Planetside
We preview one of the year's most ambitious and original releases.
The quality of the graphics are among the strongest points of Planetside, and Verant have custom designed and built a brand new engine to power it; after all, a game of Planetside’s ambitions is certain to need some quite unique technology. Planetside will have many areas for players to explore, not only vast open plains but cities, underground facilities, bases and various other internal and external environments. The avatars themselves look spectacular too, with each player design standing out as a piece of art (even inside their huge armour suits). It does remind one a little of Halo, but so would any FPS that looks this good. Verant obviously do not want their game to be ruined by a slack graphics engine. I do wonder though, if perhaps this could be a little power hungry? I certainly do not have an uber-PC by any means. Can I still play the game? Verant seem to think so, their engine, spectacular as it is, should allow almost anyone currently playing Everquest to join in. Seems a mammoth task to me, lets hope they can pull it off. Or at least implement an engine that can scale appropriately to the players system.
Related
Verant have commented on how difficult it is to have a story in a MMOFPS, after all some people just want to be able to pick up and play, however Verant have made a sterling effort here. There is just enough story line for RPG enthusiasts to follow and just enough to be ignored by all the trigger happy TFC players who will be sure to join in and don’t want their action to be dulled by a heavy plot line. The story is a simple affair of a world that is at war. The major land-masses are split between three ‘empires’ who are at a constant struggle for domination. You, as a player must choose your allegiance before you start the game. You can of course switch sides later on, but there are penalties for such actions (described later). The Empires are as follows:
The Terran Republic:
The Humans of this planet have always lusted after complete control, now they have their aim within their grasp. Utilising their technology, skills and weaponry the humans will have to work fast if they are to attain their ultimate prize; domination.
The New Conglomerate:
This highly aggressive, technologically advanced race have no qualms about killing and murdering in the name of warfare. They show little compassion and no mercy, they will stop at nothing to reach their goal of annihilating all others, until entire rule of the planet is theirs.
Comments
Nice review can't wait for this game!
I've never played a MMORPG, due mostly to the fact that I enjoy clan matches and the friendship that it entails. Will Planetside have a system in place to form clans and have wars against other clans ? It would seem that joining an alliance would be similar to a clan but on a larger scale, is there any place in the game for smaller clan based wars ?
JB
This game looks so high-tech. Its going to be uber when it actually comes out. I've been wanting to play something like this eversince EQ, and now its finally in the making. Ah, this is gonna be sweet.
It would seem that you can join smaller 'teams' within each empire... this could lead to two teams from the same empire fighting, although there will most probably be a penalty for such actions.... but the option is there if you choose to take it!
An elitist comment but it is about time that games stopped pandering the lowest common denominator of connection. Games like Planetside need adsl / cable and it owuld be a better and braver game if it was specced up to 1ghz and broadband
This is all arse-kicking goodness. I've been following the game since it's announcement and I'm still hooked.
It's not a Mmorpg, it's a Mmofps
;)
PLANETSIDE!!!
I've been watching this game grow since 2000 and still can't wait till its finished.
Got 1 thing to say. It is going to be in my computer game stockpile the second it comes out!
Yes. If you visit the PlanetSide website and check out the FAQ, you can see that you can group together a small group of ppl, and group this with other groups, or even start you own erm... Forgot what it's called. Same thing as a Clan or Guild, but they call it something else...
Also; team based competitions - like Capture the Flag...
If you fight someone within your own empire, this is known as grief play and is punished. Manouvering around the place in vehicles it made slower (hence making you easier to shoot at), weapons take longer to reload and so on... Continous grief play leads to a suspension or complete ban from the game...
cool
this game is awsome
Planet side looks VERY GOOD and I am thinking about getting it, I belive MMORPG's are the best type of games, what you think
If anyone here plays Gunbound try and find me.