Killzone 2 - Page 2

It wasn't a nitpick about the true resolution. More about what resolution it defaults to.

It was me having moved my PS3 from a 1080i TV to my regular one that'd disabled 1080p.

Also, quite a few titles dont support 1080p. Even upscaled.

The source is actually slightly higher than 720p according to a dev interview from last year. I'll try find the link.

Different article - but that seems to be the info I read.

So there is more vertical information - but at a loss of 720p's horizontal information, which is then compensated for with the upscaler?

Weird. Still, it looks fantastic.

Played through the demo this morning -- so beautiful. I actually don't mind the loss of a second primary weapon and that might be b/c I was prepared for it by reading here first.

What a fun demo -- had to do the fake EU account though b/c EB Games was out of demo cards when I pre-ordered. I, too, officially live at the US Embassy in London.

I've played with the demo on and off the past weekend - I still can't find the control scheme that fits how I want to play the game...ie, why can't it be like Gears of War - on second thought - I meant to say Rainbow Six?

Unless the other weapons, not shown off in the demo, are better suited to the cover mechanic system and are more precise (see crazy spray pattern on the assault rifle)...this won't be a day 1 purchase for me.

I'd find myself holding L2 for cover, using the analog stick to pop my head out of cover to try fire at distant those fear/resistance looking grunts, and wishing there was an elegant way to get to iron sights mode. I found myself fighting the user interface with almost every enemy encounter in the demo.

It looks all shiny and nifty, but too unwieldy for my tastes.

I didn't have an issue with the assualt rifle* -- in fact, I'm gonna play through again with the Helghast rifle to see the difference...

Do you spray and pray or do you burst fire?



*Hell, I got a kick out of knocking off their helmets.

I used burst fire shots, out of habit, when picking up the second rifle...1st gun is okay, but still was cumbersome trying to synchronize getting out of cover and getting into ironsights mode without getting my head shot off.

This won't be an issue if I play games on baby mode or on the difficulty level allowed in the demo - but when bumping up the difficulty level higher where the ai's targeting and damage multipliers are increased I see only controller throwing frustration happening with the game.

I hear that the iron sights with the Helghast rifle are much easier to use than the ISA assault rifle's "laser?" sight thing -- true or false?

As mentioned above, ALTERNATE 2 control scheme is the way to go if you've had any COD4 or 5 experience, with some added sensitivity to the x and y axis. The default controls feel wrong.

Jared, I found the ISA assault rifle to be easier to aim, and is better for long distance bursts. The Helgast rifle is great fun at close range.

Yeah, so L2 for clinging to cover. Left joystick to push up and over cover. Then L1 to aim ironsights. R1 to fire.

It requires a rather peculiar rearrangement of finger placement. I found the plentiful ammunition a hint that you were supposed to enjoy giving off short bursts without ironsighting - in fact the accuracy seemed almost identical, which was rather rewarding.

That might explain the stupid "click to lock" ironsights that are defaulted, but I didn't really struggle with the controls much after the first runthrough.

The acceleration is really my only gripe and it's not major enough to put me off.

Do you mean the weird default y axis sensitivity? I found that cranking it up was an easy way to alleviate that.

It's not the sensitivity as such, since I played with it waaay up anyway.

It's the beginning and ending of each turning movement. It makes precision aiming on the fly something that i'll need to get used to. In theory it's much more realistic, but CoD's controls were so beautifully tuned that it makes these seem a bit sluggish. Less precise. Like there's a delay reacting to the left/right controls.

I've no gripe - it's something i'd get used to, although it does now make CoD play even more beautifully by comparison.

I'll try tuning the controls again after work. Looks like a fun game. I'm not trying to hate on the game for the sake of hating...it's just not as pick up and play as I'd like it to be.

It's not. My initial playthrough was filled with disappointment. It was about the third playthrough where i'd finally got the CoD4 controls in place, the hold-to-aim ironsights and the feel of the mechanics.

Which i'd imagine is about the length of time it took me to get used to CoD's odd choice of clicking to run and knife.

I just had a go at the demo. I was somewhat underwhelmed. I'd seen the E3 trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko9xC6TMdiw

... and read reviews making comments like it "delivered on the promise" of that trailer.

Maybe I expected too much, but that trailer looked really intense warzone with lots going on. The demo was a linear experience with only 3 set pieces (blow up the bridge, the APC shootout, the warehouse shootout).

I thought "1 rifle" was a bit annoying, but I didn't really try to use the pistol. I would have liked to run around with a rifle and the missile launcher as back up. 1 rifle is realistic maybe, but not as much fun.

Grenades did work well and I liked pulling out the pin then waiting for a bit ("cooking" it?).

And yeah, using cover will take practice but it looked like there were a few technical options. I found I would peek and line up the sights, drop back into cover, then just pressing fire automatically leans out and shoots at that spot.

Finally, leaving the demo running for a bit shows a scene from later on with the squad taking on a heavily armoured dude with a gas tank on his back. It inspired me some what as it showed the main character sprinting from cover to cover and moving effectively.

