Sony Online Entertainment has given a heads up on what we can expect to grace the MMO in update eight. As well as the usual bug fixes and some UI tinkering, the meat of the extra content includes new weapons, helmets and armour sets, and the super cool Harasser buggy. As the name suggests, the Harasser is all about quick hit-and-run assaults, and seats three players. Take a little peek below and visit the Planetside 2 forums for full patch notes.

Source: SoE Forums

Want to know what’s coming up soon in PlanetSide 2? This handy video will explain it all to you, using both sound and pictures for maximum ease of consumption. Look forward to increased certification points for subscribers, drag and drop squad creation, and other features which can be seen here in this text list. Enjoy!

Source: via VG247

If you participated in Planetside 2 beta, you may recall that early versions of this free-to-play action game utilised PhysX middleware. NVidia’s almost ubiquitous physics engine will soon be officially patched into the game, but as reported by PCGamesN, you’re in no way obligated to wait. You can activate the option right now by editing the useroptions.ini file in the Planetside 2 Steam folder. Open it as a text file and add the following two lines at the end of the [Rendering] section:

• ForceGpuPhysics=1
• GpuPhysics=1

This latest attempt to find the magic formula for a successful MMO shooter received a warm reception from critics when it emerged from beta last year. It doesn’t do to rest on your laurels, however, so it’s nice to see that Sony Online Entertainment is still looking for ways to satiate its user base and attract new players.

Source: PCGamesN

SOE have laid out where they plan to take PlanetSide 2 over the next six months, with a listing of what they’ll be working on, and when, posted up on the official site.

January’s updates include the addition of spawn room tunnel paths to mitigate spawn camping, a new rendering distance based on threat to you, the redesign of towers, experience incentives, defender-only jump pads, and a new player invincibility on spawn.

In February, they’re planning to roll out account-level unlocks, a VR training area, a revamped loadout screen, vehicle cosmetic slots, and quite importantly, separate score from experience. Pump-action shotguns and orbital strikes will also be added.

Hit up the full page to read their plans up to June and beyond, and to join in the discussion on voting for task priority.

Source: PlanetSide 2

All John Smedley’s pre-launch talk of an eSports focus for Planetside 2 seems to have finally born fruit. Sony Online Entertainment has announced a partnership with Major League Gaming, one of the US’s most prominent eSports organisations, to add the MMOFPS to the latter’s 2013 roster. The initial deal between the two spans one year, but the Planetside 2 team promises that its work with MLG over the next few months will help lay the foundations for “a long-term eSports initiative”.

The deal will spawn streams and other forms of online programming, online competition via MLG’s GameBattles, and Planetside 2 as part of events such as the upcoming Winter Championship in Dalas in March, the first event in MLG’s 2013 Pro Circuit.

The partnership should work well for the MMO, keeping the community healthy by attracting new players. Not many of us make the jump to pro gaming, but the existence of local Planetside 2 servers mean you have little excuse for not sharpening your skills. Should an Aussie tournament crop up, I expect to see some of you on the front lines for the Republic/Conglomerate/Sovereignty [delete as appropriate].

Source: Press release

Up until last night, it was possible in PlanetSide 2 to strap C4 on a Sunderer APC with a particular mod and then detonate it, causing every player in the nearby vicinity to instantly crash to desktop. Well! Fear no more, as this ‘hex crash’ — also known as the ‘Sunderer crash’ or the ‘C4 crash’ has now been patched.

“A fix for the variously described “hex crash”/”C4 crash”/”Sunderer crash” exploit will be going up tonight,” tweeted Creative Director Matt Higby. “As a side note, we have log evidence for players who were causing it and will be banning.”

Meanwhile, SOE have outlined their vision for 2013, including UI changes, XP system changes, new spawn buildings, tunnel systems and more.

Source: PCGamesN, Station

Looking to buy Station Cash for your PlanetSide 2 adventures? Wait until Friday (or Friday in the US, at least) because for a whole 24 hours, you’ll get triple Station Cash for your dollar.

“Yes it’s true. Triple Station Cash next Friday,” wrote the Smedster on Twitter. “We hid that real well didn’t we.”

“Our master plan is to take your money the day before the world ends. That’s how we roll,” he added.

Source: Sony Station Forums via PCGamesN

SOE’s President John Smedley isn’t just famous for his ability to headbutt through three feet of concrete, but also for his zero-tolerance stance on hackers.

His Twitter account reads like a hate-letter to people who would hack in his beloved PlanetSide 2, with comments like this one: “Haruhi at artificialaiming.com was just banned. All 3 of his accounts. Goodbye you scumbag. Find a new hobby or get good at the game.”

