Killzone 2 Preview

The original Killzone (PS2) was largely criticized for having several blatant flaws, such as serious AI issues among other glaring technical glitches. Hell, the entire game was smacked for its slightly repetitive gameplay. On the other hand, the game's unique storyline, noteworthy design and decent online experience helped improve the situation.

Due to its advantages, the franchise managed to garner a solid fan base, which is why the game's approaching full-on sequel also generated much attention during the E3 2007. Killzone 2 is, at present, a PS3 exclusive and is scheduled to ship some time during 2008.

[I_killed_TheMart]

Do you guys think they'll ever match that cgi trailer not just in graphics but in gameplay?

[achira]

even when they do reach 50% this game will be better then all the rest. i am sure this game will be awesome.

[PlayStation360]

that (original trailer) gameplay was fluid. However, many thought the graphics would never get near to the original. And the way it looks now, with many months left, it could get there. So as for gameplay, no one , absolutely no one, can be sure. We just might be pleasantly surprised. Only time will tell bro.

[Bazookajoe_83]

I would like to have a new trailer in november maybe and see how far they have come. I dont know how much were compromised to get it ready at e3. But i do think that this will be an amazeing game, i like they way that the helghast drops to their hands and knees before they die=) And that they are bleeding and destructible enviroment, hehe i could go on forever ;-)

[urban bohemian]

Remember the CGI trailer for motorstorm? Everyone was amazed and then the game turned out to be not *too* far off?!

[PlayStation360]

My absolute favorite moment was when one of the helghast was falling forward (after being shot), and at that same moment the player continued shooting his face. :))

[Violater]

Since technically it was CGI and not game play :)

[nobizlikesnowbiz]

i dont think its possible for any game this gen to live up to the cgi footage shown at e3 05.

it was all too fluid, too human. the actions and reactions i dont think can be done using the this gen´s interfaces. (controller)

i mean, so many parts of that footage were obviously tailored to look awesome.

the graphics might live up to the footage, but i doubt it. not saying i dont want the graphics to be killer. id buy a ps3 then.

it would be freaking awesome if the gameplay shown in that footage could somehow be done in actual gameplay. but i just dont see how it could be done.

lol until you put on a helmet, and immerse yourself in a fully virtual world, where your hand actions and such are replicated. lolol.

so no. i dont think it can possibly live up to the gameplay shown. although it would rock all our socks off, as gamers.

[ParaDise_LosT]

this is an outrage (for mass effect) some people will know what I'm talking about :(
......anyways...
carry on!

[Marty8370]

I think it will be very close to the trailer.

[urban bohemian]

If I was playing that original E3 trailer my head would probably explode the amount of action in two minutes was the equivilant to half an hour in a normal fps game! I still like watching that original CGI one, even if it wasn't in game its still a pretty damn cool video! They should put it on the psn anyways. Although I think the guys who made call of duty 2 got busted for putting a cgi trailer on tv as people miss took it for gameplay!

[TheMART-sucksdick]

f*ck tears of war, steroids anybody hahahahahahaha

Swallow, that jizz tastes good!!! oh yer...

[AllroundGamer]

do you spit or swallow? :D

[sjappie]

Another latent homosexual.

[urban bohemian]

....like the Halo and Half-Life ones those were bad ass!

[RAM MAGNUMS]

Get it right and the sequel is coming before killzone 2 comes out and gears of war story is way better than killzone can accomplish because I know the helghast suck but the locust oh they just dont give F.

[San anto]

Oi! tw@ gears of war 2 will come after killzone 2 if not in 2009, "Get it right."

[ben hates you]

Killzone 2 but the devs ruined it like epic ruined gears of war, both are great games, but me having a solid collections weapons(i just bought a K98) want the weapons to shot realisticly, gears of war the bullets glow to much are to slow and big, and it appears in the trailer that guerilla is doing the same, and in the trailer when the cement post gets torn up from the bullets, in real life the bullets would bounce off that like rubber balls, not blast it appart, that aside graphics are great, i like realism thats why i await BIA

but this is my opinion not yours

[SmokeyMcBear]

well usually columns are not solid pieces of concrete (if used for aesthetics and not support), usually a 1-2 inch layer with rebar around an either hollow or some other material core. Also depends on the power of the rifles they are using, so i can see how the bullets would tear apart a column like that.

