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CJacobs posted:I do record my commentary naked, after all. As hot as your house apparently gets I entirely believe it.
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Jan 30, 2018 21:59
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or maybe his house gets hot because of it
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Jan 30, 2018 22:04
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I loving hate Shadow Fall, awful game
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Jan 31, 2018 00:35
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corn in the bible posted:I loving hate Shadow Fall, awful game Sir that's not an option on the poll.
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Jan 31, 2018 00:37
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corn in the bible posted:I loving hate Shadow Fall, awful game ...thanks?
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Jan 31, 2018 00:37
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However, I love your LPs! I guess I am still bitter because, man, when I first got a PS4 I picked up this game having enjoyed all the previous ones and still ended up massively disappointed. Mercenary is good, though. corn in the bible fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Jan 31, 2018 |
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Jan 31, 2018 00:38
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Sorry for being needlessly negative in your thread but I've had a rough day
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Jan 31, 2018 00:46
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I'm not gonna get probated for dancing with the angels, right?
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Jan 31, 2018 04:49
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Lazy Bear posted:I'm not gonna get probated for dancing with the angels, right? Is there anything about it in the OP?
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Jan 31, 2018 04:51
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nine-gear crow posted:Is there anything about it in the OP? WHY DON'T YOU GO DANCE WITH THE HELGHANS! Jobbo_Fett posted:WHY DON'T YOU GO DANCE WITH THE ISA! (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jan 31, 2018 05:02
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corn in the bible posted:Sorry for being needlessly negative in your thread but I've had a rough day Hey, it's all cool man. I can see why people would have problems with Shadow Fall, god knows I do myself. So yeah if anyone wants to drag the game, feel free to. I'm not going to stop anyone and a lot of stuff deserves to be said. I'm just disappointed that no one seems like #TeamNorton 
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Jan 31, 2018 07:16
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So how are you capturing mercenary? I loved it, but I couldn't imagine playing it with gyro
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Jan 31, 2018 09:03
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klen dool posted:So how are you capturing mercenary? I loved it, but I couldn't imagine playing it with gyro The plan is to use a PSTV and a powered HDMI splitter. It’s still up in the air if it’s actually going to work or not. I’m simply being optimistic for now and saying “Yeah, we’re totally going Mercenary...”
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Jan 31, 2018 09:24
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nine-gear crow posted:The plan is to use a PSTV and a powered HDMI splitter. It’s still up in the air if it’s actually going to work or not. I’m simply being optimistic for now and saying “Yeah, we’re totally going Mercenary...” Well I hope it works, its such a good game!
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Jan 31, 2018 09:44
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klen dool posted:Well I hope it works, its such a good game! So I've been told. Mercenary is going to be interesting for me because it's going to be the sole Killzone I will basically be going in blind on when I record the commentary for it. I know the broad strokes of what happens in it, but I don't own a Vita and have never actually played it, and I probably won't physically be there when Sally records it, unlike how I was for 1, 2, 3, and Liberation. So I will be just as much of a new convert to the gospel of Arran Danner, EARTHMAN SUPREME as pretty much everyone else in this thread will hopefully be.
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Jan 31, 2018 09:55
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The King of All Consoles
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Jan 31, 2018 19:34
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OH YEAH, WELL WHY DONT YOU GO DANCE WITH THE CONSOLES, BUB!
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Jan 31, 2018 20:50
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nine-gear crow posted:So I've been told. Mercenary is going to be interesting for me because it's going to be the sole Killzone I will basically be going in blind on when I record the commentary for it. I know the broad strokes of what happens in it, but I don't own a Vita and have never actually played it, and I probably won't physically be there when Sally records it, unlike how I was for 1, 2, 3, and Liberation. So I will be just as much of a new convert to the gospel of Arran Danner, EARTHMAN SUPREME as pretty much everyone else in this thread will hopefully be. I'm the exact opposite - the Vita and Wii are the only console ive owned and played (I have a PS2 for mgs3 but it came out on vita so I never used it) so I've never played any killzones apart from mercenary Edit: so it might be a bad killzone game, even if it's a good game....
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Jan 31, 2018 20:54
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Killzone: Mercenary runs off a modified version of Killzone 3's engine. So if you like that style of gameplay, KZ3 is most similar. As far as a pure shooting experience goes, I feel KZ2 was the strongest--just make sure you update it so you get more controller layout options
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Feb 1, 2018 01:57
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Blind Sally posted:Killzone: Mercenary runs off a modified version of Killzone 3's engine. So if you like that style of gameplay, KZ3 is most similar. As far as a pure shooting experience goes, I feel KZ2 was the strongest--just make sure you update it so you get more controller layout options I should probs check em out then
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Feb 1, 2018 05:14
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Make sure to comment on the rumble effects in upcoming videos, I felt the game did it extremely well and really enhancing the experience with weapons. It still looks phenomenal and I should pick up a used copy because it deserves a spot on the shelf, heck I'd play it again, I'd even do MP - which I bet still lives and thrives!
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Feb 2, 2018 23:16
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MrLonghair posted:Make sure to comment on the rumble effects in upcoming videos, I felt the game did it extremely well and really enhancing the experience with weapons. It still looks phenomenal and I should pick up a used copy because it deserves a spot on the shelf, heck I'd play it again, I'd even do MP - which I bet still lives and thrives! Yeah, one of the things Killzone games do incredibly well is gun recoil effect and the haptic feedback from the controller rumble really enhances that.
