Planetside 2: Second Wind

What a difference a player population boost can make to a server. I had been barely logging into Planetside 2 over the past couple of months due to new releases until last weekend. Suddenly the population on the Miller server has shot up, no doubt thanks to the game being promoted at Rezzed recently and Rock Paper Shotgun frequently running some big community events.

The difference the population boost has made is drastic. The game feels almost new again with constant large scale battles that haven’t been seen since release. And now is a great time for new players to jump in.

SOE have been very busy getting in the key features scheduled on the Roadmap. In one of the most recent game updates, the tutorial was finally implemented. I took a quick tour just to see what it covered and as expected, it covered the full range of basics. It’s voice acted and takes you through a little facility with various training objectives complete, explaining each element along the way. A help option has also been added to all the menu windows to clarify all the individual elements. Planetside 2 isn’t the most complex game, but there’s no doubt that these features will help new players get going in the game a lot quicker.

Another great addition for all players has been the introduction of the virtual reality training area. It’s a simple little box area with some static targets and firing ranges where you can try out any options and set-ups you want before purchase. I’ve found it really helpful on more than one occasion, and it’s certainly allowed me to make much more informed buying decisions for my hard earned certifications. It’s also had a recent update to allow players to try out the aesthetic customisations as well. It was really a feature the game should have launched with, but I’m glad it has made it in after only a few months.

The largest change to game mechanics has been the revamp of Indar. Indar was the first continent created for the game and is currently the only one of the three to be using the new lattice system. Before, you could assault any adjacent territory and begin capping it for your faction; even if the territory you left was under attack itself. Now, the lattice system links adjacent territories in a rigid system where you must have complete control of an area before moving on. At certain points the system branches out, usually around main bases which will have multiple routes in and out, adding to their strategic importance on the map.

At first it may seem like a very restrictive system that denies you tactical options, but that freedom of choice was often used by large outfits to avoid bulky groups of enemies; simply doing large unopposed land grabs by taking undefended outposts behind the front line. It became farcical at points as some outfits would just manoeuvre around each other. Now, the lattice focus players into set attack and defend avenues which helps to naturally create the large scale battles the game is meant to be about. There’s still plenty of scope for flanking attacks and covert operations, whilst allowing players to better predict the flow of battle across the continent.

Other gameplay updates have included the class revamp of the Max suit, although this turned out to be more of a tweak with weapon balances and the addition of faction abilities. The new abilities add a little extra flavour to the class, with Vanu getting the most interesting option. Their max suits with the right certifications can now gain a temporary damage and speed boost, at the cost of also increase the damage they receive. It’s an excellent risk-reward option that’s caught me ought on more than one occasion, as your health is obliterated when you’re caught on the receiving end of angry Vanu Max’s bullets.

New weapons have also started to make an appearance, although many deride the pump action shotguns for their ability to one-hit-kill opponents in close quarters. SMGs added some extra choice for all classes, with Infiltrators in particular benefitting.  They’ve allowed players such as me that aren’t so keen on sniping to have some fun causing havoc behind enemy lines.

There’s been plenty of smaller quality of life tweaks over the past couple of months as well. The UI has gone through a couple of iterations. Players can now customise the colour coding for all enemy and friendly indictors individually. The map for each continent highlights where battles are currently occurring, as well as the status of generators in facilities and how long it will take any point under attack to be capped. Customising your appearance is now a lot easier with quick camouflage selections available. It’s also a lot easier to restock your consumables such as grenades, as they now have a prominent place on the menu rather than been buried under other layers. Weapons stats are now also clearly displayed, showing all the details such as accuracy values and damage dealt over range. This replaced the absolutely useless bar graph system which obscured all the really helpful information.

It’s good to see that SOE have continued to be committed to developing and updating the game at the pace they have. It’s surprising how much the game has evolved over the past six months. Annoyingly they still haven’t delivered any major performance update with many players still suffering from low frame rates in busy areas. The game is still a monster for any CPU that is slightly old.

But if I had one wish for the game, it wouldn’t be performance improvements. It would be for SOE to make sure that new players are attracted to the game and to keep them playing. As I said at the beginning, the difference new players have made is very noticeable. Yet any new player will still have contended with an experienced player base that is much better equipped than them. Overcoming the experience gap will always require time; however SOE can tackle the equipment problem. I think new characters should start out with a least a few suit upgrades for each class. They would no doubt help a new player to be more durable on the battlefield. Hopefully SOE will take some action on this sooner rather than later.

