Just a very quick update... Only game I play these days is Planetside 2. It's still awesome and getting better. Of particular note, SOE have made huge improvements for performance.
My PC is very basic by modern standards:
Q6600 processor
6gb RAM
Nvidia GTX260 graphics card
Windows 7 (64)
Back in beta I had horrible performance until I upgraded to windows 7, after which it was good, but I was having to run on low settings. Thanks to regular patches and good work from SOE (shocking I know...), I am now playing on medium settings and the game is running fine and looks rather pretty :) Happy Boots is happy.
Showing posts with label Planetside 2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Planetside 2. Show all posts
Thursday, 20 December 2012
Friday, 21 September 2012
Thursday, 20 September 2012
Planetside 2 - gameplay experience
TLDR version - It's very good and much more interesting than the other uninspiring game you are probably playing.
If you’ve seen any of my related tweets then you’ll already know that I’m a fan and have been more than a little impressed by Planetside 2. It has been spectacularly good fun, though that’s not to say it will suit everyone. This is an MMOFPS, not so much an MMORPG (though that can be debated) and there is no PvE at all. Like traditional online FPS games, Planetside 2 is decent when playing solo, but comes alive when played in a group. However thanks to Planetside 2’s campaign system, 3 factions and huge scale, when coordinating with the players on your faction the game comes alive in a monstrously awesome way.. Being a PvP based MMO, that may have seemed like a rather obvious thing to say, but the reality of MMOs is not everyone plays with other people and some folks do treat these games like a single player one with a chat room. With Planetside 2 if you were to dip in to it purely from a solo perspective, then it’s likely to feel a bit harsh, certainly chaotic and much of the awesome is likely to be missed. The ebb and flow of Planetside 2’s campaign and any strategy or tactics being employed will be invisible if people just hit instant action, look for red names to shoot, don’t get involved and never actually work with their allies.
However, the first time you join up with other players for a defence or a coordinated attack on an enemy held facility… Oh my. It’s spectacular and one of my all time favourite PvP MMO experiences. I’ll talk about the campaign, classes, combat, etc another time, because for now I wanted to give you an example of what it actually feels like to play Planetside 2 when you properly take part in groups and cooperate with your allied players. What follows is a (badly written) retelling of a rumble we started not so long ago.
Logging in with my Vanu character, I spawned at the main Vanu warpgate and joined a group of players who were setting up with a Galaxy transport (large troop carrying VTOL aircraft) to attack a Terran held base (I forget which, sorry). The gunner positions were already taken and as such I would be a passenger for this trip, but from the chat it seemed like we had an organised bunch of chaps running the show, so I was hopeful for some fun. Shortly after, the Galaxy was fully loaded and we set off. It’s VTOL engines roaring to life as the Galaxy lurched upwards, made a smooth banking turn and accelerated in the direction of our target enemy facility. Looking around outside I noticed a couple of Scythe interceptors sweep in to formation alongside us, apparently providing a prearranged escort… Needless to say, this looked proper classy. I equipped my Pimp Hat of Atmospheric Awesomness+2.
It was a tense yet fairly uneventful journey, our gunners and escorts only had to deal with one or two enemy aircraft and within a few minutes our target was in sight. As we reached the enemy territory things started to get a bit trickier. The Galaxy was taking damage, mainly from AA below us. For a moment it was looking pretty damn dodgy and I was worried I’d be a helpless passenger plummeting to a fiery death in a blazing Galaxy. Thankfully the fighter escorts managed to draw enough attention to allow our pilot to make it down and land safely on the edge of the enemy base. It was a pretty defensible position he’d nabbed, there was practically no way enemy vehicles could get to us and there was a mountain to our rear providing some natural cover from being flanked. We all disembarked and started moving in to clear the enemy buildings. Meanwhile the Galaxy was deployed as a spawn point to give us a forward base for changing equipment and for our (inevitable) casualties to respawn . The Terrans were actively defending and we had a proper infantry battle on our hands, gunfire coming from defenders in multiple directions. There was much pewing, THWAPOWS! and so on. Initially we pushed the Terrans back a decent way from the Galaxy and for a few moments it looked like it might be over quick, but this was one rapidly escalating engagement. Not only did more and more Vanu spawn at the Galaxy, but absolutely shit loads of Terrans arrived to defend their facility.
It went bat shit crazy. There were lines of Vanu all over the place firing up at the Terrans who were in turn lined along the building’s roofs and windows returning fire. It was a charnel house of pixel death and it went on for ages with both sides going back and forth, gaining and losing ground. I don’t know the numbers, but this was a seriously large scrap and in bloody close quarters. And it just kept getting bigger. Other Galaxies came swooping down and deployed troops into the fight, a couple of them also squeezed in to deploy as spawns. The Terran numbers kept increasing and I was cackling with glee as it got more and more insane. It’s hard to explain quite how awesome that fight was. There was just so much atmosphere to it. Using the localised voice chat you’d hear players calling for medics or ammo, shouting warnings, calling for fire to be put down on this or that building, yelling about being flanked and so on. The air was full of tracer fire and explosions, and everything was… loud.
And then it went a whole other level of big bada boom. As night started to fall the Terrans decided enough was enough and a whole bloody squadron of Liberators (each a 3 crew bomber) was sent in to clear us out. We discovered this the hard way from; “BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!” Explosions everywhere… lots of dead Vanu. Ouch. The Terran infantry pushed forward, our Galaxy spawns got destroyed and suddenly our attack was decimated. I respawned at an outpost we’d captured nearby and ran back with my team, but then as we crested a hillside overlooking the Terran facility we skidded to a halt, stood still and watched, genuinely open-mouthed. Someone in chat summed it up with 4 letters. OMFG. All the Liberators (numbers = lots…) were hovering over the facility and spam bombing everything to buggery. Spam bombing… at night time for extra dramatic lighting effects, resulting in a fireworks display I’ve not seen the likes of since Apocalypse Now. It was incredible to watch and a classic gaming memory.
