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Who is your favourite Killzone 1 hero? This poll is closed. |
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| Templar |
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7 | 3.24% |
| Rico |
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14 | 6.48% |
| Luger |
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23 | 10.65% |
| Hakha |
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64 | 29.63% |
| Don't talk to me about Killzone 1 |
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108 | 50.00% |
| Total: | 216 votes | ||
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I've been replaying some of the game to get a better look at ISA uniforms. Some of the enemy dialog is pretty good. If you play around with Heavy Troopers for a bit longer, they'll start to taunt you. "Come here, I only want to talk to you!"
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Mar 12, 2015 00:20
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Watching those trailers and the gameplay side by side and the first thing I noticed that in the actual game the explosion effects are worse in the final game. Other effects like the lightning gun are more or less the same, so maybe only the explosions changed (or couldn't be properly realised?). The end of the last mission with the tank and all the missiles and artillery flying around was kind of a shock to me because it's this incredible looking game with a ton of detail everywhere but these terrible PS2 explosion effects. Edit: Huh, the Arc cannon went up in a nice solid looking blast. Maybe because it was a static object? Erd fucked around with this message at 01:14 on Mar 12, 2015 |
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Mar 12, 2015 00:57
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Yeah, Guerrilla never reached the same heights as their tech demo with Killzone 2, at least not with a lot of the particle effects. That said, "PS2 era?!" What PS2 games are you thinking of? I thought the explosions looked pretty good for a 2009 console shooter. Also, I've been replaying the game to see if I can discover more funny lines said by NPCs and enemies. When fighting a losing battle, Helghast will sometimes shout out "gently caress me" in the most downtrodden voice possible--for an angry Helghast soldier. It's pretty funny. I've also noticed that some Helghast will shout out "For the Third Army!" as a battle cry. The fools. The Third Army was a bunch of suckers, but it's a cool callback to the first game. Oh, and if you leave Rico injured and bleeding out for long enough, he starts getting downright rude. He'll call out "Get me the gently caress up, motherfucker! Now!", as if that's really going to make you want to help him out. EDIT: been messing with the AI more. I thought the Support Troops had sidearms, but I guess I really was only thinking of the Rifleman. If you get up close to a Support Trooper, he just kind of panics and runs away, since ALL HE HAS IS A ROCKET LAUNCHER. It's pretty funny. I managed to clear out a building while keeping a Support Trooper alive and then chased him around the upper levels for a while. Until Garza shot him. 
Sally fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Mar 14, 2015 |
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Mar 14, 2015 18:00
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zthe combat barks in this game can be pretty good. One time a soldier was yelling "Kneel before the might of--" and then noticed the grenade landing at his feet and finished with "--oh, gently caress"
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Mar 14, 2015 20:07
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 Lazyfire joins us once again. Last time we had him as a guest, we took him through a bunch of crumbling grey corridors on Vekta. So we thought we'd do something different this time, and take him through a bunch of crumbling grey corridors on Helghan. Also, check out Lazyfire's Wolfenstein: The New Order thread if you like really good LPs of really good shoot-man games.  At the end of the last analysis, I pointed out what professionals Alpha Squad really are. Keeping that in mind, hey, look! Amidst exploding death ray cannons and flying robot monsters, Garza still managed to snag a piece of shrapnel so that ISA techs could examine it. Way to go, Garza! Maybe we'll get some Arc Tech of our own one day.  Onto the mission. If you remember from last time, Narville was starting to get antsy about Alpha-Two destroying the Arc Tower. Back at Visari Square, the Helghast have been putting up a formidible defense. Narville's group hasn't been able to push forward at this time. The convoy short on reinforcements, Narville had called in Intruders to resupply their lines--before Sev and Garza had disabled the tower. Of course, the tower is now down, but it wasn't knocked out before a few more Intruders were shot down. Normally Killzone 2 is really good at setting up a continuity to the warzone, so here's a minor dropping of the ball. Judging by Garza's response and the situation we find Alpha-One in, Narville had tasked Rico and Natko with rescuing some of the survivors of a downed Intruder. Makes sense. We did the same thing in the first mission with Garza and Sev.  Jeffries Never forget. However, as far as I can tell, we haven't heard word one about this side-mission until now, and yet when Rico sets the parameters for our current mission, Garza tells us he'll bring reinforcements to the crash site? What crash site, Garza? All Rico said was that they have a "situation". He didn't say anything about a crash site.Ah, whatever. Garza breaks off to find Narville, and Sev fights his way to Alpha-One:  Here's the crash site. To be honest, the first couple times I played this game I had no idea what was going on. I just followed the waypoints to Rico and Natko, figuring they got lost trying to find Sev. Nope, that flaming wreckage is indeed an Intruder, and there are ISA corpses lying all about it. It was a trap, of course, because Rico and Natko have been pinned down by Helghast attack since they arrived. Which is where we come in.  Anyways, you might think it a good idea to hang around with Natko and Rico behind the sand bags. You'd be wrong. On lower difficulties, it doesn't really matter. If you want to play it on Elite, though, you're making yourself a great target. Yeah, if either of your allies gets injured, it'll be easier to revive them, but the Helghast are going to concentrate all their fire on that location, and on Elite, they get really grenade happy when you try to take cover like this. If you look at the above image, there's a wall to Rico's left that will block most Helghast fire--that's your best cover down here, and it won't be enough. If you're low on health and need to regen, odds are you won't be able to completely conceal yourself and you'll get picked off. You can get better cover in the ruins to your right, but getting their means exposing yourself. So ultimately, this is a bad position to be in. Instead, go up the stairs in the busted building and take position directly above Alpha-One. You have a better vantage point of the battlefield, and more mobility to get to cover. You're in greater danger of being shot by the Helghast in the adjacent building, but those on the ground now have to choose between targets--and they're more likely to choose Alpha-One than Sev. If a buddy gets injured, there's also a hole in the structure, so you can quickly drop down and run back up the stairs before taking too much fire. See this chair? I don't know who left it there, it's probably been slept on by some unfortunate homeless Helghan, but it's basically where you want to be:  I don't plan on posting strategy suggestions for most of the game, but on Elite difficulty, this area can be particularly challenging. When I come across other chokepoints, I'll go more indepth on tactics. Which reminds me, make sure you kill the rooftop Helghast while they do the slowly-lower-themselves-onto-the-walkway animation. It'll make that section so much easier. Note: don't be too close, or they'll start shooting before they do their animation.  