MAG is still a bit of an unknown quantity. It's been stuck with one of the most unimaginative names in the games industry (Massive Action Game), but people still don't really know too much about it.

If you've been itching to know how exactly this 256-player online shooter is going to work, we've got a few tidbits to share with you, as part of our ongoing E3 coverage. Bennett and the crew caught up with Ed Byrne, creative director at developers Zipper Interactive, to find out a bit more about the game - including details on how exactly a side of 128 people are going to communicate via voice-based chat.

Download the Games On Net - E3 2009 Coverage: MAG (Massive Action Game)


It's not like Zipper are coming in unprepared, either. They're possibly best known for their earlier creation - the "mega-hit" SOCOM US Navy SEALs - as well as PC titles Deathdrome, Crimson Skies, TopGun, Recoil and also MechWarrior 3, but many of the core programmers and artists at the company have been involved in the world's first large-scale military networked training simulation program, SIMNET (SIMulator NETworking). This was perhaps their first taste of the ideas behind MAG, as they worked to develop the hardware and software that powered hundreds of networked training simulators around the world.

Now, unless you're a military aircraft pilot, part of an armoured vehicle team or some other military personnel, you probably won't get a chance to try out SIMNET, but at least there's MAG as a fallback, right?

This is a PS3 exclusive, and we're not entirely sure when it's due out - but rest assured, it'll be Massive, and I doubt you'll be able to avoid hearing more about this one.


Remember that while all our E3 videos are free traffic for Internode customers, we do offer a smaller version, for the quota-conscious, shrinking this interview down to a tidy 35MB file, in case 300+MB is too big for you.