The Insomniac guys contacted us today to try and clear up the Qore announcement confusion. The team promises to do everything they can to make sure the beta problem runs as smoothly as possible and that it is available in many countries and through many different outlets.

Here's the deal. We are running a Public Beta, and you will have many ways to get in. The best way which will give you the earliest access to the beta will involve a pre-order program that should be announced soon, (for those of you who don't know what pre-ordering is, you essentially reserve your copy with five dollars down, and that five dollars will go towards the price of the game when it releases).

For all of you folks outside of North America are up in arms because Qore is NA only, please don't worry. This is one of many ways to get in, and we plan to make the beta available in all territories, as we need to test all servers and worldwide play.

Further details on how to get into the beta will be forthcoming.

Well that's good to know.

Spooky Demonic Narrator Guy issues the ominous warning — to, we're assuming, either Resistance: Fall of Man protagonist Nathan Hale or Resistance 2 players — "You think you can resist, but you haven't seen what we're truly capable of." Explosions, flesh eating and gargantuan space ships follow — the kind of stuff you demand from your first person shooters.

Unfortunately, the whole thing's a low-fi affair. Here's to hoping we see it in more glorious resolutions at E3.

Resistance 2 - 2nd Trailer. [YouTube]

The issue teaser also hints at some sort of secret. The adjective "colossal" is used. We're instructed to sit down, it's that serious. What could it be?! Surely there's a countdown clock out there that will provide us with more information!

See GamePro's new Resistance 2 cover, win a beta code [GamePro - thanks, James!]

Chimera Skull from Playstation 3 game TV ad [eBay - thanks, Benj!]

One of the first games expected to shine in one of Home's series of game portals is Insomniac's Resistance: Fall of Man. Resistance is said to provide Home visitors with an interesting room to explore, one that will let PlayStation 3 owners visit unseen areas of the game and tap into bonus content in the form of "intercepted" radio communications between European and U.S. forces.

These hidden transmissions will help to flesh out the Resistance story, giving players a better understanding of the game's conflict. We hear that Home avatars will have free roam of unpopulated levels, not unlike a virtual Resistance museum.

As interesting as these plans are to Resistance fans like us, they're not as impressive as what we've heard about what Home in store for Warhawk and Uncharted. Stay tuned.

What Insomniac has decided to do was to share and distribute their own technology throughout the industry, in turn encouraging others to share their own tech. The Nocturnal Initiative is not, they stress, a game engine. There will be no snarky comments from Mark Rein about Insomniac stepping on Epic's toes as the program is designed to help game development peers avoid rewriting some of the basics.

"Rewriting libraries is a waste of time," said Andy Burke, tools group lead at Insomniac, and the gang on the software side hopes that releasing code into the wild, code that comes with a "liberal" open source license, fosters feedback and may encourage others to share their own work. That can lead to better games, they hope.

The first batch of code is now available at the Nocturnal Initiative web site, in easy to read Wiki format, for developers who are interested in the program. They may be interested to learn that this isn't just something that's been whipped up for good PR, this is code that's being used in production, used in development in titles like Ratchet & Clank Future and Resistance 2.

While the current offerings aren't necessarily specific to the PlayStation 3—PC and Xbox 360 developers may be interested in what's available—that doesn't mean the possibility of PS3 specific libraries are out of the question.

"We don't think there's anything preventing us from offering code specific to the Cell, which is already fairly open as it is," said Insomniac's Mike Acton, but the development team isn't setting anything in stone, it sounds. They certainly have plenty planned, as evidenced by their future release road map. Hopefully, game developers will find something worthwhile within.

Nocturnal Initiative [Insomniac Games]

I've had a pet project I've been working on for years, three of them if my memory is right. It started as a simple idea: You can judge a lot from a person's desk. I bet you could judge just as much from their home entertainment system. So I decided it would be fun to try and track down some pictures from the work desks and home gaming set-ups of the people who work in and cover the video game industry. Simple right? Not so much.

Turns out that many of the people are either too busy or too private to want to participate in such a project. To make matters worse, there's always fear that something sitting on someone's desk, that ends up in a photo, could actually be news worthy. Like a secret project or the next big thing. But I didn't give up and about once a year I'd harass a bunch of game developers for photos. Finally, this year, the harassment paid off.

What started as a trickle of photos turned quickly into the collection of galleries you'll find on the jump: More than 40 different photo galleries from 17 studios, seven publications, two industry movers and shakers and a couple of fun surprises.

You'll get to see the desk of such greats as Sid Meier, Peter Molyneux and Tetsuya Mizuguchi along with plenty of others. Remember you can comment both on the next page and on each individual photo if you click on them.

If I find there is interest, I will try to periodically update this gallery of galleries with more developers, journalists and industry movers and shakers. Have fun.

