While our friends in Europe have been enjoying the Ratchet & Clank Collection for the past few weeks, North American gamers have been waiting patiently for the game to come stateside. The wait is almost over, as the collection will release next month!

The Ratchet & Clank Collection releases August 28th, 2012, and will be available both at retail and on the PlayStation Network. The collection will feature the first three games in the franchise: Ratchet & Clank, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, and Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal. Surprisingly, it will only cost $30 -- ten dollars less than most of Sony's HD compilations. But hey, we're not complaining.

Sony is also throwing in an exclusive Ratchet and Clank 10th Anniversary Avatar and a demo for the upcoming Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time. The demo will be playable on August 28th, though Sony has not confirmed whether the demo is only for the PS3 version of Thieves in Time, or the Vita version as well.

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As is expected of HD collections, each game has been remastered in 1080p HD, supports stereoscopic 3D (note: resolution drops to 720p when 3D is active), and comes packed with its own separate Trophy list. Developer Idol Minds has certainly put plenty of work into remastering these games, as the above screenshots look very impressive for PS2 titles. While it's expected the games won't look as nice as A Crack In Time (or, probably, the upcoming PSN title Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault), they've still aged quite well.

Unfortunately, the collection is still missing one key game from the franchise: Ratchet: Deadlocked. Much like The Room's absence from the Silent Hill Collection, fans and newcomers alike will miss out on a notable title in the franchise's history. We can only hope Sony plans to remaster the Ratchet spin-off titles a la the God of War: Origins Collection, giving Deadlocked its time to shine.

The Ratchet and Clank Collection releases August 28th, 2012, for the PS3.

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Source: PlayStation Blog