E3: Sony meant to set Killzone expectations high - Harrison

By Tom Bramwell Published 11 July, 2007

Tells EG that it'll clear them.

Phil Harrison has told Eurogamer that Sony intended to set expectations incredibly high with its controversial E3 2005 trailer for Killzone 2 - and plans to exceed them with the finished product.

"It's a very important game because the anticipation was set so high, which we were conscious of - it was not accidental," Harrison told us following a presentation of the game in Santa Monica.

"It was important to demonstrate clearly that we have a real-time playable game that exceeds the expectations that we set for it."

Harrison said that Killzone 2 conveyed "the technical capability of the platform and the creative capability of the platform", and paid tribute to developer Guerrilla Games' "incredible skill and talent".

Killzone 2 would, he said, "deliver their original vision" when it launched exclusively on PlayStation 3. "For many reasons, it's an important product for us," he concluded.

The game, whose first in-game screenshot generated enormous interest when it was unveiled today, casts the player into a non-stop war against the semi-human Helghast, with Guerrilla telling journalists that the demo shown on Tuesday evening drew upon virtually all of the PS3's many important capabilities - including Blu-ray discs, which it said were necessary for the game to offer visual detail in depth.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (64) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Penguinzoot #1 5 years ago

    We'll see. Not long now.

  • Blerk #2 5 years ago

    Yes. There is such a thing as setting expectations too high, Phil.

  • captainrentboy #3 5 years ago

    Sooo they set them astronomically high with that rendered trailer way back when, and then knocked them right back down to Earth with that pretty poor picture yesterday.
    Have any sites commented on the Killzone 2 presentation yet? Wasn't it supposed to occur just a couple of hours after MS's conference?

  • Blerk #4 5 years ago

    When's the embargo over, then?

  • Inquisitor #5 5 years ago

    Poor GG, nothing like that sort of horrendous pressure to make you really mess up.

    Okay, a bit will push them on, but they must really be sweating under the ridiculous way they're game has been hyped to mars and back.

  • jiveguy #6 5 years ago

    "...with Guerrilla telling journalists that the demo shown on Tuesday evening drew upon virtually all of the PS3's many important capabilities..."

    So has this demo happened then? And why did GG have to tell people it looked great? ;)

  • GamerG #7 5 years ago

    It cant be that great of they are not allowed to talk about it!

    Obviously more Sony Hyperbole!

    Come on Sony show us why your system is worth 400 notes!

  • agparrot #8 5 years ago

    There is that word 'plans' again!

    Naughty!

  • Beano #9 5 years ago

    They must have something very impressive to show off at E3 with these claims... otherwise they will be slaughtered by the media and gamers.

  • Vandrius #10 5 years ago

    Haha, talking about raising expectations to gamers is just asking a big bunch of them to turn around and say "But I expected it to hand-deliver the pizza to my door as I killed Super-Blob-X"

    ... I want pizza.

  • frombrosis #11 5 years ago

    So what happened at the unveiling? The special invite-only showing of the game that supposedly occurred a few hours ago??? Or am I sadly mistaken?

  • penhalion #12 5 years ago

    I think Phil Harrison has relapsed into the press release muck-ups that happened at launch.

    The long and the short. Welcome back ye pre-rendered cut scenes (now with added blue ray hi-def). Graphics as good as gears of war. Textures that simply don't fit into memory leaving the need to use clip mapping and copy level data to the hard drive to make it viable.

    Heck the Halo 3 trailer looked like your basic generic FPS and look at the hype the press is giving that!

  • tobi #13 5 years ago

    spill the beans

  • menage #14 5 years ago

    Bullcrap Phil. A fake render will only cause backlash, not understanding.

  • penhalion #15 5 years ago

    This is why E3 without the real people is just a bogus information hive. Real people would look at these games and give a collective Meh! If the press have been asked not to reveal what they saw at the Sony event, then the only reason can be that it simply wasn't impressive.

