MAG adds Move support, so much new stuff it's going back to "beta"

While Xbox 360 owners are busy petting their cute widdle tiger cub in Kinectimals and Wii gamers just keep doing the same basic arm swings over and over again, those with a PS3 will soon be able to use their motion controller to compete online in 256-player first-person shooter mayhem. Zipper Interactive, the development team behind the PS3's ambitious online shooter MAG, announced today that the game will be getting full support for PlayStation Move this fall. And there's more.


Above: We're not sure if the idea of motion controls in this game sounds exciting or incredibly exhausting

First-person shooters, though very few and far between, have managed to do well with the Wii's motion-sensing controls. Metroid Prime, Call of Duty, and Red Steel 2 all garnered high review scores for Nintendo's console. But MAG will take it to the next level. After all, the PS Move is the only one that has "positional tracking" and full "pointer capability," whatever those are. At least that’s what Sony says.

And if the idea of now having to move your body around to play the frenetic shooter doesn't make you dizzy enough, wait until you hear about all the crazy other new features that are coming to MAG via a special Beta program.

Above: Radiant Barrens, one of the new maps that will be available in the new beta test

That's right. MAG is going into "beta" again, even though the game has been out for months. Everyone who owns the game is eligible to apply to test out a whole slew of new functionality. For example: "Three brand-new faction-neutral maps with never-before-seen environments that pit a total of 96 players from all three PMCs against each other simultaneously" and the addition of an "oft-demanded 'Clan Deploy' feature that allows clan leaders to choose any game type and queue up to 128 clan members for matches as a team." Whew. If that didn't make any sense to you, we suspect you probably made the right choice by not buying into this overly complex console game. But if it did make sense, you're pumped, aren't you?

The beta will be available as a download from the PlayStation Store next week, and the Move patch will be deployed "later this autumn."

Source: Official MAG Blog 

Aug 17, 2010

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