Mag open beta

[Hereward]

Quote

Zipper Interactive has announced a massive multiplayer open beta for the PlayStation 3's massive multiplayer shooter MAG.

MAG has gone gold, and all is on course for its January 26th North American release. Now all Zipper Interactive and Sony have to do is make sure the game doesn't explode on launch day, so they're holding an open beta for the game between January 4th and January 10th. When they say open, they mean extremely open. If you are in a territory with the PlayStation Network, then you're in. Simply log into the PlayStation Network tomorrow, download the MAG open beta demo, start it up, and wait for it to download upwards of 2.3GB of data. You'll want to do this as early as possible, to make sure you aren't stuck waiting when the 4th rolls around.

Consider it Zipper Interactive's way of saying Happy Holidays, please buy our game next month. 👍

Source......
http://kotaku.com/5431310/mag-open-beta-is-just-around-the-corner

 

[kjb]

Kewl. I don't normally like FPSs but I want to try this one out.

 

[GTjazzabrandy]

It looks awesome.

 

[Hereward]

OK open beta starts today, Monday 4th. Times are available on the MAG website but GMT is 1pm. Should be available on the store but if you can't find it it's freely available on the US store to download.
3 factions available to join, thinking I'm going for Valour being made up of amoung others UK special forces and is more "curent" tech as regards weapons. Anyone else going to be giving it a go and seeing how 256 player battles hold up on the PSN?
If Zippers previous acheivements are anything to go off then MAG could just be the title that knocks MW2 of it's throne! Roll on 1pm and parachuting onto a rooftop with a sniper rifle, my camping stove is packed along with the beans.....this could be a long beta!

 

[Dragonistic]

I was on the closed beta, it was ok but nothing really pulled me in. Even in the full 256 player games it just felt underwhelming. By no means was it bad, but it was just kinda meh, I'd hoped for much more. Even though you have so many people in a battle, an experience new to me, it felt kind of stale and old pretty quickly.

The core aiming and movement felt dated, I mean you could still prone, move, aim down the sights and fire all at once, something which we haven't seen in a long time on the console world. I mean sure sacrifices had to be made, but opting for quantity over quality didn't pay off for me.

Literally all this game has going for it is alot of players, but whats the point if killing them is monotonous and has no feeling. We all know I'm not a big COD man either, I bought MW2 cus I was fed up of playing alone and it's delivered what I asked, it was just about good enough online to keep me interested enough to play a little to get a rank in prep for playing with friends. The simple fact is though, for the arcade shooter genre, which is where MAG most certainly falls, COD is much more polished, in both gameplay and graphics which simply makes it more entertaining. On COD you need a single friend to have a bearing on the games outcome, you'd need a heck of a group to have an effect on MAG.

Technically, the lag and such during the closed beta was minimal, technically the game was spot on in terms of running and considering the scale you can forgive the sub par visuals. For what it is, it's impressive, but it's major selling point of large quantity of players is nullified by the sacrifices made to achieve it.

My verdict? Want something more open, vehicles, destruction? Wait for Bad Company 2.

 

[Hereward]

Hmm not tried it yet so have no opinion on it. See what happens when it goes live. The games gone gold now and this open beta is a final test and really a demo of the final product so there could an improvement.

 

[Dragonistic]

I really hope it is improved, but none of the problems were technical such as frame rates, glitchs and connections. It was all ruined by the underlying shooter that everything revolves around. They didn't focus enough on the actual gameplay for me, basically someone decided to make a game with 256 players (or as many as they coulld manage) and then they did it. Nobody seems to have taken any real flare into it, and the result is disapointing. It's not a bad game by any means, many shooter fans will like it just because it has alot of players, but I think for any gamer wanting some depth you're in the wrong place.

It's difficult to pinpoint the cause, but I never felt a part of the battle, it may sound silly but I was very very aware that I was playing a game. Immersion was at a low throughout, guns felt like pea shooters, you register the kill but you didn't feel any power, it didn't feel like a weapon designed to end lives and the way you wield it felt numb and detached. To put it another way, when a shooter sucks me in, I think about what I'm doing in the game. When I see an enemy I think FIRE! on MAG I think press R2, or R1 or whatever it is. Then a number goes up which says I kill someone, but I don't feel like I did anything. As a reasonably serious gamer, I don't need realism to be immersed, not at all, but MAG commits one of the biggest crimes a game can commit to me. Dullness, that crucial X factor is missing, it's a game built by numbers and technology not with any flare, passion or creativity.

