MAG : PS3

I just ordered it from there an hour ago, I hope I enjoy it, didn't spent much time playing the beta.
 
I downloaded the beta - it broke 1 PS3 when i turned the console off while downloading.
I then downloaded it on the replacement and then 3 days later the beta ended.
Then they reopened the beta a bit later but that replacement knackered on me so I bought the slim line and I think the final beta only ran for 7 days after that so I couldn't be arsed with that 2-3 hour patch.
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The first time I played it felt really weird and stuff and I wasn't keen. But then after a few games of standing around like a lost sheep as everyone else ran around knowing the map like the backs of their hands. I suddenly clicked and started to follow people around in groups - using smoke to create paths for us to run through and then covering people as they planted explosives on the targets.
 
Quick question - what side is everyone thinking of taking?

Valor, Raven or S.V.E.R?

I think for the most part they are balanced but some sides have faster firing weapons that do less damage and the other side will have the opposite. They also vary in appearance.

I've heard a lot are picking SVER because their maps are the hardest to win on so SVER are picking up tons of wins. But their is a good chance that the other sides will finally work out the best way to crack their defences and spread that info around and then SVER will have a much harder time on their hands.



I know once you hit the top XP level you can change faction but I'd like to pick the same as people on my friends list so I'll be on your side in games rather than against you.

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edit

Just found this breakdown of the classes.


Valor - accuracy (Steady Aim)
Sver - Damage (Stopping Power)
Raven - Defense (Juggernaut)

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YouTube - M.A.G Faction Videos (ps3)

I think I may choose Raven, the high tech faction.
 
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Some tips I found.

All credit goes to DEADEYEZ from the American Beta Forums

IMPORTANT ADVICE FOR ALL SQUAD LEADERS:



LISTEN TO YOUR PLATOON LEADERS:



1) Even when you think they have not chosen the best course of action.

2) Even if you think you are smarter.

3) If you dont like taking orders then apply for leadership.

4) It makes the game more fun and realistic.

5) If you disagree with the platoon leader begin the order and then advise the platoon leader against that course of action.

6) If he/she disagrees and remains on task then follow his/her orders anyways.

7) remember a united platoon is ALWAYS better than a divided one



To Issue Frago commands:


1) Hit select to goto your Tactical map.

2) As you look around your tac. map you will see blue dots (those are people in your PMC) blue triangles (those are the people in your squad) red dots (enemy troops) red vehicles (enemy) and red squares with different icons in them (these are things like enemy bunkers, aa guns etc...) these are what you want to set the objective on.

3) in order to actually set an objective you choose a vehicle or an enemy structure. then move ur cursor over what ever you decide on, and hit X.

4) you have now set an objective and will get frago points for kills and other objective related things.




To use special abilities:



1) pull up your tac. map (hit select)

2) hit R1, this will bring up your specials. pick the ability you want (mortor or guided missle). choose a target just like you do to set an objective. then hit X on your target. (REMEBER you can kill your own team with specials, so be careful and make sure you weigh the gains with the risk before you launch a mortar in a hvy fighting area.)

3) there are no specials in sabotage.




How to communicate with your platoon leader:


1) to communicate with your platoon leader hit up on the D-pad and hold it

2) choose the platoon channel.

3) talk...if you die sometimes you have to reset the channel.

4) your squad can not hear you when you are in platoon channel.

5) other squad leaders can hear you as well on this channel.





What happens when you do this:



Attacking:

Bunker: if you kill a bunker then you just deystroyed an enemy forward spawn.



Mortor: you just killed the other squad leaders ability to call in a mortor strike



AA GUN: you just enabled yourforward air spawn (paratroopers and helo insertion).



Motor Pool: you have disabled respawn for the defenders vehicles.



Sensor array: I think you disabled a platoon leaders sensor sweep. (not 100% on this one)



Gate: you took out the front door.



Road Block: pretty obvious.



DEFENDING:



Reapair: you can tell your squad to repair any destroyed building (gates and roadblocks included).



Defend: you can tell your squad to defend anywhere.

Destroy that vehicle: you take out the attackers forward spawn on the ground.


