Showcased are the Suljeva Cliffside and Arctower Landing maps, plus the two weapons that give this downloadable content its name. Official release date via the PlayStation.blog is July 23rd in North America. Make the necessary digital wallet preparations while enjoyin video game trailers after this.

Killzone 2 Napalm & Cordite; The Weapons pack [PlayStation.blog]

According to Gamasutra's monthly deeper dive into NPD Group sales figures, the answer is 58,000 copies last month. Good? Bad? Well, it's slower. Having moved 323,000 copies in its first month on the market, dropping to 296,000 the next month and settling into where it is now. We'll leave the ultimate judgment of whether that's a positive or negative for third month sales up to you.

Sony has already gone on record about Killzone 2's sales successes, touting a million copies already sold through worldwide and noting that U.S. sales have exceeded the company's expectations. Soldier on, Killzone!

Killzone 2 Adds 58k On PlayStation 3 In April NPD [Gamasutra]

In addition to the new ranks, exploits on the Radec Academy, Helghan Industries, Salamun Market and Tharsis Depot maps are being fixed - these dealt with players getting out of the map or normal gameplay areas. Also bugs that hung people up on the medal awards screen (winning 10 clan challenges) or inadvertently booted them if they received invitations from clans with certain non-alphanumeric characters in their names.

The 57MB patch rolls out on Wednesday. Of course its major purpose is to prepare the game for the release of the Steel and Titanium DLC package, which is due out April 30. Another, even larger patch is said to be in the works already.

Here's the full list:

AI - Bots now skipping disabled/destroyed MGs in warzone when requesting mounted guns.
AI - Do not claim waypoints for the previous character when it's dead.
AI - Fixes bots getting stuck trying to arm/disarm S&D object when mission is already over.
Campaign - Fix for potential progression bug in Salamun Bridge.
Clan - User name, not users clan displayed in rankings
Clan - Winning 10 Clan Challenges causes the user to become stuck on the medal awards screen.
Controls - Lean & Peak - Zoom hold on and out of ammo it switches between regular/scope view rapidly.
Cosmetic - Blue screen tint which indicates scout cloak is occasionally enabled and will remain indefinitely.
Cosmetic - White squares on the grenade counter merge together when displayed in 1080p
Create Game - "Badge Combination" option does not work properly
Create Game - Online - "clan only" presets apply even after a player leaves a clan
DLC - DLC pack 1 - 'Steel & Titanium' support DLC - New Loading screens advertising the first DLC pack.
Exploit - Helghan Industries - Player getting out of map fix.
Exploit - Radec Academy - User is able to gain access to the roof when revived in a specific location.
Exploit - Reviving player stuck in wall collision can result in him spawning outside level
Exploit - Salamun Market - One sided wall allows people to be seen and shot from outside where they cant see or fire out
Exploit - Tharsis Depot - Player can get out of the "normal" play area and can get into some sniper/camp spots
Feature - Invite player from friendslist Feature - Join Clan Member list added.
Feature - Join Game - 17-24 players filter.
Feature - MP - Moving while seeing scores after pressing SELECT
Feature - The radar/map now has a larger radius
Feature - Three additional 'Harcore' Ranks added to the top limits.
Front-end - Add support to display more than 8 maps when creating a game /challenge/tournament
Front-end - Sorting ascending and decending ranks working better in 'Rankings'
Front-end - When in a squad, the Valor Trophy is visible in the Squad Tab, however the users rank is not being displayed on top of it.
Mods - Official tournament to be displayed first followed by custom created tournaments
Mods - Additional functionality made avalable to the in-game moderators.
Network - Server side fix for full games being displayed incorrectly.
Network - User is unable to use the 'Join Clan Member' tab due to Network Error Code 20002.
Online - File-synching with the Japanese release of Killzone 2 on the 23rd of April.
Sound - Turret placing sound continues when killed.
Stability - Crash when synching gamestate after a full mapcycle
Stability - Hang on a screen with a blank message window just before a message appears.
Stability - Reducing the load on the server related to syncing the buddylist
Stats - If a clan wins 24 Clan Challenges and goes to the result screen, the medal acquisition screen, which normally displays when you win 25 games, will display.
Stats - Number of air-support grenades used by tacticians does not add to the stats of joined user correctly.
Stats - Number of spawn-grenades used by tacticians does not add to the stats of joined user correctly.
Stats - User sometimes does not receive 1000 valor award when winning 10 Clan Challenges.
Text - % character not displayed correctly on the creating game dialogue box after selecting to create game.
Text - If a client receives an invite from a clan which has a '$' character in the clan name, the recipient will get kicked
Text - Minor Italian localization fix.
Text - Minor Japanese localization fix.
Tournament - Game decides winner if one of the two teams doesn't spawn in
Trophies - Fix for Wargod trophy unlocking pre-maturely

Official Patch 1.24 Inbound [PlayStation Forums, thanks Rick P.]

