Nice read.

@ vlad

And killzone's main problem was bugs.

1. Did I ever say what Guerrila Games is today?

2. Valve was formed by ex-Microsoft employees.  This is hardly the same situation.  The game development scene in the Netherlands was almost non-existent before Guerrilla came along.

Also, look at teams like Epic Games.  They hardly hit it big on the first outing, working on games One Must Fall: 2097.  Or BioWare, who's first game was Shattered Steel.  Or Blizzard Entertainment, who released a plethore of mediocre titles before hitting it big with Warcraft and Diablo.  Games like RPM Racing and The Lost Vikings.

Very few developers get things right their first game.  Even the greats like Blizzard.

This is the short list of things I can list that were wrong with KZ, awkward control scheme, frame rate issues, short draw distance, distracting graphical issues. Also the gameplay itself, most importantly, was mediocre. Oh, also an inconsistent AI. Yes bugs were part of the bad, but not the whole thing at all.

MM, if we're gonna be playing excuses, RPM racing by Blizz was coded entirely by 1 person. And BioWare's 2nd game was Baldur's Gate. What game are GG on right now?

The bolded are obviously solved in the sequel.

As for the gameplay, the controls were a bit off.  The should've done more focus testing for the sensitivty, and the wonky aiming combined with frequent dips to 20-25fps made aiming rather cumbersome. 

As somebody who played the beta, I can easily tell you that this is NOT a problem in the sequel.  The numerous gameplay videos and glowing previews from journalists who already have review builds of the game should only back up this claim.

The only thing left is the AI.  Here's what Edge had to say on the matter (the same Edge that gave MGS4 an 8 - they're tough bastards):

That was written only three days ago, and is based off of the review build of the game.  It should paint a picture of what their full review will be like (NDAs don't lift until February 3rd).

It would be damage control if Killzone 1 was about to be releasing. There is no damage to control for Killzone 2.

I don't see why you're trying to "excuse" those that I listed.  My entire point is that few devs hit it big on their first game.  Often not anywhere close to their first game (as you ignored every other game Bilzzard worked on, as well as my example of Epic Games).

Guerrilla is on their fourth game.  Their first two games were developed simultaneously, and their third game was pretty darn good, receiving scores almost two points higher than it's predecessor from websites like IGN (9.0), Gametrailers (8.5), and GameSpot (8.3).  I wonder how much higher Killzone: Liberation's average would be on Game Rankings if G4 hadn't given it a 40.

and Liberation had a High Userbase rating.

Edit: Fuck it

I love the idea that you can play with bots for practice