Asked if they could cross-reference hacker names with people in the forum, Smedley replied “we don’t need to cross reference anything. Use it.. we’ll find you. we’ll find your family. we’ll hunt you down.” A few hours later, he added: “Just to a make sure people know I was joking – we aren’t hunting down hacker’s families. Someone thought I was being too aggressive.”

“I happen to personally think people that cheat in an online game where it impacts others are scumbags,” he finished. “Your opinion may vary.”

Source: Eurogamer

PlanetSide 2 isn’t just some quick cash grab for Sony, according to SOE’s John Smedley. Posting on his… well, his LiveJournal, Smedley outlined his vision for the title and his plans to keep improving it enough to support it into 2025.

“We are planning on releasing continents that are empty or partially empty where players can build their own bases. These are open world bases so other players can attack them,” he said. “We’re also planning on having these continents heavily resource based with new resource types that will be very rare… and lots of cool new stuff that can be built out of these new resources.”

Smedley also went into detail on other ideas the team is tossing around, including harvestable resources “with physical vehicles doing the mining”, “SC2 style”, seamless water between continents, more weapons, more unlocks, NPC armies, NPC alien factions (“This isn’t a bunch of quest givers saying ‘go kill 10 rats’ – this is bad ass aliens that want to gut you”), eSports support, and a Mac version.

“One of our biggest long term goals is to add weather to the planet that materially impacts gameplay,” he also claimed. “Imagine a sandstorm that grounds aircraft or blinds infantry or sweeps over the desert plain making visibility really bad.”

Source: Smed’s Blog via Blue’s News

Sony have taken to the PlanetSide 2 forums to remind you that client-side mods for their just-released MMOFPS are strictly verboten — no exceptions.

“It is vital that you not run software which modifies the Planetside 2 client in any way,” writes developer Twist.

“If you do this, you are indistinguishable from various hacks that work in the same manner. The result of this is that you will be banned from gameplay and lose your characters/items. We cannot make exceptions to this. We do understand there are relatively harmless apps that fall in this category, but if we allowed those they would simply be used as a shield excuse by players trying to cheat. This same rule applies to data that Planetside 2 uses for gameplay. Do not modify any of these files or attempt to modify them in memory.”

“There are some applications that modify the windows or directx environment without changing the client. These may also result in suspensions unless we specifically exempt them and declare them ok to use. The most simple guidance here is do not use third party programs which change the PlanetSide 2 gameplay in any way unless it has been specifically cleared by SOE. The above does not apply to user initiated *.INI changes, those are allowed, although setting your own options incorrectly can result in bugs.”

If you’re not sure about jumping into PlanetSide 2 (it’s free, if that changes your mind), why not check out our massive review?

SOE have taken to the official PlanetSide 2 forums to explain the recent troubles plaguing the AU server, and in turn revealing some of the challenges that they face working in the Australian environment.

“Let me re-state that every region that PlanetSide 2 runs in is configured, designed, and built the same from a hardware and infrastructure perspective,” writes Veratu. “There is no one region that has a ‘better’ setup than another. The only thing that differentiates them is physical locations in the world.”

“That being said, this deployment into Australia was definitely a unique experience. You guys have some very unusual laws and limitations that we simply don’t see anywhere else in the world. (ISPs cap your bandwidth and download amounts? That’s crazy! I personally will be investigating ways to make that better, if it’s possible, with regard to our games.)”

Veratu also explains in details what the bugs were that were causing the game to be unresponsive, including an unfortunate situation where the two different bugs presented the same symptom. But now, “Briggs is officially performing at SOE standards, and that any Australia related issues on that world are isolated individual cases. If you are still having problems on Briggs, please submit a ticket for assistance, and CS will work to help get you in the game. Assuming we don’t have any ninja-changes while we are all sleeping tonight, I’m looking forward to seeing what your prime time produces tomorrow for populations.”

Source: Kotaku AU

Save yourself over 6GB of quota by downloading the PlanetSide 2 full client directly from our file library! Naturally this is only quota-free for iiNet Group customers, but other Australians can of course always enjoy our high-speed, stable downloads which are clinically proven* to cure hair loss.

If you’re still not sure of PlanetSide 2, know this: 1) It’s free to play. 2) It’s got an Australian server. Right here, in Australia. 3) We called it “a dangerously addictive MMOFPS that won’t break the bank”. And we never lie.**

* Not really.
** Except about the hair loss.