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MAG Sony Press Conference Impressions

Sony showed the first in-game footage from MAG at its E3 2009 press conference, and we have all the details of what they unveiled.

74 Comments

To call MAG an ambitious game is something of an understatement; the game is set to support 256 players online in a single game. It was unveiled for the first time at last year's E3 in the form of a trailer, but this year Sony showed off the first in-game footage of it in action. The company recruited players from across America to join in with the demo, and previewed one of the maps from the finished game.

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The demo started with one team attempting to take over enemy land. The player whose perspective we were viewing was the commander of the platoon, and there were four platoons total in the "raven company" team. As commander, you can issue objectives, such as "attack bunker," and all of the players on that platoon who follow those orders successfully earn bonus points.

As the team attacked the bunker, we saw the opposition mounting gun turrets. The idea is to plant a charge on the bunker to destroy it, but you have to defend the charges or the enemy will defuse them. Once the point has been captured, air-raid sirens let everyone know that it belongs to the opposition, and helicopters land so the attacking team can use it as a respawn point. The final objective on this level was to launch an air strike, which pushed back the remaining enemies even further.

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Sony didn't announce a release date for MAG, but it did say that the game will be playable with the full 256 players on the show floor. The Sony E3 booth is huge, but not quite big enough to house 256 PS3s, so we assume that some people will be playing remotely. Needless to say, we'll be heading over to the Sony stand straightaway to find out more.

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Kruegmeister

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Love this Game. Have it Pre-Ordered. No there is No Split-Screen... Bummer for Sure. The Game is a Ton of Fun. It runs impressively Smooth considering that there are 256 Players. You can Upgrade Your Abilities and Weapons to your Style. I highly Recommend the Steady Aim and Recoil Upgrades as Well as the Dot Sight as Soon as You get enough Points, You will instantly have better success once you do so. The Next Big Upgrade I work towards is the MP7 Style SubMachine Gun which is great instead of the Pistol for my Sniper Class. The Objectives are a lot more realistic than other Games, which is nice. Take out Communication Towers, Anti-Aircraft, etc. As you push Forward in the Battle it will open Forward Spawn Points such as Helicopters that you can Take Control of the Turrets on. Some Maps/Modes your Forward Spawn Point is Parachuting Into the Battlefield, and Yes... You can be shot at as you parachute in. The Success of Shooting down Paratroopers is low thankfully probably to minimize Frustration. You can Spawn into an APC Vehicle if your Squad is Smart enough to use one for just such a purpose. Vehicles are always sweet in Multi-Player in my Opinion. Only 1 Week Left and I cannot wait.

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AIRWALKTDK666

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Lovin the amount of players and the pure awesomeness but have a strong feeling that sometimes u'll get commanders who'll just try and send u to ur deaths meaning it'll turn into a 256 man brawl. Not that that wont be awesome tho...

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HobosNeedCable

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Split-screen?

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Nismo-Dude

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wow... with 256 players, there'll be a new meaning to "survival of the fittest", it's gonna take a lot of patience to be ahead in this game, definitely a game to watch out for. thumps-up sony!

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cityslicker202

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i like how they just skipped 100 players online and just went straight to 256 haha. and for everyone complaining about it only being on ps3, ps3 is the only console that can handle this game. sure i mean a pc can but good god you would need a super computer to run this game.

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solidsnakedude1

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im just worried about the lag...

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Pixiecrap

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so, we can safely assume that vehicles will play a huge role right? i mean, 128 players to a side, how can there NOT be attack/transport helis, and fixed wing craft? i love infantry combat, particularly urban combat, but sometimes i just wanna fly around and rain hell on enemy infantry. and anyone familiar with BF2's Project Reality mod should understand what im getting at also, what about a commander-in-chief like in battlefield? not a huge deal tho

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neonblueshadow

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this is like Battliefield, but the next step I've been waiting on DICE to make, but instead DICE tones down its game for the consoles, in fact if they can do this onthe PS3, that means BF probably got toned down just because of X360, same as when tekken gets downgraded from 1080p to 720 p when it becomes multi-platform, at first I thought it was jus the studios saving money, but now I suspect MS, if they pay to have a game come to their platform, they should also pay to maintain its tech integrity... either way, I digress,this should be good, and I like how they integrate various seperate forms of FPS gameplay into one, like taking and holding bombs till they explode, and capturing points/flags, etc. all in one streamlined game... definately better than the watered down iteration BF 1943 turned out to be...

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TimDigit

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I dunno, a story less game with no emotional drive to be behind any faction other than, the cool clothes they might have on or the region they're from? No real city play, no noticeable technological advancement, in the weaponry, why not just rent the server technology to other game like MW 2 and Killzone why even bother with an original game? Hope it does well though....

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horizonwriter

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As long as you play with your clanmates, just as you do on Socom, groups should be fine. It doesn't take long to figure out how everyone in your clan plays and the best strategies for leading or following. I'm a little torn on the first-person mode though. On one hand, it'll prevent people from corner camping like you can on a third-person shooter. On the other, first-person shooters are notorious for having absolutely horrible peripheral vision, having a much more narrow view than natural vision allows. It would be nice if a developer found a way to advance that view.

