Spoilers: The settlement is secret

Sony, Guerrilla, and Killzone are no strangers to controversies about graphics, after their E3 trailer for Killzone 2 was complete and utter bullshot. When it came to light that Killzone: Shadowfall's?? multiplayer uses a clever technique to render at 1080p, someone decided to lawyer? up and try to sue Sony over it claiming it wasn't true? 1080p as advertised. 

Yesterday that court case was settled, the terms of which are sealed meaning we will never know who agreed to what. Both? parties, however, agreed to pay their own court costs. Hope it was worth it, as lawyers aren't cheap.

What do you think: is a 960 by 1080 resolution upscaled to 1920 by 1080 not true 1080p,?? or is all 1080p created equally?

Killzone : Sh??adow Fall graphics lawsuit DISMISSED! [NeoGAF]

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Sons and daughters of Helghan, get down with your bad selves!

It's been a decade since the original Killzone arrive on PlayStaton 2, and Guerrilla Games has seen fit to commemorate the milestone "with the people who made it all po??ssible" -- the fans.

Sure hope you guys like downloadable content! Guerrilla is rolling out a bunch of celebratory Killzone: Shadow Fall DLC over the next month. The studio has a new expansion pack out now, (free to season pass holde??rs) giving you "unprecedented" personalization opti??ons, including new character and owl skins, additional voice packs, extra player card icons, and even customizable crosshairs. Customizable crosshairs...

A pair of free multiplayer maps are also in the pipeline, one based off Radec Academy plus another specifically designed for the Intercept co-op expansion.

Guerrilla also plans to host "festive" livestreams of (heh) "classic" Killzone titles, Shadow Fall and Mercenary tournam?ents, and an art exhibition in Leeuwarden, Holland later this month.

Killzone celebrates its 10th anniversary [Guerrilla Games]

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Ordered chaos

Killzone: Shadow Fall was a respectable launch game. It showcased the? power of the nasc?ent PS4 with scintillating visuals, and paired its aesthetic beauty with a competent campaign and sound multiplayer component. 

The shooter wasn't exactly a revelation, but the glossy sheen, at the very least, provided a fine entrée to the new generation. It's been nearly a year since then, and Guerrilla Games has kept the lights on with a myriad of alternations and enhancements, the most recent of which has arrived in the co-operative expansion Intercept.

Killzone: Shadow Fall: Intercept [PlayStation 4]
Developer: Guerrilla Games 
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Released: June 25, 2014 / August 2014 (Standalone version)
MSRP: $9.99 (free with Season Pass) / $19.99 (Standalone version)

Intercept is essentially a h??orde mode wherein you and three squadmates must hold down an outpost as waves of enemies crash against your defenses. 

Teamwork is key to success in staving off the threat, as players attempt to stockpile enough points to achieve victory. This is done by downing foes, supp?orting allies, and recapturing beacons from enemy control (more on tha??t later).

Th??ere's a? catch, though. Points must be banked back at a central base to count toward anything. It's entirely possible to get cut down by a squad of Helghast soldiers whilst en route to cash in your chips. Deciding when to liquidate your funds, though, that's a calculated game of risk and reward.

A timer is constantly counting down, encouraging players to hold out until the clock strikes zero. Waiting until this moment to deposit your stash will level up a multiplier that impacts scoring. It's a compelling gamble that adds to Intercept's intensity, as s??warms of Helghast steadily bear down on your pos?ition, and you weigh securing objectives against helping an imperiled teammate and trying to stay alive.

Staying alive is important, as respawning cannibalizes your team's overall score. Once that score hits zero the game is basically over, meaning working together is of the utmost importance.? Each player is given a different skillset, including a close-quarters assault trooper, a long-range specialist in the marksman, the defensive-minded tactician, and a support-oriented medic with healing, reviving, and supplying abilities.

It's imperative that players know their roles, as the medic or ??tactician will get torn to pieces in a headlong firefight, but are indispensable to the team's success. These classes are also great, because they give folks who may not be first-person shooter experts an opportunity to contribute to ?their unit's success.

While fen?ding for life, players need to control three beacons scattered across the map in a triangle configuration, lest risk seeing the team's overall score dwindle to oblivion. When doing so becomes too stressful, petrusite fuel rods can be inserted into a computer back at your bunker, which activate fun bonuses like mortar strikes, jet packs, miniguns, or turrets.

