Massive Killzone-PS3 info leaks : Downloadable Episodes

[JosVerstappen]

On several dutch gamingwebsites and in written papers there have been reports on Killzone 2 tidbits from journalists that were invited to have a look at what Guerilla Games was doing.

Since I master that language, I'll translate the most important parts for the ones who would like to know. These are certainly not the best interviews I've read, and if a local paper about news is sending a guy, you get general questions for general reading public, but still some interesting things came out.

One gamingsite was invited to their HQ in Amsterdam to talk about their PSP KZ Liberation, but there was a small percentage about KZ-PS3 in the interview. Some other info is from a daily paper that was invited because it's such an enormous entertainment project for Holland (most expensive budget ever for entertainment bizniz in Holland, even bigger budget than the new record-costing movie of Paul Verhoeven Zwarthoed, that is 16 million euro's, around 20-30 million I guess for Killzone PS3).

Okay, here's what I learned :

1) The paper mentions a release somewhere in 2007, but I have to say this is not a direct quote from GG, it is a conclusion of the interviewer about what was said to him.

2) Killzone-PS3 is going to feature downloadable episodes after release, just like Killzone Liberation is planning to do now.

3) Players this time are not fighting against the Helghast-invasion only. A GG dude responsible for music unintentionally leaked this info when talking about the music in the game, mentioning the music is not going to be only classic symponic style this time, lot's of different music styles are going to be introduced. What other types of enemies they are introducing, or what different story-themes will evolve around this remark, stays vague, it was more a slip of the tongue I guess.

4) About Phill H recent comments that some elements of KZ-PS3 already exceed the trailer, the GG guy says GG did not make and release the target 2005 E3 trailer if they did not think they would reach that level of quality. According to the interviewer the guy is very reluctant in this respect because of the NDA's and high expectations, but also very confident saying that it is "realistic to expect the same quality of the trailer in the game", and says that the impression the game wil give you, will be on par with the 2005 trailer.

Main thing is (except for the graphic showcase it will be), they want to introduce a lot more variety in the gameplay in this genre, and improve vastly over the original, specificly mentioning things like smart AI and also non-repetitive voiceacting to be the essential things they can improve on PS3 to make that trailer-experience happen in realtime. Ofcourse they also mention the power and performance of the PS3, saying it really makes a lot of things possible now they could not do before. They and Sony are aiming the game to become the systemseller like Gears is now for the 360, and think that is certainly possible.

6) Talking about becoming First Party for Sony, they state they had enormous benefits from it, from a technical point of view, but also because it gave them a lot of publicity and financial security. They could attract a lot more excellent people as a Sony-dev, who would otherwise not have come to Guerilla as a rather small independent Dutch devver. So it opened a lot of doors.

The proces is, they make the gameplans, and are free to do a lot of stuff they want, but have to report to Sony frequently and convince them over and over again that their game is coming along the right way. On the question if they thought Sony was too strict and influencial in the development of their games so far, they say this has not been the case at all untill now, Sony has not veto'ed any ideas of them, Sony is just giving feedback and being curious about their progression.

7) GG is satisfied with their gaming-record and quality-progression so far. Nam '67 being their first average game (6 grade), Killzone doing better (average 7 grades), Liberation being better again (average 8), and Killzone 2 to be expected to go way beyond that compared to Liberation (their words).

8) Access to the area where their 80 people were working on the game was still strictly forbidden, so no pictures or movies. They hope to sneak-preview the game soon, but are very patient since they want to reach the demanding expectations. Before they can silence the skeptics with this game, you will not see anything. But it will be sooner rather than later Sony gives the green light to show it.


About detail :
"For KZ-PSP we made 50x50 pixel models for the game, in KZ PS3 we even want the nosehairs to move. What took one man one week on other platforms, takes one month on the PS3 because of the increased details."

"Stuntmen in Hollywood are hired and motioncaptured for the game, when they fall and jump their movements are captured and transformed into digital models." (so you can jump this time..lol.. :splitspin ).

