MAG Review
- Posted February 3rd, 2010 at 22:44 EDT by Adam Dolge
- 18,339 views
- 111 Comments
Review Score
- PSU Review Score
- 7.5
- Avg. user review score:
- 8.0
Summary
MAG is one of the most ambitious games we've played in a long time. While at its core it's nothing more than a basic FPS, what sets this game apart is the volume of players who can compete together.
We like
- The LAG free online experience that supports 256 players
- Playing with a team of fellow gamers
- The epic ongoing battle that is the Shadow War
We dislike
- Right now the factions are quite unbalanced, which is making more players join S.V.E.R. Over time this will need to be fixed, otherwise there will be little competition
- The mediocre HUD
- If your team lacks communication, the game will get very frustrating. The game should come with a headset and strongly encourage its users to chat.
See PSU's review on Metacritic & GameRankings
One of the most overplayed and overproduced videogame genres is the first-person shooter market. We say overplayed as a substantial chunk of hardcore gamers flock to FPSs in droves, often ignoring the chance of dipping their toes in to other genres. The basic formula for the FPS has been in place for quite a while. Over the years we’ve seen a nice thick coat of polish through improved glittery graphics, enhanced gameplay controls, and of course, online multiplayer. Whether you are indulging in a spot of Killzone 2 or Modern Warfare 2, you’re still going hands-on with titles that share fundamentally near identical gameplay mechanics. Sure, different games in the genre have a multitude of highlights and features, but by and large, the real big advancements in FPSs come far too slowly and usually provide little to actually enhance the formula.
With that in mind, we tip our hats to Sony and Zipper Interactive for trying to push the genre ahead by creating the first massive online action game for a console. The sheer size and scale of this undertaking is impressive, and the actual execution seems to work pretty well, minus some shortcomings. We say it “seems” to work pretty well because the game is an online experience and will be shaped by the people who play it, alongside whatever patches or DLC are released. Therefore, reviewing a game that is living and breathing through its online community is quite difficult. While our score reflects the game’s first week of availability, there is potential for the gaming experience to drastically change as the online community develops.
MAG is a PlayStation 3 exclusive that is only playable online. There is no single player campaign, and besides the short tutorial at the beginning, the entire game is a large multiplayer romp. While the actual gameplay is nothing more than a typical FPS, there is more to the game than just enormous gun battles. MAG has some mild character development tools, but what really sets the game apart is the strategy required by your squad to win. This is not a game for the lone wolf. If you think you can survive your opponent’s onslaught by slipping behind enemy lines, think again. Since 256 players can participate in a single match, chances are you will be spotted, no matter how well you hide in the bushes.
It’s the year 2025 and three factions of private military corporations are waging battles in an otherwise peaceful world. That peace is forced because country’s militaries are scaled back and they are not allowed to leave their borders. The battles waged between the three PMCs to win contracts created the “Shadow War.” The PMCs include S.V.E.R., a force from the Middle East and Russia that learned to fight with what it had. Valor is more of the traditional armed military, while Raven, which is from Western Europe, utilizes the most high tech equipment. When you start the game you will choose to serve one of the three PMCs. Despite the described differences, the only thing you’ll likely notice among the PMCs is largely of aesthetic value. At this early point in the game, S.V.E.R. is the dominate faction. As the game progresses, we will likely see a change in the prevailing PMCs.
This is a game that will take a while to get used to, and even longer to play well. The controls are relatively standard for a FPS, but even a veteran of the genre may need a few sessions to really get comfortable with the way MAG handles. One of our biggest complaints, although it doesn’t mean this is a bad game, is that the user interface and mission objectives are not well detailed. You can easily get lost rotating weapon line-ups, learning how to heal fallen comrades, or what signal station you are supposed to capture. A hardcore FPS fan will have no problem with anything described above, but for the casual FPS player, all of these points will take some getting used to. MAG is geared toward the hardcore FPS gamer, someone who feels at home taking their time to snipe their opponents and not just run around the battlefield looking for kill shots. Given the fact you will only play this game online, there is a terrific sense of accomplishment in winning battles and completing objectives. But, if you are a gamer who is not crazy about this genre, the game will have very little to offer you outside the collective experience that comes with 256 PS3 owners competing together online.
