Resistance 3: 'There are no cliff-hangers - this is a satisfying end'

By Andy Robinson for computerandvideogames.com

After three long years of extended development, the latest instalment of Insomniac games' PS3 exclusive FPS series is finally in shops this week, and it's fair to say Resistance 3 looks stunning.

Senior designer Cameron Christian and writer Jon Paquette told CVG the extra year of dev time over the previous two Resistance games has paid off, and Resistance 3's been blessed with more polish than any game they've worked on before.

You can find more praise (and some criticism) in our Resistance 3 review.

CC: I think it does. Each year we're finding better ways to optimise and better ways to program for it.

JP: You remember when the PS2 first came out? The games that came out at the end of that cycle, when people got better at using the hardware, improved. So I think there's still a lot of life in there.

As developers, would you like to see current consoles survive for another few years without the disruption of new hardware?

CC: Definitely. We can focus more on content at the moment because we understand the hardware. I think that's big. Being more efficient is one of the big things. Being more efficient, figuring out new tricks to get better looking graphics... we can keep pushing that I think.

JP: I feel like if there's too much console rollover then it makes it harder for us to become experts at the console and take full advantage of it.

From a development standpoint when you create the tools to actually create the game - that's a lot of work to get done. But once you get a game or two done with those tools, they start to mature and become easier to use. It's then easier to iterate on the content, which is key to quality. The more iteration you get, the more quality you get and with new technology you get less time for iteration.

Insomniac changed its development structure to work on Resistance 3 for an extra year. How do you think it stands up compared to your other games?

CC: It's nice having that extra year. We've been able to put the most polish on this game than we've been able to do before just because of that extra year - and being a little later in the lifecycle. It's given us the opportunity to spend a lot of time with it.

In hindsight do you wish you could've spent an extra year working on the previous two Resistance games?

JP: As developers, selfishly, we want to work on every game longer. I think Resistance 1 came out at just the right time for the console launch and Resistance 2 again came out at the right time for that project. So I think it's a project to project kind of decision of when to release it. We were very happy when we decided with Sony to take an extra year with this game.

And obviously it's the gamers that win from the extra polish and construction time. Would you like to see other developers follow your example and work on games longer?

CC: Yes please (laughs). Just being able to have that extra time and put more quality in is great, it really is.

JP: But not everybody because if everybody did it there would be no time to play games, because all the games would be great (laughs).