check with your gamestop. regional manager allocates inventory daily to stores, best selling store gets more units, and are pulled from smaller stores. They are doing waves, so if can't get in this week you may have to wait next week/month.
You all only be able to play one at a time though. So gotta play in shifts when it first comes out, but at least after a few people beat /are done with it you'd have full freedom to play whenever.
PS3 release was bad, PS2 release was even worse in getting one.Y'all mad thirsty on here for PS4. You guys really act like they won't have consoles in y'all city on release date.calm down people, you'll be able to purchase the consoles if not at one store, than the next. They ain't Bred 11's or 88' Threes.
[h1]E3 2013: Killzone: Shadow Fall Has Made Me A Believer[/h1][h2]Killzone meets Crysis? Kind of.[/h2]
by Colin Moriarty
June 12, 2013
I’ve been critical of Killzone in the past. I’ve always thought PlayStation 3’s two franchise entries in particular are mechanically stellar, but presentationally vapid. The games’ graphics are undeniably gorgeous, but the very setting of both titles – the war-torn planet Helghan – forced Sony-owned Guerrilla Games to use a lot of browns and grays that feel admittedly realistic and true-to-form, but also monotonous and worn. This resulted in campaigns that were fun, but vastly overshadowed for most players by a deep and engaging multiplayer suite that didn’t hinge on the setting.
So when Killzone: Shadow Fall was revealed back at the PlayStation 4 event in New York City in February, I was surprised by how colorful and outright different it looked compared to its predecessors. Shadow Fall was bleak and dangerous in its own way, but it wasn’t tethered to a limited color palette or the sort of sameness that held back Killzone 2 and 3’s presentation from reaching the same heights as its gameplay. Shadow Fall no doubt has its own deep multiplayer options – we don’t know anything about that yet – but what was clear to me when I played this upcoming PlayStation 4 launch title was that this isn’t any old Killzone campaign.
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…this isn’t any old Killzone campaign.
Guerrilla Games is crafting what, to me, is most reminiscent of what a game would look like if Killzone collided with something more akin to Crysis. No, Shadow Fall doesn’t take place on a single wide open map that can be explored at will, but it does take place on a series of large, non-linear maps that encourage you – and outright require you – to tackle concurrent objectives in any order of your choosing. As a result, Shadow Fall is immediately deeper and more tactical than any of the core Killzone titles that came before it. And yes, if the map I saw and played on is any indication, the game’s bright aesthetic carries over from what we first witnessed back in February.
I was immediately intrigued when I started playing. There was nothing forced about Shadow Fall’s approach; it was thoughtful and calculated. One of the developers from Guerrilla noted to me that Shadow Fall, unlike the Killzone trilogy on PS2 and PS3, is about using your brain in addition to your brawn. And it didn’t take long for me to learn exactly what he was talking about.
Run!
Killzone: Shadow Fall takes place three decades after the events of Killzone 3, and much has changed. Helghan has been effectively destroyed, stranding the Helghast and forcing them onto Vekta, a planet long occupied by the ISA. The ISA and the Helghast thus split the planet in two, and a massive, crude wall is erected between the two sides of the planet. It wraps around the entire circumference of Vekta and keeps the two once-warring factions apart. But obviously, the wall doesn’t ultimately do much good.
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I was immediately intrigued when I started playing.
The forested map I played on showed the wall in the near distance. But gamers are still cast as the ISA in Shadow Fall, and at this point in the campaign, I found myself stranded with the Helghast. It was up to me to find a way back to the safe side of Vekta, which required me to accomplish a few tasks, including disabling the alarm system in the area, obliterating the anti-aircraft guns that destroyed by ship and left me in the forest in the first place, and seizing a Helghan dropship to make my great escape. There appeared to be other optional tasks, too, and all of this – save the actual escape – could be accomplished in any order.
Immediately, Shadow Fall felt unlike any Killzone game that came before it, not only because of its non-linear mission structure and wide-open, fully explorable maps, but because it’s also a technically deeper experience from a gameplay perspective. This isn’t just a shooter anymore; it’s far more complex, so much so that I handed the DualShock 4 over to a guy from Guerrilla after being ruthlessly massacred several times so I could at least see the proper experience.
What was so difficult? Well, there’s a lot to keep track of if you don’t have the luxury of a tutorial. You have your two weapons, which can be switched between via the triangle button, but you also have control of an all-new device called OWL. OWL, as it quickly became clear, is absolutely essential in Shadow Fall, and if you don’t know how to use it effectively – which I didn’t -- you’ll quickly be victimized by the game’s cunning and rather smart enemy AI.
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This isn’t just a shooter anymore; it’s far more complex...