Upon launching the game you’ll go through a brief tutorial to teach you the basics. You’ll have to learn how to really play the game in the heat of battle, so don’t be surprised if you die – a lot. There are several different game modes to play. You’ll probably start with Suppression, which is your bread n’ butter death match. Once you learn how to kill your enemies, you’ll progress to control objective modes like Sabotage. The Domination mode has a direct impact on the global Shadow War. To start a game, all you have to do is “deploy” your unit, and enter a queue for whatever mode you choose to play. The good news is the queues do not take long since there are so many people playing the game. This could change over time, but at this point you won’t wait longer than a minute or so for a queue.
Whichever two factions get the appropriate number of players to start a match will get the green light to start. As mentioned, the queues will not take too long, so you’ll likely find the action comes pretty quickly. When that action does come, it will be intense and require an awful lot of strategy. Since this is a game based heavily on its action, it’s important to note that while the combat has a learning curve; it is quite fun and extremely team oriented. As mentioned before, this is not a game to play with the intention of winning the war on your own. At no point did we feel like we were grinding for levels, instead, we felt like we were a part of a giant band of players, joined together for one purpose: to win. If you have to put the controller down for half a minute, chances are you’ll be dead from a sniper bullet or a quick knife to the back of the head.
During combat you will receive experience points for different deeds – killing enemies, healing comrades, etc. These experience points can be spent on various upgrades to your soldier and his arsenal and armor. This is where you can further customize your character. MAG’s character customization, while not revolutionary, is a welcome addition to the FPS genre.
When you die you have several seconds to wait around for someone to heal you. While you wait, take a moment and look out on the battlefield, you may be impressed at the sheer scope of the clash. No, these aren’t the best graphics to grace the PS3 or a FPS, but the detail is great given how many people are playing together online. The maps are quite large and filled with plenty of stuff to hide behind. The only problem we had in regards to maps was during Domination. The map is quite big, and if you get separated from your squad you will probably not see anyone for a while. This isn’t a problem if you stay with your teammates like you are supposed to, but if you happen to look away for a moment, or get disoriented in a gun battle; you will need to search for your teammates
As we’ve mentioned several times, MAG requires you to play as a team. You’ll get bonuses for following your squad’s leader. You’ll join a battle of 128 players broken up into four platoons. Those platoons are then broken further into four squads of eight players. The leaders for each division can give orders and bonuses. The communication isn’t always perfect and some of MAG’s presentation creates some problems. Still, if your team uses voice chat and can take orders, it’ll have an enormous advantage over your opponents. The communication aspect of MAG is key. Without it, your team will run around just trying to kill as many enemies as possible, forgetting its mission. This happened to us on many occasions. Or leaders wouldn’t give proper orders, or squad members would take off on their own direction, and even when we caught up to two or three allies, it was too late; chaos ensued. If you don’t have proper communication with your team, the game can get pretty ugly.
One of the game’s biggest problems (or, potential problems at this point), is how well the factions are balanced. Right now, S.V.E.R. dominates. This is having a multitude of affects on the actual gameplay experience. The most noticeable is that many people are noticing the factions’ strength, and deleting their Valor or Raven character to start a S.V.E.R. one. Since you can only have one character, which means that while S.V.E.R. forces increase, the other two drop. The dominate faction gains passive buffs, meaning that S.V.E.R. is even tougher to defeat. Zipper will need to sort out how it plans to balance factions or else S.V.E.R. will continue to dominate and the other factions will continue to lose members. This is a reoccurring issue for just about every online competitive game.
The game also has some pretty significant and noticeable glitches, largely they occur during death. We had one or two instances where we couldn’t respawn, likely form server lag. Even though we had some occasional problems, we are actually impressed at how stable the game runs given its impressive number of players who can compete together.
MAG is not for the casual gamer. In fact, over the next several weeks and months, it’s likely the online experience will be quite different than it was at launch. That’s because there will be a core base of gamers who enjoy this style of action. Time will likely sort out those who don’t enjoy FPSs. But, for those who love this sort of online game, MAG will be around to provide a massive experience for quite a long time.
MAG’s greatest strengths rest in its ambition and sheer scale. That’s not to say it’s without faults, but even its issues are not real problems. Since the online experience will change as the community continues to refine itself, this review only serves as a real basic look into the grand scale of MAG. It will be interesting to see what the game has to offer as the Shadow War continues to develop. As a shooter, MAG has little innovation, but as an online game, Sony and Zipper have set a new bar for what we should expect from our multiplayer experiences. While it’s not perfect, there will be a lot of people who will flock to MAG for the ability to play with 256 players. It’ll be interesting to see if the game can attract a new audience over the next few months, however.
Comments
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VintageElise |
VintageElise- 5:19pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 4
>The fact it will scare away gamers.
