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That's the tricky part which the game doesn't bother explaining in-game. Helghast is both a national identifier and an ethnic nor as well. I think it's the characters in the game letting their racism or at the very least their xenophobia get the better of them by casting the Helghast as an inhuman or hybridized Other rather than what they really are: humans who have adapted to thrive in a specific environment over several generations. Helghast have paler, almost greenish skin tones, higher tolerance for radiation levels, inhibited hair growth in some cases, and difficulty breathing in non-Helgan atmospheres (hence the breather masks). It's like how people in the Andes have thicker chests and larger lung capacities than people who live at sea level do. They've adapted to thrive in their chosen environment, but they're still human.
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Aug 3, 2014 04:28
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Lotish posted:Cabbage, kale and broccoli are the same species but I would call them different things. Wait what? [googles] Holy poo poo, you learn something new every day.
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Aug 3, 2014 06:43
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The Helghast are definitely not the same as current human beings; possessing a number of minor genetic alterations. None of the alterations are significant enough to prevent Helghast from breeding with other humans though so they are still human, just a human subspecies or 'breed' if you will. Genetics is pretty flexible when it comes to breeding so it takes quite a lot of genetic changes to fully speciate and so long as the Helghast continue to interact with and breed with the rest of the human population they will never fully speciate and will remain a human subspecies. Neruz fucked around with this message at 09:56 on Aug 3, 2014 |
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Aug 3, 2014 09:53
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Neruz posted:[...] the Helghast [...] will remain a human subspecies. Don't say that to a Helghast's face! This is all they'll hear, and they don't like being compared to those filthy Vektan dogs. But yeah, I think you guys have the gist w/r/t the whole Helghast/human thing. DStecks posted:Wait what? Yeah, holy poo poo, this rocked my world too.
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Aug 3, 2014 18:28
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The Casualty posted:Excepting revolvers, virtually every other handgun uses the grip as a well for the magazine. With good reason, too. Placing the source of fresh ammunition further back means the rest of the weapon can be devoted to the best-suited barrel length without keeping the frame at an unmodifiable length. The weight distribution is also largely unaffected, whereas every shot you take with this Helghast thing is changing the handling characteristics. Plus, helical magazines are more elaborate than box magazines, and thus more prone to causing jams, which are the last thing you want in a secondary weapon. So yeah, this weapon is really loving stupid from a design standpoint. Yeah, I saw this too. Either the gun has a very short barrel length on par with a pocket pistol or it uses a conveyor system of some kind to bring the rounds through the frame to the rear for loading, which is the worst idea for a fully automatic weapon. What I want to see is if the ejection port is further back in a traditional handgun location or if it's moved forward to the helical magazine. If it's further back, either the gun has the aforementioned conveyor system or it has a very long recoil action that pulls the cartridge back a distance greater than its entire length to eject. No matter which way you parse it, this design falls apart as soon as you look at it closely. Helical magazines are used by some guns, and I think the Helghast guns are most closely inspired by the Bizon. The Bizon even appears almost unaltered in Killzone 2 and 3. Assuming the Killzone wiki is correct, the pistol ammo used by the Helghast is 9.2x20mm. This makes it basically the 9x18mm Makarov round from the Soviet Union stretched out and presumably loaded to 9x19mm Parabellum levels. I think it would give about the same performance as 9x19mm as well. Edit: I looked at a pic of the StA-18 pistol that replaces the Tropov in 2 and 3, and its ejection port is indeed a good inch behind where the magazine would be feeding rounds. Combine that with the helical magazine and it's bizarrely overengineered for no good reason. chitoryu12 fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Aug 5, 2014 |
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Aug 5, 2014 17:55
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chiasaur11 posted:I dunno. I don't think we're talking about the same Homer.
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Aug 5, 2014 20:47
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Delta Green posted:I don't think we're talking about the same Homer. 
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Aug 6, 2014 06:52
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That smiley is especially appropriate in this instance.
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Aug 6, 2014 08:23
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I found a copy of this: I was thinkin' I might be able to do something similar to what I did back in our Shadows Of The Empire LP, but unfortunately, this tie-in novel isn't a prequel or a sequel or anything, like I thought it was. It's actually just a novelization of Killzone 3. Kinda bummed out about that. It's a fast read, though, and they contrived a way to work in the word "killzone" three times in the prologue alone. Also, there's a lot of negativity towards Rico--so far so good. There's some more backstory w/r/t Sevchenko and his motivations, so by the time we get to KZ2 and 3, I'll have some more details to add to the LP. But yeah, overall, this book is pretty disappointing for the fact alone that it isn't a proper "extended universe" book.