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Feb 3, 2018 08:09
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nine-gear crow posted:Yeah, one of the things Killzone games do incredibly well is gun recoil effect and the haptic feedback from the controller rumble really enhances that. You've got some way to cut the HDCP out of the PSTV HDMI signals right? That's the downside of that and the PS3, either need the right splitter, a dvi+audio to HDMI converter or a capture device that can be coaxed into not caring about protocol.
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Feb 3, 2018 17:52
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   We come out of the firefight on the Wall and into the title card for the game. Most Killzone games have their title cards in the opening cutscenes when you boot the game up, but before you actually start playing it. Shadow Fall is a more seamless experience and doesn’t hit the brakes for a second once you press start.  Vekta city is shown off in all its PS4 glory. Glass skyscrapers, hard light holograms, the very picture of a modern cyberpunk metropolis. You can almost see Ryan Gossling and Harrison Ford glowering at each other in the rain from here.  And to further sell the general state of paranoia and tension that hangs over the game, multiple ISA battlecruisers are parked in holding orbit over the city as permanent fixtures now. A show of force to both the Vektans and the Helghast that the VSA is not loving around here, and that for as bright and beautiful as it seems on this side of the Wall, Vekta is every bit as militarized and police state-y as New Helghan is. Sinclair is just a bit better at hiding it than Saric is. The last time we saw battlecruisers looming over a city like this was during Killzone 2 over Phrryus City on Helghan. And the ISA was at open war then.   After the establishing flyby of Vekta City and the VSA HQ, we’re dumped back into Kellan’s POV. The game then sets up the general dynamic of how its chapters will play out. Lucas meets with Sinclair, Sinclair gives him a very vague briefing, and then he’s sent off to kill a bunch of Helghast in cold blood.  Still, we get a nice little moment between Sinclair and Lucas as we’re welcomed home from torture and near death by the Martian Manhunter, happy and very much relieved that we’re back. We also learn that Lucas let himself get captured by Saric intentionally to divert attention from another group of VSA agents who managed to slip past the Wall and get back to Vekta safely. So Kellan has a bit of a do-what’s-right, consequences be damned kind of attitude. Good to know. For his troubles, Sinclair gives Lucas a little fatherly “you shouldn’t have done that thing everyone’s proud of you for doing, you scamp” lecture, and then it’s right down to business again.  Our first outing as a Shadow Marshal for reals is on the outskirts of New Helghan territory: the Vekta City Hydro-Electric Dam, and Visari Park. The game just kind of glosses over how Sinclair is sending Kellan right back into Helghast territory despite him gently chewing Kellan out for being captured beyond the Wall, but that’s just the life of a wetwork agent, I guess.  An ISA dropship carrying vital intel has crashed in Visari Park, so Sinclair is sending Lucas in to extract any survivors, recover the data if possible, and more importantly, to destroy the dropship and its computers before the Helghast can salvage them.  To make matters worse, it seems that the political unrest in New Helghan is started to boil over again. She was name dropped in the last chapter, but now we get to see and hear a bit of Hera Visari herself. And as it turns out, she has indeed inherited Daddy’s raw charisma and gift for gab, but that hasn’t really helped her any in holding New Helghan together. Sinclair doesn’t think highly of Hera, even as an opponent. And we can see the true effect his fostering has had on Lucas as he parrots Sinclair’s distaste for politicians and diplomats back him. So that and the altruism streak are a good baseline for examining Lucas’s thoughts at the outset of Shadow Fall if you’re interested in keeping pace with his development as a character in and of himself. And with that, let’s get it on.  Kellan infiltrates the dam through its inner workings and has to navigate his way outside to rendezvous with his supply drops for the mission.  In certain places throughout the dam you will encounter Helghast propaganda posters handily written in English so you can read them. This one here over a sink reminds everyone that “Moderation Feeds Us All.” The implication being that there’s severe resource rationing going on in New Helghan, even if Vekta is an abundant garden world full of resources that the Helghast now own half of. I’m reminded of Immortan Joe’s “do not become addicted to water” speech from Fury Road here. Because something is just not adding up here with regard to how the New Helghan government treats its citizens, and that’s just from looking at a drat poster on a wall. It kind of looks like the Helghast have fallen back into their old kleptocractic ways of the powerful hoarding all the wealth and resources and leaving the common people to suckle off the dregs of what they leave behind while telling them that “moderation is a virtue.” Again, extreme poverty in a post-scarcity world; something that only comes about thanks to calculated, malicious greed.   Lucas makes it outside and to his first supply drop, thus introducing us to the Best Killzone Squadmate in the franchise: OWL. Don’t ask me what that stands of, I have no idea. It’s just OWL. OWL quickly establishes itself as our faithful robot murderbuddy by making short work of the two Helgoons who’ve happened upon its deployment case with its miniguns the second it detects Kellan’s presence nearby. Suffice to say, every good super spy needs his James Bond gadgets, and OWL is Shadow Fall’s do-everything gadget. I will go over everything OWL does in the Gameplay section in detail, but basically there is a reason why, after playing five out of the six games in this franchise myself now, that I consider OWL to be the best and most competent AI partner you ever get.  After securing OWL, the next objective is to get some ammo for Kellan’s Shadow Marshal supergun, the VSA LR44 Spoor rifle. Again, I will have more to say on this amazing beast in the Gameplay section.  Cresting the top of the hill, Lucas finds himself looking at Visari's bigass ugly monument up close and personal. You can't really see it in the screenshots or in the video by the Visari of Liberty has a big giant Y-shape going up its back and across its shoulders emulating the Helghast tripartite symbol.   