So will Heavy Rain probably. So does that dererve to have a point taken off?
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udontneed2know |
udontneed2know26- 5:19pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 5
Still this technology is going to be an incredible commodity. MAG is just a stepping stone for Zipper. The main thing that Zipper wanted with MAG was the actually accomplish handling a 256 player online action experience. They did this, unbelievably, and it is something no game in history can touch. Not even MMO's can handle this type of action in the same general location. If you put 60-70 people in the same location in any MMO besides Warcraft, it will crash the entire system.
So bravo to Zipper for accomplishing something this incredible. The fact that the game is even playable is pretty extraordinary and the servers can handle anything. I think people are just a little bit .... skill deprived thanks to the MW and Halo series of games where you need 0 skills whatsoever to become a high level player. So anything that deviates from being able to run around and knife people to death while they fire away at you from 5ft. and still survive, will throw you off completely. With this type of game, something that is not going to be duplicated this generation besides by Zipper themselves, I would welcome this change and play it to the maxium. All the little things can be fixed with patches. Zipper better be generous with the patches too, something that too many console game makers have ignored in their games. Now that you can, patch your games and make them even better. No reason not to.
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Kostchtchie
- 5:37pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 8
game is solid 8 from me, i hope they add dlc in form of weapon(s) and deeper customization, anyone not played this should get it, its decent open map battle game, if you dont like work as team dont get it
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thebigted
- 5:40pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 9
i hate u cod fan boys out there just play a game thats broken boundaries of console gaming i hate it when you all diss a game which u havnt played on and 360 fanboys can sod off too . Gaming is no where near as good as it used to be back with ps1 and mega drive, but this is huge achivement in gaming and very fun so stop playing boring old mw2 and play a fun game like this or lbp. Originality is the best and this is taking that very far!!!!!!
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ToonAssassin |
ToonAssassin- 5:42pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 10
poor comments IMO, since when is 'difficult to master' a negative ? oh, i forgot that people expect a nuke at level 3 these days LOL, 9 from me. also @ Vintage, spot on mate
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Brokentusk81
- 5:46pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 11
Meh. I played the beta, so maybe its not fair for me to give my 2 cents based on that, but I thought the game was totally uninspiring. Gameplay was perhaps the most generic I've ever ever experienced in my life. Wasn't slow and strategic like GRAW or Rainbow six, wasn't fast and arcadey like MW2, and didn't have a distinct sytle or new concept like Battlefield with destructible environments. So what that you can play with 256 people
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Brokentusk81
- 5:51pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 13
I couldn't tell the difference. I could have been playing with 25 people or 25 million at one time. There is no way to really appreciate the size difference sensorily. 7.5 seems very fair.
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Kostchtchie
- 5:52pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 14
@10 thats great idea, BRING ON THE NUKES!!!! dlc, oic can designated nuke strikes :P
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Son_of_Son_of_Arda
- 5:54pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 15
I'm not playing as Valor simply because they spelled it wrong.
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bazcore4eva |
bazcore4eva- 6:00pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 16
This is a very GOOD game I an enjoying it :D
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psyra |
PSYRA- 6:03pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 17
udontneed2know
you are totally right, this is a great step forward. now all other devs have no exscuse for lame online experiences.
This sets the bar really high for other games, and im with most of the guys saying this takes a little more skill than other games. I played the beta and te first 2 or 3 games are hard, and you die a lot.
The customization is kinda good too, but thats not the main point of the game. the real point is to play against 128 players team :D
I can only imagine a warhawk style of game with 256 or 128 players :D paradise!
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O_G_H
- 6:27pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 21
"The sharp learning curve: slow to learn, very difficult to master"
You took point away because it's hard and you can't just pick it up and play it? Something wrong with that.
"The fact it will likely scare away some gamers"
So would (and has) Demon's Souls. You (Adam specifically) gave Demon's Souls a 9.0
"The mediocre HUD"
TheHUD? Please. Why don't you just admit that you didn't like the graphics because they are not like Call of Duty's and take your lumps for being a graphic ho?
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MiracleCure
- 6:31pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 22
256 players for a FPS is NOT new nor is it that big... Sony's Planetside for PC, released SIX years ago can support 500 players per map on 3 teams and has 10 maps... Integrating Ground Air and infantry fighting, inside and outside. Nothing has yet come close to the overall game that Planetside provides.
