November 17th, 2006 Friday: Against all odds, I have just picked up my Playstation 3 and a copy of what has been promised to be the most of what the PS3 launch lineup has to offer, Resistance: Fall of Man. The reviews have been good, and I am ready to be blown away by this truly next generation experience.

November 17th, 2006 Later that afternoon: Had a weird sort of problem with the Playstation 3, but have finally gotten around to playing Resistance: Fall of Man. Initial impressions are not what I expected. I would go as far as saying that this game is a bit boring, with few, un-intelligent enemies on screen at a time and limited weapon variety. Also, in this post-Halo world of shooters, the inability to heal simply by ducking out of the fight for a second, comes as a shock making the game less fun than I had wanted.

While many of my initial concerns about the gameplay in Resistance: Fall of Man later proved to be unfounded (a story twist gives you the regeneration ability and the later weapons are really cool), it took at least five or six levels before I could say that I was truly enjoying the game. I’m even playing it through a second time to get my hands on the bonus weapons.

Now, we’re approaching the release of the next most anticipated title from Sony, Motorstorm. The demo was great fun, and not being able to wait, I decided to import the full release from Japan. (hooray for no region coding) You know what? The first five or six races felt sluggish, felt too much like the demo(there was nothing new), and just didn’t feel very fun. Of course there’s more than five or six races and the later ones are really exciting and totally worth the price of admission, but the fact that I found those first races boring bothers me.

It’s no secret that most of the games people buy they’ll probably never finish, and with the rising retail prices of games, people are more likely to turn to renting and “trying before buying,” making the first impression even more important. Are these Sony-published games going to be in trouble because they have ignored the first impression?