PlanetSide 2 Message Board

PlanetSide 2 has been very good (or at least very impressive) for quite some time, but no one can deny that it continues to be a work-in-progress. It’s a massive, multicolored jelly bean bowl of coordinated carnage, yes, but when you’re not rolling with friends or a full-blown outfit, the whole experience can be a bit aimless. The solution? Well, SOE seems to think it’s a mission system, but that too is a work-in-progress. The imposingly named Phase One is now live.

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If you haven’t already heard, we’re at war. Eternal war, truth be told, but of a friendly, (typically) only virtually fatal sort with the PC Gamer lot and also everyone else who’s ever played PlanetSide 2. You can enlist right here for a giant community play session that’s kicking off at 12:30 PM PT/7:30 PM GMT, but if you’d rather not risk life and level one limb, there’s another option. You can watch me, a person who has never played PlanetSide 2, attempt to be some kind of war correspondent. On the docket: witnessing spectacular catastrophe firsthand, stumbling around and dying a lot, and then probably interviewing key players on all sides after they’ve emerged from the carnage. I honestly have no idea if this will be any good, but let’s find out together, like a big, argumentative family on a Sunday picnic – only with more, you know, war.

… [visit site to read more]

visit site to read more]

visit site to read more]

The jungle territory of Hossin won’t arrive in Planetside 2 until May but the Amerish region is changing right now. A major revamp was implemented just before the weekend, adding nine new outposts and redesigning those that were already in place. Most significantly, perhaps, the Lattice System is now in play on Amerish, meaning that conquest of outposts must be conducted along supply routes, as on Indar and Esamir. A more strategic first-person space-biff awaits. There are other tweaks as well, including an increase in resource rewards and improved roads. The appearance of the continent has changed as well. Judging by the before and after shots in the video below, the forests and mountains no longer look like they’ve been plucked from Earth. It’s all a bit more sci-fi.

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It’s the greatest tragedy of our capitalist system that our economy can’t yet support a world in which I just sit around all day and play PlanetSide 2. Instead I need to live with the guilt of never playing it enough, and assuage that guilt by writing about it coming updates. The game’s public roadmap was just updated to outline the next six months of development, and it looks like the massive, multiplayer shooter will be getting a new continent called Hossin in May.(more…)

Not only did Joshino pull off this well-known Battlefield move in Planetside 2, but he made it his last kill to reach Battle Rank 100. Read more...

Hello everyone!

2013 has been a very memorable year for PlanetSide 2 – we released a slew of new features and major game updates, enhanced the game’s performance, celebrated our one-year anniversary on the PC, and announced our plans to come to Sony’s most powerful platform – the PlayStation 4.

We know you all are eager to get your hands on PlanetSide 2 on the PS4 and we’re just as excited. There will be nothing else like PlanetSide 2 on the PS4 and we can’t wait for you to experience the epic multiplayer combat and massive battles. Trust we are hard at work to make sure the game launches in 2014 as a complete and robust console offering.

Stay up to date on all the big news by checking back to the PlayStation Blog and sign up for more details on our website.

Wishing everyone a merry Auraximas and a happy New Year; we’re excited to see you all in PlanetSide 2 on the PlayStation 4 in 2014!

A modern first-person shooter without a slow-burning, arsenal-amassing progression system is like a clown without big, poofy pants. The absence is glaringly noticeable, and then someone gets arrested for public indecency. PlanetSide 2‘s equivalent of that is the cert system, but in a game that’s just as much an MMO as it is a shooter, that poses some continent-sized content issues. This isn’t Call of Duty. There isn’t a new treadmill to hop onto every year. SOE, then, wants to get off the oh-so-trendy gear-and-guns train entirely with additional, entirely separate means of progression.

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If I didn’t know any better, I’d say SOE wanted to keep PlanetSide 2 all to itself. That would explain why the technicolor dream MMOFPS has been the stuff of mid (and even some high) range rigs’ nightmares since day one. But then, nobody likes the idea of being desperately poor and all alone forever, so I’m guessing SOE just made a gigantic boo-boo on its priority list. But now, finally, it’s managed to set all of that right with a huge optimization patch. If your machine choked, sputtered, and excused itself from the table (or life) after trying a bite of PlanetSide 2, now might be the time to give it another go.