OWL is mapped to both the directional pad and DualShock 4’s touch pad. By swiping on the touch pad in certain directions, specific OWL skills – such as a shock attack, a zipline, or a shield – can be selected, and then activated with the directional pad. The shock attack stuns an enemy (or a group of enemies, if they’re close to one another), leaving them vulnerable to firearm-based and melee assaults. The zipline allows for quick travel between areas of the map, letting you scale up to 50 in-game meters at a single go, so long as you have an object to attach to and a clear path to that object. The shield reminded me most of the Auger’s secondary functionality in Resistance. Simply stand behind it to absorb enemy attacks with impunity.
Using OWL gives you a much-needed break in an otherwise brutally difficult game. Shadow Fall was set on normal difficulty, and for someone like me that beat Killzone 3 on hard, it was certainly a step up in that respect. It even claimed the digital life of the developer playing on several occasions. The good news is that, while health is regenerative, you can still use health packs on the fly that will heal you quickly and slow down time for a limited period, too, giving you an edge against incoming hordes of aggressive foes.
Undeniably beautiful.
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I’ve always been fascinated by the potential of Killzone’s story...
It was especially fun – and quite novel – to effectively use stealth in Shadow Fall. The Helghast are smart and fully aware of their surroundings, but you can get the jump on them, using silent melee attacks to strike quickly without being seen. Of course, once seen, all bets are off. The Helghast will beeline to the nearest alarm – a good reason to centrally disable those alarms before doing any other part of the mission – once they see you. It’s at this point that you get a taste of what the Helghast are packing in Killzone: Shadow Fall, as well as the more conventional weapons, apart from OWL, that you have at your disposal.
Like Resistance, weapons in Killzone now have secondary functionality. The rifle I started out the mission with can be turned into a longer-range rifle that, when charged, will blow your target to smithereens with a single strike. But the Helghast will come at you with everything they have, too. Some have long-range sniper rifles of their own, complete with red laser sights. Others have stealth camouflage that they can activate at will, including when they’re under attack and near death. And others yet have bright lights to search a map’s dark crevasses and corners. These are especially obnoxious, since they obscure your vision in a burst of brightness if you look directly at them.
Unfortunately, I never got to take a look at any of Shadow Fall’s cinematics apart from what’s already readily available on the Internet. As someone who was most recently extremely impressed by some of Killzone 3’s cinematics, yet disappointed by how underdeveloped the story was, I hope that Guerrilla Games doesn’t only get to replicate similar high-quality cutscenes, but gets to more fully investigate and flesh-out the Killzone series’ underdeveloped plot that would act as a wonderful complement to a game that’s already shaping up to be so markedly different from what came before it. I’ve always been fascinated by the potential of Killzone’s story, and Shadow Fall might finally be the game that lets it shine.
Uh-oh.
Yes, Killzone: Shadow Fall is still a first-person shooter, and yes, it’s as technically fine as its predecessors. But it’s the game’s fresh approach and its emphasis on strategy and patience that really makes it stand apart. Like PS Vita’s upcoming Killzone game called Mercenary, Shadow Fall is a deviation from the traditional formula, and it looks and feels new. Guerrilla Games may very well have something special on their hands, and as a Killzone skeptic turned could-be believer, I can’t wait to see and play more.
[h1]E3 2013: Infamous: Second Son’s Next-Gen Open World[/h1][h2]Ruthless in Seattle.[/h2]
by Colin Moriarty
June 11, 2013
Some are skeptical about how significant the jump from PlayStation 3 to PlayStation 4 is. With series like Killzone and Infamous making the leap from current-gen to next-gen, leery gamers think that we’re about to get more of the same. But with Infamous: Second Son – which was demoed behind closed doors at E3 – it’s clear that Sony-owned developer Sucker Punch is primed to release not a mere rehash of Infamous and Infamous 2, but an outright evolution of the series.
In short, Infamous: Second Son is both familiar and new, predicated on what made the first two Infamous games shine while trying new things that attempt to set Second Son apart. It’s very easily PlayStation 4’s most promising launch window game and proof that Sucker Punch isn’t merely resting on its laurels.
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…Infamous: Second Son is both familiar and new...
Gone is Cole MacGrath, the protagonist hailing from Infamous and Infamous 2. Seven years following MacGrath’s adventures in New Orleans-inspired New Marais, Second Son places players in the role of Delsin Rowe, a character markedly different from MacGrath in just about every way. While MacGrath was inclined to be gruff and curt, Rowe is proud and arrogant. While MacGrath was an unlikely, hesitant hero (or anti-hero), Rowe revels in the fact that he has superpowers, and he’s more than willing to use them.
What immediately pops when watching Infamous: Second Son is its exceptional presentation values. Sony invested in a motion capture setup for Sucker Punch, and it shows. Infamous and Infamous 2 had interesting characters you cared about, as well as developed character relationships – think Cole and Zeke – but cutscenes weren’t always as immersive as they could have been. Second Son is different. The game’s cutscenes are gorgeous, and the performances delivered therein give you a great feel right off the bat at what Delsin Rowe is all about. His facial expressions illustrate just how cocky and confident he is, often with a smirk plastered on his face.
Behold Delsin Rowe's power.
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…[Delsin] Rowe is proud and arrogant.
