If there's one theme running through the upcoming Resistance 2 game, it's the idea of 'big.' The PlayStation 3 first-person shooter will return with bigger weapons, bigger environments, a new, epic story and full-featured community platform.

The Leviathon has a big appetite ... for you. Click to see more images from the game..

This week at E3, the crew behind Resistance 2 revealed that the game will still center on Nathan Hale following the events of the first game. Now, he's returned to the United States to find that Chimera (and a whole host of converted humans) have taken over the country's cities and towns, turning places like Chicago and San Francisco into breeding grounds for alien activity.

Aside from huge, expansive environments and a honkin' 60-player multiplayer campaign, this Resistance won't shy away from big boss battles, like the one against the Leviathan (see video), a titanic monster who will crash through buildings to get you. We watched studio head Ted Price give a demo of the new Leviathan boss battle several times, dying twice before finishing the job, which tells us that downing this big guy won't be easy. "See, you can die when you give a [game] demo," Price said.

The original game's bad guys, the Chimera, will return, showing up in 12 different flavors. Grims -- fast-moving animalistic humanoids who run in packs and are deadly up close. We find out that these monsters are former Chicagoans who have been converted to monsters by the Chimera. We also spied an amphibious alien (called "Fury") swimming in the waters on the outskirts of San Francisco The Chameleon, monsters with invisibility powers, we not in this particular build of the game, but we can imagine that they will make formidable foes.

Weapons, the seminal part of a Resistance game, will again be the game's big differentiator from other shooters out there. Many of the crazy weapons will return from the first game, joined by new weapons like the TK, which lets you shoot bomb/bullets at enemies on the ground in front of them, then detonating them remotely to take out swarming enemies. Price also says that R2 will have bigger and more badass weapons, but we'll have to wait for more details on those.

A more robust community will also be spliced into the game, and -- so far -- most of that will take place on myresistance.net, where users can set up a Facebook-style profile with personal information, game stats, news and more. Most of these ideas are still in the concept stage, but it's an interesting trend that we're seeing in other games, such as Grand Theft Auto and its community hub, Rockstar Games Social Club.

The gore will also be turned up in this game, says Price, and there will be more "believable chunks" when your bullets rip through enemy bodies. We'll have more details on these chunks and other elements of the game before it hits in time for the 2008 holiday season. Reported from E3 2008.