Giant Bomb: MAG Interview

Brad gets the lowdown on how this 256-player fragfest really works.

[rbluetank]

once you start playing this game you will get suck in deep into the structure of this game. it is one of the funniest game i have played in a long time. the beta is hellla funny. i am going to clean my plate of games before playing this game. it will devour your time. lol i can not wait....

[PLAYINB3YOND]

I am a huge Sony fan but I really lost all interest in MAG when I played the beta, it really didn't feel like I was playing with 255 other players, the action was mish mash and very disorganised, there were no clear objectives or anything. I understand what they're trying to do and I understand some ,if not all, of you will disagree with me on this but I really don't care about 256 players, fine its a great technical achievment and i'll give em props for that but I really would have prefered a solid 60fps beautiful game with 30-60 players. what we have with MAG is really just a great technical achievment, not a game.

[SoapShoes]

Yeah, I'll take this over MW2 any day. It's not perfect, but if I'm going to get a militaristic shooter I'll be getting this.

[StanLee]

Great interview. I'm looking forward to this game.

[Chubear]

@1.1 Nah, dude, your objectives are clear as day; they are varied and plentiful. You likely played it for a little bit and got overwhelmed cause it's not like other FPS you just jump in and go.

You'll feel very over whelmed when you start off MAG in the beta cause the Beta doesn't have the tutorial enabled but after a couple of hours and good people helping you understand, you'll find this game to be highly organized and probably the best team based game to date.

The graphics are good but not what you'll expect from PS3 exclusive online games (if you play PS3 online you'll know what I mean) but they're still great considering it looks like some other online games graphically but is pushing 128v128 players most others with similar graphics are pushing 9v9 at most. If you enjoyed CoD4 online graphics then you should have problems here

So far, the best online FPS I've played in a long time. Has that Socom1&2 fun factor. Once you're in, you'll lose hours easily. Great great game. Can't wait to see the final product.

[PinkUni]

you've probably never played battlefield's 60 player maps then

when its that many players, its not about facing 256 players

its about knowing that there are 256 players and that the fighting styles of each person is possible to encounter and the randomization of it creates a much more complex enviorment for gaming situations

you play a 1vs1 game people are more likely to quite because someone is always going to be far ahead

8on8 becomes more complicated and you could run into this guy who likes to use sub machine guns, but then you have to think about the sniper guy who keeps camping the spawn

when its 128 vs 128 the game becomes naturally evened out and you don't want to be looking at a whole line of 128 people, you want them to be evened out and separated(from a player's perspective)

when you think about strategy, if you were really facing 30 on 30 litterally with no sort of walls or buildings, it wouldn't even be a game, it would just be a "whos luck enough to not get shot"

[DirtyLary]

This game for a me is a great compliment to MW2.

They both play the same. Zipper even said they will have a controller configuration the same as the COD game so it will be easy to jump back and forth.. exactly what I'll be doing.

I've got my large scale battles and my small map twitch shooter.

Just need Socom 4 news so we have something new to look forward to after all these awesome games release.

[bigrudowsky]

I honestly dont think its a great technical achievement considering youll never see the full amount of players on screen.
It looks like a decent game but thats just it decent no more impressive that fuel of war.

[DirtyLary]

Yes you do. Wait for the domination maps. I've never seen so many red dots on my map at one time, like ants.

Right now you can move to other parts of the acquisition maps if you want to leave your squad and you'll run into a whole nother platoon.

[Chubear]

You can see everyone in the battle if you wanted to and ran off by yourself but that would be nonsense and you'll make your team lose that way.

In a real world scenerio you dont' see EVERYBODY fighting a battle, just your immediate squad or company. You can hear the battle all around you but you often are too focused on your own mission. That's how it is in MAG. You have your squad and your squad has it's mission it must accomplish to help the platoons win.

A platoon leader could ask for a squad leader to send a member of his squad to go help some other squad across the map if they wanted/needed to and you'll see all the other battles going on in the map. The maps are frickgen HUGE!!!

[paul0388]

My best friend (huge Microsoft fan btw) has labeled me a Sony fanboy on numerous occasions. Now I'm not really bias in any way, but I just feel Sony exclusives are a cut above the rest, especially when comparing the likes of Gears to Uncharted - better in every single way.

But when it comes to MAG, well, I preordered the game from Gamestop the very second I heard of it and immediately downloaded/installed it. And I'm sorry if you disagree, but I have never been so underwhelmed by a game in my entire life. I expected so much more, and it feels, for lack of a better word, generic. It just doesn't have it's own genuine feel to it like Killzone 2 or Socom has. Yes, there are tons of people playing it, but that's about all it has going for it. The whole thing just feels like a phony wannabe.