About worldwide release-stuff :

20 different languages are integrated in the game. Most of them will not only be menu-language-text stuff, but also translated voiceacting. They mention different languages increases sales with 30-40% for a game. Translating the original Killzone audio (that had only 13 languages, and 8 off them were audio-translated, the rest just menu-text) into for example Polish, made their game the best selling game ever in Poland. So instead of bringing out different versions in each country, they now try to fill the Blu Ray also with all sort of different audiotracks for all kind of regions and countries.

They hire specific studio's that specialise in translating for entertainment bizniz, mentioning studio's in China and the US doing work for them in this respect.

About their own personal:

About 50-75% of the people they hire for new projects are from abroad. Most of the people they hired 5 years ago are still working there, there is very little 'emigration' of personal. Which is according to the interviewed guy good news for them since it means the people are satisfied and inspired to go on with new games, normally there is a lot more moving in/leaving out of new and old personal in gamingcompanies.

120 people work at Guerilla. About 80 people working full time on the PS3 game, this is 3 times as much as PS2 Killzone. PSP's Liberation game took 25 people, who are still working on multiplayer and extra episodes for Liberation to come out later (online Liberation patch is aiming for spring 2007).

After KZ-PS3 is finished, they plan a holiday, and continue on KZ-PS3-episodes, and ofcourse more new games for PSP and/or PS3.

That's it. :salute:

[dnpmakkah]

This is great/exciting if true, which I hope it is. Do you have any links that you could provide for us?

[Stelio]

As I mentioned in another thread...EB has a release date of January 2, 2007...Mark it on your calender. I would assume that there would be a push to get the game shipped ahead of Christmas but I'm doubtful...hope I'm wrong though.

EZ,

STELIO

[Raijin]

As I mentioned in another thread...EB has a release date of January 2, 2007...Mark it on your calender. I would assume that there would be a push to get the game shipped ahead of Christmas but I'm doubtful...hope I'm wrong though.

EZ,

STELIO


You do realize the date by EB has a great chance to be... I would say: "Bogus?"

[JosVerstappen]

January 2 2007 seems highly unlikely to me, that's only a month and a couple of days away, the game would already be gold and send to the fabrication-BR-factories. And you would have seen a lot more previews of it's nearly finished state. There is no marketing-hype around this game in the international press so far, still fully NDA, so a release is not very near. Sony will gradually pump up the volume as they always do with bigger releases. I bet my money on the second half of 2007 for a release, a Xmas-release 2007 even if they encounter ever-occurring dev problems.

For the ones that want dutch links :
(6 page interview about their visit to GG, spread in 3 parts)
http://www.gamer.nl/doc/36007/1
http://www.gamer.nl/doc/35995/2
http://www.gamer.nl/doc/35996/3

(Later report on Helghast info of the music guy)
http://www.gamer.nl/doc/36128

(Article of well-bought written paper called Volkskrant, talks about downloadable episodes etc)
http://www.volkskrant.nl/technologie/article373643.ece/Een_computerspel_duurder_dan_duurste_film

[Stelio]

You do realize the date by EB has a great chance to be... I would say: "Bogus?"

Oh, hell yea...I did a double take on it when I saw it. I figured it would be coming out next fall. Either way, I'm not holding my breath.

[curryking1]

A release date of Jan 2007? Err I don't think so... I'd expect this game spring at the earliest and that is being tremendously optimistic.

At least it's Killzone news, it's great to finally hear about the project. Maybe since it is after the release of the PS3 and Resistance we will see a lot more previews of new games and leaks of tidbit news for the ones that have been shrouded in secrecy for so long (Big, Killzone, Ratchet, Eight Days, just to name a few :P).

[Nameless]

Late 2007 or early 2008 release...
If the game was going to be released in a few months we would see some realtime footage or a demo; the game is very early in development at this stage of the game...

[julps31]

Thanks for translating the artical man. This is real exciting. It sounds like the guys at guerilla are confident in Killzone. I can't wait to see the game for the first time.

