Recently there was a newspost about Quakewars Online and it was met with utter distates because of the word Quakewars, however the prospect of QW Online as a Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter is something that makes my mouthwater.
You see Crossfire right after RTCW, ET and Quake my fourth favourite online PC Game is actually PlanetSide. What is Planetside? Well Wikipedia sums it up nicely:
I draw a huge amount of similarities between PlanetSide and RTCW, its why when I played it, it was with RTCW players and lots of them. The two games share many common concepts, you cannot win on your own, you must have multiple classes, you must communicate with other teams and the important part of any FPS, your aim is important. Now ok you cannot win in 8 minutes and actually there is no 'winning' like a clanmatch, but a battle is very much like a clanwar. You're looking to conquer a base, much like you fight it out for the forward bunker and take the flag. Its the same, in Planetside you fight for multistaged bases and 'take flags' and can lose those flags as teams fight back.
Planetside was far from perfect, it was buggy (to hell) for the first 12 months of release if not longer and like any MMO had at various points, massive imbalances. But it wasnt like WoW where a level 10 could never dream of challenging a level 80, if that level 10 in Planetside had some movement and some aim, he stood a chance take down a top level opponent - simply put, theres skill involved rather than simple playing time (though that is of course required!).
There has been nothing like Planetside since its release, the game was not widely looked upon as a success though it is still running today. However in February 2010 Global Agenda is released and for me thats the next big thing and I think its something that many RTCW/ET players will enjoy.
Global Agenda is based on the Unreal 3 engine and for me bares very many similarities to Planetside and the enjoyment parts of RTCW. I played it at Quakecon & PAX and said how much I enjoyed Planetside to one of the developers who retorted that he can see the similarities, but this one actually works! And he was right, what I played was far smoother than Planetside, all be it the game was clearly being played on a LAN server so it was far from a real test.
However it had some very key likeable features, first and foremost it was 'lightweight' by this I mean, idtech 3 engine vs idtech 4 lightweight. The aiming was very simple and the ability to change classes and your weapon outputs was also very simple. It was a touch hard to navigate your way around the map, but then navigation around any MMO 'basecamp' is far from simple. The movement was clever, considering I had a jetpack on it was really quite 'freestyle' - not quite Quake 3 trickjumping but certainly enough to not annoy me (hi Wolfenstein). One other big seperately feature for this game from Planetside was that there are no vehicles. So before I had got into any real action I still had a smile on my face, which was a welcome change!
I guess the best way to describe games like these are that they are like massive ET public servers but with a point! Whilst games like these can never replace the thrill of competition they certainly can be extremely enjoyable. If you're like me and in need a new game to play because you're bored of everything else then I strongly suggest you try Global Agenda, You can find out more over on the official site
You see Crossfire right after RTCW, ET and Quake my fourth favourite online PC Game is actually PlanetSide. What is Planetside? Well Wikipedia sums it up nicely:
I draw a huge amount of similarities between PlanetSide and RTCW, its why when I played it, it was with RTCW players and lots of them. The two games share many common concepts, you cannot win on your own, you must have multiple classes, you must communicate with other teams and the important part of any FPS, your aim is important. Now ok you cannot win in 8 minutes and actually there is no 'winning' like a clanmatch, but a battle is very much like a clanwar. You're looking to conquer a base, much like you fight it out for the forward bunker and take the flag. Its the same, in Planetside you fight for multistaged bases and 'take flags' and can lose those flags as teams fight back.
Planetside was far from perfect, it was buggy (to hell) for the first 12 months of release if not longer and like any MMO had at various points, massive imbalances. But it wasnt like WoW where a level 10 could never dream of challenging a level 80, if that level 10 in Planetside had some movement and some aim, he stood a chance take down a top level opponent - simply put, theres skill involved rather than simple playing time (though that is of course required!).
There has been nothing like Planetside since its release, the game was not widely looked upon as a success though it is still running today. However in February 2010 Global Agenda is released and for me thats the next big thing and I think its something that many RTCW/ET players will enjoy.
Global Agenda is based on the Unreal 3 engine and for me bares very many similarities to Planetside and the enjoyment parts of RTCW. I played it at Quakecon & PAX and said how much I enjoyed Planetside to one of the developers who retorted that he can see the similarities, but this one actually works! And he was right, what I played was far smoother than Planetside, all be it the game was clearly being played on a LAN server so it was far from a real test.
However it had some very key likeable features, first and foremost it was 'lightweight' by this I mean, idtech 3 engine vs idtech 4 lightweight. The aiming was very simple and the ability to change classes and your weapon outputs was also very simple. It was a touch hard to navigate your way around the map, but then navigation around any MMO 'basecamp' is far from simple. The movement was clever, considering I had a jetpack on it was really quite 'freestyle' - not quite Quake 3 trickjumping but certainly enough to not annoy me (hi Wolfenstein). One other big seperately feature for this game from Planetside was that there are no vehicles. So before I had got into any real action I still had a smile on my face, which was a welcome change!
I guess the best way to describe games like these are that they are like massive ET public servers but with a point! Whilst games like these can never replace the thrill of competition they certainly can be extremely enjoyable. If you're like me and in need a new game to play because you're bored of everything else then I strongly suggest you try Global Agenda, You can find out more over on the official site
but answer is no
Seems like they're doing something that the people who love(d) GTA were waiting for, something rockstar failed to do eventhough there was a pretty big community around the custom made GTA-MP mod (SA-MP).
Apparently EA picked up on this and DID combine the two creating a MMO GTA style game.
Still, this is all offtopic since you're talking about FPS's and APB nor GTA is a FPS.
edit: Ater checking Global Agenda, this is a 3rd person shooter too. Not a MMOFPS.
It's strange though because every single gameplay video I've looked up the player is in 3rd person mode with the exception of some sniping moments.
This is even the case in the trailer + teasers.
The concept is nice though, I'll wait till it's out and watch some more ingame vids.
So either one of us has the meaning of first and third person mixed up or it's a 3rd person shooter.
I wouldn't call Max Payne a first person shooter and I wouldn't call this a first person shooter either, same goes for grand theft auto.
Too bad, because I wouldve enjoyed a MMOFPS in this style.
On the left: 3rd person
On the right: 1st person
Also nearly every game blog/site calls it a 3rd person shooter with temp 1st person views.
I'd say MDK was a 3rd person shooter too eventhough it had a snipe view which was first person but we clearly disagree about this :P
I'll read more about Global Agenda when I get the time, thanks for the heads up!
need a beta key!!!
I think i`ll give it a try and wait for other games like brink
and that is why these kinda games will never be the future.
no matter how much skill you got, you will always be behind if you dont play as much as it requires to stay on the toplevel. ( which is usually a lot if it comes to a mmorpg )
eventhough i never played a mmofps, i guess that the genre will fail
on the one hand you got the rpg players, who spend as many hours as possible to gear up their character and to get every possible advantage over any other character.
on the other hand you got the fps players, planning to spend only as much hours in the game as are needed to compete with other players.
both will get frustrated sooner or later if they either realize that they do need skill or that they do need to play the game longer and longer to compete
thoughts on this?
Will take a look at Global Agenda tomorrow...
like when you rampage the 'below your skill level' server where i happen to have connected one minute before. fuck you dunz, mud and hateme
Seriously though, even our sacred ET (haven of equal opportunity/no ranks, courtesy of ETpro etc) is stained by the popularity of the 'XPsave forever' servers.
We need another game with the ingredients for communities like this and GTV etc. Shame on the game devs for QW and W:ET2 they are the ones who should be flogged IMO.