[ben hates you]

two inchs of concrete will at most crack when being shot with a high powered rifle

[Asuka]

i can't wait for this game!

[DJ]

already excels past most of what the CGI trailer portrayed, for example: blood physics, lighting, art direction, draw distance, ambient stuff like dust and smoke. The physics still need a lot of work though, and I expect that the graphics will be improved significantly by the time it ships (which in itself sounds insane).

I was actually surprised to learn that the folds, wrinkles, and minute details in the character models is actually composed of polygons, rather than bump mapping or normal mapping a la Gears of War and most other next-gen titles..

[ALItheWISE]

Im a huge fan of the first KZ even tho it gets bashed religously. I still play online ALItheWISE look for me in parkhell if you dont believe. This game is gonna be too much after seeing the gameplay im totally sold. I just purchased my PS triple yesterday because of this game. i know it doesnt come out for a while but i will be ready. And i know alot of you are worried about the game play but it looks like it plays alot like the first one and if thats the case ooooo man. PS>>>> My Wii was glowing this morning I LOVE THAT

[sjappie]

Guys, that's seriously the most pathetic sh*t ever. "Oh, I don't like this Mart character, he bashes my console, what can I do to get back at him. Ah wait, I'll name myself after him, that'll teach him. Plus, my fellow fans will love me for it. Muah, muah, muahah, evil!
Idiots.

[PStriple703]

killzone will be a big hit!

[sjappie]

rock bottom pretty hard.

[Azures]

witty. For a 360 zealot It's hard to accept even the slight possibility that this series might become amazing, if it does it can cut a serious swath into the popularity that halo brought to the xbox.

[Bazookajoe_83]

I see the envy is setting in, but hardn the fuk up and keep youre comments to yourself =)

[sjappie]

so you won't get your feelings hurt when the reviews start coming in.
He, I'm sorry, I couldn't resist making that comment. I hope for you guys that KZ turns out great, I just have my doubts and think Sony has a reason to only show such dark gameplay. Btw, I've always been a ps fan but right now 360 is better.

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

Wow I havn't seen this old black and white movie in a long time, you would think they would do one of those color remakes by now.

[lVlemphizStylez]

come on....you can do better than that...Is that the best negative remark you got right now?? I'll let you try again...We'll remove that weak attempt from the record...

It's an art direction...Gears of War is not colorful either, because that's the direction the creators are going with the art to convey their story...

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

All you Sony fans seem to say that in defence. Was it "art direction" when they had no choice but to film things in black and white? It's called limited resorces, when you spend all your resorses trying to match a CGI trailer somthing has to get sacrificed and in this case it's color. The devs just throw you an "art direction" curve to try and cover the fact that they ran out of memory and don't have enough to render color.

A devs job is much like a film directors, to fool the eye the best way they can but when you pause or slow down the illusion (action) you can see more clearly. This is what happens when you limit your resources on your gaming console to fit in Blu-Ray, you get washed out colors. And I will bet you any amount of money that everytime someone tries to make a game like this with lots going on screen they will all have to sacrefice color (it's a memory thing and the PS3 is fresh out)

[lVlemphizStylez]

OH so THAT'S why Gears of War was so dark and not colorful...Not because it was an art direction, but because the 360 was lacking resources to do any better...Ah it all makes sense now...You bury your own defenses...It's no fun debating with someone that's going in circles...Work on your argument points...because your inner fanboy is making you utter garbage...Which in your attempts to discredit KZ2 you discredit your very own platform you so vehemently defend...

[Wii60_FTW]

this game is going to get absolutely SLAUGHTERED by Halo 3.

[bootsielon]

But then I saw your avatar.... and your username.

[Deity01]

Yeah, exactly, It's all about the artistic-ness of the game. It's a unique style that this game is looking to portray, don't give me that Gears of War sh!t either, Killzone was aiming for that atmosphere long before Gears was even contemplated for the 360.

