NowGamer fights for its life in MAG, Sony's 256-player online shooter

Most of the time at E3 you get to sit down and play a game with a helpful guide to explain what the hell is going on. Unfortunately, when we grabbed a PS3 pad to play MAG – Sony’s 256-player online FPS – we were all by our lonesome, as the other ten journos playing got info-bombarded by Sony bods.

So given MAG's tactical SOCOM roots, we were inevitably a bit bewildered when we dropped in halfway through a battle. The game's HUD is littered with icons, flashing different colours, and tagged with various numbers, and whenever we paused to try and make sense of it all we got capped in the ass and had to respawn.

As the attacking force, it seemed our objective was to capture various points on the map, which allowed the team to move its spawn points forward, push the enemy back, and then call in attacks such as air strikes. Once we captured an enemy bridge (simply by occupying a control room for a certain period of time), we were then able to bring helicopters into the battle. Though it seemed we couldn’t actually fly the choppers, just sit inside and use its gun turrets as suppressing fire.

The map we were playing was multifaceted, allowing for various opportunities to use your head and skilfully flank the enemy. This, along with the use of vehicles for both firepower and quick transportation, hints at a deep and tactical shooter.

We simply didn’t get enough time with MAG to really explore its intricacies, and obviously we didn’t get to experience the full 256-player battles. Nevertheless, we’re positive about the game. It’s hard to put your finger on it, but MAG feels right, and seems like it's on track to bring a neat blend of strategic combat and accessible COD4-style firefights to the crowded online shooter table.