 

[Masi_23]

2 gigs... ill pass. There's so many things i didn't like about the closed beta, and that excludes the sub par graphics. One thing i hate the most is the HUD. It's a mess.

As a reasonably serious gamer, I don't need realism to be immersed, not at all, but MAG commits one of the biggest crimes a game can commit to me. Dullness, that crucial X factor is missing, it's a game built by numbers and technology not with any flare, passion or creativity.

Very well put. What he said...

 

[Lion-Face]

Well I really liked the Closed Beta, and am looking forward to the full release of MAG later this month. It really hooked me, I was a Socom fan from PS2 days, but Socom Confrontation didn't do anything for me. This feels like the best of Socom, mashed with the best bits of COD4 thrown into an MMO type FPS. The feeling of the game I feel it rests somewhere between Socom and Killzone2, its not the arcade high speed crazyness of MW2 nor is it as slow as some of the more hardcore realistic based shooters.

 

[Hereward]

Hmm cheers for the opinions guys, I supose it comes down to team play for me so I'll see how the game makes or dosn't make you play as a team. Hopefully I can let you know my thoughts later today.

 

[Dragonistic]

Well I really liked the Closed Beta, and am looking forward to the full release of MAG later this month. It really hooked me, I was a Socom fan from PS2 days, but Socom Confrontation didn't do anything for me. This feels like the best of Socom, mashed with the best bits of COD4 thrown into an MMO type FPS. The feeling of the game I feel it rests somewhere between Socom and Killzone2, its not the arcade high speed crazyness of MW2 nor is it as slow as some of the more hardcore realistic based shooters.

I think it certainly falls into arcade without a shadow of a doubt. Mainly because of the way the game moves and the near zero recoil on the weapons I used. Venture anywhere near an objective and it's often a death fest with people being shot almost upon spawning. You can move your spawn point but if everyone does that, you practically give up the objective. I mean it doesn't stop you playing a slower style but thats not particularly fun when killing people is so lifeless to me.

Hmm cheers for the opinions guys, I supose it comes down to team play for me so I'll see how the game makes or dosn't make you play as a team. Hopefully I can let you know my thoughts later today.

Put it this way, it's difficult to get console gamers to co-ordinate when there's 6 on a team in COD. Can you imagine any real co-ordination on anything more then a small group in the game? Especially when many PSN users don't have a headset. I rarely heard a voice of reason let alone people actually listening, granted with a few friends you could have some tactics going on, but you can on pretty much any shooter.

 

[Kryz11]

I just play my first match few minutes ago.. It's freking awesome, controlls are way better then anticipated. the 7.1 surround sound is top notch, Graphics, its no EYE candy, but it gets its job done.. Its not really arcadey game sine people only take few bullets to die.

Seems almost all players in my squad had mics, everyone communicated and we won. Its great fun, but now servers seem to be down .. Ill take a break and come back later to this awesome game.

DL it people. see what you think ,

 

[P1]

WOW i was expecting this to be a complete fail game but its amazing, this completely destroys call of duty.

 

[Dragonistic]

I just play my first match few minutes ago.. It's freking awesome, controlls are way better then anticipated. the 7.1 surround sound is top notch, Graphics, its no EYE candy, but it gets its job done.. Its not really arcadey game sine people only take few bullets to die.

Seems almost all players in my squad had mics, everyone communicated and we won. Its great fun, but now servers seem to be down .. Ill take a break and come back later to this awesome game.

DL it people. see what you think ,

I do intend to download it at some point, just to see if it's improved. It doesn't take many bullets to kill on COD, but by all means you can't call it realistic with much justification because of the way in which you can move your player, and it's the same with MAG.

To go back to what I mentioned earlier, if you can steadily look down a weapons red dot sight whilst crawling sideways and firing with little to no recoil, then first of all WOW but secondly I think thats a special talent you've acquired I mean that alone doesn't ruin the game at all, it makes little difference, but it was the numbness of movement and killing that bothered me.