If you disagree, please respond with points as to why. I really don't know what people see in this.

[bigrudowsky]

so youre telling me you could at one point actually see 255 players on screen at the same time.. I highly doubt it, and youre right i havent played mag but manny people say that they are small battles throughout the map. I'll rent it or when it realeases but as it stands it doesnt look all that great.

[lagoonalight]

People need to realize that they just made a HUGE amount of improvements in the last patch. HUUUUGE! This is a beta for a reason.

[Chubear]

...Think how stupid you sound though. How the hell can you see all 256 players on a map? The maps are huge. You think you can see 256 people in real life when their spread out? You dont' even get to see ALL of the 15 players you game with when playing games like CoD4 so how do you want to see all 128 people on maps like MAG?

If you get to a high enough vantage point (if you can) you can see EVERYBODY if you want but good luck finding and getting to that vantage point on your own and if you actually get to that vantage point, good luck looking out and around the map before you get sniped.

Obviously you have not played the beta and are still trying to understand how the game works cause you've never seen anything quite like it. If you've played Planet side you'll have a better idea but MAG is unique in it's self.

MAG is not like you have some weird mapping system where there are different 8v8 battle happening separate from other 8v8 battles. It's a more fluid system than that. You can go where ever you want but it makes sense to stick to your squad and do your job cause every squads mission is important to the mission.

If you wanted, as an OiC, you could send 2-3 squads to collectively group up and take out a specific bunker, Anti air artillery or huge Mortar guns. So you'll have 24people going after 8 guys who's mission is to defend these targets. The whole system is fluid but has structure to it and makes sense.

Having 128 people going on a frag fest with another 128 people in a confined space is fun for the first minute but complete BS and not at all fun... though you will have some insane 128v128 battles on domination maps. It get's pretty insane on this mode.

[bigrudowsky]

Well thats my point what does it matter if there are so many players on the map if youre not going to come in contact with most of them at the same time.. it doesnt look all that impressive gameplay wise but ill find out soon if its any good.

[Chubear]

Well you have you own mindset and I'll just let you be. I don't need to convince you about how unique this game feels. I'll be playing it come Jan, GW, and you'll be doing whatever it is you want to be doing.

[raztad]

@Chubear

What KZ2 elements do you find in MAG?

[rockleex]

That is one of the most idiotic statements I've ever read.

Really? Do you want 256 players to be on a map that has NO walls, NO buildings, NO cover/protection, etc?

256 players just randomly shooting everyone. What is the point of a game like that?

The point of MAG is that its more like a REAL battlefield. With many different objectives, different bases to protect, different vantage points, etc etc. All these factors determine which team wins the battle.

By the way, there are 6 billion people on Earth. What's the point if you're never ever going to see them all at the same time? O_o

[Elvfam511]

8 player squads out of 128 players of your side

If your squad leader doesnt do objectives then your just going in gunning

This game has alot things i didn't know about

[Chubear]

With Killzon2 elements - Certain map layouts, objectives layout, gameplay tactics and certain aesthetics to renderings around the map.

With MW1 elements - the feel of the weaponry. I kinda expected more of a SOCOM feel to the guns and character movements but it feels more MWish. Just simple to get into and not too much thinking about weight, distance, blah blah blah

SOCOM1&2 elements - Fun factor and definitely the team comradery (sp)

[agentace]

Yes you do, i was in a game were all 128 players on my team were in the same building(losing big time lol) and all the other 128 were right outside. That was an amazing sight seeing 128 people trying to get out & get some defence up & other 128 people trying to get in & blow us up all through about 4 doors.

Dont comment on something you haven't played

Also to other people, atleast play it untill you reach a squad leader(rank 15) so you can understand it better, the people saying its just random chaos have obviously never played it or only played a few games and dont know whats going on, Everything is player controlled and organized NOTHING is random chaos

[pixelsword]

I'm in the MAG Beta and have been so since the first day it dropped. I've played as SVER, Raven, and Valor SVER's original announcer was as female (still may be, I'm not certain now), Raven's announcer referred to Valor as "cowboys", and Valor's de-briefer sounds like he has a very slight Latin accent (and one of the voices you can choose for Valor sounds a little (a lot) like Arnold Schwarzenegger).

At any Rate, I submitted a post on MAG's beta thread to make a few adjustments, ALL of which I will be VERY vague on, seeing that if I go to specifics, I may get kicked out of this and future betas... at any rate, I think they will use it because the post went to around 100 views, then they removed my post from the beta threads... a good thing I think.