    I should add that having been in these situations first hand, the PR people then go to town to try to get the press to spin the story their way i.e put everything in a positive light. Look out for such phrases as "this was early code" and "feature X is likely to improve before release" etc. etc.
    Edited by 1 at 11/07/07 @ 08:53

  • jiveguy #16 5 years ago

    "Heck the Halo 3 trailer looked like your basic generic FPS and look at the hype the press is giving that!"

    There's a bit of a difference between the press hyping a game and Mr. Sony hyping his own games. That's all.

  • DrunKao #17 5 years ago

    Sony meant to set Killzone expectations high - Harrison

    lol. This is not going to end well. Expectations can be set too high. I think Killzone 2 will be an example of that.

  • Vandrius #18 5 years ago

    One thing I just noticed... even though it was MS's conference, there are nearly as many sony articles up today.

    Makes me think Sony planned to release all these little tidbits (useless though they are) purely to steal some thunder from MS.

    They need not have bothered, MS was barely as loud as my Rice Crispies today, with their lacklustre presentation. (Good games, though)

  • mattigan #19 5 years ago

    I call shenanigans on the pic yesterday.

    There is clearly some managing of expectations going on here, and I think that the pic was a bit of a smokescreen TBH, actually meant to look a bit ropey as what it pictured was the player looking at a poster on a wall and not an in game model, but this is not immediately apparent from the EG gallery which dosen't show the edges of the actual screenshot (that clearly show the stickytape atatching the poster to the wall).

    Sony really need to wow the crowd with this and it would be suicide if K2 turned out lookng shit.

    I was as sceptical as anyone at the 2005 footage and still don't think reality will match the render, but it needs to be at least marginally close or there will be uproar.

  • drumbaby #20 5 years ago

    One level takes 2 gig of disc space...IGN are raving about the 15 minutes they've already played.

    Looks like E3 2005 wasn't as BS fuelled as previously thought.

  • zuljin #21 5 years ago

    I like the depth of field on the gun. Its little things like that, that get me giddy :)

    Thx for the links xbot_hunter. Hoping for a vid to see for myself now.

    EDIT:
    @disc - The Joystick page frustrated me. Especially since the author didn't finish some of his sentences!
    Edited by 1 at 11/07/07 @ 09:28

  • Steroyd #22 5 years ago

    Sweet mother almighty reading the IGN preview, if this is our expectations crashing down to earth sign me up to next gen now!!

  • zuljin #23 5 years ago

    Ooh for those interested, from IGN:

    "Want to see the game for yourself? Head to the PlayStation Network at 3pm PST on Wednesday and you'll find a brand-spanking-new trailer waiting there for you."

    EDIT: Anyone know what that is BST?
    Edited by 1 at 11/07/07 @ 09:37

  • andromeda #24 5 years ago

    exceed the original "footage"?

    i think not baldy.

  • aldo_14 #25 5 years ago

    [link url=http://kotaku.com/gaming/e307/killzone-2-impressi ons-277070.php
    ]http://ko taku.com/gaming/e307/killzone-2...[/link]

    Bizarrely contradicting the Joystiq one on facial animation.... still curious about seeing this one in action, as the Joystiq screens don't look all that brilliant to me. Not that I really give a monkeys, mind you, as I'll never be able to afford a PS3.....

  • sanctusmortis #26 5 years ago

    They'll have to do a LOT better than that poor screenshot, and they'd better, or I predict a lot of returned PS3s suddenly.

  • InterMeLocal #27 5 years ago

    @ sanctusmortis

    "They'll have to do a LOT better than that poor screenshot, and they'd better, or I predict a lot of returned PS3s suddenly. "

    Why you still talkin about that screenshot? all the news stories are starting to come in on Killzone 2 at E3. - Do you really thikn that 1 screenshot will prompt people to return their machines???? Come ON!

  • InterMeLocal #28 5 years ago

    http://bl og.wired.com/games/2007/07/kill...

