ianfullpac

• Planetside 2 Population
• Planetside 2 Continent Tracker

May 3, 2013 - Title, PS2 Maps with Real Time Updates. URL, PlanetSide 2 Maps - ps2maps.com - Interactive maps for Amerish, Esamir and Indar. For those playing Planetside 2 at this time of year, there is a Winter Event from SOE going on, that involves hunting snowmen in the blowing snowdrifts of the continent, Esamir. Killing 10 of these somewhat-rare snowman spawns earns you a new Title for your Soldier.

PlanetSide 2 is a free-to-playmassively multiplayer onlinefirst-person shooter developed and published by Sony Online Entertainment (Now Daybreak Game Company), which released in November 2012. It is a sequel of PlanetSide, which originally released in 2003. PlanetSide 2 uses the Forgelight Engine, which is able to support thousands of players in continuous large scale conflict on a single map.^[2][3] As in the first PlanetSide, PlanetSide 2 chronicles the efforts of three factions as they fight for territorial control of the planet Auraxis.^[4]PlanetSide 2 was released for the PlayStation 4 in June 2015.^[5]PlanetSide 2 holds the Guinness World Record for the biggest first-person shooter battle, with over 1158 players being recorded in a single battle.^[6]

• 2Story
• 3Development
• 6Reception

Gameplay[edit]

PlanetSide 2 is a re-imagining of PlanetSide, featuring the same world and factions, and taking place at roughly the same time period. As in the previous game, it features territory control in open-world, large battles featuring up to 2000 players per continent on foot or in land/air vehicles. The territory system differs greatly from that of the original, being more free-form and based on a hexagonal territory control system. Former SOE (currently DBG) took into account balance issues from the first game. As stated by creative director Matthew Higby, the developers created a system to reward combatants on lower population empires through mechanics such as proportionally increased advancement rates and resources to aid the balance of overall empire saturation on each server as much as possible without force-restricting players from being able to play with their friends.^[7]

PlanetSide 2 is a faster paced game than the original Planetside and holds the ability to feature potentially thousands of players. It also features typical first person shooter elements such as sprinting, iron sights, and regenerating shields. An important aspect is that player skill and teamwork are major determiners when it comes to being able to kill other players and overcome opposing teams. Unlockable skills are available and offer different advantages over enemies in battle. The game also features a day and night cycle, meaning that battles happen at different times of day, which affects gameplay, as night time can provide adequate cover for coordinated attacks.^[8]

Combat takes place on the continents of the fictional planet Auraxis, which are broken up into numerous territories. Control of territories provides bonuses to a faction in adjacent sectors. The mission system is partly automated and partly controlled by players. It provides focal points for players to attack and defend and helps players get into the action quickly.

As the player participates in productive activities such as killing enemies, healing or repairing allies, or capturing bases, they earn experience, which increases their character's 'Battle Rank,' or level, and rewards them with certifications or 'Certs.' Certifications allow the player to specialize in certain roles by allowing them to improve weapons, vehicles or tools they use. Many certifications require the player to invest in multiple upgrade tiers of the certification, which increase the certification's efficiency. For example, the player can purchase five ranks of Nanoweave Armor, which when equipped reduce damage taken from infantry weapons. Using the certification system, the player is able to customize how they play using different classes or vehicles. For example, the player can purchase certifications to alter the main function of the Sunderer vehicle, such as the ability to repair or restock the ammunition of nearby allied vehicles and aircraft. Another currency, called 'ISO-4' is used for 'Implants' which resemble Perks in Call of Duty.

Continents can be captured, or 'locked,' by a specific faction. This is done when a faction takes about 41% of the continent's territory, triggering an 'Alert'. Whichever faction wins the alert locks the continent and gets rewarded with Certs and ISO-4. A combat advantage is given to the faction that locked the continent, such as decreased cost on aircraft, or less overheating on turrets. Another continent opens up immediately afterward. There are other types of Alerts that are done at random times which involve capturing different kinds of bases and facilities.