DEVELOPERS
2K Games

ASTRO Gaming

Buzz Monkey Software

Capcom

Eat, Sleep, Play

Electronic Arts

Firaxis Games

Flying Lab Software

Gearbox Software

Harmonix Music

Incognito Entertainment

Insomniac Games

Kojima Productions

Lionhead Studios

NanaOn-Sha

Naughty Dog

NCSoft

NetDevil

Neversoft Entertainment

Ninja Theory

Pandemic Studios

Petroglyph Games

THQ

Q Entertainment

JOURNALISTS

Blue's News

BoingBoing

EGM

The Escapist

GameLife

Joystiq

Kotaku

MTV

Slashdot Games

VE3D

VH1

INDUSTRY FOLK

MISCELLANIES
I AM 8-BIT

Penny Arcade

Whorecraft

Video Games Live

Check out the GAF thread to see Wollan's complete write-up, or better yet just get your hands on a copy of Game Informer as soon as humanly possible. I've not known their writers to be given to unnecessary hype, so when they end a story with "Resistance 2 will be too epic to dismiss as anything but one of the biggest, boldest, and most high-reaching titles of 2008. It's a game that won't be ignored", I can't help but get just a little excited.

RESISTANCE 2 REVEALED! [NeoGAF - thanks, megadude]

While we don't have official word yet—we're waiting to hear back from SCEA—it certainly wouldn't surprise us to see yet another PSP game ported to the PS2. With one-time exclusive PSP titles such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Twisted Metal: Head On, Tokobot and (allegedly) Silent Hill Origins making the jump, it might just file under fiscally sensible.

Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters [Gamestop via Joystiq]

The full list of changes in the latest patch is after the jump, courtesy of Insomniac's James Stevenson, a man who simply cannot be faulted for his gaming blog preference.

New Features
- Player with a USB keyboard attached to their Playstation 3 may now take in-game screenshots by pressing the "printscreen" key (multiplayer only). There will be a slight pause as the screenshot is taken. The screenshots will be viewable from the Photo bar of the XMB menu.
- Players may now create a custom game that requires a password for other players to join. When creating a custom game, select the option named "password" and enter the desired password from the on-screen keyboard. Players who are invited into a password protected game by another player already in the game do not need to enter a password to accept the invite. Password protected games will be indicated by a "lock" icon next to the game name in the "Find Game" screen.
- Bullseye Tags may be turned off as a custom game option without turning off the bullseye.
- Carbine 40mm Grenades may be turned off as a custom game option without turning off the carbine.
- There is a new game option named "Send Voice Chat To All". If this is enabled, then all players in the game may hear voice chat sent from any other player in the game, including players on the opposing team and spectators. Squad voice chat will still only be heard by members of the same squad. This option defaults to off.
- The game option "Round balancing" now has a third option available to custom games - "Aggressive". If round balancing is set to aggressive, it will attempt to rebalance the teams every round based on how well the players scored in the previous round to create the most even teams. "Aggressive" round balancing WILL split parties.
- Both Multiplayer and Singleplayer Resistance: Fall of Man now support the rumble feature of the Playstation Dual Shock 3 controller.

Balance Changes
- Range and damage on the Rossmore 236 has been decreased for both primary and secondary fire modes
- Reload time of the LAARK L209 has been increased.
- Projectile speed of the LAARK L209 has been decreased.
- Splash damage radius of the LAARK L209 has been decreased.
- Hedgehog grenade splash damage has been generally increased, although the radius in which it will kill a player in 1 hit has been decreased.
- Frag grenade splash damage radius has been decreased.
- Arc charger fire rate has been increased.
- Arc charger clip size has been reduced.
- Arc charger damage has been decreased for the primary fire and increased for the secondary fire.
- Rate of fire the bullseye tag (secondary fire) has been decreased.

Bug Fixes
- Fixed several possible collision exploits
- The "Elite Soldier" and "Assassin" medals are now obtainable in all ranked gametypes instead of just Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch
- "Defender" ribbons obtained in ranked CTF games will now correctly add to your total stats
- Fixed several issues that could cause party members to drop out of a party
- Various lobby, disconnect, and miscellaneous fixes.

Officially, it's still October 30. But I'm expecting a very happy birthday to me next Tuesday. Woo!

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction Coming Soon(er) [PlayStation.blog]

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.

See you in the future!

Ratchet & Clank PSN Demo on October 4 [IGN]

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? Ye... 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.

Ratchet & Clank Future improves upon the formula of guiding a fuzzy Lombax and his mechanical sidekick Clank wielding wacky gadgets and an extraordinary arsenal of weapons by focusing on, according to creative director Brian Allgeier, four key elements: mystery, adventure, spectacle and variety. The mystery portion of that evolutionary recipe involves a number of key plot drivers. Foremost, we'll explore the origins of Ratchet, learning more about his fictional species. Also, we'll unravel the secrets of the mystical Zonie, an alien race that only Clank can see and hear. Finally, we'll interact with a number of secondary characters, including a "sultry heroine" name Talwyn.

Appearances from flowery characters like Cronk and Zephyr, Captain Slag and Rusty Pete, and series super zero Captain Qwark will also play a part in the game's mystery, adding comic relief to the heavy narrative of a furry mammal whacking things with a wrench.

The adventure factor is fairly self-explanatory. We'll follow Ratchet and Clank through an journey through an all-new region of the universe, dispatching all manner of space pirates and mechanical terrors along the way. A new galaxy to explore provides all-new settings for our heroes world-saving feats.

Spectacle-wise, it's one of the best looking games on the PS3 to date, blending semi-realistic visual effects with a fantastical world populated by vest-wearing robo-pirates, deadly fish controlled exoskeletons, and massive prehistoric era beasts. Oh, and there are huge explosions. And things are shiny.

