Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty • Eurogamer.net

Sony extends PSN Welcome Back offer

Have you downloaded your freebies yet?

Sony has extended the PlayStation Network Welcome Back offer to tomorrow afternoon.

Sony defends free PSN games offer

"Hard to offer something for everyone."

Sony has defended its "Welcome Back" offer of free games after users criticised the titles available.

Insomniac hints at new PS3 exclusive

And taking all its people on a cruise.

Insomniac Games is currently working on an unannounced PlayStation 3-exclusive game, the developer quietly noted yesterday.

The announcement came at the tail end of a press release celebrating the fact that the Employer's Group has ranked the studio as the fifth best place to work in California.

"Insomniac Games is currently developing an unannounced title, exclusively for PS3," according to a footnote.

Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty

Excuse me sir, run, jump, the end.

Xbox Live Arcade may have been romping the headlines recently with Braid, Geometry Wars 2 and now Galaga Legions, but let's not forget that PlayStation Network is enjoying a renaissance as well, with Siren: Blood Curse, PixelJunk Eden and now the heavyweight Ratchet & Clank establishing fierce competition for the contents of your PSN wallet.

Ratchet & Clank games are already split into neat chunks - each planet you visit takes about an hour to exhaust, and then you fly to the next one - so Quest for Booty is an easy set-up: a handful of levels, a few new mechanics, and a witty script that makes the most of decapitated pirate Cap'n Slag and his yodel-throated henchman Rusty Pete, as Ratchet hops, skips and double-jumps around a watery planet gathering equipment to try and track down his wayward sidekick, Clank.

Downloadable games usually only have time to outline and develop a couple of new concepts, and so it is with Ratchet. As well as whacking enemies with his wrench, firing various guns and hoovering up cogs and bolts - the game's currency - players can now use a wrench-tether to grab onto bits of the environment and manipulate them with the right stick. Over the course of the game you move platforms, expand concertinaed bridges, and drag objects across the floor to solve puzzles.