I just saw the video teaser for the game Killzone 2, being developed for the Playstation 3, and it was truly harrowing. The graphics are amazing, the cinematics are fluid and life-like, and the action is intense, like you’re suddenly in the middle of the “hold the bridge” firefight scene in “Saving Private Ryan.”
When this vid premiered today at the E3 Expo, debate immediately raged over whether what was shown was a pre-rendered computer graphics (CG) video or a capture of real-time game play (or a clever mixture of both). Sony claims it’s real-time. It, and the rest of the Sony press conference, has caused quite a stir among gamers and stolen much of Microsoft’s thunder for their XBox “360.” And gawd, don’t you want to cut through the crap on the: “It’s ‘360’ cause you’re now in the middle of the gaming experience?” It’s vacuous market poo. From now on, we should just start calling it the Xbox 2, ’cause that’s what it really is. They just didn’t want to call it that ’cause Sony has a PS *3*. So they paid someone who drinks far too many fussy coffee drinks and covers his desk in Koosh balls, Zen rock gardens, and other “brainstorming toys,” a lot of money to come up with an excuse to use “3” followed by some other digits.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the Xbox — it’s one of the few MS products I actually like. But the more hype and gooey marketspeak they slather onto the 360, the more I want to demote it to a 2. And the more I hear about the PS3, the more I think it’s actually a true next-gen console worthy of a number unto itself.
Click on the image above to see a larger image from Killzone 2 (likely a composite).
Click here to see the amazing PS3 specs and links to PS3 coverage via Gizmodo.
UPDATE Here’s a link to the game trailer (QuickTime).