Will Resistance: FoM justify the PS3 pricetag? [update 1]
by Christopher Grant 
{ Aug 22nd 2006 at 12:55PM }
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."
[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
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Jon R @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:00PM
i saw this vid and this makes me want to buy this game but still no rumble is a big thing for me
Watership @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:03PM
15-20 more gigs than the average 360 game! That will make it 3x better looking and bigger than any xbox 360 game! PS3's first online network attempt will launch with a game that's got better online support than Xbox live with it's 4 years of infrastructure and stability and content!
It's all true!
Shine @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:04PM
Did I read this right? 60 levels? Is this maps for multiplayer? Hell I thought 20 maps was a good number, 60?!?
But 'better' than any Xbox 360 game title is alittle... wrong. It may be the best FPS so far but some people just don't like FPS games, some people like to kick back and play some good old Madden or Halo 2 on Xbox Live and they could argue that its 'better' than any other game, I guess!
Anyway, 60 maps, if its true, sounds great. Thats a massive achievment for a console game, I guess its almost as great as Far Cry with the map maker, or something!
Footlong! @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:05PM
regardless of my distaste/distrust for sony, i can objectively say i see nothing special in this game. the graphics are nice but not mind blowing. the gameplay itself looked slow-paced and boring. the a.i. was awful. one of the creatures got stuck in a stairway. people are comparing this to PDZ in terms of the flagship launch title (or shooter at least) the connection i see between the two is they're both overhyped and, pending release of the game, i can bet it will also be a let-down like pdz
KVN @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:08PM
"The game currently takes up 22GB!" I find this very hard to believe games like oblivion that has hours of speech for each of the many and i mean many characters huge highly detailed worlds can fit on one 4.7gb dvd.What is this game going to be the first 1080p game with loads of 1080p videos i really don't think so.
C, Ravitch @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:08PM
This is for response #2, you my friend are suffering from SonyFanBoyidus and need to seek medical attention ASAP!! How in the world do YOU know how thw Sony Online Service is going to be??? Listen I will support ALL three systems and I am totally looking foward to this game as a launch title for the PS3 though I still think that 600.00 beans is too much and it's 200.00 more than I would want to spend!!!
snack @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:09PM
I am a little skeptical about the 22GB claim, because they could just not be compressing the data. I am sure any game developer can take up 22GB of space on a disk without compression. It is good that the PS3 doesn't have to decompress files, because the storage is so big, but it really isnt saying much if the files are not compressed. Had they said it was 22GB of compressed data, I would be surprised.
Shine @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:09PM
Forgot to add, i'm glad that games in this next-gen will be able to handle more enemys on screen, its a great thing.
The graphics for the game look great and the physic system looks great too, glass+barrel roll trap yay.
bv @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:10PM
Honestly that video clip did nothing to impress me. The FPS market is so overly saturated with games that it takes more than "unique glass breaking physics" and "multi directional bullets" to make a game stand out. The part that bothers me is that there is no emphasis on the storyline. Instead the guy narrating the gameplay mentions how the A.I. is incredible (even though one of the enemies gets stuck behind a damn wall) and how leapers attack in packs. It sounds like every other damn goth/zombie/wolfenstein clone that's been shoved down gamer's throats for the past 20 years. Give me something to compete with the amazing experience I had in Half Life 2 and Episode 1. Those two games focused on story. You never felt like you were repeating the same scenario over and over. There were no pointless moments where you had to "kill all the baddies on the screen" for kicks. There was always a meaning behind your actions and a feeling of great failure if you died. Being able to immerse a player in the story line is the only way a FPS can survive in today's market, at least in my opinion. I sure don't want to play a game where physics and AI are the key points. I like good looks and everything, don't get me wrong, but I need a good personality to keep things fresh.
vid33nyc1 @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:10PM
I see nothing special.Looks like your typical Run N Gun FPS.The A.I looks pretty average.For the game to be that big it doesnt look like they are compressing anything.And no the size of the disk has nothing to do with how good the game is going to look.
nambit @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:11PM
I expect comments from brick walls that carry a piece of wood.
reguy @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:11PM
keep talking your smack sony, it will be all the more sweet when you DONT deliver
xbox live? nah they suck!!! we cant so it 10 times better, and for FREE!!! just look at our game, it holds 22gb, and by the time nov 17 hits it will be better than enough any xbox 360 can ever dream up.
for all the talk this game still doesnt look as good as gears of war, or mass effect, or bioshock but hey what do i know right??
GunForHire @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:12PM
If it takes up 22Gb, that just means they aren't bothering with compression and are probably using pre-rendered HD video for FMV rather than doing stuff in-engine, as is done with 360 games. Big deal.
aka Bitter @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:13PM
Is that 22GB for just the US version assets only?