It's typically a dynamic and engrossing experience, but could use a bit of tink?ering in the overall difficulty and balancing department. Waves aren't based on time; rather, they seemingly just happen at random  intervals. This means some matches can be spiritless affairs, while others will have you sweating bullets. And your mileage may vary based on the caliber of your teammates. 

Intercept is a surprisingly enjoyable experience that entw??ines havoc, synergy, and drama into a lovely bundle. It's a tad repetitive and light on content, though, so I certainly hope Guerrilla Games continues to support the expansion as it nears th?e standalone release.

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Four-player defensive mode

Guerrilla detailed the online cooperative expansion pack Intercept for Killzone: Shadow Fall season pass owners today ahead of its release? next month. It's a survival mode for four players, each with a specific role -- Assault, Marksman, Medic, and Tactician -- playable across four maps them??ed around locations from the game's single-player campaign.

Players will defend against Helghast troops whi?le establishing Hacking Uplinks and the mode is based around a Team Score that increases as Uplinks are defended and players bank their Personal Score earned from kills, ability uses, and recaptures. Respawns deduct points from the team, as do the loss of Uplinks. You'll work to earn bonuses like artillery strikes and jetpacks and avoid running out of Team Score -- that's when it's game over.

So, yeah. Standard stuff, really, not that I'm complaining. There are also plans to release this Intercept exp??ansion as a standalone later this year. I like when games do that.

Intercept Adds Online Co-Op Act??ion?? To Killzone Shadow Fall [Killzone]

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Left-handed support among the additions

A new patch for Guerrilla Games' Killzone: Shadow Fall has b?een released, altering certain aspects of the game's campaign, fixing various issues, and adding controller support for left-handed players.

Chapters seven and eight, of Shadow Fall's single-player campaign have been improved; the end section of 'Secure the Target' has been shortened and 'Outcast' has been made less frustrati??ng by having the collision ceiling raised. Meaning that you'll be able to fly over more buildings instead of just hitting into them and dying over and over and over and over. And over.

Be sure to have a look at the full patch notes and let us k?now if you think Guerrilla has neglected to ?include a particular fix or feature that is still needed.

Killzone Shadow Fall v1.05 Patch Notes [Killzone Community]

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A fresh start

For franchise sequels that accompany sy??stem launches, it's not uncommon to see the reuse of assets or game engines. We've come to expect a simple turning up of the graphics, if you will. The good stuff? The brand new stuff? That usually com?es later.

Killzone: Shadow Fall does not follow that?? pattern. Guerrilla Games went back to the beginning, sta??rting fresh with its first PS4 game. Sometimes a fresh start is the best thing. 

Killzone: Shadow Fall (PS4)
Developer: Guerrilla Games
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Released: November 15, 2013
MSRP: $59.99

Killzone: Shadow Fall is set some 30 years after Killzone 3, in a ti??me where the ISA and the Helghast are practically next-door neighbors, separated by a massive dividing wall -- a Berlin Wall-type situation. While there are still smaller bouts of fighting, the situation now leans more toward political conflict and distrust. There are two sides of this piece of Vekta, half covered? with life and progress, and the other half with slums where refugees are barely scraping by. 

So now, instead of going against waves of soldiers in all-out war, the fights in Shadow Fall are small and quiet, and are usually based around secret missions where protagonist Lucas Kellan has to keep a low profile as a covert operative. These are missions that are of the utmost importance to ISA, though Kellan begins to questi?on their importance as he comes to under??stand the Helgan side of the story. 

Shadow Fall is more open than any of the previous games, taking players out of corridors and into vast, open play spaces. In fact, the game’s first area is so large that I got lost in it more than once. I immediately found myself hiding in the bushes, nervous over just how much ground there was to cover. Fans of the series as well as shooter players will notice a new flexibility and openness here, with many stages having multiple options for approach??es. For these areas, there are no wrong choices. You’re free to go with what fits your play style and mood best, which is a refreshing change. 

It seems that avoiding engagement with any more than a couple of enemies is the going theme for Shadow Fall. It’s you against the Helgan world, so you’re best served by laying low, working to pick off enemies individually if possible. Of course, if you’ve got the chops, you’re free to take on everyone at once. But it seems that Guerrilla built Shadow Fall around more careful play, maybe taking cues from stealth games like Dishonored. This tone makes everything you set out to do fee??l a bit more meaningful, and that feeling ties in nicely with the game’s story.

