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Resistance 2 artwork is tentacle-tastic
You might have seen the awesome screenshots for Resistance 2, but you might not have seen the concept art and character renders that went into making such eye-popping visuals. While new and gorgeous, much of the artwork reveals little beyond what we already know. The American flags in some of the paintings point to the already revealed USA setting, and we've seen those grotesque Chimera enemies before. However, some concept artworks do raise questions -- like that tentacle creature in the picture above. What is that, a new boss perhaps? In any case, it's nice of Insomniac to drop us little nuggets here and there. They're doing a good job in keeping us interested in this game. They've certainly got us thinking about this one, as it looks to be a step above the first Resistance in every respect.[Via NeoGAF]
Resistance map packs available; Global servers up
After numerous delays the Resistance: Fall of Man update is finally here. While the full patch notes are too long for us to put here, you will see them before you get updating. In order to update the game, simply load up the online multiplayer menu. The game will then offer to update (you have to do so in order to play online). Once this is done, you will be able to play against any other players anywhere in the world. You may also notice that the online multiplayer has changed. There is a new "purchase" button. From here you can buy the two new maps.Interestingly, the game is able to access the PSN Store directly, switching from the Resistance purchase menu to the store checkout seamlessly. As well as this, there is now an option in the online multiplayer menu to access your friends list without leaving the game. This allows you to do anything you can do from the friends list section of the XMB, including messaging. While this can only be reached from the menu, so no in-match access, it is still one step closer to our dreams of having in-game XMB access. So get updating. The wait is finally over!
Japanese hardware sales, Jun. 4 - Jun. 10: E-scandal Edition
And so, the Church of England vs. Sony saga at last seems to be inching towards a resolution. How did it ever turn into such a mess? The answer to that question, obtained only through ingenious hacking techniques, lies after the break (that place we put all the nonsense that has nothing to do with sales charts). The lesson to be learned, of course, is that when you're creating a work of fiction or designing a game, it's best to avoid any real locales. Actually, just make sure the whole thing takes place in outer space. There's nobody there. - DS Lite: 117,193 5,947 (4.83%) - Wii: 64,529 5,219 (7.48%) - PSP: 24,711 1,647 (6.25%) - PS2: 11,097 717 (6.07%) - PS3: 8,776 222 (2.47%) - Xbox 360: 2,533 314 (14.15%) - Game Boy Micro: 481 171 (55.16%) - GBA SP: 302 55 (22.27%) - Gamecube: 167 59 (26.11%) - DS Phat: 35 36 (50.70%) - GBA: 16 -- 0 (0%) [Source: Media Create] See also: Previous Japanese hardware sales charts
Church of England seeks to remove Resistance from shop shelves
The Church of England today has stated that if Sony do not remove Resistance: Fall of Man from the shelves then it will consider legal action. The Church is outraged at Insomniac's inclusion of the nave of Manchester Cathedral in the game. More specifically, that they "encourage people to have guns battles in the building." Why the C of E have chosen now, seven months after its original release and two months since it was made available in Europe, is a mystery. The worry seems to be that people will assume that shooting a gun within the cathedral is "acceptable" and try to emulate it in real life. Or that it will act as a catalyst to increase the already present gun-crime problem in the city. The Church of England seems to have the idea that Resistance "shows a virtual shoot-out in the cathedral's nave in which hundreds of soldiers are killed". This is only true if you consider crawling Chimera beasties as "soldiers." The cathedral section is a very small fraction of the entire game, lasting only 20 minutes, if that. It contains only alien enemies, as the rest of the game does, and includes no cutscenes or story elements which show a single human death.Sony have yet to officially respond to the Church but a spokesman told the Times newspaper that "It is entertainment, like Doctor Who or any other science fiction. It is not based on reality at all." He also states that permission was sought when necessary, throughout the entire development process. Funny that they mention Doctor Who, considering the recent episode which ended with a man transforming into a monster and chasing his victims through Southwark Cathedral before being killed. We wonder if we'll see a battle to get those DVDs removed from shelves, once they're released.[Thanks to everyone who told us about this]
Resistance patch delayed - Again
Yes, it's true. The Resistance map pack and global servers have been postponed again. The official word is much the same as last week. The maps and gameplay updates are ready to go, there are just some problems with the global servers. Why not just release the maps, you ask? Apparently the maps require the patch and the patch requires the servers to work. That's why. This time Insomniac haven't released another expected release date, but have said "this last delay won't be too long." As if the feeling of deja vu wasn't overwhelming enough, we're running the same picture we used on Monday. Just to confuse you that little bit more.[Thanks, Flava!]