I recall in a previous Insomniac interview they were touting Blu-Ray's ability to include all versions and/or regions on a single game disc.
Bitter
Cabrill @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:13PM
I like the graphics, and the online component sounds deep. I'll be sure to pick it up when the version with Rumble support ships.
Scott @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:13PM
22GB for the game, eh? That just means that Resistance:FoM uses zero compression IMHO. There was nothing in that video that showed me "enhanced" over any current/upcoming 360 title.
bobsworth @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:14PM
#3 I think they meant 60 levels of progression similiar to Halo 2's level system, not maps....
#2 YOUR AN IDIOT. More data on the disc does not mean 3 times better graphics. The Blu Ray discs are just allowing developers to bypass the entire compression process. This game is taking so much space because of the fact that there is no need to compress the data into a managable amount. I cant tell if your seriously that stupid or if your joking...
Stoo @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:14PM
This looks horribly generic.
If it takes up 22Gb, it's either the most appallingly optimised game ever programmed or has probably been crammed with about 24 hours' worth of high-definition FMV.
TehDestroyer @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:14PM
This game will not justify the PS3's price tag. The premise is new and refreshing but the graphics look meh compared to what I thought the PS3 could push and the lack of rumble in the controller only adds to the decidedly average tone of the game.
Frosty22 @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:14PM
I wonder what the 22gb consists of. I remember months back that Sony said that they would be creating the games 'region free'. Could the 22 gigs consist of the code for all of the different regions?
Jason W @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:16PM
I saw the video and the AI sucks. One of the enemies gets stuck on the stairs in the first min and 1/2 of the video.
Grant @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:16PM
22gigs isn't that surprising because the game isn't done yet!
There are tons of uncompressed images, textures, maps, models, audio, etc, etc. When you apply the compresion schemes to all of those things, well you greatly reduce your size. Trust me, Oblivion was NOT 4.7 gigs before it was finished. If you've ever done any recording you know that with the amount of music and voices in that game it wasn't 4.7 gigs for the audio alone.
Rask @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:17PM
The first word that comes to my mind when looking at that is this:
Generic
I really don't get the same "This game is something special" buzz that I got when watching the Gears of War opening from E3.
Oh, and that 22GB thing probably means that they have all their FMV's in 420p, 720p and 1080p versions.
40 players to a game in a FPS and they still maintain that their platform will be free to play? I have serious doubts about that one. With all the money Sony is losing per-console, I find it hard to believe they'll want to foot the bill on bandwidth costs too.
People paid good money to hosts to run their BF2 servers to get even 16 or 32 player servers up cause a player can't host that much on a residential connection/computer. Someone's serving the gamers a serious amount of bullshit. Wether it's Sony or the 3rd party devs remains to be seen however.
Remeber, if it's too good to be true, it probably is.
J.Goodwin @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:17PM
I think the sixty levels of player progression is a reference to the ladder system.
So it's approximately equivalent to TrueSkill, but with bigger numbers.
I wonder if the large simultaneous matches will require one player to be a dedicated host server.
bull_lord @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:18PM
ok heres my HONEST opinions, i like sony and all but here we go:
1. What is this, VAMPIRE SLAYER 4? seriously, the enemys just lunge at you and try to bite your neck, isn't that abit dull? won't it get repetitive after awhile? I mean, this is a highly advanced alien race and they managed to find earth in our tiny solar system yet they still use their teeth as weapons? ...puh-lease.
2. The AI doesn't look too good, im sure I saw afew enemys get stuck behind stuff, plus the repetitive biting stuff.
3. Slow paced, though I like the part at the end with the little aliens swarming up the stairs, it generally was slow, and boring
4. Graphics are good, but not in the mindblowing section. Games like Halo 6 years back, Far cry afew years back and now Crysis, are mindblowing in terms of graphics, this isn't one of them, though they are good.
thats all really, the phsics looks good with the glass shattering but.. meh, this may be a good game but it doesn't deserve the massive hype its getting, this isn't Halo 3 or Half Life 3 guys :).
Tim @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:18PM
I think it means 60 Levels as in Character Levels, Shine. Multiplayer Maps haven't been called Levels in a long time.
"60 levels of player progression ... sounds like another popular online game." is meant to allude to World of Warcraft, the 'other' game with 60 levels.
JJ @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:19PM
The multiplayer sounds fun... 2 player offline co op too? Sign me up! heh i love co op games.
and yes FPS are a bit generic these days, but they sell so what can ya do?
Funny thought, MS announces a new FPS and people fall over themselves... Sony has one, Meh. If we are gonna call foul over one company doing FPS.. heck do it for all of em (including halo 3)
JJ @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:20PM
and the graphics look fine to me from what i can see of the blurry video... is it just me or does it feel wrong to bash a games graphics when the video is...blurry?
