Insomniac Games has kept to the Ratchet series' tradition by making the newest installment on the PlayStation 3 aware of players' activity in the older ones. Having played — and reviewed — the new Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time using a final retail copy, I was able to see how my save files for the last two games, 2007's Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and 2008's Ratchet & Clank: Quest For Booty, affect the new game.

I had completed both previous PS3 Ratchets and had the following perks activated automatically when I started the new game:

-My Tools of Destruction save file classified me as a returning customer when I visited A Crack In Time's weapons-vending kiosks. I was given a discount. Thanks to the lower prices and my collection of new bolt money throughout the new game, I found myself lacking money to buy the next available item in the game only once.

-My Quest For Booty save unlocked the pirate hat you see my Ratchet avatar wearing atop this post. The avatar appear in the game's community section, which displays a variety of player accomplishments and stats, shows leaderboards for many of those accomplishments. Players can customize their Ratchet avatar or look up the records and avatars of their friends. The avatar is essentially a visual shorthand for some of the things you've accomplished. For example, the pistol that Ratchet is holding in that shot looks as it does in the game, where I attached mods and selected its paint job.

Those are the unlocks I found so far that relate to the earlier Ratchet games, confirmed by a Sony representative. If I find any more I'll let you know.

It seems as though some stores in Australia have been selling advance copies of the game a few days before the official release date.

Over the weekend, a Warez group called “RELOADED” has managed to crack the copy protection on the game and now it is being downloaded by hundreds of cheapskates over bittorrent.

Spore Cracked by “RELOADED” Group [Game Viper]

I learned the truth about video games the hard way, and so this is the lesson I offer for free: Don't play video games. Don't own them. And for the sake of all that is good and holy, don't buy them for your children...

Since [deleting Tetris] I have never played another video game. It's too dangerous. Video games take what is most precious — time and thought. And they are making kids fat.

Video games are like a black hole into which time disappears...They are the crack cocaine of the electronic world...

Did I mention that far too many video games celebrate graphic violence, multifarious delinquency and borderline pornography? I don't have to. Tetris had none of that, and it was deadly enough.

Columnist: Games are Crack Cocaine of Electronic World [via maxconsole]

I wasn't that bad honestly, but to this day I still get an itchy wallet whenever I see a new CCG come out. In this room I see at least $200 worth of World of Warcraft cards, and I've only actually played the game once.

So when you combine an innovative video game concept with the makers of the most addictive card game ever created, you pretty much get me in an alleyway behind a game shop promising 'favors' in exchange for rare cards.

I am so, so very doomed. Michael Fahey

Hasbro Lends Trading Card Leadership and Expertise to Sony Computer Entertainment's THE EYE OF JUDGMENT for PLAYSTATION 3

Collaboration Between Two Companies to Deliver Ground-Breaking Next-Generation Trading Card Gameplay Experience

PAWTUCKET, R.I.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS) announced today that it is working with Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. on the trading card component of the highly innovative THE EYE OF JUDGMENT game for the PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3 ) computer entertainment system. The global relationship, which covers Japan, Europe, the U.S. and Asian markets, taps Hasbro's core expertise in trading card games through its Wizards of the Coast subsidiary. Wizards of the Coast holds a patent on trading card games and the methods by which they are played and also produces MAGIC: THE GATHERING , the world's premier trading card game. Under the agreement, Hasbro will create, manufacture and distribute the trading cards associated with THE EYE OF JUDGMENT video game.

THE EYE OF JUDGMENT presents a new style of gameplay where the player brings creatures of trading cards to life for battle in 3D. Through use of a 3 x 3 board and trading cards, each encrypted with CyberCode, players conquer the field by selecting a card and placing the coded card in front of the PLAYSTATION Eye for their respective creatures to come to life and battle. Each creature has various skills which will determine the outcome of the battle. Players take turns placing cards as they jostle for control of the board; the winner is the first player to conquer five of the nine fields.

"We are very excited to enter into a collaboration with Sony Computer Entertainment on trading cards for THE EYE OF JUDGMENT which will deliver a ground-breaking entertainment experience that uniquely blends the global popularity of traditional trading card games with next-generation video games," said Phil Jackson, Group Executive of Hasbro Games. "Together we're creating a virtual world that brings fantastic trading card-based creatures to life for unprecedented interactive battles that will appeal to millions of fans around the world. It is innovation at its best."