T9X-69 wrote:
All credit goes to DEADEYEZ from the American Beta Forums

Officer In Charge (OIC) - Tips



* Communication is KEY! If you do not have a headset or are afraid to get on the mic and communicate do no apply for the position. As a OIC you run an entire 128 man army. Let us know what you see and what you want the platoon leaders to be doing. At all times you MUST communicate with this role.



* Use your Command Abilities! In my second game in domination today I had to tell my OIC to use his abilities. He sat there for 10min into the match without using a single one. Also let people know when you use an ability. For example, when you recharge the airstrikes let the leaders know that they are recharged.



* Address who you are speaking to! Do not sit there all match and say "The APC's are moving up, take them out". Hello, there are 4 platoons with apc's! Unless yall can read minds how do we know who you are talking to? Also do not just talk to your assigned platoon the entire game. If you want to do that there is a position called "Platoon Leader".



* The Tac Map is your friend! As a OIC you need to keep your eyes open for weakspots on your teams defense or the enemy's offense. You should be the first to know if key points go down and instruct your team to get them repaired asap. Your eyes should be on this map more than they should be on the battlefield.



* Strategy! Get in the company chat channels and talk with the other Platoon Leaders. Find out why they are being pushed back so fast and find a way to fix it. Your the OIC you call the shots you are to blame for a loss, no one else. Let everyone know the gameplan and execute it.



* Moral! So your team is pushed all the way back to the control points. Now is not the time for you to get on the mic and start dropping F bombs at everyone. Your troops will fight hard for a leader they can believe in. Just like in real life we need encouragement to bring the best out in us.



* Fight! As a OIC sure your in charge but you need to get out there and fight as well. Did you know that you regenerate the health of squadmates and vehicles you are in? That's right, if you sat in a APC all map it is virtually invincible. So get out there on the front lines with the grunts.



OIC Abilities Guide

Satellite Sweep:
satsweet.png

Calls in satellite surveillance, revealing all enemy locations on the map. Everyone on your entire team will be able to see enemy locations for the duration of the sweep as red blimps on the radar.



Comms Jamming:
commsjamming.png

Jams enemy communications, making radio chat intermittent. The enemy team will not be able to cycle through their radio chat channels. Static will also come through enemy headsets.



Signals Jamming:
signalsjamming.png

Jams enemy command network, blocking enemy TCM and CNI abilities. The enemy will not be able to call in airstrikes, or UAV's regardless if your anti air defense is online or offline for the duration of this ability. Also the enemy will not be able to navigate through voice chat channels.



Rapid Redeploy/Barricade:
rapidredeploy.png

If you are on offense as a OIC this will increase the enemies respawn time to 29 seconds. If you are on defense as a OIC this will decrease your teams respawn time to 9 seconds. This ability only lasts for a short amount of time as well.



Tactical Strike:
tacticalstrike.png

Refreshes all friendly forces tactical strike cool down times. All squad/platoon leaders will have airstrikes refreshed for use soon as you press the button. Make sure you let your team know in advance to use everything they got before you refresh!



Tactical Map Layout





The Tactical Map goes CLOCKWISE so you should know where the platoons are on the map at all times!

clockwise.png
Click to expand...
 
Not sure... You played the beta at all or watched many videos about it?

I noticed that despite the game coming out this week their has hardly been any ads anywhere. Hardly any hype at all.
 
I read recently that no reviews were allowed to be posted before release because it needs to be tested with real players from all over.
 
I've seen a few reviews. One site gave it 6/10 and the main negative point they had was the button configs are terrible and make the game too hard to play.

But then I've read that they're the same layout as cod and also have alt layouts.
 
Few random thoughts on what I've played so far. Which I think is something like an hour and a half in total.



When you first pick your faction - I picked Raven. Valor are the USA/Brit side but I just liked the high tech look of Raven with the south African guys voice over giving you orders on the load screens. Reminds me of that Alan Partridge episode.

YouTube - Alan Partridge - Extremely funny scene - Dante's Fires

Anyway after you pick you team its kinda loads up the game and you're welcomed into Raven and it really feels like you're being welcomed into their faction. It's pretty cool how it's set up.

Weapons wise... so far I only have the choice of a machine gun, a sniper rifle or a heavy machine gun. I'm not sure if you can upgrade them to make them better or if you just unlock more guns. I'm pretty sure you do unlock more guns because in stats it has a section for 'shotgun kills' and I have no shotgun. But COD players are going to annoyed at the game not having 20 guns from day 1 to pick.



