MAG - Free Trial (April 6th)

mlbtheshow · 4 Apr 2011 at 13:21

I believe that you can download MAG from the PS store on April 6th and have access to the full game for 7 days iirc.

This is a great chance to get into the best online FPS game on the console and possibly around. Upto 256 man battles is the showpiece of the game, but all the modes encourage teamplay and bring out the best in the PS online community.

The only limitation that you will come across is that you can only level to level 8... at that point, your XP will be stored up and should you purchase the game, then all that XP will be put onto your character increasing your level to its correct state.

Theres plenty of skill trees to improve, also you earn CP (ie cash) which allows you to purchase newer guns, attachments, grenades, equipment ie sensor jammers, or cosmetic stuff like hats and uniforms to customise.

The 3rd area of levelling is as a leader - you can go from Squad Leader, to Platoon Leader to OIC commanding upto 128 players.... each has their perks (ie call in mortars, airstrikes, UAVs... but these are all dependent on whether the actual structure is working. For example the mortar battery is on the field, so can be blown up and repaired... thus its not something thats spammed, there is also a cool down period for all of these 'perks'). Another bonus that leaders possess is that if you stay near them, then you get a benefit... ie you can run faster, reload a bit quicker etc.. it rewards you for working as a squad and sticking with your leaders orders.

Ill dig out the free trial link and hope to see some of you on the field. Remember its a team based FPS and although lonewolfs can help, its not like your CODs of the world - this is the big boys game

Link - http://blog.mag.com/blog/

insane200 · 4 Apr 2011 at 13:27

Best fps ! nope, BfBc2 has that covered, i tried to get into this and failed, it feels way to sluggish, and almost like modern combat evolved.

Drunzer · 4 Apr 2011 at 13:29

I would also say MAG falls before BFBC2, all FPS games do though. MAG is still a very good game I loved it, for anybody who is actually struggling with playing well at other FPS games play this for a while it's very difficult in comparison and you'll find if you play MAG for a bit then go back to CoD or whatever you'll be a far better player.

Raven all the way

stellasuppa · 4 Apr 2011 at 13:48

i do like bfbc2 more but i remember playing mag with the 8/10 clan of eurogamer they had 52 people on the same server and on the same team it was something else

we won convincingly to say the least .
for some reason though i think mag would feel more at home on pc to be honest but i cannot put my finger on why :confused:

ps3ud0 · 4 Apr 2011 at 13:52

stellasuppa said:
for some reason though i think mag would feel more at home on pc to be honest but i cannot put my finger on why

It doesnt need gimmicks to be good?

Ill try and make an appearance though KZ3 is my FPS of choice at the moment - any ideas what faction is best with all the map changes and tech tree revamp?

ps3ud0 :cool:

stellasuppa · 4 Apr 2011 at 14:40

ps3ud0 said:
It doesnt need gimmicks to be good?

ps3ud0

im not saying it needs something else , i played this up to prestige 1 and then got up to level 40 odd and i noticed the players dropping and then the game has had expansions and that has also split the user base .
one change they made to the game was you had to pay for additional soliders yet when it was 1st released you could have 3

I did really enjoy it when there was a bigger enough group of us i know there was only about 6 of us off ocuk but i hardly play any fps without a few in squad first now .
IM hooked on kz3 as well now so very rare i go on mag now .

i was always lead to believe sver were the best faction i may be wrong though with all the patches they have released not been on in months .

mlbtheshow · 4 Apr 2011 at 15:47

The expansion's (DLC) havent really split the userbase, as all the modes are on the same server and infact with most people using multiqueue it evens out the games... although the original modes are the most popular.

With regards to who is best, well SVER by general consensus.. .although their map advantage has gone with full neutrality on the maps now. With that comes more clans which mean more of them are organised... so its a healthy cycle for them. Valor and Raven are pretty much of a much'ness.... in reality it comes down to who is playing, I mean good players even if they are not in a clan, who listen to the orders will help a team win... tactics and decisions at the top level are important.

An example was in a domination game we played the other day, we had about 28 on.. so almost a full platoon.. quickly we took our side apart, bunkers, AA, mortars, sensor array... got oil towers down... this put us at the final stage (letters, basically the control rooms).

Initially we took them and held them to start damaging their facility, but all of a sudden at least double the amount of players that would normally defend that area came across. So we had our 32 in our platoon facing off against at least 60 players, it was a bloodbath.. we held on for a while, but in the end the amount of men rushing us without a rest was impossible to stop. This would have been ordered at the top on their side, because they had enough control over other areas of the map, that forces could be diverted... no other game has this sort of interaction/team based ethos.

No its not always perfect, but I can guarentee that you will have some of your most memorable FPS moments in this game.. at least once a night im thinking, farleys rusks how did we hang on to that, or how the hell did they stop us there etc

ps3ud0 · 4 Apr 2011 at 16:26

mlb whats your PSN? Might try and attempt to join you at some point - need to check if I need to change factions though. If others on here go SVER it might be enough to get a squad together...

ps3ud0 :cool:

mame · 4 Apr 2011 at 16:28

Don't mention to the PC gamers that there is a console online FPS with 256 players

Erm, Maybe I should try this. I like COD on the PS3 but when I've looked at videos of MAG, it all seems a bit much for me.

Phatjayunoi · 4 Apr 2011 at 20:06

I bought this game along with the DLC packs a few weeks ago on PSN when it was on special offer, and it is one of the best purchases I've ever made.

Aside from the likes of Killzone or Resistance, both of which I don't really play, this is arguably the best exclusive multiplayer, and a large scale one at that, FPS game for the PS3.

You'll never get bored of the action as it is constantly everywhere, especially on the Domination mode with explosions and gunfire going off all the time, and the different game modes offers plenty of variety.

