And Now Some More Thoughts On The Resistance 3 Beta

This weekend, for the first time since I got access to the R3 multiplayer beta, the servers actually worked well! I had no disconnects, no trouble getting into games, and no problems with my stats. This was a very smooth experience in terms of the online infrastructure, so that bodes well for the Sep 6th launch, I guess.

As for the game itself, it's taking me a long time to get any good at it, as is often the case with a new title. Almost every match I've played in has seemed to include a few players on the other side who've really figured it out, and have levelled up enough to have access to the most powerful abilities. I'm now at level 12 and can use the Marksman, which was one of my favourite guns from Resistance 2. I'm still not killing more than I'm dying, but I suppose I'll get there eventually. I find the controls a bit 'sticky', especially when you're trying to keep your sight on an enemy while firing... either I'm doing something wrong, they've intentionally made that difficult, or there's a bug of some sort. It's really frustrating, and I swear it seems like some of the players are already 'glitching', as their avatars are moving too quickly and too erratically for me to be able to hit very well. Or maybe I just suck.

I also have the typical problem of pressing down too hard on the right thumbstick whenever I'm trying to spin and track an enemy. I've currently got that button press mapped to Crouch, which isn't bad most of the time, except when I'm standing behind a low wall trying to shoot snipe someone... inevitably, as I try to hit them, I crouch and can't see over the wall anymore! Of all the issues I have with controllers, this one is by far the most maddening... why we can't either dial down the sensitivity of the downward pressing or disable that button altogether, is beyond me. I swear I'd be at least a 5% better player without having to deal with that annoyance every frigging game!

Anyway, it's nice to be able to actually play it now, but I hope they can make the online experience a little smoother in terms of movement and graphics. As it is, it's a fun game but not an amazing one. And with no 8-person coop mode of the style R2 had, it's hard to imagine that I'll end up spending the same hundreds of hours playing this one.