But it didn’t end there. The Vanu weren’t going to take this shit, oh no. The infamous Vanu Magrider Army (and friends) turned up. The Magrider is the Vanu’s main battle tank, it has 2 crew and looks very much like the 40k Eldar Falcon grav tank. I can’t speak for other servers, but on mine you’ll often see the Vanu using them in seriously large numbers. Double figures of Magriders, supported by Lightning tanks and Sunderer transports, all streaming towards the Terrans. Which would have been easy prey for the Liberators if it wasn’t for the Scythe interceptors streaking across the sky to attack the slow, clumsy Liberator bombers. Planes were falling out of the sky, tanks were laying the smack down, infantry were running between it all and shit was blowing up everywhere.
And then the New Conglomerate arrived, in heavy tanks and Sunderer troop transports. Lots of them. As Harold Bishop would say “ah…”. So we now had a complicated and bloody massive 3 way fight. Drama! What had started with one galaxy full of 12 infantry had escalated into a massive battle with seemingly hundreds of players and the group I had joined at random was the spark that had started it all. It was a little mind blowing really, as much as pixels can be anyway.
Of course this doesn’t happen all the time nonstop and there are most certainly moments where things get a little bitty as you’re in-between more purposeful engagements, but something like the above happens most nights when I’ve played for more than a few minutes. And you don’t even have to be in one of the big raid type platoons, you just need to get involved and pay attention to what’s going on. My friend Veno and I are often grouped just the two of us crewing a Magrider, but we still end up part of the Magrider Army and inevitably get drawn into all sorts of other situations. There’s already been so many epic tales to tell and it’s merely beta. Also it must be recognised that these kind of events can happen in any PvP orientated game, I could tell similar tales from WAR, DAoC or the old days in Ultima, but the difference with Planetside is how incredibly fluid it all is, how regular these fights are, the scale of it all, the intense visual and audio drama and how smooth the performance is throughout. My FPS stayed at around the 20-30 mark throughout all of this, even on my rather basic PC. No sign of a fortress defence Powerpoint presentation here… To be honest, how well this game performs with VAST numbers of players and total bloody carnage should embarrass pretty much every other MMO developer, unless it’s due to melee or something beyond my ken, they are all doing it wrong.
Another specific point I wanted to mention that adds to all of this is the bases themselves. They are huge, complex, involving and most importantly; relevant. The objectives you have to capture (or in some cases optionally destroy) are spread around the base and in certain rooms or areas, but there’s none of the typical MMO nonsense where most other buildings are just a box with a texture wrapped round it, instead these are buildings you will be fighting in, under and on top off. Everything and everywhere is a potential route to take, defend or hide in. This makes them much more atmospheric and entertaining to battle over. The only downside is there’s no destructible terrain, but then that would probably present too many issues in a game like this and for once I don’t mind.
So as a PvP experience, right now I would say Planetside 2 is right up there with the best. I honestly can’t fault it without being unreasonable and overly picky. That’s not to say there aren’t things I will criticise, as there are, but they’re not enough to detract from the game as an unrivalled dynamic PvP experience. OK except maybe EVE, but they’re doing such totally different things that I just don’t think you can compare the two. ;)
If you’ve seen any of my related tweets then you’ll already know that I’m a fan and have been more than a little impressed by Planetside 2. It has been spectacularly good fun, though that’s not to say it will suit everyone. This is an MMOFPS, not so much an MMORPG (though that can be debated) and there is no PvE at all. Like traditional online FPS games, Planetside 2 is decent when playing solo, but comes alive when played in a group. However thanks to Planetside 2’s campaign system, 3 factions and huge scale, when coordinating with the players on your faction the game comes alive in a monstrously awesome way.. Being a PvP based MMO, that may have seemed like a rather obvious thing to say, but the reality of MMOs is not everyone plays with other people and some folks do treat these games like a single player one with a chat room. With Planetside 2 if you were to dip in to it purely from a solo perspective, then it’s likely to feel a bit harsh, certainly chaotic and much of the awesome is likely to be missed. The ebb and flow of Planetside 2’s campaign and any strategy or tactics being employed will be invisible if people just hit instant action, look for red names to shoot, don’t get involved and never actually work with their allies.
However, the first time you join up with other players for a defence or a coordinated attack on an enemy held facility… Oh my. It’s spectacular and one of my all time favourite PvP MMO experiences. I’ll talk about the campaign, classes, combat, etc another time, because for now I wanted to give you an example of what it actually feels like to play Planetside 2 when you properly take part in groups and cooperate with your allied players. What follows is a (badly written) retelling of a rumble we started not so long ago.
Logging in with my Vanu character, I spawned at the main Vanu warpgate and joined a group of players who were setting up with a Galaxy transport (large troop carrying VTOL aircraft) to attack a Terran held base (I forget which, sorry). The gunner positions were already taken and as such I would be a passenger for this trip, but from the chat it seemed like we had an organised bunch of chaps running the show, so I was hopeful for some fun. Shortly after, the Galaxy was fully loaded and we set off. It’s VTOL engines roaring to life as the Galaxy lurched upwards, made a smooth banking turn and accelerated in the direction of our target enemy facility. Looking around outside I noticed a couple of Scythe interceptors sweep in to formation alongside us, apparently providing a prearranged escort… Needless to say, this looked proper classy. I equipped my Pimp Hat of Atmospheric Awesomness+2.