An update was released in late April 2016 that allowed players to construct their own bases by harvesting 'Cortium', a new mineral that appears throughout the world.^[9] Using a vehicle known as the ANT (Advanced Nanite Transport), players harvest the mineral and deploy a variety of structures, such as bunkers, rampart walls and Sunderer garages. Players can also deploy turrets, artillery, silos (where players store their Cortium) and modules, which include adding AI to friendly turrets and generating shields.

Story[edit]

Although the story is very similar to the original, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) announced that award-winning author Marv Wolfman has joined the SOE team to write the ongoing historic fiction for the game. This is the first time the PlanetSide franchise narrative has been detailed.^[10] There are also many lore videos on YouTube that can provide some insight on how the war for Auraxis came to be.

Factions[edit]

• Terran Republic: An authoritarian colonial government that leverages military might to maintain strict control over the colonial citizens, ostensibly on behalf of the mother Terran Republic back on Earth. The Terran Republic is obsessed with the preservation of law and order, and see the insurrectionary war against themselves as all the more justification for strong-armed countermeasures. They are thus seen by their opponents to be an oppressive and dictatorial force, but many also view the TR as the only hope for lasting security and peace on Auraxis. Their colors are red and black. TR forces are distinguished by their use of rapid fire conventional weaponry, large-capacity magazines, high speed medium tanks and fast flying fighter aircraft.^[11]
• New Conglomerate: The New Conglomerate operates as a loosely organized band of self-proclaimed freedom fighters. Viewed as corporate-backed terrorist guerrillas by their adversaries, they violently oppose the stranglehold that the Terran Republic has on Auraxis. Led by an unusual quorum of outcasts, frontier industrialists, pirates, and turncoat military leaders, the New Conglomerate is unwavering and prepared to achieve freedom from oppression by any means necessary. Their colors are blue and gold. NC forces use hard hitting electromagnetic weapons such as gauss and railguns that are devastating at short and medium range but are bulky and unwieldy with moderate reload speeds. They employ durable, heavily-armed shock troops with slow, well-armored heavy tanks and heavy fighters loaded with arrays of crushingly powerful ordnance.^[12]
• Vanu Sovereignty: The Vanu Sovereignty are a secretive and cult-like group who believe that only through the untapped power of ancient alien technology can humanity truly evolve towards the next phase of its existence. They are a technologically advanced and cunning faction, employing powerful reverse-engineered alien technologies on the battlefield. Their singular purpose is to uncover the secrets hidden away in ancient artifacts scattered over the surface of Auraxis, and as such they view the war with its shifting territories and militarized zones as a pointless impedance to their infinitely more important work. They fight only to seize and retain uninterruptible, or exclusive, access to alien artifacts, research and excavation sites, and other scientific materials. Their colors are violet and cyan. The Vanu use advanced plasma and laser weaponry on the battlefield, characterized by lack of bullet drop, high accuracy, low recoil, and quick-re-loadable energy cells. They deploy highly maneuverable, levitating battle tanks known as Magriders capable of efficiently traversing almost any terrain or incline, as well as wraith like anti-gravity fighters known as Scythes capable of inertia-defying breakneck aerobatics.^[13]

Development[edit]

The first official indications that a PlanetSide sequel was in development appeared in 2009. On September 25, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) sent a mass e-mail to current and former PlanetSide subscribers, asking to fill a survey that would help SOE design the next generation PlanetSide. 'We plan to expand the PlanetSide universe with another game and we need your help with the design. After all, who knows the game better than you, our customers, the people who actually play it! Don't worry about the original PlanetSide, it isn't going anywhere.'^[14] In addition, SOE registered the domain www.PlanetSide2.com on September 21.^[14] On October 11, SOE president John Smedley posted on his LiveJournal account that the sequel's working title is PlanetSide Next.^[15][16]

Little was revealed about the sequel until December 2010, when Smedley said that SOE would be launching a first-person shooter in March 2011,^[17] which was soon confirmed by Paul Williams of SOE as referring to PlanetSide Next.^[18] On March 31, 2011, SOE announced that it would be ending development of their spy-themed MMO The Agency and refocusing efforts on EverQuest Next and PlanetSide Next.^[19] Smedley confirmed that PlanetSide Next had been delayed – the result of recently switching to a new game engine – and would be available later in the year.^[20] The working title was later changed to PlanetSide 2. The official website was later updated to show a video trailer of the upcoming game. Many interview videos were taken after that showing sections of gameplay, but the biggest off-screen game play video was shown at 2012's GDC, showing most of the game aspects.

