The KGB Oracle Forums The KGB Great Hall of History (PUBLIC) KGB Planetside 2 Public Forum PlanetSide 2 = Risk while BF3/MW2 = Checkers

In the latest issue of PC Gamer UK, we took a look at the vast new free to play sequel, Planetside 2. Developers, Sony Online Entertainment told us its battles will rage across “eight-by-eight kilometre continents” and take place on a different scale to the shooters we’re used to.

“I always like to say that Planetside and Planetside 2 are sort of like, they’re to Battlefield and Modern Warfare and those FPS games – and don’t take this as a denigration at all, I love those games, I play those games – but those games are sort of like Checkers where we’re sort of like Risk,” says creative director Matt Higby.

“The mechanic is the same. You pick up a piece and you move it, you pick up a piece and you move it, but the vastness and the strategy of it is so much different when you’re playing Risk than when you’re just picking up a Checker piece.

“It feels about the same as shooting a gun in both games, but there’s a lot more to do, and there’s a lot more possibilities…”

Higby tells us about some of those possibilities. Planetside 2 will have “massive continents to support that kind of warfare.” They will be “dozens of square kilometers and there’s multiples of them that each have their own biosphere and their own specific look, atmosphere.”

“There’s a whole territory control mechanic,” Higby continues, “so as you conquer bases, towers, bunkers, even just ridges, like out in the wilderness, ridge lines and mountains and stuff, you can capture all these things and capture nodes for play resources.”

Without the Alien Invasion AI, consider Bases and territory as the equivalent to beating a Boss. Holding territory gives the faction resources from which to build your empire. That is one of the things changing in a good way from PlanetSide 1. Now you get something even more worthwhile besides your faction color on a map.