Tom @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:21PM
I don't get why people are getting excited by this game, the video is truly horrible. The biggest thing it seems to have is glass breaking which is nice and all but hardly something to buy a game for.
They claim the A.I is great yet the leapers seem to just mindlessly run forward and the advanced hybrid can't cope with a doorway.
The level of interactivity is that you can shoot something so barrels roll down a hill? Erm wtf? Thats standard practice this generation let alone next. Seriously maybe they got stuck in a time warp and thing its the year 2000 or something.
Oh and shaking the controller = go play house of the dead 4.
Apoklypse @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:22PM
Yep, I played this one at E3 for a while, and while it is very fast and very fluid... it is quite derivative and quite generic- a couple of you hit the nail right on the head. It doesn't really have a style to it.
Possibly a "good" game, but a system seller it ain't.
Zenorc @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:24PM
Insomniac even promised "better, deeper support than any Xbox Live title.''
Wait, I don't get it.. its going to be better and deeper than any Xbox Live title, not likely, but still, it doesn't look as good as Gears of War, Rainbow Six Vegas or Bioshock, at all. Hahahha silly PS3 developers.
Can't blame 'em tho!!! of course they gotta say that, they're in it for the money! They make lies and you drench 'em with cash! I'd do the same thing.
Agent MOO @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:25PM
More for your money with the Xbox360+Wii combo. F#*& blu-ray, I don't want it.
rjg @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:26PM
They guys behind Racket & Clank rock. I would not discount this game too quickly. I own a xbox360 and ps2 and the Racket games have been the highlight of the system for the most part. I think this is probably the only game Sony has in it's lineup that makes me want a ps3. Unfortunately for Sony, one game does not a system make and I certainly won't buy a PS3 on launchday just for this title. It looks real good, but better than Halo3 good? Insomniac is certainly capable of greatness but it would be surprising if it were Halo3 level great . I might end up with a PS3 next to my xbox360 (remember, I'm a ps1 and ps2 owner not a fanboy), but looking at Lost Planet and Halo3 in particular, it's hard for me to believe Sony has more a-list titles like this in the works. If I'm wrong, great, I'll gradly plunk down my cash for a PS3 - once the price drops to reasonable levels. I'd just rather dump 600+ dollars into my sports car given the choice...
Watership @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:26PM
RE: C, Ravitch
"This is for response #2, you my friend are suffering from SonyFanBoyidus and need to seek medical attention ASAP!!"
RE: bobsworth
"#2 YOUR AN IDIOT. More data on the disc does not mean 3 times better graphics."
Guys. I know. It was sarcasm. :) Anyone with any knowledge of how games are made looks at those boasts and rolls his eyes. 22 gigs for a game is obscene.
C. Grant @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:27PM
Right you are, Tim.
PancakesHouse @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:27PM
For a PR guy to be braging about their game being 22gb is worse than announce Ridge Racer as being the first PSone game on the PSP. Who needs compression anyway when you can just use lazy programmers?
lloyd @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:29PM
how dare you have an opinion and say anything positive about the PS3... quick , everybody bash it in order to return balance in the universe.
spider man @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:31PM
LOL XD, the AI getting stuck. They could of atleast made sure everything was working right before embarrasing themselves with the vid.
this game looks ''good'' not ''great'', meh, worth picking up if I ever see it pre-owned in the bargain section
Robotic House Plant @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:31PM
The first thing that came to mind when I read 22GB of data was they aren't using compression, or they're using the most inefficient compression possible, but I suspect the former.
I do know with Blu-Ray movies for example, they're using MPEG2 which allows for 2 hours of HD content on a single layer BD. Compare that HD DVD using VC-1, which is capable storing 4 hours of HD content on a single layer.
Now I haven't had any hands-on with Blu-Ray, but I can't help but wonder what the loads times would be on a game using uncompressed vs compressed data.
LordMinogue @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:32PM
60 layers of player progression == Halo 2 ranking sys?
jsn @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:33PM
c'mon, there is no possible way that this game could use 22gb unless they are filling it full of uncompressed audio and video clips. That's just retarded. It looks "good" for a console. But lets be realistic, it looks like doom 3 on a mid-high end PC. I do like the rumored uses of controller. That's "neat". For anyone who has been gaming on a PC for more than a year, there's nothing worth dropping $600 on.
joe @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:34PM
22gb? maybe becasue the cell can't decompress and process video signal at the same time. good thing for blueray 50 gb capicaily becasue you know the japanese devs are going to go FMV crazy.
Another generic fps, its more smoke and mirrors from sony, also the lack of rumble reall kills the novelty of the lunging attacks i mean how do i know they lunged on be if im not looking at them. therefore i can't use my new tacked on tilt functionaity.