SOE President John Smedley announced that a closed beta test would begin July 30 or 31 2012 'barring any unforeseen circumstances.'.^[21] On July 30 Smedley announced that the beta testing would be delayed until at least August 3 'to make sure some stuff is awesome.'.^[22] On August 3 Smedley announced that the closed Beta would commence 2pm PDT (GMT-7) Monday 6 August.^[23] The beta closed on November 17, 2012, pending the game's official release November 20, 2012.^[24]

Game engine[edit]

The game uses SOE's Forgelight Engine which in turn uses Nvidia's PhysX API for its physics engine. This enables more realistic vehicle handling compared to the previous PlanetSide. Weather and day/night cycles are also possible as well as volumetric fog and clouds which players can hide in. Bullets are also simulated by the physics engine so players (other than the Vanu Sovereignty, whose projectiles are not affected by gravity if using some weapons) will need to compensate for gravity while aiming.

Planetside 2 Population

Another improvement over PlanetSide is the introduction of locational damage (hitboxes) for soldiers and vehicles. This is customizable by the developers so that a sniper rifle shot to the head can have a huge bonus while high rate of fire weapons, such as the Mini Chain gun, and vehicles have small to no bonus.

Business model[edit]

PlanetSide 2 is free-to-play and includes a cash shop for players to purchase in-game convenience items and cosmetic changes using real money. For example, a player can purchase camouflage (paint) for their weapon or vehicle.^[25] The developers have indicated an admiration of League of Legends's freemium business model.^[26] In 2011, SOE CEO John Smedley said the cash shop 'will not sell a more powerful gun or vehicle.'^[27] During the beta for the game, Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Nathan Grayson noted that the cash shop sold secondary weapons for aircraft,^[25] but changes have since been made to the game before it left beta.

The game also offers a subscription which provides players with increased experience, cert points, and extra resources, which are used to acquire things such as grenades and medical kits.^[25] Grayson said that goal of these benefits were convenience rather than making subscribed players more powerful than other players.^[25] However, Grayson noted that people purchasing these offerings might then be able to quickly acquire a large number of powerful items.^[25] Creative director Matt Higby said, 'success on the battlefield is still entirely player skill based, [players purchasing cash shop offerings will] just be less impacted for re-deploying to the battlefield. That is a huge benefit, no denying it. Is that 'buying power'? Well, that depends on your definition.'^[25]

People are also able to create cosmetic items for the game with the Player Studio which are then sold for cash.

Release[edit]

PlanetSide 2 launched November 20, 2012.^[28] European players were initially unable to play due to an incorrect game launcher on the Steam platform in addition to EU server issues.

Sony Online Entertainment's President John Smedley mentioned that a Mac version might be planned for PlanetSide 2. Smedley said: 'I absolutely strongly share that view. No you aren't going to see PlanetSide 2 on Linux. You will see it on Mac though'.^[29] The official PlanetSide 2Twitter account responded to a question on the topic of a Mac version as 'Stay tuned for all potential updates. ^Spoiler'.^[30]

A PlayStation 4 version of the game has been said to be released alongside Sony's new console November 2013. After the console launch when the game was not released, players learned that the launch has been rescheduled sometime in late 2014.^[31] Sign ups for the PlayStation 4 version's beta began on the game's website in December 2014, and was launched on January 20, 2015.^[32][33] The PS4 version officially released on June 23, 2015.^[34]

Reception[edit]

Critical reception[edit]

PlanetSide 2 received positive reviews from critics. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the PC version 84/100 based on 42 reviews.^[35]

Critics praised the large scale battles, impressive graphics and free-to-play model. GameSpy stated that, 'PlanetSide 2 shows the PC off. From the gorgeous lighting and huge draw distances, to the intense, multiplayer battles.'^[40]IGN gave the game 9/10 praising the battles, 'The scale of PlanetSide 2's battles is often breathtaking, as lines of tanks fire at bases while aircraft light up the sky and hundreds of players fill the scene with healing beams and lethal weapons fire.'^[43]

