Killing Floor 2

[Qalbert]

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/05/08/ki...e-system-ever/

http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2014/...er-610x343.jpg
Paris is burning. The sky behind the Eiffel Tower glows an ominous orange through a haze of billowing smoke. Sparks and ash and scraps of paper float through the dark streets of the city, where cars and offices stand eerily abandoned.

A manhole opens. For a moment, nothing happens. And then a zed, a naked genetic freak sheathed in slimy grey skin, pops out of the hole like a horrorshow jack-in-the-box. The zed has the mind of a child. It doesn't know much, but it knows it wants to kill.

The zed manages two steps from the manhole before a stream of bullets blast it off its feet. More bullets tear into it in midair, splattering blood across the street and unburdening its gut of a generous helping of internal organs. Everyone in the dark conference room at Tripwire Interactive laughs or oohs as they watch the most complicated gore system in gaming—a gore system they've been building for Killing Floor 2 for the past two years—eviscerate the zed in a way they've never quite seen before.

Since shipping World War II FPS Red Orchestra 2 in 2011, Tripwire has dedicated itself to the sticky art of digital dismemberment for the sequel to 2009's co-op wave-based shooter. They want each and every exploded brain, severed leg and bloody gutshot to look unique. Bill Munk, creative director and senior animator at Tripwire, has a saying: Red Orchestra is realism. Killing Floor is coolism.

"Killing Floor is a simple game," says Munk. "You have weapons. You see something that looks messed up. And you kill it. You get money for doing it and you buy better weapons. Rinse and repeat. The more enjoyable that small little loop is, the more successful the game is."

Munk is one of Tripwire's co-founders. He couldn't hide his enthusiasm for games if he tried; over dinner, he gushes about how he played a borrowed copy of Metal Gear Solid in his college dorm for an entire weekend, substituting caffeine for sleep. When Munk talks about Killing Floor 2, most of his sentences end with "as sick as possible."

"This project on an animation end has been a dream come true for me," he says. “This is the first time we had the budget for me to do mocap for everything and try to make everything look as sick as possible."

When Munk says everything, he means it. The gun animations are mocapped. Melee is mocapped for first- and third-person perspectives. Killing Floor 2 is still a simple game. But this time, it looks good.

http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2014/...ns-610x343.jpg

"[Killing Floor 2] is the first time we've been able to develop a game from start to finish with what I would call a reasonable size staff and a reasonable size budget," says John Gibson, Tripwire's president and a co-founder along with Munk.

Gibson is entertaining and outspoken for a company president. Tripwire's pedigree for realistic weaponry stems from Gibson's passion for them. Many guns in Killing Floor 2, like the Commando class's SCAR Mk 17 and AK-12, are modeled from his own personal collection. If he's not talking about guns or videogames, there's a good chance he's talking about cars. "Have you ever ridden in a DeLorean?" he asks me with a grin when we take a break for lunch. I have now ridden in a DeLorean.

Gibson and the other founding members of Tripwire had to take out loans to pay for their first game, Red Orchestra. They started as an Unreal Tournament 2004 mod team. Killing Floor was another Unreal mod, created by Alex Quick. Once Tripwire turned RO into a standalone game, they convinced Quick to port over Killing Floor. They played the mod so much, Gibson put Red Orchestra 2 on hold mid-development to turn Killing Floor into a full game. Ten people made the game in three months. As of 2014, Killing Floor has sold nearly 2.5 million copies.

Tripwire is now 50 employees strong. Killing Floor 2 is coming to Steam Early Access for Windows and Valve's SteamOS. When? Not as soon as I may want, Gibson says, but sooner than I may expect. After watching them play KF2, I know they got at least the first half of that statement right.

[Corrderio]

Hopefully they touch up on their server listings and someone joining in the middle of the game isn't completely worthless.

[Kuishen]

MAHNEE MAHNEE MAHNEE!

[Kiarax]

[Insanecyclone]

[Kalmado]

Just installed 1 and plan on playing this weekend!

