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Joystiq's Resistance 3 multiplayer beta video tour
Are you sitting on a hot ticket into the Resistance 3 multiplayer beta? Are you on the fence, wondering if you should get a hot ticket? Either way, we've got just what you need: a nice, (very) long video tour of what the beta has to offer. Check it out, and hit that HD button if you're feeling frisky.
Resistance 3 beta begins Aug. 4 for SOCOM 4 owners, Aug. 23 for PS+
Sony has announced the dates for the Resistance 3 multiplayer beta. In the US, those who picked up a copy of SOCOM 4 will have access to the beta beginning August 4. PlayStation Plus subscribers will receive access on August 23. PlayStation Plus subscribers in Europe will be able to grab the beta on August 10, while PlayStation Blog EU promises there will be "further opportunities" at some point for non-subscribers. The beta will feature two maps, Seaside and Trainyard, and will offer Team Deathmatch and Chain Reaction modes. Players will be able to gain experience up to level 20, upgrade weapons and abilities and unlock new character skins. While you wait for the beta, check out some new Resistance 3 beta footage uploaded by a player, this time focusing on the trainyard map. Some interesting power-ups are shown, including a decoy hologram and a bubb– er, personal force field. Not featured in the video: Aim.
Resistance 3 preview: Hurry down doomsday
I'm just a little embarrassed to admit that my first thought upon seeing the preview disc for Resistance 3 show up on my doorstep was this: "Who can I con into playing this for me?" It's not that I hated the previous games in the series, they're fine for what they are, but my curiosity about what's next for the franchise was frankly dwarfed by my desire to pass work off onto other people. I didn't have any luck, and what a lucky break that was for me, because Resistance 3 -- at least for the three hours I spent with it -- is spectacular. I know, I'm still not sure I believe it myself. %Gallery-125571%
Resistance 3 'Doomsday Edition' pack launching on September 6 for $150, includes PS Move Sharp Shooter
Worried you won't be ready to blast Chimera with a white and orange PlayStation Move when Resistance 3 launches this September? Worry no more, as Sony today announced the Resistance 3 "Doomsday Edition," which retails for $150 and comes packed with a copy of the game (naturally), a PlayStation Move/Navigation Controller, a Sharp Shooter peripheral, and a PlayStation Eye. As you might expect, it launches alongside the regular retail pack on September 6 in North America, though no international details were revealed.
Insomniac unveils Overstrike for Xbox 360 and PS3
Insomniac has traditionally been a PS3 developer, but that's about to change with the announcement of a new game called Overstrike, shown off on the company's website right now. According to the description on the site (which you can see in full after the break), the game features four-player co-op with four different characters (an ex-merc, a thief, a scientist, and a detective) all each with "unique talents and a tendency to completely ignore protocol." All four are members of a group called Overstrike 9, fighting against "a shadowy organization that threatens to wipe out humankind." Update: The trailer's arrived on the website. Watch the embed after the break.
Insomniac revealing new IP at EA press conference
When Insomniac revealed plans to develop a multiplatform original IP with EA Partners last year, the company discussed some of its plans, but kept us mostly in the dark. It seems that the covers will be ripped asunder tomorrow during EA's E3 press conference, as Insomniac noted on its official Twitter feed. "In case you missed it -- we are announcing our new universe and multiplatform game at EA's press conference," the feed announced yesterday. And in case you've already forgotten after reading our detailed list of E3 2011's biggest events, the EA presser starts tomorrow at 3:30ET/12:30PT.
Resistance 'Dual Pack' coming July 5, bonus content revealed
Clearly you're enthusiastic about the Resistance series if you don't own either of the first two games, so it goes without saying that you're all about dressing up as a generic-looking soldier in the third game's multiplayer. Insomniac apparently knows this, as the studio took to the US PlayStation blog today to announce said multiplayer "Capelli" skin as part of the bonuses included in the Resistance "Dual Pack," launching on July 5. He's ... uh ... got a beanie? Awesome? As previously revealed by an insert in the Battle: Los Angeles Blu-ray, the two-pack of Resistance titles will also include "$10 worth of bonus content," detailed as the "Aftermath" map, a skin bundle, and the "wraith skin" multiplayer weapons for Resistance 2. When the pack arrives on July 5, it comes with an asking price of $39.99.