The game's variety comes in the form of its copious weapons and accessories cache, clever mini-games—for instance, there's at least one Space Channel 5-esque pirate jig dancing game—and innovative tools that make smart, optional use of the SIXAXIS controller. Ratchet & Clank Future also breaks up the platforming and shooting with a series of space shooter levels.

Chad Dezern, the game's art director explained, in loving detail, the visual philosophy behind Insomniac's development. Avoiding the trappings of too-brown next-gen graphics but careful not to tread into cliche, Skittles inspired platformer color schemes, Tools of Destruction's concept artwork showed the bright, saturated "color scripting" that lends the series a unique style. We were shown pages of artwork, from enemy silhouettes to ambient avian wildlife, from one level's shiny metal shaders to another's moss covered rocks. Most of this stuff you wouldn't notice how well crafted it was unless you spent the time to focus the game's camera in on a distant boulder in prehistoric Sargasso or a polished floor vent in Kerchu City. But when these elements are all on screen amid the rest of the action, it goes a long, long way to presenting a complete visual package.

What most gamers are going to be interested in, sans pixel-pushing beauty, is the variety of the game's weapons and its unusual gadgets. One of the most popular, and sure to get the most press, is the Groovitron. Similar to the King of Pop's screen clearing powers from Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, the Groovitron forces enemies within range to shake their booties, even as you take a giant wrench to their metal skulls. Perfect in a pinch.

Even the aforementioned fish who ride in oversized mechs will get down to the Groovitron's sounds, even if they're already defeated and flopping about on the floor. Poor little guys.

The rest of the notable weapons and tools include, but are clearly not limited to:
Death Springs - Toss these deadly Slinky-like toys into a crowded space and watch everything die.
Mr. Zurkon - This agenda-spewing hoverbot companion will take out anything in its path, up until it runs out of ammo. A cheat will allow you to replace Zurkon with James the Galactic Defender, the in-game recreation of real-life paralysis victim James Westerbrook.
Plasma Beasts - These living mines will look like piles of green slime until someone you want dead approaches. Their true form is a hideous mound of good that kills without prejudice.
Tornado Launcher - It launches tornadoes. Duh. These can be guided with SIXAXIS tilt control upon deployment.
Gelanator - If something is just out of reach when you double-jump, drop some gelatonium then use it as a springboard. Of limited supply.

Of course, there are less gimmicky guns and gadgets, like the Negotiator rocket launcher, the Buzz Blade shooter, the Incinerator flamethrower, the Pirate Holo-Disguise and Clank's new Robo-wings. These standbys will come in handy more often than some of the more flamboyant, harder to find showcase weapons.

Not only are there 23 items to enjoy, keeping the action fresh, your weapons can be upgraded by visiting non-player characters in various worlds. Using a hex-based upgrade system, you'll modify your attacks with collected bolts and "Raritanium" to give them faster firing speeds, greater damage, bigger attack radii and even a few secret unlockable mods. If Ratchet & Clank Future is lacking in anything, it's certainly not depth.

One bit of trivia I managed to eke out of Anthony "Moo" Yu, Gameplay Lead at Insomniac was one of the bizarre weapons that didn't make the final cut. Apparently, the team has been trying to find a way to work in the "Rainbow Afronator" for some time. Unfortunately, outside applying a rainbow-colored afro wig to every enemy in the area, the details have yet to be worked out. Insomniac puts a great deal of emphasis on balancing weapons, reason enough for their preliminary list of 100 weapons to be pared down to just under two dozen.

As revealed earlier yesterday, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction will hit store shelves on October 23rd. While the game looks relatively complete, minus some difficulty tweaks needed in the space shooter levels and some frame rate optimization, the game is currently looking like a no-brainer purchase. You literally will not need a brain to aid you in the decision.

With the series about to celebrate its fifth anniversary, just weeks after the release of the PLAYSTATION 3 sequel, it may feel like familiar territory to some. Those who have skipped out on any of the previous releases or are looking to add some welcome variety to the PS3 libraries will almost certainly want to pick it up.

We've secured ten new screens of the game in our gallery below. If anyone has any questions about Rachet & Clank Future simply pose them in the comments. I'll do my best to answer them.

Full Moon Show [Insomniac Games]

Insomniac CEO Ted "I'm So Nice" Price says of the initiative "The 'R&D' page on the Insomniac website is meant to share knowledge with fellow studios about PS3 development while giving our fans a detailed look into how we make our games. This page will also help explain our production philosophies."

Insomniac explains that its goal is to document "our current research and development in hopes of supporting the PS3 development community and enhancing overall development for its core technologies such as the CELL processor and RSX." It's also a kind of behind the scenes look at past, present and future development, built just for computer nerds.

What does it all mean? Better looking PLAYSTATION 3 games, we hope. Maybe, just maybe, some developers will even discover the secret to unlocking a consistent frame rate in their PS3 titles. I'm looking at you, everyone who's not Team Ninja or Insomniac.

Insomniac R&D [Insomniac Games]

Just to keep expectations low, we'll just say, that we consider a Ratchet & Clank Future demo is an inevitability and that it won't be released in the past.

