Planetside

Rating:
Summary: Planetside - 1 year later
Review: Damn you, planetside! You've ruined me forever!

Back in the day, I used to brag about playing on 32-player Unreal Tournament servers. After Planetside, those are just too small. I just can't handle playing a game with under 300 players online at once. I tried UT2k3 a couple months ago, and the graphics were great. But it was boring - only 16 on the server. So I went back to PlanetSide, and was immediately in my happy place.

The game requires some interdependence with your teammates. You need engineers to repair your body armor & fix your tank; you need medics for healing; you need tanks to charge the enemy; you need snipers to suppress the enemeny infantry & snipers; you need cloakers to sneak in & cripple enemy defenses; you need bombers to soften the enemy positions before the big rush; you need troop transports to drop soldiers behind enemy lines (paratroopers); you need air defenses. Nobody can do everything, so people end up finding the roles they enjoy and contribute to the whole war effort. I'm currently rebuilding my main character into a tank-driving sniper.

Its well known that Sony released Planetside too early. They tried competing with their own Star Wars MMORPG, so they shoved it out the door too quickly. Early player experiences were rough. But the PlanetSide team has definately improved the game. Its much more stable; more equipment has been added. Strategies have been changed. Large online games like this are always being tweaked by the designers, and Planetside is no different. The developers are very active on the forums explaining new things, asking for feedback, and taking requests. Several well-thought-out player requests have made it into the game.

The hardware requirements for Planetside are immense. You need on the order of 1.5Ghz+, and around 1 GB RAM. A high-end video card helps a lot. Before buying, I would try downloading the 7-day trial. You'll lose yer character at the end, but you'll get to find out if your box can play before throwing down some cash.

I saw a few people complain about the "missing" single-player game. THERE IS NO SINGLE PLAYER GAME IN PLANETSIDE. If it moves, its another player. The only AI in the game is in stationary turrets; everything else is player-controlled. No bots; ever. You've gotta be able to handle getting smacked down by other people. And you've gotta be able to try returning the smack. If Player-vs-Player sounds scary (it does to some of my friends) then you might wanna try somethign else. But if pure PvP sounds interesting, then Planetside is probably your game.

Rating:
Summary: where's the single player mode?
Review: I consider myself a true, dedicated fan of all sci-fi and fantasy games. Usually when a game comes out that has on-line/campaign mode, there is a single player mode for those of us non "on line" player, people who just like to play against the A.I. So to speak. So when I seen this game and the beauty of it I said, WOW! Looked for a sign that said single players.....NOPE! After I bought it I got a surprise of my life...Just on-line and for on line use only! I know some of the on line games such as never winter nights or half life are either single player or multi-player....boy I wish this was! I would've been happy if it would have been. Now it just gathers dust in a corner somewhere. So thank you Sony entertainment for nothing!

Rating:
Summary: A great game....for a great system
Review: Graphics-The graphics are middle of the pack. You can turn them up very high but your framerate will go down

Sound- Best music for a game I have heard yet.

Gameplay- They are adding new content all the time. Massive battles, all you want in a FPS.

Cons- Framerate issues. Don't listen to the recommended 512mb RAM, the game uses at least 800mb RAM. I played it with 256mb RAM and in a massive battle my framerates would be sub 10. With all graphics on low. For XP users you don't have to purchase the game. Go to their website and you can download the game, get 30 days free and subscribe from that point. Also a 7-day Free Trial at Fileplanet.

Rating:
Summary: Massive Halo with a bit of RPG mixed in
Review: I'm not gonna rave to much about this game. I can't, really. I only played it for one day (it sucked me in for about 5 hours) at a friends house. Still, I'm gonna rave a little.

The game is great. But before I state what I like, let me shoot down what other people dislike.

Graphics- Yeah, the graphics aren't incredible, though they're pretty good. The vehicles could use a few touch ups and some other stuff needs a bit of improvement, but that can be fixed very quickly with patches. Remember, this is a MMOG, and it has to work for a lot of different kinds of computers. The graphics can't be perfect because not everybody's computer is perfect.

Size- Somebody complained that there were never big fights, "Like sony promised." I played for five hours and got into fights with at least 100 other players. That's incredibly huge. How big the fight is depends on where you are, what time you go online, and what your definition of huge is. If you're expecting a thousand people to be online at all times, ready to fight over one base alone and battle grimly to the death several times, you're going to be disappointed. But that's the point of the game. Those thousands of people are spread throughout a vast world and you can choose where you want to fight. The game doesn't have to be a brute war. It can be a dogfight in the air, an artillery battle between tanks, a 1 on 1 hunt through a base, whatever you want it to be. But be realistic- 100 people all fighting each other is incredible, but 1000 would be too much to ask.

My turn to rave: Great graphics (considering), great gameplay, great idea, great execution. Your character improves when you do, so the game doesn't become a click fest. Those who are good at first person shooters will be very useful, but anybody can be a useful member of the team, even by having something as simple as the necessary points to fly a transport. The game revolves around teamwork (not as much as I'd like, but enough).

The only turnoff is the price. The standard fee is around $180 a year (sorry if I'm wrong, last time I checked it was), plus $45 for the game and expansion.

The other problem is that the game may be a little TOO massive. It took me a long time to get where I wanted to go, so I ended up waiting for a ride a lot. Because of this, the masses of people were spread out in a huge world, and I rarely found a good gigantic battle. This problem is remedied by the Instant Action button, which transports you to the biggest fight on the map. Also, it became a little redundant because many of the bases use the same map.

Overall, it's a great game and a lot of fun.

