Voltage divided by Current

Another campaign completed! Late Saturday morning (2AM) I finished Resistance 2. Bottom line: This is an awesome game and I plan on playing through the campaign again. Many times I finish a game and think, “Good, but that’s enough.” For example, I have not gone back to Mirror’s Edge, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, or even Call of Duty: World at War (finished two weeks ago). I WANT to do R2 again. As of this writing, I am in the middle of the Orrick stage on the Difficult setting. I liked Resistance: Fall of Man – I played it through once. But R2 has – I feel – some improvements:

• You don’t ‘worry’ about your health level or looking for heath packs in R2, it now works similar to Call of Duty, where you recover your hit points. This makes sense, even in RFoM, Nathan (you, the main character) recovered to half health over time.
• In RFoM, you carried every weapon and only worried about ammo. In R2, you can only carry two guns. I like pressing Triangle rather than going to the Ratchet & Clank weapon selector popup. It’s funny: every time I find a Laark lying around, I know the Boss is coming.
• The color is much brighter in R2. I liked the brown/gray of RFoM – it felt like it was set in the 1950’s during war time. The color palette of R2 looks like it was borrowed from Insomniac’s R&C. More in the Scenery section below.

The story of humans versus Chimera is continued and follows Nathan Hale (I have not played Resistance: Retribution on the PSP). I never really like the core concept of the story: Aliens (either a virus or entities) arrive on earth at the Tunguska Blast of 1908. These aliens can mutate humans (or multiple humans) into humanoid (or EXTREMELY large) creatures. The Chimera, like all villains, desire to take over the world. After taking Europe in RFoM, the battle continues in North America. One of the best parts of this game is the varied scenery. I thought Orick, California was amazing. You do battle in Iceland; small city Twin Falls, Idaho; big city Chicago; the swamps of Louisiana; and inside the modern world of a Chimeran ship and facility. Great variety! The maps are creative and long.

Bosses are back! The only thing missing is the health bar. R2 often ended each of the levels with a large beast.

• Kracken: bad breath and tentacles
• Mother Spinner: a huge dragon spider The Swarm: a swirling mass of sharp metal pieces that rip it’s prey apart. No way to kill it! Or is there?
• Leviathan: Bigger than Godzilla.
• Maurader: Part elephant, part T-Rex. It remined me of a Dewback.
• Daedalus: AKA Jordan Shepherd.

The best part of the bosses is that you don’t kill them with the conventional method. Usually you have to set a trap or trick them. Fun.

My favorite moment was sniping the house at the beginning of the Louisiana level. Once you clear the house you find a Laark – uh oh. A call comes in telling you that a Maurader was seen sniffing around your area. The Maurader turns out to be a big T-Rex like creature; the darn thing scared the crap out of me! (My mother uses the word crap, so it must be OK). It peeks in the window as you hid from it trying to get a good shot. All you hear is the earth pound and the building shake. I would not say it was a surprise ending – I knew what the final 'conflict' would be. There are only about four ways out of it. No Spoiler given. I am not even close to finishing the R2 experience. I have co-operative and competitive on-line modes to complete. Buying this game – which I encourage any PS3 owner to do – is well worth the money.

Oh, I should explain the title. “Resistance” is part of Ohms law: V=IR. Solving for “Resistance” produces V/I or Voltage over Current. Geek humor; almost as bad as RDRR.

First/Third Person Shooters - the long version

As of today, Call of Duty 4 is the standard by which all on-line multiplayer shooters are compared – it is the GOLD standard. I am at level 1 again: I just entered my second prestige mode. Each game is unique and the play is fast. After a few rounds you develop rivalries with players – and sometimes you make friends: ACE, Fey, FuriousOwl, PowerfulNinja, Skaterguy, SpiderPiggy, VarHug, BevHills (not actual PSN names, but close). I’ve had this game since I owned my PS3 – and I still play it ~6 hours a week. I got a beta key for Resistance 2 from the wonderful people at PlayStation Underground. My impressions of the beta (played 4 times, 2 hours each) are ‘ho-hum.’ It’s good – hey, it’s Insomniac, but it doesn’t have the fun and excitement as COD4. It feels just like the RFoM multiplayer. 60 players at once is awesome! How do they do that without lag? And getting your name in the top 10 is a rush (6th was my best). But the experience feels flat. The colors are brighter than RFoM – more like Ratchet and Clank – I think I like the old depressing colors that go better with a 1950’s setting about the ‘Fall of Man.’ (Am I being too picky?) The new weapons are nice; I started to favor the Marksman; the buzz-saw is fun. I don’t understand the berserker business – but I’m sure I will learn. The cooperative mode was different – but with a short one level beta, it is too soon to judge the ‘fun’ level. I think Insomniac made the Chimera too strong; it takes many, many hits from multiple players to take done one baddie. And only one person gets the ‘kill:’ the last shot. I know they made it this way so a large team (8) simply doesn’t run through the level, but it feels awkward. My advice: find a medic and stick by him (or her). San Francisco was the best map (10 players max); Orick was a forest scene that allowed games up to 60 players. I am hopeful that this impression will change. I played the COD4 single player game all the way through before going on-line. If I play R2 through – learn the weapons and the controls – maybe then I will ‘get it.’ I did buy R2 last week - it's still in the shrink wrap on the shelf: too much to play. Now let’s talk SOCOM: Confrontation. Oh, it has such potential! This very beautiful game with large maps initially gives you a feeling of awe. But the game-play is very slow. It takes time to find your enemy; it takes time to switch weapons; it takes a long time for the game to load. I know it is a tactical shooter, but remember, I am comparing it to COD4. I have hope that they will patch the server software and make some things faster. I play this game in the mornings because the servers are less full. I have tried to hook up with friends: it’s difficult in-game. Best to plan out which server and create a game. I am waiting for 1.30 patch to dig deeper into game. I received yet another beta key for KillZone 2. I've actually played this a lot; helping the guys at Guerrila Games out. This is a great shooter - it feels real (expect for the pain of death). The beta is only for the on-line multi-player portion, like R2. Nice boards - I like how dark they are, yet I see everything. The level-up system is great - I even lost 3 points after a poor performance. But here is the bad news for publisher: I'm saturated. This game is not on my wishlist because I am full of shooters. I have no history with KillZone like I have with Resistance and Call of Duty. So, unless the campaign gets awesome reviews, once the beta is over, KZ2 will not be on my PS3. The son-of-COD4 was released Tuesday: Call of Duty: World at War. I'm not ready for it! I've heard good things and seen some levels on YouTube. I'll buy this at Target the on Black Friday; then it will sit in the shrink wrap until the two weeks around Christmas. So many people to shoot - by so little time.