Killzone 2 lives up to the graphics hype
Three and a half years ago developer Guerilla Games, along with Sony, thought they would show the gaming world what the next generation looked like. At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in May 2005 Sony announced the development of Killzone 2 for the Playstation 3, and along side it debuted its first trailer. The two minute spectacle garnered not only insurmountable hype, but equal amount of doubt.
Killzone 2 is the sequel to the Playstation 2's 2004 release, Killzone. The game was no small deal before it's release. Killzone was a first person shooter and at the time, as any Xbox owner will tell you, any first person shooter released was measured up against Halo. Halo, of course, was generally regarded as the absolute best first person shooter at the time, and it was no small feat for a games developer to try and live up to its quality. Killzone's pre-release anticipation was sky-high, and was believed to be a solid candidate as a Halo-killer.
Unfortunately upon it's release it was met with average reviews. However, the hype around the game did propel it to sell very well, as the title has sold more than a million copies worldwide. The next year was when Killzone 2 would be launched into the minds of gamers everywhere. At E3 2005 Sony debuted the first Killzone 2 trailer to the public. The graphics of the trailer were simply astounding, nothing ever seen before. Sony touted it as real gameplay graphics, but as doubt filled gaming publications and communities , it came to light that the trailer was in fact a pre-rendered.
There's two different kinds of graphics in games, real-time and pre-rendered. Real-time is graphics that are being generated on-the-fly by a game consoles processors. Pre-rendered is video that was produced in a studio, and is usually much higher detail than real-time, to the point where the consoles processors could not possibly output that high amount of graphics. When playing any game, be it Halo or Final Fantasy, what you're seeing when you play the game is real-time graphics. When the game stops to show an impressive cutscene that looks far better than the game does when you're playing it, it's pre-rendered.
As such, the Killzone 2 trailer was not actually running on a Playstation 3, but was made in a studio like any Pixar film, and simply played as a video at E3 2005. After the supposed mix up, Sony claimed the video as a target-render, meaning that the quality of graphics in the video is what they want to create for Killzone 2 in real-time. The game is coming out in February 2009, and in the past year, Sony and Guerilla Games have proven they were not lying.
The graphics of Killzone 2 are the best seen on any console before it. The sheer amount of effects going on at any time in the game are awe inspiring. Lucky games journalists, and now beta-testers, fortunate enough to have hands-on time with the title tell of great gameplay as well. The original Killzone had good controls and the weapons were challenging and fun, but the repetitiveness of the level design, as well as several technical issues, kept it from being an engaging experience. Killzone 2 has completely flipped that around.
One key feature that Guerilla Games has enjoyed talking about is the “theater of war” that they've created with Killzone 2. You won't see a life bar on the screen, nor will you see an ammo count or radar. Like any real soldier, you can't see these things in the game. There's nothing stopping players from being completely immersed in the graphics and experience of the game.
Anticipation for Killzone 2 is even higher than that of the original Killzone. For a long time many believed the title was doomed to fail as the graphics of the original trailer were an unattainable goal for the developer, Guerilla Games. For nearly two years nothing was shown of the title, but when Sony finally did, there was not only a large scale sigh of relief, but almost jubilation at the idea that this could be the game everyone has been waiting for. The Holiday season may be upon us, but as one fellow enthusiast put it, with the holidays comes gift cards for many of us. A word to the wise, hold onto them until February.
Killzone 2 is the sequel to the Playstation 2's 2004 release, Killzone. The game was no small deal before it's release. Killzone was a first person shooter and at the time, as any Xbox owner will tell you, any first person shooter released was measured up against Halo. Halo, of course, was generally regarded as the absolute best first person shooter at the time, and it was no small feat for a games developer to try and live up to its quality. Killzone's pre-release anticipation was sky-high, and was believed to be a solid candidate as a Halo-killer.
Unfortunately upon it's release it was met with average reviews. However, the hype around the game did propel it to sell very well, as the title has sold more than a million copies worldwide. The next year was when Killzone 2 would be launched into the minds of gamers everywhere. At E3 2005 Sony debuted the first Killzone 2 trailer to the public. The graphics of the trailer were simply astounding, nothing ever seen before. Sony touted it as real gameplay graphics, but as doubt filled gaming publications and communities , it came to light that the trailer was in fact a pre-rendered.
There's two different kinds of graphics in games, real-time and pre-rendered. Real-time is graphics that are being generated on-the-fly by a game consoles processors. Pre-rendered is video that was produced in a studio, and is usually much higher detail than real-time, to the point where the consoles processors could not possibly output that high amount of graphics. When playing any game, be it Halo or Final Fantasy, what you're seeing when you play the game is real-time graphics. When the game stops to show an impressive cutscene that looks far better than the game does when you're playing it, it's pre-rendered.
As such, the Killzone 2 trailer was not actually running on a Playstation 3, but was made in a studio like any Pixar film, and simply played as a video at E3 2005. After the supposed mix up, Sony claimed the video as a target-render, meaning that the quality of graphics in the video is what they want to create for Killzone 2 in real-time. The game is coming out in February 2009, and in the past year, Sony and Guerilla Games have proven they were not lying.
The graphics of Killzone 2 are the best seen on any console before it. The sheer amount of effects going on at any time in the game are awe inspiring. Lucky games journalists, and now beta-testers, fortunate enough to have hands-on time with the title tell of great gameplay as well. The original Killzone had good controls and the weapons were challenging and fun, but the repetitiveness of the level design, as well as several technical issues, kept it from being an engaging experience. Killzone 2 has completely flipped that around.
One key feature that Guerilla Games has enjoyed talking about is the “theater of war” that they've created with Killzone 2. You won't see a life bar on the screen, nor will you see an ammo count or radar. Like any real soldier, you can't see these things in the game. There's nothing stopping players from being completely immersed in the graphics and experience of the game.
Anticipation for Killzone 2 is even higher than that of the original Killzone. For a long time many believed the title was doomed to fail as the graphics of the original trailer were an unattainable goal for the developer, Guerilla Games. For nearly two years nothing was shown of the title, but when Sony finally did, there was not only a large scale sigh of relief, but almost jubilation at the idea that this could be the game everyone has been waiting for. The Holiday season may be upon us, but as one fellow enthusiast put it, with the holidays comes gift cards for many of us. A word to the wise, hold onto them until February.