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… but you should watch it, anyway. In my very casual time with Planetside 2, I haven’t ran into that many egregious technical troubles. I think I must be in the minority, or perhaps even the only person who hasn’t had his game hitch or crash or exhibit any slowdown, because SOE has (virtually) downed tools on a lot of content updates to focus on making the game run better. They’re also documenting this process for the fans in least visually exciting gaming video series, ever. You know how seriously they’re taking this when they have a game with Planetside 2′s visual oomph but put out a video of people talking in a room. Operation: Make Faster Game’s (O:MFG) first video is below.(more…)

PlanetSide 2 will not include cross-platform play between PlayStation 4 and PC owners. "Because of the update cadence, and the additional steps you have to go through to be able to release an update on the PlayStation network, we're not going to be able to keep our servers in sync, so you won't be able to just play with the same people," Sony Online Entertainment Creative Director Matt Higby told Eurogamer.

However, players may be able to transfer their characters between the two versions of the free-to-play MMO, as "the character format's the same on both, it's just purely a matter of the server updates." The PC version of PlanetSide 2 launched in November 2012, and was confirmed for PS4 in June along with DC Universe Online. Both games will remain free to play, and will not require a PlayStation Plus subscription to play online.

2013 was the beginning of the end for PlanetSide 2. Before then, it was everything we’d dreamed of: a constant, continual laser meatgrind. It never ended, and we never wanted it to. You ever found a purpose in life? Ours was to spot and kill anyone not in purple. It was glorious. War squared. Then the Player Studio opened up, enabling the players to redesign game elements and sell them in the store. It was the helmets that became our undoing. Ever tried to shoot a man in the face when he’s wearing a grey helmet with a love heart on it? It changes you, man. We laid down arms. We’d all take long walks together. Vanu, NC, even those grumpy Terrans, gathering and watching the sun dip over the edge of Auraxis. That was the end of war.(more…)

Planetside 2 has three giant battle-continents so far: vanilla continent, frosted-icing continent, and biscuit continent. Soon, though, they’re going to change things up a bit for some jungle/swamp continent. That one’s called Hossin, and SOE have been teasing its flooded, leafy wonders for some time now. It looks like this might play a little differently to the standard flavours, as you can see in a video below. (What’s with the crazy laser canopies?)

Will it have snakes? Apparently not. That seems like a shame. Everyone likes snakes.(more…)

This past weekend Red Bull hosted another StarCraft II tournament, which they call the Training Grounds, and featured some of the best players from around the world. There was also a surprise coming out of Brazil with the Brazil Gaming League Arena which saw some fierce competition in the free-to-play first person shooter Cross Fire. Read more...

And we want everyone to be there. Planetside 2 is free, so there’s no excuse. The honour of our internet is at stake: we will be taking on the PC Gamer outfit in a battle to the warpgate. Forum details over here. We need as many folks online as possible. You will need Mumble installed and set up to get in on the action.

The news that Planetside 2 was about to introduce Implants slid past me, like a stealthy and handsome Vanu sniper. The time-limited buffs would have slipped into a new loadout slot, enabling non-class based powers for a brief time. They could be bought with both Station Cash and certs, which is where the problem lies. Lets take a look at one of the powers that SOE had planned to implement, that anyone could buy: “Enhanced Targeting – Enables an enhanced targeting HUD that displays the health of any spotted enemy that you target; it also increases the range of the IFF system from 8 meters to 25 meters”. Other buffs included auto-spotting enemies that damage you, and being hidden from enemy sensors. WHAT? People can buy that? Luckily, that was the same reaction that a lot of the community had, and Sony heard their outcries. The Implants have been yoinked from the next update.(more…)

The evil empire has risen once again, and must be crushed under the magnificence of our all-encompassing purpleness! Yes, Chris from PC Gamer threw down the gauntlet and told me to “bring it on” and “put my Station cash where my air-filter DLC is”. Something like that, anyway. The point is: you are all contractually obligated to appear in Planetside 2 on the 21st of July. Since it’s free to play, you have no excuse. No, not even that.

Same drill as usual: it’ll be from 7pm UK on Miller. To the forums!

Auraxis has fallen into night. We are Vanu (All hail Vanu), a small group of us are purplishly sneaking through the bracken. The New Conglomerate base is quiet, with all the meatbags snoring arrogantly, believing in their dominance. Never believe the map! Us Vanu, handsomest and best of all the races and cloaked in the night’s purple hue, approach. The quiet is deafening, the darkness near complete. Only the glow of war on the horizon flickers. We freeze: I spy a lone guard patrolling on the edge of the Amp station. The fools! I can destroy their defenses with a well-placed bullet. I steady my aim and fire.

