Da die herren von Killzonegame.com das Spiel probegespielt haben haben sie die am häufig gestellten Fragen hier beantwortet:
Q&A Session one
After we were able to test Killzone at such an early stage at Guerrilla-Games HQ, we have organized our first Question and Answer session for all you fans dying to know more about the game and experiences from our play test of the game in question. We’ve created the ability for everyone to ask all the questions about the game that you really want to get answered, which may not have been covered within our report. We shall try to answer as many of your questions as informative and objectively as possible. Unfortunately we couldn’t answer all your burning questions as much as we wanted to, Guerrilla didn’t tell us anything about the multiplayer and online side of Killzone, that for Sony to reveal first and foremost. First of all we have to tell you that the version we played was an early version. A small number of lucky people were invited at E3 2003 in L.A. to play test an early version Killzone, which is the version that we, obviously, had a chance to play. So yeah, this is quite an old build as you can see. We also got to play the game on a normal/standard Playstation2. So this was running on a standard PS2 that is not different sitting at your home right now, and it’s an Alpha version! So it will only get better. As of yet all storylines and objectives had not been implanted into the game structure yet, but that’s logical for an alpha version!
Many thanks to everybody for your questions! Here they are!
Q: Is Killzone really running at 60 frames per second, and did you experience any slowdowns?
A: Of course, although the frame rate (fps) wasn’t perfect at the time, but that’s not what you should expect in any game, especially on such and early build of Killzone. Virtually no game will be running smooth when a game is at this stage in the development. And Killzone is really no different. But I have to admit it really is at an exceptional performance already, it didn’t annoy us at all! But occasionally in busy situations, where a lot of Helghasts were involved and included onscreen, the frame rate did suffer a bit, and only then. Like I said, the frame rate looks very good already, and we didn’t experience any real problems at all with it. There are a lot games that have been released which have a lot more frame rate drops and problems compared to Killzone at the early stage of which it is now! And Killzone is set for an end of year release, and the frame rate will only improve!
Q: What could you tell us about the music, does it fit into the atmosphere, and are you able to turn it off?
A: In the version we played, there wasn’t a lot of orchestral musical score implemented into the game yet. Again due to early build. The only real music that we got to hear was the lovely title song that we heard when starting up the game! Guerrilla told us that they would not use music in the whole game. That it certainly wouldn’t fit in the atmosphere they want to create with Killzone. But there will be music at some special moments, certain ones such as the memorable moments in each level that we would experience during play.
What we did hear was the ambience of the levels and moving through each one, and it really is fantastic! Perfectly fits the atmosphere and there’s no reason to turn it off!
Q: What about the loading times, I thought Killzone was loading-free... how long did it take to load a level?
A: The streaming technology, which is used in games such as Jak2, and that Killzone would use is probably just a fable. Probably created at one of the many Killzone rumor forums, just like the famous NURBS, nerds as they are called within the Killzone team, something they certainly enjoy laughing about. It’s difficult to change the loading technique at such late stage of the game, so we can take this one for the Killzone2 wish list.
In my opinion are loading times are far from being annoying. It makes you prepared for the battle, which awaits you in the level ahead. To be exact, the average length of the loading times were about five or six seconds long. The loading screen was a placeholder too by the way, so we can’t tell you anything accurate about that. And keep in your mind this is still just an alpha version!
Q: Did you really get that wow effect when you played Killzone, a certain feeling that you only experience by very special games?
You’re asking me to voice my opinion now
and oh yeah! I’m crying every night that I can’t play Killzone! It’s really extraordinary, and the atmosphere, graphics, and controls are especially incredible!
Q: How big is an average Killzone level?
A: The levels in Killzone aren’t as big in size as they are within Halo. That’s also one of the reasons there is really no need or use of vehicles within the game. Every single square is built up carefully and used with detail. That’s why the levels are really impressive. Even if the levels aren’t massive doesn’t mean it isn’t very good, in fact, it’s even better for a game like Killzone, smaller levels, enhances the tension. It isn’t a shoot-at-all-moving-objects game. It’s a tactical shooter. You must think carefully about your actions and use opportunities wisely before you go running and shooting left, right and center at Helghasts. Else you’re in big trouble in no time. I was a little too enthusiastic at the beginning that resulted in me dying rather quickly; I really must play that level again and rethink my actions, and act carefully and as the title suggests, tactically. I don’t really understand the worries of everyone who interested in this game, trust me, the level size is fine, and the design architecture is even better!
Q: Tell us more about the invisible walls. Did they stand in your way and did you find them easily?
