kz2

[WrikaWrek]

Sucks to hear about the story and the characters. What with all the investment in the art design, and the whole technology they use for the cut scenes, and they end up bringing us the crap with the story.



Even Gears 2 had a cool story.

[duckman2000]

Americans are better than dirty Dutchmen at Very American Characters, big surprise there. Then again, I've hated Rico forever so maybe my expectations were low to begin with. Cutting the only cool character in the first game from KZ2 is a pretty big sin, though.

[WrikaWrek]

All i'm saying is, they didn't need to do "american characters", they didn't need to cut the Helghast dude for example, but that's a whole other story, love how they cut the whole "choose your character" from the sequel, and no one seems to notice...but anyway, yeah, it's no good excuse to deliver a crap story, specially when they have the effort to cast someone like bryan cox to deliver a speech dialog, and they create this whole backdrop, and they have this movie like tech for the cut scenes, for what?

But bla bla bla, i have to learn that these is how 99% of the games are and will continue being, story is not important for most of these devs.

[duckman2000]

You're talking as if there exists some upper level that contains a sizable library of games, shooters, with good story. I was impressed with COD4, but that's the only straight shooter I recall that wouldn't feel completely out of place in, say, a half-decent military thriller. I haven't played enough of Gears 2 to say much about the story in that one, but the first one was a great missed opportunity due to it actually having a very interesting background story. I did see a few comically hamhanded attempts at Very Emotional Moments between roidmonsters, and that didn't speak well for the story there. Marcus & Co is a fun gang, though, in typical American tradition. Something Guerrilla seems to have wanted, but predictably failed to execute well.

I agree though that it's a shame that they went with a perfectly straight forward deal, as the KZ universe is relatively interesting.

[WrikaWrek]

Well i did say only about 1% of games released end up having an interesting and good story.

As far as shooters go, i do enjoy Halo, even though it's under developed, but Bioshock was awesome for example, COD4 rocked as far as Tom Clancy type of military porn goes, and Gears of War 2 is like a Bad Boys 2 type of fun popcorn story.

I can remember last gen, how Free Radical did something really cool with Second sight for example. All i'm saying is, if you have a big ass budget, then why not you know?

I mean i understand having a crap budget, and not being able to dedicate resources to the development of a story, but it's not the case here.

GOw 1 had a crap story, but it did have fun characters.

[Costanza]

guess i'll head up to GS and pick this up now

 

[Brehvolution]

i find it all horribly ironic that I take home KZ2 and my 360 on the same day.
 

[bork]

So after dinner, my father tells me he forget to mention that I got "some dumb EB Games automated message."  He thought it was just sales crap and deleted it.  I know it has to be about KZ2 since it's all I have reserved there, and call to see if maybe the call was about them selling it today:

Woman: Hi, thank you for calling EB Games where you can blah blah blah blah blah.  This is blah blah can I help you?

Me: Yeah, hi...I got an automated message earlier today but someone deleted it before I had a chance to hear it.  Can you tell me when you'll have Killzone 2?

Woman: *SIGH*

Woman: TOMORROW MORNING.  10 AM.  ANYTHING ELSE??!?

Me: Uh...no, thanks.

Guess she was getting a lot of calls.

[FatalT]

Just go to Wal-Mart and get it if you want it that bad. I'm just waiting to get it tomorrow because I work 7-1 so I'll pick it up at work.

[duckman2000]

i find it all horribly ironic that I take home KZ2 and my 360 on the same day.
 

More or less ironic than me getting a new 360 and the PS3 croaking two days before KZ2? 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

nxe is better than expected 

Xbox 360

[close]

[Purple Filth]

i find it all horribly ironic that I take home KZ2 and my 360 on the same day.
 

More or less ironic than me getting a new 360 and the PS3 croaking two days before KZ2? 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

nxe is better than expected 

Xbox 360

[close]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

so you've joined the side once again?

[close]

[fistfulofmetal]

GAMEFLY JUST PUSHED BACK THEIR RELEASE DATE TO THE 28TH THOSE FUCKING ASSHOLES

[AdmiralViscen]

I hope I don't need a preorder to pick this up at GS, I don't feel like driving out to where I preordered it.

[cool breeze]

GOw 1 had a crap story, but it did have fun characters.

Games like this don't need to have great stories; they just need to worry about that crappy story not getting in the way of gameplay.

[AdmiralViscen]

Can you? I've never tried.

[bork]

Just go to Wal-Mart and get it if you want it that bad. I'm just waiting to get it tomorrow because I work 7-1 so I'll pick it up at work.