If you’re interested in giving Planetside 2 a go, you can make an account and download the game here. If you want to know more than what has been updated, you can read my first impressions and follow up where I discuss the gameplay in more detail.

Playing with Fire: Community and Developer Interaction in Planetside 2

Most developer interaction with MMOs is a one way street, usually ramming trucks full of promotional material at gamers until release. Only to be followed by a steady stream of patching and tweaks.  There’ll be an obligatory official forum where only the brave tread as it quickly devolves into a cess pit of whining and cries for nerfs!

This is what makes Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) stand out from other developers. When it comes to community interaction, they’re charting some new territory and it could go either way for them. Of course they have an official game forum like everyone else, but they have also gone all in when it comes to social media.

Want to discuss game mechanics? Start an interesting topic on Reddit and you’ll likely attract comments from the game’s balance team. Want to show off your Outfit? Get in touch with Friday Night Ops (FNO) and you could the focus of an SOE live stream. FNO is also great for keeping up to date with the latest game development and includes a live Q&A with the developers.

On top of that, SOE recently released the Roadmap revealing the next six months of updates. But rather than being an elaborate and lengthy set of patch notes, it details the development team’s ideas. Each element is can be discussed and voted on, highlighting the ideas the community wants to see make it into the game. The most popular ideas get pushed up the list and become the top priority for the next month’s major patch.

It’s great for the community to be able to actually affect the game’s development in a way that suits the majority. The Roadmap does have its limitations though. You can only contribute and vote on the ideas that are added by SOE. And it’s noticeable that there’s a lack of meta-game ideas. Ideas that would add more goals and rewards into the game for players to avoid the game stagnating.

Realities of game development also play a big factor in the game’s Roadmap. No matter how many positive votes an idea receives; if it’s a large chunk of content like a brand new continent, it’s going to need some lengthy development time.

Thankfully the Roadmap isn’t a completely inclusive list of game changes. Balance tweaks are rather sensibly kept under tight control by SOE themselves.  Although they have already shown how difficult it can be to balance an MMO in a way that all players agree with. January’s game update took a large swing at the balance of main battle tanks, with the Magrider in particular taking a heavy hit to its manoeuvrability. The defining feature and advantage it holds over the other tanks. Now it was easy to predict that any Vanu player would be annoyed by SOE’s heavy handed approach to the changes, but the feedback was explosive. And SOE got this rammed at them down every avenue they had opened for player feedback. The Vanu population on every server didn’t just dip, it plummeted.

As it has since been revealed by Matt Highby, the game’s creative director; the Magrider had suffered from some poor coding which had exacerbated the nerf. But for me it showed the pressure they had put on themselves by attempting something as ambitious as the current Roadmap schedule.

The amount of content they’re attempting to cram into a few months of development is great for consumers like myself. However the cost of this rapid development is clearly showing in the quality of the game patches. Part of January’s major update was designed to improve performance on lower end machines. The result was the complete opposite, throwing the game back to its launch day instability. Each patch they release has to be chased up by hotfixes to correct the most random bugs. One minor patch rendered all tanks useless for twenty four hours as their shots vanished into thin air. Quite remarkable in a patch that had nothing to do with them.

Of course Planetside 2 is still a very young game and I’m judging it on only three months of development since release. So it’s easy to be critical of any development flaws. But to me, it would appear that SOE are overburdening themselves. All the means they have opened for player feedback has increased the number voices demanding updates and responses. Even worse is the amplified community response to any negatively perceived move by SOE. They would do themselves a favour by putting the brakes on development to focus on creating stable and bug free updates, and then ramp up their community interaction. It will be interesting to see if SOE’s openness pays off for them in the long run, especially as the first round of server merges has just been announced.

Planetside 2: Second Wave

My first impression was written very shortly after release, which puts a slight positive spin on my perception of the game as everything is new. The real test of any MMO is longevity. Can it keep you coming back for more? This year I’ve already been slightly disappointed by Guild Wars 2. It was defiantly the biggest MMO release of the year, yet after a month’s play, I found very little to keep me playing.