Nope, the invisible walls are no problem at all. It was only very amusing to see how I walked against it. And then seeing Snake hitting the exact same invisible wall a few moments later. It was only one wall by the way, during our play test of the Helghast Mist level. A very good tip for Guerrilla: remove that wall immediately! Because The Helghast Mist is the first outdoor level we played. And what is the first thing you want to do? Finding the limits. I didn’t really want to follow the pre-made path, as most people usually don’t, it’s an outdoor level after all. I wanted to see the power of the game, so no pre-made paths. I attempted to walk across the first small hill I saw, where the invisible wall stopped me! Aww. I’m describing this quite detailed at the moment, but honestly when playing the game, it’s only a couple seconds, and you forget it a second later when you must shoot your first Helghast! It is a bit disappointing, but not a problem; I don’t think there has been any game developed without a single invisible wall. And yes, Halo has invisible walls too!
Q: Are there Rag-doll physics in Killzone?
A: No, not from what we’ve seen. We got a placeholder when we had thrown a grenade between a few Helghasts and we haven’t yet seen any situation yet where we could have seen it being used. There’s a little chance, but we guess not going to be implemented in the final version.
Q: Could you zoom with every weapon, and are there silencers?
A: You can zoom with almost every weapon, but not all of them. We got the chance to play with a few weapons though. We’ve seen one weapon with a silencer, and that one belongs to Luger of course, the sniper stealth chick of the ISA squad. That gun also has a thermal vision mode too.
Q: What about the stationary guns?
A: We haven’t used a stationary gun ourselves, but we have seen it! Joris used the gun we all know from the screenshots in the waypoint mall. It made a lot of lovely noise, and no way the Helghasts could survive. About the AA gun…Amazing! We only have seen a computer animation from it, how you entered the gun and activated it! You really see the hands of your character moving around on the huge gun. Then you’ll see how you press some buttons and activate the gun. We haven’t seen the gun in action, but the animations looked really realistic and oh so sweet!
Q: What about a headshot?
Yes, one bullet shot from the sniper rifle in the head, and you know he is dead! Famous sentence, and it fits in Killzone. We only know it to kill with a headshot from the sniper, not from the rest of the weapons.
Q: What is the button configuration?
A: just like the most usual shooters. R1= primary fire. R2= secondary fire. L2= grenade. R3= zoom. Circle/Square= browsing to weapons. Triangle= reload. X= action button. The others are clear. And don’t forget, you can change the button configuration manually, so it is fully customizable so there should be no problem for you!
Q: What about the draw distance?
Honestly, is totally okay! We could see as far as we wanted to in the indoor levels, so it’s perfectly acceptable. There is a lot of fog in the outdoor levels, maybe to hide the draw distance, but it really adds something to the atmosphere, so it’s only positive!
Q: Could you tell us more about the animations?
Of course! As described in the report, there are a variety of animations to kill those Helghasts with your knife. But also the vaulting and reloading animations are incredible to witness!
I’ll tell you more about climbing a ladder. In the lift shaft, Luger went very smoothly up and down on a short ladder. The animation is just great! When she is going up, you just see a very good animation, better than we know included in other games. But when she is going down, the party is complete! You’ll see her hands at the outer sides of the ladder, and then she is gliding/sliding very smoothly downwards, just as we know from our Hollywood heroes.
And there was also a rope ladder in the shaft. Again this is very smooth and technically proficient. Something we have come to know Guerrilla to be. Not amazingly special from other games, but that animation doesn’t have to be jaw dropping. It already looks good in most other games anyway.
That’s it for now. Thanks for all your questions, we hope we have answered them as good as possible. Here are some facts too, they can be found on the site as well, but some people asked for it, so here they are.
- Killzone will use Dolby Prologic II for the sound
- Killzone doesn’t use the Havok physics engine, Guerrilla created their own in-house engine, which is getting the max out of Killzone and the Playstation2.
- A full time employed team of 35 people is working on Killzone. Plus a lot people who created the unique tools and techniques!
- Guerrilla-Games have finished 40 percent of the levels. They think they are finished on time to get the release date, planned in September this year.
- There’s still nothing known about the online and multiplayer aspects of the game.
Here a personal note: What made me mad for a couple of times are some people on different forums, they kept on bashing Killzone, the game would really suck, “It disappoints me, Killzone wouldn’t have loading times, but it has... nooo”. I disgust this kind of quotes…Can you name a list of games without loading times? Yeah, there are probably no games other than Jak2 and Ratchet and Clank2. Halo2 has loading times, Half-Life2 has them, Doom3 has them, and so does Killzone! There are a lot of examples about these things, but just look at the overall game! This is really the best FPS the Playstation2 will know! Definitely! It still is without Rag-doll or Havok! It’s really bullshit that a game can’t be good without these things! All I can say wait until you’ve played the game! Addiction guaranteed! Thank you.
),