Even though I'm still relatively new to the game, I've hardly noticed the so-called drop in the number of players or a split-userbase. Games are consistently full throughout most of the day or night, including stupid O'clock hours where there is even an insane amount of East Asian players. Hell I prefer playing with Japanese players since I don't have to listen to immature little yankee kids never shutting up on the microphone.

malachi · 4 Apr 2011 at 22:50

Brought this for £5 a few weeks back, might aswell give it a proper try now.

Kreeeee · 5 Apr 2011 at 10:00

mlbtheshow said:
The expansion's (DLC) havent really split the userbase, as all the modes are on the same server and infact with most people using multiqueue it evens out the games... although the original modes are the most popular.

With regards to who is best, well SVER by general consensus.. .although their map advantage has gone with full neutrality on the maps now. With that comes more clans which mean more of them are organised... so its a healthy cycle for them. Valor and Raven are pretty much of a much'ness.... in reality it comes down to who is playing, I mean good players even if they are not in a clan, who listen to the orders will help a team win... tactics and decisions at the top level are important.

An example was in a domination game we played the other day, we had about 28 on.. so almost a full platoon.. quickly we took our side apart, bunkers, AA, mortars, sensor array... got oil towers down... this put us at the final stage (letters, basically the control rooms).

Initially we took them and held them to start damaging their facility, but all of a sudden at least double the amount of players that would normally defend that area came across. So we had our 32 in our platoon facing off against at least 60 players, it was a bloodbath.. we held on for a while, but in the end the amount of men rushing us without a rest was impossible to stop. This would have been ordered at the top on their side, because they had enough control over other areas of the map, that forces could be diverted... no other game has this sort of interaction/team based ethos.

No its not always perfect, but I can guarentee that you will have some of your most memorable FPS moments in this game.. at least once a night im thinking, farleys rusks how did we hang on to that, or how the hell did they stop us there etc

SOLD!

I'll be testing this out tonight.

Scort · 5 Apr 2011 at 11:11

Umm... unless it was an early April fools joke and I fell for it hook line and sinker - hasn't Zipper already dropped MAG, thought there was stories about this not so long ago (a month at most) :confused:

As for the game itself, I didn't enjoy it that much - sure it is pretty fun, but doesn't come close to BC2, which (for me) is the best online shooter bar none.

Drunzer · 5 Apr 2011 at 12:53

Had a blast on this yesterday, was tough coming back so used to guys dropping so easily on other FPS games. They've bloody done something to the R-553 Raven Battle Rifle too, that thing used to be beast but it seems like the damage has been decreased or something so I'm back to my old faithful ATAC 2000.

Seems like SVER are still the team to beat, always remember preparing myself for a pretty grueling game when I seen they were the opposition but Valor has never bothered me. SVER were even kicking ass on Acquisition last night and that's a mode I always remembered Raven dominating.

Oh well, will be back on tonight and will try to get the old team back together for a few nights most of them are on KZ3 or Homefreeze now.

insane200 · 5 Apr 2011 at 13:07

Scort said:
Umm... unless it was an early April fools joke and I fell for it hook line and sinker - hasn't Zipper already dropped MAG, thought there was stories about this not so long ago (a month at most)

As for the game itself, I didn't enjoy it that much - sure it is pretty fun, but doesn't come close to BC2, which (for me) is the best online shooter bar none.

do you still play ? if so whats your psn ?

fewfe3 · 5 Apr 2011 at 13:10

cool worth a free test

mlbtheshow · 5 Apr 2011 at 14:18

Zipper havent dropped MAG - they have admitted to it being on the back burner until SOCOM 4 is released... however we did just receive a 'big' patch and a hotfix from them. However the good news is that at least one of the developers has confirmed that the game will still get support and to expect more patches and features.

One of the big features that could come in (being speculated) is a proper way to do clan wars. atm is about syncing up your clan and another clan to get into a map with everyone there.... difficult in all honesty, so thats one thing. MAG has plenty of life, considering its over 1 year old... many games have come and gone including PS3 exclusives and the playerbase remains solid.

I hope everyone gives it a go - after all its free... and at the same time, remain open minded about the game, take everything involved in the game before thinking its not for me. I mean on the trial, upto level 8, things will still be tough.... you wont have all the skill points that Level 70s have, the weapons and loadouts etc.... bear that in mind and dont get disenchanted that you cant get a 50-10 KDR straight away, as although personal stats can be nice for some.. thats not really what the games about.

You could for example go 2-10... but get like 300 XP, so thats over 250+ XP based on you getting other objectives... maybe you are a medic, reviving, healing.. or an engineer, repairing or destroying (yes its fun to kill with the repair kit

) ... even being sneaky and getting bombs planted behind the lines... im waffling, but i mean its free for a week and if you like it, im sure the disc version can be had for a £10 2nd hand, or the download was £11.99 the other day if its still on offer.

biron_w · 6 Apr 2011 at 01:19

I'll give this a try as well. I'm trying to find a new game to play online. KZ3 is fine but rubbish if you aren't in a squad. Homefront and Crysis 2 have been letdowns. At the moment i'm back on COD4!

ps3ud0 · 6 Apr 2011 at 02:48

biron_w said:
I'll give this a try as well. I'm trying to find a new game to play online. KZ3 is fine but rubbish if you aren't in a squad. Homefront and Crysis 2 have been letdowns. At the moment i'm back on COD4!

Youll find MAG even more squad dependent - far moreso than KZ3, especially with good squad/platoon leaders barking orders...

ps3ud0 :cool:

GazD · 6 Apr 2011 at 10:53

Had this near launch but never really played it. Will have a blast on this trial and see what's new. As mentioned. Nothing really to lose. Played the beta quite a bit with poly and Stella etc.