It was a tense yet fairly uneventful journey, our gunners and escorts only had to deal with one or two enemy aircraft and within a few minutes our target was in sight. As we reached the enemy territory things started to get a bit trickier. The Galaxy was taking damage, mainly from AA below us. For a moment it was looking pretty damn dodgy and I was worried I’d be a helpless passenger plummeting to a fiery death in a blazing Galaxy. Thankfully the fighter escorts managed to draw enough attention to allow our pilot to make it down and land safely on the edge of the enemy base. It was a pretty defensible position he’d nabbed, there was practically no way enemy vehicles could get to us and there was a mountain to our rear providing some natural cover from being flanked. We all disembarked and started moving in to clear the enemy buildings. Meanwhile the Galaxy was deployed as a spawn point to give us a forward base for changing equipment and for our (inevitable) casualties to respawn . The Terrans were actively defending and we had a proper infantry battle on our hands, gunfire coming from defenders in multiple directions. There was much pewing, THWAPOWS! and so on. Initially we pushed the Terrans back a decent way from the Galaxy and for a few moments it looked like it might be over quick, but this was one rapidly escalating engagement. Not only did more and more Vanu spawn at the Galaxy, but absolutely shit loads of Terrans arrived to defend their facility.
It went bat shit crazy. There were lines of Vanu all over the place firing up at the Terrans who were in turn lined along the building’s roofs and windows returning fire. It was a charnel house of pixel death and it went on for ages with both sides going back and forth, gaining and losing ground. I don’t know the numbers, but this was a seriously large scrap and in bloody close quarters. And it just kept getting bigger. Other Galaxies came swooping down and deployed troops into the fight, a couple of them also squeezed in to deploy as spawns. The Terran numbers kept increasing and I was cackling with glee as it got more and more insane. It’s hard to explain quite how awesome that fight was. There was just so much atmosphere to it. Using the localised voice chat you’d hear players calling for medics or ammo, shouting warnings, calling for fire to be put down on this or that building, yelling about being flanked and so on. The air was full of tracer fire and explosions, and everything was… loud.
And then it went a whole other level of big bada boom. As night started to fall the Terrans decided enough was enough and a whole bloody squadron of Liberators (each a 3 crew bomber) was sent in to clear us out. We discovered this the hard way from; “BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!” Explosions everywhere… lots of dead Vanu. Ouch. The Terran infantry pushed forward, our Galaxy spawns got destroyed and suddenly our attack was decimated. I respawned at an outpost we’d captured nearby and ran back with my team, but then as we crested a hillside overlooking the Terran facility we skidded to a halt, stood still and watched, genuinely open-mouthed. Someone in chat summed it up with 4 letters. OMFG. All the Liberators (numbers = lots…) were hovering over the facility and spam bombing everything to buggery. Spam bombing… at night time for extra dramatic lighting effects, resulting in a fireworks display I’ve not seen the likes of since Apocalypse Now. It was incredible to watch and a classic gaming memory.
But it didn’t end there. The Vanu weren’t going to take this shit, oh no. The infamous Vanu Magrider Army (and friends) turned up. The Magrider is the Vanu’s main battle tank, it has 2 crew and looks very much like the 40k Eldar Falcon grav tank. I can’t speak for other servers, but on mine you’ll often see the Vanu using them in seriously large numbers. Double figures of Magriders, supported by Lightning tanks and Sunderer transports, all streaming towards the Terrans. Which would have been easy prey for the Liberators if it wasn’t for the Scythe interceptors streaking across the sky to attack the slow, clumsy Liberator bombers. Planes were falling out of the sky, tanks were laying the smack down, infantry were running between it all and shit was blowing up everywhere.
And then the New Conglomerate arrived, in heavy tanks and Sunderer troop transports. Lots of them. As Harold Bishop would say “ah…”. So we now had a complicated and bloody massive 3 way fight. Drama! What had started with one galaxy full of 12 infantry had escalated into a massive battle with seemingly hundreds of players and the group I had joined at random was the spark that had started it all. It was a little mind blowing really, as much as pixels can be anyway.
Of course this doesn’t happen all the time nonstop and there are most certainly moments where things get a little bitty as you’re in-between more purposeful engagements, but something like the above happens most nights when I’ve played for more than a few minutes. And you don’t even have to be in one of the big raid type platoons, you just need to get involved and pay attention to what’s going on. My friend Veno and I are often grouped just the two of us crewing a Magrider, but we still end up part of the Magrider Army and inevitably get drawn into all sorts of other situations. There’s already been so many epic tales to tell and it’s merely beta. Also it must be recognised that these kind of events can happen in any PvP orientated game, I could tell similar tales from WAR, DAoC or the old days in Ultima, but the difference with Planetside is how incredibly fluid it all is, how regular these fights are, the scale of it all, the intense visual and audio drama and how smooth the performance is throughout. My FPS stayed at around the 20-30 mark throughout all of this, even on my rather basic PC. No sign of a fortress defence Powerpoint presentation here… To be honest, how well this game performs with VAST numbers of players and total bloody carnage should embarrass pretty much every other MMO developer, unless it’s due to melee or something beyond my ken, they are all doing it wrong.
Another specific point I wanted to mention that adds to all of this is the bases themselves. They are huge, complex, involving and most importantly; relevant. The objectives you have to capture (or in some cases optionally destroy) are spread around the base and in certain rooms or areas, but there’s none of the typical MMO nonsense where most other buildings are just a box with a texture wrapped round it, instead these are buildings you will be fighting in, under and on top off. Everything and everywhere is a potential route to take, defend or hide in. This makes them much more atmospheric and entertaining to battle over. The only downside is there’s no destructible terrain, but then that would probably present too many issues in a game like this and for once I don’t mind.
So as a PvP experience, right now I would say Planetside 2 is right up there with the best. I honestly can’t fault it without being unreasonable and overly picky. That’s not to say there aren’t things I will criticise, as there are, but they’re not enough to detract from the game as an unrivalled dynamic PvP experience. OK except maybe EVE, but they’re doing such totally different things that I just don’t think you can compare the two. ;)
Saturday, 1 September 2012
Planetside 2 NDA lifted... Post 1 - Performance
OK so as the title says, Planetside 2's NDA is no more and I can now talk about the game. I'll be making a few posts about Planetside 2, but this first one is about client performance.