So what does Planetside 2 have to offer to hold your attention? In terms of game mechanics, the certification system presents the standard Skinner box found in every multiplayer FPS these days. You put your time in, and get your new guns and upgrades out. Despite being an entirely obvious and transparent system, it still provides little moments of pure satisfaction when you unlock each item.

Beyond that mechanics are fairly standard fair. The vehicles and different classes provide the means for you to mix up your play. Either trying something new or enabling different strategies. Some of my favourite moments have come from swapping class in the thick of battle. If I’m moving to assault a watch tower, I always swap to Light Assault. Being able to jetpack between floors often allows you to flank opponents, like an Eagle swooping in on scurrying prey.

The core gameplay has held up well through a few minor balance tweaks. Each faction has its own distinct approach to weapon design, so it’s important to do your research into the weapon handling before you invest to heavily into a character. Regrettably researching weapons is also advised before spending any certifications. You can free trail weapons, but for only thirty minutes and without any weapon modifications. So you can only get a brief taste before buying.

Sony has shown that they’re happy to throw out a lot of deals for paying customers. In the run up to Christmas there was a series of daily deals that saw fifteen per cent off all items, and the option to buy triple in-game currency.  There have been some pay-to-win accusations thrown around on the game forums. However, having spent the time and effort to unlock and trail different weapons; the choices available are side-grades. The real problem is the few underwhelming weapons that can be bought. Those few items often specialise too much in particular area such as close quarters, and then barely outperform the well-rounded options. This leaves players with buyer’s remorse until Sony gets round to doing a much needed rework.

At the moment, the longevity of Planetside 2 comes from only a couple of different sources. If you’re the sort of player who enjoys the standard multiplayer FPS gameplay, there’s plenty here to keep you going. The certification system is extensive, so there’s always something to work towards. The second reason to keep playing is getting involved in the community. Joining up with an Outfit provides great structure to the game. Co-operating with like-minded people to achieve dominance over the continents is a challenging goal. Although currently there is little reward for doing so, only a minor discount on acquiring particular resources such as vehicles and grenades.

The ‘meta-game’ is set to receive much needed expansion in the future as Sony has hinted at what’s on the drawing board. Possibilities we might see include extra continents, naval combat, a fourth AI faction and low-orbiting carriers acting as mobile bases. Whether or not this all makes it into the game, it shows there are more ideas to come.

For the time being, Planetside 2 still has the ability to stand out. However, as time goes on Sony may need to look at ways of making the game more accessible to new players. It’s hard to bridge the experience gap to veteran players. But the in-game information on territory control and its importance is still lacking. Also there’s a big difference between a player wielding a weapon of choice with a twenty five per cent health bonus, and someone new clutching a stock carbine.

Planetside 2: First Impressions

It’s landed with quite an impact. Plenty of people have turned out for Sony Online Entertainment’s (SOE) revival of its unique franchise, Planetside. Remarkably there have been no real attempts since the original to deliver multiplayer combat on a massive scale. Planetside 2 dwarfs rivals such as DICE’s Battlefield series. Thousands of players battle each other to take control of the planet Auraxis which is split over three huge continent maps.

The launch has had a few bumpy moments, leading to some quick server down time and quick patching. But for the most part, the game has done a good job of getting players straight into the action; giving them a real taste of the gameplay right from the start. Once you’re online; you pick from a choice of the three factions, character gender, name and face. Not a great deal of customisation, but for the most part you’ll rarely see an opponent’s face behind their helmet. The majority of the customisation comes from cosmetic items purchasable through the in-game shop.

As soon as you hit go, you’re given a brief introduction into your faction and the planet being fought over. After that you’re promptly deployed in a drop pod into the heart of a ground battle. I ended up in a close quarters scrap, defending a tech plant from an assault by the Vanu Sovereignty. Having played the beta, I was able to get my bearings pretty quickly and jump into the thick of the fighting. But for a new player; it will be a little overwhelming as none of the mechanics are explained, and there’s no tutorial to get you up to speed either.

