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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 31 2009, 11:28 PM (656 Views) | |
| PathfinderGold | Jan 31 2009, 11:28 PM Post #1 |
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Sniper One
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Here i will post gaming articles i have read and that i think are good to hear. Feel free to post you own, but make sure to post your source and writer. Here is my first, a review of Killzone 2. Killzone 2 Sony's flagship shooter pwns all Don't worry. There's no shame in being a graphics whore here. So let's just say it: Killzone 2 is, without question, the most impressive looking game ever. The perving starts with the super-flashy intro movie. In it the game's soon-to-be-heroes Sev and Rico gaze up at a vast armada of ships preparing to launch. Next, the camera hurtles through space to their destination, Helghan, in one unbroken shot, quick-cutting to the slaughter on the ground, then swirling and zooming around the ISA soldiers as they're cut down and butchered by unseen enemies. There are plumes of blood and horrified 'not me, not like this' faces. Then the Helghast step out of the smoke, part Darth Vader, part Termination, all evil. As a mission statement goes it says that Killzone 2 will be a) momentous, b) beautiful and c) utterly savage. It hits the mark on all three counts. This is a blockbusting sci-fi shooter that looks like nothing else. A typical quote from the gawping bystanders as we played in the office: "WTF has everyone else been doing on PS3 if Guerilla can make a game look like this?" After all this controversy of the initial 'target footage' CG trailer, the developer has, if anything, over-delivered on the visuals. You could shoot a film using this game engine- it;s that good. Beautifully animated, weighty models, richly detailed environments and lighting that would make Turner Weep. Eye Candy Impressive thought they are, screenshots cannot hope to convey how astounding Killzone 2 looks in motion. You can't see the incredible effect of a lightning flash throwing shadows from fluttering, storm-whipped tarpaulins and cables. The detail is minute, with grit-laden winds that scour the ground, and bloom and blur effects that sex up explosions or cast strobing muzzle flash silhouettes onto walls. There's so much texture and depth makes every other FPS look like a cartoon. Visually this is the point of no return for PS3 graphics. The planet Helghan is the most beautiful sh*t hole you'll ever visit. A scorched industrial wasteland built from concrete and corrosion, broken up by splashes of sodium lighting. Imagine a poorly lit, abandoned car park used to store rusty car wrecks and rubble and you;re pretty much there. Yay, right? The color saturation has been boosted to bring life to the limited palette and you do branch out from the cityscapes to visit arid Mars-like deserts, but you don't expect to taste the rainbow during your tour of duty. The place is such a dump it makes you wonder why the Helghasrt are even bothering to defend it at all. Surely leaving them to rot on their toxic little planet would be a far worse punishment than crossing the galaxy to shoot them? But since you have travelled all that way, you;re sure as hell taking the safety off. Once you've overcome the urge to simply stare open mouthed at everything (a feeling that you never completely get rid of) you'll discover that there's a stern and challenging shooter with some of the most involving combat we've played in ages. After all the rumours of Infinity of Infinity Ward working on a sci-fi Call of Duty it turns out that they needn't even bother - this has beaten them to it. Battles can be harsh, but they're always rewarding. It's intense and, at times, overwhelming. Peeking over a wall during the rattle and roar of an engagement to see a constellation of baleful orange eyes staring you down and there's a strong urge to run away, the usual FPS bloodlust sharpened by a dash of uncertainty and panic in the face of insurmountable odds. As you'd hope, the weapons are excellent. They;re mostly sci-fied up versions of real guns: assault rifles, shotguns and heavy machine guns- only louder, thanks to the futuristic makeover. So even the handguns are wide-bore barrels of thunderous angry death. There are also a few fantasy pieces like an explosive bolt gun that pins enemies to walls and a lightning gun that you'll never want to put down. The two-weapons system feels stingier than the similar ones in Halo and Resistance, though - rather than being able to carry two of anything it restricts you to one gun and a pistol, which is especially mean when you're forced to grab a rocket launcher to deal with tanks, as it;s imprecise against troops. The only total misfire is the sniper rifle. There's nothing wrong with it, I just never found a situation where it excelled, battles are so ferocious and gigantic that using such a precise weapon feels like trying to fend off an elephant stampede with an acupuncture needle. A long way from home The action starts off gently. Sort of. The story picks up after the events of the first game where the Helghast attacked the peaceful colony planet of Vekta. Having repelled the assault, the Vektan ISA forces have now launched a massive retaliatory invasion. After your dropship crash lands your;re thrown straight into the frontline. It's a massacre; troops are dropping all around you, flaming ships careen overhead and anything that isn't exploding is being shot and anything that is being shot is balled in the corner crying for its mother. It might seem like carnage but enjoy these early moments. They're like yoga compared with what comes later. The first few levels aren't hugely challenging. The battlefields are open and the Helghast have clearly been told to go easy on you. It's a good chance to get used to Sev's movement, it's weightier, more deliberate and more realistic than in most FPS games. When you jump or run there's the believable heft of a large man loaded with kit rather than a gun mounted on a trolley. You'll also want to dip straight into the options and choose the Alternatice 2 controls to swich precision aim from R3 (which is utterly hopeless) to a far more instinctive L1. While these initial battles are fantastic to