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Home Killzone updates

Killzone 2 developers pull a fast one (again): Admit touching up screenshots

9:06 AM on 12.10.2007, Jim Sterling 103 comments

Killzone 2 developers pull a fast one (again): Admit touching up screenshots photo
     Killzone

If you thought that Killzone 2 had been looking too good to be true, then it's quite possible you were correct in your assumption. Developer Guerilla has admitted that the last batch of screenshots had been "touched up" to make them look better than they actually were. Bad form, you dirty boys. Bad, bad form.

Guerilla's Seb Downie made the confession on the official PS3 forums, trying to justify the misleading promotional material by saying the enhancements were only small:

They are only the tiniest bit touched up. Short answer is yes. Long answer is that there was a little bit of colour-correction done and some minor polish, but nothing major. Still very close to reality and it looks better in motion in my opinion.

Frankly, I think it's a pretty crappy stunt to pull on the people following this game. We'd already been lied to once before when the infamous "demo" footage for Killzone 2 a few years back turned out to be CGI, and now they're admitting to altering screenshots to make them look better. Touching up pictures may work for supermodels and pornstars, but when games are judged on how they actually look, this kind of underhanded behavior is not cool and not something any consumer should condone.

It's worrying how obsessed with the graphics Guerilla and Sony seem to be with Killzone games, to the point of lying about them. Might explain why the first one had such disappointing gameplay. Stop trying to wave your graphics-peen around and actually concentrate on making a good game, please.


Next page: More Killzone stories




ghnvt's Avatar
ghnvt at 12/10/2007 09:10
Faking screenshots = FAIL
Jim Sterling's Avatar
Jim Sterling at 12/10/2007 09:13
It wouldn't be so bad if Guerilla/Sony hadn't pulled this bullshit in the past, and if they weren't trying to sell the game on graphics alone. Fucking graphics whores.
Trev's Avatar
Trev at 12/10/2007 09:15
I'm ok with color correction. I've taken screenshots of things that looked great on the computer I was using to play the game and bad on other systems. I'm only concerned with what else they could have done that falls into the 'polish' category.
Trevor McGee's Avatar
Trevor McGee at 12/10/2007 09:17
No surprise there, they've been doing it from the start. Luckily, I'm one of the, apparently few, people who noticed how ugly the game actually was even with the touching up. Yeah, great models, too bad everything else looks bland and boring as hell even the textures on said models. Not to mention the AI looked like complete garbage. Oh, let's not forget their biggest screw up called Killzone 1, which sucked great big donkey balls. I honestly have no idea how anyone could be interested in this game. I haven't play Resistance but I have a feeling it's much better than this game is going to be and it's actually looked somewhat interesting unlike Killzone 2 which was at it's peak when they were showing us CG videos claiming it to be the real game and it's been on a steady decline since finding out that was bullshit.

Why bother with this when you got stuff like BioShock, The Orange Box, Resistance (PS3), Halo 3 (XBox 360), etc. Even TimeShift looks more interesting and fun than this game.

Anyway, enough of my ranting. I'm just tired of this nonsense.
Barcode's Avatar
Barcode at 12/10/2007 09:25
Wow, this is... totally terrible.
JamesSorensen's Avatar
JamesSorensen at 12/10/2007 09:28
everyone does it...

they only catching shit cause of the 2005 trailer fiasco...

touched up or not.. both shots look great.
hollywooda's Avatar
hollywooda at 12/10/2007 09:29
Did they use Photoshop to add some extra grey tones in the grey enviroments or was it the grey explosions?...this is bad, you'd think a company that have never made a good FPS or proved that they can make this work online would have better things to do with there time than tart up screen shots?....
Milofo's Avatar
Milofo at 12/10/2007 09:29
Whats the big shock here? Companies have been touching up their screenshots for years and its only now that one of them admits it.
flay's Avatar
flay at 12/10/2007 09:33
do all you BLOGS just copy stories from each other and act like self righteous drama queens?
Tallgeese3w's Avatar
Tallgeese3w at 12/10/2007 09:34
do any of you people realise that just about every publisher does this. im not defending it but really ithought sterling knew this. in every gaming mag there are doctered photos, ever wonder why they look so smooth? no jagies always equals bullshot, and i mean shot. hell i remember waaaay back in the day screenshots for enter the matrix for xbox and the game looked nothing like them
DFS Vegas's Avatar
DFS Vegas at 12/10/2007 09:35
I would care if this wasn't done by every other developer on earth, but it is. We know for a fact that it's been done to games like NBA live, and Halo, but the resulting pictures didn't look like one of the best looking games out there, so we just shrugged it off.