  • smoothn00dle #29 5 years ago

    It is intense.. What can the PS3 do and 360 cant?

  • InterMeLocal #30 5 years ago

    [link url=http:// www.gametrailers.com/player/21490.html
    ]http://ww w.gametrailers.com/player/21490...[/link]

    The Trailer is here....be excited.....

  • andromeda #31 5 years ago

    Sony said at E3 2005...this is what Killzone 2 will look like.

    Just seen the new footage...they haven't delivered what they said they would.

    simple

  • Steroyd #32 5 years ago

    In what aspect didn't they deliver?

  • login_name #33 5 years ago

    The trailer is impressive, looks better than I thought it would. Not as good as the pre-render, like most people will point out, but it's not that far from it. As for gameplay, well, who can tell. Until you play it for yourself, you won't know. This does look more atmospheric but all these war shooters 'feel' the same in trailers and I find it hard to get excited by yet another one. It has got me excited enough to wanna play the thing and see for myself though, which is more than most do.

    Incidentally I thought the first Killzone was pants.

  • SBfistfun #34 5 years ago

    My you be cast forever bald if your claims don't stand up Mr Harison.

    ...oh

  • Jdoki #35 5 years ago

    I hope Killzone 2 lives up to expectations. Nothing GG has done before has been much good, so other than fancy pants graphics this game has a lot to prove in terms of gameplay.

    I'm not sure I like the message Sony is delivering... We all know the story....

    E305, they show amazing pre-rendered footage
    Sony get busted for showing pre-rendered BS
    Now Sony come out saying they intended to do that all along.

    It's starting to smack of overconfidence again, just when they seemed to have learned their lesson. I bet there's been a lot of sweating at Sony while they waited to see if GG have been able to deliver!

    KZ2 seems to be have become this albatross round the PS3's neck... If KZ2 looks and plays great then Sony wins... if it does not come up to scratch the the PS3 is doomed. There are so many other games in the pipeline from more established developers that seem to get less coverage. KZ2 wouldn't even make it on my Most Wanted list.

  • playgen #36 5 years ago

    Looks nice enough I guess, still got to play it with the horrible playstation controller though.

  • TRUTH #37 5 years ago

    djronz:

    The fact is blu-ray is a flop: Has not taken of anywhere inc Japan. And thanks to digitalhi-def downloads becoming the norm, i don't see blu-ray taking off (Minidisc, Beta, Artc, Super cd, etc).

    360 is capable of running 1080p - but if you look at the PS3 nothing actually runs as smooth, or even looks worse. Only very few games are capable are able to run 1080p. Usually there are games that don't have much going on screen at once...Look at VT3 Tennis running on 360 compared to 1080p on PS3 - why does the 360 look better, and has smoother edges. Check Ridge Racer too:

    [link url=http://www.destructoid.com/ridge-racer-6-7-com parisons-27828.phtml
    ]http://ww w.destructoid.com/ridge-racer-6...[/link]

    Also NBA: Homecourt, plays & looks better & smoother on 360 though it's running at 720p. Oh and VF5 on 360 will have better edges and full 3d backgrounds (PS3 were 2D).

    HDMI on PS3 running on my Pioneer 1080p 50" plasma, and RGB HD on my 360 - Why does the 360 look as good if not better then PS3 running at same resolution or when possible at 1080p: Don't be fooled by hype.

    Who in world has 7.1 sound in there house! - No one...5.1 and 7.1 is hardly a huge major difference. No one needs it unless they have a massive room with enough space to for the speakers to surround the entire area circle, and hopefully if any game developers will bother using it - I doubt it very much. I seriously doubt it!

    Oh! The Darkness looks and plays better on the 360. Lighting, shadows, textures, framerate - all better on 360.
    Edited by 2 at 12/07/07 @ 17:42

  • kangarootoo #38 5 years ago

    @disc

    "And you failed. Because that wasn't just high, that was beyond what you can do on any computer in the next 5 years."