Updated: Heavenly Sword And Ratchet & Clank Future Demos Coming Soon [Game Informer]

To: Michael McWhertor
From: Mark Wilson
Date: July 13, 2007
Re: Awesome-off

Michael.

It is just not humanly possible that you thought Ratchet & Clank was more awesome than I did. Let's call it a limit of your genetic code - a chromosomal thing - nothing personal. My flesh, from ribosome to stray hair, has been built to fully appreciate this little weapon called the disco ball. Did you notice it creating a a Bollywood musical with full choreography and proper staging?

Did you notice that there are enemies that are big robots, controlled by fish? These fish flop on the ground when the robots are destroyed, but even these suffocating fish dance when that glorious jukebox from the heavens does its thing. It's awesome, indeed. Really awesome.

Yours in awesome,
Mark

***

To: Mark Wilson
From: Michael McWhertor
Date: July 13, 2007
Re: Burn, Bollywood, Burn

Mark.

Glad to see you're on board with the red-lining levels of awesome that Insomniac seems to have achieved with the game. Yes, of course I noticed the choreographed dancing. It reminded me of the arcade version of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. Bittersweet, those memories.

On topic, I'm afraid that you're neglecting Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction's intrinsic appeal to the gut. While you may be more concerned with a "whole body" general feeling of awesomeness, I trust my gut. My gut says "Ratchet & Clank is awesome." I suppose some of the gaming press who got hands on time with the game at E3 are using their "brains" to go through a list of features, technical and visual achievements, and blah blah blah. E3 was dull enough as it was, we don't need a bunch of bullet points listing this and that. What are we? Press release processors?

Sure, the game has giant robots, fish controlling robots and other types of robots, but there's a very human side to how awesome R&CF will be. Maybe we should focus on that? Your cold, calculating, quantitative awesome-checking is kind of a drag.

I guess what I'm getting at is that Ratchet & Clank Future is as much of a game as it is a Turing Test. Supposing that, I have concluded that you are a robot and you must be destroyed with an oversized wrench.

Cheers,
Michael

***

To: Michael McWhertor
From: Mark Wilson
Date: July 14, 2007
Re: 1001011000111001101101100111010110010011010010

...computing response...Michael, your attacks on my body are uncalled for. But I laugh nonetheless, as your accusations are just a red herring for substance. And I challenge you to name ONE INSTANCE where a press release has used the word "awesome." Scratch that.

Your mighty "gut" is hardly a quantifiable measurement of love. Because when you love something, as with Ratchet & Clank, you appreciate every little nuance of it. As my eyes devoured the "Toy Story" quality graphics for which we've long been...longing, I appreciated the millions of little nuances Insomniac fit into the background. For some reason there is a meteor shower going on at all times over the horizon. Most games would scoff at superfluous falling rocks from space, but not Tools of Destruction! They run a victory lap around my heart [read: not gut] by wasting resources with small touches that few see outside of Hollywood.

I have concluded that your "gut" reaction is nothing more than a need for a good burping, and I believe a "booya!" is in order to quantify how my arguments are kicking your "butt."

Shutting down,
Mark

***

To: Mark Wilson
From: Michael McWhertor
Date: July 16, 2007
Re: W.I.L.S.O.N. Mk XXVI

Mark,

"Booya"? My suspicions that you've been replaced by the Wilson 9000 are confirmed. No human being would want something like that in print. And "Toy Story graphics?" Did you harvest this quote while assimilating some analysts, you silicon abomination?

While we can't agree necessarily on how precisely awesome Ratchet & Clank Future is, we can agree that the attention to detail makes one further appreciate the amount of work that the team has put into the game. Seeing an appropriate amount of bloom lighting was not only a rarity at E3, it made the environments feel surprisingly real, combining retro styling with futuristic wonder. Even when absurdly rail sliding away from whatever cartoonish explosion I can't even remember escaping from because I was doing my best not to vomit a rainbow, with a bazillion things going on in the background, I felt as if I were just pleasantly existing in some thrill ride of a world.

Did we talk about the draw distances that seem to go on for days?

Maybe we're thinking about this too hard (a Kotaku first!). Ratchet & Clank Future is the "blue sky in games" answer to just about every question we've been asking this generation's action games. Sure, Clank may be bald, but Ratchet's got hair.

And that's awesome.

Say, did you know about the "RPG lite" upgrades in the game?

Sincerely (you probably don't understand, machine man),
Michael

***

To: Michael McWhertor
From: Mark Wilson
Date: July 16, 2007
Re: *I* will work more hours to purchase one.

Michael, Michael, Michael.

I wish I knew your middle name to chastise you further. The beauty of the "Toy Story graphics" line is that be you analyst, PR pundit, fanboy or jaded videogame writer with a tad too much facial hair, you've been eagerly waiting for this perfectly crafted description to come to fruition. Your haircut may be too cool for "Toy Story" propaganda, but you, certainly, are not.

Though, yes, R&C Future is an answer to everything we've wondered about next-gen action and the PS3...and it's delivered more than this jaded writer thought possible.

