Effective immediately, Sony and Insomniac Games are instigating a ban policy on Resistance: Fall of Man. What do you need to look out for, else you'll get the axe from Insomniac? We'll tell you because we know you don't want to get banned from the game (permanently) and have your PlayStation Network account suspended.

1. Offensive clan names or user names. If you've combined one with the other to create words or phrases violating the EULA (something something language association). That means no more Pen-15 jokes.
2. No cheating/exploiting! I still don't know why people cheat in a game whose outcome determines absolutely nothing about your life... seriously, if you need to cheat to win, you lose. Lame? Sure. But it's true. Grow up and test your skill against someone else like a grown-up. If you suspect someone of using a lag device or some other exploitation of the game, send a private message to the MyResistance.net "cheating" account (username: cheating). These cheats aren't allowed in any game, public or private.

It's worth noting that the offensive names earn you a permanent ban, but cheating gets you a 24-hour ban. This extends for each additional time you're caught. Moderators will join games, but you won't see them. So they're watching. Don't cheat, guys. It proves nothing except you don't believe in your abilities to play the game normally and still kick ass.

In March, there will come a few new multiplayer modes of play for the PS3 launch title Resistance: Fall of Man. Soon after, in May, there will come a few new maps. This is exciting news for anyone who has learned the layout of every map and is pretty much bored of the same running route or always playing capture the flag... or whatever. Anyway, the two new gameplay modes are "Team Conversion" and "Assault".

• Team Conversion: like Conversion, but with a team. Neat?
• Assault: essentially, both teams have a base they need to defend and they also have a set of defense nodes and satellite nodes that, if destroyed, weaken the "defenses" of their main base. We guess that means the "health bar" for the main base would decrease. Overtaken satellite nodes become neutral -- a spawning point for both teams. Dangerous!

Other fixes have been made for the March patch. Spectators can join custom games and use a player's eyes as his own, along with a free-roaming camera so you can see that sniper in the bushes even if the player doesn't. All glitches and collision holes have been fixed. Matchmaking is quicker and more reliable. Weapons tweaked; the old radar has been added as an option if you want it.

What's in store for May? Well, how does worldwide play sound to you? A nice addition, indeed. Also, the map pack will be made available for purchase and download within the game. Both maps are set in England: one in Westmorland, one in Camborn. The former is snowy and very open, the latter has both above ground and subterranean combat. These aren't rehashed maps, either -- they've brand new and specifically designed for multiplayer.

Geez. There's a lot of info in the interview with IGN. We decided to cover the maps and new gameplay modes, but the interview also discusses the European launch, plans for future updates, and of course, the all-but-confirmed sequel. Even so, this stuff looks like it'll satisfy plenty of gamers until more information becomes available. Your thoughts?
[Thanks, Sean!]

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.

Resistance: Fall of Man's lead multiplayer programmer Eric Ellis has blogged the lid off of Insomniac's patch plans. While avoiding full disclosure, Ellis did outline the team's intention to bring better weapon balance to the game's online experience, with a focus toward enhancing team-based strategic gameplay -- a welcome alternative to those chaotic 40-player free-for-alls.

Ellis was clear that the patch would be implemented "very soon."

[Update 1: We got our answer. The entire thing is blown way out of proportion. There are still padding files, but they're a relatively meager 420MB per region. 2: We've removed the original headline which read "Resistance = 17.75GB of garbage?" We've maintained the original post below for accountability, but remind readers that the speculative remarks about the game's size aren't accurate.]

Resistance: Fall of Man was billed to be the defining game for why Blu-ray exists in the first place. Resistance developers Insomniac stated that the game took up 22GB of space and that all those bits and bytes were necessary to make the game work. It would seem that ripping the disk in Linux shows otherwise.

A NeoGAF forum member by the name of squatingyeti posted a long list of padding files on the Resistance disk; the padding took up approximately 17.75GB of space. Padding is frequently used to push data to the outer edges of the disk to improve read times, but Blu-ray is supposed to be a constant read over the entire disk.

It's possible that the data isn't fully true and we would like to see some confirmation; however, if this report that 81% of Resistance is just empty filler and could fit on a single-layer DVD is accurate, will this put a hole in Sony's claim that Blu-ray is absolutely necessary this generation? The padding isn't needed to make the read speeds any better and (if true) is a lame way for Sony to justify Blu-ray for gaming.

Well, Sony had already confirmed that each game for the PS3 will use the same universal sign-in and online ID, but some will have the option to use an extra buddy list system via xfire, like Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom. As for Resistance, UK producer Dan Brooke "wishes to be clear that Resistance uses the PlayStation online ID to sign into the game. There is no separate login for Resistance and the online ID you create will be the same you use for all titles." All right, so basically, don't make your ID "fallofmanfragger" or else you'll look foolish in an online... like... Sonic match or something.

