So I bought Resistance 3 yesterday and my PS3 had a hard time reading it.  I tried other games in case my PS3 was already broken or whatever but they all worked fine.  After around 4 tries,  I got it to work.  So I played for a while then went to bed.
Today I tried to make it work but even after over 10 times,  the game doesn't appear on the XMB.  I got annoyed at trying so I gave up.  I thought that it was this disc in particular that was defective,  so I went and traded it for another one but now, this new one can't be read either.  I tried to Google it but all I can get are either people who PS3s could not read any discs or people having their beta codes not work.  Conclusion: my PS3 is being weird to piss me off!
 
Or it's pissed at the Resistance franchise since my play-through of both 1&2 earlier this year.
 
Has this happen to anyone else? On another game maybe?  Is there a solution?

No clue. Seems like it would be the disk. But if you said 2 disks don't work maybe you are just incredibly unlucky? Least I can do is bump your question to the top of the page :)

Oddly enough my blu ray disc reading woes began when I brought Resistance 3 home and tried to play it. It's the first game my blu ray ever had a problem reading, I then tried BFBC2 and it didn't read that either. I returned it and got another copy later in the evening when my PS3 started reading discs again, after I reformatted all of my shit as per my post yesterday. 
 
Now I'm beginning to wonder if the Resistance 3 discs are bad? Very odd.
 
Seems there are indeed problems with some of the Resistance 3 discs as per this page and this one.
 
I still don't understand why my PS3 wouldn't read BFBC2 right afterwards though. Maybe the player was still stuck in a weird position or completely exhausted from trying to read the Resistance 3 discs. These things we will never know.

AHHHHHH.  
I can't get it to work. It loads the disc, and it gets past the Playstation Move part, then freezes. At least I got this from Gamefly, and didn't spend money on a game that doesn't work.

I've only played a little and it worked fine, though I did encounter a weird glitch where all the chimera would be completely neutral towards me; wouldn't shoot, wouldn't even make eye contact! >_< I also had trouble trying to get out of cooperative mode... everytime I attempted to start a new single player game, it threw ''John'' in there as well. I restarted it, only for the game to not load past the MOVE screen similar to you. Another attempt and it worked fine, though I didn't play for long. 
 
Certainly a dicey first impression =/

What PS3 SKU do you have? 60GB, 80, 120?
 
I actually have 2 PS3s (80GB SKU and 120GB slim SKU). I mainly use my 80GB since it can play PS2 games.
 
I spent a good 4 hours trying to get Resistance to install/update/run on my 80GB on Tuesday (release day). I even so far as to re-format the hard drive I had on there to ensure it wasn't really a hard-drive error that was stopping the game from running correctly. 
 
I did have disk drive problems earlier this year. The drive would not recognize any form of Blu-ray disk, be it a game, movie, or otherwise. I replaced it with a new OEM disk drive and it worked 100% ever since, until Resistance 3 came along. 
 
I did some testing with other disks, and found it was having some trouble reading those as well, though it would work most of the time. I'm planning to trade in my 80GB SKU to GameStop tomorrow morning before I got to class. They're having a $40 (store credit) bonus for PS3 trade-ins on top of what they usually take for it. I figure whatever I get out of this deal is better than a dead PS3. 
 
I actually just beat the campaign tonight on my 120GB PS3. This SKU had no problems whatsoever running this game, so I'm even more sure that it is not a disk error, but rather a disk drive error (on my 80GB model).
 
TL;DR. I'm just guessing your disk drive is on its way out.

Gots to remember, blu-ray and hd-dvd discs have a high failure rate compared to dvds and cds. I've had 6 bad blu-ray discs, and one bad hd-dvd. Never once had a bad dvd. Funny thing is, some of them worked perfect at one point, and failed over time. I'm betting its because i put them in 300 plus count cd cases. The material and the blu-ray discs apparently did something to cause it to fail. And yes, I have a ps3 and a stand-alone blu-ray player. I thought my ps3 drive was going bad, not reading so many discs, but the stand alone player gave the same results.
 
So, my question is, did you buy it used, or even from gamestop? You know how bad they are about putting things in those cheap dingy sleeves that will probably result in the problem I had, and then putting it back in the box. Tellin ya, hey buddy, here ya go. A brand new copy of resistence 3! Sir, whys it open? Oh....we have to do that. But know, i've bought 2 blu-ray movies brand new that failed on me out of the box on all my players.
 
In short, take it back, and just exchange it out for another copy. AND if possible, try on another ps3. Even walk into a retailer and ask them if you can try your game out there, if you don't know anyone else with a ps3.

