Resistance 2

For example, "We had a lot of people talking about how the beginning wasn't what they wanted to see. The game didn't really get going until, say, Manchester. We've taken that to heart, so you're really going to see something different at the beginning of Resistance 2." Oh? "I'm not going to give it away though." Oh. It's not an even bigger cathedral, is it? "It will not be a cathedral. Or a mosque. No."

One of the biggest changes to the single-player game is the switch to a two-weapon system, so Hale no longer carries an entire arsenal of guns around with him. "That enables us to do a couple of things," says Price. "We can now really pump up the amount of damage these weapons can do in certain situations, because we know the player isn't going to be carrying them for the entire game."

Then there's the brand new issue of decision-making. "When you're walking into a difficult situation and you have three weapons, and you only get to choose two - sometimes it's a very difficult choice." In other words, there's more strategy involved. Even in areas where run-and-gun is the best policy, you'll still have to make a decision before you can make a break for it.

According to Price, the move to a two-weapon system has also given Insomniac greater freedom when it comes to designing Hale's new arsenal. "We were able to let loose a little bit with the weapons. We can create uber-weapons at times and just give them to you and let you go crazy, because we know eventually you're going to run out of ammo for that weapon, and you're going to need to pick up another one," he says. "That's fun for us as designers."

New weapons for Resistance 2 include the enhanced Magnum. It fires standard shots into objects and enemies, but when you activate your alternate fire option the shots will explode. Handy for setting traps, as Price demonstrates by firing a shot into a corpse then detonating it when a surviving enemy gets close. Then there's the Sharp Shooter. "It has a primary fire that's kind of a fast, semi-automatic sniper rifle, and an alternate fire, which is more of a fire-and-forget weapon that can electrocute all the enemies around you."

There might be no sign of any chainsaws in the vicinity, but that's unlikely to stop people making comparisons between Resistance 2 and Gears of War 2. After all, both are shooters, both are platform exclusives, and both are sequels to key titles for rival platform holders. But Price reckons that's where the similarities end.

"I played the first Gears of War. It's a great game," he says. "But I think we're in two different spaces, both thematically and gameplay-wise. We wanted to focus on a weapons strategy with lots of different enemies, and not just humanoid enemies but other types. We wanted players to feel like they needed to think a little bit about the weapons they pick up, and which ones to use."

Which all sounds fine, but there's no doubt there will be plenty of comparing and contrasting going on when Resistance 2 and Gears of War 2 are released this autumn. Of course, it's too early to tell which will be the better game. Perhaps, if the Price is right, they're too different anyway. Or perhaps they're both sequels to triple-A platform exclusives which involve shooting mutants with a series of increasingly powerful guns, and comparison is therefore justifiable. In any case, it's going to be an interesting fight.