behold, they're worryingly rigid filled with a bitty 'to do' list - take out the gun emplacement, open the door, man the tank, flick the switch and so on. If that continued it would soon irritate like a pair of horsehair speedos. But somewhere around the third level things kick up a notch, as you fight to clear a path for an ISA convoy you reach a bridge. It should be easy, its a straight road pockmarked with barriers and roadblocks, bur it's here that you start to realise how capable and diligent a foe the Helghast are. They;re just as good at using cover, assessing threats and causing trouble as you are. Respect is due, they're nails. Until now the clever cover mechanic has not been much more than a nifty gimmick. Suddenly it's essential. Using L2 enables you to duck behind objects and stick to them. You still see what's going on but you're effectively 'safe' from gunfire (providing no one gets behind you or throws a grenade). Pushing up, left or right on the left stick then lets you pop out to take a shot. With the huge number of Helghast, picking off a few targets hiding, spotting a gap and making a break to a new position is vital, to survive. The Helghast are constantly piling on the pressure, flanking, repositioning and advancing. By the time you take the bridge, if you haven't been utterly shot to bits, your nerves sure as hell will be. From the bridge onwards the pace of the combat remains relentless. There's still a few things on your 'to do' list, explosives to place, switches to turn, but the focus stays on the fighting, mixing large-scale engagements with urban shootouts and low key infiltrations. One small battle sees you beseiged by the Helghast, holed up with an ISA squad in a small house. It's desperately claustrophobic gang fight - both sides a few feet apart, blind firing from cramped cover as the bullets whistle above your head. Another level sees you sprinting forwards, piercing the enemy's perimeter like a dagger and coveing more ground in one level than you have in the rest of the game so far. Different Helghast soldiers and their unique tactics also add variety: grunts fire from cover, shock troopers rush forward using commando rolls to avoid gunfire while riflemen hang back, using range to their advantage. The largest threat are Heavies, huge lumbering Helghast with chainguns that have to be taken down in mini boss battles: shoot them in their armoured faces to spin them around and then target the gas tanks on their backs. Team Player Fortunately you rarely have to fight alone. There is nearly always some of your unit or some no-name body bag fodder to help out. They add a welcome sense of scale to the conflict. During these encounters the battle never focuses soley on you, adding to the sense of immersion because it doesn't feel like the enemy are paying you special attention. Instead the AI means that all hell breaks loose between the two sides and you're in the middle, a small cog in a blood-slick war machine. That said, given that you are part of a team, it's a shame that there isn't greater characterisation. You have to revive key characters if they go down using a defib gun thing, so it would be nice if you cared more. The opening two acts, however, are so loud and chaotic that the men around you can't really do much more than shout and point. Later, the events transpire to make them more human, but, by then, it's too late- they'll always be the one in the hat, the one in the bandana, the angry one from the last game etc. Your own character, Sev, also suffers. It's confusing as to whether he's meant to be a mute avatar or the strong silent type. There's no commitment either way, he says nothing for ages, talks a bit then shuts up again and pops up in cut-scenes, leaving you unsure as to whether he's him or you. Not being able to remember names isn't a biggy though, and generally you'll be too busy, dug into cover trying not to die, to care. Once the action takes off it rarely pauses and the game only really drops the ball in the final level with a nasty slice of busy work. After all the incredible, monumental battles, the finale consists of being shut in a room while endless waves of enemies wear away your patience. It's a major anticlimax. Up until then everything has been spectacularly massive, and a colossal COD-style ending would have been more appropriate Be The Best While it's not the best finish, the multiplayer pulls off a last minute save with 32-player online games that keep all of the solo game's incredible graphical oomph. Match types are the usual spread of deathmatches, CTFs and assassination matches but there's a clever set-up where several match types are thrown into one game with objectives changing on the fly. There's also plenty of customisation enabling you to mix any two classes' abilities. So you could take the sniper's cloaking power and mix it with the medic's healing skills, for example. Or combine the capability to deploy a mobile spawn point with the ability to build a sentry turret to create a safe place from which teammates can launch an attack. There are also some exciting looking community plans on the way, with clan tournaments that let you bet leaderboard points on match outcomes. We'll have more on that soon. Overall it's an outstanding achievement. Visually, it's so far ahead of anything else out there that it shatters your expectations.. If this is what developers can do when they don't have to think about Xbox as well then let's never go back to dual platform development again. And then there's the gameplay; cruel and uncompromising but also forceful and empowering. You don't finish levels: you survive them. Some things feel a bit off. There's apparentl only one main in the whole of the ISA trained to hack door locks, there are occasionaly, brief screen freezing loading pauses and you can probably knock a good 45 minutes off the eight-hour running time if you ignore the horrible difficulty spike right at the end. But nothing dampens the impact of the overall experience. This is PS3 showing what it's truly capable of and delivering a landmark piece of explosive entertainment that you can't afford to miss. Leon Hurley Official Playstion Magazine UK, Issue 26, February 2009. |
It's better to live one day as a Tiger, than a thousand years as a sheep- Frank Collins, Ex-22nd SAS Regiment.