Resistance 3's chimeric pre-order options
Resistance 3's retail pre-order incentives are as varied as the human fertilizer used on a Chimeran garden. GameStop is the only one with a tangible bonus, offering an "authentic replica" of a Chimeran teeth trophy necklace, along with a multiplayer boost that allows players to start online warfare at level 5. Walmart has "a special set of five custom name titles, including Sentinel." The name tags ... Sorry, that's just way too boring, we can't bring ourselves to finish explaining. Amazon will have the "No. 60 Air Fuel Grenade" available in the single-player campaign while Best Buy has a special multiplayer skin (pictured) featuring Hale as if he hadn't received the viral inhibitor. Best Buy also has an "exclusive ability in multiplayer to taunt your fallen enemies." Finally, Canadians and other US retailers will receive a multiplayer skin to be one of the "Black Ops troops" featured in Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2. A final option is just waiting until Insomniac inevitably releases all of it as DLC at some point in the future.
Resistance 1 and 2 'Greatest Hits' bundle incoming
Sony's looking to prime potential Resistance 3 purchasers with a Greatest Hits bundle of the first two titles: Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2. An insert included in the Battle: Los Angeles Blu-ray (which includes a Resistance 3 demo) spilled the beans, offering a Summer 2011 launch window for the re-issue, which will retail for $39.99. The Greatest Hits bundle also includes an exclusive Resistance 3 skin and "$10 worth of bonus content." Hit the jump for an image of the flier, courtesy IGN.
Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One arrives on Oct. 18, pre-order bonuses detailed
Four friends, armed to the teeth with an enormous arsenal of weapons, may be sufficient to overcome Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One's menagerie of levels, but wouldn't it be helpful to have an extra Mr. Zurkon hovering overhead? The trailer we've dropped after the break answers that question with a resounding "YES," showing off Mr. Zurkon and the other three pre-order bonuses that folks will pick up at various (sigh) retailers. Alongside the pre-order news, Sony announced that Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One will launch on October 18, living up to its previously noted "Fall 2011" launch window. That leaves just five months to decide where to pre-order -- but let's not kid ourselves, you're gonna go with Zurkon. It's just the right thing to do.%Gallery-124103%
Resistance 3 box art by Olly Moss rules
Insomniac partnered with artist Olly Moss for Resistance 3's box design and came up with a memorable bit of art -- unfortunately prodded by the obligatory logos (particularly on the North American box, ew!). Check out more on PlayStation Blog.
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One preview: Making teamwork work
In theory, it sounds like a great idea: Sit down with three other people and play Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One together. But in practice, four-player co-op can be chaotic and downright nasty: "Just hit the switch, dumbass! Gawd you suck at this game." Cordial coordination is challenging enough when all four of you are on the couch together. But how often does that happen? A lot of players will be teaming up online -- with strangers, no less -- and that can often mean complete radio silence. Insomniac is trying to design All 4 One to work in both cases, on the couch and online. "Certainly we think that both are extremely important," says gameplay programmer Mike McManus. "We don't want either to not work." %Gallery-121057%
Resistance 3 preview: Variety pack
Just over a week after its Community Day reveal of new Resistance 3 gameplay, Insomniac was back at it again, this time showing off a new single-player level and a new multiplayer map in Hollywood. I also got a chance to actually play through the boat level we saw last time around, and had the distinct feeling that, more than anything else for this game, Insomniac is really playing with the pacing of a first-person shooter. "Part of it is really trying to keep a better picture of the game as a whole," lead designer Drew Murray told me. "Much more in Resistance 3 than in past games, the design department has been more aware of what everyone else is doing," he said, which means more playtesting, and more communication between the teams of just what a level is supposed to feel like. Murray said that early in development, each level in Resistance 3 was assigned a descriptive word, and the word for the start of the forest-based level, seen for the first time this week, was "hunted." %Gallery-121061%
Resistance 3 preview: I'm on a Boat!
