Apparently reports of beta testing this game in Europe are on the level. PlayStation Universe found this video, which shows Killzone 2's menu screens and gameplay between players online. Here we pass it along to you for your perusal.

Seven Minutes of Killzone 2 Beta Footage [PlayStation Universe]

5.Combat Itself: Killzone 2 multiplayer manages to maintain the fluid speed of the single player experience without sacrificing the looks that get the game featured in so many “look how pretty this game is” magazine spreads. Combat takes place at the perfect speed for me - not Unreal quick, but not Lost Planet slow. Just right.

4. Spawning Mechanics: Dying in Killzone 2 multiplayer brings up a map of possible spawn points, as well as a camera displaying what is going on at each locations, allowing you to pick the location that best fits your play style. When playing with a squad, players can choose to respawn on their squad leader to get right back into the action. Very handy when your squad leader finds himself all alone guarding an objective with tons of enemy inbound.

3. The Badge System: The Badge system represents the different classes you can play in multiplayer, from scout to engineer to medic. Each of the six badges have their own skill sets. Where Killzone 2 makes things interesting is that you can combine the power of two badges to create your own class based on your own particular play style. Want an engineer with healing skills? A stealthy soldier with a bazooka? Knock yourself out!

2. Dynamic Missions: Instead of playing one mission type and then waiting for the new map to load before beginning another, Killzone 2 features dynamic missions, which allows you and your friends to play through multiple game types on one map without loading.

1. Fully Destructible Toilets: Yes, I checked.

While I never was a big fan of the original game, Killzone 2's multiplayer is definitely an impressive effort. Of course the experience of playing with 8 people in the same room when you can yell at them when they team kill you is one thing, and true online multiplayer is another, but they are off to a very entertaining start.

I've been a big fan of offline bot-based multiplayer ever since Unreal introduced me to the joys of shooting people without having them type nasty things about my mother. Only *I* can type nasty things about my mother.

[Thanks Runandgun]

After a slight delay due to internet issues in the prior presentation, a pack of media people shuffled into a little room to hear all about Killzone 2. Guerilla Games' managing director, Hermen Hulst, looked slightly horrified that the horde of journalists had left the two women in the room to sit on the floor ('Someone please get her a chair!'), but Kotaku writers getting stuck on the floor be damned, the show will go on! Eric Boltjes — senior online game developer — launched into a presentation and explanation of Killzone 2 online multiplayer's unique features and mechanics. After, of course, a nice video showing ... fast action, and lots of explosions! Boltjes underscored the fact that everything we watched was shot in real time on the PS3, and everything still looked nice even with 32 players in a game. We got a long laundry list of features and mechanics, which all seemed to come back to one word, 'customized.' For more from the presentation, hit the jump.

Boltjes laid out four goals for the game: 'everyone can enjoy Killzone 2 online,' 'play just the way you like it,' 'inspiring team play,' and 'create community beyond the game.'

Under the 'everyone can enjoy Killzone 2 online' category, Boltjes mentioned they wanted the hardcore and uh, less hardcore audiences to be happy and have fun, and noted a few features. The quick join feature will ensure that players can just hop into a game suitable for their ability level, but pickier players will be able to search for specific criteria before joining a game. The game will feature a 'slow introduction,' working up to advanced features; the advanced features will hopefully keep the hardcore audience chipper while not demoralizing those who aren't ready for a really steep learning curve. Along with that, there will be transparency in the progression of the game, with twelve military ranks to progress through as you play the game (unlocking more features along the way), with an additional 46 badges and medals to be won for completing specific goals. Stats junkies will also be able to track 'over 100 statistics' regarding their progress and performance.

Boltjes seemed very proud of the 'play just the way you like it' features, which meant customize, customize, customize (within reason). Players will be able to select from six badges; each badge has a primary and a secondary ability. Decide you're really more of a medic-engineer than just a medic? Combine the two to take the medic's primary badge and the engineer's secondary badge (and vice versa if you decide to play as an engineer-medic). Custom games will allow players to select everything from the maps played, types of missions, weapons available, types of badges allowed, and variable settings (how long it takes to revive a player, how long it takes to set/defuse an explosive, etc.)