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Aug 15, 2014 05:17
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No. The LP is over. I deleted all the footage and files out of spite. I hate Killzone. That motherfucking seawall. It did it again. It loving did it AGAIN! The LP is still on. Its just that audio synch/encoding/slow upload speeds/YouTube bullshit are really derailing things right now. I'm working on it though.
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Aug 15, 2014 05:24
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nine-gear crow posted:The LP is over. I deleted all the footage and files out of spite. D: I will persevere, one way another. If this LP must be finished with screen shots, so be it. If it must be finished with MS paint, so be it. If it must be finished with spoken word poetry, so be it. If it must be finished with abstract paintings, so be it. Killzone will never die, but we will.
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Aug 15, 2014 05:28
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nine-gear crow posted:No. Pretty sure I was possessed by a fey mood when I was making my LP and thus the recording we did might have ghosts. But once it does upload it might have recursive images of bald dudes or menace with spikes of bullets. It'll all work out in the end.
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Aug 15, 2014 07:09
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It was a fun ride while it lasted.
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Aug 15, 2014 09:55
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Herr Tog posted:It was a fun ride while it lasted. Truly, the Helghast have won. Choice quotes from the Killzone novel: quote:I ought to have put a bullet in Rico Velasquez there and then. quote:To understand just how big a jackass Rico was to kill [REDACTED], you need to know the history of this whole shitstorm. quote:[...]Mr Rico Velasquez was here and he was as bad-rear end as ever.
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Aug 15, 2014 15:09
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 It's happening. IT'S HAPPENING! .jpg) 5.1 High in the Vektan mountains, lies the ISA Fortress. From it, General Vaughton leaves in a shuttle to the SD Platform to meet up with General Adams and retake control of the array. [Enter] ISA Pilot and General Vaughton ISA PILOT We art clear to lift in yet a moment, General Vaughton. Thou and thy men shalt be upon the SD Platform within fifteen minutes, and nary a moment longer. Exeunt Lights flutter, illuminating the other side of the stage. We are elsewhere, down in the outskirts of Vekta City. Our heroes emerge upon the nearby shore. [Enter] Templar, Rico [Velasquez], Luger, and Hakha TEMPLAR Attend, we are tasked with escorting Colonel Hakha away from this accurséd warzone as fleet as our feet may fly. Upon arriving at yonder ISA Fortess, he shall be ferried to the Generals awaiting him on the SD Platform. LUGER The fortress, aye, but we doth require a boat, Templar. The docks lay nearby. VELASQUEZ Great! Seasickness! It's bad enough having to look at this mutant's face all day. HAKHA 'Sblood, though doth have a goodly tongue, nay? S'a shame it doth not match thy mind, as one sharped even a bit, as a blade on a whetstone, will rise above the frailties of thy flesh and, as they say, "cope with it". VELASQUEZ It's lucky for you that you hold some vital poo poo in your head, you bald gently caress, else I'd rip it right off and shove it up your-- TEMPLAR Stay your tongue, Sergeant! You both must sheathe they swords! Exeunt  After such a long wait, I feel it's important to start the update right and proper--  --with an image of Rico being an absolute poo poo. So yeah. We only just got Hakha and already the team's getting their undies in a bunch. As you may have already guessed, this sorts itself out over the course of the campaign as the diverse group of soldiers come to trust each other. They even become (dare I say it?) friends. They're still a bunch of useless tools on the battlefield though.  Here's Luger coming up to give supporting fire after I die.  Seriously, what the hell are you all doing back there?! Anyways, we're flashing back to WW2 with these next two stages. This sequence along the beachhead will be one long protracted battle of Normandy. Landing craft will attempt to assault a seemingly impregnable defense system and countless lives will be lost. Here's the interesting bit:  We're on the receiving end. It's subtle, super subtle, but Guerrilla has framed it so that the heroes are in the position of the Nazi Germans repelling the Allied advance. I mean, look at the above image, of a Helghast APC rolling off of an amphibious landing craft, and compare it to this image from  Eh? Eh? Though are technically playing as the heroes of the story, we are quietly being framed as the villains. We are the invading forces who have occupied France, and the Allies are fighting back in a desperate bid to retake it. No really, look back at the earlier history for this franchise: the ISA invaded and took Vekta from the Helghan Corporation, then packed them all off to Helghan. This sort of thing will reoccur throughout the series, so Guerrilla is obviously being very deliberate in how they are framing their conflicts.   