THESE ARE NOT MINE. The first one is from IGN, the second is from gamespot, the third is from G4 TV
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Overview
This week I'll be giving you some of the basic concepts of MAG, as well as some of its history that was just released because this last week was MAG's Birthday. I'm going to go over the basic concepts from the most recent patch, for all of you new players who want to know. I'll also go over some statistics that Zipper shared on their blog at blog.mag.com. For all of you people out there who are trying to decide the reduced price MAG, I'm going to give you my opinions on the game. I really liked Zippers 256 player idea, and I really like the command structure and how you get airstrikes or Artillery strikes. What they did was they gave each squad of 8 people a squad leader (as one of the 8) and the squad leader has some of the more basic airstrikes. The squad leader when attacking in the biggest game mode can use a cluster bomb and a UAV area scan. Then in each platoon, the four squads are controlled by a platoon leader, who has higher level airstrikes to him, like strafing runs and sensor jamming. The sensor jamming makes it so the enemy can't use their strikes against you for 5 minutes about. The next level up is the OIC, or Officer in Command. On attack, he possesses the ability to make respawn times slower for the other team and he can call in various other strikes. Personally, I think OIC is the worst position to be in because you have very few actual strikes.
Now, on to the basics of the new MAG patch 2.10
The patch changed the game dramatically. It took out the old and very basic skill tree and replaced it with a more complicated one. It also took all of the weapons out of the skill tree and put them in a new category called the “Supply Depot”. Each match you earn both experience and Credits. The credits you can use to buy weapons, sights, bipods, and clothing for your character. In MAG, you can make up to 5 different load outs. To start, there are three preset loadouts- A Sniper, an assault, and a support loadout.
The sniper loadout consists of the most basic sniper rifle, a pistol, and a First aid Kit.
The Assault loadout has the most basic assault rifle, A pistol, Frag grenades, a first aid kit for self healing and a rocket launcher.
The Support loadout has a Machine gun, a pistol, frag grenades, and a repair kit for repairing vehicles and various other destroyable objects in the game.
Though all that many people think they need are weapons, it would be better to purchase a medical kit first. There is a difference between the medical kit and the First aid Kit. The first aid kit can't heal other people or resuscitate (revive) other people. At first you can only heal, but healing people gets you a lot of points if done often. Once you have the “Resuscitation 1” Skill, you can revive people. Reviving people gives you 10 points for every person. 10 points may not seem like much, but it really helps in getting you to level up, which gets you skill points and Credits that you can spend on upgrading and buying better weapons.
Now, I did say something about statistics, didn't I? Well, here they are. I quoted this straight from the Zipper MAG blog.
"It’s MAG’s birthday this week, and to help celebrate the game’s one-year anniversary we thought we’d share some of the more interesting numbers that you, the fans, have accumulated over the past 12 months. We hope you like zeros…
Since MAG was released on January 26, 2010, players have amassed nearly 2 billion killsand earned more than 38 billion experience points
That crazy kill and XP feat was accomplished in just over 46 million hours, equivalent to more than 5,200 years of game time
Of all our different modes, your favorite game type to play has been Sabotage, with Suppression coming in second place
All told, over 1.6 million matches have been played in MAG in first year – that’s an average of nearly 183 games per hour, every hour of every day!
Those big numbers were put up by some very dedicated players. We’ve seen more than 100,000 players put in more than 100 hours each, which we think is quite incredible
We’ve also seen more than 80,000 unique players achieve veteran status, with roughly 17,000 eligible to take the leap at this moment. That’s dedication!
On the development side, we’ve released 14 patches over the course of the past 12 months, but we’re not done yet! MAG will see its 15th patch, v2.11, released next month, bringing new optimizations and refinements to the table.
We’re humbled by the sheer amount of time that some of you all have put into the game, and we hope that you’re having just as much fun now as you did 12 months ago. Thanks for playing! “
Another thing they posted was about MAG's beginnings and some fun facts here they are:
“As MAG’s first birthday celebration comes to a close, we thought fans might find it interesting if we pulled back the curtain a bit and revealed info about MAG that no one outside of Zipper Interactive and Sony Computer Entertainment has ever known… until now!
Think you’re a MAG expert? Think again! Listed below are five facts listed in backwards order of their mind-blowing magnitude.
5. The three PMCs – Raven, SVER, and Valor – weren’t always known by those names. Over time, they underwent a number of title changes. Valor was known as the “Allied Forces” and “Hammer,” SVER was “SEVER” and “SIRSAT, and Raven was… well, check further down the list to see what Raven was called.
4. Though MAG was Zipper’s first “released” PS3 game, it wasn’t always planned to be. Prior to the green light for MAG, we were tossing around several ideas – including an espionage-themed action/platformer that thrived on chase sequences and a shooter that would ultimately become the game due out this April, SOCOM 4..