Under 'inspiring team play,' Boltjes discussed the benefits of having a squad, including the ability to see the stats of other squad members, a squad-only headset channel, and a 'spawn on squad leader' feature. Also under the spawning mechanics is the ability to cycle through available spawn points and check out what's going on in real time. Dynamic missions will also allow several missions to be selected for a game, with another mission starting after one objective has been won (there is also the option to switch in the middle of a round). There can be four members per squad and eight squads per faction.

Boltjes finished up by discussing the clan system and how they want to 'create community beyond the game.' Clans can support up to 64 players, and clan vs. clan matches can handle 16 on each side. Clan matchups will feature a 'valor' betting system, with winner takes all of the predetermined 'valor' bet. It is possible to run out of valor, but by participating in entry fee-free competitions, clans can rebound from a lack of valor. Clan tournaments can be set up in a tier-based system, with a maximum of 256 clans. On the issue of community more broadly, Boltjes talked about the leaderboards — including individuals, friends, clans, and clan member stats — that can be sorted on an all-time, daily, weekly, or monthly basis. The Killzone 2 website was also brought out as a more in-depth companion to everything available in game.

During the Q&A, a few more things came up: no, graphics were not downsized for multiplayer (and the game did look nice, at least the parts we were shown). A public beta will be open later this year, and they will be closely monitoring for exploits and vulnerabilities. Killzone 2 will also be functioning on a global server system. Further, more single player news will be out later this year, and while they have some interesting ideas to go with Sony's Home, "we're not discussing it right now."

Inside the Developers Studio: Kyle Shubel [PlayStation.Blog]

To be clear, there is nothing wrong or causing a delay to the development of the title. We (SECA) had to look at the fall calendar with SOCOM, LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, Resistance 2, plus some PSN titles and make a decision where each game should come out. Killzone 2 was moved to Feb 2009 to make sure we didn't have three shooters in the marketplace competing for retail dollars during the same holiday season.

SCEA Judges Day: Killzone 2 interview [PlayStation.Blog]

SCEE: LittleBigPlanet Delayed, Not Coming Until October
Killzone 2 Dated for 2009
Resistance 2 will Feature Eight-Player Co-Op, 60-player Multiplayer
Motorstorm 2 Gets Named, Detailed
Gran Turismo Racing Academy Announced
Sony Gamers Day UK Info Dump: Resistance 2 to SOCOM Confrontation
Men In Black Becomes First International BD-Live Title
Episodic Siren Blood Curse Hits PS3 This Summer
Sony Brings Indie Music to PSN via Movement
Europe Getting MGS4 Bundle After All
SCEE Plays Up Social Gaming At Gamer's Day 08
PlayStation 3 Outsells 360 In Europe
Mirror's Edge In Motion

Killzone 2 will be hitting the Playstation 3 in February, David Reeves told journalists gathered in London for Sonys Gamers Day there today.

Not a whole lot of other information about the release, but several sites report that the game will be playable to the press both today and next week during the U.S. Gamers Day.

The news came following an announcement that LittleBigPlanet has been pushed back from a September launch date to October. SCEE also sales of the Playstation Portable, Playstation 2 and Playstation 3 in Europe and apologized for the delay of Home.

PlayStation Day Conference [Eurogamer]

Happy Holidays! [Killzone.com - Thanks Sebastian!]

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]

After sitting through a short and familiar presentation of Killzone 2 at the Games Convention last week I was finally given a chance to play the game.

Before handing over the controller, the developers explained that in the game you play as Sef, a legionnaire called in to help quell the resistance on the Helghast home world of Helghan as the regular army fights to topple the Helghast leader.

