My tone was light-hearted, but my sentiment was dead serious.

Taking "inspiration" from gangster films for GTA4 or westerns for Red Dead (yes, I've seen my share of westerns) is acceptable. Stealing a treasure trove of gameplay sequences from popular titles is, well, theft. If GTA4 contained a scene where you executed some guy, and a fat dude said, "Leave the gun, take the canoli," I'd call shenanigans.

You're mistaking common themes for blatant rip-offs. Resistance 3 is the latter. Your Modern Warfare point is a straw man argument. Resistance 1 & 2 were both free of space marines. And I've been one of the biggest critics of Modern Warfare and FPSs. Including space marines is not the same as packing your game with a highlight reel from better games.

Obviously, car chases will persist in both games and movies. But if a game featured a car chase where the driver hops over a hill (cliche #1), beat a speeding train or jumped through it (cliche #2), and shot out the other guy's tires (cliché #3), we'd call that unoriginal.

The prevalence of theft in the industry doesn't make the practice moral. The rampant incest in video games is a serious problem that needs to be addressed.

But again, your logic is flawed because Resistance 3 did not rip off anything in the way you are claiming it did. You are telling me that GTA4 and Red Dead Redemption do not count because they are only inspired by better movies and they didn't directly rip off better movies (which they totally did).

So, your logic is that as long as they do not directly yank scenes out of other movies, it is ok. Well, in your article you tore the game to pieces for having a mine cart scene and compared it to Indiana Jones. In my comment I pointed out that it was absolutely nothing like Indiana Jones, so wouldn't it be "Inspiration" then? 

There is not shootouts with other mine carts. There is no huge jumps. There are no sharp turns that almost cause the cart to go flying, or playing tug of war with an asian kid. None of these things exist in that scene in Resistacne 3. What you are saying is that they are ripping off Indiana Jones simply because they had a Mine cart in the game, and Indiana Jones had a Mine cart as well. Never mind the fact that the two sequences were completely different.

If that was the case, they must be ripping off Home Alone as well, since both Resistance 3 and Home alone have snow...Is Donkey Kong Country Returns also on your shit list simply because it had a few mine cart levels? Is it ripping off Indiana Jones as well? And Jaws? Like I said before, I don't remember being on a sinking boat, throwing an air canister in a shark and blowing it up in Resistance 3.

The same goes for the train sequence. I literally just re-watched the sequence you are talking about on you tube, and again, everything I said applies here as well. Comparing those two sequences is like comparing The Matrix and Old Yeller because they both have guns.

Like I said before, your are trying to force your logic on this when it doesn't really fit. Not to sound like a broken record, but you are cherry picking which games you want to be mad at, while denying the ones you love from the same condemnation. You are claiming that you are mad when games lift scenes directly out of movies, then you say Resistance 3 does that, when in fact, it does no such thing.

When I point out that Red Dead Redemtion and GTA4 have done the same exact thing, you deny it. Why is that? There are shootouts and scenes in GTA4 pulled directly from better movies. Remember the infamous Heat shootout? Remember the same shootout in GTA4 which they lifted directly from Heat?

Characters were pulled from better movies. They even quoted movies in the damn game, and not in a tongue in cheek way. And what about the cars, which were all "ripped off" from real world cars, minus the licensing. Why didn't you write this same article about Black Ops, which literally lifted the infamous Russian Roulette scene from Deer Hunter almost word for word. Resistance 3 did no such thing.

I never claimed to "love" GTA4 or Read Dead Redemption. I gave up on Red Dead about 10 hours in, and found GTA4's plot rather derivative. You could actually say that I disliked both games.

More straw men...I didn't like Black Ops either, and Donkey Kong Country Returns is totally unrelated. As far as you're concerned, I could despise every game on this list, but that's irrelevant: In this particular article, I'm discussing Resistance 3. My criticism of RE3 doesn’t necessitate praise of every other game.

If you don't think there's a greater similarity between the canister bosses in RE3 & Resident Evil 2 and....Old Yeller & The Matrix, then I can't help you :-)

Yes, I thought GTA4's blatant rip-off of Heat was unimaginative. But no, I don't think GTA4 committed creative theft as vociferously as Resistance 3. GTA4 had some ideas of its own. It tried to be different (even from previous GTA titles). I don’t believe it succeeded (which, admittedly, puts me in the minority), but at least the game tried.

Where does RE3 display an ounce of originality? If the game isn't rehashing older games in the series, it's stealing scenes from better games or regurgitating clichéd action sequences.

RE3 doesn't spread out its "inspiration," either. Nearly every scene commits creative theft. And no, it doesn't make it better because other games do it. It doesn't make it better because the industry is fond of doing it.

If Resistance 3 had broken new ground, told some fantastic, nuanced story, or innovated in some fashion, its theft would be more acceptable. Instead, we're presented with a by-the-numbers shooter that is plagued with graphical glitches, poorly-developed characters, and lousy pacing. Thus, I cut it no slack. 

As for my Temple of Doom quip, somebody is obviously missing his sense of humor ;)

Resistance 3 did break new ground. It has the most diverse and fun collection of weapons in any FPS I can think of. It broke from tradition by not giving you cliched regenerating health. It didn't follow the tired tradition of only limiting you to two weapons either, like so many shooter love to do.

Resistance 3 certainly didn't invent these things, but it stands out because it is daring to stand taller than the mountain of me-too cookie cutter hallway shooters of this generation and say "We don't NEED regenerating health in every game. We don't NEED two weapon limits. We don't NEED linear levels that offer no exploration. We don't NEED convoluted stories with 6 bajillion characters in them".

