PlanetSide 2 Update Adds Long-Awaited Swamp Continent

It's sometimes easy to forget about poor ol' PlanetSide 2 with all these Battleline Hardmen and Advanced Warfaces duking it out for our attention. And while the MMOFPS has still, even after nearly two years of being available in various forms, arguably not lived up to its full potential, there's nothing else quite like it. That's why we go there to ruthlessly bop PC Gamer's legions on the nose so much. Come to think of it, maybe another eat/sleep/play/war-date is in order, seeing as SOE just launched a big update that includes an entire new continent, Hossin. You want swamps? Well, Yoda, you got 'em.

Now, you might want to temper your excitement a tiny bit, as this update is technically not quite done. Yes, it's live and playable, but it's not up to SOE's complete quality standards yet. This, then, is apparently an "Early Expedition" done in the hopes of polishing up this planet until it gleams like a mud-spattered marble.

SOE's Matt Higby explained:

"Right now about 50% of the bases on Hossin are 'done' to the point that we're completely satisfied with the quality of the level design and visuals, about 25% of the bases are first pass - you'll be able to recognize these bases by their naming scheme, and another 25% are bases which are more or less staging areas, or stamped bases, identical to each other - this is an outpost we know works well, so we've put them in as placeholders. We expect these bases to function correctly, provide all the necessary utilities to make the game work - they're just not 100% up to our standards of level design quality quite yet - essentially they feel more like the bases on Indar than the bases on Amerish."

"There isn't any other way to say it except to say that Hossin is not finished. If we wanted to 'finish' Hossin without sacrificing the quality level we've established, it would probably be 3 months before it was ready to go live - we don't want to wait that long, and we don't think you want to either."

The new update also includes the first phase of what is known as "continent locking" - that is, the ability for an empire to capture an entire continent and lock it down from all use. This provides the side in charge with various bonuses. There's also a fair amount of new outfit (read: guild) functionality, with recruitment getting beefed up outfit-wide decals available on everything from armor to base captures.

So those are some things. If you'd like to try them out but find yourself at a total lack for Warpals (TM), I'm sure Rock Planet Shotgun would be happy to have you. Their mascot is a purple giraffe, you know. If that won't convince you to risk life and limb for the sake of a fickle warmongering empire, I don't know what will.