Awards[edit]

PlanetSide 2 won several awards at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012. IGN awarded it 'Best MMO Game' and 'Best PC Game'; GameSpy awarded it 'Best Shooter', 'Best Free to Play' and 'Best PC Exclusive'; and from PC Gamer, 'Best Shooter', 'Best MMO', 'Best of Show' and 'Most Awards Received'. PlanetSide 2 received numerous other awards and nominations from several critics.^[44] In 2015 Planetside 2 broke the record for most players in a single FPS battle on the Jaeger server, where 1,158 players simultaneously took part in a battle.^[45]

References[edit]

1. ^'EverQuest Next and PlanetSide 2 To Use New Forge Light Engine'. July 10, 2011. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
2. ^'PlanetSide 2 revealed at Sony Fan Faire'. The Independent. London. July 8, 2011. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
3. ^Ewalt, David M. (December 2, 2013). 'The ESPN of Videogames'. Forbes. p. 40.
4. ^'Game Overview'. PlanetSide 2 PC Game. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
5. ^Sites, Andy. 'PlanetSide 2 Launches on PS4 June 23rd'. PlayStation Blog. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
6. ^Matulef, Jeffrey (January 26, 2015). 'Planetside 2 gets Guinness World Record for biggest FPS battle'. Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
7. ^Biessener, Adam (September 2011). 'PlanetSide 2: Another Shot at the shooter MMO we've always wanted'. XXI (221). Game Informer.
8. ^'PlanetSide 2 Review'. Retrieved 2015-02-17.
9. ^'PlanetSide 2 - News - Build Your Way To Victory!'. PlanetSide 2. 27 April 2016.
10. ^'Sony Online Entertainment Taps Legendary Comic Book Writer, Marv Wolfman to Create PlanetSide 2 Backstory'. PR Newswire. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
11. ^'Terran Republic - PlanetSide 2 Wiki Guide'. IGN.
12. ^'New Conglomerate - PlanetSide 2 Wiki Guide'. IGN.
13. ^'Vanu Sovereignty Faction - PlanetSide 2 Wiki Guide'. IGN.
14. ^ ^ab'PlanetSide 2 in the works?'. PlanetSide Universe. 2009-09-25. Retrieved 2009-11-30.
15. ^Smedley, John (2009-10-08). 'What PlanetSide Next means to me'. Smed's Blog. Retrieved 2009-11-30.
16. ^Gilbert, Ben (2009-10-11). 'SOE's John Smedley calls PlanetSide sequel 'PlanetSide Next''. Joystiq. Retrieved 2009-11-30.
17. ^Tito, Greg (2010-12-08). 'Sony Online Strongly 'Hints' PlanetSide Sequel Coming This Spring'. The Escapist. Retrieved 2010-12-08.
18. ^'PlanetSide Next Update'. PlanetSide Universe. 2010-12-10. Retrieved 2010-12-20.
19. ^Fahey, Mike (2011-03-31). 'Sony's MMO Studio Confirms Massive Layoffs, Closes the book on the Agency'. Kotaku. Retrieved 2011-04-04.
20. ^Voecks, Krystalle (2011-04-04). 'SOE layoffs affect timetable for PlanetSide Next'. Massively. Retrieved 2011-04-15.
21. ^'SOE: PlanetSide 2 Beta Begins Next Week'. GameSpy. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
22. ^'SOE: PlanetSide 2 beta delayed Week'. GameSpot. Retrieved July 30, 2012.
23. ^'SOE: Twitter / j_smedley'. SOE. Archived from the original on December 9, 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
24. ^'SOE Announces PS 2 Release Date'. GameSpy. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
25. ^ ^abcdefGrayson, Nathan (Sep 20, 2012). 'PlanetSide 2 Tackles 'Pay-To-Win' Problem'. Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved Mar 17, 2013.
26. ^'Re: Chinese Interview with John Smedley'. September 8, 2011. Retrieved September 10, 2011.
27. ^'PlanetSide 2 Will Have A Cash Shop, But Pay-To-Win Not An OptionQ'. July 13, 2011. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
28. ^'PlanetSide 2 Officially Launched! - PlanetSide Universe'. Planetside-universe.com. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
29. ^'PlanetSide 2 Mac Version Planned - Inside Mac Games'. Insidemacgames.com. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
30. ^'Planetside 2 is currently available for PC only. Stay tuned for all potential updates. ^Spoiler'. Twitter. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
31. ^'PlayStation Universe News Article'. Psu.com. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
32. ^Owen S. Good. 'Signups begin for Planetside 2's beta on PS4'. Polygon.
33. ^'PlanetSide 2 - PS2 on PS4'. PlanetSide 2.
34. ^Sarker, Samit (June 3, 2015). 'PlanetSide 2 hits PS4 June 23'. Polygon. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
35. ^ ^ab'PlanetSide 2 (PC) reviews at Metacritic.com'. Metacritic.
36. ^'PlanetSide 2'. Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
37. ^'Destructoid PlanetSide 2 Review'. Destructoid.com. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
38. ^'EuroGamer PlanetSide 2 Review'. Eurogamer.com. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
39. ^'GameSpot PlanetSide 2 Review'. Gamespot.com. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
40. ^ ^ab'GameSpy PlanetSide 2 Review'. Pc.gamespy.com. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
41. ^'GamesRadar PlanetSide 2 Review'. Gamesradar.com. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
42. ^'GameTrailers PlanetSide 2 Review'. Gametrailers.com. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
43. ^ ^ab'IGN PlanetSide 2 Review'. Ign.com. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
44. ^'PlanetSide 2 Wins Big at E3'. Planetside2.com. June 8, 2012. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
45. ^http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2015/1/planetside-2-gamers-aiming-for-fps-battle-world-record-this-weekend-370414

