MAG: the first week

I have been playing MAG for just over a week now. I couldn't make up my mind about which PMC to join but I settled on Raven GmbH primarily because there seemed to be more of them at the forums I hang out on. Yeah, yeah I succumbed to peer pressure. But really, teamwork is essential in this game. More often than not when joining a game solo, I tend to get put in a squad with a quiet squad leader who doesn't talk or set FRAGOs, or worse: a squad that totally ignores the leader. So yes, I picked a PMC that guarantees me easy 8-man squads.

Well, over the week that we've played we have slowly improved. In the beginning it was hard to win a match as Raven but over the last couple of days we've managed to own Acquisition matches. We still have problems with Sabotage and Domination game modes.

I do have some issues with the clan list interface though. It needs to be sorted by who's online. At the moment I'm not sure how it is done but it's all over the place. Hunting through the clan list looking for who's online is a pain.

Thoughts on MAG open beta

MAG had an open beta-test from the 4th until the 10th. It is supposedly an MMOFPS with huge maps supporting up to 256 players at a time. I participated in the open beta and the first thing that I noticed is that the graphics and sound effects seem to not be up to par with the likes of Modern Warfare 2. I think this is mainly because you have to download the client for the open beta and file sizes needed to be kept low. But, the effect was that the game did not feel as polished as others I could name. Hopefully they ratchet up the audio and graphics quality in the final release.

You have some objectives which you have to defend or capture to win the game. Squad leaders (or is it platoon leaders? I never played as squad leader) can give the order to take or capture an objective, destroy enemy assets, or repair yours. As with any multi-player game, the experience varies but by far I had the most fun when I got into squads that actually work together and use their headsets to actually communicate rather than just to talk trash.

I loved playing Domination. This is the 256-player mode where everything is just plain chaotic. People shoot at you from everywhere, and you've got to defend/destroy bunkers and SAM sites and gates and towers and APCs. It's just plain crazy. And I loved it.

I haven't quite made up my mind which faction I'll join though. I played the beta primarily as RAVEN, but I think I like the menu colour scheme of S.V.E.R. better. Thoughts?

My political compass, January 2010

I thought it'd be a good idea to take the Political Compass test again just to see how I've changed since last year. I managed to misplace the previous result, but I seem to remember it showed me being slightly left-er on the economic scale, and slightly more libertarian, socially.

Catching up — Modern Warfare 2 is awesome, Avatar is awesome

Wow, I really haven't posted in a long time!

Modern Warfare 2 is mostly to be blamed for that — I really got sucked into the online multiplayer. I'm still not much good at it but a shotgun makes up for a lot of skill :p. That took about a month.

Also, last week I went to see Avatar in 3D and it blew my mind. It was simply amazing how much detail was in every frame. I probably could spend hours just watching the office workers do office-y things. It is just that beautiful. Seriously this movie is a must-watch in 3D. It's probably even better on IMAX 3D, but since the nearest IMAX screen is in Bangkok (I hear the one in KL has shut down which is just sad) it's unlikely that I'll ever get a chance to see it.

ACTA 101

by Michael Geist