I honestly don't care. We haven't seen a true screenshot in 10 years, why is it a problem with this game all of a sudden?
Beer Baron Brent's Avatar
Beer Baron Brent at 12/10/2007 09:38
Doesn't really matter. The game will still look phenomenal. Still want. \m/ \m/
Tull's Avatar
Tull at 12/10/2007 09:42
I think what Jim seems to be trying to say is that Guerrila and Sony seem too worried about the graphics. Hell, the game could have great gameplay but instead of showing the public a glimpse of the gameplay they'd rather show doctored screenshots and CGI trailers. It panders to the gamers who like their games pretty only to find out the game suck scrotal sack. I mean when stuff came out that Halo 3 and COD4 were missing pixels there was a huge fanboy on all side uproar but which lasted as long as it took for the next Halo/COD4 multiplayer match to start up.

If Killzone 2 turns out to be a blast to play then the crap Guerilla and Sony has been doing to fool gamers about the game's graphics will be forgotten, but if the game doesn't live up to expectations then everyone will point to them concentrating on graphics too much and not much else.
decoyb's Avatar
decoyb at 12/10/2007 09:43
No great tragedy, just some guy in marketing overstepping a little. They should still make it up to us by releasing a demo one of these days.
Bas's Avatar
Bas at 12/10/2007 09:44
They haven't made a truly great game yet, so meh. I'm very sure that this game will disappoint.
hollywooda's Avatar
hollywooda at 12/10/2007 09:47
do all you BLOGS just copy stories from each other and act like self righteous drama queens?

@FLAY: see what i've done there....
Nyteshade's Avatar
Nyteshade at 12/10/2007 09:48
When the ONLY selling point for the game is graphics, you shouldn't need to fake em.
BlackDove's Avatar
BlackDove at 12/10/2007 09:50
NOEEEEEEEEEEEEES

THAY TOUCHED UP TEH IMAGES!!!!!11111111111111111

DRAAAAAAAAAAAMA.

Everyone does Bullshots. If you didn't know it when you first looked at the images, you're just a sap either way.
Lightthrower's Avatar
Lightthrower at 12/10/2007 09:52
Every photo of videogame you see in magazines is modified. EVERY-ONE OF THEM.
Professor Pew's Avatar
Professor Pew at 12/10/2007 09:53
The only good game Guerilla ever made was on the PSP. So, meh.
JACK of No Trades's Avatar
JACK of No Trades at 12/10/2007 09:54
I still think the game will look great.
hollywooda's Avatar
hollywooda at 12/10/2007 09:54
@BlackDove: you just dont get it do you?.. dont come crying to me when you've spent all the money you earnt giving tramps blowjobs on this piece of shit....
AgentMOO's Avatar
AgentMOO at 12/10/2007 09:58
The little interest I had in this game is dwindling
Trev's Avatar
Trev at 12/10/2007 10:03
Despite the small size of the image, I was going to mess with it in PS to see how much work it would take to get the left half to look like the right. The answer: Surprisingly little. It's not so quick as just a color fix and increased contrast, but that did most of it. All it was missing was a little bit of highlights, and that wouldn't be hard to do. I also noticed it looked substantially less grey out when loaded in a program with the right color profile.

I would really like to think that the screenshots just came out totally unrepresentative of the game and they fixed them for accuracy, but I know that's not (entirely) the case.

Dammit, Gorilla Games, I want to shoot space nazis with fancy mo-cap/physics bullet impacts and pretty graphics. Is that too much to ask? Its what you're trying to sell me. Just make sure it looks CLOSE to what you're showing off.
Jim Sterling's Avatar
Jim Sterling at 12/10/2007 10:05
Other companies may do bullshots, but then other companies aren't always lying about how superior the graphics are.
Boolean's Avatar
Boolean at 12/10/2007 10:06
"do all you BLOGS just copy stories from each other and act like self righteous drama queens?"

do all you BLOGS just copy stories from each other and act like self righteous drama queens?
weedgan's Avatar
weedgan at 12/10/2007 10:09
Grpahics don't save a game anyway, the whole story and concept of Killzone are shitty anyway, It's a dumb shooter anyway.
Boolean's Avatar
Boolean at 12/10/2007 10:10
Amendment: I just found the two pics and saw what they meant by the "tiniest bit touched up". LOL, it looks like a completely different lighting engine! This isn't just screwing with the resolutions like every game company does, this is completely covering up the crappy lighting in game.

*wanders back to the self righteous drama queen group*
Necros's Avatar
Necros at 12/10/2007 10:13
Even if the game looks good, the art style looks really generic and uninteresting. I can't see this game being that special.
brad drac's Avatar
brad drac at 12/10/2007 10:19
->Trevor McGee: It's not bland, it's brown. Brown is the colour of next gen. Brown is the only next gen colour. Any game that isn't brown isn't next gen. Any game that isn't next gen is clearly(more like PIXELY amirite?) not worth playing.
Clockwork's Avatar
Clockwork at 12/10/2007 10:21
OMFG SHOPPED!
sirpalee's Avatar
sirpalee at 12/10/2007 10:28


There's a big difference... The touched up pictures are looking way more better...
BS3 Owner's Avatar
BS3 Owner at 12/10/2007 10:40
@ sirpalee

Thanks for the before & after...