* IF they took what I said to heart (very vague... :D):

- The ability to command troops is a great, rare opportunity; because it takes a specialist to move the forces to win an op FOUR (at least) your team... capiche? :)

- Headgear, or no headgear: that is the question.

- Switching weapons on the 9...

- Medals, medals everywhere

- Star Wars Battlefront II ... good story, no?

- You three, go there!

- All Dressed up, but no place to go... gives you the blues. :/

- Rock n Roll High School (1979) Fritz Hansel, Fritz Gretel

[ThanatosDMC]

I just wish snipers are harder to detect like those in BF2. In MAG, snipers are too easy to spot by other snipers. In BF2 if you dont move or shoot your sniper rifle it's almost impossible to see you especially if you've camouflaged yourself correctly.

[Pentex]

You have specific skills if you want to conceil yourself. A sniper position isn't just about the weapon, if you go to Electronics skills, you have Sensor Jammer, Motion Sensor, Acoustic Locator and much more. You also have Improved Stealth skill, Improved Shot Detection and so forth.

As for the sniper rifles, you can install a suppressor on the 2nd tier rifle, the 50cal rifle can't equip it due to the huge ammo.

So, you have a lot of things that allow you to be conceiled and to detect enemies on your map, so it's all about knowing what you're doing.

[cyberwaffles]

yes, you can see literally over 100 people in one area. not even joking. i called an airstrike one time and i had like 20 kills and counting before the game froze on me. if you push select and look at your minimap with the recon sweep in play, you can see over 100's of little red dots all over the place and that's just the enemies! i know when i'm attacking real deep into the enemy's base, you see nothing but people everywhere at every inch of your immediate area. domination really is something else. as for 200 people, i'm sure it can be done but most people are trying to complete their objectives set by their squad leaders which are elsewhere on the map.

and thats another thing, the squad/platoon/OIC command abilities adds a whole other dimension to the gameplay. its practically a RTS when you call in gas munitions, air strikes, mortar barrages, recon sweeps, signal jamming, blockade, communications jamming, rapid resupply, rapid redeploy, guided artillery, and automatic cool down. you have to have a mic for this game in my opinion and i'll bet you money that the game will release with them because communication is very important. you have to talk to your squad/platoon/OIC leaders in order to call certain command abilities and use them at the right time. if you use them incorrectly, it can cost you the whole match.

here's a scenario: for the defending team, the alpha squad's bunker is getting overwhelmed by enemies. the enemy's OIC calls in a blockade which increases your team's respawn time (you may have to wait over 30 seconds sometimes) and while you're trying to respawn, you're bunker is on the verge of being destroyed. so to get out of the situation, a squad leader could ask his OIC to call in rapid redployment to cut down the blockade respawn to get back in action sooner and then later ask a platoon leader to launch gas munitions around the enemy's insertion to fend them off a certain path giving alpha squad time to recoup. once alpha squad can get back on their feet, the squad leader can give orders to his team to repair their bunker's turret while the leader calls in a mortar strike to rid off the enemy's APC (which is a strategic spawn point for the attackers) and force the enemy to have to walk back into battle until their APC's respawn.

believe it or not, the game demands a lot of strategy and can be very fun when working as a squad. it's annoying seeing little light blue triangles (your squadmates) going the opposite direction of your FRAGO orders just so they can try to rack up kills. instead, if your squad work together as a team reviving eachother, watching each other's back, repairing neccessary things like your anti-air battery, and stuff like that; it can be very fun.

the only thing mag needs is a lot of content, unique gears and weapons to avoid getting stale. right now there is some pretty cool stuff like the acoustic locator, but there needs to be more stuff and weapons.

[raztad]

@Chubear

Thanks for you replay.

[MetalGearRising]

Hahahahaha hahahaha looking at the graphics no wonder they got 256-player for this low budget game. Day 1 Confirmed Flop.

[wxer]

here you go
this may help
http://cdn2.knowyourmeme.co...

[piramides30]

You are like s**t's dog, it's everywhere.

[DirtyLary]

The real question he should have asked is.

"How far is Zipper with Socom 4 development?"

[Chubear]

I think I'm more interested in a SOCOM for it's SP campaign now. SOCOM online is going strong and they have more maps coming out (which took forever) but we dont have a game yet that's like SOCOM SP. Closest so far is Flash Point.

[paul0388]

instead of wasting it on MAG

[DirtyLary]

Don't knock it. The game is fun as hell.

Graphics don't make a game kiddo.

[JonnyBigBoss]

This game is wildly underrated. I might have to switch over from MW2 once it's out.

[Chubear]

Think think there are a lot of PS3 gamers that will be doing that. This game should suit PC gamers very well too cause it kinda has this PC gaming vibe to it.

