Following the release of the Resistance 3 pack earlier this week, SCEE and Insomniac Games are now proud to follow up with the official announce of the Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One packshot.

We can also confirm that All 4 One will be releasing across PAL regions from October 19th, 2011. Be aware that release dates vary depending on where you live, so for more information please keep an eye out on the PlayStation.Blog.

Finally, we also have the following pre-order bonuses that are available at select retailers:

Again, please check availability with your local retailers.

Thanks,
Chris

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So… It’s felt like forever heh? Welcome back! And as we had some time while the PSN was down we planned a HUGE comeback! We just have tons of amazing stuff for you including 1 AMAZING exclusive, loads of brand spanking new videos, Artists of the week voted by you and all new and updated TV channels and playlists… and a very special something else … Wow, this is gonna be a long blog… Also, just a note to say that because of some technical troubles over the last few weeks you might find a few videos missing so please bear with us and we will be back to full strength very soon.

Firstly… Who wants to see Chase and Status Live at HMV Forum before anyone else? Thought So. Head on over to watch them perform their massive “End Credits” exclusively!

Secondly… Who wants to see new videos from 30 Seconds To Mars, Jennifer Lopez, Jessie J, Owl City and much much more!

Thirdly… As way of an extra apology we will be featuring an artist next week as voted for by YOU! Just head over to our Facebook page and vote for your favourite artist which will be on our homepage next week! And whilst you’re there enter our competition to win a Move controller which has been extended to 31st May!

Fourthly…We have updated almost all of our TV channels and playlists so they are all as fresh as the day they were born as well as adding a load more so you can get busy watching great videos once again.

Fifthly… Just a heads up to something very special we have planned soon… Keep locked to the blog, Twitter and Facebook for details… clue? Take… Me… To… The… Milton Keynes Bowl.

And that’s just the start!! Read on for everything else!

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The VidZone Chart

As always, watch the most popular videos in your country here! Updated every week, this channel is based on what you’ve been downloading and includes videos from Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga and David Guetta

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Artists Of The Week – Beastie Boys (All)

We have been waiting to shout about this one for ages now! Featuring new video ‘Make Some Noise’ and trailer for the new ‘Fight For Your Right’ Revisited video featuring Elijah Wood, Danny McBride and Seth Rogen.

Greatest Hits – The Lonely Island (UK, Ireland)

All the ridiculous and hilarious videos including ‘We’re Back’ ‘I’m On A Boat’ and ‘Lazy Sunday’

Greatest Hits – Katerine (France)

Enter the weird and kooky world of Katerine with all his videos including ‘Vieille Chaine’ ‘Liberté’ ‘Des Bisoux’ and ‘La Musique’

Greatest Hits – Gentleman (Germany, Austria)

Watch all the videos from Germany by way of Jamaican Reggae star here including ‘To The Top’ ‘I Got To Go (Live)’ and ‘It No Pretty’

Alice Gold Celebrity Playlist (UK. Ireland)

Self penned “Guitar wielding girl” shares her favourite videos with us. Featuring videos from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, PJ Harvey and David Bowie

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After 5 years of hard work, Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi release their highly anticipated album featuring Jack White and Norah Jones, catch previews of the album here

One To Watch – Julian Perretta (Netherlands)

Already huge in France, Julian Perretta releases his videos ‘Wonder Why’ and ‘Stitch Me Up’

One To Watch – Jamie Woon (Norway)

This super talented UK artist is making waves in Norway, featuring videos ‘Lady Luck’ and ‘Night Air’

Down The Front presents The Maccabees (UK IE)

Continuing our Down the Front series after a forced break Featuring up-close & personal performances of tracks such as ‘Love You Better’ and ‘Can You Give It’

NEXT WEEK

Artist of The Week – Swedish House Mafia
The nicer side of organised crime featuring new video ‘Save The World’

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F.E.M pick their fave videos including Kanye West, Radiohead and Tinie Tempah… Unfortunately none of them are like a G6.

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Take That start their UK tour 27th May and to get you in the mood we have a Take That playlist for you to practise singing along to!

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We have received a very small number of customer support questions about PS3s overheating or shutting down while playing L.A. Noire. At this time, Rockstar Games and Sony can confirm that neither L.A. Noire or firmware update 3.61 are causing the PS3 hardware to overheat. We are both committed to working hard to find solutions to this and any issues that may arise. If you are experiencing any issues with L.A. Noire or your PS3 hardware, please contact technical support using any of the means provided below:

Rockstar Support: www.rockstargames.com/support
Rockstar Support on Twitter: twitter.com/RockstarSupport

Playstation 3 Support EU: http://eu.playstation.com

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For Gameplay Programmer Mike McManus, the secret to co-op success is CAKE. “It took a long, painful prototyping process to find things that worked, so we came up with a catchy acronym: CAKE.”

