1up.com has the dirt on MAG, an online modern-era FPS designed to bring the murder on a scale that's nearly incomprehensible. You read the headline correctly: the game is supposed to accommodate 128 players per team. If Zipper Interactive can make this work, we'll have to stop calling the playground a "map," and start calling it a "theater."
MAG was once an acronym for "Massive Action Game," but the marketing gurus have decided that the shorter name fits the game better. I suppose that a head full of Mad Dog 20/20 vapors would make that seem perfectly logical, but calling the game "OMFG/WTF Where the Hell Am I Supposed to Go With This Rifle?" would probably be a bit unwieldy for the box art designers. But I digress. Let's get back to the bigness:
These levels are big. "But they're not obnoxiously big," lead designer Andy Beaudoin tells [1up's Joe Rybicki]. "It's an infantry game, so we don't want players wandering for a long time; we want you in the action quickly. That said, building enough space that 256 players isn't a meat grinder requires that we have things on the scale of kilometers rather than meters."
The article has all kinds of additional information, but who cares? I'd play any game with decent graphics and a steady 60 frames per second if it gives me 128 people to kill and/or call me noob. Of course, I'd also like to ride a nuclear-powered unicorn to a titty-bar on Venus, but I can't decide which scenario is more likely.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, it looks like this is a PS3 exclusive. I'll post a video anyway:
Well, it is unfortunate that it's a PS3 exclusive. I do have a PS3, but I only play shooters on the PC. Tring to play FPS games with a gamepad is like trying to ride a nuclear-powered unicorn to a titty bar on Venus. You can do it, but only with the help of hallucinogens.
ReplyDeleteI knew I should have copyrighted that.
ReplyDeleteYou should. That's what I would call a 'Money Quote'.
ReplyDelete