The pointed out the various filters used in the game to give the world a darker, more realistic look and talked a bit about the game's new first-person lean and peek system which allows you to stick to walls and then pop-out to shoot, without ever leaving the first-person perspective.

Killzone 2 is ever bit as visually stunning while playing it as I remembered it being while watching the E3 demonstration. The lighting is moody and atmospheric, there's a level of detail in the game that is very reminiscent of Resistance: Fall of Man. Effects, plenty of interesting effects, abound. The end of your gun, for instance, is slightly blurred. Lightning, on the level we were shown, constantly rips through the air above and none of it appears pre-canned. And that attention to detail didn't come cheap. The single level shown at the Games Convention, the same shown during E3, sucked up 2GB of space on the Blu-ray disc.

The controls were very tight. I had no trouble targeting head-shots and popping off rounds at enemy troopers and then ducking back behind columns or walls. The movements in the game also felt fairly solid, I never seemed to get stuck anywhere and was able to dance around in fire fights with no trouble at all. The death animations for the bad guys were a bit over the top, but not so bad as to be distracting.

While the game seems to have enormous potential, mostly because of it's over-the-top look and solid mechanics, I was very disappointed in Killzone 2's artificial intelligence system. The team said they knew that AI was a problem in the original Killzone, so they did a lot of work on it. They said they now operate in groups, can recognize destructible environments and respond to fire, but it didn't seem that way to me.

As I watched someone else play the game, I saw bad guys doing things like standing in the middle of an open door exchanging rapid-fire shots with the player, never bothering to move or get out of the way. Then I gave the game a hand and found enemies standing around, standing with their sides to me as I walked up to them. In one case, there were two bad guys standing next to each other. I walked up to them from the side, shot the first guy several times to kill him and then shot the second guy a single time. He didn't respond. I shot him again, nothing. So I killed him.

I asked the team what the game's difficultly was set on and they said medium to hard. After an awkward pause, one of the developers added, "but it's very early and we're still working on the AI."

I'm not saying that the game is deeply flawed, just that the AI is. Fortunately, they've got plenty of time to work on that and I suspect up until now their top priority has been graphics. Now that they've got that pretty polished I suspect they'll move on to AI.

The BBC recently got a chance to play through a small chunk of Killzone 2. It appears the level they got their hands on was the one shown at E3, and they were thoroughly impressed:

Sat down in front of a playable level it is immediately clear that Killzone 2 will be one of the most cinematic and immersive games ever produced on a console.

The raw processing power of the PlayStation 3 has been harnessed to create a level of detail seen only in a handful of games on high-end PCs.

The dynamic lighting, animation, high-definition environments and details, such as plaster flying off walls and pillars caught in crossfire, create a sense of place and reality that takes games to a new level of realism.

The unnamed writer says that the game is leaps better than the original Killzone, and not just because of the improved graphics, AI, specifically, is called out as "first rate". The writer goes on to say that there are some rough bits still that need to be worked out, but seems to be genuinely impressed.

Hit the link for the full write up and make sure to check out their video.

State of Play: Killzone 2 hands on [BBC]

It was held at the popular Sushi Roku restaurant, a fact lost on me until two days later when a famished Team Kotaku spent three hours waiting to actually eat food at the place on our own. (I actually left to go pass outsleep before it arrived.) Set on Ocean Boulevard overlooking the pacific, the restaurant was packed to the gills Tuesday night with Sony execs, pr folks, developers, journalists and just-dead fish.

Shortly into the party, I was chatting with some writer friends when Phil Harrison walked up to say hi. We talked about Microsoft's press conference for a few minutes before he cut to the chase.

"So, what are the odds on the hug?" he asked. I was a little flummoxed, there was no way he could be talking about Fahey's prediction that Peter Moore, Phil Harrison and Reggie Fils-Aime would participate in a group hug on stage. No way.

He was.

"Why, are you going to do it?" I asked.

"If I can bet $5 on it."

