fairly much what I gathered, generic fps.. god so many throw away shooters, look at Quantum Of Solace..
I think the main reason people would look at Kill Zone 2 with rose colored glasses is because it's for PS3, a platform which has so few note worthy titles.. just like the wii... I mean, when an Xbox game comes out, it typically hits the local news where I'm at.. hahaha..
Anyway, not trying to start a console war, I have a wii and am working on getting a PS3 (I really want to play pain.. some of the PSN titles are really fantastic!) but for the most part, the PS3 gets original IP and original IP usually gets only lukewarm receptions..

Please don't support that cash cow of a demo Pain. The core gameplay is passably fun enough I suppose, but the main game itself was 10 bucks which included a whole single level with two game modes. And they just keep releasing DLC characters and map packs all for a fee. Typically I think most developers these days offer DLC that have some sort of value, but Pain is just such a blatant ripoff.
As for Killzone 2, it looks like a solid, polished, good looking shooter. Why do people expect pure gold with every single game released? Personally, I enjoy throwaway shooters. I know they're not great games, but as long as they hold my attention throughout my play time, they've succeeded in doing what they're suppose to do.

really? that's disappointing. from the description it seemed like so much fun. :(

Some randomly selected scores from the new EDGE:
Killzone 2 - 7, FEAR 2 - 8, Halo Wars - 7, Race Pro - 8, LOTR: Conquest - 2, Let's Tap - 8, Tenchu: Stealth Assassins - 6
Yeah, Edge knows how to use the 0-10 scale.

Looking at the demo I find it hard to justify the 8 for FEAR2. Unresponsive controls and a lot of side rooms that only distract from the main route, but don't serve any purpose.
It probably all boils down to what you expect of a shooter. I expect predicable situations and an easy mode that is engaging even if it's not challenging. Like Quake1, Prey or Timesplitters. I don't expect enemies to attack me from behind or respawn in cleared areas. That's frustrating to me and confusing. If I die because an enemy who was outside of my vision kills me, I get angry at the level designers.

I agree with you for the most part. I see shooters (or certain genres of videogames) as like a song. A good song will have a certain pacing and rhythm to it. There are different types of "songs" to cater to certain demographics. You'll have your oldschool gamers who enjoy the simplistic shoot every thing that moves type. Then on the other end of the spectrum is the audience who prefers the ultra realistic tactical shooters. And everything else in between. The problem is when you mix genres and muddy up the essence of each without delicate consideration, the results become less than desirable.

The Fear2 demo surprised me, as i was expecting it to be pretty bad. (most of the videos over the last year have looked really generic).
Haven't played Farcry2 except in a store, but that short stint impressed me.
But people look for different things in games... my GOTY2008 was world of goo, so i''m probably not who KZ2 is targeted at ;-)

To be honest I'd rather see a broken attempt at non linearity than none at all.
On the other hand, may be the demo isnt the best representation of the game? Don't know myself as I haven't played it but I did watch 1up game night which featured an entire hour of gameplay and it looked pretty well rounded in there. Id give a link but their site doesn't seem to load for me at the moment.

I liked FEAR 2 demo more than KZ 2 demo, mainly because the shooting is made more fun thanx to slowmo, plus the level design (school) was really great.I hope they will keep good level design throughout the whole game, because that was the one area in which Fear 1 TOTALLY sucked.No more offices and warehouses, kthxbye.

I agree that the environments were very repetitive (OMGZ you just got out of the office? Great job! Now youre in a warehouse...). But the AI was great, which they seem to have improved upon in the sequel. Plus the weapons were fun and I agree slomo while cheesy is fun to play around with.