Much has been made of Killzone 3‘s controls and the removal of the notorious lag. Many gamers, myself included, were worried that the heavy, weighty feeling of the game were in danger by the removal of what some call “lag”, but senior producer Steven Ter Heide says that we’ve got it wrong — the lag and the weight are two separate issues, and while the former is eradicated, the latter remains.
“Controls are very important and have been quite the challenge,” he says. “There still is some confusion about the ‘weighty’ feel and lag. Those two things are different. We removed the lag completely. This means that when you press a button or move a stick, things happen. This is instantaneous, as it should be. This was a problem with Killzone 2 that we in part remedied with a patch.
“The weighty feel and skill required to pull of shots comes from things like animation and weapon setup with things like recoil. We are carefully balancing the weapons so each retains its properties and plays into people’s preferences. We’re not done yet, and part of why we do a public beta is to get more feedback on top of all of the playtesting we have already done.
“Fine-tuning this will go on for a while as it’s very important to get that right feeling. We’re looking for something that is easy to get into, and takes skill to master.”
This is good news. I have never been a fan of the 90’s era “floaty” feeling that I get when I’m playing Halo, and you’d think heavily armored men with massive guns wouldn’t glide along with the grace of a pink swan. I’m sure some people will still complain that it doesn’t feel exactly like every other shooter, but screw those guys.
