SCEA revealed a playable demo of MAG at their E3 press conference with 256 people in the same battle at once. In MAG, a squad leader can issue commands and objectives to their eight man team (or 32 man platoon, or 128 man army), and any member of the team who contributes to the objective will get experience points. What you do with these experience points was not explained, but I presume it has something to do with their ranking system so that you will more likely get a chance to become squad leader yourself. There’s also a customization system in which you choose combat specialties for your character which may help you burn off those hard earned experience points.
Squad leaders can also call air strikes, mortar barrages and parachute insertions, all through the first-person perspective. Winning battles permanently increases the ranking of one of three permanent armies, which you choose to join at the outset. The higher your ranking, the more likely you’ll be on the attack for a particular battle.
As for actual gameplay, MAG looked really similar to the Battlefield series, except with more people. We’ll see how the formula of “more people = more fun” plays out.
MAG is coming exclusively to the PS3 in the Fall.
Don Tam is a game enthusiast who currently resides in Toronto. He currently owns a two-year old PC, a Xbox 360 Pro and a DS Lite (black). His favourite games include Gears of War, Rock Band, Civilization IV, and pretty much anything Blizzard caresses with their gentle, godly hands.