Most of the game’s missions have you doing things like sneaking acro??ss enemy lines to meet informants, or crawling in ducts to quietly take a target out. It’s stealth right alongside guns-a-blazing, making for a really entertaining mix across the 10 or more hours of the single-player campaign. In some cases, you can choose to play missions either way, though you’ll find a lot of them are best approached carefully.

But you’re not completely alone out there. A remote drone called OWL is at your command, ready to be sent out to peek around corners and get some suppression fire going so that you can take a quick breather. OWL can a??lso set up a temporary shield, jam other shields, hack into enemy security systems, and even send out a zip line for you. To call OWL useful would be an understatement. I don’t think I would have made it through this game without it.

OWL’s control makes use of the DualShock 4’s touch pad, with directional swipes triggering its four main functions. Think of these swipes as a stand-in for more buttons on the controller. For example, to send OWL out to take down baddies, simply swipe upward to turn on its attack mode, move the reticle to where you’d like it to go, and then tap L1. OWL magically appears and starts laying down the hurt. Another tap of L1 brings him back. The zip-line function works the same way: swipe to the right, point??, tap L1, and ride down.

Shadow Fall’s objective system is simple and elegant. A tap up on the d-pad will give you a quick reminder of what you’re supposed to be doing as well as turning on a temporary waypoi?nt to head toward. Holding up on the d-pad lets you get a better look at your objective as well as review ??your past ones. 

The rest of the d-pad is used for other abilities, with the most useful being a scanning pulse echo that lets you see the position of enemies and items through walls. Holding down the direction increases the range of the pulse, but holding it too long sends out static that makes ?your location known to enemies. The opposite direction on the d-pad gives you a shot of adrenaline, which temporarily heals you up as well as slows down time, giving you a short double advantage. 

Guerrilla attempts to break up the shooting with sequences with other t??ypes of action, though not all of these attempts are as enjoyable as others. Short sequences that have Kellan floating thr??ough space were a nice change of pace.

Basic puzzles, mostly relating to unlocking doors or other pathways, reminded me of Dead Space, and were fine. But platforming in first-person is not an easy thing, and trying to do?? so on narrow platforms while dodging fast-moving obstacles was supremely frustrating. Finally, while the game’s couple of free-fall segments looked great, their control is clunky, which had me dying dozens of t?imes each. 

But these sequences are a small issue when factored into the full experience. Shadow Fall’s single-player campaign is well designed, thoroughly challenging, and full of surprises. It’s a journey that takes you from filthy underground ghettos to the top of towering skyscrapers, going up against everything from tiny automated robo-spiders to terrifying, building-sized sentries. There was never a dull moment.?? ?;

Even if the single-player side of the game is good enough to warrant the price of entry,? there’s still a robust multiplayer offering to add to it. Expect three classes, 10 maps, and almost two dozen weapons to play with. This 1080p, high-frame-rate offering will be what keeps you playing your PS4 beyond the launch window.

Among the modes, Warg??ames have match rules changing over time to keep things lively. You’ll be thrown into games that hav?e you capturing or destroying points alongside your standard deathmatches, all in a random rotation. And speaking of lively, all of the weapons are available from the start. 

Instead of fighting to earn experience, you take on challenges during multiplayer to benefit your profile. Your rank goes up as you check items off the chal??lenge list. For example, blowing up an enemy turret ??will add to your rank. 

The action in Shadow Fall’s multiplayer keeps you on your toes, especially in one mode called Paranoia in the Park, where only scouts can play. You get one life, one gun for sniping, and no radar -- it’s kill or be killed. I spent a lot of time in the kill cams in this one. ??Play is fast, but not so fast that it’s hard to keep up. Being able to use the pulse echo to see all of your enemies within a short range is really nice, though they can see you just as well. 

Matches take place acro??ss 10 maps, with fights going down anywhere from factories to penthouses to a future indoor shopping center. My favorite has you out in the woods in a wide area with plenty of hiding places in bushes and cave-like rock formations. You can climb up in tree perches to get your snipe on, but you’re a sitting duck for all those in hiding. Having cloaking abilities here makes things particula?rly interesting. 

Guerrilla leaves it up to the players to determine match rule sets. Get as specific as you’d like with weapon requirements, lives, and player types, or leave i?t all open -- it’s up to you. 

Of course, the feel is more important than any mode or progression method. I’m happy to say that Killzone: Shadow Fall is butter smooth in multiplayer, with aiming and movement that feel precise and well-tuned. I’m sure that Guerrilla put some solid work in under the hood to make this happen, but I feel like the DualShock 4’s new sticks and tri??ggers are doing their part as well. I was surprised at just how quickly I became connected with multiplayer’s feel. Never has a game’s multiplayer locked in so quickly for me.