As for the "RPG lite" elements - I think you may be blaspheming the new skill tree weapon upgrades. Taking a cue from Diablo II, guns find themselves at a fork in the road and must specialize accordingly. It's the age old debate of 'should I be Sylvester Stallone or Bruce Willis?' packaged cleanly into Penguin Gun form. But since you can max out both directions of each branch, one can be Stallone AND Willis, better known as totally-incredible-i-just-peed-a-bit-don't-judge-me-AWESOME.

Is that what you were referring to? Or was it the space combat that Insomniac didn't deem you awesome enough to witness? (Note: I know your comment had nothing to do with the space combat and was just being an a-hole.)

Sincerelyer,
Mark

***

To: Mark Wilson
From: Michael McWhertor
Date: July 17, 2007
Re: Diet of Doubletree Guest Suites

Okay, Mark. No one's reading at this point. We'll just have to agree to disagree on who's better at accurately gauging how awesome Ratchet & Clank Future is. I'll instead agree with myself that I am more suited to judge the game's inherent greatness, despite having never actually played a game in the series before. Yes, it's true. Some dude whose name was lost near the bottom of this Pabst Blue Ribbon had to tell me what a jump pad was. Regardless of my "fresh perspective" on the series, I feel genuinely qualified to pass judgment on the game's totally rad graphics, sexy animation and sugar sweet controls.

Invoking the name of Diablo II was a bold move, but I admire your balls. They must have great heft. Hopefully, given your testicular fortitude, our readers have been convinced.

Basically, any PLAYSTATION 3 owner who doesn't get this game is banned. From life.

Good night,
Michael

P.S. It's "Ward." Yes, I know.

Final Judgment: AWESOME.

***

New E3-era screenshots of the game are in our gallery below. They'll wash away that icky reading sensation.

(Sincere apologies to Messrs. Croal and Totilo for trivializing their format.)

I would think it's pretty clear that the combination of high price, the loss of numerous exclusives, various Sony PR missteps and little in the way of standout exclusive software is probably the reason behind some of the cool reception. But, hey, I just work here.

While Price is concerned, justifiably so, of negative press and its impact on his company's PS3 game Resistance: Fall of Man, some of us who own both aren't as upset about the alleged muddy spin. While I feel I'm getting the most out of my investment in this impressive piece of kit, others are having a hard time justifying the buy in. I also can't say I'm too unhappy from an ownership perspective that the press is keeping Sony on its toes to work harder at making the PS3 a success.

Ted Price: PS3 Has Become 'Whipping Boy' for Press [GameDaily Biz]

Based on my single visit to Insomniac Games, I can confirm that it is indeed an awesome place to work, solely judged on the high availability of delicious snacks. That's why I'm awarding them the first annual Kotaku award "Best Company At Which To Snack In America." Congratulations, Insomniac. Michael McWhertor

Insomniac Games among Top 10 for 3rd Straight Year in 50 "Best Companies to Work for in America" rankings.

"Once Again, Ratchet & Clank® and Resistance: Fall of Man Creators Remain First & Only Videogames Company Honored"

BURBANK, Calif. (FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE): Independent console videogames developer Insomniac Games has once again distinguished itself as being among the best studios to work for in the games industry. For the third straight year, Insomniac retained its unique distinction of being the first and only videogames company named to the "50 Best Small & Medium Sized Companies to Work for in America" list.

The rankings were announced before an estimated audience of 15,000 at the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM) 59th Annual Conference & Exposition in Las Vegas. Despite a 20-plus percent increase in applicants since last year — and a combined 50 percent increase since 2005 — Insomniac ranked 8th in the small companies category. Insomniac Games is the only company in the history of the small business category to earn a Top 10 ranking for three-straight years, remains the first and only videogames developer included on the list, and is the only company in the "TV, Film and Video" category to be recognized this year. In addition, Insomniac is Southern California's lone representative to the small business list.

"Last year was among the most challenging in Insomniac's history as we prepared to release Resistance: Fall of Man™ worldwide with the launch of PLAYSTATION®3," said Ted Price, Insomniac Games' founder and CEO. "Yet we delivered a top-rated and top-selling game — on time — while retaining our Top 10 ranking as one of the best small companies to work for in America. Therefore, it's especially gratifying to demonstrate again that it's possible in the games industry to achieve excellent results while maintaining a collaborative and stimulating workplace culture."

SHRM, the world's largest human resources management organization, recognizes the top 25 small and top 25 medium companies in America that have used smart people management strategies to develop successful organizations with highly productive and satisfied workforces. The results were primarily based on a randomly distributed employee opinion survey that measures several categories such as workplace environment, management's responsiveness to employee feedback, and adherence to company philosophy. In addition, further assessments of company programs, practices and workplace culture were factored into judging.

Insomniac Games remains the only North American videogames developer to be honored in any ranking compiled by the Great Places to Work Institute ® (GPTW). The organization is perhaps best known for producing Fortune magazine's annual "100 Best Companies to Work for®" list, which ranks companies with more than 1,000 employees. Two videogames publishers have made GPTW's "100 Best Companies to Work for in America" list since it was first published in 1984.

Insomniac Games is best known for creating the multi-million unit selling Ratchet & Clank® and Spyro the Dragon® franchises for the PlayStation® game console and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. The company is responsible for the top-selling Resistance: Fall of Man, exclusively for PLAYSTATION®3 and is currently developing Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction™ for exclusive release on PLAYSTATION 3 this fall. Insomniac, with 150 employees, continues to seek new employees in a variety of production-related positions.

