SOE have detailed Game Update 11 for PlanetSide 2. It's due to arrive today out now, and brings what creative director Matthew Higby describes as "a pure 'Quality of Life' patch." That means no fancy new buggies, empire-specific rocket launchers or latticed maps. Instead, you're getting a huge changelist of tweaks and enhancements to make your experience in-game that much more pleasant. At least until you're shot or something.

"A few weeks ago we asked you guys for what you wanted to see updated and got an absolutely massive list of requests ranging from minor nitpicks all the way up to fundamental game changing suggestions," Higby says, "and those requests have guided how we've approached and prioritized the changes for this update." While it may not cover the full community list, there's a broad spectrum of changes that should address many player issues. Unless you were a big fan of the nerfed Lasher, I suppose.

The full patch notes are available here . See select changes below:


Light Assault Drifter Jumpjets have been enhanced to provide a speed boosts while using them on flat ground, these should now provide a new alternative gameplay role for Light Assault.
Continent domination thresholds have been adjusted to make achieving OR breaking continent domination a viable goal during primetime. Continents will change ownership when an empire owns 75% of the territory, and their ownership will break when they're reduced to below 15%.
Resource cost for some vehicles and MAXes has been increased
We hope this change makes strategic control of resources more important for empires, and we're also looking at the results of this tuning to help us define the boundaries for the upcoming resource system revamp.
We will be monitoring resource usage and earn rates carefully in the days following the update and rebalancing as necessary if we find any significant issues with resource starvation due to this rebalancing.

Instant Action has had it's values retuned to bring players to fights that need more players from their empire.
New movement code has been introduced which will make remote player movement much smoother, reducing player warping and removing a lot of the ability to quickly change direction and glitch out the movement interpolation and avoid damage.
ZOE Module has been buffed to have less distortion particles in 1st person =)
ZOE Module has been nerfed to further reduce armor (-25% -> -30%) when the ability is active =(
Weapon tuning:
Retuned the Empire Specific Heavy weapons: Jackhammer, MCG and Lasher. These should all be significantly more competitive with other HA weapon options, while still situational.
Retuned the Empire Specific vehicle mounted AV weapons (ML85 Enforcer, G30 Vulcan & Saron HRB) to reduce infantry damage and somewhat equalize effective ranges.
MAX Burster weapons have been retuned to be less effective at extreme ranges, they maintain the same effectiveness within ~250-300m.
Skyguard turrets have been buffed to provide enhanced effectiveness at all ranges, especially beyond 300m.
These two changes should make life better for ESF pilots/Liberator crews which previously were getting picked off at extreme ranges when not actively engaging infantry while still allowing MAXes to provide cover for squads against strafing ESFs and low flying libs threatening ground troops.

Changed shotgun damage model to reward more skillful usage and bring these in line with other close range options such as SMGs and Carbines - these should remain potent in close quarters, but not be the only viable option.

Tank and Fighter Superiority bonuses have been added, these give an additional 100xp bonus to MBTs destroyed by other MBTs, or ESFs destroyed by ESFs.
Vehicle appearance slots have been increased, allowing you to equip more vehicle cosmetics simultaneously.
UI Enhancements:
Loadout screen has been updated to allow for unlocking of certifications in all slots straight from the loadout screen.
Loadout screen has been updated to allow quick switching between weapons from the landing page
Loadout screen now saves attachments per-weapon, so quick swapping between weapons maintains that weapons attachments per loadout.
Squad browser displays a lot more information about outfit, squad leader, active continent and more.
Squad manager now displays player battle ranks, locations, outfit, vehicle information and allows for dragging and dropping of players from the squad to create platoons.
The commo rose menu (hold Q on target) has been updated to respect inverted mouse and track better on fast moving targets.



Thanks, PCGamesN.

The press conferences that precede E3 set the tone for the event, they determine the conversations and questions that follow. With no single unifying organisation to set up such an event, it's one of those rare occasions when the open nature of the PC can prove a detriment. The consoles have had their say, now we can't help but wonder what a similar a show for the PC would look like. Who would take the stage? What would they show? What song-and-dance numbers would we get?

Take your seat, make yourself comfortable and put those Doritos away as we welcome you to this year's purely hypothetical show, the E3 2013 conference that PC gamers deserve.