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caveman7
- 6:36pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 24
Well I don't think this was a very fair review, and I'm not saying it is a perfect game, but at least an 8. I really enjoy the teamwork that is put into play here, it's great when you have a team full of voice chat and you actually work as a team. However, I don't really like the way the guns balance out, meaning I can kill 5X as many people just running around with an AR than by sniping or laying down suppressing fire with a MG. Oh well, good game.
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hood |
hoodrich902- 6:47pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 25
- The fact it will likely scare away some gamers
- The sharp learning curve � slow to learn, very difficult to master
Wait wait u took puts off because the game isnt easy and it will scare gamers better keep you nightlights on boys and girls MAG is going to drag you under your bed.
I played the beta it was pretty fun and its not hard to play i started a match and got a 7 knife kill streak
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Ergunno
- 6:55pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 26
We dislike
- The mediocre HUD
- The fact it will likely scare away some gamers
- The sharp learning curve � slow to learn, very difficult to master
What kind of lame negative points are these? Come on. Scare some people away? Look at Demon's Souls, it did but what does it take away of the game itself? Heh, if you (Adam Dolge as written above) do a Heavy Rain review and it is not getting this negativity then I'll deem every review score of yours as bull****. No offence.
Sharp Learning Curve? So what? It is a FPS. Do you want it to be like CoD which you can be pretty good in within a few hours because some games are just not that challenging. And I'm talking console based here. Playing CoD 4 and 5 (6 is full of hackers and there isn't even punkbuster and kicking people :/) online and being able to get to the top of the scoreboard pretty much all the time takes serious skill. And a game is supposed to be challenging. If a game is not challenging it takes away a lot of fun for me so Demon's Souls was great for me for that being 1 of major + points for the game and other games which are difficult.
Mediocre HUD? Ok, you might think that but it is good or at least good enough.I do not agree with this review. I've only played this game for like an hour or 2 at a friend's place and I'm sold. It doesn't directly mean I will get it (Because I don't play too many of 1 genre at a time). This is a great game and from about 2 hours of playing it (not enough to give all the details and being able to give a really accurate rating) I would give this game an 8-8.5 or so.
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O_G_H
- 6:56pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 27
@24 I am so sick of hearing this about sniper rifles! The map is HUGE. You can hide anywhere you want. Could you imagine if they gave just any noob a one-shot-kill sniper rifle?! They make you earn it. If you want to put people down in one shot, you will have to earn it through exp points and ONLY snipe. Snipers that dangerous should be built through play, not given (and honestly, every class is like that). That's what the reviewer didn't get. COD GIVES you 5 full classes to start with while you build your own, MAG starts everyone with next to nothing.
By the way, I looked at other site's reviews and they were all better than this site. The consensus is that MAG is ugly, but the gameplay is too strong to ignore. Do with that what you will.
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neoxthexone |
neoxthexone123- 7:11pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 30
This is actually one of your worse reviews PSU there's some stupid points dislikes.
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Devolving_Shadow |
Shadow_1986- 7:11pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 31
This is the best FPS game out ther.... I have so much fun with it... Its a lot harder then MW2.. MW2 is easy... Im already level 41 in Raven...
I give the game 9 out of 10
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bsheighway
- 7:12pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 32
The reviewer is right; this is a game that will get better with time. Zipper has to make sure the core game works before they can make little changes to it. If the 256 player didn't work from the launch, the game would have immediately flopped. Now that they have that under control; it can be tweeked with updates. It would work even better if people communicated more.
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O_G_H
- 7:14pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 33
@29 You have no idea what you are talking about. Even you see it through the eyes of COD. The respawn issue you bring up isn't even an issue. Play the game and see for yourself, sheep.
@ 26 As I stated in post #21, guess who reviewed Demon's Souls (and gave it a 9.0)?
Let's put this in perspective. Warhawk was a game that was reviewed as a fairly universal 8.0 game (I don't care if you agree, that's what happened). I think it fits because of the online-only thing. It this game worse, the same, or better than WH? That's the question.
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OneFlow
- 7:27pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 34
As much as I don't like to get involved in such fights...
I played the beta and the game was somewhere between average and good for me. I think you need to realize that the points given are directed at the average gamer, not an FPS-junkie. The review itself does a good job of making clear that the game is much better if you're into complex mmo games and fps.
Also, being a hard game is not a bad thing, being inaccesible IS. Especially when you build your game around massive online play.
