First things first, watch this:
MAG 256
As the eagle eyed will know, yesterday SCEE held an event for the press in which we showed off the newest trick up our sleeve: MAG.
The event was centered around the unique selling points of MAG: 256, Leadership and Persistence; aiming at showing the press just how epic MAG games can be!
Eager to see how we were presenting our shiny new title, I took a few community members along to the event with two aims in mind:
1. Check out MAG, take some pics and do a write up for you lot
2. KICK JOURNO BUTT
This thread details how I was successful at both XD
256
So! It was 12:00PM and we were stood outside P3 at Westminster University, eagerly anticipating what we had been told was a nothing short of epic setup. I was certainly intrigued, having been promised the sight of 128 players, consoles and TV's all in one room, to see how it was going to be implemented.
I was not, by a long shot, dissapointed. Check it out:
The "256 Structure", as it was so creatively called 
, was visible as soon as you entered the hall from the elevated entrance and was, frankly, flippin' epic. Laid into each side of the 256 were Bravia TV's ranging from 28" to 40" and each equipped with PS3, controller and headset. However, the keen of sight amongst you will have already spotted.... NO SEATS 
We'll come to that later 
Around the arena were huge projection screens, each with their own purpose. One at the far end of the hall did nothing but patriotically blurt out the MAG logo across the entire wall...
Honestly, it stayed like that the whole day. Another screen was used as a global free-roaming camera, showing off the battlefield as a live stream during the games and controlled by the legend that is Shijima!
By far the most amusing screen was the twitter feed. Here, anyone using twitter who slapped #MAG256 into their tweet would have it splayed across the walls in epic fashion. Me and Mike Kebby demonstrated using a conversation about smelly gamers:
But enough with aesthetics!!
Briefing
First things first - the game needed to be explained to the press. Not just anyone is up for a job like this - press are typically rowdy and impatient, however with this guy at the helm - no one dared step put of line:
Seriously. Arms, like, tree-trunks.
This guy was 'the voice of MAG'. His job was to announce the starts/ends of games, give instruction and shout alot. Not one person, not a single one disobeyed him. He was the PR equivelant of Mr. T.
After VOMAG (see what I did there?) had spoken, the devs trooped in and told us all what we already knew from the beta and the devs came in to give us all some hints for kicking butt which, essentially, consisted of 'talk lots and throw smoke EVERYWHERE.
Briefing complete, VOMAG told us to get our buttocks to our designated screens. And so we diid. Quickly....
Suppression
We kicked off with suppression, MAG's introductory mode. Unfortunately, despite all of us knowing anyway, I cant say anything about the gameplay due to embargo. What I can say is - journalists are rubbish. Myself and the community guys who came all hit the top of the leaderboard. We finished the match wringing our hands and agreeing that: Today is a good day for killing
A Quick Break!
Suppression out of the way, we were fed juice and sweeties. Lots of sweeties. I took the time to check out the twitter feed and hooked up with Yaster to talk more with forumers Rancidpunk, Bearskopff, Nuclearfish, thenoobkiller, bloozbros, funkshui, cubehouse, Eweor, Richard4481, BARRY_J, wotta and crystal_baby who were all insanely lovely. After a bit of banter, we got up on the stage and smiled for the camera... we even got shijima in there!
Win.
Sabotage:
Ah, the good stuff!
VOMAG ordered us back to our screens. We obeyed, and prepared for Sabotage. Here, 32 of us duked it out against 32 others, with 2 games running simultaneously. I took up the position of squad leader and without a doubt kicked buttock.
It was at this point I realised the value of the 256 setup. I stopped during this game and took a look around. The whole place looked tense and sounded like the most deadly of battlefields. The noise from the TVs melded together along with the feed from the in game camera screaming from the sub woofer. This was not a place for the feint of heart.
Game over, we headed back to the briefing room at VOMAG's command. And encountered a problem.
Throughout the event, prizes were being given away for accomplishing certain feats in certain games. The prize for most kills in sabotage was a PSP 3000 and, whilst the person who won it was ecstatic, elated, insanely proud and called it a "personal victory" - he didn't end up claiming the prize. He was a SCEE employee. He was your very own MusterBuster
OPC 1 - 0 Journalists.
Lunch
Food!
Everyone knows the staple diet of all soldiers is mashed potatoe and pie, but no one expected it to come with a garnish of coriander! Unfortunately, my camera died at this point so I couldn't grab a pic (call out to attendees! we need pie shaped pictures.).
Post pie, we grabbed a beer and rested our legs on the only chairs in the place.
To be continued...
I've not had time to finish writing 
However, I'll have more photos to add next week along with some info about the game itself - so stay tuned in on this thread!!
MB
I just want to thank SCEE for a EPIC! day, Ill leave it to MB to do the write up of the event but here was my experience of the day.
I was a bit nervous about going as it would have been my first time in london but I got a train from Newcastle, had a coffee( It was really early, I needed it) on the train and some snacks.
So I sat there with my legs getting more and more painful from the cramped seats, Now this was a 3 hour journey so I came prepped with my iPhone and some videos and music on it to keep me entertained, I listened to some music on the way there and it was at this point we pulled into York train station, I couldnt hear anything but the music and lots of people started getting off the train, I didnt think anything off it.
I took my headphones off as the staff were removing the train ramps, then over the speaker the man says this is the 9.45 train from york to edinbrough, I at this point panicked and jumped up quickly and flew off the train, I then asked the staff why the train was going back the other way and she told me that I had to get on the train on the other side of the platform and it turned out that while I was listening to my music the speaker came on and told everyone that there was overhead cable damage in york so everyone had to change trains.
It was a close call and I eventually laughed about it despite the panick when I thought I had got on the wrong train. So I got on the right train and chose not to put my headphones back in for obvious reasons and we set off to other stations where we eventually made it to London's King Cross station.
I headed out the station and got a phone call from Richard4481 asking where I was, it was at this pooint I noticed the back of his head. At King's Cross I met Richard4481, TheNoobKiller, Rancidpunk, Funkshui, Barry_J and Bloozbro and we all set off on the tube to the location, when we got there we saw a big que and got ready to head inside, while in the que I met wotta, bearskopff and Nuclearfish.
The day was full of great games and none of the journalists could match how the forumers played, I evetually met Yaster, MB and Shijima who were all very nice., The Food and Drinks provided was in my opinion excellent, hot food, deserts, sweets, and a lot of refreshments throughout the day meant we were all happy as larry by the end of the event.
Meeting the forumers was great and if ever presented with an oppurtunity like this then I would accept it without being nervous about making the journey again.
Thanks SCEE for an awesome day! Even though at the end of it my opinion of MAG hadn't changed much, it was great to meet everyone who was there.
I also managed to TK MB on the last game right at the start.
ytevo79 wrote:Come on then who's who? Put a face to your name or a name to your face lol.
I know the one on the right in the white shirt is Bearskopff but what about the rest of you. I also take it thats Crystal on the left
I'm the one hiding behind Bear. 