Gildiss A man with a full head of luxuriant hair, cut in a stylish coif. Gildiss came to the aid of this LP when he learned of the plight facing nearly the entire Helghast populace, men and women both: baldness. What he learned during his time with us shocked and horrified him. Throughout the ordeal, he learned to sympathize with the Helghast, admire them even. Yet he now sleeps easier at nights, knowing that no matter what happens, his hair will never look as bad as General Anime's. He also recently finished an LP of Dragon's Dogma. The thread is still open if you want to compliment him on his hair, though it has also recently reached the LP Archive, as well. Gildiss is also in the market for a new avatar. I think he was hoping for a Dragon's Dogma-related one, but I think we should all band together and get him a Killzone-related one. Something involving Luger and/or Robert Z'Dar.  So Hakha is the best character in the game. There is now to reason to choose another character. Like Templar, he's a standard FPS character, so he doesn't suffer from the weaknesses that affect Rico or Luger. However, unlike Templar, he isn't a generic, white-bread, boring character. No, Hakha also gets some strengths! For one, he is much more accurate with the StA-52 Assault Rifle, due to having trained with it as a Helghast soldier. What this means in gameplay is that the most common gun is now super useful! Forget having to scrimp and save for ammo, you will always, ALWAYS have more at hand. This is a huge boon, especially in later levels when enemies turn into bullet sponges and specialized ammo and weapons capable of taking them out become more rare--having a standard rifle to fall back on will be key to getting through. Aside from that, he gets a Luger-esque ability, in that he can access places other characters cannot. Throughout the game are the occasional Helghast checkpoint. These checkpoints offer shortcuts or alternate routes through levels that only Hakha can use. The laser beams prevent anyone who isn't a Helghast from passing through. I suppose they scan the person's DNA or something? It's a sci-fi game, whatever. Point is, Hakha sometimes gets to go off on his own and act as support from above to help his team. It's a nice, if ultimately superficial distraction. Add that all together, and you have a character who displays far more utility than any of the others. The devs were saving the best for last, but now that we have him: go Hakha, or go home. (Kidding, I will switch between other characters for later chapters, though it pains me to do so). Hakha HEALTH REGEN - Average STAMINA REGEN - Average DEFENSE - Average WEAPONS - StA-52 Assault Rifle, IvP-18 Tropov Machine Pistol, FSK-7 Fury Combat Knife ABILITIES - Superior aim with StA-52 AR, can pass through Helghast checkpoints, can vault obstacles and climb ladders.   Helghast Assault Boat Pretty much scenery. These arrive, drop off the troops, and that's it. Presumably, the person steering it sits quaking in fear inside as ISA soldiers mow down his incompetent friends. They are equipped with a turret to back up the troops, but it's never used in game. So yeah, these are basically scenery. Good job, Helghast!  Sentry Bots Unmanned aerial support for Helghast soldiers. These come armed with twin machine guns and can hover in place in the air. They sound dangerous, and should be, but instead are super flimsy and can be shot down quickly. It'a a nice touch of sci-fi in a sci-fi FPS that remains surprisingly grounded in realism throughout. They are, however, a harbinger of things to come. Don't think the Helghast stopped working on their design. No. Heaven's no. When we get to Helghan, we're going to be seeing A LOT of Sentry Bots. Better Sentry Bots. Stronger Sentry Bots. BIGGER Sentry Bots.   M327 Grenade Launcher Manufactured by ISA Laboratories. It fires six 40 x 46 mm grenades from a rotating drum. Learn to arc your shots, or be doomed to forever miss. Nicknamed the "Thumper", this gun is more powerful than the Bullpup pistol and benefits from not requiring immediate reload. It does slightly slow down the player move speed, but it's negligible. This is a solid gun to have around in a pinch as it can cause a lot of splash damage quickly, as well as be used to dismantle Helghast armour. If you've the choice between this and the Bullpup or M82 grenade launcher, always take this. The ability to fire multiple rounds without reloading is a huge benefit. It does have a secondary function, but it's a proximity mine, so it's not really useful ever. Except if you were one of the five people who played Killzone 1 multiplayer.  FSK-7 Fury Combat Knife I'm not sure, I'm not a knife guy, but I'm pretty sure this is a bad design. It's likely this is another example of Helghast weapons being designed for looks rather than utility. The Killzone wikia says it's weighted to hack more than slash (haha, funny that it is a weapon for only "Hakha", then, right? Puns!), and that it's more of a light axe than knife, but--ugh, I don't know, this looks all kinds of impractical. Like, this better be made of space metal, right? Like, is it gonna snap off in a dude? What if, like, a large zipper gets caught in the blade's space and you can't pull it out? Guess you're screwed, then. Again, I don't know, someone who knows knives, please fill us in. Sally fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Nov 13, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 06:03
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You may have also noticed that our Table Of Contents have changed. One of our biggest difficulties has been getting videos uploaded. Blame internet speeds in Canada. To combat this, crow and I will be discontinuing videos without commentary. We'll still provide cutscenes with and without commentary, but actual levels seem a bit gratuitous considering our situation. I hope no one is deeply offended by this, and that you all still want to needlessly complicate this shooty-man game with us.