About Insomniac Games Insomniac Games is a wholly independent console videogames developer that has released award-winning hits for the PlayStation® game console, the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system and PLAYSTATION®3 for 13 years. The company created the first three Spyro the Dragon® games, the Ratchet & Clank® franchise and Resistance: Fall of Man™, which have combined to sell more than 25 million units worldwide. Insomniac Games is currently developing Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction™, which will release this fall, exclusively for PLAYSTATION 3.

In addition to making blockbuster videogames, Insomniac is known for ranking among the top four "Best Small Companies to Work for in America" in 2005 and 2006 and among the Top 10 for 2007, according to the Great Places to Work Institute and Society for Human Resources Management. More information can be found at http://www.insomniacgames.com/ or by listening to Insomniac's "Full Moon Show" podcast, available on iTunes and the studio's website.

Insomniac Games is making a guest appearance on next week's episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, IGN reports.

The developers decided to help out the family getting their house retooled by creating a digital version of the family's 9-year-old boy, James Westbrook, for use in Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction.

Westbrook was left paralyzed following a July 2006 car crash and dreams of one day designing vdeo games. The boy's father, SFC Gene Westbrook, is also paralyzed, after he was hit by a mortar at an American mess hall in Baghdad in 2004.

While the Extreme Makeover people worked to make the home more conducive to two wheelchairs, Insomniac stepped in to try and make one of James' dreams come true.

"We were immediately moved to do something special for the Westbrook family when we learned about their tragic situation and James' passion for videogames design," said Ted Price, Insomniac Games' founder and CEO. "For all of us at Insomniac, this opportunity to help such an amazing family with our game-making experience was a real honor. We've never inserted a member of the public into our videogames, and we think it's incredibly appropriate that James will be the first gamer to enjoy that unique experience."

The team managed to create a playable version of James, complete with a flying saucer, for the game in just one week. But the team still hasn't decided how the character will be used in th game.

The new character and a bit of the game will be shown off during the upcoming show on April 22. Brian Crecente

Insomniac Games takes over Extreme Makeover: Home Edition [IGN]

Insomniac Games second PS3 title is looking really nice, and it's Ratchet and Clank, which is twice as nice. Brian Crecente

[Screens via British Gaming Blog]

You can't win it anymore, but it just showed up and I thought you'd want to take a gander.

Insomniac Games didn't limit their signing exuberance to just the cover, they also signed the crap out of the instruction manual. Now that's a splendid copy of Resistance: Fall of Man. Congrats Dave. Brian Crecente

You might be thinking that's INSANE and that unless bacon sandwiches become standard on all PS3s, Sony doesn't stand a chance. But give the man a moment to speak his mind.

Sure, his financial future may rest on the success or failure of Sony's 4D-capable console—Insomniac's games are currently PS3 exclusive—but he has some good, if familiar, points.

Highlights include contentious points such as:

PS3 Has a Major CPU Advantage - The PS3's eight parallel CPUs (one primary "PPU" and seven Cell processors) give it potentially far more computing power than the three parallel CPUs in the Xbox 360. Just about any tech programmer will tell you that the PS3's CPUs are significantly more powerful. The problem is that it has been challenging thus far to take advantage of the Cell's parallel architecture.

Yeah! It's hard to developer for, Hastings! What about that?

With the PS2, Sony got away with making a fairly developer-unfriendly system, and its success allowed their hardware designers to ignore developer's complaints as they made the PS3. People high up at Sony have realized that approach simply won't work anymore and are trying to fix the problem. Sony is actively improving their libraries, tools and developer support in order to make PS3 development easier. They are giving first party developed techniques and code to third-party developers so that multi-platform games should start looking better on PS3.

Hastings adds that "within two years you will see games that surpass what is possible on the Xbox 360." Frankly, that's asking quite a bit of gamers ready to get into the next-gen gaming scene now, Brian.

Potentially most damaging to the Insomniac CCO's message board and blog cred is his take on the white-hot Wii. Get your fanboy goggles on...

The Wii is currently riding on a massive wave of mainstream attention and has been purchased by lots of people who don't normally play games. But how many of those people who are hooked on Wii Sports will also buy Wii Need For Speed? Mainstream fads usually run their course within a year. As the honeymoon period fades, the Wii will be going up against more and more graphically impressive games on the PS3 and Xbox 360. More people will be buying HD televisions and looking for the most immersive and stunning experiences available. For these reasons, I think the Wii will be more successful than the GameCube or N64 but in the long run will still be outsold by the PS3.

If you've made it this far without firing off an angry comment, make sure to read the whole editorial. You'll need to log in to the Insomniac community to do so, but I highly recommend it. Michael McWhertor

10 Reasons Why PS3 Will Win This Console Generation [Insomniac]

Another Resistance update is scheduled for May, which will include two new maps and worldwide online play support. You can read the full list of current changes after the jump. Oh and watch for yours truly on R:FoM multiplayer this evening and enjoy kicking my ass. Michael McWhertor

Insomniac Games and Sony Computer Entertainment America have released the second content update for Resistance: Fall of Man. This update features two new modes of play amongst a host of other changes.