Oh, and remember when I mentioned that Helghast APCs were repurposed mining tools? Yeah! Awesome!  Make sure you frag the troopers as they exit in a cluster. It just makes things harder if they spread out, and it'll drag on the fight. Once Garza opens the door and reinforcements arrive, you can rush to the exit and leave. Don't worry about additional Helghast, the ISA troops will keep them from following you.  Inside the building, we're greeted by another excellent Natko-ism. You can skip it, if you want. Rico doesn't stick around, so follow him to the next area. Or, stay and bask in the glory that is Shawn Natko. To be completely honest, I have a hard time getting a read on Natko. Is he really just joshing around? Sometimes he seems particularly mean-spirited. Also, his target seems to always be Garza. What's his deal? Did Garza run over his dog? Maybe Natko doesn't realize when a joke has gone too far. Pushing along, Alpha Squad is just in time to join Narville's final push for Visari Square. We left from the opposite side, so in the intervening missions, we've somehow circled completely around the square. If you're not paying attention, you may not notice that this is the exact same place we landed at the beginning of the second mission. Check out this screenshot, though, we're looking at the same area from the opposite end:  Zooming in, that barrier I'm looking at is where we first met Narville, consulting a map, when he sent Garza and Sev to first knock out the Arc Tower:  It's a nice bit of continuity. My only complaint is that it's not super obvious at first glance. Honestly, with all the assumed fighting that occurred since we were last here, I kind of expected the place to be in a greater state of destruction. Ah, well, I give it a pass since when you arrive back on scene, Guerrilla does a good job or creating a frenzy of ISA and Helghast soldier clashing against each other. Note: be wary of the landing Intruders. They can't see you. If you're underneath one when it touches down, you'll be killed! Friendly fire! Or as the ISA soldiers say, "blue on blue!"  Speaking of "blue on blue", we really get to see the revive gun in action this mission. Partly because the intense fighting keeps knocking out important NPCs, but also partly because you're able to injure your own comrades. Fun fact: Killzone 2 keeps track of a number of stats. One of those stats is "Number of times buddies offended". Basically, if you hit your friends enough times, they will briefly turn "red" and fire back at you and yell at you.  Another bit of repurposed Helghast technology, is this gondola here. It does not make an effective troop transport. Nosiree, it does not. Especially not when they exit one at a time in predictable intervals. Still, you have to admire the Helghast's dedication to the cause, even if it gets them shot. When the battle is done, we're reminded of what it's all about. The convoy:  Gotta get Narville and his troops up to Visari's Palace! Narville himself also reminds us of our subplot, though, just in case you hadn't picked up on how important Arc Tech was:  Before the mission ends, we get some character development.  And by character development, I mean that Natko continues to be a prick towards Garza, and Narville chews him out for it. What is his deal, seriously? Natko, not Narville, I mean. We all know Narville is trying to prove himself since he wasn't around for the defense of Vekta. Natko's deal remains a mystery.  Look at that smug rear end in a top hat.       There's a few things I want to talk about this update, some we've already been seeing, and one new thing. First, grenades. As Lazyfire points out, there's no grenade indicator. Horrible, right? I find it's actually not a big deal since Guerrilla has a workaround that is somewhat more realistic--considering this is a game where you fight Space Nazis with death rays. Primed grenades not only flash a bright light, but they beep with increasing urgency until they detonate. It works particularly well if you're playing the game with surround sound on a big screen television, as it helps figure out where wayward grenades lie. Otherwise, uh, yeah, boom. Second, complaints about the screen going red and black and white come up again in this video. I've never been a huge fan of it in shooter games, as it can be a huge hindrance if you're taking heavy fire and are trying to navigate your way to safety. That said, I do like the directional red sprays that appear when you first start getting hit. They'll appear on your screen in the exact direction that the enemy in question is firing from. If you look around, that spray will move with the screen so that you will continue to be "aware" of which direction the danger is in. It's subtle, but I like it, and it can be thought of as another one of Sev's professional skills as a member of Alpha Squad:  The last thing is only seen in this level. Doors blocked by, presumably, Arc Technology. Find the glowing blue weak-point to disable. Similarly to the weakened wall we encountered in the first chapter, this is sort of a token gameplay mechanic. I believe we see it only one or two times more throughout the game, and only in one instance is it mandatory to destroy the control box. So, an interesting security feature, but not necessarily a popular one on Helghan.   M224-A1 Light Machine Gun The ISA's response to Stahl Arm's StA-3 Light Machine Gun. It has all the firepower of the ISA MOMAGs we saw in the first game, and Rico's Gun. Unlike Rico's Gun, it lacks a secondary rocket launcher function. It also lacks the massive clip. Lore-wise, I'm sure this was to make it a more accessible weapon to regular soldiers. Apparently the original Rico's Gun gave people back problems. It's a powerful weapon, but doesn't have too many advantages over the StA-3. It takes much, much longer to reload, being a belt-fed weapon. It's a bit more accurate, since you can shoulder aim as well as hip-fire, but as far as I'm concerned, the ability to shoot more bullets faster elevates the StA-3. Note: though similar, this is indeed a different gun than the one we see Rico using in Killzone: Liberation. That gun, the "Tyrant", has a slightly larger calibre. Not that it really matters in gameplay terms.  Medic Reviving Device Manufactured by Visari Corporation. This gun's powerful charge can revive downed allies! How does it work? I dunno, ARC TECH!!! or something. In single-player, Sev can only use this when prompted while standing near downed allies. In multiplayer, this gun enters a whole new world of effectiveness. For example, revived allies have a 3 second window of invulnerability while they get up. Also, the electric beam can be used offensively. It deals about a quarter damage each blast, and it can be fired rather rapidly. Best of all, this gun actually has some incredible distance. Unlike in single-player, you can fire this gun from up to 20 metres away. Seriously good. As an aside, Visari Corporation also manufactures the medkits that are used in various Killzone games. I like that despite being a despotic leader, Visari also owns a company that has created some of the most advanced life-saving technology in the universe. I mean, it makes sense given what life was like on Helghan, but still. They're so effective that said medkits and these reviving guns are also used by the Vektan ISA. Ironic, no?  Early concept art for the Helghast APC:  This one looks like something out of Warhammer 40k:  Visari Square: 
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Mar 15, 2015 04:04
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The knife is so drat good. I platinumed this game way back when and the only way I was able to get through some of the more ridiculous encounters on the hardest difficulty was to just sprint around with the knife.
