New direction for Ratchet

I just read a preview for Ratchet: Deadlocked that's scheduled for release in November. Now I've been a fan of the Ratchet & Clank series for quite some time now. I've ranted on the series before, in fact. I gotta admit that I'm a little anxious about the new direction the series is headed in. The title alone reflects that. The first thing I thought when reading it was "Where's Clank?", and the answer I got from reading the preview wasn't cool: Clank has been demoted to "supporting character", and is no longer title-worthy.

The whole genre of the series is changing from platformer to shooter. That in itself isn't a bad thing because I rather enjoyed the military missions in Up Your Arsenal. What bothers me more is that, apparently, the game will be less character-driven. I think that's a shame, because the colorful characters you encounter are a big part of what make the Ratchet & Clank world so appealing.

The gameplay will most likely be yet another evolution from the game's predecessor, which is reason enough for me to remain excited about this sequel. Ratchet & Clank has always been about blowing shit up in the craziest ways, so as long as they keep that aspect and stay faithful to their own delivery of wacky destruction, I'm pretty sure I'll remain a fan. I just find it's a shame to see them trimming away from the things that make the series different from other "blow-shit-up" games that are out there.