As far as other features Resistance will offer, you've got some advanced community junk like clan support, party support, match-making and the more or less mandatory ranking system. The PS3 doesn't currently have these options as a standard, so those are specific to Resistance (does that mean you won't rack up entitlement points or whatever? Bah, online squabbling). In essence, this is still dangerously close to the PS2's online system, but give it a few software updates over the course of a year and it should be a viable online console.

Let's first get this out of the way: the guy who wrote the original article (Dean Takahashi) is a graphics freak. Loves them. "A kind of obsession," he says. The PS3, he says in that regard, doesn't have perfect animation but "it's pretty darn good looking." He also says (not us! He said this! Don't shoot the messenger!) "If you'll recall, Microsoft had high hopes that Sony's first-generation games would look cruddy." I bet they were hoping that, because, you know, it's not the gameplay that matters. Not at all (sarcasm).

Mr. Takahashi continues to say how the PS3 games are looking quite nice, even for first-generation games! He even went so far as to say, "by and large, the games I saw looked BETTER than Xbox 360 games." Oooh, that's a pretty lofty claim. But, he said, not all the games were necessarily worth the price difference in the consoles. Ridge Racer 7, he says, looks far better than Ridge Racer 6 for the 360. Also looking better than the competition is Resistance: Fall of Man. Falling short of expectations was the build of Virtua Fighter 5 -- not quite as pretty as DOA4 for the 360 (and with those ladies, who'd argue?). Lair is also looking good, but Takahashi didn't focus on graphics, possibly because it's way too early to decide. Anyway, overall, we can get pumped up for the PS3 (again...) and know that we'll get a few very enjoyable titles at launch and early next year.

Resistance: Fall of Man will be released as a PS3 launch title, filling the requisite "sci-fi shooter" slot in the bingo card of console launches. At Sony's recent Gamer's Day, I played this PS3 exclusive from Insomniac Games; the areas I saw looked good and played well, but little suggested this would be a new benchmark FPS. Still, it should be a strong PS3 opener to introduce the system.

The Insomniac team didn't say much about the story as I started playing -- something about horrible human-monster hybrids -- but I didn't care. I was there to blow stuff up, and the gameplay held my interest. Resistance felt good as a shooter; the controls were competent, and the action maintained a fast pace, with lots of monsters -- sometimes dozens -- trying to shoot me.

The man we're talking about is Ted Price, who is very, almost surprisingly, good at keeping up with reader requests on his blog at IGN. Let's go over some of the bits and pieces that really matter.

• The final disc size is 16GB. Why? PAL movies were removed and improved data compression (ah-ha! Knew that was going to be a part of it).
• Ted Price: "Still, having a lot of space on Bluray means that we're including things we wouldn't have been able to include if we had had to use dual layer DVDs: higher res game assets and more of them, HD movies, higher fidelity sounds, more dialogue, all languages on one disc, etc." He also says the whole disc size debate is silly and your experience with the game is what matters!
• The final resolution will be 720p, for a few reasons. Insomniac said they'd try and they did, but they wanted to keep the VRAM down (and 1080p used a lot more than 720p did, obviously).
  
• No video chat for Resistance, but future PS3 games will have such.

Everything else is open-forum Q&A and more or less dismissable. So, the disc size is smaller, but still giving the thumbs up to Blu-ray. The resolution isn't 1080p, but that should only bother about 2% of people (about 60% who are interested in the PS3). No video chat? Okay. We're still excited about this game!
[thanks, portorikan!]

Mouthblog. Mmmm. There have been a lot of people asking a lot of questions about the anticipated Resistance: Fall of Man. Questions that, when answered, would no longer be questions. With that not-unflawless logic in mind, Insomniac's Ted Price has decided to do just that -- answer questions. Let's listen in to the good ones, shall we?

Someone cited that the aiming system seen in video footage was jerky. Ted Price responds! "When we were prototyping the game we realized that if there's any lag in the camera motion when aiming, the game can get frustrating so we came down on the side of quick response. We did of course look at other quality FPS's to ensure that we weren't too far off base. Even better, you can adjust the sensitivity of the controls in the controller options screen. This will give you the option of having the camera move very slowly and smoothly, extremely quickly or something in between." So, does this mean something like Counterstrike but sans the mouse? Forgive the ignorance, FPS fans, as it's not this blogger's primary joy.

What makes the game different from Halo, Prey, Gears of War, etc? Price says it has to do with a few things. First is the way the story is told -- not through the eyes of a protagonist, but through a British Intelligence officer trying to put pieces of a mystery together (a cool twist on the conventional "this is my story... let's blow stuff up" method employed by many, many games). The unique weapons are also cited as a reason -- each carries a unique property instead of "B is stronger than A, C is stronger than B, if you have A against C you will die quickly." The 40-person online matches are pointed out next, with three unique play modes in addition to the normal three.