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Mar 15, 2015 07:18
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On the subject of general intrigue, I don't mind Rico's shift in personality, watching an invasion where your generals sold you out to a army that buttfucked Vekta I would probably find it easier to kill the man rather than go through the politicking that Visari is unmatched at. Helghast's government is more united than the ISA's...but to be fair, it may be flawed by design. And for Operation Archangel, they failed to do what the Helghast did...secure malleable leaders.
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Mar 15, 2015 08:08
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DO IT TO IT posted:The knife is so drat good. I platinumed this game way back when and the only way I was able to get through some of the more ridiculous encounters on the hardest difficulty was to just sprint around with the knife. Used, correctly, the knife can absolutely trivialize some sections of the game on Elite. Speaking of which, I mentioned that the game's AI is pretty crushing and that I'd never beaten it on Elite in the last video. The final encounter is absolutely brutal. That said, I final beat it the other night. So, go me. Woo. Also, I've found a cache of sweet concept art for Killzone 2 which I'm going to start adding to the Miscellaneous sections of posts. In fact, I've even gone back and added relevant artwork to older posts where relevant. Oh, and a correction: Support Troopers in Killzone 2 don't actually have a sidearm--I was confusing them with Support Troopers in later games. In THIS game, they ONLY have a rocket launcher. Which means if you get close to them, they will flee in terror, and you can just chase them around the level at your leisure. until Garza shoots them 
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Mar 16, 2015 07:53
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Holy poo poo. I was doing research for future updates when I came across news that Sony is being sued over Killzone: Shadow Fall. Apparently people feel they were deceived by Sony's advertising for the game, claiming that the multiplayer graphics don't look as nice as promised? A judge looked over the class action lawsuit a few months ago and has approved it to go ahead to trial. I mean, okay? I don't see what the big deal is. No one sued Sony over the pre-rendered Killzone 2 "gameplay" trailer.
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Mar 19, 2015 06:46
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Blind Sally posted:Holy poo poo. I was doing research for future updates when I came across news that Sony is being sued over Killzone: Shadow Fall. Apparently people feel they were deceived by Sony's advertising for the game, claiming that the multiplayer graphics don't look as nice as promised? A judge looked over the class action lawsuit a few months ago and has approved it to go ahead to trial.
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Mar 19, 2015 07:04
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NGDBSS posted:This seems like small potatoes compared to what Level-5 did with the White Knight Chronicles games.
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Mar 19, 2015 09:54
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Shei-kun posted:Seriously, if you're gonna sue a company over failing to deliver what was promised, go after someone who shat all over the expectations. So Silicon Knights and Too Human then? Because I almost believed that happen in their case or it was them being sued for being utter dickwads regarding engine licenses or something.
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Mar 19, 2015 11:55
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Okay, I finally had some time to sit down at a computer and get a link:http://www.polygon.com/2014/8/6/5975983/sony-sued-killzone-shadow-fall-1080p posted:Sony Computer Entertainment America has been hit with a lawsuit alleging "deceptive marketing" of Killzone: Shadow Fall because the PlayStation 4 game's multiplayer mode does not run at the resolution advertised. Emphasis mine. Yeah, and so the judge denied Sony's move for dismissal of the case. So, yeah, it might wind up in court.
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Mar 20, 2015 06:09
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...5 million dollars? Seems a bit excessive, even if it is bad of Sony to lie about the resolution. How big are the chances that Sony will lose the case?
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Mar 20, 2015 06:22
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NGDBSS posted:This seems like small potatoes compared to what Level-5 did with the White Knight Chronicles games. This is just my opinion on the matter, so don't take it as fact, but I think White Knight Chronicles slipping into Development Hell for four years kind of saved Level-5's bacon on that front, because by the time it saw a release, all the buzz surrounding it had evaporated thanks to Level-5 going radio silent on it until a few months prior to it going gold. By that point, the trailer that wowed everyone (which turned out to be completely fake) had largely been forgotten about and most of the gaming press's reaction to its re-unveiling was along the lines of "oh, well, I guess that still exists then... *goes back to talking about Valkiya Chronicles/Grand Theft Auto IV/Mass Effect/Uncharted/Uncharted 2/InFamous/Killzone 2/Final Fantasy XIII/ Much like Level-5 itself, when it came time for their to be an audience reaction for White Knight Chronicles, that reaction was a resounding 
nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 09:30 on Mar 20, 2015 |
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Mar 20, 2015 09:28
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Carlioo posted:...5 million dollars? Seems a bit excessive, even if it is bad of Sony to lie about the resolution. How big are the chances that Sony will lose the case? Depends, if Sony really did have 'native 1080p' as a stated selling point then odds are very good they will lose unless they manage to get it before a really tech-stupid judge who doesn't understand what anyone is talking about. The 5 million dollars seems excessive for actual damages but is probably deliberately that high so as to ensure that Sony actually feels it, inflated with punitive damages in other words. There's not a whole lot of point in suing a multimillion dollar company for say ten grand because they'll just pay out and forget all about it. If you actually want to hurt a major company for blatant lies like this you need to hit them hard. However odds are even better that they'll settle for an undisclosed amount at some point unless there's a moral crusade element, which given that the law firm seeking the damages is also running a few other cases along similar lines it is distinctly possible that there is. e: Basically success comes down to proving at least two and preferably three things: 1 - That Sony advertised and promised native 1080p resolution on the game, this will be easy to prove if true. 2 - That Sony knowingly did not deliver native 1080p resolution but continued to advertise that they would, this will be harder as Sony may well be able to get away by saying that they intended to do native 1080p but were unable to due to technical difficulties. Now this will be enough, but ideally you want to also prove 3 - That Sony could have delivered native 1080p and chose not to. This will be either extremely easy or almost impossible, depending on what actually happened. Assuming that the case is legit though Sony's lawyers will almost certainly do their best to stall as long as possible in the hopes of out-moneying the firm and ensuring that the case never goes to court. Neruz fucked around with this message at 10:30 on Mar 20, 2015 |
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Mar 20, 2015 10:21
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Yeah, it doesn't look great for Sony, particularly if they take the whole definition of "native 1080p" route. I dunno. I just find it a little baffling that there's such a fuss being made over a video game. I mean, I thought the whole class-action lawsuit against Microsoft for the massive failure rates of the 360 made sense. Killzone: Shadow Fall, though? It works. It looks great. It isn't exactly what is advertised on the box, but looking at gameplay videos, it still looks drat brilliant.
