Planetside 2...

[Ctuchik]

That map in the vid reminds me of the original problem with the game that stopped me playing: You can't win.

You'd push the NME back, the whole map would be blue (or red, or purple) just before you went to bed, you'd get up and it'll all be another colour. There's no push for an "endgame" followed by a map reset.

But if you're going to bed, what use would a map reset do? It would still end up being a different color when you wake up...

Planetside is a capture and hold game, not a capture and win game..

 

[Scouse]

The "going to bed" bit isn't the important thing. The fact that there's never an end game, never a win, ever is what made me stop playing.

What's the point of capturing and holding if there's no endgame?

Sure, have a 3 day battle, one faction manages to get the whole map. But why? If they don't get a "you fucking won, all the others are losers" it's not capture and hold - it's "capture and hold for no reason"...


Absolutely loved the first game for a while. Had a nagging problem tho. Then one day realised that the problem was that the game was pointless - then stopped playing immediately and never looked back.

 

[Raven]

All games are pointless

 

[LordjOX]

Watched all the videos and must say it looks really fun

I like it how you can put points in certifications to become a purely support role. Either flying the galaxy transport/mobile spawn point, being squad leader with spawnpoint and even medic class at the same time. Seems you can progress and contribute without being shooty at all

 

[FuzzyLogic]

Closed beta to begin in the next few weeks. Open beta few weeks after that. Launch expected within 2012.

http://e3.gamespot.com/video/6381290/the-growing-battlefield-in-planetside-2/index.html 12m 49s

 

[Ctuchik]

The "going to bed" bit isn't the important thing. The fact that there's never an end game, never a win, ever is what made me stop playing.

What's the point of capturing and holding if there's no endgame?

Sure, have a 3 day battle, one faction manages to get the whole map. But why? If they don't get a "you fucking won, all the others are losers" it's not capture and hold - it's "capture and hold for no reason"...


Absolutely loved the first game for a while. Had a nagging problem tho. Then one day realised that the problem was that the game was pointless - then stopped playing immediately and never looked back.

You're trying to compare this game to other games. That doesn't work because Planetside doesn't have any games to be compared against.

But just to clarify things. What the hell is pvp end game?

 

[FuzzyLogic]

I'd have guessed in a game like this that an endgame would be the total destruction of another factions warpgates until only one remains, so pushing the faction back so they're essentially locked into their warpgates followed by some kind of sabotage to cause its im/explosion. One of the problems there is the time it would take, if it happened at all. Then if it did happen, the first faction to be eliminated would be bored witless while waiting for the last two to fight it out. So likely something else may be better suited.

 

[Coldbeard]

I am really looking forward to this. Already started gathering up a bunch of friends for a clan/outfit

 

[Scouse]

You're trying to compare this game to other games. That doesn't work because Planetside doesn't have any games to be compared against.

Fanboi. I'm comparing it to any other "shooter" or "mmo" or combination thereof. It's easily compared as it's not that great a stretch different.

But just to clarify things. What the hell is pvp end game?

I already explained this, thought it was pretty obvious. You push the NME back to their single square. It happens. You should be able to go "for the win". Fight an epic last battle - and if you win that last point then you "win".

Simple. It gets notched up to your faction, added to your stats, whatever.

Game resets. Map restarts. Easy.

Without that very simple thing Planetside was kind of pointless for me. Paid for a month. Gave up shortly after. Wanted to love it. Couldn't...

the first faction to be eliminated would be bored witless while waiting for the last two to fight it out. So likely something else may be better suited.

First faction joins another server instance. They've been kicked out of the game - they can join another...

 

[Ctuchik]

I already explained this, thought it was pretty obvious. You push the NME back to their single square. It happens. You should be able to go "for the win". Fight an epic last battle - and if you win that last point then you "win".

Already there but you don't want to see it.

 

[Scouse]

Already there but you don't want to see it.

Explain then, master.

Is it a feature of the game already? Where did you point it out?

 

[Poag]

Your faction gets points for controlling entire continents, thats your score sheet if that sort of thing appeals.

 

[FuzzyLogic]

First faction joins another server instance. They've been kicked out of the game - they can join another...