New Gametypes
- Added Team Conversion
In Team Conversion your goal is to kill everyone on the other team before they kill your team. Players are given a limited number of lives as a human and Chimera. If your team has at least one player with at least one life when the other team is completely dead, your team wins. You become a spectator when you have lost all your lives.

In Team Conversion mode, you are scored by how long you survived and how many other players you killed, like in free-for-all Conversion. However, the win goes to the last team with one or more players alive.

- Added Assault
Both teams start with a few nodes and all of the base defenses from Breach. To win, destroy the enemy reactor. When you deactivate an enemy node, it becomes permanently neutral, and your opponents lose some base defenses. At the start of the match, both reactors are shielded (invulnerable), so you must deactivate at least one of the enemy nodes. Nodes do not regenerate health in Assault, but they take substantially more damage than in other modes.

Individual players are scored based on damaging the enemy reactor and defending your reactor and nodes. Unlike other gametypes, players are also awarded points for damaging enemy nodes.

When you are killed, the map will appear. In an Assault match you can choose to respawn at nodes that have been deactivated as well as your team's reactor and active nodes, or with your squad if you are a member of one.

New Game Options
- Added "Round Balancing"
Round balancing can be set to either "on" or "off". It will default to "on". When round balancing is "on", if the number of players on each team is uneven at the end of the round, players will be moved from the team with too many players to the team with too few players to attempt to balance the teams. Parties will not be seperated, so it is not guaranteed to result in perfectly balanced teams. Round balancing is turned ON for ranked games.

- Added "enhanced" radar mode
"enhanced" radar is a new radar option. In custom games, the radar option can now be set to "on", "off", and "enhanced". In enhanced radar mode, human radar will show any enemies who are moving (not just sprinting/raging), jumping, or firing. Enemies who are crouching and moving will not show up on radar in "enhanced" mode.

Spectator mode
- Added "Spectator mode"
You may now join a game in "spectator mode", either by selecting "spectate" from the "Join Game" popup in the "Find Game" screen, or by bringing up your options menu from the "Staging" screen and changing your team until it says "Spectators". Games are limited to having 10 spectators, and there is a new game option "Allow Spectators" which defaults to "on" that may be turned off if the game creator does not want to allow spectators. Ranked matches do not allow spectators.

Spectator players will not be visible to anyone else in-game (although they will be visible in the staging screen), nor will they be able to talk to anyone except other spectators using the voice chat. Spectators can see all players on both teams on their radar. Spectators can toggle between two modes, "Observer" and "Free roam". In "Observer", spectator will see through the eyes of the player they are observing, including seeing the player's first person weapon and animations. Spectators can switch between observing different players with the "Melee/Action" key (default: Triangle), or switch to "Free roam" mode with the "Reload" key (default: Square). In "Free Roam" mode, spectators may wander freely about the map to view the action however they want. Spectators in "Free Roam" mode can switch back to "Observer" mode by pressing the "Reload" key (default: Square). If a spectator in "Free Roam" mode toggles to "Observer" mode while aiming at a player, he will observe the player he was aiming at instead of randomly selecting a player to observe. In both "Free Roam" and "Observer" mode, spectators can toggle their onscreen HUD on or off by pressing the "Zoom" key (default: R3).

In gametypes with limited lives (such as conversion, or if limited lives has been turned on by the game creator), players who lose all their lives and are eliminated will enter spectator mode, with a few small differences: Eliminated players cannot observe players on the opposite team, they can only see what their team sees on the radar, and they can only chat with other eliminated players (NOT with spectators).

UI Improvements
- Sorted buddy list by online status
- Made text on the map easier to read
- Players added to the ignore list will be removed from the buddy list
- Previously the health of a node was indicated by how fully shaded it was in the color of the team that controlled it or was capturing it. This was difficult to see, and it did not distinguish between nodes that were in the process of being captured from nodes that were in the process of being detroyed. Now nodes will have a health bar underneath the node (which will be team colored) to indicate its health, and the color of the node icon will indicate whether any team is in control of that node or not (it will be colored that team's color, or gray if no team controls it). Therefore if a node is in the process of being captured will have a team colored health bar and a gray icon, and a node in the process of being destroyed will have a team colored health bar and a team colored icon.

General
- Optimized net code
- Improved respawn algorithm to avoid selecting spawn points near enemies
- Optimized join game process for ranked game to be faster and more reliable, especially for large parties

Balancing
- Increased points for a "defense" kill from 1 to 4 in all modes
- Shotgun damage will decrease faster as range increases
- LAARK respawn time increased to 90 seconds, ammo respawn time increased to 60 seconds
- LAARK splash damage radius reduced
- Carbine headshot damage increased

Bug Fixes
- In FFA gametypes, you can no longer incorrectly see players on the radar who are within radar range of other players but not within radar range of you.
- Chimeran players no longer take extra melee damage from some weapons
- Enemies killed after you die but before you respawn will no longer count towards your killing spree for your next life
- Deaths will now tally correctly when a player dies by drowning
- Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the wrong map to load after a map vote
- Fixed problem where the quality of the microphone chat would degrade over time when in a party or long game
- Fixed bug that would cause you to reload after firing one shot if you had full ammo and hit reload and then fired in rapid succession
- Fixed several collision problems, including potential methods of escaping from the intended play area
- Fixed several potentially exploitable gameplay glitches
- Fixed several rare crash bugs

Ranked Games

• Map size determined by the number of players in the game
• All maps available for ranked games
• Score limits for team deathmatch adjusted based on the number of players in a match
• Time limits added for all game types that were missing them

• Various bug fixes and formatting issues
• Fixed a rare issue where a player would become invisible to all other players in a match
• In Human vs Human or Chimera vs Chimera team games, all players on a team will show up as the same model to help distinguish between   the teams.
• Added a barrier on Manchester, which was previously left out, to prevent players from leaving the playable area.

