Yeah, the EA of cynical film license knock-offs and sports franchise updates is well and truly behind us. Let's hope they don't get a little too popular again and have a relapse :)

Edwin


Yeah, the EA of cynical film license knock-offs and sports franchise updates is well and truly behind us. Let's hope they don't get a little too popular again and have a relapse :)

Was Peter Moore their only management change? Perhaps Nitro would know, but was there a major reshuffling at EA? It seems like it was all uphill after Moore.

I'm no expert on their internal affairs but they've certainly done a huge amount of reshuffling since Riccitiello took over - he set up four new labels, two of which have now been merged, and I'm sure heads would have rolled in the process...

Some crazed genius fool has just done a Killzone 2 beta hands-on. Oh wait that was me.

http://games.kikizo.com/features/killzone-2-multiplayer-beta-hands-on-preview-p1.asp

Edwin


Some crazed genius fool has just done a Killzone 2 beta hands-on. Oh wait that was me.

http://games.kikizo.com/features/killzone-2-multiplayer-beta-hands-on-preview-p1.asp

My condolences.

Not a fan of the 'Zone? :)

Adam's Call of Duty: World at War review is live -

http://games.kikizo.com/reviews/xbox360/call-of-duty-world-at-war-p1.asp

Edwin


Not a fan of the 'Zone? :)

Adam's Call of Duty: World at War review is live -

http://games.kikizo.com/reviews/xbox360/call-of-duty-world-at-war-p1.asp

Killzone 1 sucked, even by console FPS standards. And personally I cant stand the PS controller for FPS's. However, World at War... nom nom.

The renaissance of EA we are witnessing is due to John Riccitiello coming back to the firm and shaking things up. It is he who has a newfound focus on quality and everything happening is a direct result of his decisions. He is behind acquiring BioWare, for example. Peter Moore is just the guy looking after the sports side (which has also seen improvements).

Incidentally, does anyone even use this forum any more? Just don't know what we're doing wrong here.

Few people are, funnily enough cutting away the win a game thing just killed things off, and i thought people were here for the fun of it

Vx Chemical


Few people are, funnily enough cutting away the win a game thing just killed things off, and i thought people were here for the fun of it

Or it could be that gamers tend to play games in November. It happens a lot, huge games get released, forum dies down. After the "new" wears off people will be back.

I blame the Jews, always controlling the media...

Seriously though, it's probably a combination of several things.  Weak networking for one thing, Kikizo forums needs more affiliates.  The name doesn't help, Kikizo.  That's bad marketting.  Kikizo forums won't pop up if you search "videogame forum" for example.  There's a reason all the big ones have such generic names.  Most people who join forums are people looking for forums.  I bet much of the trafic the main site is from unique users who searched for some specific content with Google.  They'll find your GTA videos because you have "GTA videos".  You don't have a "videogame forum", you have a "kikizo forum". Maybe if you rename the forums as "Kikizo Videogame Forum" and/or "Kikizo Entertainment Forum".  Or make whatever changes so Google recognizes Kikizo as a videogame forum.  I don't know if that means changing the web address...

Then you have the unique dynamic of these forums.  We all know eachother and frankly we've ran out of shit to talk about.  We know eachother so well that we've become predictable.  Not only are members predictable but we're all so knowledgeable on videogames that we have nothing to offer eachother.  At the same time we're not very friendly to newcomers.  Although this is minor considering the scarcity in which they arrive. 

I could be mistaken but I get the impression that internet forums in general have past their peak.  The novelty is gone.  I bet many places are seeing negative growth in the forums compared to their main site. 

Thanks for the feedback. I could have sworn I already have video games in the title but apparenty not, I'll change that.

We need full comment integration with the main site. We're working on that. We're also working on a better reward system.

Regardless, the traffic on the main site just isn't converting over to the forum in any remotely significant ratio and despite the pretty slick forum these days it's just bewildering that usage has gone down.

Anyway this is all a bit OT.

I think it would help a lot if you put a link to the forum at the end of all of your articles such as "discuss Call of Duty 5 in the forums" or something like that.  If someone just came to the site for a specific article, the only forum link they see is in the way upper right, and they probably don't even notice it.