Sally fucked around with this message at 06:57 on Aug 23, 2014 |
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Aug 23, 2014 06:05
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EDIT: forgot to add the two new vehicles we bumped into. They are now in the post.
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Aug 23, 2014 06:34
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Just wanted to say that I'm glad this is back. 
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Aug 23, 2014 06:38
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Blind Sally posted:Yet he now sleeps easier at nights, knowing that no matter what happens, his hair will never look as bad as General Anime's. No ones hair can ever be as bad as General Anime's. Found out I got on the archives here! How's that for an update. Also, yes, help pick my new avatar.
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Aug 23, 2014 08:19
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Gildiss posted:No ones hair can ever be as bad as General Anime's. Wander into the White Knight Chronicles thread when you get the chance. Have I got some poo poo to show you...
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Aug 23, 2014 08:41
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Blind Sally posted:Something involving Luger and/or Robert Z'Dar. Same person. 
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Aug 24, 2014 01:06
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Blind Sally posted:
The British never used the Crusader tank on D-day, and that photo (found on wikipedia) has a caption stating it was taken in 1942. I am a huge nerd.
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Aug 24, 2014 10:37
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Gosh darn it! I'm in a place with unreliable internet, so I Googled "dday amphibious tank" ignored results for Hobart's funnies and grabbed the first image I could find without sourcing it.  I will say that in the context of this narrative, the Helghast's British accents don't necessarily mean they are representative of the British. So, in the example they could be a cipher for any of the Allied Dday forces, British, American, or Canadian :canadian:. Considering the stiff resistance they faced from Templar and the gang, you might say their landing here was most reminiscent of the intense fighting seen at Omaha. Ha, or not. Considering the Helghast couldn't make it off the beachhead, this was probably more like a Dieppe situation. That's the only defence I got. I dropped the ball with that picture, so when I'm not posting from my phone I will swap it out for an image actually taken from the Dday invasion (or at least one of the operations used to prepare for Dday).
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Aug 24, 2014 17:12
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Blind Sally posted:Gosh darn it! I'm in a place with unreliable internet. so I Googled "dday amphibious tank" ignored results for Hobart's funnies and grabbed the first image I could find without sourcing it. What if it was more of a Japan thing with island hopping, except replace island with planet? I am naturally compelled to point out corrections with material concerning WW2 because I'm a giant nerd and own too much stuff related to that topic. 
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Aug 24, 2014 18:27
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I'm sticking with the Dieppe Raid comparison. It'll become especially apt with the next update's video. For those of you who don't know, the Dieppe Raid was an ill-fated Canadian expedition during WW2 on the German-occupied French port of Dieppe. It is also known as the Battle of Dieppe, or by its two Operational names, Rutter or Jubilee. It was a god-damned mess and a whole lot of people died for what was arguably nothing. When trying to justify it, Admiral Mountbatten claimed that the "lessons" learned at Dieppe allowed the D-Day invasions to be a success. Whether or not that's true, the Allies were WAAAAY more prepared for D-Day. I still like the historical interpretation that Mountbatten dropped the ball and that D-Day would have been a success regardless of Dieppe. At least the public knew about Dieppe, unlike the poor soldiers lost during Exercise Tiger. Here's the skinny of the event: Some statistics taken from the Wikipedia page posted:Of the nearly 5,000-strong Canadian contingent, 3,367 were killed, wounded or taken prisoner, an exceptional casualty rate of 68%.[33] The 1,000 British Commandos lost 247 men. The Royal Navy lost one destroyer (HMS Berkeley) and 33 landing craft, suffering 550 dead and wounded. The RAF lost 106 aircraft to the 48 lost by the Luftwaffe. The German Army had 591 casualties.