[6souls]

[6souls]

PS4 version announced

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/...time-is-right/

[6souls]

[Lyall]

Game is in Early Access as of yesterday. 30 bucks for standard edition, 40 bucks for digital deluxe. Deluxe nabs you an artbook and a character + some headphones for in-game accessorizing. Also comes with a free copy of KF1 in case you somehow didn't own it already.

I spent about two hours with it last night, playing as Berserker. There's only 4 Perks in the game right now: Berserker, Commando, Medic and Support. Everyone starts with their own kit, so it's no longer pistols for everyone. Classes have specific grenade types, too. Berserker gets an EMP grenade that I haven't found very useful.

There's only a few weapons for each perk in the game right now. Berserker starts with a knife (a lawnmower blade) and a combat shovel. There's a nailgun for purchase, a rocket-sledgehammer and a redesigned Buzzsaw Bow from KF1. Buzzsaw's alt fire double as a chainsaw, though it doesn't feel good.

Combat is neat! The melee swings feel meaty and impactful, and the rocketsledge is my favorite weapon so far. It's a big sledgehammer with bullets inside of it and the alt-swing causes a small detonation on impact. Can kill multiple zeds grouped together, and it's a ton of fun to inform people you have to reload your sledgehammer after clearing a group. My only "issue" so far is that Berserker feels pretty useless against bosses, but the emphasis is definitely on teamwork. Sharing cash in long games is a must, since you only get a couple of bucks per kill and weapon prices are streamlined at 650, 1100 and 1500(?) for upgrades. I found myself tossing dosh to my team while I used the combat shovel until a couple of rounds in, and then they'd shower me with money and I'd purchase my glorious rocketsledge.

Tripwire referred to the game as a "polished beta" and I agree. The game feels good and there's a lot of good improvements (there's no question at all when a Scrake or Fleshpound spawns) and the persistent gore and stage damage make for good thematic elements. I'm slightly worried about Demolitions if they add it back: Losing light sources isn't something you want to happen and I'm worried that Demo will be as unwanted in 2 as it was in 1. I'm biased because I loved Demo.

Aesthetic bonus: the Reverend is in the game from the door, so I got to pick back up my old character. He's got an awesome not!Connery accent.

[Corrderio]

I have put about 3 hours in it since I got it yesterday. Game is pretty damn fun for what it currently has. Scrakes and Fleshpounds seem to take less abuse than their KF1 counterparts, but that seems to be balanced by the fact you can get swarmed a lot easier in this game IMO.

[Corrderio]

Just tried Berserker tonight and Lyall is pretty spot on IMO. Chainsaw bow isn't all that great compared to the nailgun, EMP grenades really don't offer much other than a really weak stun from what I saw (As in the Scrake won't rush you when he's hit with it, but can still attack), and they really don't offer a lot on the boss since ammo becomes pretty scarce and trying to melee him to death is a deathwish.

Other than that, Berserker is amazing. Favorite combo has to be the sledgehammer and nailgun.

[Kuishen]

Berserker (along with Firebug) was always about Crowd Control and not heavy damage dealing in 1, they can handle entire hordes by themselves as long as they have room to backpedal. I wasn't expecting them to change that much in 2. From what you guys have said they've actually improved their CC capabilities with the sledgehammer blow up thing.

[Lyall]

I don't even bother with the nailgun anymore unless I'm dicking around solo. You can switch it to single fire with the alt-fire button and it's devastating to just nail headshots from far away. A friend of mine had me on his server last night just messing around as a pair and I basically found myself playing bodyguard to his commando - He'd be shooting to clear groups while I'd just wail away on whatever got near. The sledgehammer is too damn good, and hitting Sirens or flameguysIforgotthenameof causes them to just turn into pieces. Staggering Scrakes is an amazing thing, and even Fleshpounds can be fucked up pretty quickly. I'd go without armor for the first two rounds and hope to scavenge enough stuff to sell, then I'd throw all my cash to my friend so he could SCAR it up.

