Ratchet's latest excursion arrives on PS3 online store along with Jeanne D'Arc for PSP, Hot Shots Golf Kratos, demos for Force Unleashed, Head Coach, and Last Guy.
It was a busy week for Sony's PlayStation Store, given that the downloadable-content service saw a slew of new game content, demos for anticipated games, videos from the Leipzig Games Convention, and much more. Despite the flood of content, the biggest addition to the store was doubtlessly Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty.
The 2.3GB download picks up Insomniac's pair of adventurers where last year's Tools of Destruction left off. Although Sony has been careful not to call the game an episodic adventure (which would imply more bite-sized offerings to come), Quest for Booty draws down the scale of a normal Ratchet & Clank outing to a few hours. Fortunately, less game means a lower entry fee, and Sony is asking $14.99 for the game.
PlayStation Portable owners can now download Jeanne D'Arc through the PlayStation 3 or the PlayStation Store for PC. The turn-based strategy game is available now for $22.99. As for other full "games," Sony has also released the EA Sports Live Score Tracker for download. The $.99 utility lets fantasy-football players stay up to date with the latest info on their players' performances.
A handful of demos were also added to the service this week, including a sample of Sony's unusual, downloadable zombie game The Last Guy. The game uses overhead pictures of real-world cities not unlike those of online map utilities, and players are challenged to guide a group of surviving humans to safe zones while protecting them from hordes of flesh-eating undead.
Other new demos on the service include EA Sports' gridiron management sim NFL Head Coach 09, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, LucasArts' physics-driven playground that lets players feel the thrill of squashing stormtroopers with a TIE Fighter-shaped flyswatter.
The week was no slouch for downloadable-game content, either. God of War star Kratos makes his PS3 debut as a $1.99 downloadable character for Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds, and Haze players can download a free Domination map pack that includes four multiplayer levels and the new Capture and Hold game mode. Rhythm gamers can pick up a trio of DragonForce songs for Guitar Hero III for $6.25, or a selection of five Rock Band tracks from Devo, Duran Duran, and the Janitors ($1.99 for Devo and Duran Duran songs; $.99 for the Janitors' track).
Sony also put up more than a dozen videos, including Leipzig looks at InFamous and Warhawk: Fallen Star, as well as clips of The Last Guy, the upcoming Pain add-on, and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. Fans of wallpapers and themes can look for free PS3 window dressing based on Quest for Booty, InFamous, and TNA iMPACT!, among others.
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
ratchet and clank quest for booty for 15 bucks..at least it isnt a rehash like those other consoles out there..its new gameplay..so its worth 15 bucks..if it were lke mario games on the wii network then no way 15 bucks for older game..good thing this is a new game
after i read this i dashed to the ps3 to download the force unleashed demo. unfortunatly it didn't install because of an error, but i enjoyed all the other stuff they added.
Good update. I picked up the themes, but I'll be getting Ratchet on disc as an import from Europe. I'm not a fan of any downloadable games more then $10 in price.
Definitely a good week o' updates this time around. TFU definitely is one of the better SW games to date, and the combat system feels VERY good. As for QFB, definitely another great game by Insomniac... I don't know how all of Ratchet's PS3 outings are getting 7.5's from GS, I really don't. They either have wrong information in their reviews, or back up stupid reasons to dumb down a score. Either way, amazing game/effort by Insomniac, especially considering they're knee high in the development cycle of R2 - quite the brilliant company.
Got the Star Wars demo, it looks decent. I might buy it, depending on what the game is like later on, and the length. I still need to get Jeanne D'Arc. I'll get it normally though.
Downloaded the game already, it was pretty fun. What i found most exciting was the last guy demo and the star wars demo.
Star Wars Force Unleashed was awesome. Seeing that AT-ST being split in half was sooooo freaking awesome!
Neither of the games in the Future series is even close to being as good as the first series.
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