The game has straight up team death match mode where it puts ... I think 64 raven players into one map, 32 vs 32. The voice over man explains that this is a training exercise and so you'll be using some fake bullets, not blanks but rubber bullets or something. I can't remember but it's basically a way to explain away a team death match mode being in the game. As it's yourself versus yourself the end results won't contribute to the "Shadow War".

It's pretty good stuff but the drawback is as it's a training map it's only ever on one map. At least that's what I've found so far. The map is good and their is plenty or room to play but you know.. it's the same map every time so you'll get bored.

But it's a good way to get used to the game, used to the guns, work out if you need to change your button config or aiming sensitivity etc. and you earn XP as normal so you can rank up while doing it.

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When you've had enough you can try the other modes out that your n0ob rank allows you to.

The first everyone will probably do it Sabotage.

Sabotage (64 players)
Attackers must infiltrate rival communication facilities and hold two control points at the same time
Once achieved, a final demolition objective is revealed and must be destroyed to win
Click to expand...

Pretty easy maps to get to grips with. You have 2 objectives on the map at the start and everyone is split into groups. The game automatically assigns 2 groups of 8 on one spawn and 2 of 8 on the other. So when you start the game your squad of 8 and the other 8 will be set to attack or defend A and the other 16 players will be aiming for B. You can change your spawn manually and go for B if you're set at A if you like.

If you're attacking you have to acquire both targets and hold them for a period of time to complete that goal and move onto C where you plant an explosive and then hold it until it detonates.

Playing as Raven this mode (well any mode really) is FUCK HARD. Everyone is moaning about it on the forums but really the best way to stop it is to pick Raven and play your best. Despite only winning once when we were attacking I like this mode a lot.

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The other mode you can play is Acquisition

Acquisition (128 players)
Escort style requiring attackers to steal two protoype transports from a rival faction and escape to the extraction point
Click to expand...

Larger maps than the last 2 modes. It's hard to explain how it all works but basically imagine a long horizontal map. One team starts at the far left, the defenders a little back from there. As the attackers move forward they can destroy your defences and road blocks which in turn open up advanced spawn points for them.
Some of the objectives can be recaptured by the defenders pushing the attackers back but currently it hardly ever happens.

A lot of fun and it's an awesome sight seeing 63 players all running forwards firing their guns at 64 players defending along with turrets and APC's firing back at you. But as the maps are so big you really do need a platoon leader and other leaders - but at the moment not many people have ranked up so the games are hard to attack and defend.




The last mode you need to rank up for which I've not done yet and that's Domination.

Domination (256 players)
Attackers start scattered along the map edges and move on foot or ride in one of a few transport vehicles
Defenders must take outer defensive positions to meet the oncoming attackers
Each defending squad is responsible for holding specific areas of the base
Attackers must eliminate front line defense emplacements (bunkers, turrets, tank traps)
Once in the inner base, attackers must take down anti-aircraft batteries and radar sensors
Destroying things like the anti-aircraft batteries allow the attacking team to launch UAVs
Attackers must capture and hold objectives and inflict enough damage to the defenders base to win
Click to expand...

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So far it's pretty good. I did need to adjust my aiming sensitivity to around 70 for both axis and bumped my gamma up by about 10 or so. Now I'm finding that my aiming isn't a snails pace when looking down the rifle but at the same time not too twitchy that sniping people is impossible. The game reminds of of rainbow 6 a little in the way that everything has the same kind of feel and graphical look.


Few problems/negatives

I think a lot of people will hate about is your starting weapons are pretty shitty and you can see someone in front of you with their back to you, you unload your full clip and somehow miss them completely! Or you hit them once or twice and then they turn and kill you. Te easy solution is to aim down your barrel and fire a few bursts. It puts them down instantly. Failing that, rank up and I'm told that your improved weapons can kill much quicker and with the barracks items you can unlock you can improve reload time or other things like that.

melee knife kills are hit/miss. MW2 had that auto aim invincible knife kill thing going on. If you saw them and were close enough a quick tap of the melee button and the game took over and got them for you. But here, if you're off slightly you miss them. It's very hard to get used to after COD.