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Mar 21, 2015 04:12
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It sounds like the law firm that is running the case has a number of other similar cases against other video game companies as well; I don't think it's so much the game itself as it is another example of the rampant lies and false advertising that currently plagues the games industry that they can add to their arsenal. That's also why I suspect there might be a moral crusade element; I think someone in a position of power in that firm is sick of this poo poo.
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Mar 21, 2015 04:18
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  After being separated from Rico, Templar and Hallucinatory Hakha press into the occupied ISA firebase to rescue the three VIPs from the Helghast clutches. Upon his rescue, General Dwight Stratson informs Cpt. Templar that the ISA was forced to abandon the base’s arms cache when the Helghast attacked and could not seal its access elevator in time. Stratson orders Templar STAGE 3: EVACUATION  Stage 3 of Chapter 1 opens with a shot of a statue out in front of the main ISA base in Rayhoven. It’s, ostensibly, a statue depicting an angel, but it’s not a particularly comforting visage, is it? Could this be the Angel of Death, maybe? The way its wings are wrapped around it, it makes it look very Grim Reaper like. Who puts a statue of the Angel of Death out in front of a military base? That’s just overly morbid. What’s more, this is one of the few pieces of Vektan artwork that we ever get to glimpse in the original generation Killzone games. Everything else we’ve seen up till this point has been either commercial advertisements (see: the mall in Killzone 1, Chapter 3), or military B-roll photographs dressed up as artwork (see: ISA HQ in Vekta City from Killzone 1, Chapter 2). And what’s Guerrilla’s statement about art?  Just more grist for the mill of war. Everything burns in the fires of conflict: food, water, shelter, civilization, even thought and expression are all casualties of conflict. Then again, good on you Helghast goons for blowing that loving creepy looking thing up. It gave me the willies.  We also get to see the stratification in the Helghast ranks up close thanks to Liberation’s janky cutscene engine, as a Helghast Rifleman (trenchcoat) comes out to greet Templar  Once the base’s helipad has been secured, the ISA Airforce manages to get a MEDEVAC VTOL dropshop into the base in preparation for Batton, Milcher, and Stratson’s extraction. A similar dropship deposited Templar  Our first evacuee from the base is Dr. Evelyn Batton, ISA nuclear munitions expert and developer of the Red Dust high-yield, low-fallout tactical nuclear weapon. Batton is unarmed and only has 56 starting health, because while she’s weapons-trained and a fairly good shot, she’s also unarmored, not combat trained, and injured to boot. You need to guide her back to the ISA dropship on the landing pad. Luckily, Evelyn’s AI will follow fairly close to you, and will duck behind cover should things get dicey. There’s also relatively little/fairly weak Helghast between her hiding spot and the helipad, so the game at least eases you into your escort mission for this stage.  Once you get her to the dropship, she climbs aboard to safety and informs you of where you’ll find your second evacuee, Heff Milcher.  Milcher’s up second. He has 65 health, despite being overweight and even less combat-versed then Evelyn. The tradeoff here is the Helghast response to your escorting him to the helipad is also stepped up. On the one hand, Milcher’s kind of a self-important rear end, but on the other hand, he is right that his survival is a matter of national security. Because if he dies, Vekta loses its defense minister AND its political compass on whether or not to deploy Red Dust on the Helghast. His death could prompt the Vektan parliament to deploy the nukes purely out of revenge, so we kind of want to avoid that if we can.  As Milcher boards the dropship, he tells us where we’ll find our final VIP: General Stratson. Stratson’s holed up in the base’s communications bunker in the north west sector.  When we free Stratson, he comes out both with a full 100 health AND wielding an ISA M3 revolver piston. Being an ISA general, Stratson is the only one of our three VIPs who’s anywhere near fit for combat, even if he is only using essentially a backup sidearm.  That said, Stratson knows how to kick his fair share of rear end. And because he’s the strongest of your escort subjects, the amount and strength of the Helghast resistance you face between the comms bunker and the helipad will be at its heaviest now.  But mowing down infinite numbers of Helghast grunts is just all in a day’s work for Jan Templar  Just because we’ve rescued the hostages doesn’t mean our job’s done, however. Gen. Stratson imparts a follow up mission on Jan before boarding the dropship.  We’ve got to head to the base’s ammo cache and seal the access elevator to it to prevent the Helghast from looting it (…or so we’re told).  Yeah, because that would just put everyone up poo poo creek, wouldn’t it, Dwight?  So Captain Hero and his PSTD Ghost Hakha head out for the ammo dump while Stratson, Batton, and Milcher fly out to more secure territory on the MEDEVAC dropship. STAGE 4: SABOTAGE  The northern half the base has clearly suffered the brunt of the Helghast assault, as whole chunks of it are already crumbling away after a heavy opening bombardment.  The Helghast are dug in pretty deep, but luckly they’ve left one of their tanks undefended, so Jan  Unfortunately, the base’s anti-tank defenses make reaching the ammo cache in the armor impossible, so from here they have to go on foot.  Which REALLY sucks because the Helghast have their own tank waiting for them at the supply elevator. This will be our first boss fight, which I will cover more in the Gameplay section.  With the tank dealt with, and the support cables holding the elevator in place severed, the Rayhoven Base ammo cache is cut off from the Helghast now.   …Or wide open to the Helghast now. Take your pick.  Fun fact: if you kill the tank the way Luger tells you to (see: Gameplay), the tank will fall into the shaft with the elevator. So we kind of hosed that up here. Oh well.  With his mission accomplished, Jan  Jan action climbs down the rope…  And oh hey Rico, what’s up? I don’t know how or why Rico managed to score a boat, or how he was able to find exactly where Jan was right in time to come puttering up with it for Jan to drop into, but he did. Maybe Luger’s linked up with Rico too and she’s only relaying information directly to Jan and Rico separately and not bothering to co-ordinate between her assets directly. I dunno. Luger’s a lovely Intel Officer, is what I’m saying.  