3. MAG could be even bigger. MAG is renowned for its 256-player support – and we earned the Guinness World Record for most simultaneous players in a console FPS as proof – but that’s not the limit of our technology. Truth be told, we can support a lot more than that. We picked 256 players as our target for game design reasons (how we divide up squads, platoons, etc). However, with our architecture, we could increase the number players well beyond the 256-person limit if we wanted to – we’d just want to make sure our design fit whatever super huge number we wanted to go after first.
2. MAG began its life as a SOCOM game. Originally, we had planned to make MAG a part of the SOCOM universe. In fact, its first working title was “SOCOM: MAG.” As the game began to take shape, however, it became apparent that what MAG was growing into was much different than SOCOM. The gameplay design, while still somewhat-tactical, continued to become less “SOCOM-like.” The emphasis on character progression and large-scale multiplayer battles with three completely different PMCs sealed the deal, and MAG happily spun off into its own universe. Oh, and remember that Raven “early title” we mentioned? Yeah, they were “Clawhammer!”
MAG started as a third-person shooter. Because it started as a SOCOM title, MAG was a third-person shooter for a good portion of its development cycle. When the first MAG trailer was shown at E3 2008, for instance, the game was still planned as a TPS (and the teaser hints at it pretty strongly). As we continued to refine MAG, however, and pull it father away from its SOCOM beginnings, we moved it into the first-person realm to help differentiate it even more. After we played it, when knew absolutely that going first-person was the right choice for the game and the rest, as they say, is history!”
Since MAG was released on January 26, 2010, players have amassed nearly 2 billion killsand earned more than 38 billion experience points
That crazy kill and XP feat was accomplished in just over 46 million hours, equivalent to more than 5,200 years of game time
Of all our different modes, your favorite game type to play has been Sabotage, with Suppression coming in second place
All told, over 1.6 million matches have been played in MAG in first year – that’s an average of nearly 183 games per hour, every hour of every day!
Those big numbers were put up by some very dedicated players. We’ve seen more than 100,000 players put in more than 100 hours each, which we think is quite incredible
We’ve also seen more than 80,000 unique players achieve veteran status, with roughly 17,000 eligible to take the leap at this moment. That’s dedication!
On the development side, we’ve released 14 patches over the course of the past 12 months, but we’re not done yet! MAG will see its 15th patch, v2.11, released next month, bringing new optimizations and refinements to the table.
We’re humbled by the sheer amount of time that some of you all have put into the game, and we hope that you’re having just as much fun now as you did 12 months ago. Thanks for playing! “
Another thing they posted was about MAG's beginnings and some fun facts here they are:
“As MAG’s first birthday celebration comes to a close, we thought fans might find it interesting if we pulled back the curtain a bit and revealed info about MAG that no one outside of Zipper Interactive and Sony Computer Entertainment has ever known… until now!
Think you’re a MAG expert? Think again! Listed below are five facts listed in backwards order of their mind-blowing magnitude.
5. The three PMCs – Raven, SVER, and Valor – weren’t always known by those names. Over time, they underwent a number of title changes. Valor was known as the “Allied Forces” and “Hammer,” SVER was “SEVER” and “SIRSAT, and Raven was… well, check further down the list to see what Raven was called.
4. Though MAG was Zipper’s first “released” PS3 game, it wasn’t always planned to be. Prior to the green light for MAG, we were tossing around several ideas – including an espionage-themed action/platformer that thrived on chase sequences and a shooter that would ultimately become the game due out this April, SOCOM 4..
3. MAG could be even bigger. MAG is renowned for its 256-player support – and we earned the Guinness World Record for most simultaneous players in a console FPS as proof – but that’s not the limit of our technology. Truth be told, we can support a lot more than that. We picked 256 players as our target for game design reasons (how we divide up squads, platoons, etc). However, with our architecture, we could increase the number players well beyond the 256-person limit if we wanted to – we’d just want to make sure our design fit whatever super huge number we wanted to go after first.
2. MAG began its life as a SOCOM game. Originally, we had planned to make MAG a part of the SOCOM universe. In fact, its first working title was “SOCOM: MAG.” As the game began to take shape, however, it became apparent that what MAG was growing into was much different than SOCOM. The gameplay design, while still somewhat-tactical, continued to become less “SOCOM-like.” The emphasis on character progression and large-scale multiplayer battles with three completely different PMCs sealed the deal, and MAG happily spun off into its own universe. Oh, and remember that Raven “early title” we mentioned? Yeah, they were “Clawhammer!”
MAG started as a third-person shooter. Because it started as a SOCOM title, MAG was a third-person shooter for a good portion of its development cycle. When the first MAG trailer was shown at E3 2008, for instance, the game was still planned as a TPS (and the teaser hints at it pretty strongly). As we continued to refine MAG, however, and pull it father away from its SOCOM beginnings, we moved it into the first-person realm to help differentiate it even more. After we played it, when knew absolutely that going first-person was the right choice for the game and the rest, as they say, is history!”
Interesting Huh?
Well, thanks for reading and have a great week.
Until Next time,
Kris
PSN ID: tanker5645
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