DualShockers writes, "Recently a brand new MAG beta was released on the PlayStation Store for those who own the MAG disc. Not only does this bring forth the PlayStation Move support which has been promised but also a number of changes are previewed for free which will be coming for the full title in the near future. This includes new maps, game-modes, features, as well as general overhauls to the existing title in question. I am happy to report that after putting some time in with the beta for what is essentially MAG 2.0 I am impressed, excited, and much more satisfied by what is being put forth from Zipper Interactive towards their new, 256 man, first person shooter, intellectual property. Read on for a breakdown on what you’ll experience in the new beta and my thoughts on what works and what doesn’t as well as the timing of all of these updates."
Zipper Interactive were once one of Sony's most important studios and became a household name due to their work on the SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs series during the PlayStation 2's heyday. Their most ambitious title was MAG. Could it make a comeback?
Best game ever. I had put over 1700hrs into that game before it deteriorated too far with cheaters getting out of the map and sadly decided it was time to let it die (Zipper had already been closed down by that time).
This is the game in modern gaming that even got me into shooters i spent literally days with this game Raven All the way. War against the the mighty D ride oh so edgy S.V.E.R.
3 teams of 32 fighting it out would be considered Battle Royaleish. If you're gonna saying teams are OK when you start doing teams of 2 or 3 or 4, then 32v32v32 should work. And on besides that, it had 128 v 128 which was insanely fun.
I personally hadn't played much of it. I did spend a lot of time in PlanetSide 2 though (somewhat like MAG). Games like these tend to get overrun by cheaters and then ruined too often.
MAG didn't have that issue as far as I remember. I use to love the 256 matches. That game had an amazing community. Everyone actually communicated and played together. No one B****ed at the team. Everyone understood there was so much going on that if things are going wrong. Everyone had to think of new strategies.
Fav moment was when all 3 other squads 32 took their objectives but we were struggling with ours and had one more to blow up. The other leaders were communicating asking if the 2 nearest squads should send ppl. Our leader was like Naw I got a idea. So he told us all to die and set ourselves at the nearest hills prone without being seen. So we all did and surrounded the areas.
He said everyone on his count throw your grenades. Then snipers go all out and everyone else run in. They won't be able to get everyone and if needed the snipers go in about 10 seconds after.
Everyone did that and I got to the objective and set it off. 9 of us survived and got it. felt amazing to say I got the objective, cover me in that moment. Wish it was PS4 so I could have saved that moment
It was literally the coolest moment I had in a online shooter, closest since was BF4.
@Teflon
That does indeed sound like an awesome moment. One that makes games like these memorable for sure. It does seem like MAG had a lot more cooperation than most any online shooter
It did because you absolutely can't get no where in it without teamwork. It also didn't have an extremely big base of players. Everyone who played really wanted to play. I really hope they bring it back and do the same thing to only have serious players get into the big matches again
I adored this game too. Some of my best FPS online memories on it. So freaking good.
I'd love to see another game like this come out at some point. And NOT like Planetside... M.A.G. was something special.
Yeah problem is if it existed now adays, it would likely be riddled with xp boosts and dance moves and all that other pay garbage...
MAG and Warhawk are the only 2 online games I ever got into, and both need a PROPER sequel on PS5.
Remember the first time I got 100 kills in a match, was in a turret with a repair kit and just mowed down wave after wave on Valors map.
Replies(1)
This is a game that was ahead of its time. Had it came out on PS4 it would've done much better. I put hundreds of hours into this despite the problems it had on PS3.
Really interesting as an Xbox owner at the time. This game had captured my interest as a kid but I never got a chance to play it. Being on PS4 and soon possibly PS5, I would love to see this franchise brought back to life. I imagine with the power of next gen it would be really quite fun.
From what I hear and what I remember, this game was FAR ahead of it's time. A real shame it never truly took off from my understanding.
I'm an xbox boy since mech warrior but got a ps3 slim for mag. If you liked halo or cod you'd have had a blast in mag. Was one of the first games you could actually do something other than shooting and still make a difference in game.
PS4 needs something like it. In the multiplayer space it's far behind the Xbox, there are no quality multiplayer games on it that aren't on other consoles.
Yes, yes, and yes. Way ahead of it's time. Would love to see a PS5 variant of this game.
Here are ten reasons why we still love the original PlayStation.
Resi 1 and Crash 1 these games go together in my nostalgia filled memory as the start of PS brand afficionando ....and objectively and curiously still remain untouched peaks in their genres ...nothing came close to them
Erina Rose, Sausage Roll writes, "Call of Duty: Modern War introduced a new, improved, Ground War game mode this weekend that reminds us of the old PlayStation 3 classic, MAG."
I never played mag, I did play this beta however, and if mag was like this beta then (fart noises) for mag.
Seriously though. Nowadays this and next gen are practically begging for a new MAG.
How did we go from having games like resistance 1, 2, warhawk with 30 vs 30 player battles, and M.A.G. with 128 vs 128 players, ON LAST GEN to now having 20 vs 20...such a step back.
Because Sony hadn't figured out how to market their exclusives yet. Plus at that time COD craze was at its peak. So "generic high school bro #7," who was the primary purchaser of FPSs at that time (or at least represented a crowd necessary to sustain a playerbase), if he even had a PS3, would have just seen a game like MAG as a "copycat of Black Ops, man."
Not to mention MAG was pretty terribly uninviting for new people after awhile, because it was more skill-based. This was great for veterans, but if you weren't willing to put in the time getting destroyed for awhile, you would never appreciate the game. The Battlefield: Bad Company and BF:3 games out during that gen were far more accessible to lower level players.
Battlefield 4 was at the start of the generation and had 64 players, to me it depends more on how the map/gameplay is utilized, i enjoyed the 20vs20 modes more in the MW Beta than the 64 player ground war mode.
And even those are very small vibes, it still feels like COD at the end of the day.
There are so many things that MAG didn't do right off the bat that I was genuinely disappointed, now playing the beta of new features I'm left wondering what took so long yet pleasantly surprised at the caliber the team at Zipper was able to finally deliver these features with.
i have never played mag so i'd love to get in on some of that beta action,
will this be enough to bring players back?because its a lot of competition coming this winter
They should do a re release and ask for people to do a re-review, I dislike the first beta but enjoy the current game... it deserves more than the 5/10 that it got.
Interesting to see that MAG is still kicking around. Surprised zipper is still focusing on this with SOCOM in the wings.