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mook-the-man

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Going to be a great multiplayer game. Only problem with it is that you know there are going to be very hardcore about this game while others are just going to be big deusches and not follow commanding orders and stuff. hope people that are not going to take the game seriously and play it right can get booted easily.

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milan4554

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This what i call a game..! i have been waitin for a game like this, its incredible first person shooter.cant wait!

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scottishboy

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@gedbyz that would be good but I also like shooting my friends 2 so I can brag. They should give you a choice whether you want to be separated or not. Some sort of clan system would be good 2

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scottishboy

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between MAG, Modnation Racers, Uncharted 2, the motion controller thing and hannah montana psp (lol) sony will dominate

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scottishboy

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@scepterone Your totally right. How much more fun would COD be if u could use 2 controllers online. The offline multiplayer in COD is rubbish. This game is gonna rule even if it doesn't have 2p online tho. But if it did it would be the icing on the cake!

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king_chapeton15

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will this game have a story mode

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scepterone

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Does anyone know if more than one person is going to be able to play on one console? I am hoping that it incorporates something like Warhawk!

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kraken2109

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I think the command system should be vote in/out to stop idiots getting positions of power.

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gedbyz

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This type of game will need alot of collaboration from each team member. Maybe it will work. It would be fun if your friends were all on the same team with you, otherwise it could get annoying.

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SQUALL20XX

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Long waited for this

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gnrlstuart

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@MW2alltheway, that would be a fine idea, but ihope if you are wih friends you can party up, the host is the leader, but you can promote another player to leader, also, i hope it supports HQ voice chat.

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MW2alltheway

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Also, people will WANT to listen to there sqaud leader cause if they blow up things he tells them to blow up and if they kil people around the objective...They get over 2x more expierience points!

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MW2alltheway

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I can garuntee there are no fees. I saw an interview and the guys from M.A.G. said threre will be NO FEE to play. Just buy the game and your set. As for lag... they said they have really strong servers for this game and its only online so of course there working in the servers a ton...servers and graphics are the two main things! anyway, MAG looks awsome!

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KCRoyalsFan100

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this sucks i dont have a ps3

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Infinite_Access

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THIS is innovation... TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX PLAYERS!

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SSBFan12

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I can't wait for this game 256 people online. That is going to be epic.

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CrankedGamer

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i need this game......unless they fee me even once because i've never heard of sony ever having fees

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msudude211

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MAG is looking great... and 256 players? Wow!

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flibblewerfer

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oh man am i gonna be angry if they want subscripton payments from me...

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gmax

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gmax  Moderator

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

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DAKYON

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I want it NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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ocdog45

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yeah, this is the one to get. good thing is its not trying to compete with MW2. release that thing a couple months after that.

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AlexOvechkin08

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256 players sounds awesome, Just more for me to kill :D. Just hope that there isn't any bad lag with all that action going on at the same time.

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pakhair

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@DarkNeoBahamut NO DOUBT............

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DarkNeoBahamut

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awesome, just awesome !!!

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PSFreak1

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256 WOOHOOO

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konradak

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Looks good. I'm excited for this.

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dark_being

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256 players on-line? sounds like a ton of fun! a Multiplayer game I'm actually excited about

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famguyfan2685

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Man, the graphics in this game look crazy! Can't wait for this one!

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Jamin_Macartney

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this game would be better with the battlefield house destruction engine, or even better, a fps game engine of the one in red faction guerrilla..

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Junior_AIN

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Interesting concept, I wish I could play this.

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Eazy1891

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VGA_assassin: i hear what you're saying and it is very true...but i did read in the latest Game Informer that they are maing a secific engine for his game or something like that plus something to stop cheating...like you know how you could be shooting a guy in the chest on COD4(not that its bad i love COD4 no hate intended) and they'll just knife you and go along with their kill streak...well thats not going to happen on MAG...

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nextgen2007

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Why does the GS site have a November 10 release date for this? Is this confirmed?

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jeffgordonfan24

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I WANT IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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ahpuck

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so many good games to look forwards to, time to get a 3rd job. .

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sagax03

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the graphics are okay but i hvae to say it looks darn amazing.

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omnislash6669

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@Barighm MAG is exclusive to the PS3. It was designed around the PS3 hardware. Woot!

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xcr33px

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sweeeeet

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dairyboy3065

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I really find it hard to find people who would ACTUALLY listen to their squad leader, most people are very rebellious.

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Doglike

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PCs aren't limited to 30v30 and havent been for a long time Did anyone here ever play Planetside by SOE... That was a FPS MMO and bloody good it was too. I think that had a population cap of 500 per continent and i took part in several major battles with pretty much all of the players contesting a single pivotal base, dropships, fighters, bombers tanks power armour the works... if its half as good as that it will be epic

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