Nah, not in any hurry, but the mall is two minutes down the road, so if they did have it early in the evening I would've gone to pick it up.  I wouldn't be bothering buying it from EB Games but I had $30 in store credit and figured what the hell.  

The one time I went to a midnight launch was for Halo 2 at the same store.  It wasn't worth it AT ALL.  Had to wait in line for like an hour just to hand them my receipt and get my copy.  Felt for the clerk, too.  Poor guy was still there hours later the next day when I went back for something else.

[Tieno]

i find it all horribly ironic that I take home KZ2 and my 360 on the same day.
 

More or less ironic than me getting a new 360 and the PS3 croaking two days before KZ2? 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

nxe is better than expected 

Xbox 360

[close]

stfu duckman, you complained about the old dashboard, which was good, now you think NXE is better than expected, when the NXE is horrible and worse than the old dashboard. smh @ Fucking fanboy justifying his console purchase.

[duckman2000]

I mean i understand having a crap budget, and not being able to dedicate resources to the development of a story, but it's not the case here.

GOw 1 had a crap story, but it did have fun characters.

This is exactly what I've been saying. Budgets for a game this big are over $10,000,000. You could pay me $50k and I'd give you an awesome story full of great characters and dialogue. For much less than 1% of your budget, I could make your game at least 10% better.

Right, but could you implement the story in a non-intrusive way, and in a way that allowed the focus to remain squarely on the gameplay, in this case combat? Halo 1 is as far I'm concerned perfect in this regard (with the sequel being a miserable failure). Just enough of a simple but engaging space marine story to connect the skirmishes and give you a basic reason to push along. COD4 is a reasonably good example, but then that game relies on taking the control away from the player at key points in order to push story elements in-game.

stfu duckman, you complained about the old dashboard, which was good, now you think NXE is better than expected, when the NXE is horrible and worse than the old dashboard. smh @ Fucking fanboy justifying his console purchase.

Pfft. The nxe is nice. It's still too linear and I fucking hate the ads being right in the damned navigation, but it's a hell of a lot more pleasant than the shitty shit hard-framed blade shit. I've seen less buggered UIs in a 1st year art student's Shockwave demo.

blades

spoiler (click to show/hide)

And for the record, you might be surprised over how easy it is to justify a 360 Premium for $100. 

[close]

The one time I went to a midnight launch was for Halo 2 at the same store.  It wasn't worth it AT ALL.  Had to wait in line for like an hour just to hand them my receipt and get my copy.  Felt for the clerk, too.  Poor guy was still there hours later the next day when I went back for something else.

I went to the Halo 2 launch as well. The dude behind me seemed to have a nerd career in lining up for things, as he told many tales of how this line was nothing compared to the line for Star Wars tickets, and some other line he apparently hung out in.

[Jansen]

nxe shits all over the old dashboard

if you're having problems remembering where shit is in nxe you might wanna consider some ginkgo biloba

[dark1x]

Well i did say only about 1% of games released end up having an interesting and good story.

I mean i understand having a crap budget, and not being able to dedicate resources to the development of a story, but it's not the case here.

GOw 1 had a crap story, but it did have fun characters.

I will say this, KZ2 is setup for multiple playthroughs.  Gears 2, as an example, really was not as there were too many slow scenes mixed in with the set piece battles.  What was more annoying in that case is that they did use more time for narrative and still didn't do much with it.  That entire segment halfway through the game (the lab before the razor hail appears) could have been used for so much, but it didn't really go anywhere.  Replaying segments like that, however, is not particularly satisfying.

KZ2 is basically nothing but set piece battles and virtually every battle is really good.  There is very little narrative downtime.

The way the story is presented in Killzone 2 actually reminds me of Crysis.  There's less mystery, of course, but it plays out in a similar fashion.

[Tieno]

The game didn't arrive today, so I'm expecting it this monday....but the Post is going on a 3-day strike starting that monday. Jesus christ.

[AdmiralViscen]

I hope I don't need a preorder to pick this up at GS, I don't feel like driving out to where I preordered it.

Can't you used your pre-order at any store? I know Ive done it a few times.

I called and they said no lol

[AdmiralViscen]

Word. They had non-preorder copies anyway.

I have it

[AdmiralViscen]

dark10x's solution really isn't cutting it for me. It works well if you want to peek above your cover, but it's useless if you want to shoot someone that's to the left or right. I think I'll just play through on Normal

They could've fixed this by making cover toggle, or making you automatically peek when you held the ironsights button. Having to hold L1, L2, AND forward on the analog stick before you even get to fire your gun is distinguished mentally-challenged.