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Aug 25, 2014 03:09
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.jpg) Okay, here's where the parallels to the Normandy landings really start to come together. But as the Helghast fight their way up the beach with tanks and artillery, notice where our defences are framed:  The ISA forces are sheltering in the bombed out ruins of some wealthy Vektan's summer home. Rich folk, I'll never understand them. They have an outdoor pool only a few yards away from the ocean. I hope it's at least some sort of hot tub. We'll never know. Anyways, despite their best efforts, the Helghast are repulsed. The ISA mercilessly and relentlessly rain bullets and bombs down upon them.  I've captured a couple of screens here, because it really does remind one of the Normany invasion. I mean, look at that beach.  That all aside, I really do have to question the effectiveness of Helghast boats here on Vekta. I mean, it's not like the Helghast had a manufacturing port set up across the bay. No, these would have had to been brought off-planet from Helghan and unloaded into Vekta's oceans before they could be used against the ISA. It seems like a lot of extra work for not much pay off. The jetboats we'll be seeing next level (oops, spoiler alert) are flimsy little things, that fall apart even faster than the jetbikes--and they lack the mobility of their airborne brethren as well! Oh, and don't get me started on the effectiveness of the Helghast landing craft:  What a joke. So what's the point, then? When you have interstellar spaceships and armoured hovercrafts, wouldn't they be more effective? The Overlord Dropship has already been shown to be incredibly effective. It's basically a flying armoured tank, and it can drop a bunch of troops off relatively quickly thanks to the rapelling lines. Why not fly a bunch of those into critical locations around ports and take them that way instead? Or better yet, if you don't mind a bit of collateral damage, bring some of the Helghast Cruisers into the atmosphere and bombard the ISA strongholds. The SD Platforms are down, they're not gonna be able to do anything. And the Helghast Cruisers are more than capable of doing such a thing--it happens near constantly in Killzone 2 and 3. So what is it, then? Poor planning on Guerrilla's part? I'm actually willing to give them a pass and say this is sheer hubris and pig-headedness on the behalf of the Helghast. Honestly. It won't be until Killzone 3 that we get a look at the inner workings of Helghast politics, but their government (perhaps unsurprisingly) is a corrupt, inefficient, and bloated bureaucracy. My best guess for their decision to field a bunch of outdated and ineffective tech is because "that's just the way it's always been done". So of course the Helghast bring ships: they need to invade Vekta by land, air, and sea. So what if they have loving space ships? It wouldn't be a proper invasion force without a couple of boats. Look at human history, for gosh sake: if you want to invade a Normandy-esque beach, you use boats! Lots of boats! Lucky for the ISA. If the Helghast had decided to send Overlord Dropships from all sides and bombard their location from orbit with their Cruisers, the game would have probably ended right here. Now that we have all four characters and their gameplay information has been posted, I'd like to take a moment and compare them side-by-side just to demonstrate why Hakha truly is the superior player character. For the sake of simplicity and quick comparison, I've removed specifics about "extra abilities" like Night Vision and removed their weapons listing. Also, their ability to move around the level maps has been simplified into a "MOBILITY" category. Templar HEALTH REGEN - Average STAMINA REGEN - Average DEFENSE - Average MOBILITY - Standard Luger HEALTH REGEN - Fast STAMINA REGEN - Fast DEFENSE - Low MOBILITY - High Rico HEALTH REGEN - Slow STAMINA REGEN - Slow DEFENSE - High MOBILITY - Low Hakha HEALTH REGEN - Average STAMINA REGEN - Average DEFENSE - Average MOBILITY - High Looking at these stats, Rico's problems become apparent. Without his gun he'd be utterly dull to play as. Luger might seem the obvious best character to use, but again, the biggest problem is that she's a stealth character in a game where stealth isn't really an option. There are simply too many straight up firefights, or "killzones" if you will, where you need the extra armour to tank some hits. Between Jan and Hakha, Hakha has more access to the battlefield, but is also extremely competent with the most common weapon in the game. It bears repeating: Hakha is the best character to play as on any difficulty, though especially on Hard if you're crazy and are trying to get the PS3 remake's trophy. ? Ghost Jets/Ghost Artillery Where did these explosions come from? Helghast artillery? But from where? Battleships out in the ocean? Why do we never see them? Is it the Turok-esque fog-of-war? Maybe they are from jet? But whose jets? ISA? Helghast? Why do we also never see them? Again, the fog-of-war? I suppose we'll never know. Instead, we'll just be grateful that they conveniently destroyed the one bit of debris that was conveniently blocking our progress. Sally fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Nov 13, 2014 |
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Aug 25, 2014 03:38
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Skip to 7:45 to see exactly what this game is all about.
