Preview: MAG beta

The PlayStation is one of the most recognisable brands in video game history and the FPS is arguably the most popular genre of modern gaming. How can it be then, that fifteen years of PlayStation hardware hasn’t produced an exclusive system-selling FPS title? Sure, we’ve had the likes of SOCOM, Killzone and Resistance but where is Sony’s Goldeneye, Half-life, Halo or Gears of War? Zipper Interactive are hoping to answer just that question.

Having an established history with online PlayStation gaming, the folks at Zipper have worked out that in order to compete in the busy FPS market drastic measures need to be taken. MAG (Massive Action Game) fully delivers in the massive department, allowing up to 256 players to partake in epic battles. Melding the developer’s SOCOM series with World of Warcraft and Command and Conquer, MAG is an MMO FPS on a scale beyond anything attempted on consoles before.

Clean-cut and crisp, if slightly minimal, MAG's visuals are perfectly serviceable.

Rather than simply throwing 256 soldiers into the meat-grinder, MAG follows a tight design that keeps the process as immediate and intuitive as possible. Having selected your fully customisable soldier, players choose between three PMC factions. S.V.E.R are the renegades whose dubious pasts endow them with above-average fire power, while Raven Industries cutting-edge technology give them the edge when it comes to accuracy. Valor Company are your obligatory all-rounders, balancing both power and accuracy, and reconciling the fact that the other factions have slightly more brooding names than them. Having selected your faction, you join your squad of eight, with four squads forming a platoon and four platoons forming a company.