If Killzone: Shadow Fall is what next-gen looks like, I’m pleased. Guerrilla aims to impress right out of the gate, with an open??ing that shows the high level of detail over what looks like millions of futuristic buildings glimmering in the sunlight.

The full 1080p resolution with a solid framerate never let me down, and I got so used to how that looked that picking up a current-generation shooter right after was almost shocking. Background textures are almost photorealistic in places, and Guerrilla makes excellent use of PS?4’s power to light scenes at every opportunity. 

My only real visual gripe were the doughy faces and stiff animations in some of the cutscene closeups, though they have no bearing on gameplay. Aside from that, there was the rare set detail that looked poor in comparison to the foreground stuff, and some of the NPC models weren’t up to snuff. But for the most part, Shadow Fall is one hell of a looker. 

I like Killzone: Shadow Fall for its change of direction from previous series games, as well as its change of pace over other first-person shooters. Guerrilla has tried a few new things this time around, and should be commended as such. I welcome the almost sandbox-ish level approach, and the stealth segments did a nice job of breaking up the standard shooting action. It’s really nice when gameplay concepts win out over big set pi?eces and cinematic events. 

Oh, and it’s beautiful. A stunner. Killzone: Shadow Fall is the game that will make you happy to own a PS4. This needs? to be on your PS4 launch game list.

The post Review: Killzone: Shadow Fall appeared first on Destructoid.

This is our home

Look, I'm not necessarily a Killzone person or even a shooter person (I usually only play the campaigns). But Killzone: Shadow Fall looks great. I suppose the franchise fans out there will get more out of this brand new story trailer than I d??id, but I still have a full appreciation of how fantastic it looks, and am glad that this is a PS4 launch title. 

I'm looking fo??rward to playing it, dying often in it, and exploring what looks t?o be a pretty deep storyline. 

What d?o you t?hink? Is this on your launch day list?

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Studio has a desire to 'keep it fresh'

As work on Killzone: Shadow Fall wraps up, some members of the development team have transitioned to another project. This isn't an uncommon practice -- certainly not for larger studios like Guerrilla -- but there is a sliver of news here. Speaking to Eurogamer, lead designer Eric Boltjes has confirmed that the next game is a new intellectual prop?erty.

"As a studio we do want to branch out, and we have started work on a new IP, something completely different to Killzone," said Boltjes. "I don't want to say anything about it right now, but as a studio we do want to keep it fresh." An??d that's fine, for the ti??me being.

It's been nothing but Killzone at Guerrilla for quite a while now. Coming off of Shadow Fall, I'm sure both fans and the developers ali?ke are ready for something different.

Killzone dev Guerril??la confirms work on new IP ?has begun [Eurogamer]

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Should allow for those with slower connections to play without issues

Worry not, Vektan dogs, Killzone: Shadow Fall will feature dedicated servers. Speaking at Eurogamer Expo in London this weekend, lead designer Eric Boltjes confirmed as much whilst fielding ques?tions surrounding the multiplayer experience in Guerrilla?? Games' forthcoming PlayStation 4 shooter.

"Killzone Shadow Fall has dedicated servers hosted in various regions around ??the world. These servers do not run the logic of the game – they only act as a hub between the clients, forwarding network traffic from one player in game to all other players in game. This allows people with a slower connection or strict firewall settings to play without issues.

"Almost all logic relating to you (e.g. moving, sh?ooting and taking damage) runs on your local PS4, with only a very small portio??n of the game logic (i.e. mission/scoring logic) running on the ‘session master’, one PS4 in the game selected for its connection quality."

Killzone: Shadow Fall will release alongside the PlayStation 4 t??his November.

Killzone Shadow Fall multiplayer – you??r questions answered [PlayStation Blog Europe]

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Free stuff!

Yesterday we learned that Killzone: Shadow Fall will have a feature called Warzone where you can design the multiplayer matches. You can pick the number of players, rules, mission modes classes, abilities, and weapons that can be in the match, then sha??re your gametypes with other players.

It seems Guerrilla Games wants some serious longevity with they've also a?nnounced that their future downloadable content multiplayer maps will all be free. That's a pretty sweet deal, and makes for a really good incentive to play as everyone else charges for their extra maps.

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Make your own multiplayer

Killzone: Shadow Fall will introduce custom Warzones when it launches on PS4 this year. You'll be able to tweak your own rules, conditions, and match types, before sharing your?? created game modes online. 