Sony you look so much better before you opend your mouth. alteast it will Drive MS for better games coming out from their camp. becasue im sure this will be the lanuch title the drones all pick up.
Ninja Dust @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:34PM
better and deeper than any Xbox Live title?
Sorry, but I believe Lost Planet alone owns the hell out of this game, easily, with graphics AND gameplay. I simply can't waait, same for Gears of War and many other games too.
mediocre fps getting hype, hahahha, guys dis isnt Halo 5 u know, stop hyping it!!
apoc06 @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:36PM
Ignoring the hate and back and forth banter, I think the game has come along way. I'm impressed with its progress.
Resistance was largely forgettable back at e3 2005. A slight blip at e3 2006. Now it's shaping up to be a solid game.
Will Insomniac be able to deliver? Who knows? I trust Insomniac as a developer. The Ratchet and Clank series got stale from sequelitis, so taking a break from it and trying something new is a welcome change from them.
"60+ levels of player progression?" I read progression more like skill progression; how Halo2 has 'player skill levels', than to assume he meant multiplayer maps. Then again, who knows how many multiplayer maps they've salvaged from the R&C and R:D cutting room floors?
If not for the media silence surrounding the MIA Killzone2 FPS, I probably would never have even looked at this game twice.
Infil @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:38PM
I agree that 22GB of game just means it's (currently) horribly compressed, or they're filling it with mindless extras for no purpose (for example, as the one person said, having 3 different qualities of video for all the video in the game). I can't imagine they won't compress this down to a DVD-sized game before launch, because the cost of mass-printing a million Blu-ray discs is still too large, and Sony is already losing too much money.
But to use the fact that your game is uncompressed and taking up space as a *positive* for the console just kinda shows the state of Sony's press these days.
I'm not able to watch the video at work, but it doesn't sound like it's anything special. Sony needs a real killer app if they want to sell more PS3s at launch than the early adopters/fanboys will buy, not a bunch of average to slightly-above-average games (and, even now, it looks like this game and possibly Warhawk are the only two in that category for launch!). You can get many of those on 360 already.
Todd @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:41PM
There is no argument regarding the huge 22GB use for a game, since this can be toned down considerably with proper methods of compression. Sounds like the developer is so lazy as to not seek better compression alternatives with the intent of porting games to other consoles. I'm sure the 360 could easily take such a game.
8frames @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:43PM
22 gigs because it does contain all localized versions, IE: German, French, Klingon languages etc...
Wow...All localizations on one disk.
This IS the next generation of...meh.
JJ @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:44PM
Come on Joe... there's drones for the 360 as well... heck i knew people that picked up madden cuz there was nothing else... and Madden for the 360 at launch was HORRIBLE... there's no excuse for the hackjob EA did on that title.
LaughingTarget @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:45PM
Many here have to realize the visuals aren't all that impressive because it is being shown via YouTube, which doesn't exactly have HD capabilities.
The problem I saw with this game from the video was the overuse of what authors call "plot vouchers", conveniently placed objects that help move the story along or solve some immediate conflict. In the terms of gaming, these can take form of conveniently placed traps, such as the barrels at the top of the stairs toward the end of the video. What gamers should fear is the developers tacking on corny stuff like that in places around the levels just to try and show off their physics engine. In no concievable world would anyone leave a pile of exploding barrels at the top of a staircase with a flimsy support holding them from falling.
Using such elements really tells stories about how well the rest of the game is going to be put together. If developers keep piling on "ooh, this would be cool" moments, the overall presentation will turn out to be a massive joke. Such behaviors tend to filter into the story telling of the game as well and the end result is never any good. A better designed game would have the player building the exact same trap and then using it, though in a shooter, building a trap is normally a waste of time as the action rarely returns to the location where the trap was set.
This makes the entire game predictable. The developers are going to use every opportunity available to them to show off their physics engine. This makes it astoundingly clear when you, say, see a crane hook hanging down from above by a rope that you should shoot it. In a well designed game, the crane hook in such a situation would end up doing nothing of value because in all reality, running into a crane hook that is perfectly positioned to knock over some crates into enemies playing poker below would never happen.
The gamer should never know exactly what to do immediatley when walking into a room. Resistance: Fall of Man looks to be one of those games. Those kinds of games, generally, fail to satisfy.
Resistance, though, could turn out to be a very creative and entertaining title and this impression can easily be chalked up to a poor presentation of the title.
hohoho @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:47PM
pardon me, but with the games ditches data compression, won't it mean that it'll clear the cpu to do other things? chances are won't be much, but hey it's something!
The game seemed like an alpha built, possibly features filled but not fully done. I'll reserve judgement on final game.