind-booted my way across giant chasms, been swept up in weapons-upgrade options, and watched my last plot item presented as a fake commercial. I have done it all, and then I completed Tools of Destruction and did it again, this time in HD glory. The real question isn't whether the game is worth your time but whether you'd like to pay $59.99 for the privilege of doing the same stuff in 720p - though Ratchet does look fly.

But enough negativity; Tools of Destruction, similar to every R&C game on the market, shares the franchise's ups as well as downs. The visuals are amazing and showcase just what the PlayStation 3 can do when a developer is willing to spend the time and tap the system's resources. Even with fifty pirates dancing a groovitron jig while Ratchet pummels them with his grenade-gun and other torturous devices, the framerate keeps up with the action, down to the detailing in Ratchet's fur as he sets his enemies ablaze. The game's unique presentation, another hallmark of the series, is just as fun and spoofy as ever, making grand use of holovids (think "upgraded" infobots) for plot progression; cutscenes are quick and entertaining, with the same high-quality voice performances from a cast you know and love.

I hate you, little metal ball.

The simplistic gameplay is almost enough to make you feel nostalgic. The title is easy to play through and very direct, a bonus for kiddies who hate sitting through an hour's worth of cinematics to find out what's going on. There are the same mechanics that series veterans will instantly recognize: five version upgrades for weaponry, fun devices that turn enemies into cutesy penguins (nothing makes you appreciate the benefits of being a superior species than whacking a penguin into space), weapon upgrades via vendors, armor shopping (those lombaxes always did have a sense of style), and minigames that now utilize the sixaxis controller's tilt feature. While rolling a ball around to connect circuits, gliding through hoops, shaking that pirate booty, and steering tornadoes toward foes all spruce up the gameplay, they also severely distract from it, reminding the player that she's not saving the galaxy but trying to maneuver a stupid ball so she can save the galaxy. I applaud Insomniac for actually trying to capitalize on the motion sensor technology, but the bulk of this attempt was frustrating and annoying.

While we're on the topic, apparently some people have it in their heads that frustrating and challenging equate to the same thing. If you've been reading up on Tools then you've probably concluded that it's a breeze "until the end" - when Insomniac introduces a million enhanced robots that no longer die in one or two shots. It's at this point when gamers begin to "appreciate" the outdated save-anywhere system, which, if you've been through a Ratchet game before, you already know is a lie. I complained five years ago in a review of the original R&C that enabling me to save-anywhere is bloody pointless if I have to load up from the start of a planet; giving me a taxi or a teleport to certain sections of a level doesn't cut it. This is the next-generation of PlayStation hardware and Insomniac still won't let me save-anywhere and load-up from where I saved - why the hell not?

The checkpoint system isn't much better. Ideally as you progress from one area to the next you trigger a checkpoint such that, if you die, you don't have to re-complete the same segments over and over. The checkpoint system here doesn't operate this way; when Ratchet clears an area and, say, approaches a boss or some other physical feat that you're going to die at, it's back two-three segments for you so you can re-work your way to a specific area just to do it all over again. About the time you reach your breaking point is when you realize that you can't save and call it for the day because you'll be loading up at the start of the level. I think this is where I lost another piece of my soul.

The real disappointment in Tools of Destruction is that it's the same content we've been through before, and while it's still good it's hardly great. Because you've done all this stuff several games ago there's simply little to no motivation for you to go through it again; there's no pull here, and you don't even remember there's a storyline until the last two-three planets. What the franchise needs is not a million bolts, boxes, aliens, or weapon upgrades but a new direction, a fresh take for our old and tired comedic duo, preferably one that doesn't detract from the experience with trivial minigames and sixaxis-controlled tornadoes that drive me crazy.

Okay, Insomniac: you've proven what you can do with the power of the PlayStation 3 - now let's see if you can take that engine and those beautiful visuals and make a great game out of it.

Publisher: SCEA
Developer: Insomniac Games
Release: Oct 23, 2007
MSRP: $59.99
Everyone 10+