When I first started playing PS2 I had big concerns. The game itself seemed spot on, but it ran like shit for me and would quite often become unplayable slideshow style. Sometimes I'd be just about able to take part in small infantry fights with FPS of about 10 and very laggy player movement, but soon as the battles got more than small it just became horrible beyond words. Also it was completely impossible to fly any aircraft at all, suffering from a bad case of Powerpoint presentation. Now since I can run pretty much anything else on at least medium graphics, don't have performance issues and I can't afford to upgrade... this was a worry. So I talked with other folks on the beta and whilst they weren't immune to performance issues, they didn't have problems like I did. We went through our different PC specs and I worked out what my problem was; RAM and Windows version.
I started off with:
Q6600 (overclocked to 3.2ghz)
GTX260
4gb RAM (limited to 3.25gb because of my operating system)
Windows Vista (32bit)
I then installed a 64 bit version of windows and upped my RAM to 6gb. Changing it to:
Q6600 (overclocked to 3.2ghz)
GTX260
6gb RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit)
So a very minor upgrade and one that really just brings me up to basic standards...
The performance increase was monumental. First thing I did was jump into a Scythe fighter plane and discovered it was now absolutely fine to fly! Then I got into to some proper battles and all was well. FPS is hugely improved and the teleporting enemy player lag is completely gone. Happy Boots was happy. :) Since then SOE have made continual improvements to the game's performance and I have to say their work has been extremely impressive. My FPS varies between 15 and 60 depending on situation, with 15 being very unusual, most of the time in large scale battles I'm running at around 30 FPS which is perfectly fine for a low end system like mine. I was in a battle earlier that was mind-blowing in scale, there was masses of tanks, swarms of infantry and a sky packed with dueling aircraft. Contrails from jets covered the air like a ADHD kid scribbling after too much Sunny D, bombs exploded left right and center, tracer fire and just bat shit crazy sci-fi warfare could be seen all around. Yet the game ran perfectly.
I can quite honestly say I have never seen performance like this in any other large scale PvP MMO. Perhaps its because by the nature of the game people are just more spread out than in melee based games like WAR, DAoC, GW2, etc. Perhaps its something to do with the differences developers face between traditional lock target MMORPG spam 157 ability buttons combat and that which we see in a MMOFPS, but then Planetside 1 often ran like poo and I'm only guessing. So I don't know and nor do I care. What I do know is Planetside 2 is looking hugely promising for people with low end systems like mine.
Oh and the game itself is bloody awesome, but we'll get to that later.
When I first started playing PS2 I had big concerns. The game itself seemed spot on, but it ran like shit for me and would quite often become unplayable slideshow style. Sometimes I'd be just about able to take part in small infantry fights with FPS of about 10 and very laggy player movement, but soon as the battles got more than small it just became horrible beyond words. Also it was completely impossible to fly any aircraft at all, suffering from a bad case of Powerpoint presentation. Now since I can run pretty much anything else on at least medium graphics, don't have performance issues and I can't afford to upgrade... this was a worry. So I talked with other folks on the beta and whilst they weren't immune to performance issues, they didn't have problems like I did. We went through our different PC specs and I worked out what my problem was; RAM and Windows version.
I started off with:
Q6600 (overclocked to 3.2ghz)
GTX260
4gb RAM (limited to 3.25gb because of my operating system)
Windows Vista (32bit)
I then installed a 64 bit version of windows and upped my RAM to 6gb. Changing it to:
Q6600 (overclocked to 3.2ghz)
GTX260
6gb RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit)
So a very minor upgrade and one that really just brings me up to basic standards...
The performance increase was monumental. First thing I did was jump into a Scythe fighter plane and discovered it was now absolutely fine to fly! Then I got into to some proper battles and all was well. FPS is hugely improved and the teleporting enemy player lag is completely gone. Happy Boots was happy. :) Since then SOE have made continual improvements to the game's performance and I have to say their work has been extremely impressive. My FPS varies between 15 and 60 depending on situation, with 15 being very unusual, most of the time in large scale battles I'm running at around 30 FPS which is perfectly fine for a low end system like mine. I was in a battle earlier that was mind-blowing in scale, there was masses of tanks, swarms of infantry and a sky packed with dueling aircraft. Contrails from jets covered the air like a ADHD kid scribbling after too much Sunny D, bombs exploded left right and center, tracer fire and just bat shit crazy sci-fi warfare could be seen all around. Yet the game ran perfectly.
I can quite honestly say I have never seen performance like this in any other large scale PvP MMO. Perhaps its because by the nature of the game people are just more spread out than in melee based games like WAR, DAoC, GW2, etc. Perhaps its something to do with the differences developers face between traditional lock target MMORPG spam 157 ability buttons combat and that which we see in a MMOFPS, but then Planetside 1 often ran like poo and I'm only guessing. So I don't know and nor do I care. What I do know is Planetside 2 is looking hugely promising for people with low end systems like mine.
Oh and the game itself is bloody awesome, but we'll get to that later.
Wednesday, 15 August 2012
Hello again
Sooooo, Guild Wars 2 is about to launch. It will be a huge deal at launch, obviously, and I think it will do well after for a good while too. Not exactly a shocking statement I know, since no sub fee should by default ensure so. Of course like most of ya'll, also I know plenty of folks getting all excited about it. However I'm well and truly back to not bothering with it at all. I just don't have the time, I'm in 3 betas that I'm very keen on and I tend to dabble with those when I have time for gaming. So little point in spending £50 on a game I won't play at all.