Gosh, so much choice and variety for FPSs on the PS3. Resistance, Killzone, MAG all have different styles and "feels" and these are just the exclusives.

Hopefully next year and on will see this type of variety for our JRPG gamers.

[sikbeta]

By watching at the E3 conference, when the Zipper team show the gameplay of MAG and everyone was so quiet, think you are right, It was to much technical stuff than anything, Sony better start to promote this game, needs to be HUGE

[gtamike123]

Can't wait

[ambientFLIER]

Looks pretty generic. MW2 and BC2 are going to wipe the floor with it. How does the whole 256 player thing work, anyway? I heard that all the people aren't on the map at the same time, or something like that?

[Chubear]

haha, you'll never know 'till you play it on a PS3 XD .. you sound butt hurt though O.O lol

[ambientFLIER]

I'm not butthurt at all. I have a PS3, and based on the previews so far, I'm not excited about this game.

[Feral Gamer]

Ok, honest question, not trying to be a fanboy. With 256 players, do they have to dumb down the graphics to make it possible? Will they be like L4D graphics, using a dated engine so the game works? I don't see how the graphics could be that good with 256 players, I mean games like KZ2 have far fewer players and have good graphics, any more and I would think that the graphics would take a serious hit....

Has anyone played the beta? What are the graphics comparable to?

[TheBand1t]

The graphics aren't Killzone 2 levels, but it looks 'about right'. In that it looks good considering there's 256 people.

It's about the same level as CoD, imo.

[DirtyLary]

Yes they have to dumb it down. To much going on for any console to render at once. If they used KZ2 graphics and textures the game would be a slide show online.

[Chillbilly]

I wouldn't say the graphics are "dumbed down". Certainly they are not KZ2 level, but this game has never been about the graphics so much. The highlights are more on gameplay, communication, and teamwork.

Visually, it's COD4-ish. But MAG gameplay stands alone and has no comparison in my opinion. It's very addictive. For me, gameplay is far more important than eye candy.

[iceman06]

with Band1t and ChillBilly on the graphics. Though they are NOT of the KZ2 quality, they are MORE than passable. They are on par with COD4. However, they point is that they convey the mood that is being set. All too often we get caught up on graphics with this HD era. I get it...I didn't spend all of that money for my next gen console and HDTV either. But, sometimes I think we as gamers go a bit too far with this graphics push and DON'T think about WHAT the devs are trying to do. MAG is pushing the limit in terms of persistent, simultaneous multiplayer action. The tide of the war changes from day to day, hour to hour. It creates a sense of wanting to be in the small battles every day so that the WAR is won. This is from the skirmishes that happen between squads all of the way up to the platoon level.
No...MAG won't win "teh grafix of da year"....but what it DOES do is bring a sense of urgency and teamwork that I haven't seen in a multiplayer FPS in a long while.

[Feral Gamer]

Ok, cool. Thanks for the info, guys

[divideby0]

I was expecting more with MAG, but its a fun game.. There are some horrific inbalance issues, which must be addressed, hence the long beta to fix this type of stuff.
I can say for sure this game to me is way more fun than COD....Its team focused and objective orientated.

[soljah]

what zipper is trying to do w/mag is revolutionary
whether they will be able to pull it off is another story.
this game will be the closest thing to a fps mmo out there.
this game is taking socom to the next level(256players). hard core's will eat this up.

[ChefDejon]

this game is pretty weak. also i am in the beta.

[marcindpol]

i am in the beta and honestly for now i just cannot get into it, all weapons feel the same, just do not feel right.
probably will skip it

[DocHoliday]

YOu cannot trust the guy getting interviewed. Seth Luisi is a lieing duetchbag. Go to youtube.com and look up his socom confrontation interviews. He lied about confrontation having DLC every 3months. Its been 1-year and still not a single DLC. He said in another interview, that the reason socom confrontation was delayed one month was to focus on the online features and make it the best they could. LOL they barely fixed the massive lag and glitches on confrontation a few months ago. The game was released back in october 2008, it took them forever to make it playable. They left out so many guns previous socom games had. The game came out with only 7 maps, 4 of which were old maps from previous socom's. So basically seth luisi and his team came up with 3 maps rendered the graphics up a little and stamped the name socom on a game. They ripped off so many people. And the funny thing is, they didn't even include a single player. Supposibly to make the online factor better, yet the game was unplayable at launch until a few months after. I know not many people here in n4g are aware of what happened, but the company Slant Six and Seth Luisi are not to be trusted.

[MetalGearRisingBan]

WITH 256 PLAYERS ONLINE! THAT'S WHY XBOX 360 SUCKS!!!!!!!!!

