Originally posted by: sygyzy
This is my first time playing any sort of MP with the PS3. Can someone tell me about how speech chat works? During the game and intermissions, I'd see people's nicknames and the speaker icon appear. Presumbly, they were talking, but 100% of the people sounded like static. I could not discern a single word. It sounded like gibberish. No, not foreign language. More like a broken radio. Is all PS3 chat like this?
Also, how come it always asks you to pick a spawn point, but there's never more than one option? I am forced to pick the same ones over and over.
Finally, does anyone actually feel like MP is fun? I mean due to the way the controls are, plus no radar, you kind of run around and feel surprised (lucky?) if you happen to come across a target. I got top kills in one level but it was just luck. It's funny spotting an enemy running across your screen. It's not realistic at all. It looks like a guy on rails with a blue aura. Maybe I need to get "used" it more but it's nothing like CoD4 or Halo where you actually felt like you were controlling the character instead of the other way around. In those games, when I made a kill, I knew it was skill and all me. In Killzone 2, it's almost luck.
MP is going to be a little less realistic because of the way the servers must work apparently. Depending on the quality of the server, I've seen movement seem erratic, and other times look like its flowing very well. I know the dev's stated they sped up player animations and controls for MP, possibly to lighten the load on the system.
But there is radar. I haven't figured out exactly how it works yet, if its motion-based or just reports weapons fire of enemy... or... as I said not quite sure yet. If I see something I radar I tend to end up focusing on the possible enemy location, but then I switch to basically ignoring the radar. I've always found it hard to manage following radar updates and actually trying to fire at enemies on screen at the same time. But there is radar of some sort and I know the enemy does appear on it.
I find it the other way around in terms of luck/skill. In games like Resistance 2, Halo 3, and any game of the sort, I get a mixed bag reaction - luck or not. The faster movements in those games are partly to blame - that and possibly the hit boxes. As you adjust to the hit boxes you seem to equate better kill ability with skill, but with hit boxes larger than the player, I don't find that as true skill, just skill in learning the tricks. But my kills in those games I almost always see as luck unless I had the complete upper hand in the situation. But I swear often I'll unload into a player, they get a few shots on me and I'm dead. That just annoys me.
Whereas in Killzone 2, I think I've had one or two deaths that I was like WTF, I should have killed him! Most of the time we both end up dead.
But I've found its all about better soldier tactics. Getting the upper hand, having aiming ability, and knowing how to evade fire by using cover that's all over the place. I'm for the most part doing much better in Killzone 2 than I have in any MP game, and that alone will probably see my sticking through - that and the rank/reward system. The unlockables aren't just tied to rank and I really like that. Skill, getting multiple badges, being a good player, actually gets rewarded instead of purely point based.
Spawn points... well it depends on the game type and your team. If your team is good and capture areas in the capture and hold type, you can spawn there. Also, when there are squads you can spawn on the squad leader, given he's still alive after you've died.
But often the case there is only the single spawn point. A lot of variables, many fall on the team (faction) though.
Voice quality... that's another I'm trying to figure out. I haven't had a desire to use chat though, as I rarely like chatting with random people in MP games unless it's people I frequently play with, or real life friends.
That, and the other problem is the PS3 supports any random BT headset. Problem with that, most BT headsets sound terrible on the PS3, even if they sound good for a phone.
As tim goes on and more people pick up the official PS3 BT Headset, voice quality in all games will improve just because those are used. They have terrific sound quality in games. It didn't release until Socom: Confrontation was released, and was bundled with it as well as sold separately at that time. Big mistake on Sony's part to not release an official one till then - they've mismanaged the PS3 a LOT but are finally picking up their game and doing what they can to improve everything, and helping that is more AAA exclusive releases to drive sales, and importantly, loud annoying voices complaining to Sony.
But sound quality for this game specifically... not sure if its the way its set up for the game or if more people are just using third-party BT headsets. But what I am finding is it appears to not have a push-to-talk feature, which annoys me. For those with more efficient BT headsets, the mic picks up all the gameplay sounds, but the mic obviously is picking up the entire frequency range, and coupled with server transmission, it just sounds garbled and terrible. If there was push-to-talk, you'd just hear them when they wanted to talk.
The PS3 BT Headset is extremely capable and can pick up basically any audio in the room, even random conversations in the background. So if there is no push to talk, you're going to be hearing everything, even roommates and parents, if people are using said headset. And if people are using that, I wonder if the audio quality will sound clear, or just like everything else I've been hearing.
What I basically always do when I play online but don't actually want to communicate with people, is turn on my PS3 BT headset, but since it picks up everything, mute the mic as well. Because with no headset connected to the PS3, all the player chat comes through the speakers, and I don't want to hear it. So I turn on my headset, mute the mic, and place it on the table. Don't have to hear people that way.