How did Killzone come to carry such a burden? I asked myself this as I slogged through an early level in Killzone 2. PlayStation 2 wanted its "Spartan" and the original Killzone was called to task, failing miserably. And then, almost forgotten, Killzoneemerged again through a dazzling display of smoke and mirrors at E3 2005. Three years later, we're inching ever closer to Killzone 2's release in February 2009. Now that the smoke is settling we wonder if a true "Halo killer" stands before us.
The E3 2008 demo begins with a beach landing (what else?), and continues with a crawl up into the bowels of a hellish place. This is a gray and lonely world, an industrial city of towering steels and concrete. The views are beautiful though. This is a gorgeous game -- Guerrilla has delivered on that promise. Where Halo offers relief from the horror of its subject matter with rich, 'toonish colors, Killzone plunges your senses deep into the despair and grotesqueness of a world at war. The stark environments are enriched by a distinct art design. There's cinema here. But we're not idly watching, are we?
Guerrilla hosted a Killzone 2 "online" (what else?) multiplayer tutorial at E3 today, detailing the ins and outs of the experience. What we saw borrowed much from recent efforts, including Call of Duty 4, Team Fortress 2, Metal Gear Online, and even Battlefield Bad Company. Player progression is at the core of Killzone's multiplayer, which supports up to 32 players and features 8 maps of varying sizes and 5 missions (game modes).
Player progression is divided into 12 military ranks and 46 ribbons and medals, which, once earned, unlock game features. The key game feature is the badge (think: character class). There are six badges, unlocked through progression (except the default Rifleman), each possessing a primary ability and secondary ability, and linked to certain weapon groups. The badges are:
Badges can be combined in order to merge two abilities from two different badges, creating a new class. For example, players can create a Medic Engineer possessing revive and repair abilities. (PS3 Fanboy has more on multiplayer classes.)
The fine bunch of gaming journos at Electronic Gaming Monthly have themselves quite a cover this month. It's covered in Helghast, and that can only mean one thing: oodles of Killzone 2 coverage.
The game hasn't been seen for over a month now, and, even then, it was a lot of what we'd already seen in video form ... only playable. With E3 just around the corner, EGM is taking the wraps off more of the game, promising to divulge "everything you need to know about PS3's killer app." More killer than Metal Gear Solid 4? We're all ears eyes!
Sony has two major FPS offerings on tap for releases in the next nine-odd months, both of which have plenty of similarities – not the least of which are their sci-fi trimmings. But how do they differ from one another ... or stack up against other big titles in the genre? Enter MTV's Multiplayer, who have put together a nice comparative feature on the two games, covering points such as visuals, gameplay, and overall themes. Oh, and the abundance of earth tones, of course.
Is there room on PS3 for two similar first-party titles? We say "yes," and "please make sure they're better than Haze." Read on for Multiplayer's observations, along with some developer insight on Sony's positioning of both first-person battles against creepy creatures and ... Space Nazis.
A statement by Sony PR on the PlayStation Blog clarifies some details about Killzone 2's delay to February 2009 and confirms that the game is also being released in North America that month (previously, that date had only been confirmed for Europe). Sony's Ron Eagle explains that the game was intentionally delayed because the fall release calendar was already full.
Eagle points out that if Killzone 2 was released this fall, it would be the third shooter in the PS3 marketplace (joining SOCOM andResistance 2) fighting for retail dollars, so the decision was made to push its release into the new year (how'd they decide which to delay -- flip a coin?). Eagle insists that "there is nothing wrong" with Killzone and the so-called delay is a "pure management decision." If holiday 2008 is anything like last year, our wallets are already thankful to the management for the breathing room.
Update: Videos for Resistance 2 and Killzone 2 have been removed at Sony's request. "This was an internal video to show work in progress and was not ready for distribution." We will post new media when it is available.
If you were furiously pounding F5 to follow along with PS3 Fanboy's live coverage of PlayStation Day 2008, you probably felt a little pang of sadness as our man, Jem Alexander, got to see some new footage from Mirror's Edge, Resistance 2 and Killzone 2 while you had to make do with reading his text second-hand.
Now, you can make amends and see the videos directly from the show for yourself. Oh, and you should know that the audio on the Killzone clip seems to become a little crazy at the end, but we're hoping you still get the idea. You can find ResistanceMirror's Edge after the break right here.
Live from Sony's PlayStation Day 2008 in London, David Reeves has just announced Killzone 2 for February 2009, ending speculation that the game would arrive this fall. (See, Guerrilla said so.) The apocalyptic shooter will be playable later today at the event, so head over to PS3 Fanboy for the hands-on impression and further details.
We're contacting Sony to confirm whether the Feb. '09 date is just for the European release or a worldwide launch. Update: A Sony spokesperson told us they "haven't made any announcements for Killzone 2's release date in North America" but, perhaps sensing our disappointment, said they'll have "more news for [us] in the next couple of weeks." You'll know when we know, you know?