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Aug 25, 2014 05:19
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chitoryu12 posted:Skip to 7:45 to see exactly what this game is all about. That's where it goes from "KILLZONE!  " to "KILLZONE!  "Also, the timing on the commentary is a few seconds out of synch for one reason or another, but I'm not going to fix it because I HAVE loving HAD IT WITH EDITING THIS LEVEL ALREADY! 
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Aug 25, 2014 06:19
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Wow. I can't believe it's just Space Normandy. Without a beach.
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Aug 27, 2014 06:46
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5.3 Aboard the ISA SD Platforms. Enter [General] Vaughton and Ari L. Caliban [with ISA Soldiers] CALIBAN Hail! General Adams awaits your presence, ser. Enter [General] Adams ADAMS General. VAUGHTON General. Pray, we must move swiftly. Adams and Vaughton activate the platform systems with the keys. Very good. My soldiers tell me the defence system is readied. Hath they told it true? ADAMS Aye, tis one hundred percent A-1 correct, General. Enter [General] Lente [and Helghast Soldiers] VAUGHTON Heavens have mercy, what is the meaning-- ADAMS You seeketh the meaning? The meaning is simple, my friend: thou hath failed. VAUGHTON And thou art a traitor! ADAMS Your words wither and die, like yourself shortly. Slay him. [Adams dies] LENTE Thou hath done well, General. I shalt ensure that our Autarch, Scolar Visari, is made known of your strident effort. ADAMS Nay, many thanks, but I shall relay it to him myself. First and foremost, this beautiful maiden of the sky, this heavenly goddess of death, she must accompany me for a waltz around the ballroom floor. Exeunt Meanwhile, on the ground below. Enter Luger, Hakha, Templar, and Rico HAKHA Stay yourselves, the intelligence I procured must needs be analyzed. Ah, tis the mainframe-- TEMPLAR Nay, onward, good ser. A shuttle awaits, and ye must be aboard one. HAKHA It must be analyzed. Here! VELASQUEZ Hey! Didn't you hear the captain? We're deliverin' the package. The package is you! LUGER Stay, Rico. What tugs at your mind, Hakha? RICO What? You just gonna let some unknown freak hack into the mainframe? How do we know he's not a double agent, huh? What's to say he's not on the other side? HAKHA And do tell, of the "other side", how many do you suppose I have slain in this hour alone? I do not brag, but by my actions, I am nary a brigand nor a cheat. RICO Heh,you bastards don't even give a poo poo about your own! [BLIND SALLY NOTE: Interesting foreshadowing for the second and third games. We will see that Helghast society is a pretty dog-eat-dog one and that compassion amongst themselves is in short supply.] [Hakha and Rico and Luger draw weapons on each other] Try it, scum. Come on. Try it. Back. Off. Bitch! LUGER Surely thou knowest. If thou fire, thou art dead. TEMPLAR God's blood! Cease your alarm! Tis a nigh endless journey to the fortress, and our odds are not favoured. Should we put aside our quarrel and work as brothers, we would still be facing a Herculean task. Thus, I say this once and for all: cease your fighting! Stay your arms, and act like the soldiers you purport to be. Hakha, what is it that can't wait? HAKHA A terminal on the SD Platform has come under duress. It is controlled by the Helghast, and was used to terminate our control of the defence system. I must locate it for General Adams, and so must access the mainframe. TEMPLAR Then quickly now, get on with it! [Hakha begins typing] TEMPLAR How goes your progress? HAKHA Nearly there. TEMPLAR Nay, time is up! HAKHA I have it! But say it cannot be true! LUGER Oh? HAKHA It cannot be. I must not be. The computer under Helghast control is General Adams's personal computer. TEMPLAR Forsooth, General Vaughton's in danger! LUGER If Adams's is a traitor, then he controls the SD weapons. HAKHA Yet there is more, they can be aimed-- VELASQUEZ Oh Jesus, look! Scene ends in a flash of white as the SD Platforms destroy the ISA Fortress. Exeunt 5.4 At the edge of the dock. The rain has let up, and the ISA Fortress burns in he distance. Enter Templar, Luger, Rico, and Hakha VELASQUEZ There's your ticket outta here up in smoke, Hakha. LUGER Have we a contingency plan? TEMPLAR We make for the uplink. An orbital transfer station is there and doth link to the relay direct. Tis our only hope. VELASQUEZ You're kidding, right? That's like 90 clicks through a giant poo poo heap of Helghast. And I ain't ugly enough to pass as one of them. [BLIND SALLY NOTE: Hahahahahaha! At some point in a future game, Rico WILL have to pass himself off as a Helghast.] HAKHA We must not falter. The Earth Fleet cometh our way, so we must try. VELASQUEZ How do you now this poo poo? HAKHA I am but a spy, tis my job. LUGER Aye, but when the Fleet arrives Adams can lay waste to them. Jan? TEMPLAR The remains of the Fortress, that is our route. Tis the only path to the uplink, and t'will be a good place to get the lie of the land. VELASQUEZ How come I get to share with the rat? Exeunt [In Fast Attack Boats]  Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous. Look at that rain-soaked jungle of concrete and metal. Perhaps it's because I live on the coast and have always been around dock machinery, but I love the atmosphere this section evokes. The waves and wind battering against the dead monolith of commercial sea trade--it's beautiful. Especially for the PS2 era. But crow doesn't like it, so whatever. I cannot dispute the fact that this level kinda drags on. I feel it doesn't overstay its welcome, though, as this is only a tiny sign of things to come: levels are going to really start dragging on. (Apologies to Putty for inviting him to commentate on the most boring level of the whole game).  