E3 2008: Sony Unveils the Enormous MAG

[stompy]

I think it's a very interesting premise, and it looks good, but I have my doubts. Still, if they can pull it off...

 

[AlphaWolf13]

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.

As long as the game is... Nothing... Like Planetside at all, it could be fun!!

 

[ratix2]

wow, 256, only 1744 less than planetside.

 

[N-Sef]

I'm always optimistic when it comes to things like this. Let's see some code running first before we make any sort of real judgement on the outcome, but that is a seriously large number and it wouldn't surprise me if they scale it down sometime in the future.

 

[the monopoly guy]

suck it huxley

there's always going to be that one person that lags the game up. Always. Probably more.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

You have to wonder how they'd handle the world or maps or whatever they do. If they go the map route, then the maps have to be big enough that 256 can play with plenty of room, but not to the point where 24 people spend most of the battle trying to find each other.

 

[The Sorrow]

Finally! A shooter that feels like a true war!

 

[SaintWaldo]

...it'll be a technological marvel or a broken mess. Perhaps a bit of both.

Dev #1: You got your technological marvel in my broken mess!

Dev #2: You got your broken mess in my technological marvel!

Narrator: Two great dev states that states great together.

Cue music...
--

I think they bit off a huge chunk here and Zipper should be held to the fire to keep those specs real. LBP will have a wider appeal, in my opinion, but MAG looks like it could be a load of fun for a group of friends to play regularly.

 

[AlphaWolf13]

You have to wonder how they'd handle the world or maps or whatever they do. If they go the map route, then the maps have to be big enough that 256 can play with plenty of room, but not to the point where 24 people spend most of the battle trying to find each other.

My guess is that if thats the case, they spawn relatively close.

Bear in mind its a Squad based game. Those 256 are going to act more like 32. Acting like the well coordinated teams in Metal Gear Online (I've seen them, I've been part of them, we're awesome), they'll cause much less strife and clusterfuckage, moving like packs.

I'd assume they would have "Small, Medium, and large" maps, just like most other games. So I'd highly doubt you'd have to deal with the "HOLY CRAP WHERE ARE THEY?" Unless you were cool enough to do 10v10 on a 256 map, lol.

 

[SinisterDeath]

I seem to recall this game being announced before.. Or perhaps it was resistance 2's 64 online play mode?

what I remmeber was takling about 'squad based' multiplayer, with each squad having a different spawn point, and each squad with a different objective.

Aka
Squad 1
kill as many enemies in your vicinity
Squad 2
Defend this area
Squad 3
destroy that bridge
Squad 4
Flank that enemey
ect.
I could see it being 'impossible' to win a game, with out completing said objectives, so 'lone wolves' like my self, wouldn't be able to 'win' the game for anyone, and probably would be detrimental to the entire thing.
And since its 256 players, that leaves us 128 vs 128, with 16 sqaud vs 16 squad games. Assuming each map can support 256 players, they should be quite large...
Though, I'm suddenly reminded of the Battlefield 2 Series of games with maps that altered in size depending on the number of players.

 

[smallharmlesskitten]

Another reason for me to drag my sorry behind into the current Gen.

Dammit Dad Lemme Buy it

 

[Skrapt]

So, half it from the un-fucking-believable 256 players, to the still un-fucking-believable 128 players? And you think that will make it bad?

Definitely not bad, just below expectations, and it would just hand more food to those shouting about how the Xbox is the be all and end all of console gaming.

 

[Fire Daemon]

Interesting idea but I'm not sure how it will work.

Sure it'll be good in it's peek but as soon as people stop playing it that the game will suddenly be very empty, if any other titles loook like they will take this game out of the lime light than multiplayer will stop working, full stop.

 

[Fire Daemon]

And thats the exact same case with any other multiplayer.

No. In other multiplayer games that only have 16 people per map (Cod4, Halo3, TF2 etc) can have less people whithout not being able to find anyone on a map. And because they don't need 200 people per game they can fill a room quickly. Need proof, people still play halo 2 because they can easily fill rooms, I don't think this game will fill up with players easily and will therefore not do well. They could make smaller maps for 100, 50, 20, 10 etc players but dosen't that kinda defeat the point of the game?

However, look at it this way. When Home comes out, you'll be able to actually go up to people who are online and say "Fancy a game of Massive Action Game?" Some people will react well to the idea, and you'll have your teams. By being able to reach more people, you can reach people and ask them to join you and just play. It'll work like the Looking For Group function on WoW, but be a lot more persuasive.

Yeah... but if another, better, game comes out than wouldn't they much rather play that. And besides, your're going to spend a lot of time looking for players if you have to walk around asking people to play. And why would you want to play one game so you can play another?