[PS3] Killzone 2

[fearsomepirate]

Russo and I pretty much pwnt today. And that was without overtly trying to use squad tactics. I mainly focused on putting down spawn points in useful places, although I managed to kill a few bad guys myself. It's really amazing when you play with a group that pulls it together on capture the flag...I mean, propaganda box...and protects the flag carrier, and the flag carrier actually tries to stay behind his cover.

I've noticed turning off rockets and assault really, really unbalances the game when all the other classes are unlocked. On certain asymmetric maps like Radec Academy, it's way too easy to trap one side in its base unless they've got a tough guy with access high explosives. And gun turrets can be nearly invulnerable if you've got one or two guys defending the turret.

 

[patsu]

Ha, I saw both your nicks with the KZ2 tag and thought you may be fighting together.

I have mixed feeling about rockets and grenade launchers in KZ2. I do use them from time to time to break out of a tight spot (Enemies sealing all home base exits). But most of the time, we do fine without them.

I think if KZ2 has team balancing, we should not need them as badly.

 

[fearsomepirate]

I think the issue is map balancing, and only on some maps. For example, on Radec academy, get a guy to camp the ladder, two guys to camp the hallway, and keep about 4 guys in the "lobby" of the Helghast base and just continually lob grenades into the spawn zone and build turrets, and the Helghast team will be just plain stuck. But a boosting assault vet can practically clear out the room in a flash, allowing a tactician to sprint out and drop a spawn grenade in the assembly hall or something. It's not like he'll be owning the kill count, since he has such limited ammo, but those tight spots happen sometimes, and that's where he's needed.

 

[patsu]

Yes, the spawn grenade is something hard to balance against. It can potentially break a map. But that's one of the reasons I like KZ2. More open maps like Salamun Market seems more robust/resilient against it.

 

[fearsomepirate]

If they've fortified the spawn position, use explosives. If they're using the spawn point to mount attacks against your base, attack it and put a sentry bot by it.

Something that makes me mad enough to gnaw my controller in two is when I join a game, and whoever's playing as tactician keeps throwing down the grenades so that you spawn facing a wall. This makes it extremely easy for the opposing force to overrun the spawn point.

There are so many versions of maddening incompetence in the game. It really does take a little bit of thinking to do well at, and you're dependent enough on your team that a couple engineers or tacticians who don't know what they're doing can really screw it up for everyone.

Edit:

Just played 3 matches in a row where the tacticians were making me spawn with my back to the action.

 

[patsu]

Yes, you can see people complaining about "stupid" tacticians in the GAF KZ2 threads. I think the other way to counter the spawn grenade threat is to allow opposing players to destroy it, or pick it up and throw it somewhere else.

If they allow comrades to reposition the spawn grenades, it would also help solve the "wrong spawn direction" problem.

 

[nightshade]

They had the 3-4 sec spawn invincibility earlier & imo that was a whole lot better than what it is now.

 

[patsu]

Why ? The invincibility led people to throw the spawn grenade directly in the objective room, which kinda breaks the game.

 

[cbarcus]

b3d clan for Killzone 2

Does the clan still exist? Need another member?

 

[patsu]

I think it's still there but inactive (I jumped ship to GAF KZ2). It's better to have a link to the B3D chatroom and coordinate with russo121, JardeL and Phil (PSN: concepticus-US) "organically". Send them a friend request.

They should be able to send the B3D chatroom link to you !

I think Ostepop (PSN: Jostepop) started the B3D KZ2 clan ? I can't remember anymore.

 

[Mobius1aic]

Other PS2 games have lots of polygons count and ragdoll without running as poorly as Killzone did. I suspect it has something to do with the LOD (NPC models are unnecessarily detailed), and you're probably right about the AI. Whatever they're doing is probably a little too complex for the EE. But also, it was GG's first and only PS2 game.

I remember when the Official Playstation Magazine did a feature on the first Killzone, and they went into great detail about the AI complexity. Seemed pretty cool, and I think there was a video testing it in development. Also, I would be very interested to see how KZ turned out had it come out on PC like it was originally intended to. To bad no one has dumped the models out of the game and into Garry's Mod or the Source SDK and made Killzone into a proper game lol...

