  'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' team leader and carpenter, Ty Pennington. (Photo Courtesy of: ABC.) |
Talk about getting into the game.
This Sunday’s broadcast of ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” will feature a young gamer being turned into a playable character for the upcoming PS3 release ‘Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction’.
The focus of the episode will be on the Westbrook family, who has suffered two recent tragedies. In 2004, the father, SFC Gene Westbrook, was left paralyzed after surviving a mortar attack in Iraq. Last July, the family was involved in a car accident that left 9-year-old James Westbrook paralyzed. Due to the accident, Gene Westbrook also suffered a stroke, leaving him with further damage to his right arm and some memory loss.
When Insomniac Games heard that of his plight and that James was an avid gamer who has an interest in becoming a developer, they created a digital version of him for insertion into the game. Sony Computer Entertainment America also gave the Westbrook family a complete PlayStation lineup including a PS3, PSP and a PS2.
Gamers who check out the broadcast will also see prototype footage of the ‘Ratchet & Clank’ game.
-- John Powell.