[dark1x]

dark10x's solution really isn't cutting it for me. It works well if you want to peek above your cover, but it's useless if you want to shoot someone that's to the left or right. I think I'll just play through on Normal

See, peeking left or right really didn't seem all that useful or necessary to me.  I've found the game to be more enjoyable if you keep moving rather than trying to rely on cover.  When I do lean to the left or right I simply don't use iron sights as they aren't that necessary at medium to close range.

[AdmiralViscen]

I tried playing it run and gun on the higher difficulty and I took damage too fast, so I had to keep tucking myself behind walls for 15 seconds at a time like Resistance 2.

The gameplay is tuned for stop and pop but the controls are meant for run and gun, it's annoying.


edit - these complaints come from playing on Advanced/Veteran/Whatever, not for Normal. Run and gun works fine on normal


Not to nitpick too much, but another minor issue - I feel like it really takes me out of the game when I can't open a damn door without my friend doing it for me. Why couldn't they let the O button trigger a kick-the-door down animation like in Gears? That would be a pretty awesome effect and wouldn't require me to stand around like a distinguished mentally-challenged fellow waiting for my allies to show up. Mission 2 starts off with you putting a bomb on a door though so maybe that'll improve.

[cool breeze]

this game is pretty damn good so far  (about an hour+ in.)  Still not the biggest fan of the controls, and I wish I could play with keyboard and mouse, but everything else is great.  The cutscenes are really good too; just how high was the budget for this game? the only thing off about the presentation is the voice acting, which isn't a big problem since it's mostly drowned out by the explosions and various other sound effects.

the smg is the best weapon so far; enemies get fucked up so fast with it.

[duckman2000]

I'm guessing the SMG is going to be a pretty popular weapon due to the handling of that gun making it the most "COD4ish" weapon in the game.

[AdmiralViscen]

All that you said is true. I"ll have to try the SMG, I figured they'd suck so I've been avoiding them.

It's funny how the one-gun system means that this game is required to give you whatever gun you need for a given situation, and yet it feels 10x more natural than R2 and is not a complaint at all.

[duckman2000]

My first impression from playing the beta right after playing Resistance 2 was that they should have doubled down to get this one out for the Fall season, and let Resistance 2 bake for another 6-12 months. Maybe that wasn't a realistic option, but it already felt more complete than R2 even without any SP at all.

[cool breeze]

Not to nitpick too much, but another minor issue - I feel like it really takes me out of the game when I can't open a damn door without my friend doing it for me. Why couldn't they let the O button trigger a kick-the-door down animation like in Gears? That would be a pretty awesome effect and wouldn't require me to stand around like a distinguished mentally-challenged fellow waiting for my allies to show up. Mission 2 starts off with you putting a bomb on a door though so maybe that'll improve.

yeah, that is a bit annoying.  The game does a good job of hiding the fact that you're clearing out rooms, then waiting for the guy to open the path, but it becomes pretty clear once you finish everything and realize you need to go somewhere to signal the move.  The sixaxis stuff so far is also pretty dumb.  Opening the valve and planing that bomb were just like "ok, a button would be less stupid."

One small thing that I really do like about the game (and I don't think others will care about) is how they do a good job of making it seem like you're actually invading the place.  So many games do that thing where you kill an enemy on a turret, then run over to that turret yourself, and suddenly enemies flood out to be easy pickings from the location you just were.  KZ2 has it so that after you clear out an area and there are turrets all around, there would be useless since they were pointing at the direction you came from, so no other enemies would come from that direction since you killed them all on your way there.

And the tank section was so-so.  It controlled better than I expected it to, but it's kinda like the mech bits in FEAR 2; just point and click until the event is over.

[AdmiralViscen]

Another thing - it's pretty cool to play as an invading force, I can't think of many games that really try to do that.


edit - haha, you already said that

The valve-opening is abominable because it takes two buttons, and you have to constantly release and re-press them, but I thought the bomb planting minigame was pretty cool.

I liked the tank bit well enough, but yea it was just fluff

[duckman2000]

The sixaxis stuff so far is also pretty dumb.  Opening the valve and planing that bomb were just like "ok, a button would be less stupid."

On the flipside, I think the sniper implementation works the other way around, making the old "hold button to steady aim" seem sort of dumb. Not that it's completely realistic or anything, but it's more natural.

[AdmiralViscen]

Am I wrong or is the STA14 rifle a piece of shit?

[duckman2000]

Is that the Helghast basic AR? If so, yeah, I never liked it much. Higher ROF and greater ammo capacity, but the ISA rifle is just plain better.