FASHOOOOM! KRSHHHHHHHH! WHEEEEEEEEE! SPLOK!

And that’s why I shouldn’t be allowed to buy Planetside 2‘s firework gun.(more…)

Like Snake Island, Pulsing Wart Peninsula, and Angry Infected Monkey Lake, I can’t help but feel that PlanetSide 2′s upcoming Battle Islands have had their fate decided for them. You know what you’re getting into when you visit Snake Island, and the same goes for the newest chunks of Auraxis. The Battle Islands have twin purposes: giving the game smaller maps that are separated from the larger continents for e-sports purposes, for events and the like, but for the live game they’ll also act as mid-point maps that link the continents together. The name that’s been given to this first lovely, foresty chunk of land: Nexus. Want to see it in action?(more…)

So it turns out a big bunch of the RPS Giraffe-based Planetside 2 outfit are here at Rezzed, and tomorrow they’re all going to be playing the game from the show from 1pm. We need you to come and fight with an against them, as onlookers gawp at their plasma-toting prowess. Jump in tomorrow afternoon and give them hell/heals.

Fight!

A last-minute addition to the Rezzed 2013 line-up will be my current favourite game, Planetside 2! I’m sure there will be plenty of our determined PS2 players there, and if you haven’t tried it yet, you’ll be able to sit down and have a go. We also have word that the developer sessions, which include things such as Chris Avellone mud-wrestling with Ragnar Tornquist (I can dream), will be streamed online via the Eurogamer YouTube channel. So even if you can’t make it, you can feel like you are (in some weird, solitary way) part of the party.

Speaking of parties – Rezzed attendees please note Saturday night drinks. See you there.

A PlayStation Plus subscription may be required for online multiplayer on the PS4, but it won't required when the console gets DC Universe Online and Planetside 2, both of which are free to play. DCUO's PS4 version will also be cross compatible with the PC title.

We’re calling all RPS soldiers to the front on Sunday 16th from 7pm UK on Miller. Planetside 2 is free-to-play, so this is an ideal time to get acquainted, and see what happens when several hundred RPS readers are deployed in the same theatre of laser-death.

Details below.(more…)

Continuing our Twenty Bucks series, which looks at what $20 can actually get you in various ‘free’ games, Jim focuses his wallet on Planetside 2. Can he pay to win? Why does his jeep look like a giraffe?

These and many other questions are answered below.

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Yes, that’s an order. We’re going to be doing a big old call to arms on the Miller server on the 16th. The last couple of these have been completely fantastic, with hundreds of RPS readers working together in multiple platoons to set the various continents on (purple) fire. It’s a Sunday evening this time, too, which should make things easier for many. You’ll need to be able to listen in on our Mumble voice comms to participate.

And if you are playing NC or TR, well, bring it on.

REVELATORY NEWS. Did you know that PlanetSide 2 – free-to-play titan and king among first-person Jimshoots – had a prequel? That’s right: the two in the title isn’t just for show like everybody clearly assumed it was. There is another. It’s still about refreshingly colorful spacewars and shootouts with more moving pieces than an upturned ant hill, but the graphics are worse and wobbly netcode is a mightier enemy than any mecha tank. Also, it still costs money for some reason. SOE’s not crazy, though. It sees the writing on the wall. Soon, PS1′s subscription fee will be extinct just like all the others, and it’ll join the F2P era.

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The Call To Arms event was another huge success, with the Vanu group peaking at about 235 concurrent RPS players across five platoons. The NC Outfit was also in action, and there were dozens of other allied and opposing groups which made the evening a splendid brawl across the continent of Indar. We saw several large tank battles across open ground, and dozens of smaller, intense battles for territory. It has to be have been one of the most spectacular multiplayer events I have seen, and I enjoyed leading one of the platoons enormously.

See you all at the next one. Perhaps a Sunday night for the next one.

Tonight on Planetside 2‘s Miller server, from 7pm UK, we will be doing laser war. Everyone is invited. You are doubly invited if you haven’t played the game before. On the Vanu faction, our heroic team of giraffe-fatigued warriors will be organising platoons for you all to play in, making an ideal introduction to the game. They’ve provided a guide to play which you can read here. That’s presented as a video, if you want to watch it as such, below. Also: action video!(more…)