It would make for something of an interesting server infrastructure if that were true. I see where you're coming from, boot them onto another continent (rather than server) if they've lost one and take over another instead, the two sides remaining sides would then have to decide whether or not to defend two continental fronts, there's a lot on the server population though. Also, if my experience in playing the first one is anything to go by; neither side will bother defending the cont en mass until right at the last minute, if at all, since they likely have a half decent fight going on already while the third side dominate an otherwise sparse environment and maybe get bored at the lack of action. I like the idea of it though.


The big win, if you will, is basically the base taken/defended dialogue. Yea okay you could spend all day taking over a continent, fighting hard for it then go to sleep and by morning it's another colour. I don't see how it's incredibly different from more traditional FPS games in that regard; you win a match, everything resets back to zero and the last game didn't really count for much because everyone's back at square one anyway, ready to do it again. The main difference is that there's a persistent economy, a much larger scale of combat and the possibility of having to fight back up from less than nothing.

I don't disagree, it would be great to see an overarching goal, even if that goal ends up simply being a number on the website to say how often each side has dominated the continents against whatever percentage of enemies. The tricky thing would be making it work.

 

[LordjOX]

Isn't the whole point that there is never-ending war? That you can't win outright but try to be completely dominant and earn more resources to stay dominant?

Same as in daoc, you couldn't "win" by attacking the portal keeps or realm keeps. You could however stay dominant by having lots of keeps or the relics

 

[Ormorof]

is there an "end game" in any mmo? ive never seen one

 

[Mirt]

In PS1 my outfit (guild) always made our own fun. For example if our faction was loosing a continent, we'd take a couple of galaxys and go kill the generator somewhere annoying for the enemy and hold the generator room as long as possible. We had some epic battles that way, of course we ultimately got dislodged but when people log on alts to flame, you know you must be doing something right...

 

[svartalf]

is there an "end game" in any mmo? ive never seen one

I think that's the difference between end-game and end-of-game, no?

 

[BloodOmen]

There was no real end game to Planetside 2 tbh, even at max level etc you could still have infinite fun, I just hope they manage to pull of the same thing with Planetside 2 or it'll be toss.

 

[svartalf]

Hi!

E3 2012: Crashing and burning in PlanetSide 2

by Jef Reahard on Jun 6th 2012 11:30AMEvents, real-world, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, Hands-on, MMOFPS, Massively Hands-on, First Impressions, Massively Event Coverage, PlanetSide 2, Sandbox0


I used to think of myself as an OK pilot. Then I slid into the cockpit of a Terran Republic Mosquito at E3 yesterday and learned just how inapplicable real-world skill is in PlanetSide 2. In my defense, Sony Online Entertainment's demo stations suffered from a severe lack of joysticks, and the controls were also mapped to that goofy up-is-up and down-is-down standard that's, well, standard on every shooter ever made.

This is completely unnatural to my way of thinking, and so I'm going to blame it for the fact that my Mosquito lumbered around the skies of Auraxis like a drunken elephant, listing hard to starboard and eventually porpoising down for the ugliest landing in the history of ugly landings.

But hey, any one you walk away from's a good one, right?

I did, in fact, walk away from it, and it's a good thing too because some New Conglomerate gunship pilot happened by just long enough to turn my poor bird into glowing metal shrapnel (after a deeply satisfying explosion, of course).

I ran for cover courtesy of some nearby rocks, then looked around for the nearest capture objective flashing on my HUD. Sprinting got me there in short order, and I had just enough time to fire off a few rounds before taking one in the teeth from an unseen assailant.

Frenetic? Yeah. Fun? Oh yeah.

Prior to my aerial embarrassment, I sat down with SOE producer Josh Hackney for a run-down on what's changed with PlanetSide 2 since its GDC unveiling. In a nutshell, the answer to that question is not a lot, at least to my untrained eye. And that's a compliment too because the game already looked like a million bucks last March. I didn't actually get to play it then, though, and yesterday's hands-on was definitely the highlight of E3 thus far.

We went through some of the game's early selection screens, and Hackney offered up some commentary on the store items (basically sidegrades) vs. what you'll obtain via gameplay. SOE's big thing is to "absolutely avoid pay-to-win" if I'm judging by the number of times I heard that repeated around the demo stations.

Hackney also showed off the game's customization elements. We slapped some camo (and some zebra stripes) on my Mosquito, and there were a ton of checkboxes for things like window tint, decals, and various paint schemes. These options extend to the rest of game's vehicles as well as infantry avatars, so those of you wondering about the option to make your soldier and his equipment unique can rest easy.