This was my biggest criticism of the beta and SOE have done little to fix it. The first time you enter some of the menu screens, you get a pop-up to explain its purpose. But beyond that there’s no explanation of anything. Want to know how to capture that base? How to acquire vehicles? Customise your loadouts? Well you best find an explanation on the internet. There are some very useful video tutorials produced by SOE which are linked to on the game’s launcher. But why isn’t there an in-game wiki or help function? Providing an easy way for new players to get answers would build on the great first impression made by the initial drop into combat.

Most importantly, the game design leads to the natural formation of large scale conflicts between players. This is a big plus for the game. Seeing armoured columns roll out to the nearest battle is a sight to behold.  Objectives are clearly marked on the map, allowing you to set both squad and personal waypoints to advance too. The map also highlights areas of activity and allows you to redeploy reach the front lines faster.

When in range of a base, the current capture situation is displayed above your mini-map. Points are fought over in a tug of war style. Holding key objectives and killing opponents will increase your team’s score towards victory. However in some of the large scale facilities, this system can feel slow. Especially when your opponents are stuck in their spawn point with no chance of repelling you.

Spawning is generally well handled throughout the game. On the deployment screen you’re given an overview of the map with a current list of held locations and what vehicles can be obtained there. Added to this list will be any deployed Sunderers and squad spawn beacons. These are activated by players to create forward bases. Allowing teammates to quickly spawn nearby and support the offensive; rather than having to travel several hundred metres from the closest base.

To try and prevent any spawn camping. Which is always the most infuriating tactic in any multiplayer FPS; team colour coded shields cover the entrances of any base spawn point. This allows defenders to freely fire at any attacking force, without the risk of being killed as soon as they appear. This would be incredibly imbalanced, but clever placement of these areas means defenders still have to leave the sanctuary of the spawn point to achieve anything useful. As soon as the base falls, the ownership of any spawn points changes. This will slowly kill off any stubborn defenders who refuse to die like men and allow attackers entry to gun them down.

The gunplay is well done and up to the standard of any current FPS. There’s a wide selection of gun unlocks for all classes and vehicles. Each provides a unique feel though the combination of recoil, damage and ammunition capacity. Successful hits are displayed through the crosshairs flashing red; which hits a nice balance by being simple and unobtrusive, whilst providing satisfying feedback. There are plenty of additions to attach to every weapon to tweak its performance. However it will take a long time to customise any weapon with all the available options.

All unlocks are obtained through the certification system. Simply get two hundred and fifty experience points to earn one certification point. Everything costs a certain amount, but the order of unlocks is entirely your decision. No horrible, set linear progression system which has been the staple of many FPS recently. You can play however you want to earn experience, and then invest your hard earned points how you want.

Sadly this freedom of choice is let down by how the free-to-play economy is set up. Many useful weapons such as lock-on missile launchers cost a lot of certification points; representing a significant time investment. You can certainly have a good time with the default equipment, but unlocking one new weapon can feel like quite a grind.

Now obviously the time investment has to be fairly steep. SOE would like to make some money and they have to encourage players to get out their wallets somehow. So far developers like Riot have led the way by showing how popular purely aesthetic items are to the consumer. And SOE have followed this format somewhat. There’s already an excellent selection of helmets, body armours and camouflage patterns to buy. These will no doubt make a fair bit of money; nevertheless weapons are purchasable and at incredibly steep cash prices. At the moment, the combination of pricing structure and the default equipment comes across as a bit greedy.

So will Planetside 2 expand its player base and thrive in the free-to-play market? Almost certainly, as it offers an FPS experience like no other. Being part of the fight in Planetside is simply epic, both in the scale of combat and how it’s presented. The sound design is excellent, it puts you into a war where explosions are thunderous and gunfire is everywhere. Graphically it will make your PC chug for middling quality. I’ve ended up playing with many settings on low to keep the framerate high. Especially during night fights where gunfire lights up the sky in spectacular displays.

If you want to jump into the action, the game client is available directly from the Planetside 2 website and through Steam. 

This Is The MMO You Were Looking For?

Free to play has finally reached the galaxy far, far away. Star Wars: The Old Republic (SW:TOR) will be changing its subscription model from November 15^th. It’s only taken a year for what was expected to be EA’s flagship MMO, to be forced into a new revenue stream. And the retro fit really doesn’t work.