With OWL’s help, Kellan ziplines down to ground level from the dam and quickly arrives at the crash site.  The trail of smoke points Kellan in the direction of the downed dropship, however when he gets there the lack of bodies in the area suggests that the crew are still alive nearby.   And indeed they are. They’re holed up in this sewer access hiding from the Helghast and awaiting rescue. Again, these dudes are basically just here to show off the various multiplayer classes you have access to if you decide to delve into the online half of the game.  The commander hands Lucas the intel they scrubbed from the computers, so if nothing else at least that’s secure. Though to get out of here, Kellan is going to have to take out both the anti-air installations overlooking the park, and the communication relay near the Visari monument, AND hijack an Overlord dropship to escape in. And of course these useless knob ends will not help us one bit with it, but that’s okay because OWL will. OWL is fantastic.  On the way up to the AA guns, Kellan rigs the crashed Heavy VTOL with a C4 charge as per Sinclair's order to destory it and cover up any evidence of its crash upon evac.  The AA guns are on a perch between the dam and the park. Getting up there is relatively easy, but the platforms themselves are well defended, even on the easier difficulties.  Also of note, the majority of the Intel pick ups for this mission are focused around the run up to the AA guns. Oh, that’s something I’ll explain later on too, don’t worry.  Here’s something that should put a smile on some long-time viewers’ faces. This chapter sees the triumphant return of a little something we’ve come to know as “Killzone Physics.” As the above picture of that poor Helgoon flying upside down through the air from a regular shotgun blast suggests, certain elements of Shadow Fall’s physics engine are a little... off. To say the least. Killzone Physics has its origins all the back in the original Killzone 1, which was notoriously buggy in all sorts of hilarious ways. When Guerrilla went back to remaster KZ1 for the PS3, they fixed a number of bugs from the PS2 version, but intentionally left some of the more infamous yet benign bugs in place such as the spinning leg bug. The bugs have persisted across every Killzone game since, usually producing bizarre poo poo like Helghast troopers stretching themselves into black spaghetti strands when shot with the bolt gun on the factory level of Killzone 3, to this particular amusing bug of the Helghast shotgun having WAY too much force behind its shots which send Helgoons flying in unexpected directions. I’m at the point with Killzone Physics that Poe’s Law is starting to come into play and I honestly don’t know it’s all a big joke on Guerrilla’s part or if these games are just legitimately buggy as all gently caress and we’ve simply been giving them the benefit of the doubt because it lines up with our style of humour. What are YOUR thoughts on Killzone Physics? Email me on this webzone and I’ll send you a pizza roll. Though if watching a 20 minute video is just too drat hard for you, then you're in luck, because regular Ace Combat LP guest star and all-around awesome Swedish Dude Cooked Auto has edited this chapter down it's most important parts: every loving time a Helgoon goes airborne from a shotgun punt.  With the AA platforms cleared, it’s off to the communications tower down the hill.  Throughout the mission, Sinclair will radio in and ask for status updates, or respond when Lucas calls him with updates. Most of the time Lucas is professional and brief, but he does get a few moments where his wry personality seeps in, like when he responds “I’m working on it…” after taking out an entire comms tower’s worth of Helghast en route to disabling the uplink.  With the communications tower offline, all that’s needed to do now is hijack a dropship and escape the park. The ISA troopers radio in that they will meet Kellan at the depot at the base of the Visari monument.    While the ISA troops prep the Overlord for launch, it’s up to you to hold the roof of the depot from incoming Helgoon reinforcements. You’ve got a couple of ISA squaddies at your back for this section, but mainly it’s just going to be you and OWL, as usual. The Helghast come in waves, rappelling in off a new Overlord about every minute or so. So that just gives about enough time to catch your breath between rounds. Eventually, the ISA pilot will radio in saying the dropship is ready and it’s time to bail.  You’re free to keep fighting if that’s your wish, but the game does spawn in two ATACs to helpfully encourage you to cut and run for the dropship. Because if you think back to Killzone 2 and Killzone 3, ATAC drones were boss tier enemies, and guess what they still are here in Shadow Fall? Staying and fighting is suicide the second the drones appear.   The second they’re in the air, Kellan triggers the explosives, obliterating the AA emplacements and the ISA dropship crash site, thus removing all evidence that they were even there…   …Yeah about that.  The C4 charges create a chain reaction of explosions that funnel all the way up to the depot, which then ignites all the ammunition and supplies inside, sending explosions and shockwaves roiling up through the Visari statue itself.   The statue comes tumbling down as the dropship flies past it, with Kellan no doubt taking the opportunity to spit on Visari’s big giant bald iron head as it collapses in on itself. You know, for as much as Guerrilla seems to love Visari, and how omnipresent his spectre is in this series, they also love just pissing on him even more so.  Unfortunately, for as much of a gently caress YEAH! fist pump moment as it is to open the game with, this is simply going to make things all the more tense between Vekta and New Helghan. Because there’s no real plausible way to spin this as just an accident or to tell Hera that her dad’s big gaudy statue just blew up and collapsed on its own for no reason. Oh, is it time for this yet?  Nah. Let’s wait a little while longer before writing anyone in this game off as a complete monster...  And that’s pretty much where the chapter ends. Relatively speaking, there’s not much to really say about the goings on in Chapter 2 itself. It’s mostly about familiarizing you with the how to play the game and easing you into the setting now that we’ve jumped ahead in time 20 years from where we started the game. The plot is going to pick up big time in the next chapter though, so stay tuned.   