Co-op
Active for all players
Kinetic
Easy to understand

“We found that if we can design something that satisfies CAKE, it has a really good chance of being fun before we put any work into it,” McManus told us in a recent demonstration of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. “CAKE is key.” All 4 One sees the titular pair and fan-favorite nincompoop Captain Qwark teaming with series baddy Dr. Nefarious in a quest to escape the Creature Collector — an interstellar zoo packed with the galaxy’s most dangerous beasts.

Bros Before Foes

Story-driven four-player co-op campaigns have a decidedly mixed track record. But armed with philosophies such as CAKE and cooperative-friendly weapons, Insomniac Games is taking great pains to ensure that All 4 One is much more than a single-player game with extra players haphazardly tossed into the mix. For starters, All 4 One supports every possible combination of offline and online players. “If you want to play with two people on the couch in Los Angeles, one person in London, and one person in Tokyo, you can,” McManus elaborated. “If you want to play by yourself, we’ll have A.I. characters to play with you.”

What’s more, All 4 One’s arsenal encourages all four players to coordinate their firepower to produce ever-more spectacular effects. Take the Darkstar Fission Rifle, which emits an energy beam that attaches to other Darkstar-wielding players. If all four players use the Darkstar, you’ll carve through enemy legions like a neon shuriken just by moving. “They’re almost like electrical clotheslines,” McManus said with no small amount of satisfaction. The Thundersmack, meanwhile, summons a lightning-spewing storm cloud that grows in power as your teammates contribute with more Thundersmacks. Power it up enough and the storm cloud will vomit tornadoes and torrents of lightning.

Four’s Company

That’s not to say that All 4 One will stifle players who’d rather stick to their favorite weapon: The Arc Lasher is one example, as it stuns its victim and multiplies the damage of your teammates’ attacks. “It’s all about figuring out the best weapon to use,” McManus stressed. “You’ll need to approach every battle in a unique way.” McManus is excited to see how players react to the game’s epic action set pieces, such as a series of battles set atop a monstrous mechanized Guardian. “In almost every level we have really big, cinematic co-op experiences…it’s about sitting on the couch or playing online with your friends and experiencing these humongous battles together.”

All 4 One encourages players to work together with an array of co-op-friendly gadgets. The Vac-U tool can suck in a teammate and propel him over a chasm or behind enemy lines; The tether enables the team to link up in a daisy-chain to swing over perilous jumps. Though you’ll need to stick together to succeed, players will compete for kills in order to score more Bolts — the lifeblood of weapon upgrades.

Read on for more highlights of our chat with McManus, and watch the video above to see Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One in action. Leave your questions in the comments!

On character-specific special abilities
Each character has a distinctive skill that helps out the whole team, and it gets more useful as you level it up. Ratchet’s Doppelbanger creates a lookalike that distracts nearby enemies and frees you up to revive a team mate; when you level it up it also fires at enemies. Clank has a bomb that slows down enemies, and Qwark has a reflective shield that protects the team from projectiles.

On catching up to Pixar’s visuals
We’re getting close, but I don’t think we’re quite there. It would presume that the CG in the Pixar films stops getting better. And if you’ve seen their recent movies, they’re looking better than ever. We’re closing the gap a little bit. We’re so happy with how All 4 One looks — it looks even better in 3D.

On failed co-op experiments
We had gameplay mechanics where one player would do something and the other three were waiting for them to do it. It was just intensely boring. Waiting around is not a lot of fun.

On Dr. Nefarious joining the forces of good
Dr. Nefarious is deliciously evil in this game, he’s as selfish as ever. But he realizes that the only way for him to get out of this situation is to help out Ratchet, Clank and Qwark — as much as he can’t stand them.

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Earth’s cities lie silent. Mankind teeters on the brink of extinction. The Chimera have won. Six years after the Chimera invaded in Resistance: Fall of Man, Resistance 3 depicts a bleak world where the survivors have laid down their weapons and curled into seclusion to await the inevitable.