[Logan Cano]

Thanks for the translation, really appreciated. It´s real gutsy of them to say they will reach that quality, it's going to be really interesting to see if they can get there or not. At least there´s one success story, Motorstorm managed to get pretty close to the target render. With more time, I hope the guys at Guerrilla can do an even better job.

[JosVerstappen]

No problem guys, was a pleasure to do.

Actually the GG dude also mentions Motorstorm in the interview, giving it as an example of how far it has come along since the trailer, reaching the target pretty close, thereby trying to say it's not that far-reached utopia.

It btw has also been the consensus of their website-people replying at their Killzone forum at playstation.com, when they were asked questions about the game (GG people post at that forum). In a "Hey, you ain't see nothing yet" style a gametester of GG was very confident earlier this year and last year about their game in his posts on the forum, but he's been on a talk-ban-censorship about the game since Sony thought he was too free in his speech. :1337:

[VG Aficionado]

If I don't see all characters' nose hairs sway while we're being attacked, I'm going to be incredibly disappointed.

:look:

Great stuff ;) :hugegrin:

[curryking1]

Obviously VG, nosehairs are integral to gameplay. And the nosehairs in total of each character better have the same number of polygons as an individual soldier from the first KZ on the PS2 :P.

I wonder what kind of graphics tricks they are going to use this time. the multitexturing they did on the PS2 made some of the best indoor and some outdoor graphics on the PS2, even if it was shaken up a bit too much of the time for it's own good with technical stuff.

[Applefiend]

120 developers. Oh my god it's like the Manhattan project with Hellgast.

[KnightRiderX]

The target trailer is deffinetely achievable. with the kind of physics and interaction of Resistance (Cell) and the kind of graphics of next-gen G71/G80 (RSX), Killzone is deffinetely achievable in no stretch of the mind. even Gears of War is, at most, on par with G71/G80 graphics (yes, i know. G71/G80 are not by ATI). btw, +rep for the translation.

[PSPtwo]

"realistic to expect the same quality of the trailer in the game", and says that the impression the game wil give you, will be on par with the 2005 trailer.


so , Scravner was right again...

[edoshin]

If I don't see all characters' nose hairs sway while we're being attacked, I'm going to be incredibly disappointed.

:look:

Great stuff ;) :hugegrin:

Maybe they'll go up against Bobobobobobobobo

[Ben-N1ce]

The target trailer is deffinetely achievable. with the kind of physics and interaction of Resistance (Cell) and the kind of graphics of next-gen G71/G80 (RSX), Killzone is deffinetely achievable in no stretch of the mind. even Gears of War is, at most, on par with G71/G80 graphics (yes, i know. G71/G80 are not by ATI). btw, +rep for the translation.

Some of it is achievable. The smoke effects in the trailer are impossible IMO unless you like 1-5 FPS :)

[BillCosby]

I dont know that the smoke is impossible. I mean look at the clouds in warhawk. They could do it, just maybe not as much of it.

[Old_Timer!]

LoL @ swaying nosehairs, there seems to be a theme forming here. MGS has complex mustache and now KZ has complex nose hair. Hair modeling is the new water, no more static unrealistic hair cool. +rep JosV I look forward to more translations.

[LaLiLuLeLo]

Screenshots and videos are what I call leaks. Yawwwnnn.
j/k

[9thPower]

hehe such great news, oh i loved Killzone, and i had great ideas for KZ PS3, i just hope they use the motion controler for meele and use some sort of combos for the meele atacks like right-left, right-front(head crusher :laugh: ) or right-down would put someone in the ground, or quick jabs right-right-right and then right with a quick strong movement would be really cool combos :laugh: i hope the game turns out really good.

[curryking1]

Maybe if you throw your controller at the screen, you'll make your character throw his gun at the enemy. :O

Hey it'd be damn helpful if you ran out of ammo for a large gun hahaha or just need to chuck something at the guys face to throw him off lol.