I think the biggest "problem" with the boss right now is just the lack of high power weaponry. Admittedly I'm only level 5 right now but without pipe bombs or rocket launchers or any "big ticket" items I just feel constantly underpowered at the end. I did almost finish him off by circlestrafing him while holding out the buzzsaw, but 1) I would have run out of gas before he died and 2) he dropped a grenade on me and that was that.

Semi-relatedly: Solo berserker Hell on Earth. Survival Horror, man. Fun to do while waiting on friends to get online.

[The Blackrose]

I'm sure the boss taking forever to kill issues will be in order once the heavy hitters like Sharpshooter are implemented.

Been fucking around with Berserker and Medic. Berserker is incredibly fun, especially the new sledgehammer. Medic SMG and Rifle make for nice headshot weapons, but something feels off about the shotgun.

[Corrderio]

Berserker (along with Firebug) was always about Crowd Control and not heavy damage dealing in 1, they can handle entire hordes by themselves as long as they have room to backpedal. I wasn't expecting them to change that much in 2. From what you guys have said they've actually improved their CC capabilities with the sledgehammer blow up thing.

Right. Though now it doesn't really feel like you need to worry too much about backing out now. I hardly seemed to take a lick of damage in Normal even at level 1. Sure that will change at higher difficulties.

As for the boss. I'm sure it will be tweeked. I'm glad he seems to be a bigger threat than the patriarch, but he does take a shitton of abuse to the point I need to look around the map for ammo.

[6souls]

PS4 Pro gameplay & details - November 18th

• 1800p checkboard rendering on 4K TV (3200×1800) optimized for 4K TVs
• Effectively supersampling and increased fps on HDTV
• Using additional memory to increased texture resolution to “Ultra Textures”

[6souls]

[6souls]

Infinite Onslaught - Available Now

Tripwire Interactive announced today, the release of the KILLING FLOOR 2: Infinite Onslaught Content Update, this year’s first major update for its critically acclaimed, co-op, sci-fi horror shooter, KILLING FLOOR 2. Starting today, Killing Floor 2 players can download the Infinite Onslaught Content Update for free on all major platforms, including PlayStation®4, PlayStation®4 Pro, Xbox One, Xbox One X, and PC via Steam.

Today’s launch for the Killing Floor 2: Infinite Onslaught Content Update also follows news that the original Killing Floor, first launched on May 14, 2009 for PC, has now surpassed over 5 million units sold worldwide.

“Continued sales for both the original Killing Floor and Killing Floor 2 post-launch is the kind of thing that can’t happen unless we keep things new and exciting for players,” said Bill Munk, Killing Floor 2 Lead at Tripwire Interactive. “That’s why post-launch content updates and continued support for the Killing Floor community continues to be a top priority for us.”

Tripwire Interactive continues to support the KILLING FLOOR 2 community with free post-launch updates and promoting community made maps with today’s release of the Infinite Onslaught Content Update. Highlights include:

NEW ENDLESS MODE GAME TYPE
• Challenge the relentless waves of Zeds that become increasingly crushing as more waves are defeated while The Patriarch takes over in the role as The Trader

NEW WEAPONS
• MAC- 10 SMG: Voted back by community popularity, the MAC- 10 SMG makes its triumphant return from the original Killing Floor, featuring incendiary ammo
• Husk Cannon: Requisitioned from a Husk, it is time to bring more fire to the party
• AF2011-A1 pistol: Killing two Zeds with one stone was never easier than holding the lovingly designed two-for-one pistol

NEW PLAYABLE CHARACTER D.A.R.
• Short for Domestic Assistant Robot, this new and improved fan favorite machine from the original Killing Floor is now freely available for Zed destroying services

NEW MAPS
• Powercore: Designed by a community mapper, the subterranean facility is yours to defend
• DieSector: The Patriach was very original when naming his new testing arena for his latest and greatest creations

NEW COSMETICS, CRATES, ACHIEVEMENTS, AND MORE
• The Vault has been stocked with additional cosmetics, character skins and weapon skins

[6souls]