Here’s a walkthrough from the PAX show floor, with Sony Bend’s Chris Reese:

And John Garvin helps round out the story by answering these questions:

1. How will you translate the PS3 Resistance experience onto the portable screen?

For us, Resistance is all about killing powerful aliens with powerful weapons in a cool alternate-history 1950’s setting. Our goal from the beginning was to capture the essence of Resistance’s core gameplay, while at the same time putting our spin on it. The “Bend Game Studio” spin is all about creating a fun game that is also a dramatic, in-depth story. We knew we wanted a sequel that took place right after Resistance: Fall of Man, but before the events in R2. While playing through RFOM I had discovered a few elements that I thought were great story hooks — things like the Cloven, or the fact that we never saw any female Chimera, so I spent some time talking to Ted Price and the guys at Insomniac, pitching ideas I had about where we could take the Resistance story on the PSP. They loved our story so we just went with it. The PSP game is probably a little more “intimate” — if you can use that word on an experience where you’re blasting the hell out of aliens — because the game focuses on the personal story of a new character we created — a British private named James Grayson. After a personal tragedy, Grayson goes on a vendetta to destroy every Chimera conversion center he can find. Eventually he learns that his efforts have been futile… in France, Germany, the Netherlands, the Chimera have evolved and now use a new method of converting humans to aliens. The French resistance, called the Maquis, enlist Grayson’s help, and he joins Cartwright and Parker in Operation Overstrike — the beginning of the war to retake the European continent. So we have a great personal story, as Grayson tries to come to terms with his own demons, set against the backdrop of a horrible war fought in places like Rotterdam, Luxembourg, Bonn and Paris.

2. What is the best thing about developing for PSP?

The thing I like best about PSP is the team size. At Bend Game Studio we have about 40 team members, which is a great size for a team. We have enough key talent to make AAA games that have high production values, but we’re small enough that everyone knows everyone and we get stuff done without a lot of middle management.

3. What is your favorite game on PSP?

My personal favorite is still Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror or Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow, mostly because I poured so much creative energy into them. Two games that I finished this year, and really loved, were God of War and Patapon. Two really different games in terms of subject matter, genre, and style, but each a lot of fun in it’s own way. In fact, these two games are really good examples of why the PSP is such a great hand-held platform. You have a quirky game like Patapon that sort of carves new territory in the “rhythm / action” genre, and a really good translation of a hard-core console action title, side by side on my gaming shelf. And you won’t find a game like GOW on competing hand-helds anytime soon.

4. What is one of your guilty pleasures when it comes to PSP games?

Playing games late at night while in bed. Seriously. It seems like the only time I can find to catch-up on my PSP games is late at night and there’s no more comfortable place to kick back than in bed. With the headphones on, I don’t keep my wife awake, though she was getting irritated when I was playing God of War because it’s hard not to get vocal when you die. To me, portable doesn’t just mean “play on a bus or an airplane,” it means, “play anywhere that isn’t your couch in front of your PS3.” :)

5. Where is the weirdest place you have ever played your PSP?

See above.

6. What is your favorite non-gaming PSP feature? Why?

Probably the web stuff. The PSP’s a pretty good platform for checking news… the screens a little bigger than my Blackberry’s, and websites are easier to navigate. Next would be the ability to watch movies on it — while flying, it’s a lot more convenient to watch a movie on my PSP than on my laptop.

7. How will you push the PSP hardware with Resistance?

We’re pushing it pretty hard. As you know this is our third game on the platform and we’re constantly making improvements to our engine. Chris Reese, the Technical director and co-studio director, pushes his tech team pretty hard. We’ve done a complete upgrade on our animation system, adding support for multiple skeletons so we could implement all the different types of Chimera; we’ve upgraded our character system, adding specular highlights so you can see light reflecting off of Grayson’s leather jacket; we’ve also upped the size of our character textures so everything looks crisp and clean; we’ve put in a more robust streaming system so we can have more detail in the levels, more sounds, more character models, more animations; we’ve created an entirely new enemy system so that we can have more of them on screen at once — in Logan’s Shadow, you might see 4-6 terrorists at a time, not in Resistance: Retribution, you can see 15 Leapers at once. We’ve also optimized a lot of systems in order to push out our drawing distance so we could attempt to capture the sheer scale of the Resistance vistas. So far the team is doing a great job capturing the Resistance look and feel.

8. This is your third PSP game; what have you learned over the last two projects that you can apply to Resistance?

Aside from all the technical and engine enhancements noted above, we’ve learned a lot about making shooters fun on the PSP. We’ve taken the aiming system that we refined in Logan’s Shadow and Dark Mirror, and we’ve simplified it into an aim assist system that we think is pretty revolutionary on the PSP — we wanted to make the game as easy to play as we could by reducing the reliance on using the four face buttons to aim — but at the same time, not take away the sense of “skilled” shooting that a game like Resistance provides. The other thing I think we’ve learned how to do well on the PSP, is crafting a compelling player experience. For us this is a combination of challenging combat scenarios, creative level design, and dramatic storytelling. We don’t want the game to get repetitive, so we break up the pacing of the game play, we add new challenges, we create unexpected story hooks, we give the player reasons to look around, we create areas where they have to use their heads as well as their weapons. As long as we end up with a game that we want to play ourselves, we’re pretty happy.

What else do you need to know about Resistance: Retribution?

DC Universe Online
We go behind the scenes at SOE to give you all the latest on this MMO action game set in the DC universe. With Jim Lee’s involvement (he is the Executive Creative Director on the project), this is shaping up to be one of PS3’s biggest upcoming exclusives. Make sure you check out the concept art by Mr. Lee – it is really some amazing stuff.