Holy crap, I just thought of this.

What about for grenade lobs, you actually do a lobbing motion. You hold the controller where you would normally, but hold it just in one hand (just take one hand off the controller) and relative to how fast you move your arm, and what direction/technique you move your arm in, that's will define the trajectory of the grenade! You could pretend to actually do a vintage grenade lob and it would end up being the most effective way to throw a nade!

WOW! I even suprise myself sometimes!!!

[wotter]

Nice, but damnit, I was hoping for some screens.

[VG Aficionado]

Maybe if you throw your controller at the screen, you'll make your character throw his gun at the enemy. :O

Hey it'd be damn helpful if you ran out of ammo for a large gun hahaha or just need to chuck something at the guys face to throw him off lol.:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Holy crap, I just thought of this.

What about for grenade lobs, you actually do a lobbing motion. You hold the controller where you would normally, but hold it just in one hand (just take one hand off the controller) and relative to how fast you move your arm, and what direction/technique you move your arm in, that's will define the trajectory of the grenade! You could pretend to actually do a vintage grenade lob and it would end up being the most effective way to throw a nade!

WOW! I even suprise myself sometimes!!!Great ideas man! By the way, I think this is what we'll be doing in MGS4 :-p Just check the last gameplay snippet in the TGS trailer!

[CrumCon]

Well, i wouldnt be surprised if Killzone PS3 is on par with the trailer from 2005. If u have seen MotorStorm, Heavenly Sword, MGS4, Lair and other big ps3 titles.. then u wont be THAT impressed by Killzone PS3.. you still will be impressed but u wont get a shock.. cause upcoming ps3 games are just as impressive.

anyway if they could indeed make some the battle as chaotic as the trailer.. i will lick the PS3!

[Kabbage]

AS one of the few people who liked the first Killzone... I cant wait to see what they give me in the Next gen (Now Current Gen) version of the game.

[Kiosko]

140 team members and 80 are working on Killzone sounds huge. Stuntmen, Motion capture leads me to believe that Guerilla is focusing on the human interaction with the environment and other characters. The Killzone Episodes sound like a cool idea too. They should have a preview soon; i think they can pull it off.

[TEEDA]

If you haven't seen yet, Killzone Liberation US ad :

http://gameads.gamepressure.com/tv_game_commercial.asp?ID=4842

[Gaul]

As I mentioned in another thread...EB has a release date of January 2, 2007...Mark it on your calender. I would assume that there would be a push to get the game shipped ahead of Christmas but I'm doubtful...hope I'm wrong though.

I REALLY hope they dont push. i dont want this to just be another killzone1 with better graphics. i want it to not get boring before im even half way through, and the multiplayer BETTER be top-notch, or i will slay everyone involved in making the game

[Z]

exciting news. thanks for the translation JosVerstappen. :)

Maybe they'll go up against Bobobobobobobobo
lol. and you added an extra bo. ;pLoL @ swaying nosehairs, there seems to be a theme forming here. MGS has complex mustache and now KZ has complex nose hair.
yeah, facial hair is the future of digital entertainment!

[Amenophis]

I can't wait to see this game in action...hopefully it doesn't dissapoint...and by dissapoint I meant there had better be plenty of nose hair action...if not then I will view this game as complete garbage.

[curryking1]

Only on PSINext can we all get together and get excited about facial and nose hair. That's probably why this site is so awesome tho lol!

By the looks of these posts, there seem to be some seriously high expectations for the next Killzone.

Not that I find anything THAT wrong with it, but they shouldn't be expected to make a FPS on par with the first Halo or something. But they should come up with something at least comparable to that magnitude of a hit, considering how much money Sony is pouring on these guys. I mean 120 guys on the game? That's pretty huge. 21 million USD is also really huge.

What really is making me feel good about the title though is that Sony is doing some really good quality assurance on this title. I like how Guerilla is having to report to Sony, even if it might be a hassle for the devs at some times.