"THE EYE OF JUDGMENT represents a totally new genre in gaming," said Phil Harrison, Corporate Executive, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and President, SCE Worldwide Studios. "Combining Hasbro's clear market leadership in trading card games with the immense power of PLAYSTATION 3 and PLAYSTATION Eye, is a powerful formula that will result in a revolutionary video game experience that will amaze and engage gamers around the world."

THE EYE OF JUDGMENT is slated for release in fall 2007. The game has already received early accolades from media around the world as well as a prestigious Japan Game Award in the "Futures" division held at last year's Tokyo Game Show.

###

Ok, so he's not actually on crack, but a headline reading "See Mario's Crack" or any other such iteration didn't sound very enticing. And I want you to be enticed! Why? Because this has got to be one of the best video game related T-shirts I've seen on Threadless in a while and I want one! But, as you know, with Threadless, every vote must be counted before a shirt can be made. There's only two days left for voting on this design, so for my sake and yours, head over to Threadless and vote for this awesome shirt titled "Keeping It Real." Besides, what's a little crack between friends?

Keeping It Real Tshirt [Threadless]
[via Wonderland]

Our polls are so far from scientific that when they finally conclude I hate to call the numbers they vomit up results. But I suppose that there could be a shred of information found in the faux statistics.

Our latest poll was launched at the request of a Kotaku reader who wanted to know just how many people have their Wii Remotes slip from their hands and how many of those slippages result in broken straps.

To try and pluck some sort of facts from my silly questions, I tallied up the total votes for just the first three questions and used those to get percentages.

As of this morning, about 76 percent of the Wii owners who answered our poll said they have never had their Wii Remote slip from their hand while playing a game. But of the 24 percent who have had their remote slip from their hand, a quarter of them, or 338, had the strap break.

To put it another way, about six percent of the 5,700 or so Wii gamers who answered our poll have had their strap break on them. Personally, I think the fact that the strap is breaking so often, when put to the accidental test, shows that Nintendo needs to redesign the things, that or a third-party should jump on this and come out with a quick, but sturdy fix. Brian Crecente

"I really think it's unfortunate for European consumers, but the delay makes clear that Sony intends to fight the Blu-Ray - HD-DVD battle on US soil."

Pachter does go on to say that the shortfall in PS3 sales will be "absorbed by higher purchases of Wii and Xbox 360 hardware and software." Do you think?

Pachter kicker quote is the best part of the whole interview. Apparently delaying your console launch for a huge chunk of the planet and and having next to none for what's left over is just a "headline."

"I think on balance, this is just a bad headline, and that it will be forgotten in a year or so," Pachter concluded.

Brian Crecente

Europ PS3 Delay Shows Sony's Commitment to US [GI]

So I was playing Star Fox Command on my DS Lite when I noticed something that made my heart stop... a crack. Or as Samuel L. Jackson might put it, a mother-fucking hinge crack. To refresh your memories, dear readers, back when the whole hinge crack fiasco hit I checked my DS Lite very carefully and proudly said I didn't have any hinge crack issues. So heed my warning, you may think you're safe from the crack, but you're not. Go on, double check now, anyone notice new cracks? Brian Crecente

Yeah, I don't think so. Perhaps, perhaps it will eventually overtake console gaming, but that's not happening this year.

I know cell phone games have improved a ton, but there's just too many platforms and too many gatekeepers for this form of gaming to explode yet. Brian Crecente

Mobile games to outsell console titles during 2006 - I-play [Games Industry]

With Nintendo gracefully acknowledging the Lite's hinge cracks and fixing them left and right, I felt justified in my choice of keeping my ol' reliable fatty on hand. And alas, a new crack seems to have reared its crackity head.

The new crack, which may or may not be epidemic (weigh in, Lite owners), seems hinge-related, and "may render the DS unplayable".

The best part of this is not the post itself, or the documentative photographs, but rather the extremely effete snarking in the comment thread where the image at right was originally posted.

Originally Posted by 51|RandoM Things break. Portable things tend to break even more than things that just sit there. Portable things with moving parts break even more.

Welcome to reality, perhaps you should've stuck with the matrix where nothing ever breaks.

[Mason says:] Stirring.

I don't think the issue anyone has is with the impermanence of forms, but rather how frequently these rather expensive forms are demonstrating their impermanence.

Well spoken, Mason. Tycho would be proud. Eliza Gauger

The New DS Lite Crack [Game Break]
Forum thread on the new crack [Evil Avatar forums]