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IceShade |
Ice_Shade- 7:32pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 35
Your rating is way too low. It's not hard to learn, the HUD is perfectly fine and it'll only scare away the little 13 year old xbots that sit and camp to boost their KDR. This is the best shooter on PS3 right now, period. You guys clearly didn't play this long enough if you think that veteran gamers are going to struggle configuring their loudouts and focusing on objectives. Get off the MW2 bandwagon and give this game the play time it deserves.
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neoxthexone |
neoxthexone123- 8:12pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 39
@37
You've put the nail on the head right there, I totally agree.
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Ixion |
MagicManGSC- 8:19pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 40
Yeah, those negative points are pretty lame.
But it wasn't a bad review for the most part. He's correct in that MAG will be even more fun as time goes on. I'm still constantly playing with people who don't understand the game. Once most of the community learns the ropes, then MAG will be a consistent blast.
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Spartan_R7 |
ANTINOOB101- 8:22pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 41
Difficult to master? It only took me a couple of games in the beta. :/
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Bitbydeath |
Bitbydeath- 8:23pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 42
"The sharp learning curve -- slow to learn, very difficult to master"
How is this a bad thing? You might as well complain about an RPG going for hundreds of hours. A Learning curve means you need a good strategy, this is why i like Warhawk so much because it also has a sharpe learning curve.
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squirrelbo1 |
squirrelbo1- 8:41pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 43
coma, I love you.
for my real post. i think the review is pretty accurate tbh. makes some valid points. doesnt say becuase its hard is a negative point, it meerely highlights that its geared to the more hardcore gamers.
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SAtrooper
- 9:03pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 44
guys for me, the moment i heard about mag when it was first revealed i had high hopes for it., and when i played the public beta for mag well lets just say that...........I was sold.
some of might not agree and i am talking mainly to cod fanboys, i prefer MAG over Modern Warfare 1 and 2 any day. modern warfare 1 and 2 had strong points but most of it came from offline. u guys talked about online like it was incredible, i personally could not get over the online issues. which is why i stopped playing cod 4 almost completely.fps shooters like cod which should be played in a more team sucks when it comes to that just because everybody wnts to get their own points, when u talk to people they ignore u completely but the thing i hated most, the very reason i quit and don't agree with people when they say online is the best, are the lag issues in the game.
now when i played the public beta( i still don't own the game yet since it comes on the 11 of feb in australia) the public beta had everything i wanted out of an online shooter. team work, NO LAG which is incredible for a game that incorporates 256 players,customization, the whole leader thing where u can be squad leader, platoon leader or the OIC. the team work in MAG is unbelieveable which i like a lot, not many people can cod in this game, ull die pretty quick if thats your usual tactic, in MAG u help people u can help and they help you. AND the thing that separates COD from MAG is that MAG is a real war, u feel it when u play the game, the are objectives all over the battlefield which u and your team have to destroy or secure and its up to the squad leader, platoon leader and oic which u will go for, there are explosions in most places in MAG which makes the battle seem more realistic.
guys first of all it doesn't take that long learn how to play MAG and learn the rules, (took me a day to learn and two days to master how to play it),
the hud doesn't have to be hi tech but i like it, i don't complain about HDU's a lot, but seriously come on......scare away gamers?! psu i am really dissapointed in this mediocre review, don't review games that u believe need stupid negative points about them, if u can't find anything wrong about the game then don't make up points, some which aren't entirely true. i think one of the funny things is that people play certain games will come back and talk about how its mediocre and talk about its bad points but they spent the entire weekend playing them. lol
i would give MAG a 9/10, it would be 10/10 if the graphics where even better but so far i cant find anything else wrong wih it.
PS: to all u people that like to hate in the world over a couple of comments, just so u know everything i wrote is my opinion so don't start fighting unless u really must and have good reason, and if u guys played it mag until lvl 15 and tried out being squad leader then u can tell me what u think about it, otherwise don't tell me how bad it is.
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three3-times |
three3_timeZ- 9:03pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 45
guys, JUST cos its a ps3 exclusive doesnt mean its a fantasttic game. its a good effort and not for everyone and that includes me.
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psyra |
PSYRA- 9:20pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 49
three3-times
I agree with you, no game will be everyone's favorite, but this game is great, except the graphics :P
i bought it last night after 2 weeks in the beta and i can say i love it....
what mag offers no other game in the market has it. and what mag does it does very good.
you can take points away for real issues with the game not because "you think some gamers wont like it"
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12mikenuge21
- 9:26pm GMT - February 2nd, 2010
- 50
How did MW2 get above MAG... 9.0 MW2 is bulls**t compared to this,
Heavy Rain and GOW3 Please
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