But the translation Joe gave us (thanks very much btw) seems like it's mostly pretty friendly and constructive, so that's good lol.

P.S.

Rioter, that baby in your avatar is awesome. I wouldn't want to be caught in a dark alley way with a baby that can make an angry face like that hahahahah!

[julps31]

Guerilla better deliver something remotely comparable to the origanal trailer because things like this do nothing but build hype which can be a double edged sword if it doesn't come out as great as they make it seem.

But its got people talkin about the game again lol. I expect something special. *crosses fingers*

[game designer]

Sometimes you can overhype a game, and it can actually have an oposite effect if the game doesn't meet the expectations that hype brings.

Hopefully they can offer the variety of animations we saw in the trailer.

Motorstorm looks amazing, but we're still not seeing the ripping and warping we saw in the trailer. More of a lego / pieces fly everywhere kind of crashes, but not the warping and taring.

That said, there's nothing that can touch Motorstorm right now. This game is so much fun to play and looks totally amazing.

GD

Guerilla better deliver something remotely comparable to the origanal trailer because things like this do nothing but build hype which can be a double edged sword if it doesn't come out as great as they make it seem.

But its got people talkin about the game again lol. I expect something special. *crosses fingers*

[OmniCloud]

AS one of the few people who liked the first Killzone... I cant wait to see what they give me in the Next gen (Now Current Gen) version of the game.It wasn't that so few people enjoyed it Kabbage, it was just supposed to be PS2's Halo and it just...wasn't. If the game didn't get hyped like that it would be in a much better light right now.

Great update for Killzone!! I think some of us need to see that 05 trailer again in the archives because if they get as close to that as MotorStorm did, then Killzone is gonna be more than simply what Gears is to 360! That trailer was simply above and beyond anything ever created...PERIOD. Gears looks pretty, but there's like 8 people on the screen in close-combat. Killzone was a friggin Halo/Resistance scale battle with guys handing you guns and explosions happening 5 ft. in front of you and 20 ft. behind you, and 50 ft. above you! Not to mention the flame on the helgast was probably the best flame effect EVER! Reaching that video is more than just living up to the hype for GG, it would be a milestone in videogames graphics! I think it's great that they're shooting that high. If they can get those visuals and animations, and back it up with some solid gameplay both online and off, then forget Gears of War, Halo 3-WATCH OUT! I truly believe this is the potential of this game. But honestly, it is a VERY tall order to live up to.

[Zer0-Sum]

Great updates, but I want more. And this game is a very tall order indeed. That is why I think Sony is keeping such a tight lid on the game. I am hoping that PS3 is capable of doing the trailer target renders in real time, but it is going to take a lot of hard work. Expect to see this game next E3 or some such. Maybe even after that. I am hoping that it is done sometime around Halo 3 is done! Now wouldn't that just be the funniest thing ever if Killzone 2 came out, got better reviews, and looked better? Oh how Microsoft would be so mad.....

[Shadow Voa]

Screenshots and videos are what I call leaks. Yawwwnnn.

^ QFT

[Gaul]

the hype to be a "halo killer" is what killed it. otherwise i think it would have been more succesful. it clearly was a good game, but didnt stand up to halo.

[sudzy]

the hype to be a "halo killer" is what killed it. otherwise i think it would have been more succesful. it clearly was a good game, but didnt stand up to halo.

No question about that man, although the game DID have some big problems, it was still a very solid title.
My only worry is the hype train will kill this one again.

[Z]

I saw four months at least before we can get any hard info.
but the good news is that by then, we would be treated to more goodies than just Killzone. we would learn more about ND's mystery IP, WK, Afrika and others.

I expect to hear about big 08 releases at Q4 of 07 of titles like R&C, SOCOM, Eight Days, etc.

all in all, Sony has an astounding first and second party effort coming to their console.

[curryking1]

Even though Killzone was really cool and all, the technical problems and stuff really hampered it like you guys mentioned. The game really did deserve the 6s and 6.5s it was gettings because of it.