Resistance downloadable content pushed back a week
Remember that Resistance: Fall of Man patch we told you about? The one which was due out before the end of May? Well it won't be. Unfortunately CVG is reporting that we'll have to wait another week before we get our hands on the new maps and other goodies. It turns out that, while the content is all finished, tested and ready to go, SCEA is stalling in order to make sure the global servers are "locked in and ready." So if you're angry and want to start blaming someone then blame Sony, not Insomniac. It's disappointing, we know, but a week isn't all that long to wait. It's probably for the best that they get everything completely ready, rather than unveiling new servers which break within the first hour. June 7th is the day to keep in mind for the release. Remember to tell your loved ones not to get worried if they don't see you for a day or two. We know you'll want to hide yourself away and show off your Chimera fragging prowess to people all over the world, now that you're able. Or Human fragging prowess, if you're that way inclined. Actually, we thought that a nice way to celebrate the new global servers might be to have you guys come kick our asses. Add our PSN ID to your friendslist - PSFanboy - and look out for us on Saturday the 9th of June from 1PM EST onwards.
Resistance patch on its way - new maps and worldwide servers
In a recent visit to Insomniac, Gamespy were able to play on some new maps for Resistance: Fall of Man. Whilst there they got their hands on the details for the upcoming patch which should be out before the end of the month. Be sure to check out the full hands on preview for the maps, Westmorland and Camborne, over at Gamespy. The patch itself will contain some much-requested features from the Resistance community. Obviously, the full patch notes are unobtainable right now, but Gamespy have revealed a couple of more noteworthy additions. First and foremost, the currently regional servers are being opened up to allow worldwide play. So for those of us who imported a console to find that you could only play against people on the other side of the world, this comes as a welcome development. The patch will also allow you to access your PSN buddy list from inside the game, include a 'tell-the-teacher' feature in the mute menu and make enemies and allies easier to differentiate in online mode. Sounds jam packed full of goodness to us. It should be out before the end of May in the US and Japan, with a European release shortly after that. Check out Gamespy's full account of their visit to Insomniac for more info.
More Resistance in April, episodic content on the menu
Fast-forwarding through another Phil Harrison interview, we smack into some meaningful chatter. When pressed about future content for Resistance, Harrison busts out a tantalizing reply: "we have some really, really cool things that will be extending the story, extending the locations, some brand new content, starting in April. So if that works well and is well-received by the audience, then that will keep the engagement with game going between now and should there be a sequel at some point in the future." (For the record, Insomniac's Ted Price has already confirmed the obvious; Resistance is a franchise, with a sequel likely already in early development stages.) What Harrison seems to suggest though, is some degree of episodic content bridging the first game and apparent sequel. Adding multiplayer maps and modes is the tired standard, but actually building upon the single-player narrative with downloadable content would represent a significant step forward for PlayStation Network -- and keep Resistance holding down the console that's sure to let loose sooner or later.
Sony prices first-party PS3 games for Euro launch
Those walking out of a UK store next month with a PS3 under the arm will no doubt be concerned about the retail price of launch games -- doubly so if they actually paid for the console on their way out. Sony has announced a £39.99 (€59.99) price point for first-party launch games, placing the likes of Motorstorm and Resistance: Fall of Man in the same bracket as Wii and first-party Xbox 360 titles. Presumably, the games will contain all of the content from their American and Japanese releases. Sony also notes that an "introductory period" will see PlayStation Network games priced between €2.99 and €9.99, with game-specific downloadable content starting at €0.99 and increasing depending on the product's scope. Previously: European PS3 not so backwards compatible Sony incentivizes Euro PS3 with Casino Royale Blu-ray Sony UK sales boss quits before impending PS3 launch
Time to battle, Gears of War vs Resistance
Game Trailers just kicked off a new segment called Versus, where they pit two video games, companies, or characters against each other and leave the voting up to the viewers. In their first episode they pit Gears of War against Resistance: Fall of Man and you will decide the winner. What's nice to see is that the voting is based solely on actual in-game gameplay video and that the ballot is broken down into various nice categories. Who's winning? Take a look at the results ... Gears is leading in every category minus the vehicles in which we have to say: there were vehicles in Gears? Again we ask, go vote for who you feel is more worthy of the very first Versus crown.[Via Digg]