Some dude on GAF just ran into his first Saboteur:

"One fucking annoying bug(?) though. The enemy transformed into my teammates for a split second for about two consecutive times. This happened more than 5 times, highly confusing since I didn't shoot them but they killed me.

FIX THIS SHIT GUERILLA"

[dark1x]

I tried playing it run and gun on the higher difficulty and I took damage too fast, so I had to keep tucking myself behind walls for 15 seconds at a time like Resistance 2.

I'm not saying to play it run and gun, though.  I use cover all the time, but I'm constantly moving from cover piece to cover piece rather than simply holding back and picking enemies off.  I can understand your complaints, though, as it took a while for me to get really used to the game.  It wasn't until the third or fourth mission that I started to really feel the controls.  Honestly, I think the second level (the one that first appeared at E3 2007) is actually my least favorite in the game (it looks amazing, but relies too heavily on corridor shooting).

[AdmiralViscen]

Is that the Helghast basic AR? If so, yeah, I never liked it much. Higher ROF and greater ammo capacity, but the ISA rifle is just plain better.


Some dude on GAF just ran into his first Saboteur:

"One fucking annoying bug(?) though. The enemy transformed into my teammates for a split second for about two consecutive times. This happened more than 5 times, highly confusing since I didn't shoot them but they killed me.

FIX THIS SHIT GUERILLA"

No, it's the one that only has like 8 shots to a clip and isn't full auto

[duckman2000]

Oh, that one. I just plain don't get those types of rifles. But it's pretty powerful, and apparently it's capable of decapitating enemies.

This game has spies? Does multiplayer have spies too?

Yeah, it's a specific multiplayer class. My personal favorite as you're basically a walking trap. There were tons of threads about this "bug" on the beta forum, sort of funny.

[AdmiralViscen]

I feel like it still takes a ton of shots to bring a guy down with one, maybe I just need to get used to the controls.

duckman, how do you identify spies?

[dark1x]

This game has spies? Does multiplayer have spies too?

The Saboteur is a multiplayer only class, so yes. 

[duckman2000]

I feel like it still takes a ton of shots to bring a guy down with one, maybe I just need to get used to the controls.

duckman, how do you identify spies?

Unless they changed it since the beta, your crosshair will turn red when you're aiming at a saboteur. They also reveal themselves once they engage an enemy, so it's purely a hit and retreat class.

[FatalT]

I goooot it I goooot it! My PSN is FatalT1

[AdmiralViscen]

I feel like it still takes a ton of shots to bring a guy down with one, maybe I just need to get used to the controls.

duckman, how do you identify spies?

Unless they changed it since the beta, your crosshair will turn red when you're aiming at a saboteur. They also reveal themselves once they engage an enemy, so it's purely a hit and retreat class.

Can they re-disguise after they kill the guy?

[duckman2000]

I feel like it still takes a ton of shots to bring a guy down with one, maybe I just need to get used to the controls.

duckman, how do you identify spies?

Unless they changed it since the beta, your crosshair will turn red when you're aiming at a saboteur. They also reveal themselves once they engage an enemy, so it's purely a hit and retreat class.

Can they re-disguise after they kill the guy?

The ability has to "recharge" before they can reactivate the disguise.

[cool breeze]

with the exception of the enemy assault rifle, every single weapon in this game is awesome.  Even the flame thrower that looked really lame in videos is awesome.  And SMG is no longer the best, the shotgun is.

and yeah, the motion control stuff on the sniper is actually pretty cool.  Keeping it steady is easy, but fine tuning shots is great.

[duckman2000]

This game has spies? Does multiplayer have spies too?

The Saboteur is a multiplayer only class, so yes. 

Sold. Are they cheap spies like in TF2? Or can I really be a bastard?

I'm not sure what the spies in TF2 are like, but the saboteurs are basically in-game trolls. And as long as you stay out of the enemy's sights and hold your fire, you're basically undetectable. You even adopt the name of a player on the opposing team while the disguise is enabled, so yeah... it's fun. If you can get just behind a group of enemies, you can pretty easily cause some mass damage with a cooked grenade. Of course, once you're spotted, it's hard to get away with it since everyone is on the look out for suspicious characters.

[AdmiralViscen]

I've been using the enemy rifle a lot in SP because the ammo is so plentiful.

Also I'm on mission 3 or 4 and the campaign is already getting boring. I hope they shake things up at some point, but I kinda doubt it.

[AdmiralViscen]

Looks like they outsourced this ATAC battle to Insomniac

[duckman2000]

Fuck it, found it at Best Buy so now I need to cancel the online order. Are you guys playing MP yet? I'll be on after Midnight EST, hopefully they haven't changed too much since the beta.

