Resistance: Fall of Man

Insomniac's Ted Price takes us to an alternative 20th century in his firm's PlayStation 3 debut.

Insomniac is a studio known for its success with brightly coloured, cartoon heroes, having enjoyed success since the days of PS one with Spyro the Dragon and, more recently, the Ratchet & Clank series on PlayStation 2. So Resistance: Fall of Man - a blood soaked, mature-minded first person shooter (FPS) that's set to be one of the stars of PlayStation 3's launch line-up, seems something of a departure for them.

Has the move away from Ratchet's humour been strange for the team, we wonder? "Not really..." Ted responds, explaining that "a lot of us at Insomniac are big FPS fans, going all the way back to Disruptor [the studio's first title, a PS one shooter]". If anything, seeing Resistance in action on nifty High Definition screens makes you think that Insomniac is diving into the world of the gritty FPS with relish.

Meet the Chimera

Set in 1951 in an alternative history, a mysterious (for now) race - "the Chimera" - have devastated mankind, sweeping through Asia and Europe before arriving on England's shores. The British Army also suffers at the hands of the vicious Chimera, as does a US contingent sent to help out - but there's still the Resistance of the game's title to fight the good fight. Playing as Nathan Hale, a surviving US Ranger, you join up with the Resistance.

The alternative history setting is an intriguing backdrop to what is already one of the most intense shooters we've ever seen. Silky smooth and boasting huge amounts of visual detail, Insomniac seems to have nailed PS3 development on its first attempt.

Price is understandably happy about the situation, and cites the multi-cored Cell processor at the heart of PS3 as the reason for the sheer amount going on. With each Cell chip effectively boasting seven processor cores, he says, "we can do so much more with each processing frame." Basically, each of the processors can look after a different aspect of the game - physics, artificial intelligence, visuals and so on - and the end result is a huge amount of action happening at once.