E3 2008: Sony Unveils the Enormous MAG

[Susan Arendt]

E3 2008: Sony Unveils the Enormous MAG

Sony gave us our first glimpse of MAG, an enormous shooter that can support up to 256 players in a match.

Participants will be broken into eight-player squads, led by "players who have proven themselves to be good leaders," explained Zipper Interactive's Andy Beaudoin.

We saw a brief trailer for the game, which showed soldiers using what appeared to be contemporary weapons and armor. It's unclear whether the game is set in a fantasy or alternate-reality setting, or actually takes place in some sort of real-life locale.

Ongoing faction-based campaigns will motivate players to check in on a daily basis, said Beaudoin, a concept that reminds me unnervingly of Tabula Rasa.

Jack Tretton himself said that MAG pushes the PS3 to its screaming point, which could either mean that it'll be a technological marvel or a broken mess. Perhaps a bit of both.

No release date was given, but we'll try to get some more detailed info this week.

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[AlphaWolf13]

Something along the lines of planetside? Why does my brain scream "LAGGG"

 

[Pebsy]

well, if the game doesnt lag, it will probably be so full of clustered stuff that it wont be fun... but we have yet to see

 

[Skrapt]

If it avoids the above problems of lag and being a clusterfuck. This could actually be extremely enjoyable if the maps are suitably large enough.

 

[AlphaWolf13]

If it avoids the above problems of lag and being a clusterfuck. This could actually be extremely enjoyable if the maps are suitably large enough.

Agreed

 

[bulletproof12]

this would be great...until you factor in 256 people and since ps3 doesnt have internet speed requirements (i dont think) it will lag beyond belief. and unless they have the maps so large there are pretty much loading screen between sides i can see people getting huge groups, going only sniper and not allowing people to leave the spawn.

 

[Mstrswrd]

...Explosives (Rocket Launchers, grenades) will be your friend in this.

 

[Jumplion]

I don't think it will be too much of a cluster fuck, there's the squad thing with 8 players in each squad and a commander. Though, i doubt that that will prevent people from going off and trying to be a hero.

I wouldn't imagine too much lag, most 1st/2nd party titles for the PS3 online run very smoothly, and example would be Warhawk with so many things happening at once.

Though i wouldn't be surprised if they downsized the player count, it is a pretty big number triple-digits an all.

 

[Doug]

IF executed well, this'll be alot of fun - BUT I have to wonder how they indeed to make it work when the only PC game that manages that many players is Armed Assault, I heard. Just seems to me that the odds of it working without lag are low. Or very simple combat, heh.

Still, hats off to Sony in they manage it!

 

[Virgil]

Something along the lines of planetside?

That's exactly what I thought. And then I thought "Why the hell would anyone think that's a good idea?"

 

[Kehan Wann]

i cant wait this is going to be epic

 

[Virgil]

Because we haven't seen any evidence of lag on any of the other Ps3 games?

I was actually referring to the "like Planetside" part, not the lag part.

 

[Jumplion]

Agreed. The only problem will be excruciating waiting times for people to join in. Really this game seems good until you remember that Online Multiplayer is only good while there are other people online who are playing it.

Oy, i can only imagine how long the battles would be! But on the plus side, it would mean that there will always be a game with some space for you and you could easily find a game with friends so you won't all be separated.

 

[Skrapt]

Agreed. The only problem will be excruciating waiting times for people to join in. Really this game seems good until you remember that Online Multiplayer is only good while there are other people online who are playing it.

Oy, i can only imagine how long the battles would be! But on the plus side, it would mean that there will always be a game with some space for you and you could easily find a game with friends so you won't all be separated.

I assume to avoid this it would be quite similar to the Battlefield franchise, objective based gameplay so that if 1 person disconnects the overall game won't be affected much. If they manage to do it with 256 players without lag I'd be surprised and the game if the maps were large enough would most likely be extremely fun. However the cynic inside me is saying that some time in development they'll either half the max number of players or simply slowly decrease it. And I wonder how much a server running this would cost?