[cool breeze]

I think I'm on the last or second to last mission in single player if the trophies are accurate, and unless these last parts completely suck, then this game is pretty damn awesome campaign wise.  Probably also the best assortment of weapons in a game in a long time.  I thought the one weapon thing would suck big time since you'd never have the right weapon or be stuck with a scrub weapon, but every single gun in this game (except the enemy rifle, which still isn't bad) is really good.  There is never a point when I feel like a battle/situation is harder because I have the wrong weapon.  Well, I guess the good guy revolver kinda sucks, but the enemy semi-auto one is great.

I'll play online after I finish the campaign, but I'm still trying to figure out how to use a headset now that I wear headphones when playing the game (for 5.1, DTS, etc.)  I'll probably click the Sony one to my shirt or something, hopefully that can work out. 

[rubber feathers]

I got the game around noon and I'm surprised I like the campaign this much.  Lowered expectations ftw.

I guess my only complaints are a) I've already seen virtually everything I've played months beforehand in previews, b) the control lag and acceleration makes aiming harder than it should be (and in MP, there's hardly any lag so I don't know why Guerrilla did this), and c) the SP seems awfully short; I'm starting on the fifth level, there's ten levels total, and I've literally played the SP for only 1 hour 56 minutes.

But other than those three things KZ2's awesome.

[AdmiralViscen]

I'm pretty sure there are only 9 missions lol

I just finished Suljeva, 3 to go. I am not at all impressed by the campaign,  but it's ok

[duckman2000]

Holy shit, that first level is a shitload better on Veteran. Took me forever to get through the floodgate section.  Pretty awesome so far. The Helghast actually put up a good fight.

Although, I have so many red dots on the screen now that I'm starting to have difficulty distinguishing the Helghast from signs of impending GPU failure. 

c) the SP seems awfully short; I'm starting on the fifth level, there's ten levels total, and I've literally played the SP for only 1 hour 56 minutes.

It took me like 45 minutes just to get through the first level.

[cool breeze]

lol, so the last mission actually kinda the worst one.  Overall it was a great game.  Don't know much about the overall story of the killzone universe, so, I didn't care about that stuff...the cutscene were still pretty cool.

and just to add one more insult to Resistance 2, there is a level in KZ2 that has a similar theme to one in R2, but if you put them side by side it looks like a general leap in terms of graphics.

checked the stats.  Just over 6 hours on the game clock, so yeah, really short game.

[rubber feathers]

Holy shit, that first level is a shitload better on Veteran. Took me forever to get through the floodgate section.  Pretty awesome so far. The Helghast actually put up a good fight.

Although, I have so many red dots on the screen now that I'm starting to have difficulty distinguishing the Helghast from signs of impending GPU failure. 

c) the SP seems awfully short; I'm starting on the fifth level, there's ten levels total, and I've literally played the SP for only 1 hour 56 minutes.

It took me like 45 minutes just to get through the first level.

Oh, you're playing on veteran.  I'm on normal; I'm not dying very often.

[duckman2000]

Oh, you're playing on veteran.  I'm on normal; I'm not dying very often.

Now why on earth would you want to do that? Comparing the demo (normal) to this, it's almost like a whole other game. A bit like Halo's Heroic, tough but not impossible. Then again, I did my first playthrough of Halo 3 on normal difficulty, so hey.

[bork]

I got it and have been playing a bit of multiplayer.  I can dig this a hell of a lot more than I did Resistance 2, but I am having trouble aiming.  Any tips on sensitivity?

So far this game isn't going to be beating Halo 3 in my book, but I like it a hell of a lot more than CoD4.

[duckman2000]

I got it and have been playing a bit of multiplayer.  I can dig this a hell of a lot more than I did Resistance 2, but I am having trouble aiming.  Any tips on sensitivity?

Everyone will disagree with me, but I like having horizontal set to about 50%, and vertical set to around 25%. When I use higher sensitivity, I feel like I'm playing COD, and the game itself isn't really like that. So lower sensitivity with horizontal bias works for me. Another thing that I noticed in the beta was that it was almost easier to come to terms with the controls when playing without crosshair. I imagine the reason for that is that you aren't trying to make sense of the relation between the gun movement and the steadiness of the reticle.

Hey, did anyone else notice that there was no rumble feedback when using the tank MG? Sort of weird, I thought I had accidentally picked up the old sixaxis.

[cool breeze]

multiplayer is fun, but I'm struggling a bit more with the controls in it.

and when am I supposed to get other weapons and shit?

[duckman2000]

When you have earned them 

You will get the SMG fairly quick though, if that's what you're looking for.