As you may remember, a few weeks back I claimed that half my left testicle would be gladly given for the chance to play Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time and today my willingness to sacrifice was intensified by a look at the first ever footage of the upcoming title which you can watch here at GameTrailers.

Whilst simply being a short look at the gameplay, and although the main mechanics remain the same, there is actually a fair bit of new information present. First and foremost is the fact that the older Lombax from the teaser trailer, now known to be General Alistar Azimuth friend of Ratchet’s father, is fighting alongside you. He carries some sort of futuristic martial arts weapon which has him hopping all over the shop and Ratchet has acquired some new boots which have him zooming around just as much.

Insomniac have confirmed that these boots will be present throughout the entire adventure as a means of travelling around faster, suggesting that the maps this time will be much larger than before. Something else which caught my interest was that one of the weapons Ratchet used was entirely organic. It appeared to be some sort of alien creature which burped a fiery shock-wave onto enemies. It seemed odd to see a fleshy weapon in contrast to the usual mechanical guns which fill your arsenal.

However, what stood out most to me was the absence of Clank. We do not know how early on in the game the featured level was, however, the fact that everyone’s favourite little robot was not present certainly is worth noting. Still though, his name is in the title and I very much doubt that Insomniac would waste much time without him.

Whilst talking about the footage, Insomniac also stated that there will be time travel featured in the game and that there are yet more surprises to come. The recent relaunch of their podcast also suggested toward a lot of content which would encourage second playthroughs and other such things to flesh out the game. Multiplayer anyone? Co-op? Personally, whilst I loved the multiplayer of the 3rd game, I really hope that there will be no co-op here. This is strongly being hinted at as the last game in the series and I wish it to remain a personal story between Ratchet and Clank. Not even Ratchet’s father should infringe upon that.

There is much to be speculated over, but with E3 only days away, the speculation should not have to last long. I couldn’t be more excited.