    Very bold words. Lets hope they don't come back to bite you.

  • scaramanga10 #39 5 years ago

    Saw the video;

    Looks amazing. Was skeptical after looking at the screenshots, but the game looks stunning in motion.

    The rest of this fanboy bickering is plain ridiculous.

  • kangarootoo #40 5 years ago

    Just watched the vid. Looks awesome.

  • login_name #41 5 years ago

    "Haha. So predictable. Now that we've seen the trailer is half good it suddenly is all about gameplay again and how KZ 1 sucked."

    Now if that isn't one of the most moronic posts I've read on here....

    It should always be about gameplay. If I just wanna see pretty graphics I'll rent a summer blockbuster. What is it with all the graphics whores these days? Sure, graphics play a factor but if a game plays shit then it's shit. Mad Dog McCree had amazing graphics, photo realistic if you like, but it was still a below par light gun game - although it did have it's comedic value.

    The original Killzone was pants, in my opinion, but then, I'm not a huge fan of 'made for console' FPS games. If you liked it, great, you didn't waste your money.

  • old_skool #42 5 years ago

    For a 1st year ps3 game it's bloody impressive.

  • T4RG4 #43 5 years ago

    Just watched the trailer - I cant be in the minority that thinks that was oh-so-average and not ANYWHERE NEAR what Sony had been hyping since 2005? I honestly cannot see (admittedly from a compressed movie) why I'd want this over 5yrold Ghost Recon on a high (not cutting edge) spec PC.

    Looks quite bland to me, yet another FPS but not even a pretty one.

    Does not compute.

    Oh - and login-name hits the nail on the head... good to see some people are interested in the GAME (which I really expect to be rubbish heh).
    Edited by 1 at 11/07/07 @ 11:30

  • Jamaicangmr #44 5 years ago

    @ rdexter

    What the hell are you talkin about? What trailer did you watch? Sometimes fanboyish blindness can be depressing.

  • Jas315 #45 5 years ago

    The trailer looks beautiful, I was seriously expecting way less, yet I was handed a hell of a lot more. Especially the 720p (H.264) version, how awesome was that?!

    ...And to think this was called "pre-alpha" ... what the hell do people expect it to look when finished?, Guerrilla & KZ2 in my eyes have now gained potential, and people are wary indeed.

    The first level eats up 2G.. now I start to get the feeling Sony have very likely made the right decision with Blu-ray... could the time of wanting more, be creeping up already by '08?, it just shows what the reason behind those very short levels GoW possessed... was indeed space.

    This has been a great start to E3 for Sony. They've delivered today, and their conference hasn't even started yet!

    More games like this & I'm set. Seriously.
    Edited by 2 at 11/07/07 @ 11:44

  • FlamingCarrot #46 5 years ago

    It looked awesome graphically. Not much else to say really.

  • manic_mouse #47 5 years ago

    The trailer looks good, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking that it looks anything like the 2005 trailer. It looks about as close as Motorstorm got to it's "trailer". Same general idea minus the smooth framerate, detailed textures, effects and geometry.

  • Darren #48 5 years ago

    @TRUTH - Ridge Racer 7 on the PS3 runs natively at 1080p, Ridge Racer 6 on the Xbox 360 doesn't, it's merely upscaled from 720p and it shows as it by far the jaggier looking of the two games. Neither game uses anti-aliasing but the 1080p rendering makes them less noticeable. P.S. I have both games, that's how I know.

    The new Harry Potter game runs at 1080p on the PS3 and actually looks less jaggy then the 360 version, which looks merely upscaled to that resolution. Again I've tested both thoroughly and prefer the look of the PS3 version even if it too does have some aliasing. I was actually surprised at how jaggy the 360 version looks as generally Xbox 360 games have better AA than most PS3 multiformat titles, e.g. compare The Darkness, Oblivion, Virtua Tennis 3, Rainbow Six Vegas, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, etc, etc., all have smoother edges on the Xbox 360. There's also an annoying flickering on light sources and some poor texture filtering in the 360 version but on the plus side the framerate fares better but then it is upscaled 720p not native 1080p.