[AK46]

Big MAG supporter here. Best part of MAG for me is the community. The games that I`ve experienced, everybody is willing to go out of the way to help a fellow mate. The feeling of satisfaction you get when your platoon is on the verge of losing then comes back and takes the win,is priceless. Everyone`s congratulating everybody after a hard fought battle is also nice.

If your a rambo type, that`s not into team work, then you don`t belong on MAG. This game rocks and it`s all about teamwork, and everybody is important piece of the puzzle.

Definitely a purchase for me.

[Dannycr]

is quite possibly the worst beta I've been since I have my PS3. Playing schedules are horrible, the menu freezes all the time, they made me have my PS3 on for like 5 days to attempt to download the first patch (2.5Gb and it got stuck on 99% like 3 times in a row) and now they want me to download another 2.6Gb update, sorry, but, the game does not bring any new things to the table to make me waste my time on it.

I was excited about this, but EVERYTHING about this game is just underwhelming and tedious, and its just a mediocre to regular shooter, Modern Warfare 2 (even though I hate MW2) will eat MAGs for breakfast, now that I've seen the campaign (on JustinTV), MAG will not be the next great shooter as it is being advertised, it will be another Haze like shooter.

That's my point of view, I've been in almost ALL PS3 betas and this is by far the worst of them, at least i tried it and now i can safely say that I won't be buying MAG. Ill stick with Killzone 2 and Uncharted 2 for my Shooter needs.

[AK46]

I gave you a disagree for calling it another haze. For the issues that you have with the game, I have experienced the odd freezing, but not the extent that you had. The majority of players I have talked too, have liked the beta and they too have had some issues but they are fine with it, because it`s a BETA.

[foreverflame]

Well expect this game too flop it's socom with fps mode ps3=no orginality

[Dannycr]

But, that is NEVER an excuse. When it was first launched as BETA, it was unplayable.

A lot of people use the: It's a beta, excuse, but even though it is a Beta, at least it should be playable.

Out of 100 tries I have played just around 10 times. Freezing at menu, stupid gaming schedules for a game that it's just regular. It's not doing anything groundbreaking. Graphics are not on par with MW2 (I've seen MW2 and they are way better, and again, i'm a MW2 hater). While I do understand and actually like the Team Base nature of the game, it's just not enough to make this game stand out from the crowd.

I do take back the Haze comparison, that was too harsh, I give you that, but that's just an extent of my disappointment with this game. I was extremely hyped about this, but the bigger the hype the harder the disappointment was.

[cyberwaffles]

obviously you don't see the whole point of the beta. no one is excusing the game for it's faults, its just that the final game hasn't been made yet and there will most likely be improvements in the final game. when it releases and those same issues and glitches are persistent, then it would be ok to pass judgement on it's technical status. until then, its a work in progress and from comparing their last update (i.e.: fixing over 8,000 issues) then there should be some hope that these freezing issues you speak of will be fixed. trust me, there are times where i hate mag but i always remind myself that things can be fixed.

[AK46]

I've been in it since the 2nd wave of the private Beta testing. IT was playable for me, with super smooth controls, I had experienced lag, probably only 3 times but overall it was playable. The game does have some glitches though, but should be ironed out before release.

I'm not saying that you didn't experience those issues, you mentioned, and I did read that a couple of other people were having the same issues that you have. i guess the problem is there, for some people, but not most.

[LiquifiedArt]

... I'll see how it is for myself. I am skipping CODMW2 regardless. I enjoyed the killzone vibe better.

[Dannycr]

Cause it's obvious that they WILL be, but, you don't release an unplayable BETA, i'm not the first nor the last guy who got sick of the issues, even some PS3's bricked from that beta and the "stuck on 99%" issue. If you compare this Beta with the other betas (Home, Uncharted 2, etc) it's by far the worst of it all) and the problem (subjective as it is entirely my opinion) is that the game is not THAT good to begin with. If you see any live footage of MW2 (go to justin.tv and watch) you will see that MAG is just a 256 player game with nothing new to offer more than just 256 players. Maybe you loved the game, that's fine, and I respect your opinion, but my opinion is that this game does not offer anything new that will make it the "next big shooter" and people will choose Modern Lagfest instead.

[pixelsword]

If the PS3 bricked, it was because when people got the 99% issue, they turned-off their PS3 from the BACK, which causes problems. If you turn it off by pressing the button in the front for 5-7 seconds, it will turn itself off. I got the 99% freeze multiple times from the updates plus the initial load-up of the beta and all I did was turn it off from the front, then after a minute or two, I turned it back on. After that either it reloaded to complete or was already complete.