And so Jan and Rico Stages 3 and 4 of Chapter 1 introduce us to a few new elements of Liberation’s gameplay, primarily vehicles. But for now, let’s stick to matters on the ground.  For starters, Liberation starts getting a little more obvious with its cover spots. Before, there was the occasional concrete block or dirt mound to hide behind out in the field. Now that we’re in close quarters in a firebase, we’ve got full on sandbags and barricades to help us out. This is where Guerrilla just beats you over the head with USE THESE FOR COVER, STUPID!   I point this out in the video, but I misidentified the turrets you can hop into in Liberation in the previous post as Helghast Chimera AA gun platforms. I was wrong, and I just want to point out that these right here are the actual Chimera gun platforms which return from Killzone 1. Note their distinctive dark grey colouring and quad-barrel design. Sadly, Chimera’s aren’t commandeerable like they were in KZ1, and can only be destroyed in Liberation with heavy weapons fire or grenades or C4.  C4 isn’t the only high explosive you can use to clear barricades or open paths us.  In this stage, we also find timed mines, which can be laid out just like C4. Once you plant the mine, you have 4 seconds to run or roll to safety before it explodes.  Also returning from Killzone 1 Helghast tripwire mines. Their unique property in the first game was that Hakha could pass through their tripwires unharmed due to his Helghast DNA. But because Hakha technically doesn’t exist in this game, Liberation treats the co-op partner as a second Templar and the mines will explode if you cross their tripwire. Though I suppose you could write it off as the Metrac’s forces field modifying their mines to disable their DNA screeners to countermand Hakha’s advantage now that they know he’s an active enemy combatant.  Approaching the charge will give you a little wrench prompt over your head and when you press and hold the action button, your character will crouch down for a few seconds and begin disarming the mine. If you stop pressing the button at any point prior to the mine’s deactivation, you’ll need to start the whole process over again.  In Stage 4, we begin encountering Helghast snipers. They’re easily spotted thanks to their long sighting laser on their rifles. They’re quite easy to avoid being hit by and they can’t shoot through cover, but it you do take a sniper shot it’ll shave like half of your health off in one blow, and if you’re anywhere under like 55% health, it’s a one-shot kill. A good practice in co-op is for one player to rope-a-dope the sniper by running between cover spots and drawing their attention while the other player flanks them and picks them off before they can get a shot off on their partner.  Liberation also introduces gameplay elevators to the Killzone franchise—though correct me if I’m wrong please because Killzone 1 was too much of a desaturated blur for me to remember if there were actual working elevators in it. And no, that one tram on the SD platform doesn’t count as an elevator.   Elevators are simple: push button, get on, wait till it stops, get off. If you can’t use one of these, you shouldn’t be allowed out in public.  Now here’s something I KNOW is a brand new gameplay element: DRIVABLE VEHICLES! Liberation allows you to climb behind the wheel of several types of vehicles, starting with the Helghast hover tank. Anything drivable vehicle will be denoted by the steering wheel icon that appears over your character’s head.  In co-op mode, vehicles are broken down into driver and gunner. Whoever enters the vehicle first will be its driver, and the second player will then be its gunner. You can see the gun icon hovering over Hallucinatory Hakha’s head there prompting me to get in and take over the turret.   In co-op mode, the turret on whatever you’re driving operate independent of the vehicle, meaning you can swivel it in the complete opposite direction and take out enemies as you drive away. The tank is steered with the analog stick. X accelerates the tank, and Triangle slows it down. The L and R shoulder buttons swivel the turret around left and right in a 360° arc. Pressing both L and R together centres the turret ahead at 0°. Square fires the tank’s main gun, and holding Circle fires its machine gun. The tank also has infinite ammo, but limited health, and if the tank is destroyed while you’re in it, you die. In co-op mode, the tank’s controls are split between the Driver and Gunner, with each taking half of the control scheme for themself.   The tank can drive over just about anything, including concrete barriers. When driving the tank barriers will suddenly show a blue health bar, meaning they can either be destroyed with about two shells, or by just ploughing the front end of the tank into them like so. You can also run over enemies on foot Goldeneye-style, leading to some horrific one-hit crush kills.  You’ll also encounter the occasional enemy tank, just to make it so that you’re not trampling everyone into dust on your way to victory.  Enemy tanks also have a health bar to whittle down, but right now they go down in about two or three hits from the main turret. At the moment, your own tank happens to be a little more durable than the rest of Metrac’s tank forces, but that’ll even out the further we progress into the game.  Whenever you come to a gate, one of you will have to hop out of the tank and activate the switch to open it. Best practice in co-op is to let the driver flip the switch so that at least you’re not leaving the tank undefended if more enemies show up, but Blind Sally’s a greedy tank hog and desperately clung to that driver’s seat even though I didn’t want to take it, so I’m forced to get out and flip the switch for him.  And then we’re back under way.  Each chapter of Liberation is usually capped off with a boss fight of some kind. Here, we have to face down another Helghast tank, only on foot because we can’t take the tank into the boss arena with us.  At the start of the fight, Luger lays out your principle objective, and your most effective strategy for beating the tank: blow up the elevator winch assemblies and drop the tank into the ammo dump along with the platform.  But there are multiple ways to kill a tank in a Killzone game, however, and Guerrilla did see fit to pepper the boss arena and its runup corridor with rocket launchers.  So the tank goes down in about three hits anyway. Blind Sally posted:As an aside, if you really want to, you can kill the tank with just a machine gun. However, it takes forever, and is basically suicide.  