This here is a still of the special DNA scanners that the Helghast use to keep out all non-Helghast. I dunno how it works, but they activate trip mines for any non-Helghast user. So while Hakha can phase through, the rest can't. If you play as anyone but Hakha, one of your AI companions will warn you about the danger, although you can still blow yourself up.  This pic is only here because it's always gratifying to hear someone to tell Rico to shut up.  We also bump into an oddly coloured Helghast soldier. I'm assuming it's some sort of command figure? Interestingly enough, this grey-ish armour is reminiscent of a character we will encounter in the next game, Killzone: Liberation, and their rank is that of a Colonel. So, yeah. We won't see too many of these guys. In fact, this is the first time I've noticed the colour difference, thanks to crow's eagle-eye. Or, uh, crow-eye? Fast-forwarding to the cutscene:  Here's another instance of Rico being over-aggressive and over-bearing. He's clearly trying to intimidate Hakha by ignoring his personal boundaries, but it's a bit horrifying that the camera cuts in close as well. It makes the player feel like Rico is invading OUR personal space  Which is fitting, I suppose, because we're playing as Hakha at the moment. It's too bad this is a stock cutscene and it would occur this way no matter who you played the level as, otherwise this would be a clever bit of scene manipulation. And here we have a Vektan Stand-off! Ahyuk! But while our heroes bicker, the bad guys are making their power-play:  If it wasn't totally obvious yet that General Anime here is some sort of super-villain, with his weird monologue about technological gods, they ramp up the foreshadowing at the last second by throwing in some suspicious glances.   Cause hey-yo! General Anime is a Helghast traitor. Which means I can remove one of the earlier redacted names from our Killzone history bits:  Yup, this capture of the SD Platforms was planned all along and was the crux of this invasion. But we'll go into Helghast battle plans more in a later update. For now, let's meet our tertiary villain (aside from Visari and Adams):  General Lente, the leader of the Helghast invasion that we are currently fighting, the Helghast Third Army. I'll save more about him in his character post.  And things go boom. That's the ISA Fortress up in smoke, and with it, the ISA high-command in Northern Vekta. Things look bleak, but we only have the view of the big bads and our grunts on the ground. That's one of the interesting things about Killzone--there's a larger war going on, but you only ever get to see either the absolute ground-eye view where the action is so funneled that you don't get a bigger picture of what's going on, or so bird's-eye with the high-command that they feel out of the loop of what's happening down below. This is a theme throughout the series and provides an interesting disconnect between the regular soldiers and their C/Os. That all said, the ISA aren't totally helpless, as there are many other Generals around the planet organizing their own counterattack. It's just the forces here in Vekta City that are in complete disarray. Which of course means it's up to our gang of four to pull them out of the fire.  Screened this because crow thought it was an ISA friendly fire accident. That looks to me like the blurred outline of a Helghast soldier, but what really gives it away is that they're using a Helghast-made rocket launcher from off planet. At this point, the ISA have their own rocket launchers, so I doubt they'd be cannibalizing the Helghast weapons this early in the invasion. Oh yeah, did I say our heroes were going to save the day?  Uhhh--  Cliffhanger!   Voiced by Steven Berkoff Joseph Lente is the leader of the Helghast Third Army, the spear-head of the Vekta Invasion. He answers only the Visari. A staunch supporter of Visari, Lente joined the military during the Great Helghast Depression and quickly rose in the ranks thanks to his loyalty and strong leadership qualities. Suffered a personal embarrassment and career setback when many of his support staff deserted his office due to his increasingly radical and fanatical points-of-view. Well, at least Visari likes him. Ah well, whatever you want to say about Lente, he's at least a brilliant strategist, being largely responsible for organizing plans for the invasion. As with other characters, there are some more plot-crucial details that I'm leaving out for now until they become more relevant.  Helghast Fast Attack Boat The Fast Attack Boat is the aquatic version of the Jet Bike. It's stupid. No really. The Jet Bike is already an extremely flimsy vehicle, but at least it has the advantage of speed and maneuverability. The Killzone Wikia tries to argue that the speed and mounted heavy machine gun of the Attack Boat make up for the lack of armour, but it really doesn't. Stuck on the surface of the ocean, unable to perform the aerial stunts the Jet Bike can, the Fast Attack Boat is easy prey for ISA soldiers. There only real use in the game is to get Templar and co. from the Docks to the (spoiler alert) Vektan Swamps. Sally fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Mar 7, 2015 |