External links[edit]

When it's dark – properly dark – you can look up at the night sky and see a multitude of stars. Stop and consider those stars. Each one is a ball of superheated gas, floating out there in space with its own history. It's a staggering realisation.

Stop for a second in PlanetSide 2 and you'll see a similar thing, except instead of stars, you're seeing people. Real people, just as out of reach in their homes to you as those stars. Stand and stare up at the sky and you might see a Belgian kid hurtle overhead, chased by a Spanish man in a fighter jet. As the Spanish man's rockets connect with his fuselage, the Belgian kid will wink out of existence like a star going out.

Every light in the sky, every light on the ground, is another person. PlanetSide 2 is a massively multiplayer first-person shooter, and although it's identical in concept to the original PlanetSide: three factions wage eternal war on the ground and in the air over a handful of continents, it feels like the future of games. PlanetSide was crippled by 2003's technology; PlanetSide 2 has the benefit of nine years of human advancement.

Hundreds of players fight across three continents. Indar is red and dusty, Mars with a few scrubby trees. Amerish is green, verdant, and liberally coated in dense jungle. Esamir is icy and beautiful, lit by northern lights at night and reflected sun glare during the day. Each continent is studded with bases of varying size that one of three sides - the militaristic Terran Republic, the self-righteous New Conglomerate and the alien-humping Vanu Sovereignty - can capture. Capturing bases bestows resource bonuses that pay out every few minutes. Those resources can then be used to buy vehicles and infantry supplies from designated terminals found around the huge map, all facilitating PlanetSide 2's central tenet: a vast, unfurling war between hundreds of players at once, the largest scale of battle yet seen in games outside of EVE Online's wild space.

I never thought it'd work. PlanetSide 2 is an MMO, it has hundreds of players living on a small amount of global servers – but it also has twitchy combat, bullets based on real physics, and the kind of vehicle fights that demand split second reactions. Few games have combined the two concepts well. The original game used behind-the-scenes number-magic that left weapons feeling toothless and combat floaty.

PlanetSide 2's weapons feel neither toothless nor floaty. They feel like weapons, guns that fire projectiles where you aim them. As a heavy assault class soldier, your bullets will slice through the shield and skin of an enemy at close range. As a sniper toting a powerful enough rifle, a bullet aimed slightly above the head of a long-range target will arc down into their visor to score you a one shot kill.