NBA 09: The Inside
Our new “Qorespondent,” Audrey Cleo, travels to SCEA San Diego to get her game on with the development team behind NBA 09: The Inside. This year’s iteration introduces “The Life” mode to PS3, with developing stories for three different players and an all-new franchise mode.

Lego Batman: The Video Game
Veronica Belmont heads to Hollywood and the Warner Brothers’ back lot to see if she can find the Batcave and get TT Games to tell her all about the Dark Knight’s adventures in the land o’ Legos. Or, is she simply looking for Christian Bale?

Baja: Edge of Control
What happens when a 98 pound woman takes on an 800 HP Trophy Truck with someone named “Pistola?” Check out our feature on THQ’s Baja: Edge of Control.

New Downloadable Content
If you purchase Qore Episode 03, or an annual subscription, you are in for a real treat – with premier access to the Resistance 2 Public Beta. In addition, we’ve got an all-new PS3 Qore theme and new annual subscribers will also get Calling All Cars, the full game, for free!

In addition, we also wanted to answer a few of the questions you’ve had about Qore:

Q: Will I be able to re-watch episodes? How will back issues or previous months content be handled?
A: Yes. When you purchase an Episode of Qore, it becomes available in your Download List. You can then download it to your PS3’s HDD and view it as often as you like. In addition, should you decide to delete an Episode of Qore from your HDD, you can always go back to your Download List and download it again. This, however, may not apply to downloadable content that is associated with a particular Episode, as that content may have its own restrictions (i.e.: beta invitations and timed exclusives). As a side note – when you purchase multiple Episodes of Qore they all download to your HDD separately. So, it is possible to have as many Episodes of Qore on your HDD as space will allow – the latest Episode does not overwrite previous Episodes.

Q: Will Qore be compatible with PSP via remote play?
A: We are currently evaluating the PSP as a platform for Qore delivery.

Q: Does this mean that some older PSN titles will become available to download for Qore subscribers?
A: While we have no announcements to make at this time, we are evaluating other PSN titles as possible bonuses for new annual subscribers.

Q:Do we have to watch advertisements during the Episodes, or will we be able to skip them?
A: Currently, Qore’s advertising model is to allow our advertising partners 15 seconds of interstitial advertising (forced-run) in each individual advertisement before our users are given control and allowed to skip the advertising, should they so desire. Should you want more information on an advertised product, you can then go to the Sponsor’s page and watch a longer version/view additional content from that sponsor. In addition, the forced-run advertising is only active once per session – it will not reset until you exit Qore. This does not apply to advertisements that are delivered as banners or that frame editorial content.

Will voice-messaging/private chat be featured in 2.40 as well? If not, can we expect to see this feature added in the future?

We are evaluating the opportunity to offer voice chat, but for this update, we wanted to focus on text messaging as the key priority for communications that our users have asked for.

Can you use the web browser in game?

No, you must exit the game before browsing the internet.

Will In-Game XMB come up during playback of PS2 games, Blu-Ray discs, and DVDs?

The XMB is an exclusive feature for PS3 game titles. Accessing the XMB during gameplay was the top request from our users, which we focused on for this update. However, we continually engage PS3 owners for feedback and will evaluate the opportunity to offer XMB access during movie playback in the future.

Can we go to the display settings and change anything there in-game (resolution, input, etc)?

No, you must exit the game before changing these settings.

Will it be possible to change in-game the sound output?

Yes, sound output changes are supported.


Will we be able to access the PLAYSTATION Store while in-game?

No, but you can view your downloads in progress.

Will we be able to stream music (either via media server or USB drive) for custom soundtracks or is it relegated to music stored on the HDD?

Currently only music stored on the HDD is accessible in games that support this feature. We’d also like to reiterate that Firmware v2.40 merely enables custom soundtracks. It’s up to developers to include this feature in upcoming games (or to patch existing ones).

Does 2.4 enable cross game invites? Will it down the line?

No, cross-game invites are not available in this system software update. We are evaluating opportunities to expand on the new features delivered in 2.40.

Will trophies be mandatory for all games release here on out?

We are working with developers to ensure that Trophies are supported across the board in the future.

Where is each player’s trophy stat info held? I am going to upgrade my hard drive and I don’t know if the trophies will still be on my account if I earn some and then get a new hard drive.

Trophies will be attached to users’ PSN ID. Trophy data needs to be synchronized to the online account on PSN to be transferred to the new PS3 system.

Will the patch automatically allocate unlocked trophies according to your saved files or would you have to do it again?

No, Trophies aren’t retroactive.

Can we view PSN profiles/Trophies from a PC using a Web browser? Will there be an API for web developers to access the PSN data, so online profiles can be created?

We’re evaluating these opportunities to expand where Trophies can be experienced.

Can you only compare trophies with friends that are online?

As long as a friend has a PSN account, you can compare trophies with them regardless of their online status.

Is there a limit to how many trophies the devs can put set by Sony?

There’s not a limit on number of trophies, but there’s a value assigned to each trophy. Developers must balance out the trophies that are available to stay within an overall value based on whether the game is considered large-scope or small-scope. Essentially, a user that has unlocked every trophy in one game would have the same level as a user that unlocked every trophy in another title, all titles (depending on scope) have the same overall impact on a users’ level.

Will new games have a cool little icon on the back saying “trophy compatible?”

We’re currently working on how Trophy support will be messaged to the consumer on our software packaging.

When you get a trophy, does it make a noise?

Currently, no. How quickly things can change – there *will* be a sound effect when you unlock a Trophy.

What is Eric’s favorite cheese?

Mozzarella

Once again, we will continue to evaluate opportunities to enhance the PLAYSTATION 3’s system software throughout the console’s life cycle. Consumer feedback has contributed greatly to the contents of Firmware v2.40, and continues to be appreciated. Don’t forget, this Firmware will be available for download on July 2nd.

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