Planetside 2’s reveal

Planetside 2’s big reveal was yesterday.  SoE revealed the logo, some eye candy, and a first look at gameplay.

After seeing the Tribes Ascend trailer, there’s huge pressure on Planetside 2.  These two fall into very similar camps in my book because they are both scifi shooters with base elements and most likely character progression of some sort.  At first, I was watching the PS2 video thinking it looked a little dull with stationary people pew pewing back and forth.  Then the scope of the scene was a little more clear as the defense of that big base reminded me of the original PS.  Base taking was the gist of the game.  These big battles and standoffs were the memorable moments.  Just youtube some big planetside videos with squadrons of ships flying in and fleets of vehicles… it gets pretty epic.

I think the key to remember here is that Planetside 2 is an actual MMO.  Thousands of players battling together simultaneously and persistent world objectives that are never safe and can be taken any time lead to a world that feels way more dynamic than arranged fights or established 12v12.  For a MMO FPS to succeed it must be this way.  According to the PS2 FAQ, everything is lined up in words.  If they fail to deliver a truly 100% vulnerable all the time world with the ability to outnumber your opponents and sweep across the world for total domination then they will fall flat.  This is what sets apart the real memorable games from the pretenders.

I’m excited for this one to hit beta.  If it lives up to what I can imagine it being, Tribes Ascend won’t be able to keep up.

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  • I’ve been a huge critic of Smedley, mainly because I think he is a weasel, and I have not touched an SOE product in years, but I must admit; this looks fucking amazing.

  • Planetside is one of the games that managed to escape the normal SOE fate, although I’m sure some fans will disagree when they added the Aftershock expansion.

    Nevertheless, this will be an awesome game. Tribes is a game put more in the category of Battlefield anyway.

  • Tribes as we have known it is more “battlefield”, yes. However, with Hi-Rez in charge it’s inevitable that they slap a “MMO” tag on it somewhere and try to make it compete.

  • Hopefully station cash and any other f2p or MT garbage stays out of PS2 (Next) whatever you want to call it.

    I doubt it though..

  • Just to clarify, Hi-Rez never claimed that Tribes -Ascend- would be an MMO in any way, it’s an online shooter and nothing more.

    Tribes -Universe- is the MMO, believe it or not they are two seperate games.

    As for PS2, well, I can’t say much more than I’m already sold.

  • @jikilo: We’ll see. I’ve already seen the buzzword marketing for this to be more than just like Tribes.

  • Looking forward to this one as well. Played the hell out of the first Planetside. It was amazing fun with 4 or 5 of my friends back when we LAN partied every Saturday. The LAN party days are behind us, unfortunately…

  • It would be fun to hop back in to the world of Planetside. Hope they don’t mess it up.

  • For some reason i cant see this game being as good as we will all Hope. I have learnt a lot from past “Good” Trailers, and cant see this Happening the way they show at all. But that doesn’t mean i Don’t want it to happen.

  • In the first planetside there was 1k vs 1k battles quite frequently, I hope it still occurs in planetside 2.. Was pretty epic with aircraft dog fighting overhead, vehicles on the ground and hundreds of soldiers charging at each other.

  • I would’ve prefer if you took Planetside 2 for what it is and not already try to compare it with games that is not even out, and i sense a clear anti-hirez/global agenda sentiment going here .

    Might be a good idea to write a detailed piece on what Planetside 1 is actually about and what you expect to be better in Planetside 2 [considering Planetside 1 was not exactly a run away success, it was niche and basically just chugged along quietly] .

    Tribes:A is going to be F2P, so whether they call it MMO or FPS or hybrid, doesn’t matter. What is SOE going to do? They’ve kept Planetside 1 subscription based to this day, kinda like Vanguard, was it worth it? Does it make sense to put a subscripton on these kinda of FPS games that might not revolve around “quests” and “content” but rather on a distinct requirement to have alot of active players?

  • I agree with Silver in that I just don’t see the need to compare the two games.
    I have no interest at all in the small-scale, skating silliness of Tribes in any form but the giant battles, true MMO perpetual war of Planetside means I’ve been waiting for a sequel for a long time.

    I’ll be looking in on this game as it approaches and diving into the beta if possible.

  • Looks pretty funky and I especially like the graphics – a mix blend of realism and cartoon. After having enjoyed the original Planetside all of those years ago I’m pretty keen to see what this one has to offer. Hope it’s good 😉

  • So is this one huge world with many different areas to hold or just a ton of individual maps? Does your character remain and progress in gear, weapons, powers, etc.?

  • @Silver/Intruder: No need to sperg out guys. The reason I am comparing PS2 with Tribes Ascend is because I am not made of money. If these two games release anywhere near each other their similarities would weight HEAVILY on my mind. If you’re trying to tell me there are no similarities… gimme a break. They’re both scifi FPS games, one just happens to (hopefully) be worked into a persistent world vs. a match style. I’m seasoned enough in both originals to stand by what I say.

    @Russel: It’s not all entirely one world, but it’s not individual maps like a Tribes or a Counter Strike game. I don’t know how Planetside 2 will work, but the original had large areas for 1k vs. 1k battles, lots of vehicles, etc., and you get to them via massive gates/portals. You feel like you’re in a large connected world.

  • Man, as long as i can be in a dropship and jump out with a ton of other guys to take a base. then im set as that was always my favorite part of PS.

  • When they were talking about the game engine – Forgelight, they said it would be a massive seamless world and stressed no more zones. Forgelight is the same engine they are using in development of EQ Next btw.
    They also noted territory control will allow access to different resources and a massive certification tree that covers everything from personal gear to vehicles along with a limited to battle rank offline advancement.

    The Forgelight engine is also purported to allow scaling for older computers.

  • @Joy-Energiser: Yeah I’ve been following it. Awesome ideas on paper, but the same thing happens every time a game comes from the Asian market to ours: disappointment.