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PlanetSide really lacking?
by Jolex Del Pilar

Tuesday, July 22 2003

Someone disagrees with our opinion? Surely not.

I suggest you check the Planetside forums, where there are more than 100 000 messages expressing dissatisfaction with the game.

That's right, 100 000, and the forum administrators frequently remove tens of thousands of old messages.

Server populations are down by at least half, and many people are canceling every day.

The reason is, it takes a couple of months of play before people realize how little PS has to offer in terms of game play and replayability. During those two months, people are happy leveling up and trying new things. Afterwards, it is boring beyond belief.

This coupled with the fact that the game is buggy with frequent crashes and in game bugs, is turning off a lot of players.

You should be aware of this and adjust your review.

--- Anonymous

Hello, I've received many e-mails about my review (nearly 300 to be exact), I guess being on the first page of the planetside.com website helped to facilitate this.

First off, I reviewed Planetside on the concept of what was being represented, a dynamic online world full and raging with battles. Many of you have e-mailed me comments saying that Planetside is lacking in many areas such as variations in gameplay and believe the score given to it was unwarrented. Granted there is truth to the statement that "variation is missing", and is noted in my review. However I think one of the things we're forgetting is that PlanetSide, for all it's flaws has managed to bring together quite a large community of fans who are interested in conducting mock wars, online. That my friends is a great and wonderful thing. Name any other game that does this on such a massive scale? Tribes? UT? Counter-Strike? The fact remains that PlanetSide is the first and only game right now to do this type of gameplay on such a large scale and succeed. If you want to see how this type of concept can fail miserably, you should have seen World War II Online at E3 2002. That my friends is the way you don't do these type of games.

I fully admit that sometimes the server "crawl" is undeniably negative to the enjoyment of this game, and that there needs to be more variation overall, but Planetside has been out for less than 2 months. EverQuest has been out for a couple of years and is still evolving. Give the developers some time and patience.

In the end I stand by my score, and hope you guys will give the developers a chance to improve and advanced the gameplay of this title before you throw your memberships away. Thank you for listening and happy gaming to you all.

--- Jolex Del Pilar
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FIM Speedway Grand Prix: Another dissenting opinion?

Hi Jolex.

Just read your online review of the game. It's clear that you were not impressed by it, but I just wanted to point out a few things, if I may. I've been watching speedway for more than 30 years.

Speedway is, as you say, not that popular in the USA, despite the country producing several very worthy world champions during the last 20 years or so. But in Europe it is hugely popular. In fact, in terms of attendance figures, it is second only to football (soccer) as a spectator sport. In Eastern European countries such as Poland ( where this PC game was created ), Hungary, and the Czech Republic, speedway regularly attracts crowds in excess of 100,000 people. It is also very popular in Russia and in Scandinavia......as well as here in the UK, where it is a team sport with some 36 teams spread all over the country, all competing in a national league system.

The bikes have 500cc engines, fixed gears ( not changeable during a race ) and NO brakes. Therefore, you were wrong to suggest that in the game you must BRAKE before each bend. There are two ways to stop......either you close the throttle, pull in the clutch, and roll to a halt....or you hit something ! The top speed on the straight is around 85mph, and the riders have to throw the bike into a slide just to get it around the bend without leaving the track. It's a very dangerous, high energy sport.....and very exciting to watch.

The game will sell very well in countries where speedway is popular. I have the demo at the moment, but a friend who lives in NYC is mailing me the full game, because it's not yet available in the UK.

Cheers
Nigel Nattras
Nottingham UK

Hello Nigel

I realize a lot of what you're saying is probably true. Having never attended an FIM Speedway event, I have little background to judge the sport at all. However, I wasn't asked to judge the sport but the game which attempted to represent the sport, namely FIM Speedway Grand Prix.

Perhaps as a sport, FIM Speedway Racing is top notch. However the game itself was lacking. What you described above certainly sounds exciting and fun to watch. Too bad none of that is represented in the game. The sense of speed is underwhelming, the game utilizes very little strategy, and although the graphics are nice, they certainly are nothing near the top crop of games out today.

The game is missing a lot of what (apparently) makes the sport exciting and fun to watch. Perhaps another company will make a much more solid attempt to popularize this sport more to the youth that lives on this side of the Atlantic.

--- Jolex