I didn't have the heart to tell him that Kotaku's fantasy pool was paid out solely in Kotaku Points.

A few minutes later I spotted Kaz Hirai over in the corner, behind, I swear, behind the sushi making counter. Was Kaz rolling sushi? Probably not.

The place was packed, people were sucking down beers and eating raw food when Jack Tretton took to the mic to announce that the first wave of party-goers would be ushered into the room to watch the latest Killzone 2 demo. With a black band, I was in the second batch. When I finally got in and watching the thing, MTV's Stephen Totilo and I stayed around to try and cajole the developers to let me have a go.

We managed to convince some of the development team and even some of the PR folks, but were finally shot down just before the third, sliver-banded folks made their way in.

Later that night, or perhaps the next day, N'Gai Croal had a bit more success and got his hands on the game. Something he mocked me about later in the week. Croal is totally becoming my Red Baron.

The game presentation started with a very familiar cut scene that showed a group of men being flown in to take on the Helghast. The trailer's graphics were amazing. It's probably some of the best facial animation I've seen in a console game. I did find the mouth movements to be a bit uncanny, but otherwise it was some pretty impressive stuff.

After what we thought was a short trailer, the game dropped straight into actual, live gameplay. And I do mean live, the game was actually being played by one of the developers as we watched.

The developer proceeded to play through an entire level of the game as we looked on in stunned silence. There was a lot to take in during the lengthy gameplay session. First, the game appears to not feature a HUD, in fact the only time I saw anything on the screen that was hud like was when the developer fired or switched weapons.

The game's look was the most stunning thing about it. Much like Resistance Fall of Man, it wasn't anyone thing that really stood out (though the lighting effects were just plain stunning) but rather the combination of everything you were seeing. There was so much detail, so much activity that it was hard for you to take it all in as it happened. Instead the game's intense action and detailed graphics helped to create what the developers called a violent theater of war.

The little things I did notice about the game included destructible environments, enemies that not only reacted to being shot, but to where they were shot, impressive weather, fire, and lightning effects and a world that was abuzz with activity.

The game seemed to have some pretty significant muzzle drift when a weapon was fired and the AI looked fairly intelligent, though I couldn't tell just how clever they were being because the developer ran through it so quickly.

After the gameplay session the developers told us that that one single level (which was played on a Playstation 3) had taken up 2GB of data. They said the game, which takes place on the Helghast planet, will have you taking on enemies armed with weather-based weapons. The game itself will also require you to pay attention to weather.

The game will include multiplayer that will have "links to" home and Killzone 2.com, but the developers said they couldn't yet go more into that. Oh, they also made a big deal out of the fact that their trailer did feature in-game, real-time cut scenes. In fact, they ran through the beginning of it a second time, pausing in the middle to move the camera around and zoom in and out, just to prove there was nothing up their sleeves.

I think Killzone 2 is probably the most impressive game I've seen so far at E3. Granted it's early in the show, but I think the game has a good chance to retaining that title. But don't trust me. Starting at 3 p.m. Pacific time Wednesday, Sony will have the new Killzone 2 trailer up on the Playstation Store. Go check it out and report what you think of the trailer back here.

The Ultimate First-Person Shooter Emerges, Introducing Players to an Intense
'Theater of War' With Killzone(TM) 2 for PLAYSTATION(R)3

Highly Anticipated Follow-Up to the Top-Selling Killzone(TM) Delivers Next-Gen
Gameplay, Stunning High Definition Graphics, and Ultra-Realistic Combat

SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 11 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Computer Entertainment
America Inc. announced the 2008 release of Killzone(TM) 2, available
exclusively for the PLAYSTATION(R)3 (PS3(TM)) computer entertainment system.
Developed by Guerrilla Games, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Computer
Entertainment, Killzone 2 throws players back into the midst of a hostile and
dramatic ongoing battle between the ISA and Helghast army. Following events
and action from the original Killzone for PlayStation(R)2, Killzone 2 sets a
new standard for next-gen gaming by delivering intense warfare with incredibly
lifelike character animations, highly detailed and destructible environments,
realistic physics, and advanced levels of artificial intelligence (A.I.).
Unveiled for the first time Tuesday evening at an exclusive media event in
Santa Monica, the Killzone 2 demo awed guests with action-packed sequences
full of detail and game variety, sure to draw players right into the heart of
battle. Once again set in an extreme post-modern war, Killzone 2 utilizes the
power of PLAYSTATION 3 to deliver a striking graphical style that showcases a
gritty realism unique to the Killzone franchise.
"There have rightly been high expectations for Killzone 2 since we shared
the vision for the title back in 2005," said Phil Harrison, president, Sony
Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios. "Guerrilla have worked hard to
focus the power of PLAYSTATION 3 to realize their true vision for the game.
With incredible action, drama-fueled gameplay sequences, and a vast array of
weapons and vehicles, Killzone 2 defines a new benchmark of our industry."
Two years after the Helghast assault on Vekta, the ISA is bringing the
fight to the enemy's home world of Helghan. Taking the role of Sev, the
battle-hardened veteran of the special forces unit known as the Legion,
players will embark upon a mission to the planet Helghan to capture the
Helghast leader, Emperor Visari, and bring the enemy's war machine to a halt.
For Sev and his squad, the invasion of Helghan is just the beginning. Tasked
with securing Pyrrhus, the Capital City, the team quickly discovers that the
Helghast are a formidable enemy on their home planet. Not only have they
adjusted to the planet's hostile conditions, they have also harnessed a source
of power from the environment that can be used against the ISA. Sev and his
team soon discover the fight is greater than simply addressing the enemy
forces; the Legion must also learn how to handle the effects of the fierce
enemy planet.
With an extensive, story-driven single-player mode and thrilling
multiplayer mode, Killzone 2 offers a host of new elements that caters to both
hardcore and casual gamers alike. The game features highly atmospheric
environments that respond accurately to weapon fire as players storm through
the world of Helghan. The harsh climate and conditions of Helghan are also a
factor, forcing players to adapt new tactics to survive. Proprietary tools
and technology such as deferred rendering techniques are implemented to create
advanced effects, such as ultra-vivid and detailed character animations and
environments. Advanced cinematic effects are used to provide unprecedented
visuals, including motion blur, internal lens reflections, and depth-based
color grading that will let players experience gameplay that is sharp,
detailed, and vibrant. Additionally, Killzone 2 supports 7.1 surround with
location-specific audio, providing players the opportunity to experience sound
and music that are not only dynamic but in context to indoor and outdoor
locations.

The official Playstation forums are all abuzz with news that a Killzone beta may be prepping to launch in Europe.

According to poster Evil v2, he received a message from Killzone_Beta on his Playstation 3 asking him if he'd like to be involved in the network beta for the game when it launches. The message is signed Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

Of course it's possible that some guy created a Killzone_Beta account and is just running around needlessly exciting people, but I'd like to think this is legit. Anyone else get an invite? Brian Crecente

UPDATE: Sony's Dave Karraker just shot us a message, kindly letting us know that "this is a hoax and is absolutely not true". Bummer.

Killzone 2 Beta test Message/Invite!!! Video is uploaded!! *56k [Playstation forums]

Kotaku alum and 1Up's bearded newsranger Luke Smith just dropped the following juicy rumor in our collective laps. In short, it is:

Expect a playable Killzone 2 demo to be released (hmm, Phil Harrison is keynoting at GDC...) before gamers are participating in the beta for Halo 3.

That's right, Killzone 2. Sony apparently shelved the game in favor of Resistance, while continuing the game's development. Supposedly Killzone 2 is ready to rock 'n' roll and has been playable online for a year. Luke Smith swears this comes from a good source, so do keep that in mind! Brian Ashcraft

Killzone Coming [Lukems 1Up Blog]