But before diving into the negatives of the change, there’s a big plus for anyone who hasn’t already tried it. The story content is fully unlocked to all free players. You can enjoy all eight class story arcs; if you have the patience to work your way through the arbitrary levelling mechanics. MMORPGs are often panned for poor story telling. SW:TOR genuinely bucked that trend. The story telling and character interaction got me incredibly invested in my character. I felt like an individual despite being surrounded by hundreds of other players. This is mostly down to the heavy use of instancing in the game. It’s odd to see lots of green barriers everywhere, but it works.

The only downside to the single player experience is that the planet story arcs are only interesting the first time. They’re also necessary to level up your character to continue your own personal story. So if you’re interested in playing more than one Republic or Empire character, you’ll have to put up with repeating a lot of content.

So if the game has gone free to play, how can there be any negatives? Well if you’re playing for free, you’re going to have to put up with some annoying travel handicaps. Sprint is a skill that can only be used by paying players to run faster. It’s really useful at low level for getting around. At the game’s launch, many players complained that it wasn’t unlocked at level one as it is now. Also, your quick travel uses will be limited. So you’ll need to get used public space transport.

Various other game elements have limited access for free players, or are entirely blocked. Most notable is the limitation on operations. Operations are SW:TOR’s  raid content, large dungeons pitting eight or sixteen players against the greatest threats to the galaxy. Like the rest of the game, operations are story driven and are good fun for a group of players. However as a free player, there’s no way to sample this content. You have to pay up front for something you might not enjoy.

This is just one element that will divide the player base. The idea of a free to play model is to let players sample content. Thus encouraging them spend money on accessing or getting more from the game for their time. But who will want to spend money on an unknown?

Ultimately, retro-fitting a free to play model to a subscription based game wasn’t going to be perfect.  It’s not surprising that a free player is treated like a second class citizen. But the smart choice would be to offer subscribers new benefits. There’s little reason to hang around once you’ve had your fill of the story. The endgame PvP and PvE isn’t as other MMOs. And with the imminent release of Planetside 2; and Guild Wars 2 offering a better experience overall. SW:TOR will need to carve out a fan base to survive in the market.

A full list of free to play limitations can be found here on the official website.

Planetside 2 Preview

Finally, the return of Planetside is almost here with a launch date set for late November. Since the original, MMOs have almost exclusively been RPGs. But now Sony Online Entertainment (SoE) has revived Planetside on an even greater scale and with a free to play model.

It was easy to miss the first the game, which was somewhat ahead of its time when MMOs were still niche. The technology back then could only handle a few hundred players on the same server. Now the battle for Auraxis has been expanded to thousands of players per server, each fighting for one of three factions.

The Terran Republic is the official government of Auraxis, providing law and order, but labelled a dictatorship by their opponents. The rebels known as the New Conglomerate are a rag-tag bunch of fighters with backing of industrial giants. And the Vanu Sovereignty who don’t care for the politics of Auraxis, but instead are focused on finding and utilising the alien artefacts scattered across the planet.

Currently the Beta is still expanding to include all the elements of the final release. At present the majority of the game assets are available to use. With almost all classes, weapons and unlocks being used in the Beta war.

Most importantly the FPS gameplay is solid. Each of the weapons has its own feel that comes from the various elements that define it, such as damage and recoil. The five classes have access to different primary weapons. Infiltrators utilise a deadly mix of a stealth suit and sniper rifles whereas the Heavy Assault carries a powerful light machine gun and anti-armour rocket launcher.

All classes have a personal shield which will regenerate out of combat. Any damage to your health bar has to be patched up by a friendly medic, or by spending resource on medi-packs. Going into battle with both filled makes you an incredibly tough target. Fire-fights are often won by the most accurate shooter as it can take whole clips to take out opponents. It adds a real sense of franticness and desperation to every encounter. Of course if you get flanked you’ll need good reactions to recover. 

Anyone who has played a Battlefield title will feel right at home. Vehicles are the lifeblood of any offensive action. There are several land and air vehicles accessible to each faction, with core vehicles shared between them. Battles are often won with the simple Sunderer. An armoured personnel carrier with two turrets; it has neither the punch nor speed of other vehicles. But it acts as a spawn point for all players who are part of your group, as well as letting you resupply ammunition and swap class. They are the linchpin of any assault; their value usually means they are parked in dense cover to protect them while troops pour out.