I think it was the opposite of a "By the numbers shooter". I think it DID innovate. I also never experienced any graphics glitches in 3 playthroughs, minus a Chimera getting stuck once in a box. I thought the story was great, simple, and endearing.

And the pacing was fantastic. First your battling a giant mech. Next you're having  high octane chase sequence. Then you're having a sniper battle with 15 enemies. Then your battling a giant monster in the caves. Then you're sneaking around a prison trying not to get caught.

The variety in the environments and what you are actually doing is FAR greater than pretty much any shooter I have played this year...I guess we are just going to have to agree to disagree (I hate that saying). Me and you just had completely different experiences with the game. I am by no means a massive Resistance fan. I really enjoyed the first two but the series is not one of my favorites.

I just thing that Resistance 3 deserves a lot more credit than you give it, especially with so many other, highly reviewed games lacking a single original bone in their bodies. I've been playing games since I was 3 years old, I'm 27 now, and I can not for the life of me tell you a single video game that hasn't been inspired by other entertainment.

You say that Resistance 3 isn't inspired, it is theft. I completely disagree, and think Resistance 3 is in fact MORE original than most of the garbage farted on to store shelves today. 

Ed, I think the lower sales of Resistance 2 helped Insomniac see the folly in adopting modern, FPS game design (health regen, two-weapon limit, high-octane corridor shooter).

I thoroughly enjoyed Fall of Man, but I was so bored with Resistance 2 because of those changes that I didn't bother playing beyond the first few sequences. I'm glad to hear Resistance 3 is a return to form!

The first game didn't have regenerating health either (until Hale becomes infected), and the weapons are mostly repeats. And most of the levels I played (through at least Chapter 17) were extremely linear. There were sections of RE3 that were literal throwbacks to hallway shooters. In most instances, there's only one correct path.

"We don't NEED convoluted stories with 6 bajillion characters in them."

I'm not sure which franchise you're referring to. Metal Gear Solid? The Modern Warfare series certainly doesn't have a convoluted story. If anything, shooters could stand to have better narratives, not the cliched wartime experience of Resistance 3. You can't have it both ways. You can either defend the merits of RE3's narrative (based on the creators' intentions) or criticism its shortcomings. You can't claim that the developers deliberately shortchanged the story in order to prove some point about the state of FPSs...or something.

I have pretty much nothing to add to this, other than the fact that I couldn't agree more with Ed.

Jason, you've done what has made many gamers despise the gaming media in general this generation. You pick a title that you know could raise some eyebrows, and attempt to make controversy out of it by 'making an example out of it'. 

problem being; based on each of your responses to Ed, you seem to be forcing your groundless opinions with questionable logic by picking and choosing which titles to apply them to...while also back-pedaling against the mine cart sequence with 'i was trying to be funny'...or something. 

The other part I don't understand is that you say 'i didn't like those games either' when pressed with the issue that other shooters have MUCH more blatant theft than anything in R3.  That is simply backwards, and doesn't make your argument have any real meaning. World at War stole the bodies in the fountain-I have to learn how to snipe sequence straight out of Enemy at the Gates...straight out of it, its literally almost identical in tone and objective.  Cod 2 used the Russian name 'vasili' for the sniping sequences also...guess what movie that was from?...

that may not be relevant, but its a better example of true intellectual property theft than anything you mentioned. The overall problem with how you are portraying your thoughts is that you can't pick and chose which title you lay these problems on. If you truely believe what you are saying, its obvious you simply hate video games and have no business discussing them in any unbiased fashion. As you have to hate 95% of games released because they are all guilty of 'theft' as you put it.

You can't dig as deep as you are when talking about what is actually original, because when you dig deep enough, NOTHING is original.  Its like your saying Fight Club ripped off Gone with the Wind, because there are actors and actresses in it, and the picture moves on screen.  R3 ripped off Doom DIRECTLY. You play as a gun and shoot things while looking for ammo and more enemies!  

If you hated the game, thats cool dude, I didn't love it either, but the list of games you hate better be pretty fackin' big  if you really stand by what you are saying.

"If you hated the game, thats cool dude, I didn't love it either, but the list of games you hate better be pretty fackin' big  if you really stand by what you are saying."

Perhaps you haven't read my previous articles ;) I always have something to complain about.

ha alright, cool.  I guess I only really commented because I sort of feel bad for Insomniac with the Resistance franchise.  R3 was back to what worked with the original, and I applaud them for that. After all, R2 sucked because of us, not Insomniac...They simply did what people kept whining about (made it more 'modern'), but then when it happened it was sort of a unanimous 'wait, it was better they other way, don't listen to us'.

R3 isn't perfect, but it has the nuts to stand apart from legions of samey shooters. If you don't like pretty much any shooters, there is nothing wrong with that. I've played pretty much every big shooter ever released and plenty of average or worse titles in the genre. R3 is no where near the bottom, but its also considerably back from the front.

This has been bothering me a bit, so I'll just lay into the issue.

We should be careful about throwing around the word "theft" here. Nothing described in this article nor in these comments consistitutes actual copyright infringement (which everyone seems to be calling "intellectual property theft").

Copyright protects expressions, not ideas. (Side note: And this is why I loathe the term "intellectual property" as that implies that ideas are protected, which is false.) In other words, the idea of a croc fight that ends with an explosive in the mouth is not protected. Anyone can write a story or make a game with that scene. What is protected is the specific expression (the final work, i.e., the art, animation, programming code, etc.).

Insomniac did not lift assets or code from other games. Nothing in Resistance 3 can be construed as "theft."

You are correct, sir. I edited out all direct references to "Intellectual theft."