• "Return a Flag" ribbon now displays properly.  All "Return a Flag" ribbons earned prior to this patch will be restored.
• "Multi Kill" ribbon will now be tracked.  Unfortunately, no "Multi Kill" ribbons earned before this patch can be restored.
• "Target Bomber" ribbon can now be achieved with the frag grenade as well as the hedgehog grenade
• You will now receive a system message when you earn a new rank.
• A player's rank will not be sometimes misrepresented as lower than it actually is.
• Wins/Losses are now displayed on the player stats.
• Changed the requirements to earn some of the medals on the character sheet.
• We have replaced the Skeleton skin with a new skin, the Mechanic.  We've determined that the Skeleton is much smaller and more difficult to see on many levels than any of the other skins.  The skins were never meant to give a gameplay advantage, but to offer you the chance to customize your character as you see fit, and we don't want people to be at a disadvantage because they didn't pick any one particular skin.  Never fear, the skeleton may make a return at some later date, in some form or other.

• You can now accept a party invite if you are in a game and the party you are joining is in the same game.
• The results screen will now automatically rejoin the game after 30 seconds instead of disconnecting from the game as it previously did.
• There is now an option to enabled "Map Vote" for custom games.  If this option is enabled, players may press triangle when they are on the results screen to vote on what map they wish to play next.  This option is enabled by default.
• You can now create a deathmatch game with a time limit as the only end game condition.
• Fixed a bug where players joining a game in progress would sometimes be placed on the team that had more players instead of the team with less players.

• Voice chat is now "push-to-talk" by default in team games as well as free-for-all games.  The standard button is L3 and it can be remapped.  Open mic is active only for squad chat when you choose to join a named squad.  In that case you still use the push-to-talk button to broadcast to your entire team.  Other places where open mic is active are when observing in a limited lives game and when you are in a party
• There is now an indicator in the lower right hand corner to let you know when you are transmitting on the microphone

• Players in a squad will now be given an additional option to spawn near their squad in CTF, Meltdown, and Breach. 
• Player names that are longer than 11 characters will no longer be truncated if they have a clan tag enabled.
• The flag taken message will stay on the screen longer in CTF games
• Enemies are now represented as triangles on the radar and map.
• Buddies on your team will show up as green dots on the map and radar (if it is enabled)
• Squad members will show up as yellow dots on the map and radar (if it is enabled)

• Chimeran rage damage multiplier has been reduced.
• Chimera at max heat will now only lose health until they are at 50% health instead of going all the way down to 1% health.
• Humans will now spawn with 1 frag grenade as well as the M5A2 Carbine
• Enemies will now show up on the Human map/radar if they are within radar range of ANYONE ON YOUR TEAM and only in the following circumstances: They are sprinting or in rage mode, they are firing/attacking, they are jumping, or they are within range of node radar (Breach)
• The L11-2 Dragon will now do extra damage to Chimeran players as was originally intended
• Most weapon damage values have been tweaked in the interest of balance.  In general, weapons have been tweaked to deal slightly less damage.
• The spawn selection algorithm has been modified to make players spawn next to enemies less often, and to spawn near teammates and squadmates more often
• Moved the location of the flag in several CTF maps to help prevent stalemating
• Suicide will now increase the waiting time until a player respawns by 10 seconds in team games.

Ted Price from Insomniac Games explained recently how exactly Resistance: Fall of Man is going to take up more than 20GB of space on a Blu-ray disc.

Yes it is true - we are currently using more than 20 gigs. And yes, we do compress our level data. The fact that we store so much on disc is actually not that surprising when you look at the numbers. Consider that even with compression, each of our "levels" (or loaded areas) has more than 300 megs of unique data. And keep in mind that we're also streaming data during level playthroughs. It doesn't take too much level data before you've gone past what can be stored on a dual-layer DVD. And between single player and multiplayer we have a lot of level data (over 40 different large loaded areas) - yes, more than will fit on a dual layer DVD.

Price also writes, on the IGN blog, that the disc will include game movies in both HD and PAL formats and high quality sound in all supported languages. In other words, this game won't have to be repressed for countries that speak different languages, they can just do one big-ass run.

I think this is the main thing that the PS3's Blu-Ray really has to offer, it can hold a lot more content on a single disc and can allow developers to cut-back on costs by doing single disc runs.

I have no idea how big a deal it is to go to two discs for a single game nor what the increase in cost is for multiple runs for a game. Anyone else have any clue if this could save publishers lots of money and gamers lots of headaches? Brian Crecente

http://blogs.ign.com/Ted-Insomniac/2006/09/07/30283/