PlanetSide 2 has five classes, including the snipey Infiltrator, the chunky Heavy Assault, with Light Assault, Medic, and Engineer rounding out the group. Spawn as one of these and head to a re-arm station and you'll be able to play in the clothes of the sixth class: the MAX suit. These lumbering beauties pack a heavy weapon glued to each arm, and act like walking tanks - softer targets than their angry house friends, but able to dish out exponentially more punishment than regular armour-clad types.

Infantry combat isn't perfect. Some intangible element – either developer SOE's inexperience with modern shooters or the sheer size of the game – means that PlanetSide 2's guns lack the raw punch of a smaller scale FPS. Call of Duty has this down to an exact science. There, I can almost feel the bullets piercing the organs of my enemies. Here, it's closer to Battlefield 3, and not quite as powerful in sensation.

Also like Battlefield 3, death is accompanied by pre-canned animation. Snuff it and your avatar flops to the floor, arm out like a bad movie death. Somehow, it makes you feel powerless and frustrated, your own star winking out of existence.

But these are tradeoffs I'll happily make for the game's scale. I've fought shotgun duels in four-foot wide corridors, but I've also lanced someone in the head from five hundred metres away, ending the digital life of a far off francophone. Infantry combat is wild and crazy and freeform in an intoxicating way, taking place at all distances and in all settings.

I find vehicle combat even more exhilarating. No game has ever made my heart beat faster than PlanetSide 2 has. I've spent much of my time in the air, in the exposed bubble cockpit of the Terran Republic Mosquito. The Mosquito - my Mozzy - is a speedy, one-person fighter that I've outfitted as an air superiority craft, dedicated to hunting and killing enemy fliers. I've hurled my red-and-silver steed around crags, and settled in, nose-cannon blazing, behind vast enemy dropships, then escaped under base stanchions to throw off chasing air-to-air missiles. In a mere five hours in PlanetSide 2's air (the game's stat-tracking is exhaustive) I've lived out a lifetime of Top Gun fantasies without having to take my top off and play volleyball.

And this is but one element of the mechanised game. I've flown a lot, settling in with a wingman on my plane's shoulder - Chris, on Skype, calling out targets and bogeys on my six - but I've also been at the spearhead of armour columns. I've participated in tank battles to rival Kursk, and driven a clanking fun-bus through the jungle to sneak spawning troops behind enemy lines. I spend time in the air, but my friends can't fly. I invite them to a squad and fly cover for them as they move across the ground. There's something for them - for everyone - to do, to specialise in, to enjoy in PlanetSide 2.

But when I don't have those friends on tap, PlanetSide 2 becomes a different game. A quieter game. It's still astounding to look at, but it's also a more aimless, frustrating experience. Stand and stare up at the game's lights again. It's a lot less lonely when you can call out some of the lights' names. Play PlanetSide 2 alone and you're a tiny cog in one of three war machines, easily killed and rudderless: a feeling hammered in when the area of map you fought and died over yesterday to turn to your empire's side has fallen back into enemy hands while you were tucked up in bed. War moves quickly, and it'll move without you.

Whole command structures exist within the game: outfits are guilds, housing hundreds of players. Down from there, platoons encompass a set of squads - squads themselves have up to twelve players. This structure allows for some ludicrous levels of strategic group motion, especially when an external program like Teamspeak is involved. Eschew this structure and there's almost no overt guidance about what to actually do in this eternal war. The only concession to the baffled is a quick-deploy option found on the main map that puts you in a drop pod and launches you into recently contested territory. It would, I found, just as often plonk me in the middle of an enemy-held base, no friendlies around for miles.

Planetside 2 Continent Tracker

PlanetSide 2 is sorely lacking in new player guidance. Joining a squad is easy, but public groups are usually scattered, short term marriages of convenience rather than love or necessity. The game's three continents provide a tremendous amount of real estate to fight over, and it's too easy to pledge your life to a lost cause: either a base long-overrun, or one miles from the real action. The only way past this stumbling block is dedication, and the block is big and positioned near your figurative feet. Many won't make it past.