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| Andcus | Jan 31 2009, 11:36 PM Post #2 |
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Legionnaire
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good, but fanboyish |
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Yes, Stone's greetings friend You will fight ceaselessly in The Legion of the Dead. | |
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| blabbKurten66kladd | Jan 31 2009, 11:45 PM Post #3 |
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Im najs draken :3
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Awsome job posting this review Path! Can't wait for this game! |
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| Jester | Feb 1 2009, 12:12 AM Post #4 |
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McLovin
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I tend to not trust writers who work for official console magazines. They tend to be a bit biased, but it's still cool. |
![]() "All Glory, All Honor. Victory is upon us. Our savior, fight evil, send armies to defend us. Europa, Europa, find better days before us. In kindness, in spirit, lead us to a greater calling." -Chorus, Europa by Globus X-Box LIVE: RedFog456 | |
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| PathfinderGold | Feb 1 2009, 12:16 AM Post #5 |
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Sniper One
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Yeah, of course it's bias as a PS3 magazine, but it's still a nice article. |
It's better to live one day as a Tiger, than a thousand years as a sheep- Frank Collins, Ex-22nd SAS Regiment.
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| Neilyboy92 | Feb 1 2009, 01:31 AM Post #6 |
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Rock Apes ftw
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Wait a min here I can honestly say if this was an Xbox exclusive I would have gt an Xbox but since the Xbox cannot get K2 (Its a shame but u do have other good games) I didnt. Its gonna be amazing graphicly and from what I've been told from beta users gameplay is top notch. It hasnt been hyped near as much as Gears 2 (which was a disappointment compared to 1) and I cannot wait. Has any1 else noticed tht after End war (Sorta flopped) Ubi isnt advertising Tom Clancy games as much e.g HAWX is out in 2 months and has next 2 no advertisements Ubi's utube channel doesnt have a link 2 it weird eh? |
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| abacap | Feb 1 2009, 02:29 AM Post #7 |
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Maybe they are aiming low with HAWX after seeing their flop with Endwar |
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| Neilyboy92 | Feb 1 2009, 02:57 AM Post #8 |
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Rock Apes ftw
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True I hope a new Rainbow 6 comes out and tht its nt in fuking vegas!!, the enemies dont know ur coming for a change and ur AI partners can actually shoot to the SAS standard rather than spraying the room and u killing the terrorist. Although its the only game I know of with the most realistic weapon damage 1 shot in the leg with a pistol will kill u very quickly especially a .45 slug ripping ur leg open unlike COD were they decided ur pistol is shit and an R700 one of the most powerfull 7.62 bolt action sniper rifle in the world takes 2 shots to kill a man without 'Stopping power' I dunno what K2 will be like but dev dairy's suggest its gonna be realisticish. (lol) I just felt like going on a quick rant there. |
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| Jester | Feb 1 2009, 04:18 AM Post #9 |
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McLovin
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Actually, most pistol wounds to even the chest aren't lethal. They're disabling yes, but if you get proper medical attention soon enough, you'll probably live. Unless it hits your heart or something, then you'll drop dead pretty quick... But yeah, pistol wounds tend to be survivable. I mean I guess a leg shot could kill you if it severed a major artery... but then it'd take a while. Rifle rounds will fuck you up though. Anyway, Rainbow six kinda makes you die too quickly. I let it slide though cause those wounds would disable you and make you virtually worthless, so it makes sense to take you out of the game and have it count as a kill. Pray for something more like the original Rainbow Sixes, ala Ravenshield, lol |
![]() "All Glory, All Honor. Victory is upon us. Our savior, fight evil, send armies to defend us. Europa, Europa, find better days before us. In kindness, in spirit, lead us to a greater calling." -Chorus, Europa by Globus X-Box LIVE: RedFog456 | |
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| Andcus | Feb 1 2009, 10:26 AM Post #10 |
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Legionnaire
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It does look good. But the graphics arent AMAZING they are good. If you have played crysis on the top setting (my friends com) then you know amazing. And even though i think its a good game, this is from a PS3 OFFICIAL magazine. So it is as PS3 biased as fox news is Republican biased. I wouldnt expect anything else as GoW2 was praised to the skies with amazing graphics and great multiplayer in the danish official xbox magazine. And it turned out good, but not as great as they said. Personally, im fucking tired of this. Sony wants all my money and Microsoft dont want to release proper products. I mean, the xbox breaks every other day and the PS3 costs so many money i almost have to sell my soul.
depends on the ammunition. If you use a 45. instead of a 9mm you are pretty fucked since it will rip open most of the organs. |
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Yes, Stone's greetings friend You will fight ceaselessly in The Legion of the Dead. | |
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