The whole game sounds awesome on paper, but the honeymoon effect just didn't last for me and it didn't feel satisfying. It sounds like people are having more fun with this beta over the original closed one a couple of months ago, so I'll definately try get it if I have the drive space.

Edit: Download times are stupid slow, the 1.5 patch is taking FOREVER and it's 37mb!

 

[boiltheocean]

I've downloaded the patch but I keep getting cannot connect to server at this time. Is anyone else experiencing this?

 

[Dragonistic]

I get to the bit where it starts the big download and it's just to slow, I refuse to leave my PS3 idol for so long when i can't auto shutdown overnight, and I don't fancy staring at it. I can't watch any DVDs either and I don't watch TV. Will try again later in the week.

 

[P1]

The servers have crashed and will be back up in 15 minutes.

http://forums.mag.com/mag/board/message?board.id=generaldiscussion&thread.id=131809

 

[boiltheocean]

I get to the bit where it starts the big download and it's just to slow, I refuse to leave my PS3 idol for so long when i can't auto shutdown overnight, and I don't fancy staring at it. I can't watch any DVDs either and I don't watch TV. Will try again later in the week.

Yeah I just hit that massive stage, I really cannot be bothered with such slow speeds at the moment.

 

[DustDriver]

Downloaded it, but got disconnected from the PSN after a couple of minutes.
The feel of it is completely different compared to MW2.

 

[Hereward]

OK I'm going to try and avoid shouting from the roof tops as I've only had a few hours with one game mode. But I definatly like it, from dragontastics coments about zero - low recoil in the closed beta this seems to have been adddressed by zipper and all guns now have a meaty feel to them. Maps are what I expected from zipper, well thoughtout with a huge scope for tactical play. The game throws players into working as a team so even when your coms are "quiet" you can see the team working to one objective. Can't really coment too much though as only one level is currently available with more to be opened as the open beta rolls on.
I tend to snipe more than any other game play but switching to a bit of close quaters stuff is needed from time to time depending on how the game is going. It's early days and I am being restrained because of that but this could be the game which really moves peoples expectations of what is possible in a FPS
I remember playing Resistance for the first time and was blown away with the 60 (I think) people online..........the scale of the battles the multiple attacks and forces moving around the map......And now heres mag with 256, I've only so far participated in the 64 player battles on mag and that feeling of an imersion in a huge battle is there, I can't wait to get in to the big battles!

Ive started a new thread with a poll, please stick tour preferance in there.

 

[Legendary]

This sounds like a really cool game but hearing how big the download is, if I want it I will buy it when it comes out. I still have slow ADSL 1 internet and I really dont want to spend 2 gig on something my connection probably cant even handle, downloading 256 players must be a bandwidth whore.

 

[Solid Lifters]

I searched the store and never found the open beta. What it sounds like, I wont like MAG anyway, so screw it.

 

[magburner]

I've played this game for a little while yesterday, and whilst I was impressed with parts of the game, some parts of the game are very poor. I'll sum up what I thought about my experiences below.

Zipper have very wisely decided to emulate the base COD4/MW2 configuration options, so I was not left looking at the pad wondering what button did what. My only gripe was that there seemed to be no quick swap to the extra items that are mapped to L2.

Graphically, the game looks good. I wouldn't say the game looked that bad as some have suggested, but they are certainly not going to win any awards. I also thought the graphics looked a little dark on some levels, particularly the South American level.

I also didn't like the amount of information on the screen. I usually only play Hardcore on MW2, so the extra information is both confusing and distracting. Maybe MAG will have a hardcore mode, but as it stands I will have to mark it down for visual distraction.

Shooting is, in my opinion, very poor, and reminded me of BFBC/1943. I never really felt like I was connecting with my shots, and the vibrations through the pad could use a little work. On a plus not there seems to be no aim assist, which makes the game a little more interesting.

The selection of guns available at the start of the game is very poor, with only three very poor guns to start with. That is not too bad if you have been playing the game from the start, but I was constantly facing opponents who had guns far more powerful than my own, making levelling up a cathartic exercise. One thing I noticed too, was that frags are positively lethal - Be very careful when you use them!

