Killzone 2 Demo.

[CaptHawkeye]

So I played the demo today and while it's incredibly short it's not bad. Fanboy complaints of bad controls are worthless, the game's controls are just fine. They just complain because Killzone's AI actually moves around a lot. Though it's still really easy to squeeze headshots off on enemies who *think* they're in cover. That being said, the demo didn't have things like infinitely spawning enemies that could see through walls. Which indicates to me that the developers seem to have confidence in the capabilities of the AI.

The demo only lets you play through on normal, and that's disappointing considering how much the developers bragged about the genuine difficulty of the higher levels. Oh, it's nice to see Vietcong's cover system back. It took them, what, 7 years to realize that a first person cover system had already been done? Fanboys complain it's bad. But it's not, it's a good cover system that should prove to the ignorant masses a first person cover system can be done.

In any case, it seems to be a solid shooter. It's nothing entirely new, but if you've been waiting for Infinity Ward to fix Call of Duty's problems then you should try this.

The sound effects are good, the voice actors for ISA are pretty bad. For some reason the Helghast got all the good voice actors.

[Vendetta]

The only issue I had with the controls was that the sensitivity needs to be on maximum for any kind of useful movement to occur and it defaults to Y-Invert being off, which indicates that it was programmed by and for moon people.

[Duckie]

The viet cong cover system and AI and so forth as described in this thread remind me of Stark's comments on RTSes.

I am theorizing that videogame ideas are sort of like atomism, concrete, or steam engines- someone invents the good idea once, then it gets lost for thousands of years (a decade), then it finally gets implemented again.

Or just lost forever because people are too stupid and like using galen's elements, wood/stone, or slavepower- this would be true if scientists engineers and mechanists were as stupid as the video gaming consumer. The metaphor breaks down there.

[Shroom Man 777]

I always loved the sound of Helghast bellowing out shit like "KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL!" and stuff.

[CaptHawkeye]

Too lazy for quote boxes.

Vendetta: Yeah, the sensitivity was wanky. I was reffering more to the button placement, which is really logical in the context of other shooters. All of the most important functions are placed on "primary" buttons IE: Where your fingers spend 90% of their time.

Duckie: Lots of developers like to claim that they "play lots of games" but then also whine that development is really hard and they never have time for anything. Developers clearly bullshit about 'getting out alot' and invariably have little idea about the games around them. Things like this will only come to end when someone invents some kind of super-initiate game engine that almost self-programs. IE: It will never happen.

Shroom Man: If you liked Helghast evil banter you'll love it here.

[Tanasinn]

For some reason the Helghast got all the good voice actors.

Presumably because they're the cool guys. What good is it to be a glowy, futuristic death trooper if you don't sound intimidating?

[Ryan Thunder]

The only issue I had with the controls was that the sensitivity needs to be on maximum for any kind of useful movement to occur and it defaults to Y-Invert being off, which indicates that it was programmed by and for people with brains.

Fixed it for you.

[Vendetta]

The moon people are among us!

No-one is safe. Call X-Com, quickly!

[Ryan Thunder]

Well, I could see the sensitivity being low as a problem. I'd have to try it myself first, though.

Y-invert defaulting to off, though? Yay.

[Stark]

Yeah some people fly their FPSs like a plane... I think there's a pill you can get for that now.

[Ryan Thunder]

Yeah some people fly their FPSs like a plane... I think there's a pill you can get for that now.

Well hey, maybe with all the bunnyhopping they think it is a plane.

[Stark]

One of my friends does that same thing, I've got a local profile just for that setting so we don't have to fuck with it. At least he knows he's a bizarre freak, though, and he plays normally on a PC.

[CaptHawkeye]

I fly airplanes...and never use Y-invert. Clearly I have multiple personalities.

Somehow I haven't gotten tired of the demo even though it's the same 10 minutes over and over again. Like I said, it's what Call of Duty would be if Infinity Ward was at all interested in fixing CoD's problems. It's too bad they dumped KZ's hilarious alt-fire modes that made sense. No more grip shotgun for the Helgs.

In other news, Stark's new Xbox Vanity Bar amuses me.

[Stark]

Vanity is the key to.... something!

They dropped the alt-fire? Is that due to the control layout they've got? Those alt-fires were awesome.

Now Hawks you're a man of taste, so I ask you; how 'fun' is this game? I'm planning on playing the demo in the next few days on a mate's PS3. I want to actually MISS a PS3 game for once.

[CaptHawkeye]

It strikes me as a result of the new control scheme yeah. They probably couldn't think of way to make "iron sights + alt-fire" work in a tacticool shooter. Apparently combining those two gameplay conventions is harder than it looks, because MGS4 was notorious for having a painful button layout trying to appeal to old functions and new ones. They wanted to have "cover" and "grenade" on the primary buttons as well, which is perfectly fine.

It's a typical shooter but at least it's a good typical shooter. It's has the first game's personality but it's waaaay more polished and playable. It doesn't do anything really "new" but it never said it would. It's "light tacticool" so it plays like Call of Duty but without CoD's characteristic stupids. I suppose it finally gives the PS3 the system-exclusive homogeneous line-of-battle shooter it's "needed" per se. The demo is too short and too limited to give you a perfect idea of the game, but the taste we get certainly wasn't bad.

[Stargate Nerd]

I must say the thing that impressed me the most were the graphics. I can't quite put it into words, but the textures and especially the models are very nice. Really dig the look of the weapons too. (The graphics looked even better when I downloaded the Fear2 demo and was thoroughly underwhelmed by the graphics of that game)

I've played CoD4 both on the PS3 and PC and judging from this short demo the core gameplay in KZ2 seem superior, while level design seems to be better in CoD4.

[Crazedwraith]

I can't find any reference to Col. Hahka and thu his voice actor Sean Pertwee, returning. This is very sad, considering his character was probably the only one that even remotely approached depth, in Killzone.

[Ryan Thunder]

It strikes me as a result of the new control scheme yeah. They probably couldn't think of way to make "iron sights + alt-fire" work in a tacticool shooter. Apparently combining those two gameplay conventions is harder than it looks, because MGS4 was notorious for having a painful button layout trying to appeal to old functions and new ones. They wanted to have "cover" and "grenade" on the primary buttons as well, which is perfectly fine.

R6V2 seems to manage fine.

Not only do they have cover and grenade throwing, but they could easily manage alt-fire the same way GR:AW2 does.

[CaptHawkeye]

I can't find any reference to Col. Hahka and thu his voice actor Sean Pertwee, returning. This is very sad, considering his character was probably the only one that even remotely approached depth, in Killzone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOPlQ37LrmA

Yeah, him i'll miss. Most of cutscenes in the first game were surprisingly bearable thanks to top notch performances in VA department.

The old notion that KZ1 "had a good story" though is bullshit. The first game's story was fucking hilarious, and played out like a bad DS9 episode with good acting at the very least. Thankfully the reviewers are whining that KZ2 has a "simple" story ergo one without pretentious shit.

[TheMuffinKing]

I just played the demo. I am glad to have put this on pre-order, for this seems like it will be an awesome shooter. Perhaps not the best, but really up there. I thought the controls felt weird, kind of sluggish even with the settings all the way up, though not bad enough to affect game play. I wonder how the multiplayer will be?