Yeah we had that before, loco - we had latest forum topics on all articles, although we had to take it down when the forum was upgraded, and are working on reintegrating it.

Hah, there, we are we've answered a few questions we already knew. Sometimes I can't see the forest for the fucking trees because there's too much happening. Too much everywhere. Loads of just stuff. Help.

change the kikio home page to the fourm home page. problem solved!

you could probably add more keywords to the meta tags too

Hey Kikizo staff...anything big happening December 4th? Anything at all?

Nice preview on Killzone 2 there btw.

Tell me tho...is Killzone 2 gonna be something to brag about outside its visuals or are Playstation enthusiast just in heat for there own wave of FPS gold.

A few other questions:
How is the destructible surroundings? After Call of Duty rather static maps it was nice to play Gears 2 and see chunks break off. Hows does Killzone compare?

Color? Is the world shrouded in darkness all around or is there any sign of life in this game?

Guns- How many and can they be picked up if droppable? Does class effect use of certain weapons? CoD and Tom Clancy games certainly give you a nice arsenal to toy with.

Character Movement- Walking, running, jumping, sprinting, crawling, prone, laying down, standing, cover etc etc whats included and does it perform well. One thing I hated about CoD 4 was that from my view I was hidden decently enough crouched by a window, but from everyone elses view i may as well been standing in the open with how exposed I was.

Some sites have comments under each article, others have links to the forums corresponding topic.

The best I've seen imo is having the forum posts reproduced at the bottom of the articles, so you can just scroll down, read and quick reply a response.

You'd get tonnes of traffic in the forums then, as people get curious to see what else is inside.

Dont worry Adam, you'll get your head above water again!   I'm impressed at how much more the main site is producing these days, in terms of quality review, hands-on and interviews etc.  You need a few editorials too I think.

What I really miss is the video interviews of olde.  They were unique to Kikizo back then, and the main reason I stuck around.  Why did you stop doing them - because you pissed off Peter Moore that one time?? 

Also stuck around here because other big site's forums were so busy and full of idiots flaming each other.  We only flame each other when we feel like it.

  @Johnny

I'd say Killzone is destined for 8.5/10 plus - what I've seen so far doesn't reinvent the wheel, but I haven't played anything as gripping for months. It can be brutal as fuck though.

RE. destructability, there are exploding barrels and the stone cladding around some pillars can be shot to bits, but expect lots of unbreakable wooden scaffolds and the like. It's no Battlefield Bad Company, in short. Multiplayer maps tend to be well lit, but it can be hard to pick out other players against the scenery. Unless they're playing Helghast, as discussed in the preview :)

The guns are quite familiar but satisfyingly meaty - two battle rifles (one scoped), a shotgun, submachine gun, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, two pistols and a light machine gun, off the top of my head. You can choose any (unlocked) weapon to start off a match with regardless of class, and guns can be picked up in the field, though you won't keep new acquisitions post-match.

You can't lie prone but you can crouch. It's a very cover-focussed game - try bum-rushing an entrenched squad and they'll be scraping your remains off the ceiling :) I've managed to storm a room single-handed a grand total of once so far, and that was down to the Devil's luck rather than skill.

EDIT. I tell a lie - you are limited to certain weapons by certain classes.

I'm no expert on their internal affairs but they've certainly done a huge amount of reshuffling since Riccitiello took over - he set up four new labels, two of which have now been merged, and I'm sure heads would have rolled in the process...

Undoubtedly.

But then, you have to look at how much of that is Riccitiello taking the reins, and how much of that is simply the fact that they no longer have Probst around to foul everything up. I mean, if any other major company, in any major industry had a CEO who's business model was as stagnant and outdated as Probst's EA, their cheif execs would have been dropped in a year and a half, no less a decade and a half.

To look at EA's recent success in a broader scope, Riccitiello knows how to run a company, but his biggest successes with the company have simply been to eliminate old failing policies. Their tradition of talent stripping, aquiring and consolidating a studio was no longer effective, so they ditched it, and have a good thing going with their new city-state model. Probst stepping down was almost as good for EA, as retiring Kutaragi was for Sony.

...Well... with the difference being that they didn't have to create an entirely new title to leave Probst with his dignity.