Despite telling enthusiast press outlet IGN that "No, Killzone won't be GDC at all" in February, Sony did show Killzone last night. Following the official announcement of the PLAYSTATION Edge developer software?an RSX profiling tool named GCM Replay and a set of lightweight, highly optimized libraries?Phil fired up a new look at Killzone, one of the Sony Worldwide Studios games to benefit from Edge.
However, before he rolled film, he extended one caveat to the press. "I need to kind of couch this first. This is to show you the technology, not to show you the game. So please don't be thinking about the game too much, I just want you to be looking at the imagery and how we've constructed some of the scenes and how complex some of the scenes are."
What played was a dark, quietly operatic look at the destructable environments of Killzone, the rag-doll physics of dying Hellghast soldiers, the lighting and environmental effects that the Guerilla crew have been slaving away on since the game's genesis. Windows shattered and troops fell as gunfire ripped through indoor environments. Outdoors a tank battle and multiple firefights showed the game will feature plenty of action.
So how did it look? I tried hard to heed Harrison's warning about the clip, but I couldn't help but focus on the game itself.
Visually it was certainly less impressive than the infamous E3 2005 pre-rendered target trailer, that's for sure. Animation quality varied, looking awkward at times. Moments smacked uncomfortably of Vivendi's F.E.A.R. and will probably cause a bit of fanboy ruckus when it's finally shown to the public this July at E3. There's obviously a long way to go, but, in my opinion, Sony was very wise to have kept the game under wraps and not tarnish today's Home and LittleBigPlanet announcements.
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)
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