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Sep 8, 2014 20:58
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The outro commentary and no-commentary videos are switched, and RICO stage directions turn into VELASQUEZ at random through the Shakespeare'd script.Blind Sally posted:This here is a still of the special DNA scanners that the Helghast use to keep out all non-Helghast. I dunno how it works, because I guess the lasers are solid for any non-Helghast user? So while Hakha can phase through, the rest can't. Would've made more sense to have them trigger a bomb or something. The characters say the lasers are projected from tripmines when you first find them. I don't recall ever being dumb enough to rub against them when not using Hakha, so who knows how it actually works in gameplay, but still.
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Sep 9, 2014 05:58
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Is it just me or is there audio desync in the latest batch of videos?
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Sep 9, 2014 06:12
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And now for several levels of nothing happening!
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Sep 9, 2014 06:14
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Lazy Bear posted:Is it just me or is there audio desync in the latest batch of videos? Yeah, I was just about to comment on that. I think it's around five or six minutes into the first one, it ends up at least a whole second out of sync.
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Sep 9, 2014 06:15
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This is incidentally where I also stopped playing the game. It had so much promise when I first spied it on the shelf at Blockbuster.
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Sep 9, 2014 13:19
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Lazy Bear posted:Is it just me or is there audio desync in the latest batch of videos? Yea it's pretty bad. Several seconds desync it sounds like. Also there's just something about giant orbital space lasers that tugs at the heartstrings 
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Sep 9, 2014 17:39
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Dr. Tough posted:This is incidentally where I also stopped playing the game. It had so much promise when I first spied it on the shelf at Blockbuster. I stopped playing here too, because the Helghast elite lobbing explosives at the end of the level kept killing me and I got fed up.
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Sep 9, 2014 21:21
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Oblivion4568238 posted:The outro commentary and no-commentary videos are switched, and RICO stage directions turn into VELASQUEZ at random through the Shakespeare'd script. W/r/t Rico v. Velasquez: dangit! I thought I fixed all those. It's weird because basically everyone in his game gets called by their last name or a nickname, barring Jan Templar, of course, who is about a 50/50 split on which name is used, and Rico, who is pretty much only referred to as Rico. I will edit them back to the proper "Velasquez" when I get home tonight. Thanks for noticing that. W/r/t the Helghast lasers: you're right, I missed that line of dialogue and was just basing my memory off of what I remembered experiencing during gameplay with other characters. Though now I'm second guessing myself, so I'll boot up my copy tonight and see if I can get myself blown up.
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Sep 9, 2014 22:32
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nine-gear crow posted:Also, the timing on the commentary is a few seconds out of synch for one reason or another, but I'm not going to fix it because I HAVE loving HAD IT WITH EDITING THIS LEVEL ALREADY! Not to quote myself for no reason, but yeah... This was the level where everything went wrong for us technically, which really sucks because Gildiss was a fantastic guest to have on. The next levels should hopefully go a little smoother, but yeah we are running smack into the "boring as poo poo" stretch of the first game. Once again I apologize for how utterly hosed this whole level was.
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Sep 9, 2014 22:46
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Okay, so I quickly went through to test the trip mine thing and was pleasantly surprised to discover I was wrong. Thus, I was able to blow Rico up and it was good. I'll append that when I correct the update.
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Sep 10, 2014 03:03
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