With each passing week, we edge closer to the launch of Killzone: Mercenary, the first PlayStation Vita entry in the acclaimed series. Contrary to convention, Mercenary is also edging a bit toward us: we can today confirm a new North American release date of September 10th — a week earlier than our previous target.
+ Posted by Sid Shuman
Much has already been said concerning Killzone: Mercenary’s graphical fidelity, but I’ll add my voice to the choir: This is one fine, fine-looking game. Because Mercenary runs on a modified version of the Killzone 3 rendering engine, you’ll see modern niceties such as volumetric lighting and smoke, high-res environment textures, gleaming metal and realistic-looking shadows.
Today we are happy we can finally show you what we have been working on.
It has been an amazing journey for us so far, being offered the opportunity to be a launch title for the new PlayStation, and the subsequent mild panic to figure out how to best handle all of that.
But being able to now share it with you is both a scary and proud moment. We are hoping you will like what we have created, and are happy to present you with the first glimpse of Killzone Shadow Fall.
The piece of live gameplay we presented at the PlayStation Meeting 2013 shows you a new world, a new situation and a new hero.
For a series that’s always been at the bleeding edge of modern FPS design – both in terms of technical performance and muscular gameplay – it’s fair to say that expectations are sky high for Killzone: Mercenary – the first PS Vita entry in Guerrilla’s acclaimed franchise.
Until last week’s reveal, all the studio has shown off was a brief teaser clip at Gamescom last September. But earlier this month, in a very snowy Amsterdam, it finally took the wraps off the game, showing off big chunks of both the single and multiplayer modes.
Killzone: Mercenary is scheduled for a September 17, 2013 release in North America. We also have a brand-new trailer for you to enjoy:
Killzone: Mercenary is a new first-person shooter in the Killzone series, developed specifically for the PlayStation Vita platform and powered by the stunning Killzone engine. Starting just after the ending of the original Killzone, and revisiting many of the events from the Killzone trilogy, the game puts players in the rugged combat boots of a mercenary named Arran Danner. Danner is a former UCA-soldier who has no qualms about taking on paid contracts from the ISA as well as the Helghast.
+ Posted by Victor Zuylen
Happy holidays from all of us here at Guerrilla!
As 2012 draws to a close, we look back at an eventful year for Guerrilla and the Killzone series. In February we released Killzone 3 Multiplayer, a standalone version of Killzone 3’s online mode and DLC maps, on the PlayStation Store. In August we announced a new handheld title for PlayStation Vita called Killzone: Mercenary, which sees its protagonist fight on both sides of the ISA-Helghast conflict. And in October we simultaneously released Killzone Trilogy, a bundle containing all three first-person shooters in the Killzone series, and Killzone HD, a high-definition remaster of our original Killzone game.
In part 1 of the Killzone HD (re-)developer interview, Guerrilla Technical Director Michiel van der Leeuw and Senior Programmer Frank Compagner discussed the challenges they faced while bringing Killzone to a new platform. In the second part of our interview, they talk about the changes and enhancements made to Killzone HD by the conversion team.
Victor Zuylen: Last week you explained how you retrieved the code and assets for the original Killzone. What happened once you handed them over to the conversion team?
Michiel van der Leeuw, Technical Director: That’s where the real fun began! There were corruptions and missing bits in the exported data, which caused all kinds of weird artifacts like polygons shooting through the game world. For the conversion team, the first order of business was to go in and fix all that.
When Killzone HD drops on October 24th, the original Killzone will be one week short of eight years old. In this (re-)developer interview we talk with Guerrilla Technical Director Michiel van der Leeuw and Senior Programmer Frank Compagner, who were there when Killzone was first released. In part 1, Michiel and Frank talk about the challenges they faced and the discoveries they made during the conversion process.
Victor Zuylen: What prompted the HD remaster of Killzone?
Michiel van der Leeuw, Technical Director, Guerrilla: It was an idea whose time had come. Internally we had talked about bringing Killzone to PlayStation 3 before – Killzone fans frequently asked us about it, and we knew from other developers that such projects could be a lot of fun.