They should, because the experience on the other side is unlike anything else in gaming, but also because it's free to play. PlanetSide 2's payment model is microtransaction-based, but all players can use all vehicles and fight on all continents without needing to cough up cash. They can also use all weapons: everything bar cosmetic options - skull masks, daisy decals, giraffe-print camouflage at the sillier end of the spectrum - is unlockable with certification points. These are earned through play: kills, assists, base captures, and so on, as well as passively over time.

Typing master 2002 64 bit download. It can also be used by those who want to evaluate their mastery level and improve their typing skills for more efficiency.Users can specify how long they want each training session to be. The succeeding exercises will address the weak areas until the user performs better. This application is ideal for novice computer users who are still getting used to typing. Test durations range from two minutes up to thirty.

But cert point prices are high. An averagely successful hour of intensive play might net you 50. A new weapon usually costs around 1,000, necessitating grind for your gun. The real money option will set you back, at a rough average, around four pounds for a rifle. It feels closer to the pricier end of acceptable in the free to play market, but there's a half-hour preview option that lets you play with your potential pickup before purchase that salves the sting to your wallet.

Fortunately, few weapons feel like stone-cold necessities. SOE use the word 'sidegrade' to explain their purchasable arsenal, and the concept translates well to the game. I dropped fifteen of my own pounds on the game and bought myself a hefty sniper rifle. It was three times as powerful as the Terran Republic Infiltrator's standard weapon, but unlike that quickfire semi-auto gun, my new toy needed to be cocked between every shot. Reloading, too, was glacially slow, meaning a target miss would put me at the mercy of any nearby enemy. Not an empirically better choice, then, but a different one. I adapted my play style accordingly. Before, I'd use the ten-shot standard rifle to send weakened enemies packing from mid range; now I'd enable the infiltrator's cloak - which comes as standard with a press of F - get behind enemy battle lines, and pick off players with carefully considered headshots. I used a pool of certification points to unlock a longer-range scope, and took the same approach, but from further away.

Cert points can also be used to unlock skills and attachments for your vehicles, guns, and classes. It's these points that provide the strongest draw to the game. Bases come and go under allied control, continents are captured and recaptured by different sides, but as in other more traditional MMOs, your character will always progress. Certs can be plugged into an array of things: from increasing the speed a repair tool will repair vehicles, to attaching a heat-sensing scope to a light machine gun. Cert prices run the gamut: it costs a mere one point to increase your health by 10 percent with an armour boost, but you're looking at 500 - and the many hours that entails - to unlock an ejection system for your aircraft. SOE have space to wiggle these prices, and I'd suggest they do with a few of them. The Sunderer's spawn attachment, particularly, should be cheaper than the 50 cert points it currently costs: the battle-bus vehicle lets other players spawn on the frontline when tactically deployed, and is vital to successful pushes or defences.

Just as vital to those pushes is game stability. PlanetSide 2's servers have been acceptably steady in the weeks since launch, but too often I've found myself at the tip of a concerted advance only for the server to unceremoniously boot me out. On reconnection, I'm back at a spawn point miles from my previous location and the platoon I was rolling with has thrown their hands up and logged off for the night. For now, I'm willing to forgive the interruption, especially as the majority of these reboots are apparently to fix specific server problems.

Less forgivable are lag issues. Some sectors of gaming society have had specific problems with game-breaking delays that make PlanetSide 2's FPS combat untenable. I didn't experience these issues personally across three different PCs, playing on high, medium and low settings on both wired and wireless connections, but the reports are too widespread to discount. To their credit, SOE are hammering these faults down quickly: my first day with the game, I'd spot friendlies and foes flitting in and out of buildings. The next day, people stayed where they were meant to. A quick straw poll of the PC Gamer outfit found the fix's effects were fairly universal. Hardware's a more permanent issue: PlanetSide 2 is a big, pretty game set to stick around for years. As a result, it hoovers up CPU power like few recent games, and I'd be wary about approaching it with a processor more than a few years old.

But for those with the machine to handle it, PlanetSide 2 is never anything less than staggering. On your own, it's a spectacle. Stand far enough back and you can almost take it all in, but there's just too much there to focus on. With teammates, the picture comes into glorious focus. Dogfights in the frigid air, gunfights among the trees of a dense jungle, tanks duelling across the plains of a red desert: like stars in the night sky, PlanetSide 2 is beautiful.