The latest batch of screenshots from Guerrilla Games' Killzone 2 (PS3) were "only the tiniest bit touched up," claims Guerrilla QA manager Seb Downie.

"There was a little bit of colour-correction done and some minor polish, but nothing major," Downie posted on the official PlayStation forum. "Still very close to reality and it looks better in motion in my opinion. "

Some changes are certainly evident when comparing select scenes from the E3 2007 gameplay trailer to the released screenshots, as demonstrated in this image gallery. However, it is unknown if the difference is due to progress with the game's visuals, post-processing, or a combination of those two factors.

Some form of post-capture image manipulation on screenshots is actually rather common within the games industry, where a variety of factors can cause an image to appear less than optimal, especially several months before release. However, few developers go out of their way to admit the practice.

Downie's admission no doubt cements Killzone 2 as having some of the most-criticized media in the history of gaming. The debut trailer for Killzone 2, shown during Sony's E3 2005 press conference, generated an unbelievable amount of debate as to whether it was real-time or pre-rendered.

The issue was considered settled when, two years later, Guerrilla demonstrated a real-time version of the game that looked impressive, but lacked some of the polish of the earlier movie.

Mouse over the image below for comparison--the first image being the released screenshot, the second a grab from the trailer.