But killing the tank is only one part of the objective for this boss fight, so enemies will keep spawning until you take out three of the platform’s winch towers.  And for that, you’re still going to need your rocket launcher.  Shooting the scaffolding around the towers will sever the elevator cables, and will drop both the platform, and the tank, if it’s on it at the time, into the pit, thus winning the boss fight and clearing Chapter 1 completely.  And now to introduce our three ISA VIPs. These three individuals are key to the ISA’s impending counter-attack on Metrac's forces on Vekta, namely the decision of whether or not to use nuclear weapons in their retaliatory strike. They are, in the order of their rescue by Templar  Voiced by Larissa Murraym, who has voiced characters in several anime OVAs like X, Battle Angel, and Appleseed, among other things. Dr. Evelyn Batton is one of the ISA’s preeminent nuclear munitions experts. She is the head of the Red Dust project, which created the Red Dust warhead—a high-yield, low-fallout bomb designed to devastate an enemy capital without irradiating the landscape to allow for easy capture and occupation of the ruins. Dr. Batton is boasted to be among the brightest minds not just on Vekta, but in the entire ISA nation of colonies. Her work is stated to be years, if not decades, ahead of her contemporaries on other ISA colonies. General Stratson has brought her to Rayhoven to win her support for using Red Dust on Metrac’s forces in Southern Vekta in order to break the Helghast invasion of the planet decisively. As you’ve already seen in our concurrent run of Killzone 2, Evelyn goes on to play a key role in the events of that game as well.  Voiced by Peter Marinker, who has voiced characters in The Witcher, Dark Souls I & II, and Risen 3, among other games, and has appeared in films such as Event Horizon, Love Actually, Judge Dredd (the lovely Stallone one, not the asweome Karl Urban one), and United 93. There’s no good images or artwork of Heff Milcher available, so here’s a picture of Fat Drew Carey. Because that’s pretty much what Milcher looks like. You can see a scan of the tiny piece of artwork he has next to his character profile in the Liberation manual at the end of this post, if that’ll help things though. Milcher is Vekta’s defense minister, and is about the closest we get to seeing the upper echelons of Vekta’s/The ISA’s/EarthGov’s civilian leadership, at least in the early Killzone games. As Minister of Defense, Milcher’s vote in favor of using nuclear weapons on the Helghast on Vekta would carry considerable weight with the Vektan Parliament and Prime Minister. He is also, essentially, the boss of all our protagonist characters so far.  Voiced by Vince Marcello, who’s only credits are literally Stratson, and an uncredited character in the game Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis. General Dwight Stratson is the commander of ISA military operations in Southern Vekta. He is the ISA’s analog to Armin Metrac in Liberation, essentially. His plan for forcing the Helghast off of Vekta is to deploy Dr. Batton’s Red Dust warhead against Metrac and Lente’s remaining forces gathered in the south. His plan faces fierce opposition in the Vektan parliament, as no one else in power either in the civilian or military branches is willing to resort to use of nuclear weaponry on their home soil to fend off an invader, even if the warheads in question have been designed to minimize the long-term radiological damage that have made use of such weaponry a taboo among the ISA colonial states. To foster support for his plan, he has invited Dr. Evelyn Batton and Defense Minister Heff Milcher to Rayhoven in the hopes of winning them over to his side. Stratson believes that having Red Dust’s own creator and the top civilian overseer of the military backing him will ease the government’s reluctance to deploy the bombs. Stratson is a Vektan native who joined the ISA military at a young age and rose steadily to the rank of general and was a contemporary of fellow general Stuart Adams. Unlike General Vaughton, who Jan Templar looked up to like a father, Templar has no emotional loyalty to Stratson beyond a professional level. It’s a relationship made doubly tense by Adams’ betrayal, which has shaken Jan’s faith in the higher ups in ISA military command. Curiously, over the past few weeks, Stratson’s direct subordinates, chiefs of staff, and other high-ranking ISA officials in Southern Vekta have been assassinated by Metrac’s forces in a coordinated series of strikes carried out with seemingly uncanny precision.   Red Dust Evelyn Batton's 40 megaton* brainchild. The Red Dust bomb is a tactical nuclear fission weapon claimed by Dr. Batton and her development team to produce near zero radioactive fallout, allowing it to be used against an enemy city or fortification to break local resistance and leave the potential insertion site for ISA clean up detachments clear of any harmful radioactivity. The debate currently raging in the Vektan parliament is over whether or not to detonate a Red Dust bomb on the Helghast massing in Southern Vekta. General Dwight Stratson, commander of ISA forces in Southern Vekta, favors the device's deployment, but has met strong opposition within the ISA's military and civilian leadership due to Red Dust's still-experimental nature and doubts over whether or not it is as fallout neutral as Batton and her team claim it to be. * Not Red Dust's actual explosive yield.  M3 Revolver The standard-issue ISA six-shot .357 magnum revolver, and predecessor to the enhanced ISA M4 Revolver seen in Killzone 2. This sidearm had largely been relegated to ceremonial duties, though the protracted blockade of Vekta facilitated its reintroduction into the ISA’s arsenal. ISA gunsmiths and sergeants-at-arms have performed a number of field modifications to their M3s to improve their functionary in combat, such as adding tritium sights and a double-action trigger.  IvP-18 Tropov Machine Pistol While technically the same model as the original IvP-18 pistol (manufactured by the Helghast Iven and Petrom arms corporation), the version wielded by Metrac’s soliders has been heavily modified into a sub-machine gun, boasting a burst fire mode, increased ammo capacity, and a barrel-mounted hand grip for increased stability when firing.  StA-52 SLAR The Stahl Arms SLAR (Sniper/Light Assault Rifle) sniper rifle makes it return from Killzone 1, also wielded by the snipers of Metrac’s army. Much like how it is in the original game, it’s a very powerful but hard to wield properly weapon. It suffers greatly from a slow rate of fire and a limited magazine capacity.  