If you’ve played any of the previous Killzones or just modern console FPSes in general, then you should be able to pick Shadow Fall up and run with it with a minimal learning curve. The game plays about as you’d expect it to play, though it does have some unique features to it that we’ll explore in a little more depth there.  For starters, like many modern shooters, health in Shadow Fall is regenerative, but there is a unique twist to how the game’s health system operates.   If you take too much concurrent damage, you will die, yes, but that’s not the end of the story.  If you have a spare adrenaline pack handy, then OWL will promptly use it to patch you up and get you back in the fight will full health if you fall in combat. You can carry up to two adrenaline packs at a time, so that means OWL can revive you at least twice before you need to stock up on more packs. If you run out of adrenaline packs, then OWL cannot revive you and you will be sent back to the last checkpoint you cleared. If OWL takes too much damage from enemy fire and needs to recharge and is unable to deploy and heal you, you will also die that way too. Generally speaking, you have about a 10 second window from when you go down from enemy fire to when you actually die. Usually OWL is prompt in getting to you and getting your rear end back up, but if it’s pinned down by heavy fire you run the risk of actually dying while waiting to be healed.  You'll also get a few seconds of invincibility after being healed, as denoted by this green strip at the bottom of the screen which quickly fades away as your invincibility frames wear off. If nothing else, OWL at least has a better track record of patching me up than Rico ever did in Killzone 2 or 3. I can still hear him shouting “poo poo! I can’t reach you, Sev!” in the back of my head while literally running back and forth aimlessly in my darkening FOV because lol Killzone AI joke here.  While your health upkeep in Shadow Fall is automatic to a large extent, you can take an active role in managing it and turn it to your advantage in places if you wish. Mapped to the left button on the DualShock 4 D-Pad is the adrenaline pack feature. Pressing left will use one of your available adrenaline packs and will instantly heal whatever unregenerated damage you’ve incurred and briefly send you into a Max Payne-esque bullet time mode. The action on screen will slow down for a few seconds allowing you to do all sorts of cool stuff with your brief flash of technical invulnerability. Using an adrenaline pack can be useful for stuff like ambushing a group of enemies and taking them all out in rapid succession before they disperse or detect your presence. You need to be discerning with your use of adrenaline though. While it might give you a momentary tactical advantage, it also takes away one of your potential revive chances, and certain levels in the game are somewhat sparse on adrenaline pick ups.   Your remaining abilities as Kellan are mapped to the D-Pad. We’ll start with the most vital one; the Tactical Echo. The echo is mapped to the right button and sends out a sonar pulse that will highlight any nearby enemies, allies, terrain and objects of interest (like adrenaline packs) when held. When holding the right button, a bar will appear on the lower third of the screen that shows you how far the echo extends. The trick is to only hold the echo for a certain amount of time, because if you fill the bar up your tactical echo will overload, sending out a high pitched screech that will alert all nearby enemies to your presence. Overloading your echo will also disable it for at least a minute until it recharges, as well as cancel any active tracking silhouettes from previously highlighted enemies. It takes some time and experimenting with it to really perfect using the echo. And even when you find the right balance of how long to hold the button for and how much force you apply to it, there’s always room for error. If you let it go to its maximum extent, you get the fullest intel picture available, but it also increases the risk of overloading it and screwing yourself. So it’s always a gamble. NOTE: The tactical echo will only work on enemies that have already spawned in on an area. You’ll see several times coming up that enemies with scripted spawn positions and triggers will now show up on an echo scan until you trigger their spawn, such as opening a locked door or whatnot.  Friendly mission-critical NPCs will register on the Tactical Echo as green instead of orange. Non-mission critical NPCs, such as civilians we will be encountering later in the game, will not appear on the Tactical Echo at all.  Utilizing the advantage the Tactical Echo gives is key to playing the game stealthily and to set up...  Brutal Kills. Yes, brutal mele kills are back from Killzone 2 and 3. Simply get to within grabbing distance of a target and push the R3 button on the thumbstick and Kellan will execute a brutal kill on a Helgoon. Brutal kills are ostensibly silent takedowns and in theory will not alert the enemy to your presence in an area if pulled off undetected. This doesn't always work out in practice, which we'll see later in the LP.  If you want to play the game going brash and loud, however, there is infinitely more options available to you than trying to stealth it anyway. Gunplay functions exactly as it does in the previous Killzones.  Including the handy red X over the crosshairs indicating a kill so you won't waste ammo unnecessarily.   Mapped to the down button on the D-pad is the alt-fire toggle. Pressing it will change your equipped weapon between one of two fire modes, if it even has a secondary fire function. Very few weapons in Shadow Fall's single player actually do. Multiplayer, with its various weapon feature unlocks, is another story. The weapon that’s going to get the most use with this feature by default is the VSA LSR44 Spoor carbine, the one weapon you cannot get rid of barring certain specific circumstances.   In the specific case of the LSR44, the down button swaps back and forth between its semi-auto carbine rifle mode and its high impact railgun sniper rile mode. Other weapons like the Stahl Arms StA409 Keyzer will feature attachments such as an underslung grenade launcher or shotgun barrel, though these usually only factor into multiplayer. The LSR44's railgun is incredibly powerful, capable of one-shotting about 80% of the enemies in the game with a direct hit and doing incredibly high splash damage to any poor soul unlucky enough to be standing near whoever took the full brunt of the shot. It also propels enemies in various directions with a high degree of force utilizing Killzone Physics, as you can see by this poor gently caress turning into pasta sauce. The drawback is that a single railgun shot takes half a clip, meaning you only get two shots with it before you have to reload and has a 2 to 3 second windup before it reaches full power and you can release the trigger. The railgun is best used as the opening shot on a group of enemies who haven't been alerted to your presence to gain a swift advantage over them and disrupt their co-ordination, or as a Hail Mary shot when pinned down or overwhelmed to try and turn the tide of the fight in your favor--again through overwhelming force and shock.  