Button config. Just the way you have to press L2 once to swap to your secondary items for a grenade and then press shoot to throw it. slightly annoying. But you can pick to have various items on your L2 button (a max of 3) so presing l2 to cycle through them works okay... and their isn't really any other buttons that they could have mapped the grenade to for an instant throw. But still... it takes a while to get used to and even then will probably annoy some people way too much.



The other main problem the game has at the moment is no one has ranked up enough to lead the army's, to spot the problems and to command everyone with tactics. So the maps are won and lost on everyone just running around trying to do things with no real planned out teamwork. some have ranked up to be squad leaders who have some abilities but even so, they're not able to view the entire map and direct traffic to stop the enemy flanking. when you're a grunt running around you have hardly any idea of where the enemy are moving to unless you see them or they shoot at you.

I can't wait to rank up enough to start directing traffic. So many times ive spotted an enemy structure is unguarded and there's nothing I can do other than destroy it myself but then i always run the risk of dying after planting a bomb and it ets disarmed. Once i hit rank 10 ill be ordering everyone in my squad to attack each structure, then helping them myself and then ill get xp for giving orders and give everyone xp for being near me and completing my goal. Then onto the next turret or spawn point or AA gun.

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Still good stuff. I hope to see more players picking Raven tomorrow and helping us fight to win this war.
 
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Game gets better the more I play it.

More higher ranked players are showing up now leading the squads and platoons around. Yesterday playing as Raven was just loss after loss after loss. but today in a few hours of solid play i only lost maybe 3 games and won about 6 or 7. Most against SVER as well who have been impossible to win against.

Some of the leaders are f'n stupid and end up costing us the game but the good thing is the game will see that and it will be a long time before they get a second chance.

Because the game is very team based it does have a problem that as you're holding your objective down well - either your squads are capturing it or defending it perfectly. The other guys at B will be falling over themselves to do anything and either never capture B to help you guys advance or just constantly allow the other team to capture B putting all the pressure onto A.

In a game earlier against SVER we held our B objective really well stopping them enemy from taking the vehicles away from us. Unfortunately the guys supposed to be protecting A were useless and AVER just walked in, took it, walked out, then came back, took it again and held it to win the game (you need to capture 2 vehicles and get them back to your holding point to win).

But now more people are using claymores and anti tank mines and the first aid guns to revive dead people. The games are becoming way more about working as a team and covering each other and listening to orders than it was yesterday.

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2 cool things I forgot to mention yesterday.

1 - As you rank up you earn points which you can spend on new weapons or like faster reload for a gun or a new scope for the sniper rifle or the reviving medic gun thingy. Well the cool thing about this is, to get to best weapons and tool and unlocks you need to play a lot and rank up a lot. The first few tier 1 unlocks cost 1 or 2 points each. tier 2 seem to cost 2/3 and so on up and up so the best things cost more points. as it takes ages to rank up to get a single point you really have to think about where to spend it.

So if you want to be a better sniper you can save everything up and buy just sniper based things. If you want a better assault rifle you're going to have to save your points up and upgrade yourself bit by bit to get there.

This means that as people play more and more, everyone becomes more and more of a specialist and the teams of 32, 64, 128 should end up with tons of top snipers mixed with expert assault classes, and medics. Everyone's failing should be balanced out by someone else in the game who hs taken that path to become a better sniper or medic.




2 - A silly one really, but when you go on a bit of a kill streak the game starts to play a bit of 'Mag' music for you. It probably sounds daft but its awesome. You get a kill and then the music kicks in and you get pumped to go and get more.

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How do the weapons feel and sound? Can you pick up dropped weapons from other sides or not in this game? Overall how does the shooting feel compared to COD or BF series? Kinda interested in this game, but with BF coming very soon, think I will just stick to that.
 
You can pick up the enemy weapons.... I think. I've killed a guy and then as I've stood over him it's said "Hold O to scavenge weapons" but as I've never needed to pick anyone's guns up I have no idea what happens if you do - like if you just get ammo or if you get their guns and possibly an upgraded weapon.

The feel of the weapons... It's a bit like Haze ... ohh errr. It lacks the gloss of killzone, lacks the arcadey speed and aim assist of COD. They also lack the kickback and weightiness you get from those games.