  • dahsif #49 5 years ago

    So it is OFFICIAL then; the corporate big cheeses think gamers are idiots.

  • the_dudefather #50 5 years ago

    screw killzone, show me little big planet, a game which actualy shows promise of being awesome

  • septimus #51 5 years ago

    The perfect hater thread.

    Looks damn good though.

  • SniperWolf #52 5 years ago

    Killzone 2 delievered, fucking amazing, Halo 3 fell flat on it's face.

  • Hughes. #53 5 years ago

    I'll wait till I've seen the trailer on my own TV before I pitch in on that, as I can't tell much from the quick and dirty grabs circulating at GT and GV, but I'm sure Guerilla delivered as close or closer to the target renders as Evolution did with MotorStorm, but Phil really does seem to be talking out of his arse on this one.

    Basically, two years of Sony being abused for lying about it being in game footage is not good PR, and pretending you planned the whole thing does you no favours.

    A much better message would have been...

    "Told you so, you bunch of bastards!"

    Sony really should let me do their PR. FUD and bullshit are outdated, the industry needs outright verbal abuse tyo get the message across these days.

    And maybe mud-wrestling.

  • andromeda #54 5 years ago

    @Steroyd

    "In what aspect didn't they deliver?"

    uh, just the small fact that the game doesnt come anywhere near the target footage, maybe?

    I, for one, call that not delivering.

  • GamesConnoisseur #55 5 years ago

    Looking forward to Killzone 2, I already said the other day that it is just a question of how good it will be, and it certainly look set to take the crown as best FPS on PS3. Before other say it will thrash Halo 3 etc etc I am actually looking forward to both and glad that I got both console so can enjoy the respective titles!

    However, also looking forward to the shooter of the year death match between Halo 3 and Killzone 2, on the merits of the replayability, all the techical marvels and the multi-player aspect.

    It still just a video clip however great it is, playing through it yourself is a different thing, so hoping for a demo tryout.

  • BartonFink #56 5 years ago

    Considering how painfully average Killzone was I would have thought expections would be fairly low so exceeding them shouldn't be much of a job for them.
    /fishes

  • agparrot #57 5 years ago

    When is it coming OUT?

  • Foxclose #58 5 years ago

    xmas 2008, i bet

  • penguin_overlord #59 5 years ago

    I find it very interesting that this one game has caused more excitement than the whole of Microsoft's press conference. Just think what Sony will further unveil at their conference later.

  • Wash #60 5 years ago

    I actually quite liked it... lighting and some of the animation was quite nice.... textures were a scratchy though, reminded me of mgs4 for some reason.

    Still, not a patch on the pre-rendered footage from a year ago.

    Just hope they can make a good game this time, or its all for naught...


    Nothing has touched mass effect though as far as i can see... the minute the lander hit the water with the water dropping off... very lush.

  • Monkey-Wizard-Ken #61 5 years ago

    Phil no, please shut up

  • ronuds #62 5 years ago

    The game looks good... let's put things into perspective though. It's not some fantastical journey into fantastic-ness, folks. It looks like your standard FPS, much the same as Gears or Resistance or Halo.

    I'd say CoD4 looks better than all 4 of those games in my opinion.


    Does anyone know why they had to use fake lighting in KZ, instead of real-time?

  • login_name #63 5 years ago

    "Does anyone know why they had to use fake lighting in KZ, instead of real-time?"

    From what I understood, they used a combination of pre-lit and real time lighting. This may have been both a design and an optimisation decision.

  • ChromeMud #64 5 years ago

    "Does anyone know why they had to use fake lighting in KZ, instead of real-time?"

    The CELL ,RSX and memory can't handle it...

    < /runs :D >