Yes, Gears is a good game, but I'm sick of people bashing KZ2 for it's style, even though it is only sticking true to it's original style, and improving upon what it had established long before Gears.

The art and story direction is great, the graphics are excelling past anything currently in the FPS genre(besides Crysis). I'm extremely excited for this game ever since Guerrilla delivered their stunning gameplay pre-alpha beta.

KZ2 will be a great game, despite what 360 fanboys claim.

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

Your argument about Gears of War falls flat with the fact that you can change the color palette to vibrant, you guys seem to forget that. Will Grayzone have that option? You guys will be playing this on $3000 HD TVs and $600 gaming consoles with $400 sound systems in 1080i just so you can see this game in black and white, "art direction"? You guys coundn't smell Bull sh!t if they shoved it up your noses.

[medziarz]

dude, KZ2 makes heavy use of postprocesses in order to achieve that grusome atmosphere, and when the postprocess is turned off that level looks like sunny midday (from some hands-on after E3, appeared as a news post on N4G).
Jea - postprocess - what games actually use those? and guess why?

[Douche]

So explain this to me. What color do you exactly expect to see? Take a look around at the atmosphere dumb@ss. They are on a different planet. The Helghast's planet. The stormy weather is the only reason it is so dark and gritty. Which IS the ART DIRECTION GG are aiming for. It isn't an excuse. Plus, the stormy weather is only one of the environments to expect. There is going to be other types of weather which will look much different. You have only seen a demo of one level. That is assuming you've even watched the demo trailer. Or maybe you are basing your assumptions on what your fellow xbots believe. Btw, they don't lack the memory or w/e to render more color. If you even knew anything about this game, you'd have known that GG spent the time to create this type of environment with post-processing effects. At their exclusive 2 1/2 hour presentation, they showed journalist's and others invited what the game looks like without the post-processing filter on. With it off, the game looks much more colorful. It looks like a completely different game and as if it is set in midday. So, there you go. Your speculations were worth diddly squat. I don't think you know jackshit about w/e the hell it is you are talking about. Why don't you go back to your xbots forum and go suck off TheMart.

@medziarz - That's exactly what I was writin' about. GG really went above and beyond to make KZ2 what it is.

[The Wood]

vibrant brown or vibrant grey. grow up already. yawn @ jasons level of fanboyism.

kz2 will look better in some aspects and worse in others. The current build has more detail but less fluidity than the cgi trailer.

[cartman313]

@ Jason - Stop being ignorant and read about the lighting system for this game.

[Genki]

I really hope so.

Based on the reception the games gotten up to this point, I really don't think I speak for just myself when I say I'd be satisfied if it came out tomorrow looking like the E3 build...but in all honesty the E3 build had me salivating at the though of completely surpassing the trailer.

The Helghast models and animations were one of the few things that were WAY better than what was displayed in the trailer, and we didn't even see a smidgen of a first person cover mechanic(read: BRILLIANT) back in '05.

If what that dev on NeoGAF said is true, in that more than half the animations and several more effects still needed to be added, and that we have "seen nothing yet" I'd say we're all in for a treat, tbh. Ultimately, in the end I honestly expect that maybe 60-70% of what was in the trailer to be SURPASSED, and the rest either equal or nearly there.

For #15 - You must have missed Ninjamatic's analysis on the lighting engine of KZ2. If you had read it, you'd realize that there's a pretty strong possibility that we'll see a wide range of colors in this game, because apparently the lighting engine is so advanced that it doesn't need to replace textures for different times of day, as the lighting can accurately portray what it's supposed to look like. Did you also not notice that it was the evening in the middle of a thunderstorm? Environments reflect what's up in the sky too you know...ever been in a desert during a full moon? Try that one, and let me know what color most of that barren scenery was.

[medziarz]

so everybody, take a look at this?
ever seen any thing like that in a game?

http://forums.gametrailers....

