Rating: 
Summary: Shimmers, but doesn't shine
Review: As a beta tester, I did enjoy playing the hundreds of different roles and trying to master them. However because of the persistent lagging problems (the game's framerate studders because of the server), I prefered to take it stealthwise/engineer and don a cloaking suit. Battles can be massive (remember they CAN, not always though), literally hundreds of people on both sides trying to capture a base.In one moment, I and a few others grabed a Galaxy (an air dropship) and flew over the base to drop in from above. Our squad hacked the facility in minutes, then took out oncoming enemies, as they tried to retake the facility. Snipers took potshots at my squadmembers as we tried in vain to keep the base under our control. Indeed this is a great game, however as I began to play more and more, I found that most of the time was spent in three ways, 1.) Forming a squad, trying to get enough members to create a decent fighting force, 2.)Traveling between Base A and Base B (The bases are all generic, another shortfall of the game is they have basically few differences eachother, making the game feel very "deja vu"-ish) and 3.) Waiting to capture a base (After you hack a facility, you wait around for 14:00 Min before you can move to another base). Sure, you can play different roles in a squad. A sniper, a pilot, a cloaker, but the game lacks drive. You'll find yourself usually stuck on a few select worlds (the terrain makes little difference, its all purely cosmetic), and you'll end up trying to capture the same base over and over and over again. Sadly this is a game that makes you wait. And to buy this game ...might seem worth it at the time, but the ... monthly fee [seems a bit much].(The [cost] includes other games made by Sony, such as everquest, but for a single game it ain't worth it). Additionally Sony and Retail Stores don't mention whether the first month is free, so assume that you're gonna be shelling out ... bucks to see if this game is any good. I might wait to see if they make any improvements in a month or so, becuase they will be making changes and additions. Until then, this game gets a mediocre 3 stars. :(
Rating: 
Summary: You will &*$%ing love this game!
Review: You may think "oh no! Another crappy FPS (First Person Shooter) Halo knockoff!" If you think that, you are dead wrong! I played the beta to this game and i can tell you that this is a must get for anyone that has a modem (or DSL). The game goes like this.
Earth's government (The Terran Republic) discovered a planet and sent people to colonize the planet. There, it was discovered that alien technology was all over the planet. The science population called the dead alien race the Vanu (Vah-New) and began to incorperate the technology into the every day life on the planet. All was going well till the Wormhole that brought the people and supplies to the planet colapsed and all contact with Earth was shut off. With the Wormhole gone, the people began to rebel and some formed two new empires. They were the New Conglomerate (wanting to be free from oppression that the Terran Republic brought), The Vanu Soveregnty (wanting to move forward with integrateing the Vanu technology into the human body), and the Terran Republic (the loyalists to the Earth government). A war with no death started with the invention of the respawn tubes.
This makes for a fun game. You play with the world and meet new people (and kill them). With great graphics that make the game feel real and sound that will make you feel that you are in a real war, this game is a "must get"!
Rating:
Summary: Exactly what I have been waiting for
Review: I have been following the progress of Planetside for over two years now. I was involved in open beta and put in at least 60-80 hours of play. I would have been in more but some of my hardware (ram and video card) were causing problems and I had to upgrade. Before complaining "it's the game!" check to make sure you have the latest video drivers, defrag your hard drive, and try lower video settings. In beta I was involved in some of the most exciting action In my many hours of online gaming. The Dev team for this game was exemplary. They listened to their beta testers and were phenomenal in sifting through ideas and incorporating the best suggestions. Over the past month the game has progressed a long way and exhibits good stability and exciting gameplay flow. The lattice system tends to encourage frontline combat, and Instant Action is available for those people who just want to go out and frag. For those people who are into RPG style leveling, there is a battle rank and command rank system. BR buildup is fairly fast to br14 or so, as long as you participate in squad formations where you earn your squadmates as well as your own bep. With battlerank you get access to more cert points allowing a single character to become more versatile and specialized. but at its heart Planetside is a First Person Shooter. Its cone of fire implementation helps for those who lag a bit. You will get more enjoyment out of Planetside by organizing or joining an outfit. With an outfit you get to see your outfit stats compared to other outfits, get your own logo (not customized, only game built) which goes on every armor and vehicle, generally will have more fun. Planetside is a blast, and the new content coming will make it even more exciting.
Rating: 
Summary: Great game if u have the RAM
Review: This game is an absolute blast. Outstanding gfx and tons of action. But be warned, you will need a ton of ram and a good internet connection to enjoy the game. At 256mb the game was nearly unplayable. I upped to 768 and it runs beautifully now.
Rating:
Summary: Great game!
Review: Never before has a game captured my attention the way PlanetSide has. Right from the beginning as a Beta tester, I did the stupidest (but most fun) option in the game. I jumped right into the action and 'Instant Actioned' righ into a hot spot and was killed about 15 times before realizing what I had to do. But, the intense level of excitement and adrenaline that you experience in your first few battles keeps you coming back for more and more and more and more. . . . Thankfully this game comes out after school gets out or Sony would be lining up with lawsuits for causing many people from failing their classes. Honestly, the only thing you want to do when you get out of class, is play PlanetSide, join a squad and then get your Phoenix missle launcher and take out some Maxes and Reavers that are trying to infiltrate your base. Lots of fun but I recommend having a lot of memory (pref 1024 MB) for virtually no latency (lag). Be careful! Your girlfriend and pet may leave you if you get this game!
