I went to Germany once. I visited a castle, ate schnitzel- all things you should do as a guest of that fine country. However, the most fun I had was when my exchange family set up a massive LAN party. For 12 hours, we did nothing but play games- it was awesome! It was then and there I realized that Germany is an amazing place for videogames.

That’s why I’m not surprised to see that Gamescom has grown to become one of the biggest gaming conventions of the year. And wherever the games are – Insomniac will also be. So, a few of us hopped across the pond (we’re very good hoppers) to show off our anticipated fall titles, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One and Resistance 3. And, boy, did we have a lot to show off!

Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One showed up with its guns blazing: literally. A new trailer was shown – showcasing the more mischievous side of four-player co-op gameplay along with the banter that radiates from the dysfunctional foursome of Ratchet, Clank, Qwark, and Dr. Nefarious. If moving images are a little too exciting for you, check out these screenshots which tease the epic Rootworm battle in the game. Great, now my earthworm nightmares are going to crop back up again.

Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One was also on the show floor with a new demo for all the attendees to play and enjoy. From the looks of it, boatloads of people have been itching to get their hands on the co-op adventure. No, I mean literally boatloads of people. Look at this picture.

Awesome game + Awesome boat = Celestial Level Awesome. Captain Slag and Rusty Pete would be so jealous.

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We have our winners! After long, thoroughly entertaining hours of poring over the skin designs you submitted in April, Insomniac‘s Ratchet & Clank experts have chosen their favorite designs for Qwark & Nefarious. And let me tell you, it wasn’t easy…

There were a ton of truly amazing designs submitted! However, in the end, Insomniac‘s judges panel felt that these designs best exemplified the wacky, fan-inspired quality they were looking for, while still remaining feasible to create as in-game DLC items for Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. So, without further ado, here are your winners:

For those of you who are curious about which Ratchet & Clank designs took home the gold in the US contest, here are the winning designs:
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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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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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Yesterday in Los Angeles, we presented a new demo of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One to an audience of US and European journalists. While we presented some new levels and weapons/gadgets, we also wanted to show once again that All 4 One is a sprawling new Ratchet & Clank adventure, with a full story, big arsenal, and tons of co-op mayhem. Further, in All 4 One, we like to say there’s an “I” in team: work together, but reward yourself. You all have to help each other out, but at the same time, the winner will earn the best rewards and get the first chance to buy the newest weapons in the game.

We illustrated this in a new level of the game, set in the Terawatt Forest on Planet Magnus. It’s the home of a scientist named Dr. Croid — who holds the key to the mystery of the Creature Collector. The plants and animals here are mutated thanks to the presence of a strange meteor – and players will also have to look out for Dr. Croid’s giant Guardian robots that patrol the area (which you’ll see in the video above!).

As we showed previously, all the weapons have a co-op function to them. For instance, if everyone uses the new Darkstar Fission Rifle at the same time, it amplifies the effect – and we give players a bolt multiplier for co-op kills. But we also reward players for specializing. For instance, Ratchet can use the Arc Lasher to stun enemies while Clank finishes them off with the War Monger rocket launcher.

Many of you have asked if each of the characters will play differently in All 4 One. For the first time yesterday, we showed that each of our characters will have a special gadget that only they can use. These gadgets are special, powerful, and can turn the tide of a battle. For instance, Ratchet can use his Doppelbanger ability to create a decoy that draws enemy fire – but it’ll also upgrade over time into a powerful Turret. Clank, meanwhile, has a Time Bomb that highlights his Zoni heritage and also allows him to slow a fast enemy or extend the amount of time the team has to revive a fallen comrade.

Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One is on course for a 2011 release and can be played by one to four players, with drop-in, drop-out co-op that can be enjoyed same-screen or online (and in any combination of online/same-screen players as well!). To keep up with all the latest, stay tuned to Insomniac’s Facebook and Twitter pages!

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