Planetside 2

[Dog Pants]

Does this belong in Shooters or MMOs? I'm going for the former because it doesn't need a subscription and you can shoot people. Anyway, a huge persistent online war between thousands of players sounds right up my flagpole so I've signed up for a shot at the beta. You can too if you go here.

EDITZ - 5punky server is Miller, faction choice is Vanu Sovereignty

5punker Names:

D0gPants
Anereh
MullatoButts (Johnson)
DrBerk
Friznit
Joosington
spoodie
Sherfs
Legoshoes
ElvisDuck
herecomespete
Pnut844
Shot2bits
FabDancingYak
Catboots
Jimmington
Buzzles

[Mr. Johnson]

Sounds interesting and way more my kind of thing then the current MMO's.

[Dog Pants]

I've been reading a fair bit about it in various places (mostly PCG). It has a few competitors and any could end up on top, but this one has caught my eye the most. I think Tribes 2 also has a beta though. Bits I can remember are the Eve style skill system where you specialise in classes or vehicles to become more focussed, sort of like BF3's unlocks. The interview in this month's PCG is skewed a bit towards flying the transport gunships, and the unlocks you get for them, but they also mentioned starting with light tanks and either specialising more in them or moving on to heavier tanks. Skills seem to train offline a-la Eve, but faster if you're regularly playing, and if you spend a lot of time battling over a particular continent the learning is accelerated. Support for groups seems to be integrated from an early stage, and groups like dedicated (and famous) tank companies or gunship squadrons have been mentioned a few times.

[friznit]

Eve style 'blobbing' was always an issue in Planetside. I wonder if they've done anything to reduce the inevitable game breaking concentration of players?

[spoodie]

I think Tribes 2 also has a beta though.

They do. I received an invite a couple of week ago, but not touched it.

[Dog Pants]

I think I did, but with Skyrim and BF3 I didn't have time for it. My interest in Skyrim hit a point where I couldn't face another identical combat for a while though (see also: Dragon Age Origins and Deus Ex), so I feel like I have a bit more to give.

[HereComesPete]

Signed up.

[Joose]

Signed up.

Me also. The idea behind planetside always seemed awesome to me, but the tech just wasn't up to scratch the first time around. I'm really looking forward to this one.

[Dog Pants]

Still looking good. The air assault trailer ithis mashup is awesome (mute the left one).

[Joose]

Theres a code for the Planetside 2 beta in the new PC Gamer. Guarantees a spot once it opens, whenever that is.

[FatherJack]

Guarantees a spot once it opens, whenever that is.

A position in the login queue?

[Dog Pants]

Ooh, hopefully mine will have arrived today.

[Anery]

A position in the login queue?

Nah, this is Sony not Blizzard.
You'll get in but Sony will "lose" your details

[Dog Pants]

I got my PCG yesterday and signed up anyway. It promises to be the Battlefield game that Battlefield 3 wasn't.

[Dog Pants]

Beta starts next week. Typical, right after I have a week off.

[Joose]

[deject]

I got my PCG yesterday and signed up anyway. It promises to be the Battlefield game that Battlefield 3 wasn't.

Unless they mean it's a direct BF2 remake I don't see how the people disappointed by BF3 will feel any differently.

[Dog Pants]

Well, it might be a good game.

[deject]

Oh wait I made another clever post, thought you meant BF4 not Planetside 2.

[Dog Pants]

I played a little of this last night. I have observations:

I didn't have a clue what was going on.
I shot some dudes and helped capture an outpost.
It's massive.
As I fought over the generator halls in the outpost I could hear the air transports buzzing overhead outside.
It's pretty ugly.
Each side has its own theme music. I chose NC based on their indie guitar theme.
The menu systems are not intuitive.
The man-shooting is intuitive.

So that's that. I want to play more so I can understand it. I wouldn't go so far as to say I enjoyed it a lot, but I was impressed by the potential depth and nothing was horribly broken.