PS2 is much tighter than the original PlanetSide, and by tighter I mean there are fewer vehicles. SOE has also scrapped the labyrinthine certification system from the original for a class-based approach (albeit one that features plenty of earnable certifications under the hood). It's a concession to modern, accessibility-driven game design, and it's one that may stick in the craws of hardcore PlanetSide fans.

I suspect that all will be forgiven, though, once they take their first steps onto a remade Auraxis. It's fine to watch gameplay clips on YouTube, and it's great to watch a live monitor or stand behind someone while she plays. It's another thing entirely to actually immerse yourself in the game, and even though I had to stand up, and even though the demo stations were situated in a hurricane of noise, jostling bodies, and bothersome distractions, I actually felt as if I was fighting for the Terran Republic there for a brief time.

That ability to transport the player -- that ill-defined but all-important immersion -- is something that PlanetSide 2 has in spades. Yeah, it's early. And yeah, maybe part of my enjoyment comes from seeing a fantastic old game given a sparkly new coat of AAA paint, but at the end of the day, PlanetSide 2 is also shaping up to be a rock-solid game in its own right.

Massively's on the ground in Los Angeles during the week of June 4-7, bringing you all the best news from E3 2012. We're covering everything from PlanetSide 2 and SWTOR and ArcheAge to RIFT's and LotRO's upcoming expansions, so stay tuned!



Tags: con, convention, convention-coverage, e3, e3-2012, e3-planetside-2, electronic-entertainment-expo, expo, fps, josh-hackney, mmo-shooter, mmofps, mosquito, planetside, planetside-2, planetside-2-demo, planetside-2-hands-on, ps2, sandbox, sci-fi, shooter, soe, sony, sony-online-entertainment, terran-republic

 

[svartalf]

Award:

MMO of the show: PlanetSide 2

Jef Reahard: PlanetSide 2 by a landslide. Sure there were fancier booths, and shooters may not be your cup of tea, but PS2's gameplay nonetheless stands out from the crowd. If there was another game on the show floor where you could go from being a foot soldier to driving a tank to flying a Mosquito, all in the space of a few moments and all on the same character in the same persistent open-world, I must've missed it.

Andrew Ross: Raiderz. While some MMOs had really great ideas, Perfect World's Raiderz demo actually had real combat and non-combat features to play with, so I felt like I had a solid idea of what the game actually does. I've played games with similar combat, and this one still felt fresh enough that I wanted to go home and play.

Jeff Wright: Trion's End of Nations. Global warfare. Gigantic maps supporting 56 players. Thousands of units. Upgrades for all. An experimental game that really stood out.

 

[FuzzyLogic]

Nice to see it's getting some acknowledgement. Hope it lives up to expectations, heh.

That said, will Barrys Squad/Freddys Furies be making a return?

 

[Vae]

Nice to see it's getting some acknowledgement. Hope it lives up to expectations, heh.

That said, will Barrys Squad/Freddys Furies be making a return?

I certainly hope so! I want to argue with FreakyRaa on Teamspeak again!

 

[FuzzyLogic]

What we need is Jup to fly, Yoni and Deadman to argue about Wele and some pretty awesome hotdrops before dying mercilessly.

That said, I'm unsure whether to roll NC as was the beginning, or VS that dominated my later playing life

 

[Scouse]

So, when does beta start?

 

[FuzzyLogic]

Next couple of weeks allegedly

 

[pikeh]

Got a guaranteed Beta, doubt my PC will be able to run at an acceptable standard considering developers are only managing 60fps on beast machines :<

 

[Soazak]

Got a guaranteed Beta, doubt my PC will be able to run at an acceptable standard considering developers are only managing 60fps on beast machines :<

How do you get into beta?

 

[pikeh]

buy PC Gamer uk xD

 

[Ctuchik]

Nice to see it's getting some acknowledgement. Hope it lives up to expectations, heh.

Speaking of that. The bigger newspaper here in Sweden have apparently boycotted anything that has to do with Planetside 2, probably because TB got all the exclusives... >.<

They had a team at E3 but didn't make a whisper about this game.... Not even a footnote with links to any youtube videos which they usually love to do when it comes to other games.

 

[AngelHeal]

oh man am loving the e3 gameplay vids !