Fuse

Insomniac's new multiplatform shooter Fuse has failed to ignite the charts during its opening week - it arrived in a disappointing 37th place.

I wish Fuse was worse. Obviously, I'd prefer if it was better, but after playing through its six-mission story campaign and various co-op survival matches, I suspect that was never going to happen. This is a game of small ideas and low ambition, and that's rarely fertile soil for a good game.

So, instead, I found myself wishing the game could at least be genuinely bad. There's always something to say about a bad game, some story or insight that can be teased out of its missteps and mistakes. Games like Fuse, on the other hand, are simply there - inoffensive, unmemorable and devoid of purpose. The review word count yawns ahead of me, dependent on a game about which there is virtually nothing of interest to say.

The basics then, since that's all Fuse ever really musters. We're in third-person co-op shooter territory. Press a button to snap to cover. Pop out with the left trigger, shoot at the faceless bad guys with the right. Repeat until the game runs out of enemies, then trawl the area for the handful of trinkets that are inevitably hiding in the corners. Bonus XP. In-game currency. Text and audio logs. You know the drill. You've done this dozens of times before.

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Insomniac is already planning new "experiences" in the world of its sci-fi shooter Fuse, despite the game's somewhat bumpy ride to launch this week.

Ratchet & Clank and Resistance developer Insomniac will be releasing a demo of its upcoming third-person co-op shooter Fuse next week on PSN and Xbox Live.

The demo is set to premiere on 7th May, according to publisher EA. Since that's a Tuesday, it's likely referring to the North American PSN release, and will come to EU the following day on both PSN and Xbox Live.

The Fuse demo will support up to four-player online co-op or two-player splits-screen.

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Respawn Entertainment, the studio founded by the creators of the Call of Duty franchise, has insisted it is business as usual amid widespread layoffs at publisher EA.

EA Partners, the part of EA that publishes games made by external developers, is shutting down.

Fuse doesn't have micro-transactions or an online pass, developer Insomniac Games has confirmed.

In some ways, Fuse is everything that gamers have been asking for - a new IP at a time when we're told such things are impossible in the big budget console arena, and one from a much-loved studio that is, at last, sharing its expertise with the Xbox 360 audience.

Resistance developer Insomniac Games has released an extended look at Fuse, the studio's first multi-platform project.

Update:The debut Fuse trailer is finally out. It reveals a visually clean but unspectacular shooter, but one with great guns and abilities.

A Magshield ability produced a bubbly wall for protection. Shattergun shot tendrils spikes up from the floor and froze/restrained an enemy who then shattered under fire. It looked like you can perform this on groups of enemies.

One application of Arcshot appeared to melt a group of enemies. The other application skewered them on flaming crossbow bolts. Warp Rifle produced mini gravitational warp fields/balls and then exploded.

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After 15 years of PlayStation exclusivity, Resistance and Ratchet developer Insomniac is spreading its wings and having a crack at multi-platform development. The eventual result, announced during EA's E3 2011 press conference with a CGI trailer, is four-player co-op action game Overstrike.

Insomniac – for 15 years a PlayStation-exclusive developer - has reassured PlayStation 3 owners that it hasn't left them behind despite entering multi-platform development with Overstrike.

Intriguing Insomniac project revealed.

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