Situation remains as it was... Only games on my eventual horizon are free to play anyway, Planetside 2 and Mechwarrior Online. There's still nothing else inspiring me, that I can talk about yet anyway ;) Well I say that, I will dabble with others, but don't let that count as me giving two turds about them. For example.......
Star Wars (SWTOR) is going free to play. Yeah, good move. I enjoyed it whilst I leveled through it and thought it was pretty good, as a single player game... It lacked interest and most importantly motivation to continue as a multiplayer game, so a sub fee was always going to become an annoyance. When it turns F2P then I will reinstall and dabble a bit, but can't see me spending any money on it. Sure plenty of folks will though, at least if BioWare are clever with their cash shop and don't make it too aggressive a sell, if you get what I mean.
Oh and Vanguard has gone F2P I believe. I've never played it, but I might try it out of curiosity. I'm not expecting much.
All this prompts a question... Why the fuck is WAR not going F2P? Seriously.
Situation remains as it was... Only games on my eventual horizon are free to play anyway, Planetside 2 and Mechwarrior Online. There's still nothing else inspiring me, that I can talk about yet anyway ;) Well I say that, I will dabble with others, but don't let that count as me giving two turds about them. For example.......
Star Wars (SWTOR) is going free to play. Yeah, good move. I enjoyed it whilst I leveled through it and thought it was pretty good, as a single player game... It lacked interest and most importantly motivation to continue as a multiplayer game, so a sub fee was always going to become an annoyance. When it turns F2P then I will reinstall and dabble a bit, but can't see me spending any money on it. Sure plenty of folks will though, at least if BioWare are clever with their cash shop and don't make it too aggressive a sell, if you get what I mean.
Oh and Vanguard has gone F2P I believe. I've never played it, but I might try it out of curiosity. I'm not expecting much.
All this prompts a question... Why the fuck is WAR not going F2P? Seriously.
Friday, 27 July 2012
Planetside 2 beta next week
Yup, it's been confirmed by John Smedley on twitter:
"@j_smedley THE BETA WILL START NEXT MON OR TUESDAY BARRING ANY UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES."
Whilst I don't do much in the way of gaming these days, I will be finding time to get a good chunk of Planetside 2 in. Oh yes. First beta I've actually been excited about in a looooooong time.
"@j_smedley THE BETA WILL START NEXT MON OR TUESDAY BARRING ANY UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES."
Whilst I don't do much in the way of gaming these days, I will be finding time to get a good chunk of Planetside 2 in. Oh yes. First beta I've actually been excited about in a looooooong time.
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
Thursday, 8 March 2012
Planetside 2 gameplay videos
OK so some lovely person has put loads of vids on youtube from the Planetside 2 presentation at GDC. Lots of in-game footage and explanations.
These videos may explain why it's Planetside 2 I'm looking forward to far more than Guild Wars 2...
Vehicle pad and flight video with accelerated day/night schedule
Direct link http://youtu.be/KSXXEOJUcG0?hd=1
Outdoor battles, all sorts of carnage
link http://youtu.be/KrA3LAAIOc4
Tanks, infantry, Galaxy transport :) , customising inventory, etc, etc
link http://youtu.be/rmWyIMXJEiI
Campaign map, more infantry stuff, base capture, stats, guilds, etc.
link http://youtu.be/ikSRA46-Ug8
Ground stuff, not much action in it but shows the style of some buildings, etc.
link http://youtu.be/NHbQDFsdXyk?hd=1
Some nice screenies here too.
These videos may explain why it's Planetside 2 I'm looking forward to far more than Guild Wars 2...
Vehicle pad and flight video with accelerated day/night schedule
Direct link http://youtu.be/KSXXEOJUcG0?hd=1
Outdoor battles, all sorts of carnage
link http://youtu.be/KrA3LAAIOc4
Tanks, infantry, Galaxy transport :) , customising inventory, etc, etc
link http://youtu.be/rmWyIMXJEiI
Campaign map, more infantry stuff, base capture, stats, guilds, etc.
link http://youtu.be/ikSRA46-Ug8
Ground stuff, not much action in it but shows the style of some buildings, etc.
link http://youtu.be/NHbQDFsdXyk?hd=1
Some nice screenies here too.
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
A mixture of hope and apathy
At the moment I’m kind of adrift on an uninspiring sea of MMORPGs. There’s no siren call strong enough to tempt me into paying a subscription fee, I’m just not finding anything particularly alluring. Too much of the same old same old I suppose. So instead I’m just fiddling about with single player and F2P stuff, whilst I wait for one of the more interesting online games on the horizon.
As always I am tempted to return to EVE, but also as always, it’s just not life style friendly enough for me and my regular AFKing. Alas, I can’t see me being able to play EVE the way I would like to anytime soon. Though it’s probably a positive thing that real life prevents me from doing so, as I know EVE can devour you like a Sarlacc with the munchies. For now I’m mainly playing Star Trek Online. Just nipping on for an hour here and there to play through episodes or missions and set my next batch of Duty Officer assignments running. It’s free to play, quite engaging and I’ve always had a soft spot for STO. That said, the game won’t ever be my long term MMO love affair, but is more of a regular casual flirtation, perhaps with the occasional tongue. Flashing eyes across the office, the odd late night drinking session, but not quite worth a divorce.
Oh, I've downloaded RIFT again and will dick about the free 1-20 bit. Not logged in yet.
The only other online game I’m playing at the moment is Tribes: Ascend. It’s free to play, the cash shop is not essential and most importantly, it’s fun. This reimagining of the classic Tribes 1 and 2 is getting better and better and I recommend people try it out. Just be warned that it is not like your normal online shooters. It’s MUCH faster and you have to learn to lead your shots a lot more than normal. It’s all about predicting people’s movement and it can take some getting used to. Anyway, it’s a good game and recommended.
