Are first person shooters finished until next-gen of consoles?

Something magical happened in 2007 when Infinity Ward changed the rulebook with the original Modern Warfare. With its unique perk system, balanced maps and epic scale; the next generation had found its poster boy. But that was five years ago.

Many have become disillusioned at the lack of creativity in nearly every online shooter since. Yes Modern Warfare revolutionised the genre but did it really leave a positive impact?

From Halo Reach to Resistance to the upcoming Syndicate, every current FPS has Call of Duty 4’s footprints scattered all over. It is now a convention for every FPS to have its own inferior versions of the perk system and weapon customisation options that made COD4 so great.

Modern Warfare – doomed by success?

I have been a fan of Infinity Ward since the beginning and it has pained me to see their franchise (not Activision’s – they just milk it), descend into the annual process of re-wiring a five year old engine. The series has become an annual fixture much like a FIFA or Pro Evo; released with the same engine and two or three minor improvements.

I would even argue that with growth (MW3 made $1 billion in 16 days); Call of Duty has dumbed down the core elements of its gameplay to make it more accessible to players. MW3 contains guns with no recoil, an enormous hit detection and SMGs with the same range as sniper rifles – is this really where the gameplay of shooters should be heading?

Sadly as long as the billions keep rolling in, Activision won’t change their ‘winning formula’ and this will continue to influence other studios to make money in the same uncreative way.

Who am I blaming? Well, I think this generation of consoles has more than outrun its life cycle. Top rate PCs now outperform their console counterparts by massive margins and developers using old kit will cling to old habits. As a result developers are in no rush to build new engines for the 360 and PS3, and with constant rumours of incoming new Microsoft and Sony consoles, can you really blame them?

Yes Gearbox tried with Battlefield 3, but the console version is buggy and graphically inferior to its PC cousin. And with Valve keeping Half Life 3 a closer guarded secret than Area 51 and Respawn’s much anticipated shooter still a mystery, the short-term future doesn’t look too promising for consoles expected to continue for at least another two years.

There have been some brave attempts to innovate -we’re thinking Codemaster’s Bodycount, more than Duke Nukem. Sadly it’s hard to capture the imagination of gamers when innovation comes at the cost of a game broken in several places. So far, the likes of BulletStorm have introduced more comedy into the genre, but that’s about it.

As bleak as this sounds, I don’t expect to see another FPS come close to the quality or impact of COD4 on this generation of consoles. And when one does eventually turn up on our Xbox 720’s and Playstation 4′s, probably emblazoned with a Respawn Entertainment logo, will it really be good news for the FPS genre in the long run?

Resistance 3 First DLC Gets Release Date

Insomniacs’ Resistance, one of the Playstation 3′s flagship titles, hits the third this week. And judging by impressions so far, the third instalment is to be the best yet.

Resistance 3 hits the UK shops on the 9th this week, and has already hit the US stores today. It’s not even been out for a month and there’s already talk of the first downloadable content along with a release date.

Titled the Survival Pack, the first DLC pack will include a new multiplayer mode named Invasion, which appears to be Resistances’ take on king of the hill but with humans versus Chimera. Also included is a single XMB theme and some multiplayer skins.

The DLC will appear on Sony’s Playstation Network for $3.99 on October 4th. The UK price has yet to be confirmed, however we can assume it will be around the £2.99 mark.

As mentioned before, Resistance 3 is set to be the best yet. So are you going to get it? Let us know below.

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5 new Resistance 3 images
Few details on Resistance 3 released
Resistance 3 to support 3D and Move

5 new Resistance 3 images

On the heels of more Resistance 3 details come 5 new images, as the remains of humanity fight for survival. And we already know that the game will feature both 3D and Playstation Move support. It’s looking good for the PS3 exclusive, which is scheduled to arrive this September, so here’s the 5 latest images from Sony:

Few details on Resistance 3 released

Are trilogies any good? Some films can only just pull it off… No we won’t talk about The Matrix (although I enjoyed it).

However, on the gaming front, current signs from Insomniac hint towards a more fulfilling third instalment for Resistance. Maybe only then can this PS3 exclusive hit the right note and make this a must have game.

The storyline has probably had the most changes made to it. The war on Chimeras experienced in the first two outings, has been lost with the remaining human race trying to survive in the United States, the set for the entire single player campaign. And you continue the trilogy with Joseph Cappelli, a U.S. Marine, who is on a personal mission to try and protect his family, before mankind itself.

During a recent press event, Insomniac showed off some new aspects of their forthcoming game. Weaponry has been upgraded, noticeably that of the sniper rifle ‘Dead Eye’ which packs a considerably tasty alternate fire mode. Also, new locations used for multiplayer maps, one of which is based in Bogota, Colombia, and others taken from countries all over the world.

With new weapons and multiplayer maps, comes new enemies with some pretty interesting, if not tried and tested before and obviously not taken from the Halo universe, abilities. Two enemies were introduced; Sniper Hybrid is a Chimera sniper with the ability to cloak and has a laser sight. Shield Drone is a floating probe, shielding enemies nearby, rendering them as invulnerable until the drone is destroyed. No link to Covenant enemies in Halo at all hey?!

As there’s still some time until it’s release, details are still hard to come by. However, when we hear something, we’ll most definitely share it with you.

Currently, Resistance 3 is scheduled for release early September 2011.

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Resistance 3 to support 3D and Move

Resistance 3 to support 3D and Move

The quest to infiltrate the 3D market seems to be picking up more so now since the release of Nintendo’s 3DS. Yet there doesn’t seem to be many 3D games out there on any other console or even the PC.

Okay, so developers have tried with several games on the PS3 and PC, with nVidia having provided the appropriate hardware and software to give life to PC games… But there doesn’t seem to be a constant flow of 3D games coming out.

Sony appear to be the only ones pushing their home gaming… I mean multimedia, console when it comes to games in 3D. Next inline for this treatment, Resistance 3. Or should that be Resistance 3D?

Not only are Insomniac getting in on 3D, they have plans on getting Move supported too. James Stevenson, senior community manager at Insomniac, earlier confirmed this on the Sony’s European PlayStation Blog, stating that they “were inundated with requests to support both Move and sharp shooter,” a decision they probably wouldn’t have made had Killzone 3 not been received the way it was.

It doesn’t seem like there are many Move supported games either on the PS3, so hopefully this can kick start a trend for this pricey peripheral.

Will you be buying Resistance’s third outing? Will you want to play with your Move controllers too? Or would it be too much with 3D also? Let us know below.