If you're playing a splitscreen on a 16:9 TV, the screen is cut vertical. On a 4:3 screen, it's cut horizontal. A nice touch, really. No mouse/keyboard functionality, but there will be headset support. Geez, there are a ton of questions and answers! The above two seemed to be most relevant, but if you want to know about vehicles being supported, specific weapon types, more about Insomniac's relation to Sony... read the Q&A session. It's fairly interesting -- and amazing how nice Ted Price comes across.

As part of a flood of press materials coming out of Sony during the Tokyo Game Show, the company has confirmed six of the titles that will launch with the system in Japan on Nov. 11. They are:

• Resistance: Fall of Man
• Ridge Racer 7
• Genji: Days of the Blade
• Sega Golf Club
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight
• Mah-Jong Fight Club Online

This list is tentative, and is liable to grow and change in the weeks leading up to launch. While none of these titles have been officially confirmed for the North American release on Nov. 17, the system is region-free for games, so if worst comes to worst you can get your Mah-Jong fix via an importer.

Speaking of the North American launch, Gamespot is reporting that Activision and Electronic Arts have pledged a combined seven to eight games for launch on this side of the Pacific, with Take Two and Ubisoft likely to contribute a few more in the launch window.

It may not be much (at all), but the official Resistance: Fall of Man teaser website is active. You're greeted by a funky flash animation of a map of Europe being... overtaken by darkness. Fog and smoke come soon after with a nice still shot of what seems to be an empty battlefield littered with skeletons. One ugly skull (possibly alien!) stares at you intently, asking you, "please, shoot up some junk for me!" (note: that isn't actually said, but implied through those innocent eye sockets) Don't forget about the fairly creepy music. Other than that? Nothing. Fun to look at for a few minutes. You can sign up for any R:FoM updates, but otherwise, it's just empty for now. We'll keep you posted on the site as things pop up on it.

We heard about a supposed graphical boost for Resistance: Fall of Man late last week and the boost is very true. In fact, the game is taking up about 22GB of space on the PS3's Blu-ray disc. That's 7 whole GB's more than an HD-DVD disc, which isn't even being used as a standard format for games yet. Just a side-by-side, the Xbox 360's games top off around 8GB. Further, most PC titles only go up to 7GB. So why the insane jump in size? Is it necessary? Some space could be filler, difficult programming or what-have-you (we all know our computers aren't as "full" as they say they are). The grand total may be lowered a little, possibly to 20GB. Just a shot in the dark, though.

So what's the deal with the game now? Aside from the high-res graphics and orchestral music boost, Sony and Insomniac Games are boasting a few other key selling points. Namely:

• tilt-function will let you rifle butt aliens with a quick jab o' your controller
• online support exceeding Xbox Live launch titles (that's not really a valid claim until it's tested, guys...)
• 40 player online games
• some sort of ranking system

It is definitely looking good! But looks only go so far. How will it play? We've only a few months until we find out.

[Thanks to VJ as well from his comment and link on the previous Resistance: FoM article!]

[Update: fixed interpretation of online experience, changed HD-DVD comparison to single layer]

A forum over at NeoGaf has an interesting quote from Insomniac Games' James Stevenson. Someone had asked if the graphics for their upcoming title Resistance: Fall of Man has had any changes since the E3 demo. To this, Stevenson responded: "Over the E3 demo? Hah! I'm incredibly impressed with how much the graphics have improved in the past two weeks. I almost didn't recognize a couple of levels now that the lighting has gone in." Well, well, Mr. Stevenson. Have you any screens to back up this haughty claim? ...Didn't think so.

Even though there are a few screens on the forum page, they're the old ones. But still -- if the graphics have been overhauled from what is shown there (with advanced lighting effects or particle nonsense... whatever) then we'll definately have a fun launch. Resistance: FoM and F.E.A.R. will probably compete with each other for some reason (not to mention Gears of War). Basically, these realistic crazy alien-demon-shooters are going to go at each other's throats and that will be one exciting death match to watch. If you're into those sort of games. Where do you ally yourselves?

Have you heard of the game Resistance: Fall of Man? If not, you most certainly will. Posted at the NeoGAF forum, people have been buzzing about the new marketing plan Sony is initiating. To quote: "Sony Computer Entertainment America will support Resistance: Fall of Man with a blockbuster multimillion dollar marketing campaign. This will include aggressive national television, print, online and viral advertising campaigns, full promotional support, dedicated point-of-purchase displays and merchandising support, broad-based public relations support, an immersive and interactive website and feature coverage in the Official PlayStation Magazine/Underground DVD." Wow! That's a lot of advertising for one game, even though it was speculated this game would get a lot of press.

If you're interested in multiplayer bouts, James Stevenson, a new addition to Insomniac Games has posted a blog about his adventures with the 40 player online mode, also summed up at the forum. Check it out, get excited, whatever. Does anyone think this game will prove worthy competition to the much anticipated Gears of War? That's a tough call and probably a good battle to watch upon both releases.