Planetside 2? How Will It Be?

 Personally, I think this will be the game to revolutionize shooters forever, or well, gaming in general. If you don't already know about Planetside 2, it's an upcoming MMOFPS that pits 3 Factions fighting over 8 massive continents with no zoning or loading times. Yes you heard me right, it's a giant open world with no lobbies or anything. The size of this might be hard to comprehend so let me put it in perspective.
 Think of the biggest Call of Duty map you've ever played on. You got it in your mind? Okay then. That is the size of ONE capture point. Yeah. This game is huge. Oh and did I mention it's free. That's right. How could a game this good even exist? That's what I asked when I found out about this game last year.
  Now I would say the biggest question that everybody is asking about this game is "How are such big battles going to work" and that question goes two ways. One way is the server load and the other is the gameplay itself.
  The servers are going to have to be very powerful. Let's imagine 1000 people in every area that the game has to offer, all online at once, shooting 100's of projectiles and tons of particles of explosions happening at once. Yeah, that's alot to carry. But SOE has proven they can do it with the original Planetside. And I mean, we asked the same question when MAG came out a few years ago, and those servers were just fine.
   For the gameplay itself, I think you're really going to have to rely on the other teammates in your vicinity because well, If you're running of on your own chances are your going to get killed by the other 500 players. The game utilizes a squad function in which you can auto-join a squad near you, so that's pretty cool and quick.
  I haven't heard anything about voice chat being implemented but I really hope they do. And I don't mean just voice chat that spans through your squad but something bigger. A SOCOM-esque approach where when you talk anyone near you can hear what you say, that includes enemies. This can add a whole new level of strategy to the game. Imagine sending a scout into enemy territory. They go in and hear all their commands, he comes back and you now have a new battle plan. The options are endless.
  The game is set to release sometime this year and I honestly can't wait. Hope you all check it out,but before this blog post ends, here's a link to an interview with Planetside 2's Executive Producer Josh Hackney at the recent GDC 2012. That's all I got this time everyone, see you all around.