When battles get underway, they quickly reach an epic scale as the map alerts all players to the conflict. You soon find yourself fighting amongst armies over key objectives.  In one session, I found myself swept up in a two hour battle for a bridge linking facilities. We were outgunned by the tanks on their side, with no tanks of our own to return fire. Instead we brought a lot of Heavy Assault, running between the large support struts that provided cover. The bridge quickly became an alley full of rockets, their engineers unable to cope with the incoming fire. Sadly we were still outnumbered and unable to push forward off the bridge.

The stalemate was broken by a change in the enemy tactics.  Suddenly our forward squads were being picked off in cover. Their Infiltrators had stealthed in behind our positions while Light Assault troops had jet packed on top of the structure, reigning down fire from their vantage point. It wasn’t long before our position was broken. We were pushed back to our spawn point, and their armoured superiority meant it was only a matter of time before the facility fell. Having lost the battle, it was clear that Planetside 2 was going to distinguish itself in the FPS market. Not only because of its scale, but the fact strategy plays an important role. Planning you actions and acting as a team is the key to victory.

So far I only have one complaint; however it’s a fairly big one. The game doesn’t explain itself. Currently there aren’t any tutorials, so working out how to play beyond point gun and pull trigger has meant searching the internet for answers. The most important part of the game is teaming up with others, which can be simply done by pressing ‘p’ to bring up the party menu. It’s simple and clearly labelled in the key bindings, but you’re unlikely to stumble across it by searching through the menu. Any new player will quickly have a long list of questions they need answers too.

There are a lot of menu screens with many options. All are very functional with little clutter, but your first half an hour will be best spent understanding them. Hopefully the final release will have tutorials included to explain the basics. If SoE want the game to be a success, they need to remove this large barrier to entry so new players can quickly get into battle.

Mann Vs Machine

Gentlemen, it’s time to Mann up! Team Fortress 2 has expanded again with even more free content. With surprisingly little fanfare, Valve have added a new horde mode; Mann Vs Machine. The gravel pits RED and BLU have tirelessly battled over and now being invaded by machines. And a new Mann brother is revealed in the latest of the fantastically silly comics that document the crazy backstory of TF2.

The new game mode plays as a cross between a standard horde mode, and a tower defence game. Your robot opponents have a bomb to carry along set paths to your base. The closer they get, the more powerful they become. But if you stop the bomb advancing for long enough, it will reset and have to be carried through your onslaught once again.

It’s easy to jump into a game. Just follow the new menu options and you’ll join the queue. However it can be confusing the first time as there are separate set of premium servers. If you’re willing to spend a little, you get access to the Mann servers where you earn themed aesthetic rewards to show off your wealth. With the current queues, it’s quicker to find a server manually.  

So what devious creations are you and up to five teammates pitted against? Robotic versions of yourselves of course! Each of the nine TF2 characters is represented in the enemy hordes with different equipment set-ups. To mix things up, Tanks and giant robots can be unleashed with devastating results on an uncoordinated team.

Tanks are exactly what the name suggests. Lumbering vehicles with an immense health bar. If they reach you base, their armour retracts to reveal a hidden bomb which is promptly detonated on your front door. Giant robots are equipped with extra powerful weaponry such as Soldier’s multi-shot rocket launchers and Demoknight’s swords that have giant cleavage.

And just to keep you on your toes, they have ways of dealing with your engineer’s turret. If the AI detects a turret doing particularly well, it deploys a Sentry Buster. A bomb that can run, and run fast! As soon as it gets in range, it arms itself and detonates in large blast, wiping out everything in range. If you have a Pyro, you can keep them at bay with airblasts. Alternatively, a clever Engineer can pick up his prized turret at the last second and make an escape.

To counter the robotic horde you can upgrade your equipment with the cash dropped from defeated enemies. The upgrades range from standard damage increases to providing whole new mechanics. The Engineer can create portals that teleport in both directions. The Spy can upgrade his sapper to destroy groups of bots. There’s also a whole set of upgrades just for your character to improve personal defences. However you’ll need to choose wisely as you only get enough cash to max out a few bonuses, so it’s important to pick up everything dropped. This often requires heroic dives into groups of Pyros to rescue the money from the previous wave. A smart design choice by Valve is that all cash pick-ups are shared evenly amongst the team.

