Killzone 2 pre-release discussion thread

[the ignoramus]

Most of the time the cleverness of the AI is not going to become greater with increased difficulty, the usual path for most developers is to "cheat", making the enemy AI more accurate, powerful or stronger, instead of actually making the AI smarter.

End result is a harder game with both approaches but latter one is atleast to me the most appealing but sadly much more expensive.

Lets hope KZ2 is one of the titles where cleverness is increased .

I asked Seb Downey, GG's QA guy, how they adjusted the AI at different levels of difficulty and he said that the AI just took more damage. (and the player took less)

However, I've heard reports from other folks that contradict Downey's statement.
Those that have played on veteran claim that the AI reacts to situations more quickly and throws grenades more often.

I would imagine the AI shines on Veteran and Elite, not because the HGHs get "more clever" but because you advance more slowly and leave yourself open to a greater variety of attacks patterns.

 

[Strange]

That makes sense, sometimes brute force from the players just wipe out any existing intelligence that the AI has to show.

 

[vanquish]

After more playthroughs of the demo, I've come up with the conclusion that the game would be significantly easier if it controlled more like other FPS (eg. Halo, COD,Resistance etc.).

It is very hard to hit targets that are moving perpendicular to you, even on high sensitivities.

 

[Brad Grenz]

The thing about Blind Fire is that it is there to provide cover. You should be able to blind fire, and the enemy AI should react accordingly (i.e. retreat to cover when blind fire begins).

In Gears is makes me mad when I blind fire and the enemies just soak it up.

Though, this is more suited for a co-op game against AI, using Blind Fire to force enemies into cover, and then take movement accordingly.

Right, if blind firing doesn't actually work to suppress the enemies it would just be a waste of ammo.

 

[patsu]

Recommended Bravia settings by GG

http://boardsus.playstation.com/pla...thread.id=73750&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

Picture Mode *Custom*
Backlight *8*
Contrast *85*
Brightness *55*
Colour *50*
Colour *Neutral*
Sharpness *15*
Noise reduction *off*

Taken from a 46"

 

[Cornsnake]

Thanks for sharing. I think it looks a bit better now, although that could just be a placebo effect. My settings were already close to that.

I've been told that changing the sensitivity of the x and y axis so the they are different from each other reduces the lag. I was recommended to use 100 for x and 70 for y. I never had much troubles with the controls, and I'm not noticing much difference now. But maybe it can help those that did have problems.

 

[morlock]

I played the MP-beta alot, ~60 hours, and had zero problem with the controls. Used standard sensitivity. Also, there was no complaints over "laggy" controls in the betaforums. Only complaints where from people that thought it was too slow and should be as twitchy as they are used to...

I have played the demo at my setup at home and it controlled just as I remembered from the beta, hower, I've also tried the demo at a different setup with a SIXAXIS and felt this laggy control. Was almost unplayable, have no idea why there was such a delay to the controls on the other setup. Turning of all image processing on the TV helped abit but it was still there. I call a bug in the demo. I mention the SIXAXIS because I think the DS3 is far more "tight" in the controls.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I played the MP-beta alot, ~60 hours, and had zero problem with the controls. Used standard sensitivity. Also, there was no complaints over "laggy" controls in the betaforums. Only complaints where from people that thought it was too slow and should be as twitchy as they are used to...

I have played the demo at my setup at home and it controlled just as I remembered from the beta, hower, I've also tried the demo at a different setup with a SIXAXIS and felt this laggy control. Was almost unplayable, have no idea why there was such a delay to the controls on the other setup. Turning of all image processing on the TV helped abit but it was still there. I call a bug in the demo. I mention the SIXAXIS because I think the DS3 is far more "tight" in the controls.

That's interesting because I have sixaxis and not the DS3.

 

[rounin]

I also have a Sixaxis.

I also do not want to give myself excuses to upgrade to a DS3 because my girlfriend would kill me.

 

[dobwal]

You cannot have a system where the gamer cannot see anything. It just wouldn't work.

You can and it would probably work better than what we have in general from a tactical point of view. As someone who is completely behind cover for a prolong period of time would be a sitting duck and a flanking manuever would be as easy as pie, if full cover disrupted awareness of their immediate surroundings. People would be compelled to expose themselves to fire just so they could aware of the actions on the battlefield.

Maybe, AI typical response to blind fire could be more logical if blind fire was truly firing while blind. Its hard to have the AI act smart to blind fire when the mechanism that exist is simply inaccurate fire while allowing full awareness under full cover. If you programmed the AI only to retreat to cover when in the line of fire then the player could continually stall straight charges or even flanking manuevers when blind firing because the player is never truly blinded.

In games like GeoW2, its hard to have smart AI when the player has god like awareness of the battlefield.

