Planetside Aftershock

List Price: $24.99 Discount Price: $14.88

Features:

• Contains Planetside and Planetside: Core Combat

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine	30 Day Game Time Card Game Card (Everquest II, Planetside, Everquest Game Card)

Customer Reviews:

One of a kind [Posted on 2005-01-31]
Planetside is an excellent game. Its really the only game of its kind, the first MMOFPS. Fight for one of three empires with a wide variety of vehicles, weapons, and playstyles.

Pilot? Grunt? Driver? BFR jockey? Sniper? Cloaker? Medic/Engineer? Commander? You decide.

Aftershock includes the original game + the corecombat expansion, which offers new weapons, vehicles, and 4 new environments to fight in, as well as additional other features.

There are plenty of willing players who'll help you if you need it.

BFRs are now well balanced and fit into the game quite well.

There is also a free trial offer at www.planetside.com

Garbage [Posted on 2005-06-07]
So after playing Planetside on and off now for close to two years, I am sorry to report that the game has become utter and complete crap.

The developers take months (6+) to put new units in the game, and now they have resorted to putting in "varients" i.e. exactly the same vehicle/gun with tweaked functions.....sad very very sad. When they do put new units in game - like the Battle Frame Robots, they completely mess it up and end up constantly nerfing them to death for the next year.

Funny thing is that the server populations have been steadily dropping for a while now, and instead of advertising, they went and reduced the number of players allowed on each map - making it seem like the battles were as huge as before.

Plus, don't get me started on performance. With a 3Ghz Cpu /1Gb Ram / Cable connection - this game will still slow to a crawl in big battles...regardless of your video card.

IMHO, don't waste your time on this game, its fun for about a month, but then gets boring...and at $14 a month....rather spend your cash on WOW or Guild Wars, or wait for Quake Wars or Huxley to come out......

This used to be a great game, now just a good game [Posted on 2005-06-10]
When Planetside first came out, as one reviewer pointed out, you could have 200 players a side. Most of the time the battles involved just two factions at a time. You rarely had to worry about three way battles, which can be a nightmare. At any one time you could have three or four population locked continental battles, 24 hours a day. These massive battles are the greatest thing I have ever experienced in online gaming. What also made the massive battles popular is you didn't have to be a good player. Frankly, even poor players could compete and contribute in massive battles, because your weaknesses would likely not come in to play or be exposed.

Then came the nerfs(making weapons weaker) to grunt weaponry, especially against vehicles. I like to play the grunt, almost exclusively. Even after reaching BR20(BR stands for Battle Rank), which at the time was the highest battle rank possible, I did not certify in any ground or air units, I used all my certification points on grunt things. I know from talking to many people, they felt the same way. The majority of players wanted to just play the grunt. And we wanted to play the grunt outside, not just in the bases or towers.

After the nerfs, vehicles started to slowly dominate the game, to the point now that grunts are outnumbered 5 to 1 or worse, sometimes much worse. I know there are many players that like to play the air or ground vehicles, but they were the minority. As the vehicles started to dominate, the player base started to drop. The massive battles started to disappear. The average players, myself included, started to have their weaknesses exposed and felt helpless.

These massive battles were the only reason I bought Planetside.
In a poll nearly 2/3 of the respondants, said they preffered the large battles over the medium or small battles, and very likely that number would actually be larger but many of the large battle fans had already left the game, when the poll was conducted. In an attempt to stop the bleeding SOE(Sony Online Entertainment) came out with a $30 expansion called Core Combat. This was designed for the grunts, and was difficult for vehicles. The caverns were really nothing more than large bases and not the wide open battles the grunts wanted. On top of that hardly anyone purchased the expansion, because many of the grunt players had left already.

It had gotten to the point that the massive battles were virtually gone and when they did happen it usually involved all three factions on one continent, and as I said three way battles can be a nightmare. Then came the final straw for the grunts, the BFRs, which are large Mechs. Players left in droves, although admittedly there weren't many left to leave, but those that were left did leave. Now all the game had left were constant three way battles. In an attempt to create more two way battles, SOE cut in half the number of players any faction could have on a continent. This has created more two way battles, but not as big as they used to be and still dominated by air and ground vehicles, and BFRs.

If you like to play the vehicles, then you will enjoy the game. If you prefer to play the grunt then leave your ego at home because you will die alot. My average kill to death ratio is 1 to 5. Many times it is worse and rarely better. While Planetside is still a good game, it is not the great game it used to be.

Be aware that SOE supposedly has a new Planetside type game in developement and plans to come out in 2006. As it stands Planetside is a poorly programmed game(even the developers would admit that) and will push your PC to its limits. SOE says they have learned from their mistakes made with Planetside and we can only hope that the new offering will bring back the massive battles that a majority(many not playing anymore) of the players want.

Planetside in the market today [Posted on 2006-04-10]
I misss this game alot, i really do. I played it since beta in 2003 and for two years. The level of interaction you get surpasses every game i have played to date,and that includes recent games, such as bf2, and mmo's like Auto Assault (another excellent MMO).

BUT, (and there had to be a huge but!)

You play a fantasy/ futuristic mmo, to escape. They put adverts in, you wanted to be a grunt (infantry unit), they but BFR's in (big f... robots), you wanted the game to be developed (its an mmo, its what you pay for).

instead you have the same bases you did nearly three years ago, you have many bugs you had nearly three years ago.

this all sounds so bad, and it is, its such a shame that SOE really have dealt this game a deaths blow by putting office politics into the forums (try getting a reply from a dev on an idea/ current status of the game), pulling the art team,and reducing it to a skeleton staff.

many things are promised in Planetside and never delivered. BFR's were not what really ruined the game, they were just rushed to the table, to stem the steady flow of players leaving. instead they aided it.

Planetside is still in limbo, and it will be until it closes when later this year three main competitors release (huxley, Auto Assault (now online), and SOE's new "answer").

Try planetside for free, you get engrossed, infact it kept me hooked for two years! Its a little hard to pick up to start with, and you do need a decent spec system to run it. The graphics are not that great, but the gameplay in a zerg, or in small teams can be great.

try doing a full gal drop on a base, just ahead of the zerg to really make a difference. The game is amazing, its just a shame SOE are so good at killing it.

Good game. still worth the money [Posted on 2006-05-12]
Planetside is a unique MMOFPS. You have the option of being a foot soldier, tank driver, pilot, sniper, invisible assassin, and many more. The objective is to capture and defend bases and towers in a never ending 3-sided war with soldiers who respawn after every death. Consequently, this game is rather shallow and completely repetitive. Oddly enough, however, it never gets boring. Every battle is unique, challenging, and fun.

One of Planetside's best features is that there is absolutely no PvE. The only fighting in the game is PvP. This fighting can range from a two man struggle for a remote tower or a dozens vs dozens vs dozens three-way battle for an improtant base. Either way, you are always fighting another real live human being, not a computer code.

Another plus, for me at least, is that the game is based on SKILL, not what level your character is. A 3 day old character can do just as well as a 3 year old one. This means no grinding xp for hundreds of hours, no trying to raise millions of gold or credits so you can buy the uberist weapon or armor on the server. All weapons, armor, vehicles, ect are equal. Player skill is the primary determining factor of a battle.

Some may complain that this game is not supported all that well by SOE. I think this is actually a plus. After having played Star Wars Galaxies and watching SOE turn that enormous potential into a grotesque ten-year-olds comic book world, I think the less they touch Planetside, the better.

So, if you are looking for some nonstop multiplayer FPS action that is easy to learn and hard to master, then Planetside is for you.

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