Introducing - our host! A lone spotlight picks out a trundling figure on a wide, dark stage. It grinds noisily to a halt to rapturous applause and spreads its tiny plastic arms wide. "GREETINGS. I am Medianbot," it drones, bionic monotone dripping with the collective charisma of a platoon of Microsoft presenters. "I have been selected by a vast conglomerate of PC developers as a completely impartial neutral representative for this event. My collective masters to remind you that not one of them owns the platform. We are multitude. We make things we think you might like, and we'd like to show some of those to you this evening. Enjoy."

The auditorium goes dark. A Roman appears on a huge main screen, charging up a beach as flaming rocks soar overhead. XBox One conference attendees sigh, for a moment they think it's the new Roman hack-'em-up, Ryse.

It isn't. The camera's pulling out. There are dozens of Romans. Hundreds. Thousands charging battlements under a a storm of arrows. A mouse cursor appears and it's controlling every last one of them. It's Rome 2. The Creative Assembly are on stage. They talk about diplomacy, subterfuge, politics and war on a huge scale. They talk about players crafting their own stories on the stage of history. They explain that there's no grunting and quick time events. This is a game for grown-ups.



It's Blizzard's turn. Dustin Browder takes to the stage and introduces a trailer for Legacy for the Void, but when the lights come back up, two booths have appeared on stage. In one, Flash, in the other, Life - veteran StarCraft and StarCraft 2 esports players. Browder explains talks about the PC not just as a platform for space adventure, but as a field for sport. He introduces top shoutcasters Tasteless and Artosis as our commentators, and the contestants go to war. There's no awkward, staged banter, only two athletes, laser focused on their screens.

In the coming ten minutes both players demonstrate the agility and quick-thinking that makes them masters of their game. The retiring "GG" is met by a resounding cheer.

A tough act to follow? Perhaps not, when you have a huge open world RPG to show off. CD Projekt RED take the mic. They talk about Geralt's final adventure, they show us the cities and forests we'll be able to explore in The Witcher 3. We've had competition, we've had huge strategy, now we're getting a huge explorable RPG. The showing of their debut trailer sends a ripple of excitement through the crowd.



But CD Projekt RED change tack. New zones, monsters and characters start appearing on the conference screens. They're not officially part of The Witcher 2, or The Witcher 3, it's a modding showcase. It's not about picking out individual examples, it's a catalogue of creations only possible on PC - whole new free campaigns, weapons and options, and the power to reshape entire worlds. Another video plays. Geralt walks into the swampy town of Flotsam - familiar to players of The Witcher 2 - only instead the tyranny of a malicious local thug, the Witcher finds that the town is under attack from a twenty foot tall fire-breathing horse. Modding at its finest.

Medianbot rolls back onstage to thunderous applause. "Greetings and thank you revellers. The soundwaves generated by your slapping meat-paws sustains me. I hope you enjoyed the pictures of the angry man with two swords doing things, but not less or much more than any prior or following presentation, for this is about mathematically identical representation for all aspects of the platform. Farewell."

ANGRY MACHINE NOISE. STROBE LIGHTING. It's DICE. It's Battlefield 4. It's running on PC live. It's big. It's loud. It's full of guns. Now, a while tundra - the THUMP of an AT-AT's boot crunching into the snow. It's Star Wars: Battlefront. Then it's Respawn's mech-blasty game, Titanfall. It's loud and angry, polished and beautiful, because the PC can do all of that too, but faster, and prettier.



Another changeover. A video. A montage, devoted to the low-budget, innovative games that wouldn't normally get their time in the limelight. We see interactive fiction games, Dwarf Fortress, Princess Maker, Kentucky Route Zero, Receiver. As if in a frenzied music video, bouncing between everything from Transistor to Minecraft to Project Zomboid to Frozen Synapse in quick but stunningly done style and backed by anything except bloody dubstep. Anything but that.

The lights come up again, and the stage is full of figures playing games on big screens. It looks like the indie showcase that the PS4 put on, but it's vast. Dozens and dozens of developers are playing their games on tiers and tiers of screens. Look - three tiers up on the left - Koakim "Konjak" Sandberg is playing the latest build of Iconoclasts. Hey, down there on the right - Introversion are quelling a riot in Prison Architect. Over there, Mitu Khandaker is climbing a starship's social ladder in Redshirt. Here, in the front row, the Fullbright developers are showing Gone Home. The message here is simple. Yes, you can play some fun games on console. On PC though, you get a whole world of gaming that no one company controls. And it's brimming with honest-to-god new ideas.

