Gaming Miscellania

I've spent a few hours over the past week playing the Killzone 3 open beta that's currently available on the PlayStation Network (for another few days). It's multiplayer only, limited to 1 map and 3 game types (only 1 of which I've tried)... meaning that it's a very thin slice of the final product that's due to arrive in a week and a half (Feb 22). The fact that I've spent more than, say, a half hour in such a limited offering speaks volumes, I think: this is quite an entertaining bit of code!

I've actually only played against bots so far, as I figure that venturing into the true online environment before I've gotten the measure of the game will simply be too frustrating. As with Combat Training in Call of Duty: Black Ops, you can set the skill level of your AI teammates and opponents to one of several different values, allowing you to increase their proficiency as your own goes up. I loved that opportunity in CoD:BO, and I'm similarly making the most of it with KZ3. I've already seen my own ability go up measurably, as I've ratcheted the AI from Rookie to Trooper to Veteran, each time slipping backward a little in terms of my success before catching back up.

While Guerrilla Games has normalized the weighty controls a little from what it was in Killzone 2, it's still requires a Hell of an adjustment after months of playing various Call of Duty games. I'm slowly getting the hang of it, though, and quite liking it. You have to handle the controls differently, as the physics of the game are just a lot more... realistic, I suppose. It's hard to describe, but anyone who plays it will notice it right away. The good news is: you can still get used to it, and potentially even get good at it, if you stick with it long enough.

I've pre-ordered my copy of the full game (not from Best Buy this time, though) and am already looking forward to both the campaign - which I haven't seen at all - and to venturing into the full online arena.

In other gaming news: I'm quite astonished how much Resistance 3 news seems to come out every week, considering that that eagerly-anticipated release is still almost 7 months away! Obviously Boneman and I aren't the only two huge Resistance fans in the world for there to be this much winter interest in a fall launch! This excellent article, written by someone who got to play a small bit of R3 at a trade show recently, only whets my appetite all the more. I'll continue to reserve final judgment until I get my own hands on a beta or demo version, but so far the early results seem promising. Needless to say, I really, really want this game to be good... last year's Aliens vs Predator was enough disappointment to last me for another few years, thank you very much!