Now, producer Steven Ter Heide confirms speculation that Guerrilla loves Blu-ray so much that one might wonder, "Well, why don't they marry it?" telling Gamepro that "it is not a luxury to have Blu-ray, but rather a necessity" for a game like Killzone 2. Ter Heide busts out the old E3 2007 demo line, reminding us that it alone was 2GB worth of PLAYSTATION 3 magic.

Maybe it's that new jumping ability present in the sequel. That's gotta be half a gigabyte in code alone. And porn. I bet there's copious amounts of freaky Dutch porn in there.

Q&A: Killzone 2 producer talks environment hazards, new gameplay [Gamepro]

The Swedes like to play harder, better, and apparently outside. By packing their Xbox 360 along with a generator into a van, they were able to play just about anywhere they damn well pleased. Looks like fun (except for the drawing on the map part - that was a perfectly good map, ruined!). The next step now is to combine this idea with Karolina Sobecka's moving night projection project. Then we'll really have a next-gen console. One that comes with a car! Kim Phu

Urban Xbox Taking it to the Streets [Gamertag Radio]

So, what's that fifth chapter all about? I'll let Guerilla explain.

Squad sergeant Rico is missing - you must discover the truth of his fate over four high-tension missions consisting of over two hours of brand-new gameplay with new terrain to explore, new vehicles to control and swarms of Helghast to eliminate. Chapter 5 also comes with two brand new multiplayer maps for both Ad Hoc and Infrastructure Mode: Prison and Construction Site.

While the original Killzone didn't quite live up to expectations with the PLAYSTATION 3 sequel setting the bar even higher, the PSP tactical shooter sequel was pretty well received. This is a nice little bonus for an already good game. Michael McWhertor

NEW: Chapter 5 + Infrastructure Mode Available [Killzone.com]

However, before he rolled film, he extended one caveat to the press. "I need to kind of couch this first. This is to show you the technology, not to show you the game. So please don't be thinking about the game too much, I just want you to be looking at the imagery and how we've constructed some of the scenes and how complex some of the scenes are."

What played was a dark, quietly operatic look at the destructable environments of Killzone, the rag-doll physics of dying Hellghast soldiers, the lighting and environmental effects that the Guerilla crew have been slaving away on since the game's genesis. Windows shattered and troops fell as gunfire ripped through indoor environments. Outdoors a tank battle and multiple firefights showed the game will feature plenty of action.

So how did it look? I tried hard to heed Harrison's warning about the clip, but I couldn't help but focus on the game itself.

Visually it was certainly less impressive than the infamous E3 2005 pre-rendered target trailer, that's for sure. Animation quality varied, looking awkward at times. Moments smacked uncomfortably of Vivendi's F.E.A.R. and will probably cause a bit of fanboy ruckus when it's finally shown to the public this July at E3. There's obviously a long way to go, but, in my opinion, Sony was very wise to have kept the game under wraps and not tarnish today's Home and LittleBigPlanet announcements. Michael McWhertor

Following a justifiably unbelievable showing at E3 2005, then a media lockdown, Guerilla Games and their baby Killzone 2 have finally resurfaced.

In an article in the Dutch newspaper de Volksrant, the team give scant, but interesting details on the game's development. With a budget exceeding $21 million, it will be "the biggest multimedia project in Dutch history." Wow! I'm pretty sure the Kotaku readership knows its Dutch history, so I think that statement speaks for itself.

What other details did they drop? Not much, other than that the Killzone team has increased threefold and that we should expect episodic content.

Check Gamespot for more info tidbits, then put yourself into lockdown mode until the game shows up in stores to avoid the hype, pissing, moaning, fanboy infighting, etc. Michael McWhertor

PS3 Killzone resurfaces [Gamespot]
Harrison: "Killzone For PS3 To Exceed Expectations" [Kotaku]

Well, "some elements" that is. After the next-gen Killzone trailer shown at E3 2005, the following revelation that it was entirely pre-rendered, the huge dip in graphical quality from Tekken fantasy (2005) to Tekken reality (2006), a similar drop for Capcom's Devil May Cry 4, well, we're all a bit jaded I think.

