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MAG in open beta until January 10th
It's last minute, we know, but if you're a PS3 owner then you might want to scoot over to the PlayStation Store and download the MAG open beta client. The system's MMOFPS will be online until the 10th, when they take the game off the store and prep it for the official January 26th launch. Beware you have room on your hard drive and time to leave your PS3 on to download, however, as you'll be looking forward to a 2 GB download. A headset is nice to have too, so you can communicate with your squadmates (they'll appreciate it,) but it's not required to play the game. So this weekend enjoy conducting a war with 255 other people on the battlefield with you. Try not to get shot too much!
The Daily Grind: Is MAG an MMO?
It sports 256 players on a map. 8 man squads, 32 man plattoons, and 128 men on one side in their company. It has a "shadow war" online mode where companies compete to win battles, pushing active warzones back and forth on the map, meaning that each battle has an effect on the online gameplay structure. Winning battles means securing contracts for your group, who works for one of the 3 in-game factions that are struggling for dominance.MAG is, without a doubt, one heck of a first-person shooter. It's players per map rivals PlanetSide's 300 players per continent, coming only 44 players short of the popular MMOFPS's battles. However, with multiple objectives per map and the 256 players being squeezed into smaller battlefields than PlanetSide's continents, one could say that the game is going to be much more chaotic and interesting.With all of this in mind, we ask you for your opinion on the following: Is Sony's MAG an MMO? It certainly sports the necessary components of persistence, character development, team mechanics, and player count, but we want to hear from you, the readers. Drop your thoughts into the comment box below, and let the discussion begin.
MAG deploying in North America on January 26, 2010
The exact release date for Zipper Interactive's multi-multi-multi-man FPS MAG has been up in the air for a while now -- but a recent announcement on PlayStation.Blog has made the game's launch date decidedly cemented. It's hitting store shelves on January 26, 2010, landing atop an ever-expanding aggregate of first-quarter blockbusters. However, most of its seasonal competitors don't allow for four to the fourth power players to square off in a single battle, so we don't think it'll have any trouble holding its own.Honestly, we'd hoped it would land a bit closer to the game's initial announced fall launch window -- but hey, at least now Zipper's got a bit of extra time to nail down an actual title for the game.