Insomniac Games hosted its annual Community Day in Hollywood yesterday, and Resistance 3 was on display front and center, with a few discussions, a bevy of single-player and multiplayer demo stations, and one new gameplay reveal happening throughout the day. The demo available to the public has been seen in video form before, but the other gameplay demo on hand, shown right after the announcement of Move and 3D support, was all new. Insomniac referred to it as "the boat level," because it's more or less an on-rails (on-river?) section played on a boat in the early part of the game. Protagonist Joe Capelli will be making his way from Haven, Oklahoma to New York City, and early on he jumps into a boat and starts touring up the muddy Mississippi towards St. Louis, through the flooded town of Wrightsburg, Missouri.
Resistance 3 to support PlayStation Move and Sharp Shooter, along with 3D
Insomniac has just announced at its Community Day event here in Los Angeles that when Resistance 3 finally arrives on September 6, it will bring with it support for 3D televisions, as well as compatibility with PlayStation Move and its Sharp Shooter attachment. The studio said during a public panel that it was encouraged by the Move functionality in Killzone 3 and plans to implement Resistance 3 in a similar way. This is all good news, because, let us tell you: If you've never died in a Chimera attack, holding a model gun with a motion controller attached while wearing 3D glasses, well ... you haven't really lived.
Latest Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One trailer focuses on story
Aside from being loaded with story, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One's newest clip is also heavy on the lulz. Watch as Quark, Nefarious, Ratchet, and Clank all have their fates decided by a familiar-sounding narrator, just after the break.
Insomniac launches social/Facebook game division 'Insomniac Click'
Insomniac Games is now the company behind Ratchet & Clank, Resistance ... and Facebook games. Timed to coincide with a SXSW Interactive panel (at which Joystiq is seated right this second), Insomniac's Ryan Schneider announced the creation of "Insomniac Click," a division of the company devoted to the creation of web and mobile games. It's based in Burbank, home of Insomniac's current operations. But it's a new team, made up of people newly hired for social games, so it shouldn't take resources away from games about shooting aliens or making prurient jokes about weapons. In a blog post about the new division, Brian Hastings said that "Insomniac Click is dedicated to taking the qualities that define our brand – deep worlds, rich stories, accessible gameplay – and applying them to new game experiences that anyone in the world can play." Insomniac hasn't said exactly what its first social game will be, but you can read a lengthy manifesto about game design and social games (and why they aren't really great yet!) here.
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One trailer shows off co-op destruction
The Ratchet & Clank series has always been known for its weapons. But what happens when you have four players working together, each armed with his or her own tool of destruction? If everyone equips and uses the same weapon, the effect can be combined -- as can the effects of different guns. Watch how the destruction unfolds in this new trailer:
Resistance 3 gameplay footage brings the big guns
Things are not looking up for humanity in the latest iteration of the Resistance series. Sure, you can see many of the game's weapons in action in this new trailer; but let's be realistic here: there's no way a small platoon of untrained soldiers will be able to fight that Chimeran Brawler and survive.
Resistance NGP being developed by Nihilistic, isn't a port
Insomniac Games, creator of the alternate-history FPS Resistance for PS3, tweeted its congratulations to Nihilistic Software, the apparent developer of the series' NGP incarnation (which was revealed in a promo reel of in-development games for the handheld during PlayStation Meeting 2011). Insomniac confirmed in a followup tweet that the title would be a "brand new Resistance game. Not a port." While Insomniac has handled all of the Resistance console iterations, including this September's Resistance 3, the well-recieved 2009 PSP spinoff, Resistance: Retribution, was developed by Sony Bend. With Bend currently linked to the Uncharted NGP game, however, it seems Nihilistic got the call to carry on the Resistance for the PSP successor. Little else is known about the title, aside from what can be inferred from the brief clip (pictured) in the promo reel -- which does seem to indicate that, unlike Retribution (a third-person shooter), Resistance NGP will be a first-person shooter. Nihilistic is perhaps most (infamously) known for being the original developer of the failed StarCraft: Ghost project, before going on to complete Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects (EA), Conan (THQ) and the downloadable Zombie Apocalypse (Konami). The studio is currently finishing up PlayStation Move Heroes, published by Sony. [Thanks, Brian]