Sony Computer Entertainment America's vice president of marketing Scott Steinberg tells GameDaily that Killzone 2 "set the record as the most pre-ordered SCEA PS3 title to-date." On top of that, Steinberg says, the game is also "the fastest SCEA PS3 title to break the 500,000 unit mark and it's also the highest selling SCEA PS3 title for the first 30 days out of launch."

Yes, the game may not have sold as spectacularly as some of the more emotionally invested would have liked during the first month of tracked sales—323,000 copies in February, which actually only accounted for two days worth of sales—but it appears to be holding steady in its second month.

We'll have a better idea how it held up in March, when the NPD Group releases its sales figures next week. Until then, don't worry about sales too much.

Chart Toppers: Killzone 2 Hits the Mark [GameDaily]

Eric Boltjes, senior game designer for Guerrilla Games, talked to use about the studio's in-game clan, the design goals for the game's multiplayer, how World of Warcraft influenced some of their decisions and the game's controversial controls.

We also heard a bit about what's to come and talked up the possibility of a Killzone movie.

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It is, on its surface, a big ball of science fiction and video game cliches, but what first-person shooter isn't? What matters here isn't whether Killzone 2 tells a compelling story, but whether it delivers on nearly four years of promises. Four years of expectations stoked by glimpses of incredible graphics, deep gameplay and barely mentioned multiplayer.

Can Killzone 2 live up to its unspoken promise and deliver a game that not only sells, but sells systems?

Loved
Graphics: Graphically, this is one of the most impressive games I've played to date. Every scene, every moment of Killzone 2 is teeming with detail and nuance, from the drift of smoke, to discarded shells, to the flecks of concrete that pop off when you shoot a wall. And it's not about just the intricately detailed scenery, it's also about the artistic flair of Helghast's design. The lighting, the architecture, the landscapes all do a masterful job of capturing the oppressive ambiance of the game's undertones.

Entrancing Set Pieces: The experience of playing Killzone 2 ping-pongs between the ordinary and the sublime. There were moments when I paused in mid-play to take in what was happening around me. I wasn't just playing out a predetermined role, triggering events by pushing forward, I was engrossed in a battle—bullets zipping by, friends and foe falling on either side. The intensity, the mayhem of war, perfectly captured. It is at those moments that Killzone 2 is fully realized, when it delivers not a single-player experience, but an experience that despite its solitary nature, makes you are part of something larger. You aren't the hero in this game, you're one of the grunts and it's just as likely that any one of you will die.

Level Design: The levels almost all take place in dark locations with muddled, mild colors. But despite the outward sameness of some of their design, they offer an eclectic range of challenges for experienced gamers. Instead of having players charge across a rolling battlefield, working to get from one end to the other, Guerrilla Games made sure to keep players on their toes through skilled level design.

Story: Killzone 2 isn't a game you buy for its plot, so I was surprised to find myself enjoying the relatively light touch of a well-written story sketched across the game's campaign. When the end does finally come, it delivers a subtle look at the complexity of morality in war, without getting too heavy-handed.

Pacing: Killzone 2 is a tightly-paced shooter that walks gamers through an eclectic mix of levels in an experience that comes in at just under eight hours. But it's also another one of those games that, because of its relatively short length and its perfect pacing, can feel more like a movie or a book than a game.

Multiplayer Experience: As much as I enjoyed Killzone 2's campaign, it pales in comparison to the multiplayer experience. The game's 32-player matches includes seven classes, each with two unlockable abilities, five modes and support for four 4-player squads in a team. You also get clan support and the ability to replay your battles in a top-down 2D map on the official website battle replays. It's quickly become my favorite online game.

Multiplayer Map Design: The game's included eight multiplayer maps are some of the best I've played. Not only do they sprawl both horizontally and vertically, but they are packed with clutter, buildings, wreckage, all of which you can climb up and through. The myriad of hiding spots and routes adds a much welcome level of depth to game sessions.

Hated
Load Screen Hiccups: It's certainly no deal breaker, really more of an annoyance, but the game tends stick for just a second or so whenever it hits a loading spot. The longest I noticed lasted about three seconds.

Extremely Long Unlocks: I love, absolutely love the multiplayer gaming, and I'm OK with earning unlocks in a shooter, but Killzone 2's unlock system may turn off those who want to dabble and not grind. To unlock your first new weapons, you start with two main to choose from, you have to rank up to Sergeant 1st Class by earning 200 points. To unlock the first new class you have to earn a total of 350. To unlock the scout you need to earn 2,800 points and then to unlock their second ability you need to kill quite a few people while cloaked.