[Deity01]

The amount of lighting detail is spectacular, and GG is only improving the texturing as we speak. This is a Pre-Alpha build of this game, one the most impressive FPS Pre-Alpha builds I've seen in a real long time. And I say this from the perspective of a FPS lover(Couldn't give a sh!t what platform), this game is impressive. Xbots aren't willing to admit this game looks fantastic.

I've played tons of FPS's on many platforms, and this game has me more excited than I was waiting in line for Halo 2 already.

[IRONMAN457]

ok, talk about the black and grey color palette but hmmmm, HALO whats up with all the colors, because it needs to make up for its lame graphics, and the game is gay, look at the fuschia of the aliens and scenery. KZ is realistic and gritty, GOW is not even interesting

now you you fell stupid

[fopums]

I love how haters think I give a crap if Killzone 2 dosent have rainbow warriors running around, War isnt pretty, there shouldnt be bright pink and blue everywhere.

KZ2 is gonna rock, the reception to the new trailer is a testament to this. deal with it

and btw, Im not going to bash Halo 3, I know its gonna be good and have enough self respect as to not attack about the competition such as a 14 year old would, but Im certain it will sell more, not becuase it will be better, but probably becuase theres about 3 times as many 360 owners as compared to PS3 owners, so obviously it will sell better. pat yourself on the back for figureing that one out though....you should get a cookie

[zonetrooper5]

Looking forward to this game, they just need to make the AI and gameplay much better. Damn I knew that Killzone 1 has the making of a great game but the PS2 hardware was not that good. :(

Killzone and Gears of War hs the same sort of girtty feel to them, on the other hand, Halo has always been more colourful. Its called art style and I want each game to have its own different art style. This gen, I've seen to many games go shiny and more black, brown and grey. Damn I get sick of it, give me a little colour, once in a while.

Also, I think that the game is in a pre-beta bit, not pre pre alpha as many call it. I just don't get why people keep on saying Xbot, it becomes clear that your a fanboy by saying that.

[Deity01]

All Killzone really needed to be good instead of decent/bad was a little more style and tweaked controls.

[COCK]

i jaco off 2 this game everyday with my grandpa

[Douche]

I have no idea why but even though that is one of the most immature things I ever read in a comment, I just died laughing when I did. That is a disgusting image and thought. Why???

[fopums]

with killzone I perfer the low and dark color tones, becuase the bright orange from the Helghast's eyes stand out better. I think Haze will be another colorful shooter and that variety certainley a welcome addition to the FPS lineup.

not to mention UT3 is looking to be calk full of color :D

[okcomputer]

How does anyone know anything about the color scheme of this game? All the talk about "grayzone" or whatever could be completely moot since all that was shown was ONE LEVEL of the game. For all you know there could be halo-esque bright purple and green splattered all over the other levels.

Basing an entire game off of one area makes no sense at all. Don't most games have varied environments that look different as you go from one to the other? If you were to see just the flood level from the first halo game and base your entire judgment on that you'd say the whole thing took place indoors with dark lighting and you'd be dead wrong, and it'll probably be that way for killzone. Could we please just wait until footage from more than just one level is released before we're saying the entire game looks a certain way?

[Genki]

The developers really seem Hell bent on making this a blockbuster title...and with since it's release is well after Christmas season, I expect there to be between 7 and 8 million eager PS3 owners by the time it hits stores.

I hope it has demo kiosks in any store that it can, and if Sony is smart, they'll do so to reach out to as many people as possible.

Anyway, I personally like the way it looks, and although I am admittedly turned off just a bit by the color palette, the game is so detailed, appears so gritty, expansive, and dynamic that I can't imagine paying any mind to the grays at all.

I'm really digging the 1st person cover mechanic too, it will be interesting to see how often the A.I. guesses which side you're looking at, and either comes around the cover to plug you in the back or get a mouthful of buckshot(those moments will be classic!).

[COCK]

i saw the demo off this game n i pass out when i woke up the doctores said i was n a coma

[heroman711]

i wanna play this game so bad

[IRONMAN457]

and its warfare, so it only makes since, see a bash halo because not that it sucks but because i expected more, such a dissapointment