We got shown a brief trailer for the multiplayer, and you can view that above. As little as some folk care about Killzone, I'm all about it. Looks good!

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Because of COURSE it does!

New generation, old pre-order culture! Guerrilla Games has unveiled the bonus items you can gather into your anus when you pre-order Killzone: Shadow Fall for the Playing Stati?ons Four. Let's list what they?? are in a list for people who like lists!

• OWL Skin -- your fun flying robot will look different now!
• MP Spotlight Move -- a special "victory move" for multiplayer wins!
• Official Soundtrack -- put music from the game inside of your stupid head!

The studio has also confirmed that "retailer exclusive" bonuses are also being planned, because we're totally not done with those either. Look forward to news on that soon??!

Killzone: Shadow Fall Pre-Order Bonuses Detailed [Killzone.com]

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Well, they're no Brian Cox

Killzone: Shadow Fall is getting some television thespians to abet its story, according to a recent PlayStation Blog post. Jamie Gray Hyder of Trueblood will be playing Helghast intelligence officer Echo, a foil to Shadow Fall's playable character's role as a "Shadow Marshall." Meanwhile, David Harewood of Homeland plays Sinclair, Vektan Security Agency director.&nbs?p;  

In Killzone: Shadow Fall, you’ll serve as a Shadow Marshal under Vektan Security Agency director Sinclair, who has you perform the difficult missions that ensure the balance remains tipped in favor of the Vektans. But Echo, an intelligence operative for the Helghast, has similar orders – and she will stop at nothi??ng to ac?complish them.

So, are they still feeding us the story that the Helghast are the bad guys? I mean, look, they even have a more progressive military, pitting a woman as your main adversary. Actually, isn't this the first Helghan woman to play a role in the series? I've yet to play Killzone 3, but it seems Visari's daughter plays a negligible role. But Killzone aficionado Jim Sterling has already noted why he views the Helghast as heroes.

So, I don't watch Homeland (I hear it's pretty good!) or Trueblood. Any fans of those shows want to chime in with excitement, or any other thoughts, on the roles? My main takeaway is that the r?eveal pales in comparison to Brian Cox, who was absolutely fabulous as Hel?ghast ruler Scolar Visari.

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Shooting with the bang bangs

Sony's popped a 21-minute demo walkthrough of Killzone: Shadow Fall for your sauc??y delight,?? hot from the bowels of E3. The gameplay section is taken from that seen during the original PlayStation 4 reveal, with the Helghast attacking a Vektan city.

Without the pressures of a?? press conference, the demo takes a lot more time to look aroun??d and show off. Also, there's no God Mode on this new playthrough, so you get to see the player actually die, and have to fight properly.

So far, everything I've heard and seen of Shadow Fall is promising. A more open environment, a Cold War storyline, and a little bit of Dishonored-style assassinating all gives me the happies. Yep, I'm int??o it.

shit ! YOU KILLED KILLZONE !! YOU HAVE CONVERTED IT TO CALL OF DUTY !!!!

Not everybody is, apparently.

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Behind the Shadow Fall demonstration

Has Guerrilla Games recovered from the infamous Killzone 2 target render and its inability to live up to those graphics with the finished product? Can the studio ever? Gamers with a grudge never seem to forget. With Killzone: Shadow Fall, questions were b??ound to come up as Guerrilla once again demonstrated new Sony hardware with the popular series.

Asked by Edge if the Shadow Fall demo felt like redemption, managing director and co-founder Hermen Hulst said, "Absolutely right. That was one thing where we went, 'Okay, next time around we're going to be on a stage we’re goi??ng to make sure it's real.'"

Technical director Michiel Van Der Leeuw explains that the studio "made a point of not even claiming it was real" in the first place -- to just get the work done. "And I think everybody was onboard with that, there was so much drive for people to make things real." Funny how these th??ings work out.

Unsurprisingly, bug fixes for the demo build happened right up to the end. According to Van Der Leeuw, "...we fixed three bugs in the last day that were very, very rare and only happened like once in a hundred p?laythroughs, but we knew that three of those bugs were in there. So theoretic??ally, there was like a three in a hundred chance of a crash. I was very nervous seeing Stephen playing on stage and a lot of coders here in the Amsterdam office watching live-stream were also really, really nervous. But we made it through."

Ki?llzone: Shadow Fall and the power of PlayStation 4 [Edge]

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