@Jaresk:

I have the same problem. The game won't show up in the XMB even though it's in the PS3. I can hear the PS3 trying to read the disc, then it'll eject it, suck it back in and try to read it again, but after a few seconds it just seems to give up on reading the disc altogether. I can get the game to work every once in while after ejecting and reinserting the disc a dozen or so times. Last night I tried a bunch of games to see if there was something wrong with my PS3, but they all worked just fine.

There is definitely something wrong with the Resistance 3 discs.

So I wasn't aware that people were responding so that's why I was being silent. I got it to work a second time, after trying a bunch of time as usual, and finished the game just to be sure I wouldn't have to fight with the disc anymore. I haven't tried it again since, and I dunno if that does anything, but I was holding the PS3 in my hands when it finally worked the second time. I'm guessing that was a coincidence though, but I'm gonna try that next time anyway, even if it makes no sense. I passed it to my brother so that he tries it on his PS3 to see if it works, so I can't try until at least next week. (also I can't turn off bold here for some reason)

@MetalMoog: There were times where my Dead Island disc didn't show up, but that was after I turned on the PS3 with the disc with it in. With Dead Island though, removing and reinserting the disc made it show up. Still, it never happened before so I dunno if it's R3 related.

@Abyssfull: The only glitch I really encountered is off-sync or missing sounds, but that was the case with R2 also.

@zonikjj: I think it's the 250GB Slim. My old 80GB died right before MW2 came out.

@thechronodarkness: Got it from Zellers new, and tried to exchange it for another new one. I don't have a Gamestop.

@Shane_O: Yes, that clicking and the spit-swallow is exactly how it happens for me. So far the only way I know how to make it work is free time and patience. And I like the guns in this game. :(

I'm having the SAME strange problem. We bought 2 new Resistance 3 games to play on our 2 ps3 systems (I'll call the systems a and b - they're the same). PS3a would not play either game while PS3b would play both. PS3a would take the disc in, make slight clicking noises then an eject sound then nothing. PS3b would start the games up fine and they were both playable. PS3a can still play all other games, it is working fine with no problems.

So, I'm thinking, this doesn't make any sense, the game disc is fine because it plays on PS3b, and PS3a is working fine because it will play other games. Ergo, wtf?? It doesn't make sense. So, like an idiot I call Gamestop and describe the problem and I'm sure they're thinking I'm a total moron, they've never heard of such a problem. So I hop on the www and finally see this forum. I still don't know what the answer is, but at least I'll post my problem and hopefully someone out there will have the answer. Meanwhile we'll have to play Resistance on PS3c : )

SOLUTION:

1. insert resistance 3 (or killzone 3)

2. immediately lift the front of your ps3 at around 60 degrees (lift it in the air) and shake it lightly, but firmly, up (forward) and down (backwards). [you're trying to get the laser to lower itself] (NOT left-right, because it's a useless motion- the laser moves up-down, in the same direction you insert a disc)

3. the disc will stop skipping and start running smoothly and load after 1-6sec, depending on your shaking :p

4.once it loads it will run smoothly in the normal ps3 position until you turn off your PS3, then repeat the process. (just so you know that you don't have to keep it in diagonal/vertical position XD

-------------------------------------

this is just my way, do it differently if you want. I tried describing it as best as I could and since english isn't my native language, excuse the grammar.

the basic thing is that you need to lean it back(in an almost vertical position). the reason you shake it is because the laser keeps standing in the same place, and it should be reading the rest of the disc, so when you shake it a little it continues reading the BR. I usually start shaking it after i hear the first crackling sound and stop when I hear it no more

after two days of struggling and disassembling my ps3 slim 120GB I had an epiphany when I remembered I used to do the same thing with my PSX, LOL

P.S. am I too late to respond? ...it's a great game, and it's a shame that some fans didn't get to play it because of this disc problem...

@Rokuo26: It actually seems that most of you are going through the early stages of your Blu-Ray drives packing it in. The first signs are heavily compressed blu-ray discs, like what R3 seems to be, refusing to load and the drive trying to load the disc while making clicking noises intermittently.

This is neither a disc or player failure. I recently bought my first ps3 320gb and had the same issues. The problem is bad coding on the part of the game developers. To remedy you need to go into the game data and delete the stored data for resistance 3. After this put your disc in and it should load fine. When it prompts you to load the latest update decline by pressing circle - it is this code that is corrupted. Hope this fixes your issues, it did for me.

Mine started then when it was installing the trophies it froze. Then after I turned it on to try again it just was black now it said the data was corrupted. I've elsewhere it takes over an hour to delete. Any ideas to why it did this? Also my ps3 has played all other games np.

@draemon170: deleting the installed data of this game takes notoriously long. if i remember correctly, it took me around 40mins. you'll have to deal with it if you want to reinstall and play it again.

Liquid is right.

This is a necro. But also an opportunity to profess how much I loved Resistance 3 again. Absolutely one of my favorite shooters of last gen.