Finally finished Killzone 2. I'll say that I liked it well enough, but overall I found too many issues with it.

GRAPHICS were 2nd to none. One of the best looking games I've ever seen, and that's saying something. And on top of it looking so good, the frame rate never suffered (other than the pauses for loading).

SOUND was pretty good too; good music, sound effects and voice acting (even with the way too much swearing). While the sound effects were nice, the directional audio was lacking. There were so many times that I was getting hit from behind or to either side, and I really couldn't tell.

CONTROLS left way too much to be desired for me. It felt like I was walking in mud the whole game. My guy was sluggish and slow to aim. Also the FOV (field of vision) seemed way too narrow. Like it was a 3:4 game stretched to widescreen. I had such a narrow view that too many times there were guys to either side of me shooting at me, that I couldn't see.

GAMEPLAY was decent, but with the aiming and moving slow, the game was more difficult than it should have been. Also, either the guns were too underpowered, or the enemies were all too overpowered. So many times I emptied half a clip into an enemy and as they staggered, me thinking they were dead, I would move onto the next enemy... only to have the one I just filled full of lead kill me from behind. That was probably the worst part of the game. The bullets all felt like they powerful against the environment, but not the enemies.

STORY was decent enough for a war game. Not quite as in-depth as Halo or Call of Duty 4, but it was pretty good. Maybe it would have been better had I played Killzone for the PS2. I played a demo for it, and it was pretty generic so I never bothered with the full game.

The PRESENTATION was well done with different locales and unique allies, but the 2-3 different types of enemy models made it pretty monotonous. Couldn't they have made like at least 9-10 different kinds of enemies? I couldn't be that hard. There were a decent amount of guns, but too many of them acted the same way. The ally assault rifle, the enemy assault rifle and the enemy SMG all seemed the same to me (except their levels of zooming). The sniper rifle was a little too hard to use (such a small scope when zoomed in), but at least it was very powerful. The pistol was pretty much worthless unless you got lucky and hit someone in the head with it. The flamethrower was very well done, and was probably the best flamethrower in any game I've played. :)

Well, that's my take on it. It was pretty decent, but definitely not a 9.5/10 or anything. I'd say that with all the flaws it's more like a 7.5-8/10, which is still pretty good. But graphics certainly can't save a game with playability and control issues. I don't regret buying it, but I can't see myself playing through it again anytime soon... like within the next couple years.

A few months ago, I signed up for a contest to win a copy of Crackdown for the XBOX 360. The contest was called the "300 Crackdown" contest, or something like that. It was a promotion for the new movie 300, where they were giving away 300 copies of Crackdown. Well, I actually won a copy. I thought that was pretty cool... though it did take 2 months to receive it after they said that I won a copy.

Anyways....  I got it a couple weeks ago, and started playing it. At first I didn't think it was all that great. I was running around, killing Los Muertos gang members. Seemed pretty generic. But after a little while, I started to get into it. I got my first upgraded skill, and then I was hooked. :)  I started playing it non-stop for the next couple days. I would play for a few extra hours if I thought I was getting close to upgrading a new skill. I would also run around and take out a bunch of thugs, so I could see if I could find a new weapon that I hadn't gotten yet. It still seemed a little generic to me, but I just couldn't stop playing! I'd take out a couple gang bosses here and there, and then spend a while building up my skills again. I basically proceeded with that method till I got a little ways into the last area (the Shai Gen). This area is NOTHING like the previous 2.

The gang members are better shots, better drivers, harder to kill, more frequent, and have more powerful weapons. Normally, that would be a good thing (keep raising the difficulty as you get farther into the game). But this transition was much too extreme. I went from being able to slaughter HUNDREDS of Volk gang members without dying, to getting killed about every 5-10 minutes agains the Shai Gen. Keep in mind that all my skill levels are maxxed out, except my weapons and agility (which are both over 4 stars already). I've been able to kill 2 of the bosses in the Shai Gen area, but I'm totally stuck on one of them. It wouldn't be so hard if the enemies didn't keep respawning right after you killed them!!!  You spend 20 minutes going through the building, just to get to the room where the boss is located. The boss is normally well protected by a bunch of gang members with armour on. I'll kill a couple of gang members and then hide around the corner to allow time for your armour and health to regenerate. Then I'll go back in to finish up the rest, except the ones that I just killed are already replaced by new ones!!!  This, in my opinion, is an unacceptable method of increasing the boss fights' difficulty. Not only is it completely unfair, but it totally rips me out of the game world that I was immersed in. I JUST KILLED THOSE GUYS AND THEY'RE BACK AGAIN!!!   So, if you continue with this method (pick off a few, and then retreat for a minute to gather your strength), the only thing you will accomplish is wasting your time, and your ammunition. You can do this like 5 times, and the # of gang members protecting the boss doesn't get any smaller. But you eventually run out of ammunition, which basically renders you useless. Then you just charge in, hoping for a miracle.... but you usually just get dropped within a matter of seconds. What I end up doing (usually unsuccessfully) is; locking onto the boss, and unloading the rocket launcher on him(her), ignoring all the other gang members. It still takes about 7-8 rockets to kill them, so I usually end up getting killed by all the body guards. It wouldn't be so annoying if I could come at the boss using logical thinking (kill the body guards first, then attack the boss), but it just doesn't work that way.

I can't imagine why the developers would use this cheap trick for the bosses. I know this game isn't meant to be ultra realistic or anything, but respawning enemies??!  Come on!!!  What were they thinking!!!? You can stand on a ledge where you just killed a gang member, turn around, and when you turn back, he'll be there again!!!  That is pretty bad programming. Don't get me wrong though, I really enjoyed this game (even with the respawning enemies). Up until now, respawning enemies were never a problem. But now, you have to go through so much just to REACH the boss. Now the respawning enemies are the only reason I can't beat the boss. Oh well, it was a great game till now. I'll keep playing it now and again, and maybe I'll eventually defeat all the Shai Gen bosses... but the obsession with the game has been replaced by frustration, and it only took about 2 hours to go sour (as opposed to the 20+ hours I have into). I can only hope that other developers won't use this same cheap tactic to artificially increase a game's length or difficulty.