Intro Music: Coheed and Cambria – Welcome Home

Outro Music: Robert Palmer – Simply Irresistible

It seems as though if you are a game that has a multiplayer aspect where you shoot people, the cool thing to do is have a “beta.” Resistance 3 really wants to show you that it’s cool just like all the other games, so it has submitted to peer pressure and is going to conduct a beta for some of you lucky folks out there.

Starting August 4th, those of you who bought SOCOM 4 will be the first to experience the Resistance 3 multiplayer beta. Following that, PlayStation Plus members can start participating in the beta as well on August 24th. However, PlayStation Plus members in Europe are going to beat you Northern Americans to the punch because they can start playing on August 10th. PlayStation Blog EU even says there will be some opportunities for people who aren’t subscribers.

The beta will consist of the “Trainyard” and “Seaside” maps, with the ability to play both the Team Deathmatch and Chain Reaction modes. The participants will be able to reach level 20 in the game and can unlock character skins, weapon upgrades, and abilities. All you unfortunate people who will not have access to the beta can watch the above 10 minute video to get a feel for what the multiplayer will be like and see what you’ll be missing.

Resistance 3 will be available on September September 6th for the PlayStation 3

Video via: VG247

Sources: PlayStation Blog US,  PlayStation Blog EU

Behind door number 2, we have Wal-Mart’s offer of five exclusive multiplayer PSN tags for creating names. One such tag is “Sentinel,” which is named after a group of elite soldiers from the game.

Next up, behind door number 3 is Amazon’s bonus: the No. 60 Air Fuel Grenade. It’s a grenade that will stick to most surfaces and will release a flammable vapor which is then ignited to create a spectacle of an explosion.

Waiting behind door number 4 is Best Buy’s offer of the special Lt. Nathan Hale multiplayer skin, which depicts the character from Resistance 2 [SPOILERS] right before the Chimera virus consumed him [/SPOILERS]. You are also offered a special taunt skill to demoralize you adversaries in multiplayer matches.

Finally, behind door number 5 are the Canadian retailers and the remaining U.S. retailers. From these stores you will be getting the SRPA Black Ops multiplayer skin from Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2. Which door will you choose? Your future is in your hands.

Source: PlayStation Blog

Sony pulled the wraps off of Resistance 3‘s box art today and it’s incredible. While most first-person shooters are happy to show you a collage of dead aliens, blood, and bullets Insomniac commissioned British artist Olly Moss to create artwork to promote the game. What he came up with was this brilliant Chimera skull with the NYC skyline for its teeth. While the Resistance franchise has put out a few mediocre games and there is nothing to indicate to us that this isn’t the case with the 3rd PlayStation 3 entry in the series Sony and Insomniac are really pushing for this to be something special. So, hats off to them for trying to create some iconic imagery.

To see more art and get more info check out the PS Blog.

Similar to Sony packing a demo of God of War III with their movie District 9 the company has again decided to bundle a forthcoming game demo with a sci-fi blu-ray. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a Resistance 3 demo will be on the Blu-ray disc of Battle: Los Angeles seeing as how there is a billbaord for the game IN THE MOVIE, but if you want to act surprised that’s fine by us. Battle: Los Angeles or B: LA for short hits store shelves on June 14th. The game is in stores September 6th.

Via G4

Considering they have their hands full with making Resistance 3, it makes sense that Insomniac is not work on the NGP Resistance game. Also, since Bend Studios, the developers behind Resistance: Retribution for the PSP, is working on Uncharted for the NGP, it seems as though Nihilistic was next on the list since they are finishing up PlayStation Move Heroes. Do you think they have what it takes to carry on the Resistance name?

While everyone’s been throwing around rumors that a reveal of the PSP2 was imminent, Kaz Harai has been laughing, because he knew that no one would expect to see an NGP. What is an NGP you ask? Funny you should ask, because I just so happen to have a bunch of details about it here.

