Preview: MAG beta

As you progress, gained experience allows you to tackle more demanding missions, eventually nominating yourself as a leader of men, offering advice, commands or hyper-masculine trash-talk to inspire your squads to victory. Missions are packed with objectives such as securing vehicles or taking out enemy anti-air artillery, as you aim to turn the tide of battle in favour of your faction.

Possibly not the safest place to stand while taking those Guns & Ammo PR snaps.

Environments are expansive (they would have to be to accommodate this number of players) yet somehow manage to house recognisable architecture despite the general lack of graphical polish. Visuals were always going to be the compromise in a game that needs to push around so much data, though the trade-off is certainly acceptable. The textures and spot-effects are never going to challenge Killzone 2, but the magnitude of the relentless action manages to overcome any shortcomings in this area. The benefits of this limited presentation speak for themselves — waiting times are remarkably brief considering the vast amount of coordination it takes for 256 PS3s to talk to each other, and lag, even at this beta stage seems to be kept to a minimum.

While the scale and breadth of the experience sounds bewildering, MAG fulfils its mission statement by being an action game, first and foremost. While firmly grounded in reality, it isn’t the same kind of overly-demanding drill sergeant that SOCOM was, instead prioritising action over realism. Strategy is still king however, as thoughtless running around in MAG reminds you very quickly of your mortality with lapses in concentration leading to a rapid death.

If Zipper Interactive can use the coming months to polish MAG and ensure the extent of their ambition is realised, Sony may well have that FPS killer-app they have so long desired.