Resistance is the long standing king of PlayStation 3, but it didn't get there without a few obstacles on its way. When the online portion of Resistance Fall of Man was first released, it was huge and was the first to get PSN going. The bad part was everyone was running into identical problems until Insomniac finally patched things up to make everything better. Listening the the fans, Insomniac fixed the old problems and introduced even better features in Resistance 2. The bad news is that Killzone 2 just jumped into an identical pool of problems and needs to do the same thing. Both are stellar games but Killzone 2 has the same list of problems that Resistance has already gone through before.

1. Over Powered Shotguns

Shotguns are supposed to muster up some power but Resistance made the the ultimate weapon for one hit kills. Although it took weeks of complaining to get the shotgun problems addressed, we finally pulled through. Shotguns were no longer an issue and all the noobs went to find something else to annoy people with. Well Killzone 2 is on the same boat as the old Resistance when it comes to shotgun problems and if anything the problem is worse. People are already running about using the shotguns at long range gaining easy kills like nothing, while the rest of us throw the controller across the room and say some nasty words. The problem here is not so much the power, but the length of accuracy the gun carries. An almost identical problem Resistance Fall of Man had. GG needs to look into tuning the gun down and making it fairer for those using more skilled weapons. Everyday I'm seeing an increasing amount of people using the gun in annoying ways. I'm certain the only people that would disagree are the people abusing the weapon to make it a problem in the first place.

2. Connection Issues

Resistance suffered this a great deal until Insomniac did some behind the scenes works. The servers were loaded as more people jumped on making the game harder to stay connected too. Killzone 2 seems to be suffering the same type of issues. Games are randomly disconnecting, but unlike Resistance, the stats don't save so you are left empty handed. When the problem occurs several times while playing online. It takes away the motivation for people to keep playing. The game also lags without disconnections, similar to that of Resistance, where enemies will randomly freeze then suddenly die leaving you with a random death of your own. These issues are getting better as GG are updating their servers so hopefully it wont be a problem at all very soon!

3. Gameplay Mechanics

On the other hand, the gameplay mechanics issues are not completely identical of the ones Resistance had. With Resistance, Insomniac had to fine tune their gameplay to suit what the fans wanted and achieve their goal at the same time. At the end the gameplay mechanics made both sides happy. GG has to do the same thing, but with different aspects. Many people are already complaining about the controls and I can see why after having the same issue. Others, including GG themselves, don't want to change their direction and just say it would take some time to get used to. So instead of picking sides, why not add an additional control system in options? Those that enjoy the “realistic” controls the game already offers can be happy and those that need something to suit their liking can be happy. Along with adding the new “feel” why not add some more layouts to the game as well? Look into games like COD4 or Resistance 2 where there are a lot of gamers who are used to those controls and implement similar layouts in Killzone for players to chose from? Killzone 2's layout isn't bad, but even I get annoyed by the analog buttons at times and not being able to get the shot just right.

I'm sure GG is working hard trying to fix the "problems" so no need to worry too much. Insomniac is a great example of a fan based company that listens to complaints and addresses them. Even if the game has no “real” problems there needs to be a compromise between what the fans want and what the developers want. I'm sure GG will be following Insomniac's lead and will be doing business in a similar fashion. We all know GG, or any developer for that matter, can't please everyone but a majority would do just as well. Lets not forget the two games share common good qualities as well and we are very lucky to see the greatness of just one. As for now lets just thank Guerrilla Games for a great title and look forward to the great future ahead!