Video Game Geekdom: M.A.G.

I've been excited for M.A.G. since I heard about it. A Massive Action Game of up to 256 players,simultaneous,first person,team death match, objective squad based combat. I am a fan of all these. I loved the intensity of Team Fortress Classic and Halo 2 multiplayer games. I recently got a code to beta test MAG before the full release in January 2010. I'm well aware that the game I have been playing is not the final version but I got a few things to say for sure. The graphics are ok. They are somewhere between Ps2 and Ps3, I figure they have to dumb it down to handle everything that is happening in the massive environments.

One of the big focal points of this game is the massive teams, and breaking teams down into 16 man squads, with a squad leader, an 4 squads with a platoon leader.squad leaders can call in mustard gas and another feature I have not seen yet, platoon leaders can set mission objective map markers and some other stuff. The key of all of this is communication, so plug in your headset. If you or your squad need support to blow up an AA gun, or enemy barracks you need to call out on your mic to your squad leader, who will call the platoon leader who will direct other squads to focus attacks on the objective. Right now in the beta you can qualify as a leader after x amount of experience points. If you are designated as a leader and have no mic you are no where as near effective. There is no text chat, and preset commands only ask for back up, medics, vehicle pick ups etc,This is communicated by a pre recorded voice over. If your team mates hear it, there is no indication other than a small icon on your HUD, which is clustered with other on screen icons and doesn't give you a distance, just a general direction. I would like to see the implement of a smart squad leader selection where it allows only qualified players with mics to take leadership roles for easy communication of direction, and a distance measurement below help request icons so you know if it is worth running to revive a downed teammate or not. If these features are improved, we will see in the final build hopefully.

Another issue I am having trouble with is the credit system for weapons and equipment. Each player has 3200 credits you can spend on any combo of armor, weapons,grenades and support equipment. You unlock upgrades for each weapon but there is no way to acquire more funds.Not sure if this is beta exclusive, but it really limits all classes to maybe one of any 8 combinations .

For the most part any programming errors do not seem to be effecting game play. I haven't experienced any frame rates dropping in the middle of a big fire fight with smoke, explosions, fires, vehicles etc. I also have not seen any clipping issues. One of the smallest snags seems to be waiting to spawn you have a camera shot of an area of the field and you can sweep the view left and right, only in one area the camera is under a bridge and you sweep left and right and only see the top of the bridge, hindering any view of the action and the ability to call out enemy positions to your team mates.

Game play is pretty frantic. It seems a lot of people are fresh to the game and spend a good 10 minutes of their first game learning the map, weapon functions and controls. Coupled with a 15-30 second respawn time there is the chance that an opposing team with experienced players will steam roll you and your team of "n00bs" leaving you in respawn limbo, only to get 5 seconds of game play before you suffer an expertly executed head shot from across the map from a level 40 player. If you survive you are racing for cover, vehicles, turrets and a good vantage point to pick off enemies. With 63 players behind you, and 64 across from you with grenades, gunfire, in game voices yelling for medics, players with microphones calling for support, giving directions and calling out enemy snipers you feel like you are in the middle of an all out war.

So far I would recommend the beta if you get a code, how ever with final releases of Uncharted 2 and Brutal Legend's multiplayer already running, Borderlands in the next week or so, and Modern Warfare 2 in a month, the multiplayer scene will be focused on those final versions,Beta testers may leave for a final mupliplayer title and a community with depth. After the release hype of Uncharted and Borderlands dies down and the anticipation of MW2 ruling the scene for a while, I can see January still being a big month for all games. Revisit the MAG community after the gift giving season and winter break ends to see if other established title's online communities die down and see if MAG can start a strong community in late January. I have seen almost no MAG press coverage other than an odd preview article after E3 , some chatter on podcasts and the blogs. Out of the 2 Gamestops I've been to in the last week, they told me they are seeing no buzz, low preorders , and almost 0 interest in MAG. Hang on to $60... see what is coming out in January (Bioshock 2) or after and make a decision.