Planetside 2 trailer looking epic

Sony Online Entertainment(DC Universe Online, EverQuest, Free Realms)  just released a lengthy trailer for Planetside 2. It's not gameplay footage, but it looks damn epic. Planetside 2 is an MMOFPS game that will be Free To Play when released. Not only am I curious about Planetside 2 thanks to the trailer, I might sign up for the beta and try my luck.

It's a sci-fi shooter and it's all about  huge battles against three factions trying to take control of the planet Auraxis. This game is all about scale - The game is planned to have thousands of players participating in one huge battle all at once. Planetside 2 will have a series of air and land vehicles and six character classes to choose from. So think of it as futuristic Battlefield 3 mixed with a bigger MAG-like scale.

After watching the trailer, I did some research and checked out some gameplay footage of the game. Sony Online Entertainment Online weren't kidding with what they are trying to do with Planetside 2. The scale of the game is crazy big, with surprisingly good details in the graphics. Since the game is all about thousands of players participating in one huge battle, I can only imagine how chaotic this game will be come release. Beta is coming soon, but I wonder how stable the game will be with literally that many players on a map.

I found a video that's 45- minutes of Planetside 2 gameplay with commentary from the developer, if you want to have a better idea of Planetside 2, you should have a look. This was presented during this year's GDC( Game Developers Conference).

GDC 45-minutes gameplay

If 45 minutes is too long, here's a way shorter one to showcase some gameplay.

Again, this game will be Free To Play. Just like other Free To Play online games out now, Planetside 2 will have online stores selling items, but not selling items that make you a stronger player. Equipment items that are unlockable through game progression and visual items to customize your characters looks can be bought.

The game was officially announced on July 7, 2011, so I'm not too sure how long this game has been in development at Sony Online Entertainment.

It definitely caught my eye and I hope to get into the beta to give this massive game a try. You can try your luck for the beta too by signing up at their official website. good luck!

Playstation Network might be fully restored at the end of May?

Shigenori Yoshida, a spokesperson for Sony Japan has told Bloomberg today that PlayStation Network may not be fully operational again until 31st May. This is bad, The situation seems to gets worse and worse as the days go by. We expected some features to be online last weekend but because of the intrusion on Sony Online Entertainment, those plans were halted. If this actually happens, 41 days of Playstation Network offline? that's just too much.

Were at day 19 and not only does it affect all our online needs, it is now also affecting future releases. Splash Damage's Brink is to be released on May 10, and PS3 owners planning to get Brink will be stuck with the Single Player until PSN gets online.Playstation Network was shut down on April 20 and gamers are still hoping to give games like Portal 2, Mortal Kombat and SOCOM 4 a try online.

No update yet from their blog and its latest entry only mentions that they are currently taking this time to further secure their systems because of the huge hack in Sony Online Entertainment. Sony needs to bring more answers to the public. That 'welcome back' program they mention to compensate for the outage is starting to look a bit weaker if were looking at a few more weeks of no PSN.

[Source: Eurogamer]