All Articles: Resistance 3

Sony’s (obviously) made a big push for adoption of 3D gaming and PlayStation Move. Their first party studios have demonstrated that, yes, you can take your game to the next level with 3D and you can make hardcore games with motion control. So with every big PS3 exclusive coming out, the question on everyone’s minds is: will it be in 3D? And, will it support Move?

Yesterday was an awesome day for fans of Insomniac Games, as they hosted their 3rd Annual Community Event at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. They also took the time to answer those two questions with regards to the highly anticipated Resistance 3, with a resounding yes and yes.

Above you can see Creative Director Marcus Smith and the super dreamy founder of Insomniac Ted Price sporting PlayStation Move Sharp Shooters and 3D glasses (not the kind you’ll use to play the game.) Community Manager James Stevenson attributed the incorporation of these features to fan demand. “After Killzone 3 launched, we heard a massive amount of positive feedback, and were inundated with requests to support both PlayStation Move and sharp shooter.” And now you have it.

I’m about halfway in my play-through of Killzone 3 with Move, and while I can’t say it’ll replace the DualShock for me, it certainly is an interesting and different experience. We’ll let you know how well it was included in Resistance 3 when it launches on the PlayStation 3 September 6.

Whether Insomniac likes it or not, Resistance 3 is at the center of the shooter genre war going on right now. Being a platform exclusive doesn’t help, either, as all eyes are on the latest chapter in the sci-fi military shooter saga to see if it will deliver or not. I know I was worried that the devs might be missing the point with their multiplayer progression, but right now, I really don’t care – I just want to play the damn thing.

The game looks phenomenal, with visuals in multiplayer that look just as great as they did during campaign in the VGA reveal trailer. Insomniac’s strength in animation are possibly at their best. The weapon wheel also carries over into the online mode, with players switching between Sniper Rifles, Chimeran Assault Rifles, and the much beloved Rossmore Shotgun. Killstreaks also make a debut, with pulling off a string of frags earning you series trademarks like cloaking or the Auger shield. Most importantly for me, the auto aim seems toned down so it’s not a “who sees who first” contest like in the second game. Honestly, this looks like an argument for developers to get off the two year cycle that plagues this industry and put in that extra year of effort. It appears to have gone a long way.

Insomniac made waves at GDC today when they shed some light on the multiplayer for the latest installment of their alternate history, sci-fi shooter series, Resistance 3. Probably the biggest change is the reduced scale. Resistance: Fall of Man wowed players at the time with up to forty players per game at a constant frame rate, and Resistance 2 upped that to 60. Things are being considerably toned down and focused now, as the third game will have intimate, 16-player battles. Insomniac made this decision from fan feedback and seeing just how fun the gameplay was on the smaller maps.

Another big feature will be loadout customization, where players can spend unlock points to develop their repertoire. The defining aspect of the progression system seems to be the abilities, and they come in four flavors. The first two are Abilities (Support and Tactical), which allow you to distribute ammo, enhance your team’s radar, or dash really quick to get out of a tight spot. The second set are Attributes, which come in Personal and Combat flavors. These appear to be your standard perks like faster reloading, but also really interesting options like having the series’ trademark leapers burst from your corpse upon death.

I got a lot out of Resistance 2, it was worth much more than the $60 price tag if you ask me, but it hasn’t aged considerably well in this age of shooters, and I’m glad the match sizes will be more personable. I’m worried they may be missing the point on the progression system, though. Call of Duty popularized the mechanic, but they always made the abilities you earn at high levels a lot harder to effectively utilize than the all-purpose abilities you start out with. Having players augment them as they gain experience may be a little hard to balance. In any case, we’ll be looking out for Resistance 3 when it launches on PlayStation 3 on September 6 later this year.