Killzone and Metal Gear Solid 3 are probably my first two pics for enhanced PS2 games being released on the PSN, with 720p resolution, nil loading times, maybe enhanced shadowing & lighting and in Killzone's case: better LOD and framerate.

 

[fearsomepirate]

I think it's still there but inactive (I jumped ship to GAF KZ2). It's better to have a link to the B3D chatroom and coordinate with russo121, JardeL and Phil (PSN: concepticus-US) "organically". Send them a friend request.

And fearsomepirate, too. Cool guy. Helpful in a firefight. Don't forget him.

 

[nightshade]

Well if you wanna play KZ2 then I am ready to boot it up & play too, though these days I'm a bit busy with MAG

 

[patsu]

And fearsomepirate, too. Cool guy. Helpful in a firefight. Don't forget him.

My bad ! I'll keep a look out for you guys in the chatroom.

EDIT: Yo russo121, that email has been making its round for months. Will have to wait for Sony to say something official !

 

[fearsomepirate]

I'm starting to wonder if I'm playing with idiots, or if someone is switching sides to sabotage us. During a search & destroy mission, we were defending, and immediately, both of our spawn grenades were dropped on the complete opposite corner of the map.

Let me put it this way...if I finish in the top 3 on my team, my team sucks. On a good team, I finish right in the middle in terms of score. Just got out of a Radec Academy fight where my team's tacticians kept throwing spawn grenades in the tunnel and the enemy base, regardless of what the mission objective was. We got beat 5-2. The two we won was due to me being a medic with boost and killing the assassination target, and me being a tactician and managing to get off a spawn grenade in a useful place before our team's moron was able to drop another one in the tunnel.

 

[patsu]

Well in RFOM end-game stats, I was usually the cut-off point between good and bad players, just before you see a sharp drop in K/D ratio (about top 1/3).

In KZ2, I am usually in the bottom half.

In MAG, I am either at about top 1/2 of the list, or the last one-two.


In KZ2, I have quit using other people's spawn points, unless it's thrown by someone I trust. Or I am out of options. Enemies could be camping near the spawn points. People need to defend them, but most don't. Personally, I think this is the only thing Guerilla Games need to change: Allow people to reposition and destroy spawn points. I feel that it would elevate the game (like adding a mini capture-the-flag game in a "real" battle).

 

[fearsomepirate]

I would rather that every tactician be allowed to throw down 1 and only 1 spawn point, with a limit of 4 tacticians in the game. And if you respawn as a different class, your spawn point disappears. Same with engineers and turrets.

 

[russo121]

Argh, you can't expect me to observe you 24/7 ! >_<

From my perspective, depending on when I sign on, I may catch you online sometimes. And now that you mention it, yes everytime I saw you, you were playing KZ2.

Yeah, I'm a KZ2 junkie 8( - I've bought R2 last week, but I only played almost 2 to 3 hours - it's difficult to change from kz2.
I've tried the BFBC2 and liked the demo very much, but, feels too mechanical compared to kz2.

 

[patsu]

Yeah, I'm a KZ2 junkie 8( - I've bought R2 last week, but I only played almost 2 to 3 hours - it's difficult to change from kz2.
I've tried the BFBC2 and liked the demo very much, but, feels too mechanical compared to kz2.

Heh heh, you mean the animation and the flow of battle ? If so, I agree. Even though I think there are spawn grenade flaw, "blurry" environment because of heavy smoke or rain, plus annoying bots flying around, I think the KZ2 MP battle field is very very dynamic. The players can f*ck up the game tremendeously, but then again, we all enjoy ourselves while doing it.

Hope to see them fix the team balancing and add in a proper party system for KZ3.

 

[fearsomepirate]

Even though I think there are spawn grenade flaw, "blurry" environment because of heavy smoke or rain, plus annoying bots flying around, I think the KZ2 MP battle field is very very dynamic.

See, I view the blurry environment as a feature, not a bug. Can't tell you how many times I've used smoke (whether from spawn grenades or otherwise) as cover. Nothing like being the assault and pumping a room full of grenades. Blinds everyone and causes absolute mayhem.