And finally, mapped to the up button on the D-pad is your objective marker and intel screen option. Tapping the up button will flash your current objective on screen and place a destination marker on screen at where you need to be at. Speaking from experience, this is... largely unhelpful, especially compared to previous Killzone games, doubly so when you factor in the openness and non-linearity of a lot of Shadow Fall’s levels. Holding the up button will pause the game and open the objective screen to give you a more detailed look at what you need to accomplish to complete each chapter of the game. So that’s Kellan’s abilities. Let’s look at what OWL brings to the table. Like I said earlier, OWL is basically your do-everything robot buddy. The ultimate Shadow Marshal spy gadget. OWL’s controls are mapped to the DualShock 4 touchpad in the center of the controller and the L1 button. Because Guerrilla is one of those developers who approaches every new gimmick Sony staples to their consoles in good faith. Swiping in each of the four cardinal directions on the touchpad will flip OWL between one of four modes.  Swiping up on the touchpad will prime OWL for attack mode. Pressing the L1 button will deploy OWL wherever Lucas is pointing his crosshairs at that moment and OWL will instantly spawn there and begin wrecking whatever Helgoons are unfortunate enough to be near it with its miniguns until they’re either dead, or OWL has taken too much damage and needs to recharge. Pressing the L1 button again will recall OWL manually and it will repair itself while not deployed. As a second gun at your back, OWL is a monster powerhouse. Any Shadow Fall player, good or bad, will rely on OWL a lot to supplement their firepower throughout the game, to the point where going through the game without deploying OWL as an offensive weapon is basically some kind of insane challenge run.  Swiping right on the touchpad will activate OWL’s zipline mode. This mode allows Lucas to zipline down to a lower area from where he currently is from a rope fired from OWL. The exact range of the zipline is somewhat finicky and the zipline won’t fire unless the icon for it is solid white. Note: Lucas can only descend using the zipline. He can’t use OWL to reach levels above him.  Swiping down on the touchpad and using the L1 button will prompt OWL to deploy a shield in front of you to defend you from a small amount of enemy fire. This is useful if you need some cover in the midst of a heated firefight, but I’ve personally never actually wound up using the shield feature in any of the times that I’ve played through Shadow Fall myself because you are rarely without one form of cover or another in the game. Moreover, the shield itself doesn’t last very long under sustained fire. Or at least the ones the Helghast deploy don’t. And I’m not a fan of cover in cover-based shooters that can suddenly become not cover if you’re not paying attention.  And lastly swiping left on the touchpad enabled OWL’s stun mode. Pressing the L1 button will spawn in OWL at Lucas’s crosshairs and it will instantly zap any nearby Helgoons, stunning them momentarily and allowing Lucas to kill them with impunity or otherwise run past them on the way elsewhere. Again, this feature is largely useless in my opinion. There’s no way to pacifist run this game, so stunning enemies is pointless and adds an extra step in the process of just gunning them down anyway.  OWL has a hidden fifth function as well: hacking mode. When you’re near any hackable terminal, alarm, or key object, OWL’s mode indicator will automatically be overridden by the hack icon. Pressing the L1 button while the crosshairs are focused on a hackable terminal will send OWL to hack it.  This will help you by disabling alarms, opening locked doors, acquiring plot coupons, or disabling certain stage hazards that would cause you grief if left unchecked. While OWL is hacking a target, it must be left to complete its job, otherwise you will have to start all over again. If you try to deploy OWL while it is in the process of hacking something, the hack will be interrupted and reset.  And lastly, the big thing to watch out for when trying to navigate areas of the game are security cameras. Luckily, the Helghast have helpfully mapped out the exact field of view that their security cameras cover with these continent orange laser grids. As the grid sweeps across the ground you can tell where the safe and unsafe zones are if you are attempting to stealth an area. If you wander into the grid and are seen by the camera, and alarm will be raised and every Helgast trooper in the area will immediately swarm on your position once your cover is blown.  You can avoid this by simply taking out the camera with a silenced weapon like the LSR44. Disabling a security camera will not raise any alarms and will let you casually walk through the area without fear of detection. Note that certain cameras are also stationary and might be impossible to disable due to level geometry factors. We'll get a few more tools for taking out these pesky cameras later in the game in Chapter 6 as well under special circumstances. And there you go, that’s the brass tacks crash course in how to play Killzone: Shadow Fall.   