BLR-06 HADRA MRL The Brown Industries BLR-06 HADRA MRL (Multiple Rocket Launcher) is the heaviest possible weapon in the Helghast’s infantry arsenal. Designed to devastate enemy armor, it is capable of firing up to three rockets in rapid succession from its triple barreled 66mm launch tubes. There’s one extra-narrative thing to note about the BLR-06, and that’s that it wasn’t initially available in the retail version of Killzone: Liberation. It and the VC1 Flamethrower were included along with the free Chapter 5 DLC released shortly after Liberation went on sale in 2006.   Helghast Heavy Hover Tank A heavier version of the Light Hover Tank, the Heavy Hover Tank is the main mobile artillery muscle of the Helghast Third Army. Heavy Hover Tanks come equipped with a machine gun and a 152mm M81 smoothbore gun-launcher main turret and possess armour stronger than anything the ISA has to meet it with in their arsenal. The only effective way to bring down a Heavy Hover Tank is by using a Helghast BLR-06 rocket against it.  ISA VTOL Jump Jet & Gunship The ISA VTOL (Vertical Take-Off & Landing) dropship is the ISA’s primary fast-action deployment and close air support vehicle of choice. There are two versions seen in Killzone: Liberation, the dropship variety, seen in Chapter 1, which has a single nose-mounted machine gun, and the heavy weapons gunship variety which will be showing up later in Chapter 3, which comes equipped with a pair of side-mounted heavy missile launchers. The VTOL is eventually replaced with the ISA Intruder, due to the Intruder’s lower production cost, smaller airframe, faster manufacturing turnaround time, and slightly increased capacity to actually stay in the air  .  Behold: the only existing extra-game image of Heff Milcher. CONCEPT ART  Helghast Shocktrooper, ver. 2  ISA VTOL WALLPAPER  "Death has many faces. Evil has only one." nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 13:22 on Nov 10, 2015 |
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Mar 21, 2015 09:29
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Hahaha, god damnit, crow.
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Mar 22, 2015 00:05
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As an aside, if you really want to, you can kill the tank with just a machine gun. However, it takes forever, and is basically suicide.
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Mar 22, 2015 00:09
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Honestly I wish I could see your analysis of Shadow Fall. I've played most of it, but it ditched so much of the original games that with a minor tweak it could be set in its own world. They should have gone a lot farther with the East/West Germany schtick they had going on.
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Mar 22, 2015 03:25
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Calax posted:Honestly I wish I could see your analysis of Shadow Fall. I've played most of it, but it ditched so much of the original games that with a minor tweak it could be set in its own world. They should have gone a lot farther with the East/West Germany schtick they had going on. At this point, it's kind of a matter of which one of us breaks and impulse buys a PS4 first. Because at this point there's not enough (decent) games out for it to justify my purchasing one. Maybe after Final Fantasy XV comes out and after a decent price drop I might pick one up, or if I can find a decent used one or maybe even lease to own one, but definitely not before that. But for now, Shadow Fall is off the table. We might do Mercenary, but that's still a huge maybe.
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Mar 22, 2015 04:05
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Calax posted:Honestly I wish I could see your analysis of Shadow Fall. I've played most of it, but it ditched so much of the original games that with a minor tweak it could be set in its own world. They should have gone a lot farther with the East/West Germany schtick they had going on. Have you played Mercenary? I will say that it acts as an excellent bridge between the original trilogy and Shadow Fall. Specifically with regards to the depiction of Vekta and the emphasis on playing either side because the ISA and Helghast aren't all that different. The first Killzone, unfortunately, really limits what you get to see of Vekta. We see its industrial sector, some dirty slums and a mall, a few courtyards in between ISA office buildings, and some shipyards before being whisked away from actual Vektan civilization to go traipsing through the swamps and the mountains. Mercenary is a lot better for showing off the actual civilian sector of the city. It's not terribly different from what you see Shadow Fall.
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Mar 22, 2015 05:36
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nine-gear crow posted:
So the dumbass Vektans had been using a single action revolver? This is supposed to be the future, right?
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Mar 22, 2015 13:39
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Gargamel Gibson posted:So the dumbass Vektans had been using a single action revolver? This is supposed to be the future, right?
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Mar 22, 2015 14:33
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They love their helical magazines on Helgan.
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Mar 22, 2015 14:45
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One of the really interesting things about the series is the evolution of the weapons throughout. In the original quadrilogy, the Vektans were beginning to get pretty complacent. A lot of their weapons mirror real-world guns today, the implication being they aren't spending as much on develpment for war. I mean, they were phasing out their space fleer navy in favour of giant deathray space lasers. We all know how that turned out. The Helghast, meanwhile, have all these cool, experimental, arguably unnecessarily overengineered, weapons. All the neat future sci-fi stuff we see is Helghan in origin. The ISA, again, are using very 21st century tech. Vague spoilers because it's Shadow Fall, but fast forward and you have the Vekta ISA in a position of power due to the outcome of the war. Suddenly all the standard issue ISA weapons are cool sci-fi guns, and it's the Helghast who are scraping together old firearms from the previous war. As an aside, the tech in Mercenary is some of the most advanced. You play as a human and are not beholden to budget or rank constraints like the ISA or Helghast militaries--just your own money. You can access the best experimental black market tech from Vekta, Helghan, AND Earth.
