Global Agenda MMOFPS

This I find very interesting.. Seems to still be in it's infancy, but could be a somewhat worthy successor to Planetside.. Pass or fail at least someone is trying to keep the concept of a MMOFPS active..


Global Agenda preview

Global Agenda website

Neat movie showcasing gameplay as well

The devs are in Georgia too, so I think there's CDL you could send to "talk" with them if they wander down the same path of self destruction Sony did with PS.

 

With all your planetsideuniverse experience Hamma, you could leverage some potential fansite magic and get in on the ground floor You'd be a shoe-in for Alpha testing then


Some more info from Kotaku :

I logged into the game, where I was given a chance to outfit my character with various weapons, pieces of armor, and technical devices. Each piece of equipment came in variable strengths, each taking up an increasing number of skill slots. Having only a certain number of slots available (20 in this case), I assigned my character a powerful rocket launcher and mini-gun, a melee weapon, some EMP grenades to deal with machine foes, and a few other odds and ends to make things difficult for my enemies to take me down.

So you're probably looking at skill points that increase as you gain experience, along with "grades" of weapons and equipment.. So you'll be tailoring your character with a choice of specific skills, focussing on high end equipment loadouts of certain types, and filling out with basic equipment and necessary talents..

Fighting takes place in third-person view, with your mouse controlling a targeting reticule. According to the devs, they had experimented with a variety of targeting techniques including assisted targeting (boo!), eventually settling on a system much like your traditional online shooter, only a bit more forgiving when it comes to precision. Weapons and equipment are loaded into a hotbar across the top of the screen, making it easy to toss aside your rocket launcher and pull out your mini-gun when the situation calls for it.

3rd person, not so bad, frankly I'll take it over nothing As long as the combat isn't button mash a'la WoW, it'll be good..

The combat itself was fast and responsive, and rather enjoyable, especially when fighting against bots with bots. The AI they had in place actually had me getting healed now and again, which was pleasant. If I had to compare it to anything, I'd say Unreal Tournament III is a close comparison, which makes sense given that they're using the Unreal Engine 3 to build the thing.

Taken from the single player tutorial, but nice to see decent AI, and I guess lag will be the ultimate decider on whether the combat is fast enough..

As for multiplay:

The match was a basic multiplayer affair, with our team defending a control point from the enemy team. It became clear from the get-go that Global Agenda is going to be a game where communication and strategy is key. If fact, from the brief time I had, I would say that this will be the sort of MMO that traditional shooter clans could do very well at indeed. As it stood, the two teams were communicating throughout the match, in between my apologies for dying as quickly as I did.

and a bit of a summary:

Still, despite my ineptitude I did manage to have a great deal of fun. The best thing I can say about Global Agenda is that by the time my play session ended, I wanted to play more, which happens with far less frequency than you would think.

I think focusing on the core combat systems was a good strategy for Hi-Rez to adapt. Too many times the more froo-froo bits of an MMO can detract both programmers and players from flaws in the gameplay until it's too late. Global Agenda's combat, even at this early state, has a great deal of potential. It's definitely a game I'll be keeping track of as they flesh out the world these entertaining battles take place in.

Sounds good so far to me

 

IGN Preview

 

Here you go Daleon, you can actually head down and see what the game looks like..

Charity preview of Global Agenda

 

Might be something PvE related, as I haven't heard anything yet about vehicles of any kind..

That said, just because PS screwed up BFRs doesn't mean walkers in another game can't be done well.