At some point soon I will be making use of my 2 weeks free in both WAR and DAoC, but I doubt very much I would subscribe to either in the near future. Obviously I’m a fan of both games, or at least what they once were, it’s just that WAR would really need to do quite a lot to make up for the Wrath of Heroes disappointment. The less said about that the better. Actually, as I write this I’m changing my mind slightly regarding DAoC. There is a bit more chance that DAoC could persuade me to take up a month’s subscription. It did grab me last year, surprising me how well so many things still played and looked. I swear if that game had a decent UI update it could see a reasonable resurgence.
Aside from those retro distractions, for me it’s all about the upcoming games; Planetside 2 and Mechwarrior Online. There’s a load more Planetside 2 news appeared in the last couple of days, which I’ll gather up and post about soon. Mechwarrior is continuing to drip feed news at a slow steady rate, though we’re still waiting to see some in-game footage. I hear we may see something soon however. Mechwarrior isn’t a MMO of course, but this blog is about stuff that interest me, so meh whatever. Oh and Hawken looks great. Me like mechs.
Elsewhere, I’m not totally writing off Funcom’s “The Secret World”, yet I don’t find myself particularly caring about it either way. To be honest I’m not quite sure why. Despite my many misgivings regarding Funcom, I do like what they try to do and certainly TSW has many features that tick my boxes. My apathy confuses me slightly. If I don’t get on the beta then I doubt I will try it until well after launch.
And on the subject of apathy… If for a moment I take off my Hat of Trolling+3, yes Guild Wars 2 has much potential and does look like some serious PvP goodness. That doesn’t change the fact that it will never be a game I get excited about and I still find it hard to motivate myself to write about it, but it’s certainly one I would like to see realise its PvP potential. Obviously Kill Frenzy and I will try it out.
Hopefully sometime soon we’ll start to get more news on Dark Millennium Online and World of Darkness. Both games are perceived as being on rather rough seas, what with the challenges faced by THQ and CCP, but I guess we just have to wait and see what news arrives. I still have high hopes for both games, purely due to their settings. Actually that’s not true. I have some confidence in CCP to deliver something interesting and hopefully sandboxy. Plus THQ have some excellent 40k games in their stable, so we know they’ll do the 40k universe credit when it comes to atmosphere at least.
I think that’s it for major MMOs of interest to me, can’t think of anything else. There are a few small games I have an eye on, but they’ll get posts of their own at some point. Oh and for the record, Diablo 3 I’m indifferent to and World of Warcraft Panda bear stuff just doesn’t work for me. Sorry Blizzard, as if you care lol :D
As always I am tempted to return to EVE, but also as always, it’s just not life style friendly enough for me and my regular AFKing. Alas, I can’t see me being able to play EVE the way I would like to anytime soon. Though it’s probably a positive thing that real life prevents me from doing so, as I know EVE can devour you like a Sarlacc with the munchies. For now I’m mainly playing Star Trek Online. Just nipping on for an hour here and there to play through episodes or missions and set my next batch of Duty Officer assignments running. It’s free to play, quite engaging and I’ve always had a soft spot for STO. That said, the game won’t ever be my long term MMO love affair, but is more of a regular casual flirtation, perhaps with the occasional tongue. Flashing eyes across the office, the odd late night drinking session, but not quite worth a divorce.
Oh, I've downloaded RIFT again and will dick about the free 1-20 bit. Not logged in yet.
The only other online game I’m playing at the moment is Tribes: Ascend. It’s free to play, the cash shop is not essential and most importantly, it’s fun. This reimagining of the classic Tribes 1 and 2 is getting better and better and I recommend people try it out. Just be warned that it is not like your normal online shooters. It’s MUCH faster and you have to learn to lead your shots a lot more than normal. It’s all about predicting people’s movement and it can take some getting used to. Anyway, it’s a good game and recommended.
At some point soon I will be making use of my 2 weeks free in both WAR and DAoC, but I doubt very much I would subscribe to either in the near future. Obviously I’m a fan of both games, or at least what they once were, it’s just that WAR would really need to do quite a lot to make up for the Wrath of Heroes disappointment. The less said about that the better. Actually, as I write this I’m changing my mind slightly regarding DAoC. There is a bit more chance that DAoC could persuade me to take up a month’s subscription. It did grab me last year, surprising me how well so many things still played and looked. I swear if that game had a decent UI update it could see a reasonable resurgence.
Aside from those retro distractions, for me it’s all about the upcoming games; Planetside 2 and Mechwarrior Online. There’s a load more Planetside 2 news appeared in the last couple of days, which I’ll gather up and post about soon. Mechwarrior is continuing to drip feed news at a slow steady rate, though we’re still waiting to see some in-game footage. I hear we may see something soon however. Mechwarrior isn’t a MMO of course, but this blog is about stuff that interest me, so meh whatever. Oh and Hawken looks great. Me like mechs.
Elsewhere, I’m not totally writing off Funcom’s “The Secret World”, yet I don’t find myself particularly caring about it either way. To be honest I’m not quite sure why. Despite my many misgivings regarding Funcom, I do like what they try to do and certainly TSW has many features that tick my boxes. My apathy confuses me slightly. If I don’t get on the beta then I doubt I will try it until well after launch.
And on the subject of apathy… If for a moment I take off my Hat of Trolling+3, yes Guild Wars 2 has much potential and does look like some serious PvP goodness. That doesn’t change the fact that it will never be a game I get excited about and I still find it hard to motivate myself to write about it, but it’s certainly one I would like to see realise its PvP potential. Obviously Kill Frenzy and I will try it out.
Hopefully sometime soon we’ll start to get more news on Dark Millennium Online and World of Darkness. Both games are perceived as being on rather rough seas, what with the challenges faced by THQ and CCP, but I guess we just have to wait and see what news arrives. I still have high hopes for both games, purely due to their settings. Actually that’s not true. I have some confidence in CCP to deliver something interesting and hopefully sandboxy. Plus THQ have some excellent 40k games in their stable, so we know they’ll do the 40k universe credit when it comes to atmosphere at least.
