Sony today added six more Playstation 3 titles to their Greatest Hits library, dropping the price of the half-dozen to $US30 each.
Look, I know that selling you on video game development post mortems is a tricky thing, so I’m attempting to wow you with “What If?” concept artwork from Ratchet & Clank Future. But read on!
Update: We’ve tracked down the correct image and it looks like it’s a choice of either game, not both. So not as good a deal sadly. Thanks to the helpful readers who pointed this out.
If you’re in the market for a Playstation 3, tipster Brendan recommends you check out Target. As you can deduce from the image above, the retail chain is offering the console with a bonus controller and copies of Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction and Heavenly Sword for the slightly mad sum of $779.
Now, if Target was bundling Lair and Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire, I’d be vomiting uncontrollably right now, but Tools of Destruction and Heavenly Sword are quality titles you’d most likely pick up anyway. Considering the 40GB PS3 is priced at ~$650, the controller ~$70 and the games ~$100 each, the value is very strong in this one.
[Thanks Brendan!]
Seth Schiesel of the New York Times has written a story that rightfully gushes over Insomniac’s PlayStation 3 masterpiece, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction. In it he discusses with creative director Brian Allgeier the importance of developing an emotional connection with the player. “Ultimately we’re trying to create more emotional intimacy,” he said. “That’s one of the things that movies do really well with the close-up, where you can really see the emotions on the character’s face. But in games, so often you’re just seeing the action from a wide shot behind the character you’re controlling and you don’t have that emotional connection. So that’s what we’re going for.”
You already know the game is awesome. Because McWhertor and I proclaimed it as such. And we did about a hundred hands on impressions with the game—none of them wasted, mind you. But now that Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction has been officially poked and prodded by the perverted scientists that are game reviewers, you can have numerical confirmation for what we already suspected.
So hit the jump for our Frankenreview; this week we did something special and only included reviewers that had “game” or some amalgamation of such in the title. That’s for you, Insomniac. Live it up.
This afternoon, I cruised on up to the Insomniac Games office for a last minute look at Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction for the PlayStation 3. Having missed out on the game’s DualShock 3 support in the Tokyo Game Show demo and well aware (read: right pissed) at the release “lag” that meant most North Americans won’t have access to the PS3′s rumbling afterthought, I was curious about support for the “ShockAxis” for the domestic release. Short answer? It’s looking good.
Here’s the deal: while Sony won’t officially support an imported Japanese DualShock 3, games like Ratchet & Clank Future will. The game was listed as DualShock 3 ready in the official “List Of PS3 Games That Support The DualShock 3” without requiring a software update, but I wanted to be sure.
The game—the first to support the new controller sans software update—ships on October 30, with the DualShock 3 hitting Japanese retailers on November 11, so there’s still a potential delay in getting to enjoy Ratchet & Clank Future as it was intended. The worse news is that actually finding an importer with one in stock is going to prove more difficult.
We’re going to be in touch with everyone who has a game shipping before the American and European release dates of the DS3, just to satisfy our curiosity.
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction is fun, plain and simple. I got a hands on play session — which meant hands on the new DUALSHOCK3 — and had an absolute blast going through the demo level. The action is all there, everything looks as close to Pixar animation is we’ve seen in a new-gen game, and the controller rrrrrrumbles like it should!
Even though we only get to try out one level, it does offer a nice variety of play styles that I imagine is representative of what you’ll end up doing throughout the game. Regular 3rd perspective action, jumping high, really high, to new level areas, overhead perspective — with great animation, although you have no control — some good grinding, and then even a short nod to the SIXAXIS as you freefall and need to avoid hitting speeding vehicles. It’s what we want from a Ratchet game, with just the right amount of newness, and shine, to prevent it from feeling stale.
We now know the date of “the future.” It’s when Insomniac Games’ Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction will be released in demo form via the PlayStation Network. According to IGN, we’ll all be wearing silver jumpsuits, issuing commands to our personal sex robots and tossing back food pills while playing the PLAYSTATION 3 demo of Ratchet & Clank Future on October 4th, 2007. The demo will feature a playable version of the game’s first level, the city of Metropolis, and, I presume, redefine awesome.
See you in the future!
By: Michael McWhertor
The Ratchet & Clank series from Insomniac Games is largely expected, for better or worse, to be great with every entry. And it’s not a system-selling, headline-grabbing, fanboy-insult war fodder kind of great; it’s the polished, consistent, carefully constructed kind of great that seems to deliver without worry or pretention, a product of the hard working developers helming the property.
After four PlayStation 2 games—Ratchet & Clank, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, Rachet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal and Ratchet: Deadlocked—plus a solid portable release, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters from High Impact Games, each delivering solid gameplay and avoiding sequel burnout, the first PLAYSTATION 3 entry has big shoes to fill.
Does Tools of Destruction deliver more of the same? And in the good more of the same way? Yea… well, it’s still too early to pass final judgment, but based on what we’ve played at E3 and at SCEA’s recent media day, it’s looking like another proud member in the Insomniac Games action platforming family.
Today’s Insomniac Games podcast reveals the final, formal, set-in-stone release date for the PLAYSTATION 3 platformer Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction will be October 23rd. Awesome. That’s a nice little birthday present for yours truly. The Full Moon Show was also kind enough to remind its listeners that tomorrow morning will be chock full of Ratchet & Clank Future news, as an embargo lifts at 9 AM PDT on Friday. Make sure to stop by for our coverage.
Full Moon Show [Insomniac Games]