We’ll get to Hera when there’s something substantive to talk about with regard to her. For now, let’s instead focus on the best character in Killzone period: OWL. Offically known as the VSA-HCD 1.3 support automata, OWL (which doesn't stand for anything other than "OWL") is an attack/support automata assigned to Shadow Marshal 1-8, Lucas Kellan. With its suite of abilities and robust combat AI, OWL is functionally an entire support squad for Kellan wrapped up in a single drone the size of a dinner platter. OWL will follow your orders with specific efficiency and will never once talk back to you like a shithead, or die tragically and pointlessly, or fly into a rage and shoot Visari, igniting a fire of chaos that will burn for more than a quarter century after your death. Not that I mean to single anyone out here unfairly... OWL is singularly emblematic of the quantum leap in technology in the series from the PS2/3 games to the PS4/Vita ones. Lente’s drones in Killzone 1 were pitiful. The ATACs and Carriers in Killzone 2 and 3 were terrifying monsters. But they were all always enemies. OWL is the first time that Vektan automata appear in the franchise and is further indicative that the Vektans have used the breaking of the Helghast state to their advantage and have been able to play catch up with some of their weapons technology while the Helghast rebuild themselves on Vekta. It’s also indicative of the further dehumanization of warfare, both in the series and in the real world. Shadow Fall is inextricably a product of the Obama era of global politics after all and the early ‘10s saw an uptick of military drone kills to such an extent that the extent that some people have said that Barack Obama’s rebuttal to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream,” was “I have a drone.” OWL shows just how easy this level of technology can get away on you. Just pointing at a group of Helghast and hiding while OWL mows them all down with its guns becomes second nature to you once you get used to how it handles in the game. And lastly, OWL is also a symbol of how much colder Shadow Fall is on an interpersonal level, at least at the outset. While the last games always had Rico or others in your ear throughout your trek to go kill whatever loser was standing in for Visari each particular time, the only regular interaction Kellan has is with his slightly distant space spy dad, the Martian Manhunter, and a glorified Roomba.  So it’s been 30 years since we last huffed a rifle around as Sev in Killzone 3, so that means both the VSA and the Helghast have each had three decades to develop new and deadlier weaponry to kill each other will, and we are going to be getting some liberal use of all of it, this being Killzone after all. I didn’t spend $20 at Best Buy to play LetThatManGoHomeToHisFamilyzone, now did I?  LSR44 Spoor We’ll start with the gun that’s always in your grip no matter how hard you try to get rid of it, the VSA Shadow Marshal LSR44 Spoor. Exclusively used by VSA Shadow Marshal field operatives, the LSR44 Spoor is a lightweight fully automatic assault rifle which can convert on the fly into a linear rail-powered sniper rifle of devastating firepower aided by an IFF equipped ACOG targeting sight. The open magnetic rails of the rifle allow for the quick discharge of excess plasma and prevent the buildup of heat while firing the weapon in either of its two modes. It’s rail fire system also dampens its sound while firing, and while not a true silenced weapon, it is vastly quieter than any standard rifle the VSA supplies to its regular soldiers. Over all the LSR44 Spoor is one of the most versatile weapons in the currently existing VSA arsenal. Kellan is equipped with the LSR44 at all times throughout Shadow Fall, except during Chapter 6 for plot reasons. In multiplayer, a scout class VSA player can equip the LSR44, however it is not full auto in multiplayer. Instead, the rifle is locked to a three shot burst fire semi-auto mode. Firing the sniper rifle at full power uses up 12 rounds of the 24 round clip. In hunting terminology a “spoor” is any sign of an animal or other quarry you happen to be tracking. This includes their tracks, scent, droppings, or any other such indicator that they have been in the area recently.  LS12 Ripper The successor sidearm to the ISA M4 Semi-Automatic Pistol. The LS12 Ripper is the standard sidearm of all VSA soldiers and field operatives, including Shadow Marshals like Lucas Kellan and Thomas Sinclair. Sporting an 18 round magazine, the Ripper is capable of semi-automatic fire and sustained burst fire though a specialized attachment. The Ripper can fire 270 rounds per minute semi-auto and 360 rpm in burst fire mode. LS12s can fit a number of custom attachments such as underslung laser sights and flashlights, the aforementioned burst fire attachment, and in special cases, a silencer.  StA25 Vlug A submachine gun manufactured by the Stahl Arms corporation and the successor to the StA-11 submachine gun. The Vlug is an ideal close-quarters firearm and is fielded primarily by the lightly armoured Helghast Security troopers, who patrol New Helghan’s streets and other vital infrastructure areas as a combination of security and law enforcement. The Vlug can be fired in full auto mode with sustained fire, but for maximum accuracy burst firing is recommended to counter the gun’s recoil. Its 30 round magazine and rapid fire rate give the StA25 a 600 rpm firing speed. The Vlug is superior to its analog VSA submachine guns, but it suffers from a need to reload often, and a long reload time (roughly 3 seconds if done speedily). The StA25 Vlug can sport a variety of attachments including holosights customized to Helghast internal armour targeting computers, an IFF-equipped ACOG sight, an underslung shotgun attachment, and underslung laser pointer sight.  VC30 Sickle A phenomenally powerful pump-action shotgun manufactured by the Visari Corporation, and the first Helghast-produced shotgun in the series. The Sickle’s double vertical barrels and dual magazines can be loaded with two different types of ammunition at the same time. The two primary types of ammunition for the VC30 are standard shrapnel ammo and incendiary ammo. Each magazine sports five rounds separately, though if only one type of ammunition is used then that increases to 10 rounds total. A full 10-round reload of the VC30 takes approximately seven and a half seconds to complete. When fired at point blank range, the VC30 is capable of killing even heavily armoured enemies in a single hit. We’ve nicknamed the VC30 the “backflip shotgun” for the very obvious reason seen in the video. The Sickle’s physics are absolutely bonkfuck broken in Shadow Fall’s single player in the early game when enemies aren’t that powerful. A single shot from the Sickle will send most enemies flying skyward for reasons that again, I’m not sure if it’s a joke on Guerrilla’s part or if it’s a legitimate bug. Either way, it’s absolutely hilarious to see in action and it made the VC30 my weapon of choice for Shadow Fall whenever I could get my hands on it.  M32 “Toothpick” Combat Knife The standard issue combat knife of all VSA servicemen. Just like in Killzone 3, the combat knife is mostly reserved for brutal kill melee animations. It does have one new feature in Shadow Fall and that’s the chain kill option. If you kill one Helghast soldier with a brutal kill, and there’s another nearby, you can press the L3 button a second time and Lucas will fling the knife at other enemy to rack up a second one-hit kill.  