The way that MAG uses health is also really, really bad. I am against any shooter that utilises health in this way. As far as I am concerned, when you shoot some guy, he should die after a few bullets, not after half a clip.

I like the fact also that MAG has all three stances, it is a sign of a good shooter, though I wonder how you can crawl in prone and aim at the same time, that needs to be fixed. I also had some trouble distinguishing between crouched and standing.

The much hyped team play aspect of the game was not in evidence, much to my surprise. Apart from a list in the bottom right of the screen, I could find no way of finding where my squad was, other than listening to the comms chatter. I was also not sure if the chatter was from my own squad, or the whole team.

All in all, I will have to say that I like MAG, though not as much as I like MW2. There are things they need to sort, out, but the idea that I can play with many players is good. 👍

 

[Lion-Face]

1 - My only gripe was that there seemed to be no quick swap to the extra items that are mapped to L2.

2 - The much hyped team play aspect of the game was not in evidence, much to my surprise. Apart from a list in the bottom right of the screen, I could find no way of finding where my squad was, other than listening to the comms chatter. I was also not sure if the chatter was from my own squad, or the whole team.

1 - I found that when I first started playing MAG, but the trick to it is, is to tap the button to the slot you want to go to.
For example, the default soldier has a grenade in slot one, and a medkit in slot 2. To select grenade (while holding your rifle/pistol) press L2 once. To select medkit (while holding your rifle/pistol) press L2 twice, it skips past the grenade and selects medkit instantly. And so it is if you want to swap back to your weapons using R2. Once for the primary, twice for the secondary.

2 - The teamplay is a bit lacking at the moment due to the lack of leaders to give orders and the game mode that is currently available. Leaders, when in proximity, will give you bonuses, such as faster movement, longer bleedout time etc (you can see the details in your barracks menu)

Also, they can dish out specific orders for the squad to follow. The problem is in the current game mode, there is only the default orders to follow, blowup/defend target A/B and then blowup/defend target C. The larger game modes (made up of 64players per side and 128players per side) offer a much larger scale of battlefield and many more targets of oppurtunity for your squad leader to dish out orders on, and I feel it will be those game modes which will show you what MAG can really do. The 128player per side game mode is said to be unlocked sometime later this week for play.

As for Comms, if you have a headset on, your squad chatter will come through your headset, and other squad chatter in your proximity will come through your TV/Speakers.

 

[Hereward]

Yep theres alot hid away in there, try pressing select in game, you'll pul up a map and see where your squad is also theres alot of controls mapped onto the d buttons. The demolition mode is the only one available at the moment but I have noticed one of the 256 player rooms with players in them so I'd expect that to open soon so they can test the big maps out.
One of the things I don't like about FPS is being overrun by the hyperactive of hand, running headlong into enemy fire seemingly imperverlous to bullets then droping you with one shot without even breaking stride......MAG certainly isn't like this. It is however certainly aimed at the fast paced style of play, thats not to say tactics don't play a role you can play this game anyway you like.

 

[Masi_23]

Is there anyone who was in the closed BETA? How's it different this time around?

 

[icelt]

Is there anyone who was in the closed BETA? How's it different this time around?

You should refer to Dragonistic's prior posts in this thread.

 

[Dragonistic]

Unfortunately, I can't say what has changed since then. The stupidly slow download times have put me off getting the open beta.

 

[Hereward]

I timed my download (I was bored) averaged about 200kbs on a 1825mb download. Little over 2 hours in total I think after a quick start it soon slowed. That was on a 10 meg conection. Not a huge download but I have heard some have really had problems.

 

[Dragonistic]

I timed my download (I was bored) averaged about 200kbs on a 1825mb download. Little over 2 hours in total I think after a quick start it soon slowed. That was on a 10 meg conection. Not a huge download but I have heard some have really had problems.

So by my reckoning we're talking (and I believe you did it when the servers weren't being hammered) a good 6 hours or so if I do it at home as my connections more like 3 meg, less time at uni but I can only have one thing running internet at a time there and the beta would be over most likely before I could do anything.