Blog debate: PS3 to load games slower than the Xbox 360
From the "PS3 can't get a publicity break" file comes news that the system's Blu-ray load times will be slower than the DVD speeds of the Xbox 360. Following our post regarding Resistance: Fall of Man's beefy 22GBs of data, Microsoft's Andre Vrignaud (aka Ozymandias) wrote about why storage capacity isn't as important as drive speed and -- wouldn'tcha know it? -- Blu-ray has bunches of the former and not so much of the latter. Former Sony employee Mark DeLoura responded with a long, thoughtful response sticking up for the format that fanboys love to hate, talking textures, audio, and even read speed. Naturally, there's some guffawing from the other side of the aisle as Ozymandias takes umbrage with some of DeLoura's claims, notably that textures and other media will take up a sizable chunk of that Blu-ray disc. One area they are in agreement on is that Blu-ray's read speed isn't as fast as the Xbox 360's. Says DeLoura: "Admittedly, Blu-Ray looks dicey from several non-capacity angles. Blu-Ray movies require a 1.5x Blu-Ray drive, or 54Mbits/second. Sony announced that PS3 uses a 2x BD drive, which is 72Mbits/second or 9MB/second. The Xbox 360 uses a 12x DVD, which should give it about 16MB/second. That is significantly faster for games and will result in shorter load times. And that 12x DVD drive should be a whole lot cheaper. (Note that the PS3 drive will do 8x DVD, and even that is faster than 2x BD.)" Says Ozymandias in response: "This is pretty much what I've been saying regarding drive speeds. A good example of where we're pretty clearly agreeing." So, they're in agreement. The PS3 will load slower than the Xbox 360, leading one to question whether bragging about 22GB discs is the most prudent course of action. Let's hope they use the compression technologies touched on in the debate to shrink the data down considerably, even if it obviates a key selling point of the console. ... but wait, it's not all settled. Be sure to read the comments on Ozymandias' last post to get a bunch of great feedback, including this gem on the finer differences between CAV and CLV drives ("a BD25 on PS3 fares better than a DVD9 on the 360"), or Kim Pallister's link back to his own feedback on the fight and the "innovator's dilemma." [Thanks, Hank; via DigitalBattle] Grist - Will Resistance: FoM justify the PS3 pricetag? [Joystiq] Point - Drive Speed More Relevant to Games Than Capacity [Ozymandias] Counterpoint - On PS3 and Blu-Ray [Mark DeLoura] Counter-counterpoint - Oddly, We're in Violent Agreement [Ozymandias]
Will Resistance: FoM justify the PS3 pricetag? [update 1]
Insomniac Games, the guys behind the Ratchet and Clank series, were in the Big Apple showing off the latest build of their upcoming PS3 launch title, Resistance: Fall of Man. Kotaku had a Gawker cameraman on the scene to grab some video, and MTV News' Stephen Totilo managed the impossible. He extracted some positive press about the PS3 (Sony must be furious at Insomniac, this goes against their entire pre-launch strategy). Turns out that Blu-ray drive that every armchair analyst is convinced is a giant wooden equine built to penetrate our consumer-weary walls and then attack with an army of HD movies may actually be useful for gaming afterall. The game currently takes up 22GB! That's seven whole gee-bees more than a single layer HD-DVD disc that the Xbox 360 won't (?) be using for gaming. The Dual Shake functionality that was supposedly tacked on at the last minute ... well, it looks like it was still tacked on; nevertheless, it holds some serious promise. Ninety days before this thing has to be on store shelves the developers have still not activated the functionality on the controller, but they have added in some clever gameplay currently triggered with a button press. Shake off a melee attack by shaking the controller, or introduce the end of your rifle to their face with a quick jab of your right hand. Sure, you won't feel the vibration when that blow connects, but it's something. But there's also multiplayer. How will Sony's secretive service compare to the superlative Xbox Live? R: FoM will feature: "40-player online matches at launch; 60 levels of player progression while playing online; two-player offline co-op." 60 levels of player progression ... sounds like another popular online game. According to MTV News, Insomniac even promised "better, deeper support than any Xbox Live title." Has the PS3 buzz finally begun? We've been increasingly anxious that someone at Sony didn't get the memo that their latest and greatest was launching in a few scant months. [Update: Insomniac's Ryan Schneider called MTV News to clarify what exactly is on those 22GBs. "While the music and vocals in Resistance take up only about 1 Gigabyte of disc space, graphics, level data and programming code occupy most of the remaining 21."] Watch - New Resistance: Fall of Man video Read - MTV News on Resistance: Fall of Man