One such survivor is Joseph Capelli, last seen (spoiler!) executing series frontman Nathan Hale at the conclusion of Resistance 2. With Resistance 3‘s narrative focus shifting from military might to hometown heroism, the gaunt-looking Capelli stands in stark contrast to Resistance 2′s square-jawed super soldier. Having abandoned the fight to be with his wife and child, Capelli holes up in rural Oklahoma to evade Chimeran raiders and scavenge for ever-dwindling supplies. A chance visit by xenobiologist Dr. Fyodor Malikov reveals a desperate plan to destroy the Chimera in New York City, sparking a road trip through an American heartland warped by the Chimera’s corrosive influence.

Enemy Mine

Resistance 3‘s campaign combat emphasizes hit-and-run guerrilla tactics amidst complex, nonlinear environments. I watched a scenario set on the decidedly unpleasant Mt. Pleasant, where Capelli scrambles to evade his pursuers in the woodlands of rural Pennsylvania. Mt. Pleasant’s deep blue hues and oppressive drizzle conceal unseen threats: Invisible Chimeran snipers. This sniper scenario serves as a handy demonstration of Resistance 3′s new artificial intelligence system, which grants the Chimera more predatory behavior and the ability to accept different “jobs” — offense, defense, scouting and more. The result are action sequences that play out in very different ways depending on the player’s tactics.

Mt. Pleasant’s stark atmosphere and stealthy shootouts are a radical departure from the opening act set in Haven, Oklahoma, which showcases a full Chimera assault amidst dramatic hurricane-strength winds. Later in the game, Capelli takes a slow, suspenseful boat ride down a flooded Mississippi River en route to St. Louis. A cursory examination of Resistance 3′s varied locales proves that the ever-industrious Chimera haven’t wasted any time settling into their new home. Unearthly Chimeran flora, such as explosive “blast roots,” flourish in the frigid climate produced by the Chimera’s terraforming technology. Physically, the Chimera continue to evolve with new strains such as nimble Longlegs and the hulking Brawler. The titanic arachnoid Widowmaker from Resistance: Fall of Man also makes its long-awaited return. Capelli’s journey will not be an easy one.

Tools of Destruction

Luckily, Capelli will be packing a full arsenal of human and Chimera firearms to help even the odds. To the delight of series fans, Resistance 3 will once again allow you to carry more than two weapons at a time via a quick-access weapon wheel. What’s more, those weapons are feeling weightier and deadlier than in any of the previous games. “We rebuilt all of the guns, everything from the audio effects to the feel of the iron sights,” lead designer Drew Murray says. It shows. The Carbine boasts increased damage and range but a slightly lower rate of fire; the Marksman rifle can deploy a micro-turret to provide cover fire; the Bulleye rips enemies apart with its blistering volley of projectiles. What’s more, you can unlock a series of upgrades that will improve the weapon’s effectiveness in multiple ways, from incendiary shells for the Rossmore shotgun to cluster bombs for the Magnum. You’ll earn progress toward your weapon’s next upgrade with repeated use, so it may pay to specialize.

In playing Resistance 3′s campaign, I was most struck by the detail and diversity of the environments, the power of the redesigned weapons, and the variety in game pacing. I also liked how Capelli’s hands reached out to physically interact with props, such as tugging open a stubborn door or bludgeoning an enemy during a melee struggle. I’m also curious to experience the game in 3D using PlayStation Move.

Survival of the Fittest

Resistance 3′s eight-on-eight multiplayer mode extends the battle to an international stage, with human and Chimera teams battling in exotic locales from Columbia to The Republic of Chad in Africa. I played several rounds of team deathmatch (the final game will include objective-based modes as well) and found that the intimate maps and frenzied yet strategic shootouts lean closer to the feel of the original game. Character progression and customization have been supercharged with abilities that can turn the tables during a heated match. Support abilities such as Ammo Beacon and Lightning Shield will aid your teammates, while tactical abilities such as Dash and Doppelganger can help you outmaneuver opponents. You can also select a personal attribute and combat attribute to further customize your dream multiplayer warrior, whether that means giving birth to vicious Leapers upon death or simply boasting better hip-fire accuracy. And because Resistance 3 doesn’t lock players into cookie-cutter multiplayer classes, custom hybrid characters (sniper-medic, anybody?) are absolutely viable choices. Killstreak bonuses provide extra incentive, dishing out rewards such as high-powered grenade launchers for the humans and optical camouflage for the Chimera.

Resistance 3′s multiplayer beta will go live on PS3 later this year. Have questions about the new guerrilla-style combat, the upgraded arsenal or the feel of the controls? Leave them in the comments and I’ll add more details.

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