Rating:
Summary: Best FPS ever, not so good MMP
Review: PlanetSide is the best FPS I have ever played. It has good graphics, better then Halo but worse then Quake III. It has great action and gameplay. I can easily spend hours defending a base, attacking bases, or ninja hacking. The sound is excellent. In fact sometimes I listen to the mp3 files when I'm not playing.

It has a ton of equipment. Several vehicles, some of which fly. They also have several roles that any players can take.

Battle Rank only effects how much equipment you can use, which I think is a good thing.

My big issue with the game is the cost. I think it should be $5 a month. As it is now it is far too expensive, especially with expansion packs.

The main reason I disagree with the monthly cost is the lack of added content in a month. Sure, it costs money to keep the servers running, but not that much. Blizzard keeps RTS and RPG servers running for free and they both store more data then PlanetSide.

I give it a 4 out of 10.

Player Information:

Legume of Emerald (Pre and Post beta)

Rating:
Summary: I've been conned
Review: I've been playing Planetside for a while now - and I really feel as if I've been conned, sucked in by the marketing and spat out when I've paid my subscription.

I'm lucky enough to have a machine powerful enough and up-to-date enough to run Planetside smoothly and without any problems so my issues are not with performance. My issues are with the game-play itself.

You're promised enormous battles with thousands of other online players - but these never happen - you get a few dozen in the scrum at most.

And what is the point of fighting anyway? You get involved in a battle to take an installation only to find that the next time you logon - it's been taken back buy one of the other empires. So why did you bother?

You can never make a difference to your empire's influence on the world and you can't advance your own avatar into someone who can. So you'll always be a grunt in an army of grunts.

There is no sense of satisfaction of playing Planetside. You fight. You gain a bit of ground. You die. You re-spawn. You fight for the same bit of ground. Ad infinitum. Oh, and Sony charge for the privilege too.

I've been conned. Clever Sony. Stupid me.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Game
Review: Okay, first of all the game is awesome, but I gave it only 4 stars because the graphics are not top-notch but good.

Gameplay:
Gameplay is alot of fun, although it can get annoying the first couple of times you play the game because without any upgrades it takes along time to get around. The unique upgrade system alows you to upgrade your character, and get access to new weapons and vehicles.

Performance:
I have a (decent) cable interent connection and the game runs great with no lag. The computers perfomance is great also, make sure you have at least 1 gig of ram if you want to run the game of full detail though. (512mb is playable, but have to keep graphics down.)

Graphics:
Some of the models are plain, and textures get reused alot. (this is why I gave it only 4 stars, I compare it to newer shooters like MOHAA, or UT2K3)Although, at a decent resolution, and all the goodies turned on, it is a pretty nice looking game.

Playability:
What can I say, if you have played FPS games before you will be fine, the learning curve is very easy with very few extra buttons to memorize.

Sound:
Aint nothin' like a missle flying by you in surround sound. The game sounds beautiful.

Overview: The game holds it own in all respects with new enhancements and auto-updates often, so the game runs/plays/and looks great. The action in the battles is intense, and the squad based action also adds a cool new twist to the game.So if you can tackle the monthly payments, and have a computer that that can handle it, (most important being amount of ram) this is definitely a game to check out.

Rating:
Summary: you either like it or you don't
Review: The game is one of the best games out there. Well in my opinion it is. You my not like it, It is for the extreem First Person Shooter fan and I mean it.
The game gets a bit laggy at times if you dont have the right amount of ram "512". But once you get that it runs smoothly.
To tell the truth im addicted to it. I'm low in battle rank but it is so fun to gloat to the deceased and weak. So you either like it or you don't.

Rating:
Summary: Frustrating, yet highly addictive
Review: I've been playing this game for over a month and although there are times of incredible frustration, I can't seem to stop playing.

First of all, for those of you unfamiliar with this game, it is unlike any other game out there right now.

It's unlike a typical MMORPG as there is no mind-numbing exp treadmill to waste away countless hours of one's life on. Gaining exp to learn new skill often goes quickly, but isn't absolutley neccessary to have fun as new players are given enough "certification points" to cert in a decent weapon/vehicle/skill, etc., as an utter noob.

It is also unlike any other first person shooter out there in that the servers are massive. No 16 players max limit (which ruins what would otherwise have been great games, i.e. Halo). Battles often escalate from a handfull of players fighting with carried weaponry (rifles, etc.) to a full scale, hours long, all out war with a 100+ players from all three empires. This is when the game really shows it's unique and addictively satisfiying flavor.

However, on the negative side, and often in the middle of these big battles, the problems start to surface. One of the worst being lag. Even those with high end machines (radeon 9800 pro, athlonXP 3200+ barton, 1 gig of 400mhz ram, etc.) run into times when frame rates drop to teens or worse. Also, bugs still continue to pop up, get squished with a patch, only to reveal even more bugs (example; my 8RDA+ mobo's onboard sound has issues with this game).

To conlcude and factor all the faults and fun together, this is still one of the BEST games available for the PC, period. Adding in the fact that the devs ARE working hard to not only add usefull new content, but ironing out all existing bugs as well. And yes it is worth the monthly fee, if only to know there is always a server up and running (without having to worry about one of the players maintaining it) and a battle somewhere to jump in the middle of, even if your lan party friends or typical teammates aren't available.

Sorry for being so long-winded, but I hope someone finds this review useful.

Rating:
Summary: SUX SUX SUX
Review: It seriously is good for two weeks, then u get tired of the stupid deaths that are consistantly seperating you from your team