System: PS3
Dev: Guerilla Games
Pub: Sony
Released: TBA 2007
Players: 1 - ?
Preview by Vaughn

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Review Rating Legend
1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid
2.0 - 2.4 = Poor
2.5 - 2.9 = Average
3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
3.5 - 3.9 = Good
4.0 - 4.4 = Great
4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
5.0 = The Best

This is so hot off the press, my retinas are burning. Look at those visuals. Wow. While the first Killzone didn't exactly ignite the gaming world on fire in the gameplay department, no one could accuse it of being an ugly duckling. The PS2 worked like a dog to bring you graphics like that, while the PS3 simpy purrs like a kitten and delivers jawdropping eye candy like the images laid out before us.

The Killzone 2 footage shown during Sony's Pre-E3 Press Conference still hasn't been confirmed as realtime gameplay. Many of us consider it to be excellent looking CG until proven otherwise. The official word from SCEE VIP or Development Phil Harrison states that some of the trailers shown during the presentation were rendered using the ingame assets. If it is revealed to be CG, Sony just shot themselves in the foot. If the real game doesn't appear to be anything close to the majesty of what was shown, there will be a backlash from here to Japan. Many of the rabid PS3 fanboys who have been hunkering down in message boards everywhere raining on the Xbox 360 fanboys parades, will have to eat a whole lot of humble pie. Perhaps a worse punishment would be too force them to play one of 989's sports titles on the PSone. Shudder......

We haven't learned much about Killzone for the PS3, in fact, we're just assuming they'll call it Killzone 2. Guerilla Games has mentioned that they are being extremely diligent about creating realistic behavioral AI which will be completely aware of the surrounding environments, even if the lay of the land changes. In general terms this could mean that if the environments suffer realtime damage, the AI will respond accordingly and for example, may not continue running into a wall that is no longer present. The relationship between your character and the NPCs will also be far more realistic. If a teammate goes down in battle, other NPCs will race to him and try to get him out of the line of fire. Guerilla also mentioned that NPCs will toss you a weapon if you happen to run out of ammo.

Taking a rib from Halo and Tribes, Killzone for the PS3 will also feature a multitude of various land, sea and air vehicles which can be commandeered and used to turn the tides of battle or simply get you from point A to point B. Finally we learned that the gameplay will be very openended and non-linear for each of the games levels. We're not quite sure just how non-linear they intend, but it certainly sounds interesting.

Guerilla Games didn't quite manage to knock Halo 2 from its perch atop the FPS hill this past fall, but anything goes next year when the PS3 comes knocking. With such buzz surrounding the visuals, Killzone 2 will be one to watch over this next year.