I think that’s it for major MMOs of interest to me, can’t think of anything else. There are a few small games I have an eye on, but they’ll get posts of their own at some point. Oh and for the record, Diablo 3 I’m indifferent to and World of Warcraft Panda bear stuff just doesn’t work for me. Sorry Blizzard, as if you care lol :D
Thursday, 5 January 2012
New Planetside 2 video
And it's got some good solid in-game action to view :) Also it looks like the game has a proper day/night cycle where it actually gets dark. I like that, I like that a LOT. It just adds so much more atmosphere to any MMO, particularly when combined with weather effects. Of course that's only a tiny thing in the overall picture of if a game will be good or not, but it's a little thing that works for me :)
It's looking like we'll start getting a lot more PS2 news soon.
It's looking like we'll start getting a lot more PS2 news soon.
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Skyrim, MMOs and dead eyes.
This is a really good post I saw linked on G+ today: I do not wish for an Elder Scrolls MMO. Go have a read, once you're done here. ;)
I compared the atmosphere and sense of place that Skyrim has with MMOs recently, but I too wouldn't want to see Bethseda make the next Elder Scrolls game as an MMO, they're too good at making single player games and we still need to have quality single player games. What I would like to see is some MMO developers be a bit more influenced by games like Skyrim and less by the long standing traditions of firmly rooted spawn camps merely existing to service questing and/or grinding. As really all we get in the vast majority of games are worlds that quickly start to feel sterile and lifeless with their soulless automaton mobs and overall static nature. I'd just like something that wee bit more alive. Which is considerably easier for me to type than for some poor sod to make reality of course, but there you go.
One of the reasons I was quite enamored with RIFT was it almost did this, well, ok "almost" is a bit much... lets just say it at least it tried a little bit. The rifts added a nice random and chaotic element to things, but unfortunately that was still overlayed on the standard essentially static game world and actually the impact of the rifts was lacking at level 50. I know when SWTOR arrives it will also be the same and once the nice new glow from all those sabers wears off I'll probably notice the game staring at me with sinister dead eyes.
Though as I've said many times before regarding SWTOR, I am looking forward to it, but thanks to my slightly jaded/tired (or perhaps experienced?) state I'm not super hyped or anything. It will be the same again and that's no bad thing, it just is what it is.
To be honest though whilst I'm a bit tired of the status quo, that doesn't mean developers should do much different to the WoW winning forumla. It still sells after all. Perhaps I'm just experiencing the symptoms of having played too many MMOs since Ultima. It's no coincidence that the true faction based RvR games (DAoC & WAR) were the ones that held my attention the longest, as I think that higher level and complexity of player interaction in those games distracts from how sterile I often find the PvE side of MMOs to be.
Ah well, bring on Planetside 2 :)
I compared the atmosphere and sense of place that Skyrim has with MMOs recently, but I too wouldn't want to see Bethseda make the next Elder Scrolls game as an MMO, they're too good at making single player games and we still need to have quality single player games. What I would like to see is some MMO developers be a bit more influenced by games like Skyrim and less by the long standing traditions of firmly rooted spawn camps merely existing to service questing and/or grinding. As really all we get in the vast majority of games are worlds that quickly start to feel sterile and lifeless with their soulless automaton mobs and overall static nature. I'd just like something that wee bit more alive. Which is considerably easier for me to type than for some poor sod to make reality of course, but there you go.
 |
| OK this screenie is not an example of anything except pretty, but meh, I like pretty. |
One of the reasons I was quite enamored with RIFT was it almost did this, well, ok "almost" is a bit much... lets just say it at least it tried a little bit. The rifts added a nice random and chaotic element to things, but unfortunately that was still overlayed on the standard essentially static game world and actually the impact of the rifts was lacking at level 50. I know when SWTOR arrives it will also be the same and once the nice new glow from all those sabers wears off I'll probably notice the game staring at me with sinister dead eyes.
 |
| Lots of undead eyes in Skyrim. |
Though as I've said many times before regarding SWTOR, I am looking forward to it, but thanks to my slightly jaded/tired (or perhaps experienced?) state I'm not super hyped or anything. It will be the same again and that's no bad thing, it just is what it is.
To be honest though whilst I'm a bit tired of the status quo, that doesn't mean developers should do much different to the WoW winning forumla. It still sells after all. Perhaps I'm just experiencing the symptoms of having played too many MMOs since Ultima. It's no coincidence that the true faction based RvR games (DAoC & WAR) were the ones that held my attention the longest, as I think that higher level and complexity of player interaction in those games distracts from how sterile I often find the PvE side of MMOs to be.
Ah well, bring on Planetside 2 :)
Friday, 11 November 2011
Planetside 2 videos
Latest is this one showing off some New Conglomerate designs.
Then there's also a vid for the Terran Republic. I'm liking the look of that heavy assault armour.
Should be a vid for the Vanu Sovereignty soon I guess.
Then there's also a vid for the Terran Republic. I'm liking the look of that heavy assault armour.
Should be a vid for the Vanu Sovereignty soon I guess.
Monday, 26 September 2011
Bits and MMO bobs
Right now I'm in that slightly awkward phase between MMO obsessions, so my attention is leaping all over the place as I hawk around for news on something to inspire me. So since my head is all random, here's a few random bits and bobs of MMO news I've read lately and felt like commenting on...
World of Darkness, CCP's vampire MMO (same setting as the legendary Vampire The Masquerade RPG), is going to have perma-death. Interesting, bold and a little surprising, but then CCP do have slightly bigger balls than most developers. Though apparently you'll get plenty of warning and opportunity to prevent it, so I'm not sure quite how much of a risk it is, yet it will at least be a genuine possibility.