Guerrilla Games QA Manager Seb Downie popped into the "KILLZONE DATED!!" thread on the official PlayStation.com Forums to let us know that the developer hasn't sanctioned the release month 'confirmed' by SCEE earlier today. "Sorry folks, as before, please take any release dates, or months with a grain of salt," Downie writes. "If we haven't announced it, it is not gospel."
In other news, we're hearing reports (actually, we're just making them up) that a giant dartboard was discovered in the dumpster behind SCEE headquarters. In place of points: calendar months, and a dart labeled "Top Secret Project: KZONE2" apparently extracted from the "Sept." region. We have yet to confirm claims that the bull's-eye is a likeness of Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and principal leader of the Church of England.
VideoGamer.com appears to have gotten hold of a Sony UK release schedule for upcoming Sony games, giving us a better idea of when we'll see some of the PS3's biggest titles. According to the release, Killzone 2 and LittleBigPlanet will arrive at some point in September, with Resistance 2following close behind in November. Sony has confirmed the dates, saying that the info has been "in the public domain for a while now."
The last time we heard that September date being batted around for LBP, it was an unofficial source, so it's nice to get it confirmed. Now, what we don't know is specific dates or how the dates of Killzone 2 and Resistance 2 will stack up with their North American counterparts, but we wouldn't count on them being released much later stateside, promising a very happy autumn for PS3 owners.
Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks contribute Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming:
Apparently, 2008 is the year of the PS3. After what most consider a very shaky first year, the media is abuzz with a comeback for the company that was once king of consoles. EGM's March issue proudly proclaims on its cover that it's "The Revenge of the PS3". EDGE's December issue was entitled "The Empire Strikes Back" and even Joystiq's PS3 Fanboy has given us 10 reasons why the PS3 is back in the swing of things. Some analysts have proclaimed that the PS3 will do at least as well as the 360 in 2008, and others have the PS3 edging out the 360 by 2010 or even the Wii by 2011. Clearly, everyone is pointing to 2008 being a turning point of sorts for the Cell-powered beast. But is it actually true?
Let's focus on, at least initially, Sony's battle against the 360. Certainly, the PS3 has a lot of things going for it. Blu-ray has officially won the next-gen DVD war; upcoming games, such as Metal Gear Solid 4, Killzone 2, and LittleBigPlanet show tremendous potential; and it has seemingly found a price point that people are willing to pay (as they did originally for the 360). In the US, at least so far this year, Sony has managed to outsell the 360 according to January and February NPD figures. But will it be enough?
Even virtual worlds need to visit the powder room before parading in public. The practice of 'touching up' is something our shallow, image-conscious society accepts (heck, we expect it!), so long as the object doesn't stray too far from our idealized imaginations. So when Guerrilla Games rolled out a new batch of Killzone 2 screens, captured from this year's E3 demo, fans noticed the images looked a little too good to be true, drawing obvious connections to Killzone's infamous E3 2005 debut trailer, which substituted actual game content with pre-rendered 'target' video.
Guerrilla QA manager Seb Downie joined the discussion on the PlayStation Forums, admitting, "[The screenshots] are only the tiniest bit touched up ... there was a little bit of colour-correction done and some minor polish, but nothing major." The comparison image above, also posted in the discussion (via PSU), seems to corroborate Downie's admission, revealing sharper colors and deeper contrasts in the 'doctored' screen on the right (effects that seem within the limits of standard display settings; i.e., a television could be capable of displaying both the dull and stylized versions of this scene by tinkering with its display settings). Also, the "original" version of the image is a frame snagged directly from video, so it's subject to a certain amount of blurring that's not necessarily an accurate depiction of gameplay frozen in that instant. In any case, how can a screenshot ever tell the truth? Downie concludes that Killzone 2 simply "looks better in motion."
The upcoming PlayStation 3 exclusive Killzone 2 could not fit onto a DVD (capacity of dual-layer disc: 8.5 GB), according to the game's producer Steven Ter Heide. In an interview with GamePro, Heide said, "It is not a luxury to have Blu-ray, but rather a necessity, as compression only gets you so far."
He added that the one level shown at E3 took 2GB of space (approx. 24% of a dual-layer DVD), which is unsurprising since he said the same thing during an E3 presentation. Assuming he meant assets exclusive to the level (we're guessing quite a few vehicles and enemies will be seen in multiple levels), that'd make for a rather short game on DVD. Still, it's hard to be convinced by the statement when reusable assets are factored in. The real decider will be the final product; we're hoping Heide's statements indicates a plethora of content when Killzone 2 comes out.
Heide also lauds the Cell processor. We wouldn't expect a Sony developer to join in on the hardware hate-fest, but we're not hearing a lot of other developers at this point standing up for the PS3. Killzone 2 still does not have a release date.