C4 Explosives In lieu of the gimmicky Sixaxis demo charges from Killzone 2 and 3, Shadow Fall brings back the standard C4 packs from Liberation as its go-to explosive device. The C4 in this chapter is entirely pre-scripted and will detonate automatically as part of the finale setpiece during the close cutscene. All you need to do is just place it and forget about it.  M194 Fragmentation Grenade Also returning from the PS3 games is the standard VSA frag grenade. These grenades deal crippling, often lethal damage when thrown within range of an enemy or group of enemies and can be cooked before throwing to give targets less of an opportunity to scramble to safety.   ISA Heavy VTOL After several false starts, the ISA appears to have finally produced a dropship capable of rivalling the old standard Helghast Overlord VTOL troop transport. The ISA Heavy VTOL is the standard long-range troop deployment vehicle utilized by ISA forces across the UCN nation of colonies in the Milky Way and by the VSA on Vekta. The Heavy VTOL is more durable and combat-oriented than the outmoded ISA Intruder and significantly less over-designed than the original model ISA VTOL seen in action during the liberation campaign in Southern Vekta against the forces of Helghast General Armin Metrac. The Heavy VTOL is better armed and armored than the Helghast Overlord and has a top speed of 120kmph in atmosphere. It also comes equipped with a 35mm chin-mounted autocannon.  Helghast Overlord Dropship The ubiquitous Helghast dropship of choice returns yet again. The HGH Overlord was, at the time of the Second Extra-Solar War’s outbreak, the pinnacle of dropship technology on either side of the Helghan-Vektan divide. Nothing could match this sleek, advanced insertion platform in its capabilities and technology, but now the Vektans have had 30 years to play catch up. Heavily armoured and equipped with two VnS-10 Scylla chainguns, the Overlord is still however a fair match for its VSA equivalent in terms of capabilities. Overlords are easily capable of slipping into a combat zone, deploying up to ten Helghast troopers per trip, and then egressing with relatively minimal turnaround time thanks to its hover capabilities and zipline rappelling systems.   Security Trooper The backbone of Anton Saric’s Helghast Security forces. Security Troopers are the beat cop level forces patrolling New Helghan meant to maintain law and order in the city as well as protect against any VSA infiltration units. They are generally the first line of defence for New Helghan before the more heavily armoured military has to be called in. As such Security Troopers are lightly armoured and highly mobile units. They are equipped with the StA25 Vlug submachine gun for quick, brutal and efficient threat suppression.  Commando Helghast Commandos are the more heavily armed and armoured units of the Helghast military. They are better equipped than standard Helghast Soldiers, and are normally called in in squads only when a specific threat warrants their deployment. Otherwise they may simply be sent along to supplement squads of regular troopers. Commandos are deployed with either a VC30 Sickle shotgun or a Vns12A Purger minigun.  Sniper Helghast Snipers are often deployed in overwatch positions for immediate battlefield control and intel relaying for ground-level Helghast troops. They can quickly eliminate targets at long range and disappear without a trace thanks to their optical camouflage ponchos. Helghast Snipers carry the long-range StA61 Vultur semi-automatic sniper rifle. Much like Colonel Radec could at the end of Killzone 2, Snipers in Shadow Fall can teleport around the battlefield under the guise of activating a cloaking field. If they are fired upon, but not killed, they will begin teleport spamming as a means of evading Kellan and keeping him at bay.  Shadow Fall adds some new features to the Killzone franchise, namely collectibles. Groan as you might though, you should also be well aware by now that Guerrilla doesn’t do anything half-assed, and while these collectibles are largely irelevant to your enjoyment of the game, if you’re interested in the worldbuilding of the Killzone series thus far, they’re a treasure trove of neat details and information that’s not readily apparent in-game. Starting from Chapter 2 onward, Intel pickups are scattered all across the game. Some are directly in your path to an objective, others you might need to do a little searching to locate. They are broken up into 4 categories:
The audio logs give you more insight into the ground level world of Shadow Fall, and are often recorded by background nobodies, though there are a couple from a major character here and there. Their plot-relevance will vary, but they’re all worth listening to, regardless. Intel Dossiers will give you detailed profiles of the major players and places we encounter in the game. The newspaper articles show what’s going on from an in-universe perspective and how both sides react to various events. There’s also an ongoing background story in certain articles that develops if you pay attention to them across the chapters. And lastly, there is a fictional comic book written by an in-universe Helghan author that tells an ongoing storyline that comes together once all the pages are collected across the game. If the font is too hard to read, let me know and I will see about making it more readable myself, because the PS4 doesn’t do it any favours and that’s the highest resolution it gets in-game. I’ll be posting all Intel pickups for each chapter inline at the end of each post. AUDIO LOGS   DOSSIERS   NEWS  COMIC PAGES      Some behind the scenes artwork pertaining to the initial chapters of Shadow Fall. Hi-Res renders of Lucas Kellan:   Lucas Kellan/Shadow Marshal concept art:   Sinclair, OWL, and ISA grunts:    The Wall:  Helghast concept art:   ISA Heavy VTOL:      Helghast Overlord:    Visari Statue:  Helghast on the Wall:  
nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 10:21 on Dec 27, 2022 |
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Feb 4, 2018 02:15
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To my knowledge Killzone Shadow fall, a PS4 launch title from November 2013, still has the greatest and most useful implementation of DS4 touchpad controls. I remember it feeling natural, nice, not gimmicky but instead like a great way to put that 1080p resolution pad to great use. #LazyDevs = the rest!