 

[patsu]

Finally ! A long enough multiplayer gameplay video:
http://www.taxigamer.com/video.php?id=196&id_game=25675

EDIT:

 

[2real4tv]

Here is another one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7dYqX4-OWQ&feature=channel_page

 

[deepbrown]

The game gets incredibly good towards the end.

A couple of funny things happened to me. A Helghast with a flamethrower came towards me, pissing out flames...I hear a Helghast coming up behind me, probably going to knife me - so I jump to the side, and the flamethrower guy flames the sneaky Helghast and he screams and dies, showing "F***!" I headshot flamethrower guy lol.

Another interesting thing - I died from two speedy Helghast running towards me, the game saved just before this moment. On the reload I decide I'll preempt these guys and go searching for them, however, this time they came from the complete other direction and killed me once again! lol

 

[Shifty Geezer]

You can and it would probably work better than what we have in general from a tactical point of view. As someone who is completely behind cover for a prolong period of time would be a sitting duck and a flanking manuever would be as easy as pie, if full cover disrupted awareness of their immediate surroundings. People would be compelled to expose themselves to fire just so they could aware of the actions on the battlefield.

Indeed, there are actually plenty of situations where "cover = complete cover, no visibility". In the warehouse, the gangways have metal facings that provide 100% occlusion of the HG below. I could pop up to see where they were, fire a few shots, and then duck down at which point their movements were a mystery. I think it'd be better to have the option to duck down further in general such as behind those big concrete blocks in the APC zone. Perhaps, as the trigger is pressure sensitive, there could be a deeper cover setting when you press it completely?

But back to my original complaint of the cover being sporadic, and after more plays, it still strikes me as much. Behind some walls I can get into 'cover' but R1 just shoots the wall in front, whereas others, Sev will pop up and shoot. I think Sev actually isn't getting into cover though, instead just crouching. eg. Behind a metal pillar in the APC battle zone, there was no peep-out-and-shoot mechanic. Sev wouldn't press against the beams and use them as proper cover. It still seems to me as though cover is hit-and-miss which objects will allow proper cover, and which you just crouch behind.

 

[catisfit]

I have played the demo at my setup at home and it controlled just as I remembered from the beta, hower, I've also tried the demo at a different setup with a SIXAXIS and felt this laggy control. Was almost unplayable, have no idea why there was such a delay to the controls on the other setup. Turning of all image processing on the TV helped abit but it was still there. I call a bug in the demo. I mention the SIXAXIS because I think the DS3 is far more "tight" in the controls.

Could be. I know my SIXAXIS has really loose sticks compared to my DS3, even though my DS3 has seen much more use. It's enough to make switching over to SIXAXIS when the DS3 charge runs out annoying.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

But back to my original complaint of the cover being sporadic, and after more plays, it still strikes me as much. Behind some walls I can get into 'cover' but R1 just shoots the wall in front, whereas others, Sev will pop up and shoot. I think Sev actually isn't getting into cover though, instead just crouching. eg. Behind a metal pillar in the APC battle zone, there was no peep-out-and-shoot mechanic. Sev wouldn't press against the beams and use them as proper cover. It still seems to me as though cover is hit-and-miss which objects will allow proper cover, and which you just crouch behind.

You do realize that L2 cover button is also crouch right? So if you stand to far away, you will not actually take cover, but just crouch next to it...

Never noticed anything i could take cover against where i couldn't peep out and shoot people.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

You do realize that L2 cover button is also crouch right? So if you stand to far away, you will not actually take cover, but just crouch next to it...

Yes, but some stuff I can't get 'close enough' to. eg. The metal beams in the APC zone. Sev doesn't take a cover position, only a crouched one.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Finally ! A long enough multiplayer gameplay video:
http://www.taxigamer.com/video.php?id=196&id_game=25675

EDIT:

is that RPG smoke drifting in the wind? If yes, then cool and great to see Guerilla actually doing what others promised but never delivered(looking at you COD3) an actual wind system that affects everything !

 

[Delta9]

Yeah, the smoke looks like it has physics...wow!

Thats never been done before on consoles that I ever seen ,don't have a game pc so don't know about it.

 

[tha_con]

Yes, but some stuff I can't get 'close enough' to. eg. The metal beams in the APC zone. Sev doesn't take a cover position, only a crouched one.

It makes sense though. For the sake of some realism at least.

In Gears and Uncharted, nearly everything is designed to be "just the right size" for you to take cover and be completely safe. Everything. This is not how real life is.

Sure, this is a game, but it's semi-refreshing to actually have some variety and pressure there, to actually make you think "am I really safe behind this 12 inch beam, or should I find a better position to attack / defend from"?

I dunno, different strokes, I like the cover system, and the fact that not everything is just the right size to completely hide the player from any and all harm. When cover keeps you completely safe and you can see the enemy, it stops being a shooter, and starts becoming a waiting game. "when will he peak his head out so I can shoot, when will he reload, etc".