In-game action is also gorgeous, and noticeably sharper and prettier than Infamous 2. It’s a game created in the same spirit as the PS3 Infamous titles, but its color palette is more vivid, its textures are sharper and more detailed, its animations are more fluid and realistic. This isn’t a technical rehash of what Sucker Punch has already accomplished on PlayStation 3. In this regard, Second Son is a leap forward instead of only a step forward.
But Infamous: Second Son is all about gameplay. The game harkens back to the first two Infamous games in so many ways, but it’s faster and smoother, less about wall-climbing parkour and more about seamless movement through the air. While Rowe’s smoke powers were the only ones displayed, and while more powers will be shown in the future, Sucker Punch’s Nate Fox explained in a conversation with IGN that smoke is the key to Rowe’s rapid movements.
“Delsin’s ability to transform his body into smoke is a real game-changer for us,” Fox said, “because it lets him move so quickly, both across the rooftop landscape but also to jump on guys and pound them into the ground, or using vents to move up the sides of buildings really fast. It’s empowering in that you don’t necessarily have to search the environment. You can kind of make your own path.”
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Rowe can shoot through ground-level vents and find himself on top of a building in a flash.
The aforementioned vents are the crux of these quick movements, a sort of analog for the vertical electrified poles in MacGrath’s Infamous games. But the vents allow for greater movement along larger spaces, and the effect is dramatic. Rowe can shoot through ground-level vents and find himself on top of a building in a flash. And his smoke powers allow him to move through other sorts of grates, fences, and other semi-enclosed areas. He never finds himself trapped, because he can fit through even the tiniest spaces. You’ll still be climbing up the sides of buildings, Cole MacGrath style (“one of our rules is that if you think you can climb on it, we let you climb on it,” Fox said at one point), but Rowe’s smoke ability gives Infamous: Second Son an entirely different rapid transit mechanic.
Likewise, combat in Infamous: Second Son seems more complex and dynamic. Replacing MacGrath’s amp melee weapon is Rowe’s chain, an implement designed in a similar spirit, but with a wider array of abilities.
“The chain is two things,” Fox said. “One, Delsin’s kind of punk rock so we needed something that represented that. But more, we wanted something that was very simple. You know what it feels like. You’ve held one in a hardware store and it’s a real item that then he infuses with whatever power he’s got in the time. So it becomes kind of a cipher for his abilities. The chain kind of works a little bit with whatever powers he’s using. The amp [Cole used] was just electricity.”
Second Son's version of Seattle is true-to-form.
But even with the chain, and even with the promise of many more powers we’ve yet to see (just like MacGrath’s supplemental ice and fire powers in Infamous 2), Fox promises a simpler, easier-to-understand control scheme. “A real focus for us was to try to streamline the controls so that you didn’t have to memorize what button did what,” he said. “Games are complex. They need to strip that stuff away. So in Second Son, by simplifying the controls you’re capable of stringing together moves with more fluidity because it doesn’t require a special combination to do each one of them.”
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[Second Son has] the promise of greater non-linearity and a real emphasis on progression.
Unlike Infamous and Infamous 2 – which took place in fictional cities based on real American locales – Second Son is set in Seattle, which gives Sucker Punch new and exciting ways to spread its wings. Seattle is a stone’s throw away from Sucker Punch’s hometown of Bellevue, Washington, and it’s a metropolis those that work at the developer are plenty familiar with. It immediately looks and feels more dire, dilapidated and dangerous than Empire City or New Marais, and a lot of it has to do with the dystopian, outright Orwellian slant to the city, something alluded to when Nate Fox first showed Infamous: Second Son to the world in February.
“The [Department of United Protection] in our game represent this really oppressive security force,” Fox explained, “and so they’ve built up all of this [stuff] around the city to kind of watch these superhumans. All of it is destructible because you’re cleaning the DUP out of town, pushing back that Big Brother element so people are free to live their lives. So destruction is just a really big focus for us.”
Most tantalizing about Infamous: Second Son, however, is the promise of greater non-linearity and a real emphasis on progression. Fox elaborated. “Delsin absolutely has this great skill to draw powers out of other superhumans and make them his own. And that variety of different powers is a big source of joy in the game, because you’re always thinking ‘what’s over the next horizon so I can get another ability?’"
Beware the DUP.
But when pressed on the open-ended nature of Second Son, Fox promised something unlike anything found in the first two Infamous games. “If you’re asking ‘are there areas that are inaccessible until you get certain powers’ in a Metroid-y sort of way? Yeah. It’s fun, right? To have this desire to go there and then eventually you can do it because you have two vents or a skillset.”
Infamous: Second Son – which will also include the Infamous franchise’s well-known choice-and-consequence slant – is set to come exclusively to PlayStation 4 in early 2014.
I don't even play videogames and I agree.. I used to go over friends houses and just play FIFA online and it took seconds.. got my router near my PS3 finally plugged it in and.. just wasnt the same..