I still bought it, and like it, so it doesn't mean it's not enjoyable, just had more than it's share of problems...

[Kabbage]

No question about that man, although the game DID have some big problems, it was still a very solid title.
My only worry is the hype train will kill this one again. then dont board the train let it be ruined for everyone else.

[AbominatioN]

"says that the impression the game will give you, will be on par with the 2005 trailer."

I believe that this is the key. Even if the gfx/fx of the final game won't be as good as the 2005 trailer, the overall feeling will be on par. And this is what I (and I believe almost all of us) really want.

A truly intense battlefield/war game, like what we saw in the famous E3 2005 trailer.

[Z]

I believe that this is the key. Even if the gfx/fx of the final game won't be as good as the 2005 trailer, the overall feeling will be on par. And this is what I (and I believe almost all of us) really want.

A truly intense battlefield/war game, like what we saw in the famous E3 2005 trailer.
I agree. Motor Storm is a prime example of this. I think it did justice to the initial trailer by delivering on that feel of metal chaos and wild crashes and explosions.

I loved the first Killzone. the have have to really work hard to ruin the next one for me.

[LaLiLuLeLo]

the only thing I didn't like about the original killzone was that it had glitches, pushing the ps2 a little too hard I think. That shouldn't be the case this time.

[Gaul]

yeah all the textures took a while to load. you could see everything going from blurry to clear around you.

[BillCosby]

Yea the texture maps loading had more to do with the LOD they were supposed to be toned down while moving, but when u stop they should have cleared up without u noticing, but there was a little lag there. Halo2 had the same problem, not a frequently, but thats what happens when your lod pops.

[curryking1]

The graphics were really detailed though, I still feel bad that the PS2 only had just beneath the amount of power to run something the game well. It would've been a lot more enjoyable then. Their multitexture work was pretty amazing. Sometimes it didn't impress very much graphically like in the beginning of the swamp level and the first level wasn't that great, but the mall level graphics were amazing. A lot of the indoor and more rectangular structures looked awesome. Explosion effects and blur effect when you ran were sweet too.

[EvilTaru]

The LOD glitches really hurt the game, on the other hand the graphics as a whole is actually quite pretty, especially in the level with the cherry trees. I think they are hamstrung by the hardware because the levels themselves were quite restricted by invisible walls, it was just hard to build a wide-open level on the PS2 hardware, there really aren't many games that can do that in the first place.

One thing I really liked about the first Killzone was the character models were actually very good, even though there were LOD issues with them as well, but the close-ups can be quite impressive sometimes, the gameplay just never felt smooth, partly because of some design decisions, and a big part had to be attributed to the really shaky framerate.

[curryking1]

Ya, it's definitely because the first KZ just tried to do waaay too much on the graphics front. They tried to pretty much get better than, say, MGS3 graphics and also make the environments larger.. I dunno actually, just too much of a lot of stuff I guess... and it just couldn't be done... damn you shoddy PS2!!! lol!

[OmniCloud]

Yeah-I played through like half of the game, then I got back into multiplayer Halo shortly after. The faces up close really surprised me though..With Killzone it was almost like the game failed to complete itself. You would first look at it, and see this guy with this detailed face, and see some cool reload animations, and then the last part of the level would be buggy as all hell with framerate issues and bugs. And shooting a guy never quite felt like I was hitting him untill I put half the clip in his behind. There was so much untapped potential with the game, I'm really looking forward to see what they do on PS3..

[Applefiend]

Yeah, Killzone was clearly "Bad video game that's still fun to play". Doesn't compare to the best of console shooters at all. But I liked the theme,it did gritty urban very well, the tech was very impressive for the bits that worked. Enjoyed that, I like to play a few dodgy games a year. :)

Worst thing about it was the repeated speech. "Scatta! Grenade!" "Keeeel them!". And the pitying looks you got from XBot Haloheads. :)

I think the Geurilla that made Killzone is very different to the one that's working on KZ2. So I give them the benefit of the doubt.