Rating: 
Summary: Nice Idea, lukewarm execution
Review: Planetside is a refreshing idea from the classic mmorpg. Instead of just pressing "attack" and letting your character's statistics to do the fighting, you actually point and click like a first person shooter against "thousands" of players. However, Planetside is fraught with issues, both technical and content-wise. Planetside demands a huge system requirement (beta recommends around 3 gigs of space, 512 ram, and 64 video ram); and even with this the computer struggles at medium graphic settings. Lag is also a issue -- even with verizon dsl, I experienced 100-150 ping on their east coast server, which is decent but becomes a problem for potential snipers. As to content, Planetside is mostly about grabbing land and holding it until you move to the next patch of land. After a while, this becomes a grueling chore as you take and lose and take and lose bases for hours until you begin to wonder, what's the point? There is no storyline, no epic quest, none of that additional element that makes mmorpg interesting to play. After a week of beta, I feel I have played Planetside to exhaustion and experienced virtually everything that the game has to offer. For those wanting some heart-pumping action, I would recommend Counterstrike or Unreal Tournament. For those wanting a colorful storyline and interesting world to explore, I'd recommend Anarchy Online or Asheron's Call 2. Planetside comes somewhere in between, but fails to balance it right. At least Tribes 2 (from which Planetside borrowed much of its ideas along with the programmers) had jumpjets and spinfusors... Planetside feels mosre like work than play.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Start, In Need of Work
Review: I am another beta tester, and with the actual release not far away now, I decided to write a review to inform those looking into such a game. Planetside is fun, alot of fun, the world is huge, and when I say huge we're talking hundreds of square kilometers. Weapons are varied, the vehicles are excellent, music is superb. There is no game comparable in size to this, when you have hundreds of players in one location things get delightfully chaotic. Fighting for a bridge, it starts with shooting missiles across, then the air vehicles come in, you have Reavers, Galaxies, Mosquitos all doing fly by's, then the ground reinforcements come in, and you have to work your way across the bridge, using vehicles for cover, as air vehicles drop stealths behind enemy lines to cause confusion. What could make such a great game earn a mediocre rating? First, the lag. Some people don't know what lag really is, it's more than just freezing and not being able to shoot, it's when data flow through your internet connection slows considerably, and is unable to keep up. There is always lag, as long as there is over 1000 people in a server. It may not be very noticeable, but inventory switching, guns switching becomes slow and sometimes just doesn't happen. Alot of times hundreds of players get disconnected at once. A problem since the game uses "auto save" and sometimes you loose battle ranks, kills, etc. Cheapness is a major problem. For example, the Engineer Class is cheap beyond recognition. They are allowed to plant gun sentry turrets and proximity mines. What these engineers do is go behind the fighting, and plant sentries on the other sides of doors, and in grassy areas. Well, four hours later, you can walk up, open a door, and boom dead. They get the kill, and you'll be left private messaging them with threats. Glitches are a problem. Sometimes they work in favor. Like when a team will invade a base, and basically own it. Well, sometimes the game glitches up, and you can see enemy Cloakers, and they will be standing still. Well yes, it was funny for us, but when you're in that situation...it's just not. Well I could complain more, but that's the only major problems, and for 50 bucks the game would be worth it. But, for a monthly fee it's not, because chances are in a month the game will become boring, and it really doesn't excel as an RPG or a FPS. Valiant effort Sony, but for what you're asking in return, it just simply doesn't work out to being very fair.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoy shooting people? This ones for you
Review: Note: I was and am a beta tester for this game as well. If you are a big fan of Everquest, or other MMORPGs, then you need to move on to SWG or wait for EQ2. The squakers about this game are mostly those that come from RPG backgrounds, not those that come from Counterstrike and other FPS backgrounds. If you enjoy the online version of first person shooters, but get tired of the limited number of maps, small map size and limits to the size of your team then this is a great game for you. Plus you dont have to worry about the quality of the server hosting your game. Sony takes care of it! And for that you get the chance to battle with thousands, have a wide variety of weapons, vehicles and skirmishes. There are the naysayers, but it seems like you cant make everyone one happy, and some people will never be happy. Buy the game, sign up and start shooting people... oh and join a squad!
Rating:
Summary: .
Review: To the person that said this was a poor MMORPG, it is NOT an RPG. This game is an MMOFPS, Massivley Multiplayer Online First person Shooter. Beta is ok, needs a lot more goals though if its going to last, taking a base one day and then having to take it again the next just gets very tiring. If you like Tribes, then get this you will love it...
Rating:
Summary: Great potential, poor implementation
Review: Unfortunately, It seems that SOE's untarnished reputation is about to take a hit. Plansetside is a flop. What could have been the greatest game in years, isn't. Gameplay problems have left many beta testers bored of the game after only a week or two of play. One positive note is the game's MMO nature. A few heavy patches and this game could become much better... in six months.
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