The sequel that’s aiming to once again raise the bar for all FPS titles will owe its success to not just one, but two industry leading developers. And contrary to what some may think, it’s not just a few pieces of code being handed back and forth.

The former head of Sony’s WorldWide Studios, Phil Harrison, made an extraordinary effort to unite the platform’s 1st-party developers, and his hard work has lead to many notable collaborations. Naughty Dog is continuing the tradition by assisting Guerrilla Games in the development of Killzone 3′s outstanding graphics engine. We suspect that the game’s support for 3D visuals is one of the main reasons, but Uncharted 2′s photorealistic snow and ice levels may have convinced Guerrilla to reach out for a helping hand.

Guerrilla Games made a big gamble with choosing Deferred Rendering for Killzone 2, and are using an upgraded version of that engine for Killzone 3. But Killzone 2 also used an industry standard Forward Rendering engine to handle visual elements that don’t work well on Deferred Rendering, such as transparency, which is a vital component of glass and liquid surfaces. The leaked photos of Killzone 3 showcase some of the best visuals ever seen in a videogame (something PS3 exclusives tend to do every year), and there’s little doubt that Naughty Dog’s technical assistance was pivotal to making that happen.

We’re looking forward to the game’s full reveal at E3 2010, and whatever jaw-dropping in-game footage that Sony decides to release.

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