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Mar 22, 2015 20:07
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Calax posted:Motif for the entire Helgan army is rotary stuff (If you look, all their weapons have a six shooter aspect to how they reload... I'm not a gun guy so I don't know what I'm talking about beyond the visual motif) They're helical magazines. They're used in real life for a few weapons like the Calico series of SMGs, carbines, and pistols and the Bizon submachine gun (which was lifted almost wholesale with barely any modification for the StA-11 submachine gun), as they allow for a high capacity in a relatively compact package. This is an image of what's theorized to be a helical magazine the North Koreans made for the AK (it's only been seen in a few pictures and there's no indication as to whether or not it even works, as opposed to just being a showoff prop for the media): 
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Mar 23, 2015 17:41
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More like a motif of putting as much holes and explosions into the enemy as possible in the least time possible. Fitting for a planet whose only two features are mineral
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Mar 24, 2015 01:46
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Is it bad helical magazines have me thinking it's a shame no Helghast will roll up with tommy guns?
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Mar 24, 2015 07:26
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Flesnolk posted:Is it bad helical magazines have me thinking it's a shame no Helghast will roll up with tommy guns? Only if your mental image doesn't include fedora's and pinstripe suits against their glowing red gas masks.
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Mar 25, 2015 03:25
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You know, this thread has actually revealed to me a few things. Especially regarding Earth's position and general policy. Like the probable why of Shadowfall's premise. Because Earth was pissed off at Vekta and the ISA for invading Helgan when they were very specifically told NOT TO in Killzone 2 and then making such a mess of things that Helgan was EXTERMINATUSed in Killzone 3. Congratulations, you get to give half your world to the Helgans because you DESTROYED THEIRS. I know I'm repeating myself, but I'm really taking a shine to Killzone's Earth Government/UCN. They're actually fairly competent and rational in a Real World sense.
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Mar 25, 2015 16:23
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FoolyCharged posted:Only if your mental image doesn't include fedora's and pinstripe suits against their glowing red gas masks. I can't draw but I have someone on the case! Flesnolk fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Mar 25, 2015 |
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Mar 25, 2015 16:38
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Delta Green posted:Like the probable why of Shadowfall's premise. As far as I can tell, that's precisely the lore reason too. I mean, it's not like EarthGov is gonna let all the Helghan refugees go back to Earth? Goodness, no, that would be crazy. Keep them in Alpha Centauri, there's more than one habitable planet after all Yeah, I like Killzone's EarthGov, despite the fact that they're brutal colonial master to the Vektans and Helghans. Flesnolk posted:I can't draw but I have someone on the case! Helgoons.
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Mar 25, 2015 23:14
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EarthGov seems to be patterned a fair bit off of the British Empire with regards to attitude towards 'the colonies' at least.
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Mar 26, 2015 02:22
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Does earth have a united single government or is it just like the united nations having power over space exploration and the resulting colonies?
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Mar 26, 2015 08:29
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Man Whore posted:Does earth have a united single government or is it just like the united nations having power over space exploration and the resulting colonies? The Killzone Wiki (which is cropped from officially published material) describes the UCN as a coalition of the wealthiest nations left on Earth who survived World War III. Probably America, China, Russia, England, Germany, India, Brazil, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Canada, and Mexico. So if it's not a planet-wide government it's at least a planetary majority government. A "got mine, gently caress you"-style government, from the sound of it because there's a lot of talk on the wiki about the United Colonial Army strongarming weaker nations on Earth and elsewhere in the galaxy into compliance with its directives. Because Earth is basically a non-one-dimensional, non-Stupid Evil version the Capitol from The Hunger Games: it's a resource-depleted Taker State feeding off the wealth and resources of its colonies just to survive and is still kowtowed to because its the Cradle of Humanity and is the de facto capital of human civilization. Oh, and its huge loving navy. If you start talking poo poo about Earth, get ready to have an entire fleet of UCA battlecruisers jump into orbit over your podunk planet in about a month to "U WOT M8?!" you into submission. That's a big reason as to why the Helghast broke all ties with Earth the second they landed on Helghan. The ISA exists as a subsidiary to the UCN. It's a collection of local independent governments out in the various colony system peppered across the galaxy who all fly the same flag and co-ordinate with one another on a surface level, but all exist functionally apart from one another and are only directly answerable to the UCN back on Earth. That's why when the ISA attacks Helghan in Killzone 2, it's not the entire ISA invading Helghan, just the Vektan branch of it, though other colonies might have kicked in a little support here and there to bolster Vekta's numbers. Because remember, Narville came all the way from Earth to join in on the invasion simply because he missed out on the counterattack on Vekta due to an off-world deployment on The Capital World. EDIT: I liken it to the Earth-Mars situation in Armored Core 2. In AC2, EarthGov's still licking its wounds and patching itself after recovering from World War III and a century of corporatocracy, so its focused on getting poo poo on Earth nailed down. Meanwhile, people are flocking to Mars in the millions to get off of Shithole Earth and start a new life there, leading to second golden era for the corporations on lawless Mars, which everyone on both Earth and Mars agrees is a Bad Thing. So rather than stretch itself too thin and directly helicopter parent Mars, EarthGov literally contracts rule of the planet over to the LCC, a subsidiary firm that tries to be half corporation, half government, which promptly collapses because nobody takes it seriously as either. Thus EarthGov has to step in at the end of the game and put its boot on Mars to calm all the poo poo down. ...Which means everything on Earth goes back to being a shitshow in Armored Core 2: Another Age because EarthGov's torn between keeping Earth from falling back into ruin and keeping Mars from turning back into the Wild West again. nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 09:12 on Mar 26, 2015 |
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Mar 26, 2015 08:57
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Basically EarthGov is a dying political entity that is desperately trying to hold on with tooth and claw; it has a lot of shades of the Western Roman Empire during its decline but without the Huns ruining everything.
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Mar 26, 2015 09:10
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Neruz posted:Basically EarthGov is a dying political entity that is desperately trying to hold on with tooth and claw; it has a lot of shades of the Western Roman Empire during its decline but without the Huns ruining everything. Well part of the reason the Western Empire fell was because the government/Western Emperor couldn't muster a military any more because all of the wealth in that half of the empire was already gone. The British Empire analogue is more apt because when a Colony would attempt to back out of the entire thing, the Empire would show up and try to beat them back into line(unless a bigger war started...).
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Mar 26, 2015 12:24
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