In MAG, players can only have one character slot, meaning what ever character they chose and create, they’re stuck with. Now Sony is offering those who want a bit more, an extra character slot for $1 a month — not a huge sum to pay, but it still seems odd, considering that it should already be possible to have more than just one character, especially in multiplayer-only games. At any rate, it’s just $1.

Sony has announced that MAG will be getting a new DLC called ‘Interdiction’, which will include a new gametype where two teams storm a neutral map with three control points. Speaking of maps, the DLC includes three new maps, in addition to new awards (medals, ribbons and trophies).

While most game developers have resorted to charging for their DLC, Zipper Interactive is doing it a bit different with MAG. And by different, I mean they’re offering the game’s first DLC pack for free. The pack will be entitled the “Trooper Gear Pack” and will include thigns such as the flashbang grenade and the following weapons:

Raven’s APEX 100SE

SVER’s RTK-74 Vla

Valor’s MK 46 Mod 1

Additionally, you’ll be getting 2 new uniforms called “Trooper Dark” and “Trooper Light”.

What’s even better is Zipper Interactive is giving a Double XP weekend from March 25th – Marth 28th to commemorate the launch of the DLC pack.

Read more about it here.

Sony has just let us know that their “biggest and most important patch” for MAG has just dropped. They apparently monitored gameplay and listened to feedback to come up with with this patch which many gamers will be happy to hear.

The patch includes a whole slew of updates, tweaks and bug fixes and I don’t want to keep you here all day so hit the read link for the full list.

via cvg

READ ON »

MAG, short for Massive Action Game, is one of the most ambitious online FPS game in recent years. A PS3 exclusive, the game offers huge maps with up to 256 players online at the same time — quite an achievement in and of itself. But does more players equal more fun and better gameplay? Read on to find out.

MAG is set in the near future, where three private military companies, S.V.E.R., Raven, and Valor, are engaged in war and battle over military contracts — so there’s no picking your country here (like in Battlefield), or the good vs bad guys (like Counter-Strike), here everyone’s pretty equal, at least morally speaking. You can create one character at a time and join one of the three factions, and you can’t jump around, which might be frustrating for some, while it adds a sense of “military realism” for others. However, if you wanna play with friends on your side, you better be sure to pick the same army. Read the rest of the MAG review

The Beta for MAG — Massive Action Game — is now open to everyone to participate, worldwide. The 256-player supporting multiplayer game will have the beta running until January 10. The beta features two playable modes on two maps; sabotage which supports 64 players and domination which supports 256 players. The game will hit the stores on January 26.

Zipper Interactive, developer of multiplayer online shooter MAG, has made two important announces, one, MAG has gone gold and is on track for release. Two, a multiplayer beta of the game is coming, which will be open to all players. The beta will run from January 4th and January 10th, and can be downloaded now.

Nowadays with the level of intensity in most shooters, it’s hard to come across one with anything less than an M rating. However, it seems that Zipper Interactive‘s forthcoming PS3 title MAG looks to break that trend as it was just issued a Teen rating by the ESRB.

Just why did they give the game a Teen rating? Their explanation below:

“This is a first-person shooter in which players select one of three private military corporations (Valor, Raven, and SVER) and complete covert missions to destroy opposing units in a massively-multiplayer online context. Players use assault rifles, sniper rifles, machine guns, knives, and grenades to kill enemies in frenetic and fast-paced combat. Soldiers can be shot repeatedly, even after they have fallen to the ground (i.e., postmortem damage). When an enemy is shot or knifed, small red blood puffs are visible (under 1 second on screen). The expletive “hell” can be heard several times during the game.”

Get ready to embark in up to 256 player battles as MAG will be made available on January 26th, 2010.

via nextgn

If you still haven’t gotten into the MAG beta and have been dying to do so you now have one more way of snagging an invite — G4TV apparantly has 1,000 beta invites that they are giving away between now and 11:59 PM tomorrow night.

All you have to do is head here, enter in things such as your name, date of birth and street address and then sit tight and hope you get an email with a beta invite code.

As for those of you who don’t get accepted into the beta, well, you’ll just be stuck waiting for the next round of invites or January 26th, 2010 when the game makes its way onto store shelves.

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Hollywood usually takes most of the slack when it comes to criticism for lack of originality, but in fact, the video game industry is even worse at creating original content, it’s a world dominated by franchises of every kind, from sports to action games, publishers and developers are usually taking the easy and safe way: sequels. And spin offs. And remakes. Etc.