NGP is short for what Sony is affectionately calling the Next Generation Portable. For all intents and purposes, the NGP is the PSP2 we’ve been hearing rumor after rumor about for the last few months. We have a synopsis of everything we know after the break, so click the picture above to continue reading. Trust me, you should get used to touching the NGP now…It wants you to.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the NGP looks a lot like the PSP-3000. That’s an accurate statement, but the NGP is noticeably larger in order to accommodate dual analog sticks and a larger screen. Early reports from the lucky few that have had their hands on the NGP state that despite its size, the NGP is light, comfortable, and the analog sticks are satisfying and responsive, which is a welcome difference from the early criticisms of the PSP. I can only speculate that considering the PSP’s mediocre success, the use of the name NGP will be part of a concerted effort for Sony to distance itself from its portable past.

As stated earlier, the screen is much larger than the PSP, measuring in at an impressive 5 inches. The biggest thing to note here is that it’s an OLED screen with a 960×540 display. That means it’s going to look beautiful. The screen itself will also be involved in the controls as it will be multi-touch sensitive. We saw footage of Uncharted being played on the NGP and touch controls were used for platforming as well as combat.

While we’re on the subject of touch, did you notice that the back of the NGP looks a little funny? Why would Sony use the same symbols as its controller buttons for the back? Is it starting to come together? The back panel, affectionately dubbed the “diddle pad” during last night’s live Bullshot!, is a multi-touch sensitive pad that will be utilized in game control, utilizing various finger swipes and caresses to manipulate the character on screen. The example we were given last night, again with Uncharted, was the use of a sliding finger over finger motion to simulate climbing a vine. So on top of a D-pad, dual analog sticks, and the standard array of buttons, we now have two 5-inch multi-touch interfaces. I told you the NGP like to be touched.

Finally, with regards to controls, the NGP will feature six-axis controls, an accelerometer, and a gyroscope, but for the most part, these were just mentioned in passing. We saw them displayed more as a screen orientation device than anything else. You should just know that they’re there. Lair port, anyone? We’ll also have 2 cameras, facing in opposite directions and a built in microphone, which could be useful for WarioWare type mini-games, but will probably be used for augmented reality games and utilities like Skype.

So we have a beautiful screen and a bevy of controls at our disposal, but that doesn’t mean much without being paired with some solid gameplay. While we can’t speak to the caliber of the games as of yet, the potential for some impressive graphics is there. The NGP uses an ARM Cortext-A9 core (4 core) CPU and SGX543MP4+ GPU, which Sony claims will be able to produce PS3-quality games. Kojima was hopeful that claim would come to fruition, stating “What I’d like to realize is playing on your PS3, and when you go out, you put the game on your NGP, and when you come back home, you can once again use your PS3 and large screen TV…This dream is going to come true in the near future”  The trailers and gameplay shown looked impressive, but time will tell if we’re going to get a true PS3 experience on the go.

While we can’t speak to the NGP games’ quality, we do know that the NGP will be able to play PSP titles, minis, PS one classics, videos, and comics from the PlayStation Store. It should be noted that UMDs are gone, so NGP games will be coming to you on small dedicated flash-memory cards that appear to be about the size of an SD card. The games we know are in the works so far are:

• Call of Duty
  
• Broken
  
• Gravity Daze
  
• Hot Shots Golf
  
• Hustle Kings
  
• Killzone
  
• LittleBigPlanet
  
• Little Deviants
  
• Reality Fighters
  
• Resistance
  
• Smart As
  
• Uncharted
  
• WipEout

The last major feature touted by Sony was the NGP’s ability to connect to “LiveArea” and “Activity,” a duet of social experiences built into the NGP. You’ll be able to access news, but more importantly see what games your friends are playing, compare trophies, and interact. Think XBL to go. You’ll have a variety of ways to stay connected as the NGP will come with both Wi-fi and 3G. The NGP will also use a feature called “Near” to connect with other NGP owners in your immediate vicinity.

We’ve been told that the NGP will be in our hands by the end of 2011, but all details beyond that are a mystery. We’re all looking forward to hearing how much the NGP will cost and how long the battery will last. It’s safe to assume that we’ll be finding out at E3, but plenty of people are already speculating. Let us know your thoughts, concerns, and predictions in the comments below.