Preview: MAG

A war only PS3 owners can enjoy.

When I first saw intel for this game floating around the intarwebz a year ago, I took one look at screenshots, wrote it off as a generic shooter and didn’t bother reading what it was about. Later, I happened across a little blurb preview similar to the one I’m writing now, and my eyes, bless their tiny goopy souls, managed to catch a phrase as I disinterestedly scrolled past the article. The phrase said, “256 player battles.” And suddenly I became interested. This remarkably ambitious PS3 exclusive is attempting to create a new genre: the MMOFPS. Welcome to the world of Massive Action Game.

I’ll admit, most of my interest revolves around the question, “How the heck are they going to pull it off?” The phrase “256 player battles” gave me prophetic visions of at least 87 semi-literate man-children alternately screaming and mumbling incoherently into their mics to create one miserable auditory nightmare. It also gave me visions of desolate battlefields occupied by twenty or thirty soldiers spread out over an area roughly equivalent to Los Angeles County, the numbers dwindling as players rage-quit or got kicked for being laggy.

But, apparently, there’s a new server structure (whatever that means) that is designed to accommodate such a large number of players. Not being a member of the beta, I have no idea how well this is actually going to play out, but if it works, it will be amazing. The battles will involve artillery, vehicles, aircraft, parachuting, and all the standard FPS fare as well. But it also promises to incorporate RPG leveling-up mechanics, with rank actually meaning something on the battlefield. The higher your rank, the more soldiers you have under your command.

There isn’t a lot being said about how the beta is playing, but there seems to be a consensus that lag isn’t really an issue. Then again, the beta is only using 32 players to a side, not the full 256. As for the other concerns, well, only the future will tell.

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Tagged as: FPS, MAG, MMO, multiplayer, PS3