A giant world for us to shoot in
Even taking its free-to-play nature out of the equation, the scale of PlanetSide 2 is unbelievable, spanning multiple continents, each with over 100 bases to attack and defend. Each of those bases alone is about the size of a standard Call of Duty multplayer level, meaning that each complete map effectively amounts to a full-blown country waiting to be explored, occupied and fiercely fought over. That fighting focuses on combined arms combat, Battlefield-style, so aside from the capabilities of the six core character classes, tanks, trucks, jeeps, and aircraft are all yours to take control of. One particular vehicle, the Sunderer, can hold up to twelve players at a time, and be modified into a mobile spawn point for you and your teammates. That's the kind of scale and tactical breadth we're talking about here. It's huge.
PC shooter fans have been enjoying the game for about 18 months now, but the PS4 PlanetSide 2 experience is being completely reworked to comfortably suit the console shooter faithful. The complicated user interfaces and cluttered screen of the PC MMOFPS are being replaced with a more streamlined shooter heads-up display, hopefully making the console gamer's transition to PlanetSide 2's highfalutin action almost seamless. And its not just the UI thats getting tweaked. The controls are being modified and honed to comfortably fit the DualShock 4, adding standard console comforts like aim-assist and look acceleration. When playing the PS4 version, it's almost imperceptible that this is a port. PlanetSide 2 just feels that at home on console.
PlanetSide 2's online war has been raging for a while now, but it looks like PS4 players should be able to enjoy an excellent version this fall. Check out the following slides for even more information, so that you can prep to join the effort and start making a difference as soon as it launches.
Play as one of three factions, the New Conglomerate, the Terrans, and the Vanu
The game boasts a persistent open world with no matchmaking. Just travel from base to base and fight where you're needed
The war is always raging. You could capture a base, log off for an hour, then come back and see that the enemy has recaptured it
There are six playable classes: Infiltrator (sniper), Light Assault, Heavy Assault, Medic, Engineer (close-range support), and Max (heavily armored infantry, pictured)
Faction-specific tanks can hold multiple players at once, allowing for easy transport with heavy firepower