Planetside 2, the massively multiplayer first-person shooter with persistent warfare between three competing factions, is shaping up to be a pleasantly hardcore experience, if a presentation by the team is anything to go by. FPSGuru.com spoke to Sony Online Entertainment's John Smedley and Matt Higby, who described Planetside 2's dynamic, gameplay-affecting warfare, multiple planets, skills that can be trained online or offline (not unlike EVE Online), as well as—and it warms the cockles of my gun's heart to hear it—friendly fire.
For everything that Planetside 2 is doing to make it a more engaging experience (faster respawns, for instance), it's sounding like they're keeping elements that will ensure that teamwork and properly strategic thinking will remain fundamental to a winning faction's playbook.
And if SoE bungles Planetside 2, there's always Firefall.
Planetside 2 at SyndCon [FPSGuru.com]