It's easy when playing a game in an over-saturated genre, like first-person shooters, to judge the title not by what it is, but by what it isn't. Too often, games concentrate more on separating themselves from the pack then on delivering a solid experience.

But Killzone 2 avoids that trap, ignoring the temptation of gimmick and instead wading into the thick of things and proving that you don't have to be unique to deliver an engaging experience.

Despite its minor shortcomings, Killzone 2 is a must-have for any owner of a PlayStation 3. It shows what the system can do and delivers a multiplayer experience rarely seen on the system. The single-player campaign is short, but enjoyable, and from my time with multiplayer, it's a game I'll be playing for quite a while.

Killzone 2 was developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. It was released on Feb. 27 for $59.99. Played single player campaign to completion, played multiple battles on the PlayStation Network against other players.

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Guerrilla Games goes deep in this installment of the series, talking about the intricacies involved in making the completely alien home of the Helghast look and feel like World War II Germany during a really bad thunderstorm. I make fun, but the best episodes of Star Trek always involved alternate dimensions where the things we were familiar with were twisted slightly from the norm. Presenting something utterly alien doesn't quite carry the suspense of exploring a world that feels like a warped version of a more familiar setting.

On a completely unrelated note, who told studio director Hermen Hulst that he looked cool talking with his head tilted to one side? I mean sure, in the first installment it was kind of cool, but now it's begun to nag at me. He probably pulled a muscle in his neck or something, and I'm going to get a nasty email for making fun of it and feel bad all night.

Check out the team from Guerrilla Games as they talk us through the creation of Killzone 2, telling us something about dynamics and artificial intelligence and creating player tension. None of that matters, really. What matters is how cool the staff from the Killzone 2 developer come off in this video, recorded against green screen and placed in game environments. The production values are really impressive, and by the end of the video I can think of no other developer I'd want to take with me on a trip to a hostile alien world.

Man, I can't wait for them to release the Making of the Making of Killzone 2 video.

Legions of PS3 owners are very much excited to get the game. The hopes and dreams of many are pinned on the title! Guerrilla Games' Steven Ter Heide describes the pressure: "It's a bit of a blessing and a curse at the same time. What can I say about it? It's good to be such an anticipated title. Certainly there's a lot of enthusiasm out there. But it can be difficult at the same time, because you have to ignore it at times and not get too involved, and just get on with making the game we want to make and that hopefully will live up to everybody's expectations — no matter how unrealistic those expectations are."

Steven Ter Heide, keepin' it real. First-person-shooter Killzone 2 goes on sale this Friday.

Q&A: Killzone 2 devs on meeting the hype [GameSpot]

Unsurprisingly, the official mag liked it. A lot.

Killzone 2 was handed the maximum score, five stars out of five, calling it a "great ride" with the reviewer undoubtedly stating "Killzone fans, action, and shooter fans of any stripe will instantly tag this sequel as a powerful contender for the best game of 2009."

I'm currently combing through the review, looking for complaints — the author laments the lack of a cooperative mode and calls the voice acting "very mediocre, occasionally bordering on placeholder performances masquerading as final cuts" — but having a hard time picking them out.

Instead, it praises Killzone 2's refusal to adopt "forced futuristic paradigms" and the scenery as "incredibly well detailed." Since it's peppered with spoilers, we'll leave it up to you to decide whether you want to read any further on the subject.

The February issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine should be in subscriber's hands now and on newsstands soon.

In-store customers will be given a card with a code to enter on Playstation Network for access to download the demo. Online customers will be e-mailed the code starting on February 3rd.

I'm not how this solves the problem for the fans wanting to try before they buy. Remember when demos used to be free?

(Gamstop via Joystiq)

So, knowing that you'll be picked apart by every Sony anti-fanboy and studied with microscopic precision by the media, how you feelin'?

Excitement with an underlying: "OH MY GOD WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!" I am sure there are a hundred developers around the globe feeling the same way right now though. Everyone wants their game to play look and sound perfectly when the public first get to see it. If you are working on an AAA Next Gen beast of a game or something for mobile phones you want to make a good impression on people. And if you have the baggage that we have we have to give it that extra little bit. Hopefully it will all go brilliantly and we'll shut up even some of the most ardent critics.

Yes, baggage. Shame about that. Don't worry, Guerrilla, I'm going to do my best to give it a fair shake. In fact, maybe I'll whack my skull with a hammer right beforehand, try and knock a bit of that CG trailer memory out before we see it. Michael McWhertor

Q&A Session With Guerrilla Games [Killzone Unit]