But, speaking with OPM, Sony's Phil Harrison said of the highly anticipated Guerilla title:

With Killzone, the expectation internally and externally is very high - and I won't show it until it's going to exceed people's expectations. It will be next year before we show it again, but it's coming along very well. The team are working very hard, they know exactly what they have to do and there's no doubt they will achieve it, but there's nothing to be served by something that doesn't satisfy my goals for the project. I can tell you, though, that some elements already exceed the trailer.

We'll just see about that, Phil. Then we'll go into mind-numbing nitpickery about how this particle effect looks "just okay" and this shadow "looks a bit worse" and this and that and the other thing. Don't you just hate us and our unrealistic expectations already? Michael McWhertor

MORE COMMENTS FROM PHIL HARRISON LIFTED FROM FORTHCOMING INTERVIEW

Killzone: Liberation kinda took me by surprise.

I was anticipating it, but mostly because the idea of putting Killzone onto the Playstation Portable as anything but a straight first-person shooter port sounded interesting.

I had no idea.

The game, which is played from a third-person isometric point of view, is a handful of hotness. It manages to blend action, stealth and a tiny bit of puzzle into something you can play in the sort of bite size chunks meant to be on a portable. Which is to say, it's one of those few Playstation Portable titles that make the whole system really seem worth it. This is a game designed for the portable, not one stuffed into it.

Sure, there are problems. The aiming system, which is a sort of loose lock-on that requires you to aim in the general direction of your target, is mostly solid but can get quite sloppy at times. And some of the specialty weapons, like the Crossbow and Sniper rifle, really need to have a different aiming mechanism. But all in all Liberation is my new steady.

I've been playing it pretty much non-stop since I got it and have managed to work my way through 14 or 15 of the game's 16 levels. The level design is mostly brilliant both when taken separately and as a whole. The developers, Guerilla, found just the right difficulty level to make the game border on hand-clenchingly difficult but still be addictively fun to play. But it's the range of things you are doing from level-to-level that make this such a pleasure to play. There are levels where you really need to sneak through, defusing laser trip bombs, avoiding mines, slipping past guard, and there are levels where you just have to load up and take out the trash. You even get to drive vehicles like a tank and hovercraft. The game has a freaking jetpack. A jetpack man!

Gameplay mechanics are probably the game's Achilles heel, while it is not so bad as to distract, it was the one thing I found at times frustrating. The occasional sloppy aiming got me killed a few times, and taking out a sniper with a sniper rifle of your own that doesn't have a zoom can be annoying.

Fortunately the movement is concise and quick to respond and the automatically controlled camera angle is exceptional.

The game, due out on Halloween, does feel a bit short, but it supports in-room multiplayer and, sometime after launch Sony promises to release a free add-on that will make online WiFi multiplay possible, something I heard is just this side of addictive.

If the Playstation Portable's games keep shaping up like this I think there's a very good chance that Sony might be able to turn this portable around. And I hear Lumines II makes buying the PSP worthwhile all over again. Brian Crecente

After posting about a reader's strange experience with unwanted Xbox 360 Live spam, Microsoft shot us an email to officially say they had nothing to do with it.

"The recent communication to the customer was NOT sanctioned by Xbox Live. Microsoft's position is that the community will and should manage itself, through providing gamers with a voice they in turn take ownership and responsibility for their experiences.

Supporting this, Xbox Live has a robust feedback system in place for
situations exactly like this. If required, gamers can file a complaint
in the system to report inappropriate behavior or language, which
Microsoft will follow-up and investigate fully."

Funny enough, a few hours later we received a second complaint of Live spam, also about someone pimping Mission Impossible 3.

I just wanted to mention that I also received a message about MI3 a week or so back. They said something like "Where'd you get that cool Tom Cruise gamer picture?" and it was from someone with the name HM3 major. Ironically enough I had the Penny Arcade picture of the devil in at the time, and thought it was some random guy being funny...

Hmm, sounds like someone's hired 360ers to spam people about the movie. I hope Microsoft takes the iniative to look into this new form of guerilla marketing. —Brian Crecente