To help balance the poor Scout who is about as strong as the milk he drinks. A few extra buffs were added. He’s the only character that heals when picking up cash and has no respawn time. Everyone else has to wait a few agonizing second before they can get back into the fight unless they sacrifice earned cashed.

The quality of the content is excellent as expected. Although I did have some UI bugs which meant I had no idea what to expect in the next wave. There’s a whole new range of voice clips for the characters and the announcer and the robot models are simply fantastic. Sadly I can’t say the same for the three levels available so far. They are simpler in layout than a standard map to accommodate the hordes of enemies running on a set path. But the designs are bland in comparison to the standard multiplayer maps. The biggest criticism I have is that it’s clearly balanced around six players. Any less makes the game a lot harder as there appears to be no scaling of the enemies.

All things considered, it is an excellent piece of free content. It’s good to see a modern classic such as TF2 get another breath of new life. Maybe Valve might bring new mechanics and games modes in future? Who knows, this was unexpected delight.

Blacklight: Retribution

Blacklight: Retribution is an interesting free-to-play (F2P) FPS that has recently made its way to Steam. Developed by Zombie Studios and released in April this year; it adds to the growing library of excellent F2P games available on PC.

As an entirely multiplayer game, there is no story. Set in the near future, two teams of up to eight players fight over various locations in different game modes. Currently the game includes a standard set of objectives such as Team Deathmatch and King of the Hill. But also has other modes such as Netwar, which requires players to hold set locations whilst capturing a randomly spawning flag. The server filters in the lobby are extensive, allowing you to quickly find a server running your preferred map or game mode.

When you log in for the first time, the game prompts you run through the tutorial. It covers the basic controls as well as being a handy point to fine tune various control settings. At the end it introduces the equipment you will be able to use in battle.

As you kill your opponents and take objectives you earn Combat Points which you can spend on the equipment. Using the Hard Suit mini-mech is a lot of fun. It’s armed with both a minigun and a rail gun making it extremely powerful. But with its poor manoeuvrability, the pilot is vulnerable to enemies using hit and run attacks. The flamethrower is an excellent counter-weapon; able to cook the pilot inside without causing too much damage, leaving behind the Hard Suit for you to steal.

The Hyper Reality Visor (HRV) is a key feature of the game, which combined with the equipment, makes the game stand out in the crowded FPS market. It allows a quick glimpse of the battlefield, highlighting all players and objectives. After each use there’s a long recharge, but it really alters the dynamic of the genre.

I often find myself using it to flank opponents, calculating a safe route to my target. It also highlights players using stealth, allowing you a chance to counter before their surprise assault. It’s easy to become dependent on HRV, using it to check every corner before sticking your head out. But it does lead to some awkward situations, as it takes a frantic second to swap back to normal vision. On many occasions I used HRV only to discover someone just round the corner, leaving me hopping around like a madman trying to dodge incoming fire whilst fumbling for a gun.

The overall balance of the game is excellent. There are various viable builds such as fast melee, close range SMG, through to that sniper who always manages to headshot you from the other side of the map. I find close range fire-fights to be especially satisfying. The fast move speed of characters leads to wild sprays of bullets, often ending in close knife fights with the victor scrambling to reload before their next encounter.

This is down to the well designed in-game economy. At the end of each match you earn GP based on your performance. This can be spent on weapon parts, body armour and gear; either to rent for a few days at a cheap price, or to unlock permanently. There are a lot of options. Each weapon is broken down into individual parts such as barrel, stock, sights and receiver. The receiver defines the weapon type: assault rifle, revolver, light machinegun which you then tailor to your preference. Detailed stats are provided allowing you to tweak everything ‘till you get a weapon Goldilocks would be proud of.

Unfortunately you don’t get access to all the options when you start. Some of the more exotic equipment is locked until you reach a high enough level. I’m not against including levelling systems, but they are over used in FPS games. Zombie Studios has used it as opportunity to give free rental equipment as you level; which is nice reward and sensible promotion tool.

All the aesthetic customisation except the emblem is bought with real money. Your emblem is used to distinguish yourself on the scoreboard as well as appearing as a snazzy badge on your character. You can purchase camouflage for both your character and weapons. Also there is a large range of taunt animations and voice packs.

