It’s scenarios like those presented in MAG, where objectives and working as a squad with otherwise random players, that makes me believe this game can’t possibly be as fun or playable once released in the proverbial wild of the Playstation Network. Also, as previously stated, you cannot initially jump into a 256 player battle. This is unlocked at level 10. While the time investment for anyone who has lost track of how many matches of Modern Warfare 2 they’ve played may seem negligible, it is still a hard sell. Additionally, with that many people on a single server, alternate components, such as graphics, have been stripped down to accommodate the significant amount of data going between servers and players consoles. And believe me, there is a lot of data with updates weighing in on-average at about 2 gigabytes. While that may be acceptable if you planned on playing an hour or so after turning on your console or have a reliable high-speed internet connection, many who don’t will subsequently end up being extremely pissed off. Despite the update woes though, I spent sometime with the game and ended up feeling disappointed as I shuffled myself back to Halo and Modern Warfare 2 after watching shaky technical issues constantly stand in the way of having a good time.
Suffice to say, gamers may be interested in 256 player games when they work perfectly and look graphically beautiful, but until then, it may just seem like a developer’s pipedream. After all, when sixteen players on average can be found in a Halo 3’s Big Team Battle or Modern Warfare 2’s Ground War, is there really a need for more than that? Depending on the platform and map size (Barring PC titles with 32+ players); there are always enough opponents for people to compete against in even the largest competitive modes on Xbox Live. Moreover, this is achieved without significant suffering to the technical aspects of the game such as internet connectivity as well as graphic detail. Justifiably, MAG has reviewed acceptably well and does hold a great deal of promise, but for being the first title of it’s kind merely proves that further iterations leave much to be desired. Personally, I would like to see a game like this released on the Xbox 360 eventually, pending it can offer relatively interesting scenarios. Hypothetically, a game tossing 256 players into an immense gamespace defending against a zombie horde numbering into the thousands or tens of thousands would make for an intriguing multiplayer experience. But as with any game, pending it being created goes hand in hand with its longevity once it reaches the hands of the gaming populace. Therefore, 360 gamers can rest assured that while MAG may offer something new, it isn’t something that is vastly notable quite yet.