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Feb 4, 2018 02:42
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That sure was a low-profile, professionally done cover-up mission that left no traces or signs of large scale firefights or military conflict, yes sir.
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Feb 4, 2018 03:28
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OWL is the bestest boy.
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Feb 4, 2018 03:30
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This will end well.
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Feb 4, 2018 03:31
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I was going to ask who the voice actress is for Hera. But y'know, if we'll get to her later, we'll get to her later. I haven't watched the video yet because I get limited bandwidth at home, so I need to ask, d'you get unlimited ammo for the pistol again? Also... what's happened to the poll? I voted for Dash Rendar, and there's no way for him to win now.
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Feb 4, 2018 05:38
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That comic is giving me strong Black Freighter (the comic-within-a-comic in Watchmen) vibes.
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Feb 4, 2018 05:53
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The pair of shotgun-triggered spring shoes is my favorite piece of new Helghast equipment in this game.
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Feb 4, 2018 05:55
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I feel like you're less an elite ninja assasin and more like some kind of 40k necron that's been stuffed into a human shaped body and dumped in a different IP. I mean sure your enemies are taken by surprise when you come back from the dead but it's not a stealthy approach. Also why are both the ISA and Helghast cities built inside giant concrete bowls? What is the geometry of this big wall? Wait are both cities built underneath gigantic dams?? Who designed this planet? OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 06:48 on Feb 4, 2018 |
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Feb 4, 2018 06:45
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nine-gear crow posted:
OwlFancier posted:Also why are both the ISA and Helghast cities built inside giant concrete bowls? What is the geometry of this big wall?
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Feb 4, 2018 06:52
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The shotgun isn't loaded with lead shot, it's loaded with tiny fragments of whatever they build the loving antigravity engines on the spaceships out of. No it doesn't make it more effective but like that would stop the bloody helghast.
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Feb 4, 2018 06:55
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EDIT: ^^^^^ i bet the shotgun pellets are petrusiteOwlFancier posted:Wait are both cities built underneath gigantic dams?? Yes. Vektans don't need to go very far for their hydroelectric. Technically, though, it's only one city build underneath a gigantic dam, they just split it in two :v Going off the whole East and West Germany metaphor, I imagine there are other parts of Vekta that have been given over to the Helghast. It's just that Vekta City is the game's Berlin, so it got split in two and was given a wall and all. There's a map around of the dam if you want to see how truly batshit insane Vekta City's design is, however, I don't own a copy of Shadow Fall so I can't say if anything in the map legend is a spoiler.
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Feb 4, 2018 07:07
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So there is... a big city, built directly underneath a dam which must be holding back an entire inland sea going by the size of it... an entire inland sea that for some reason is on top of a mountain range and fed from... presumably space at this point, and then halfway along the span of the dam, there's another giant wall built perpendicular across it, cutting presumably a sizeable chunk of the sea, the dam, the water outflow, the riverbed downstream, and the city completely in half..?
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Feb 4, 2018 07:18
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I really want to see that dam breach
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Feb 4, 2018 07:23
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Cythereal posted:This will end well. This can only end well. Also, Jesus Christ, did Todd McFarlane write this comic while off his meds or something?!
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Feb 4, 2018 08:21
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OwlFancier posted:So there is... a big city, built directly underneath a dam which must be holding back an entire inland sea going by the size of it... an entire inland sea that for some reason is on top of a mountain range and fed from... presumably space at this point, and then halfway along the span of the dam, there's another giant wall built perpendicular across it, cutting presumably a sizeable chunk of the sea, the dam, the water outflow, the riverbed downstream, and the city completely in half..? It's fed via Killzone physics. A whole lot of Vektans fire shotguns into the water at lower altitudes and it launches the water back up to the higher altitude.
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Feb 4, 2018 10:43
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| # ? May 5, 2024 22:47 |
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OwlFancier posted:So there is... a big city, built directly underneath a dam which must be holding back an entire inland sea going by the size of it...  the pressure exerted by a still liquid against a wall actually only varies with the depth of the liquid, so whether it's a whole ocean or an oddly shaped moat wouldn't actually matter for how strong the walls need to be
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Feb 4, 2018 11:58
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