We’ve compiled a list of top 10 original games that are scheduled for release for 2010 — and it was quite a challenge: out of the 130 games confirmed for 2010 by major publishers and developers, we found 19 that were original. Just 19.

10: Brink (Spring 2010)

Brink, an FPS developed by Splash Damage and published by Bethesda, centers around a two sides: Resistance and Security, and is a team based multiplayer shooter much like Quake Wars, which was also developed by Splash Damage. It looks promising as a multiplayer game, as it’s story based, much like Quake Wars, where one battle takes place over several maps, with a story connecting everything together.

9: Alpha Protocol (Spring 2010)

Alpha Protocol, developed by Obsidian Entertainment — developers of Star Wars: KOTOR 2 and Neverwinter Nights 2 — is a third person action RPG where the player assumes the role of Michael Thorton, a CIA agent who’s been betrayed and must not only fight his way through enemies, but also uncover the conspiracy that set him up.

8: Singularity (Q2 2010)

While time travel is a known concept in games, albeit underused, it’s still something that is difficult to fit in wiht the overall storyline, and the time feature never seems to be used properly. In Singularity, the player will have control over a TMD (Time Manipulation Device), a “weapon” which will be used to solve puzzles, for instance, if a door is locked, instead of looking for the key, you use the TMD and speed up time for the lock only, which will rust, and voila, door opened! Or use it on an enemy and watch him turn into a skeleton. The concept certainly seems intriguing, and offers some truly original puzzles.

7: Dante’s Inferno (February 9, 2010)

Dante’s Inferno has already caused a lot of controversy, from the fake E3 2009 protest, to gameplay elements where players can slay children. The gritty, hell based game is loosely based on the actual Inferno by Dante in The Divine Comedy, and the player assumes the role of Dante, who has to fight his way though monsters and demons in the 9 circles of hell, and decide whether he’ll be good and spare some (like children) or go reckless. It definitely looks as one of the darkest games of 2010.

6: MAG (January 26, 2010)

MAG (Massive Action Game) is a PS3 online FPS multiplayer who’s main feature is a massive 256 player online matches, with 128 players per team, divided into 8-player squads, 4 squads into a platoon, and 4 platoons into a company. With 256 players on the map, MAG is set to deliver some of the most intense and frantic combat yet, and will offer detailed stats and rankings, where higher ranked players will be able to command the battle and give orders to individual squads and platoons.

5: LA Noire (Q3 2010)

LA Noire, an open ended adventure game set in a recreated 1940s Los Angeles, which players can freely roam around, and chose to solve a number of murders around the city. The game has a great feeling of classic noir films based in LA, like LA Confidential, The Maltese Falcon and Chinatown, and draws inspiration from such works as well.

4: Rage (Q4 2010)

It’s been a while since Id Software has made an original game — actually, the last original game Id Software made was Quake, back in 1996. Id finally shows something new with Rage, a fusion between a first person shooter and a racing game set in a post-apocalyptic Mad Max styled world. It’s built with the all new Id Tech 5 engine, and shows very promising visuals, to say the least.

3: Heavy Rain (Q2 2010)

Heavy Rain has been on the radar since it was originally showcased at E3 2006, and will be released almost four years later, in Q2 2010. The gorgeous looking game centers around a serial killer known as “The Origami Killer”, and players assume roles of different characters who try and solve the murders. It’s one of the most stylish and atmospheric games to come out in 2010.

2: Alan Wake (Q2 2010)

What Heavy Rain is for the PS3, Alan Wake is for the Xbox 360. Developed by Remedy, Alan Wake is a psychological thriller inspired by the likes of Twin Peaks and Stephen King novels, where players assume the role of Alan Wake, a writer who seeks refuge at a quiet place where he can write his next novel (much like Stephen Kings “Misery“). However, when his wife vanishes, it’s up to him to get her back.

1: APB (March 2010)

APB is not only the most original MMO game to his the stores in 2010, it’s also the most original game overall. It’s the classic cops vs. robbers gameplay, but on a massive scale, with endless customizations and options, tons of missions and weapons. Created by David Jones, the original creator for GTA, APB is hailed as everything he wanted to do wince he made GTA, and while originally trying to pitch and sell APB to Rockstar as GTA Online, it’s good that APB is on its own now, we need a great, original game. And an MMO that’s not fantasy based.