My thoughts- http://chud.com/articles/articles/18...ONS/Page1.html

The demo certainly didn't reassure me it wasn't going to be the most monotonous palette ever though.

Just as I was starting to hate the 2 rifle system in most modern FPSs, they knock me down to one. The graphics are very nice and add much to the immersion. I'm glad that the baddies are fairly intelligent too. After playing Resistance 2, almost any FPS seems better.

The lack of being able to carry a second weapon doesn't bother me hugely, except it kinda means a lack of variety. Losing the choice in how to handle a situation.

That pistol will never get used.

The game gives you a lot of ammo for you main weapon which I like. Soldiers don't have to scrounge for ammo in real life. I actually like whipping out the pistol when I'm low on ammo and moving in close quarters.

I think that might have been, at least in part, the point. Killzone (1) had amazing close-quartes death sequences that, for me at least, were a blast to exploit. I would quite literally come up with ways of taking out as many people as possible with my knife instead of my rifle. I think they were trying to come up with a way to emphasize that again in KZ2.

No. I liked it. Multiplayer (competitive and co-op) is more fun than single player tho.

The graphics are are fantastic, the character models and animations, especially the death animations are just incredible.

My main gripe is the cursor acceleration, I just wish they used a conventional aiming scheme, like Halo, Gear, Cod, etc. There are other games with the cursor acceleration, such as Far Cry 2, but its far less pronounced, even then its fairly annoying.

The what?

Yea, some people see it has an initial lag in movement.

I understand the rationale, however, considering the fact we use pressure sensitive analog sticks, one should be able to choose whether to move slowly or not. With the cursor acceleration, making small movements and adjustments is unnecessarily difficult.

There also seems to be far too much recoil when one is zooming in, and not quite enough when one isn't, I might be being a little to picky on this point.

Is there any hope the final version of the game will allow one to disable to the cursor acceleration? Its certainly not going to deter me from a first day purchase, but it would be nice to have smoother responsive controls.

Managed to get my hands on the game over the weekend - didn't get in to the multiplayer as a: I wasn't sure it would work, and b: there probably wouldn't be too many people around anyway, but have loved the single-player experience thus far (I'm up to the final assault on the palace). The game is brutally brilliant - and one that I will be constantly replaying (if only to see the set pieces in action - I spend most of my time in fire fights running and hiding). The graphics are great, the sound is phenomenal, and the later levels are big slices of awesome. And that's not even mentioning the pure joy of giving a heavy trooper a one-two-three with the butt of a rifle...

Brutally brilliant?

The campaign is supremely average. If it didn't look so wonderful, no one would give a shit. There are moments -- mostly the palace assault -- that make standard FPS design and gameplay seem fresh, but that's it.

Multiplayer is another matter. There's some great shit in there.

Shit, that sucks. How long was the campaign?

I didn't go through and find all the intel cases and Helghast shields (I think I got about 2/3 and 1/2, respectively) and my final stats page said about 6:45. So it could be eight+ hours for most people, but it ain't very long.

Jesus. I must be slower than hell because I take ten hours on games most folks seem to take six on.

I'm probably not even going to bother with the single player. It's not going to be even remotely memorable, it's a glorified tech demo.

Multiplayer's going to be where it's at. If it fails there, it's going straight back.

I'll admit there's no surprises, and it ticks all the generic story and game-play boxes along the way - but what it does, it does extremely well*. I found the campaign more engaging then my other PS3 FPS experiences** (ie COD:MW, Resistance etc), and loved the 'Uncharted' feeling when using the cover-lock mechanism. I have no friends so a game needs to sell me in single-player, and this one did 100%***.

* And yes, it does look good.
** And yes, my experience is limited by my support of only one console this generation. But I still enjoyed myself thoroughly.
*** But I am very much looking forward to firing up the multiplayer once the game is out.

That's REALLY faint praise.

You gotten your mitts on it yet El Riviello?

Every time I think about how this game conflates Nazis and Iraqis I laugh and laugh.

Not yet, Mr. Bees. Russ is playing on one of those fancy dancy debug units- I have to wait for a retail copy. We'll see if Sony comes through...

They will fail you mightily, Sir.

I assume you'll be up for some rampaging when it does arrive?

You and me both guy. I seem to take too long to get through these things. I'm still having fun, so I guess that makes it ok.

Are you serious, how do they do this?

The basic Nazi allusions in the Helghast should be blindingly obvious. But as the game goes on, the parallels to Iraq are impossible to miss -- it's a harsh, desert planet rebelling against the big bad ISA, and the military is held together by a massively powerful dictator. At the end of the game (spoiler) when Visari is killed, his dying words are about how without him, Helgan is going to tear itself apart and that the chaos is just starting. You're meant to leave the game thinking about how the whole conflict might have been misguided, and that the 'victory' was a massive fuckup.(/spoiler) Very obviously informed by the Iraq War.

Guess I'll see it soon, hate it how we get games in the UK later.

The server on this will say "no" to everyone on launch day.

It shall be bad.