It's hard to explain ... I'm pretty sure some will play it a few times and just hate it too much to dig in deeper to get the goodness out.
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The weapons don't feel that great to me, I'll probably end up playing as a medic or sniper. The assault guns are lacking some punch.

I had a decent time playing last night but the random respawn times are frustrating and having played Bad Company 2, I do miss being able to respawn on your squad mates.

There is definitely a leave no man behind mentality in the game, in the games I played the medics were busting there asses trying to revive people.
 
Probably helps that you get a shit load of XP for reviving people. I've finished games with 400+ xp and that was without me going out of my way to be a medic, I just heal any fallen guys I run into.

I've heard that domination games as Raven are stupidly hard to win - possibly due to not many players having ranked up enough to put up a good fight on our side yet and the leaders being picked by the game aren't the best calibre. The game needs a few weeks to weed out the bad leaders and by then we should start to find the game mainly selects leaders who are good at what they do.

Yesterday I ran into a rank 55 player who was leading our squads on a defending mission. I can't tell you the map name but it's one where the last objective C is at the top of a ruined old building. If you've played it you'll know it.

Well the leader was awesome and was in constant radio chatter with us and kept moving our orders marker but by bit forward from B until we had SVER pinned back. We absolutely thrashed them and ended up with a major victory as they never once captured A or B. Guys were dropping claymores and everyone was getting revived quickly and when someone went down they'd shout out who shot them and where they were hiding.
 
I regret picking Raven, my last two Sabotage matches finished in under five minutes, SVER just overpowered us.

Things need to be balanced better.
 
You can always delete your player and restart as SVER to pick up the easy wins for now.

I regretted picking Raven the first day after finding just how hard it was to win as them but yesterday I found it had improved a lot. Domination is supposed to be near impossible as SVER's map has the bunkers placed close together and all the road blocks or ways past are close to the bunkers as well. Valor and Ravens maps are way more balanced in that bunkers are spaced apart and the road blocks are a fair distance away.

Found this on the MAG forums which illustrates it perfectly.

bunker.jpg


Though to be fair some of Raven's maps have a big advantage. On acquisition, one turret can see almost the entire map. You get a repair guy up there and a squad near to protect it and you can just hold everyone back the entire time.
 
I'm going to stick with Raven, I just hope the devs will do something about it or at least acknowledge that there is an issue.
 
Played my first domination game this afternoon. I've been told it's near impossible to attack SVER and that image did worry me but it's not that bad. It's hard and SVER do have it easy - but we all managed to get to the last objective eventually and just ran out of time.

Our only failing really was we didn't have enough people on coms and hardly anyone leading the squads with objectives or using the artillery and air strikes and so on.
 
Heal - aim your first aid gun at them and press shoot. 2 things let you know if you can heal them - 1 their life bar above their name being low and 2 if you aim at them and your cross hairs light up they'e low on health.

The other type is ...

Revive - You have to unlock the resuscitation skill (the very bottom tier in your skills Menu). Then you select the medic gun in your loadouts (their is a first aid gun and then a medic gun, 1 only heals you/them, the other can revive people and heal you/them - It says which on the item description.)

Select it - when in a game swap to it with L2 then aim at them and you'll see your cross hairs change to the revive icon, press shoot and then after the game sit amazed at how much XP you just gained for doing nothing.
 
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Thanks, some things are starting to click now although it is disappointing that every game is played with new people, there is no carry over.

SVER home base is a bitch to attack, they pick us off for fun sometimes.
 
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Ever think about swapping over to SVER? I did it today having just lost and lost and lost for days as Raven and holy shit it;s night and day. I've been finishing games with 600xp and tons of players have coms and nearly everyone pays attention to the game and repairs things asasp and revives players.

Really crazy at how different everyone is.

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128 player stampede
YouTube - MAG - The 128 Player Stampede
 
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What mode is that?

I've never comes across any area as crowded as that.
 
The forums I found the video on had a bit of text explaining it. Basically they had the game won and in the last minute the platoon leader got on the mic and asked everyone to meet at a certain area so he could get some screenshots and a video of 127 players running around. 99% of the players did show up and then he started recording.
 
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