Also, and this I didn't see coming, in World of Darkness you'll be able to play as a human?! I'm not sure why anyone would want to with the range of different vampire types in that setting (from bestial mingers, to psycho killers, to kinky boot beasts). Presumably there's something fancy planned there. Very little info out there about this game at the moment, but it's one I'm very keen on hearing more about.
On the WAR front the only glimmer we have is the line "And next year we are about encounter bloodlust in an additional way.", which I expect to be the Sylvannia stuff appearing in some form. It irritates me that something like this isn't appearing now, it would make so much difference to the game. Mythic desperately need to speed up their patch cycle. Dramatically.
Planetside 2 will be F2P. Instantly we could choose to start worrying about it being pay2win, but actually I'm not that concerned. The original Planetside's level system didn't work like most MMOs, in that instead of levels giving you power, they gave you options. It allowed you access to a wider range of weapons and vehicles that gave you options in what kind of gameplay you experienced, but it didn't make you better as such. For example the big MAX suits had huge weaponry and armour, but their mobility was terrible. A basic agile armoured infantry set up would still be lethal if played to it's strengths. So I am hoping that the cash shop (I presume it will have one) will sell options rather than power. This remains the big hope for my next long term game, unless SWTOR proves to have long term appeal.
Star Wars The Old Republic has a release date of 20th/22nd December US/EU. No news yet on the head start dates, presumably a good few days beforehand. I just hope people with boxed pre-orders (like me) are given a download option because having to rely on the post at that time of year is less than ideal.
It's a funny time to release the game really, I assume its being done to further break up people logging in (combined with the staggered launch malarkey) to help Bioware with a smooth launch. If it's not nigh on perfect there will be much rage spewing across the internet. Personally I don't care much, it gives me plenty of time with Skyrim :P I do feel sorry for those Bioware employees and their families that have effectively had Christmas cancelled.
Outside of MMOs, because THEY ARE NOT MMOs (Massively I am looking at you), I'm intrigued to see the makers of World of Tanks developing both World of Battleships and World of Warplanes. WoT is a very good game, if a little too cash shop dependent, and as someone with a Silent Hunter addiction, I'm particularly intrigued to see what Wargaming.net can do with the big shooty ships. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be World of Battleshops.
World of Darkness, CCP's vampire MMO (same setting as the legendary Vampire The Masquerade RPG), is going to have perma-death. Interesting, bold and a little surprising, but then CCP do have slightly bigger balls than most developers. Though apparently you'll get plenty of warning and opportunity to prevent it, so I'm not sure quite how much of a risk it is, yet it will at least be a genuine possibility.
Also, and this I didn't see coming, in World of Darkness you'll be able to play as a human?! I'm not sure why anyone would want to with the range of different vampire types in that setting (from bestial mingers, to psycho killers, to kinky boot beasts). Presumably there's something fancy planned there. Very little info out there about this game at the moment, but it's one I'm very keen on hearing more about.
On the WAR front the only glimmer we have is the line "And next year we are about encounter bloodlust in an additional way.", which I expect to be the Sylvannia stuff appearing in some form. It irritates me that something like this isn't appearing now, it would make so much difference to the game. Mythic desperately need to speed up their patch cycle. Dramatically.
Planetside 2 will be F2P. Instantly we could choose to start worrying about it being pay2win, but actually I'm not that concerned. The original Planetside's level system didn't work like most MMOs, in that instead of levels giving you power, they gave you options. It allowed you access to a wider range of weapons and vehicles that gave you options in what kind of gameplay you experienced, but it didn't make you better as such. For example the big MAX suits had huge weaponry and armour, but their mobility was terrible. A basic agile armoured infantry set up would still be lethal if played to it's strengths. So I am hoping that the cash shop (I presume it will have one) will sell options rather than power. This remains the big hope for my next long term game, unless SWTOR proves to have long term appeal.
Star Wars The Old Republic has a release date of 20th/22nd December US/EU. No news yet on the head start dates, presumably a good few days beforehand. I just hope people with boxed pre-orders (like me) are given a download option because having to rely on the post at that time of year is less than ideal.
It's a funny time to release the game really, I assume its being done to further break up people logging in (combined with the staggered launch malarkey) to help Bioware with a smooth launch. If it's not nigh on perfect there will be much rage spewing across the internet. Personally I don't care much, it gives me plenty of time with Skyrim :P I do feel sorry for those Bioware employees and their families that have effectively had Christmas cancelled.
Outside of MMOs, because THEY ARE NOT MMOs (Massively I am looking at you), I'm intrigued to see the makers of World of Tanks developing both World of Battleships and World of Warplanes. WoT is a very good game, if a little too cash shop dependent, and as someone with a Silent Hunter addiction, I'm particularly intrigued to see what Wargaming.net can do with the big shooty ships. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be World of Battleshops.
Friday, 8 July 2011
Planetside 2 trailer released
Many of us had started to suspect that the hacker problems for Sony and SOE may have meant the death of Planetside 2. But oh joy, its hasn't. The first proper trailer is out.
This for any serious PvP MMO gamer is a big deal. 3 faction RvR and no PvE, this is a strategic combat game and if its half as good as the original then we could be in for a treat. The video may not look that amazing to someone who didn't experience the original, but take my word for it, this has massive potential.
Kill Frenzy will be playing Planetside 2, of that there is no question at all.
HD link on Youtube here.
This for any serious PvP MMO gamer is a big deal. 3 faction RvR and no PvE, this is a strategic combat game and if its half as good as the original then we could be in for a treat. The video may not look that amazing to someone who didn't experience the original, but take my word for it, this has massive potential.
Kill Frenzy will be playing Planetside 2, of that there is no question at all.
HD link on Youtube here.
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About Me
- Bootae
- Half man half pixel. Music obsessive, likes a drink, occasional bastard.