At a rooftop party a couple of blocks north of MTV headquarters in Manhattan, yesterday, Sony reps showed off three of the four big C’s featured in the upcoming PS3 first-person-shooter “Resistance 2“: Campaign, Co-op and Competitive multiplayer. (All but Competitive have mostly been kept from reporters until now, even though the game’s out in less than two months.)

I tried two of the three modes offered and learned a lot about how the most feature-rich first-person-shooter since “Halo 3” is shaping up.

First, I played co-op with seven other reporters and game developers. We played as humans in a mission against the invading alien Chimera, our squad of eight against a relentless horde. This mode is the one that developers at the game’s studio, Insomniac, claim is the most novel and distinct from other games in the genre. It is a bit different. Read more…

MTV Intern Sam Cadet filed this report about how co-op gaming is winning the hearts and minds of reluctant gamers one by one…

Do you have a genre that you can’t stand? Even the hardest of the hardcore gamers can be quite selective in what they play. Despite one’s feelings about a game or a whole genre in particular, there is a way to get gamers interested in genres they’re unfamiliar with.

Gaming is one of those things that can be even better with a friend. Cooperative play can be that feature that sells neophytes to a whole genre. It’s especially effective when the novice gamer enjoys co-op play with a friend who’s experienced in the genre. Both gamers can have a great time while the new player can learn the game’s mechanics at his or her own pace.

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Two big first-person-shooters. Both exclusive to the PlayStation 3.

Both set for release within a few months of each other.

Both featuring a lot of earth tones.

Insomniac Games’ “Resistance” is set for late 2008 release. “Guerrilla Games’ “Killzone” is set for February of 2009.

If you could play the two of them as they are today, both several months from completed development, what would set them apart?

I played both games at a Sony press event in Los Angeles last week and would like to offer some differences that stood out to me…

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Over the last 24 hours I’ve posted parts of my DICE summit chat with Insomniac Games president Ted Price. You got the parts that covered “Ratchet,” the parts that dealt with Surfer Girl and storytelling.

Now you get the “Resistance 2” stuff.

This part started with a bit of skepticism from me about the promised 60-player modes and then goes all over the place — ending at “Killzone 2” and one of my better mid-interview jokes. (If I do say so myself.)

On with it…

Multiplayer: So, people read the Game Informer story [about "Resistance 2"]. People don’t believe the Game Informer story. Because that’s insane amount of content to put into one game. We’re talking about a full-fledged campaign, eight player –

Price: Online co-cop.

Multiplayer: Online co-op, which is a campaign…

Price: One secret about that: it has a story that drives it along and is parallel to the single-player campaign. It is not as in-depth as the single-player campaign. Obviously we’re not going to do the same sort of movies that we do with “Resistance 2″ single-player campaign. I want to make sure that’s clear.

Multiplayer: And then a whole set of multiplayer arenas, maps and what have you, correct?

Price: Correct. Sixty players.

Multiplayer: So, square-acreage or whatever, I assume this is the biggest game you guys have ever tried to make, right?

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Earlier today I published the first part of my DICE summit interview with Insomniac Games president Ted Price. He talked about “Ratchet & Clank Future” and hinted at new intellectual properties.

In part two right here, we’re talking gaming gossip Surfer Girl. And storytelling. And the pie-in-the-sky possibility of “Resistance” going handheld. Read on, then check back tomorrow morning for a conclusion that will please anyone curious about “Resistance 2.”

Multiplayer: The Surfer Girl leak. How did you find out about it and what was your reaction to it?

Price: We find out about it through our guys finding it on the ‘net. Our reaction was: it’s unfortunate. It’s unfortunate that whenever misinformation is published about a title — It’s just too bad, because it can spoil the experience for those who are fans of a franchise. Because you never know when that information is true or not. You’re kind of left wondering until the game comes out or the first articles about the game come out… We just said, ‘It’s out. It’s no big deal. We’re going to keep focusing on making the game.

Multiplayer: She or he — or whoever it is — was putting up screenshots, right?

Price: There were a few things. There’s some statements about the story and levels and things like that. There was a screenshot that was purportedly from multiplayer, which was whack.

Multiplayer: And it was not a real screenshot?

Price: I can’t actually comment on that.

Multiplayer: Did you try to track down Surfer Girl? I would imagine you’ve got ways to figure out how this got out there and to figure out who this person is.

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I caught up with Insomniac Games president Ted Price in Las Vegas last month at the DICE gaming summit. We chatted for 20 minutes about the PS3 debut of “Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools Of Destruction,” plans for “Resistance 2” and even, briefly, about Surfer Girl.

I’m rolling this out in parts. The next one’s coming later, today or tomorrow. I’m not sure because I’m also busy moving desks in the MTV newsroom (exciting!).

Let’s start this Price DICE thing with some talk about “Ratchet”’s supposedly soft PS3 sales, why Insomniac doesn’t make handheld games and… is he talking about new IPs already?

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Multiplayer: So now that it’s out, what did you make of the experience of putting “Ratchet and Clank” on the PS3?

Ted Price, President of Insomniac Games: “Ratchet” was actually the best production experience we’ve had in our history. And the reason for that is that we went through hell on “Resistance” one: transitioning to a new platform and going back to a genre we hadn’t had any experience with in over 10 years was tough. But through that hell we developed production techniques that we hadn’t used before, and that made “Ratchet” a lot better in terms of overall production cycle.

Multiplayer: But didn’t you guys miss the deadline by a week though? Wasn’t that the first time you missed a deadline ever? That’s the story I heard.

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