Guerrilla

Killzone 2 has the Playstation fanbase divided; on this week’s show we take our stand. Plus, reviews we’d like to take back, and the sexiest listener e-mail segment ever! With Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, and Tim Spaeth.

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Topic and Game References:

• Killzone 2
• Gears of War
• Halo
• Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis
• Ready 2 Rumble Boxing
• Fallout 3
• Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions
• Ninja Golf
• Ribbit King
• Kirby's Dream Course
• Leisure Suit Larry
• Mass Effect
• Star Ocean: The Last Hope
• Onechanbara
• Rapelay
• The Sims
• Indigo Prophecy
• Fear Effect

Please send mailbag questions to podcast (at) gamecritics (dot) com.

Please post your thoughts and impressions on Killzone 2 here and we will discuss your comments in an upcoming episode of our podcast. You can also record your question to an MP3 audio file and email it to podcast [AT] gamecritics [dot] com and we will play your question on the podcast. Thanks!

Throughout my playthrough of Killzone 2's single-player campaign, I regularly found myself making comparisons to Gears of War 2. This might seem strange given that these are very different games, one being a first-person shooter and the other being in third-person. But they share a certain gritty meat-headed quality that made it impossible for me not to think of one while playing the other. And again and again, the resounding conclusion I kept reaching about Killzone 2 was that it was missing one very important ingredient: personality.

I was going to write this week's blog entry about the general topic of "gameplay" and how it's defined (exciting, I know), but instead I've decided to shelve that idea in favor of something much more topical: namely, the new Killzone 2 demo, which I just had the unexpected pleasure of downloading and playing, thanks to some PSN trickery. Here are my initial thoughts.

Yes, the graphics are very good. In fact, these might be the best graphics I've seen in a game. (Before people start bringing up Crysis or whatever other graphics-heavy PC game they like to jerk off to, just bear in mind that I don't play PC games, so that's not what I'm talking about here.) The gritty atmosphere, the wind and dust, the explosions, the sunlight breaking through the hazy sky, all of it looks fantastic. The visuals aren't so much a giant leap above competitors like Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty 4 as they are a small step. But it's definitely a noticeable step.

A rock-solid showpiece that every PSP owner should consider, Killzone: Liberation is a better game than the original in every way, and a standout title in its own right.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Blood, Language, and Violence

Game Description: In Killzone: Liberation, two months after the events of Killzone, most of southern Vekta is still under Helghast control. The rules of war have been cast aside with the Helghast General, Metrac, employing brutal measures in order to seize the initiative and strengthen his position further. Returning as Templar, players will be sent on a mission to undertake a covert operation to save hostages captured by Metrac, while ISA troops continue the fight for liberty.

You know it's a slow summer when I start checking the first-person shooters off my list. I usually only get in one or two a year, but I've been blazing through them lately. Surprisingly, most have been better than average… though Killzone isn't among them. The iconic glowing goggles on the cover caught my attention, but once inside my PlayStation 2, everything else lost it.

With still a year to go, the PS2 already seems to have stretched its resources as far as they can go. I think back to the concept art and demo reels Sony released to hype the PS2 and its "emotion engine," and just how limitless the possibilities seemed. Now, here we are five years later, and all of those technological limits have been reached. All of the PS2's big holiday games suffered from this in one way or another.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Blood, Strong Language, Mature Themes, Violence