@ DTOID

We are talking about Sony... And to give them the benifit of the doubt.

Target Rendering is pretty far off. I think March or April release date on it now? They have time to rectify the "lies"...

Not saying it's all good now! Just, it is "Sony"!
Novakaine's Avatar
Novakaine at 12/10/2007 10:40
"It's worrying how obsessed with the graphics Guerilla and Sony seem to be with Killzone games, to the point of lying about them. Might explain why the first one had such disappointing gameplay. Stop trying to wave your graphics-peen around and actually concentrate on making a good game, please."

Booyah. Of course, I myself am not a tech/graphics whore (for God's sake, I have a friggin' Wii), so apart from Crysis I've never really been swooned over a game's visuals.

But I'm really disappointed at how shallow a huge demographic of gamers have become (and companies, for that matter). There are a lot of very mediocre games that get acknowledged as "good/great" titles just on their graphics alone. Makes you wonder if some of these gamers remember the 8-bit days... or were even around for them.
Emrah's Avatar
Emrah at 12/10/2007 10:45
I don't think this is a big deal, it is not like they added extra detail on the models, or a nuclear explosion in the background. Especially for print, color modifications are almost always necessary.

But I am sure they are so sorry about it already, look at the over-reaction.
supernintendoh's Avatar
supernintendoh at 12/10/2007 10:46
Killzone 2, Sweet. No wait, fake pictures, no way. Well alot of companys do that but to actually admitting to them is horrible. But then again Killzone was never in my cup of Tea, although i have enjoyed the first game i was never a fan and its definetly not a Halo Killa.

PS. Iam not a Halo Fan, but i played the game.
Steel Squirrel's Avatar
Steel Squirrel at 12/10/2007 10:49
That's just shameful. That just goes to show the sad direction that this industry is headed in.
automagV's Avatar
automagV at 12/10/2007 11:03
If this game does not live up to the hype, it's going to bomb big. Stuff like this is just ammunition for shi* talking.
hexfix93's Avatar
hexfix93 at 12/10/2007 11:04
who cares.
mistic's Avatar
mistic at 12/10/2007 11:05
fake pictures...

well to be honest, I take ALL my real pictures in RAW with my EOS, and then touch the lighting up like that as well, so who am I to blame them? :-)

it's not like they added a huge levels of details or object or anything, they basicly just fixed the lighting...
Zanch's Avatar
Zanch at 12/10/2007 11:06
Garbage in, garbage out.
G-Shonen's Avatar
G-Shonen at 12/10/2007 11:09
How did this guy become Dtoid editor anyway? What lies? They admitted that it was touched up. We've been seeing this for years now "Halo 3 in game assets" etc. Drama.
h3lios's Avatar
h3lios at 12/10/2007 11:10
i am not surprised since they have pulled this trick before. Heck i didn't bother with the first Killzone game so i don't think this one will get my money.

Also, which developer doesn't do a bit of touching up and polish anyway?
king3vbo's Avatar
king3vbo at 12/10/2007 11:16
Honestly, who doesnt shoop their screenshots?
B-Radicate's Avatar
B-Radicate at 12/10/2007 11:24
Well we can see who the Sony fanboys are.

If you don't know, they're the ones crying "everyone does it... sob... it's not his fault... sob... he wanted to be cool like the big kids... sob... let my poor little black doorstop alone... sob..."

Fuck 'em. Killzone = FAIL.
Sharpless's Avatar
Sharpless at 12/10/2007 11:46
I don't give a fuck if everyone else does it, this is still bullshit. Not cool. And when will these idiots (I'll keep that general) finally realize that it's not graphics that make a game truly great. Games fail when they have shit gameplay. Shit graphics are forgivable.
Namelessted's Avatar
Namelessted at 12/10/2007 11:49
I thought those new screenshots had something off about them. And now I know what it was. Go figure that the company that lies out of their fucking ass about how awesome their game looks has lied again. It just goes to show how desparate Sony is with trying to show people that the PS3 has superior visual capabilities than the 360 despite the fact that the GPU in the PS3 is weaker than the 360 GPU.
Y0j1mb0's Avatar
Y0j1mb0 at 12/10/2007 12:03
Must be that time of the day to shit on Sony. I knew something was missing lately on the front page.

"Other companies may do bullshots, but then other companies aren't always lying about how superior the graphics are."
-Jim

That's all the companies talk about when comparing each other. Aside from Nintendo who throw the word innovation. You saying Microsoft doesn't thump it's own chest about their graphics..pleease.

While what they did is shitty, they just got caught!

By the way I'm a graphic whore and proud of it and took offense on your earlier comment.
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