The art direction is superb. Although the setting is the standard grey-brown future we have come to expect from this generation. It’s brought alive by the striking orange and teal colour scheme of the HRV view. There’s only one problem, headshots are ridiculously gratuitous. Despite the helmets appearing to be very sturdy pieces of armour, they are in fact balloons protecting your water melon of a head. A single shot can leave a bloody stump of neck with a nice bit of spine showing. Zombie Studious did develop the Saw games; but they didn’t need to bring the gore here.

The inclusion of female character models sees Blacklight taking a big stride ahead of the rest of the genre. A reflection of changing attitudes within the industry to the growth in the female gaming demographic.

Blacklight: Retribution is definitely a stand-out F2P title, worthy of downloading by anyone looking for an FPS. The real question is if Zombie Studios can keep adding content, and grow the player base as Planetside 2 moves closer to release.

Tally-ho WoT WoT!

With the recent reveal by Wargaming.net, British tanks will finally be making their way to the battlefields of World of Tanks. I thought it would be a good time to discuss why I have a love / hate relationship with one of the most interesting free-to-play games on the market.

Why, then, did this game grab my attention in the first place? It took WW2 in a new direction for gaming; most games for this time period are either pure strategy or FPS. WoT is a first / third person tank-driving-simulation-strategic-battle, and a welcome breath of fresh air.

It's not a graphic powerhouse such as Battlefield 3 and The Witcher 2, but it has great artistic direction. The tank models and textures are superb. The developers love this period, and it shows in the attention to detail. The armour plates have individual thicknesses according to the historical values with some changes for balancing. Top speeds change based on your engine power and your accuracy is based on the main gun you take to battle.

Currently the game only has 1 mode, which is a 15 side team deathmatch with capture points. Turning your opponents to piles of scrap metal, or capturing the enemy base without being hit, earns your team victory and an experience bonus. Battle tactics can range from quick and frantic skirmishes, too strategic flanking manoeuvres. This occurs naturally without team communication because of the well balanced asymmetric map designs.

The fundamental gameplay is solid. Driving around the battlefield and firing the weaponry feels exactly like how you would expect driving a tank to feel. It's satisfying crushing scenery beneath your tracks, and watching opponents go up in flames as you punch an armour piercing round through the hull.

WoT is the first game I can remember that provided me with tangential learning. The array of vehicles ranges from mass produced front line tanks to prototype, super heavy monstrosities. The game's well put together wiki drew me in, providing me with the specifications and history of what players could drive in game.

A final big plus point for the game is that Wargaming.net are dedicated to adding more content to the game in patches. This includes new maps and vehicles, as well as some new features like vehicle camouflage. They also run a lot of events for the game, such as bonus experience weekends and competitions.

So with those glowing paragraphs of praise, what could I dislike so much about a free to play game? The biggest problem which any new player will be faced with is the fact that the game is a massive grind. The technology trees for the nations are huge. You can quickly progress thorough the first few tiers of any tree, unlocking all the early starter vehicles and equipment, but beyond that point it takes a lot of time and effort.

That's how the game's economy is set up. It encourages players to pay for premium accounts and other bonuses to speed their levelling progress (the developers need to eat), but the balance for this is completely off. Even if you put money into the game, you have to dedicate yourself to a nation to get into the high tier tanks.

Matchmaking is also a frequent problem for certain tiers of vehicles. The game will often create matches were the low tiers in the game won't be able to actually damage their higher tier enemies, except for lucky shots hitting weak spots. I encountered this very often while driving tier 4 (highest tier is 10) tanks, finding myself in battles with tier 7 and 8 which I would just have to do my best to avoid, whilst hunting opponents at my level or making myself useful by capturing the enemy base.

The brackets for matchmaking should be tightened to provide more matches where you feel that you have the ability to really impact the game. It would increase queuing times, but it's definitely not fun being blown to pieces by a tank twice your size.

The game's power balance just isn't right, even with the constant tweaks that are made in the patches. In fairness to Wargaming.net, they have to balance an arms race that constantly pushed for better armour and bigger guns; that's not easy.

If you haven't played WoT yet I'd suggest you give it a go, it is free to play after all so there's nothing to lose, but if you get into it, be prepared to spend a lot of time reading the wiki due to the steep learning curve and grinding the experience for the next tier.