But it's not just about the games. The Oculus Rift developers take to the stage arm and arm with the Omni Treadmill creators. They talk about how hardware is advancing all the time, how static systems will inevitably fade in the face of new hardware from the big PC manufacturers. They mention that the consoles are still talking in familiar terms, about streaming via Twitch, about a camera that watches and listens to you, as though such concepts haven't existed on the PC for years already. The PC is a tool, they say, not a living room lifestyle choice. It does what you tell it, and it can show you the future.

Then up on stage, we get the Oculus Rift team to show off their latest prototype, along with the Omni Treadmill and the Epoc mind-reading headset. In front of a gasping audience, we see - live - someone step into Skyrim and kill a mud crab with his mind.



A cheerful Belarusian fellow walks out now. Who is he? It's hard to tell, but it's clear before he's even said anything that he loves tanks, because he's wearing a T-shirt that says "I <3 TANKS." Aha! it's Wargamng CEO Victor Kislyi, and he's here to talk about World of Tanks, kicking off a section about all the games you can play on the PC right now for no money. Quality games like League of Legends, Tribes Ascend, Team Fortress 2. Games that demonstrate that, while the initial cost of the PC may be expensive, a single buy opens up a world of free entertainment. Oh, and it does Netflix. AND you don't need to pay a monthly subscription to go online and try your free games out.

It's been a few hours. But who walks out now, at the end of it all? Is it Newell, talking about Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, how Valve think player-created content that adds value to their games should be rewarded monetarily? Is it CCP CEO Hilmar, talking about player run economies, betrayal and intrigue in Eve Online? Is it Bioware, talking about how they plan to tell stories on the PC we've never seen before? Is it SOE, talking about how they managed to get hundreds of players to fight a galactic war on a single battlefield in Planetside 2? Is it Arenanet, talking about dynamic MMO battlegrounds in Guild Wars 2? The question is posed to Medianbot. Its chrome head explodes.

It should be all of them. Perhaps PC gaming is just too big for one conference. Too varied, too niche, too wonderfully weird to play the same PR game as the platform holders.

Oh, what the hell. Let's go with Gabe.

Microsoft has demoed the Xbox One. Sony has shown off the Playstation 4. Then, in an equally big hall, the lights go down, Gabe Newell steps onto the stage. He says nothing. He just coughs. He points at the screen. A Half-Life 3 logo appears. The crowd goes wild. He walks off, still silent.

Then a minute later, he casually pokes his head back round the curtain. "Wait, did I forget to mention it's free and available on Steam right now?" he asks. "Sorry it took so long. Also, you can trade Steam games now. Don't mind that noise, it's just a pig taking off. Ah, one second. Someone needs to Heimlich Steve Ballmer's tongue out of his throat."

But before he can leave, a single voice cries from the audience. "Why, oh Gaben? Why?"

And the man pauses, the sound of choking from somewhere off stage echoing slightly. Slowly, he pulls on a pair of sunglasses. Half-turns. Smiles. Replies, quite simply, "Because we can."

For the latest from E3, check out our complete coverage and our pick of the best games of E3 2013 so far.

Xbox One. PS4. What effect will the poster children of E3 2013 have on the future of PC Gaming? Will new hardware architecture mean more high-profile PC ports or—dare we say it—PC-led titles that are ported for consoles afterwards? Are Microsoft's touted 15 exclusive launch titles going to be anything we'd even want in the first place? Will the pull of the indie scene be enough to turn gamers away from hardware manufacturers that shun them? We chew on this, and feed you our analysis like a mother bird to her chicks.

If that metaphor didn't scare you away forever, check back tomorrow when we read the portents of E3 2014 in the burned bones of a bull shark.

The latest major update to PlanetSide 2 has landed, bringing some sweeping changes to the balance and design of the game. The most significant overhaul for "GU09" is the trialling of a new map system, that replaces the previous Hex-based conquest path with a "Lattice Link" of criss-crossing attack avenues. So rather than expanding out in any direction, now your invasion is going to rely on somebody in your squad being able to read a map.

"In order to maintain the integrity of their control protocols, the Empires have fallen back on an older system – a hard line network that physically connects bases and territories known as the Lattice Link," the update page explains. "While the hard line approach has been able to negate the recent security issues with using wireless technology, the Empires now require a friendly adjacent link to the Lattice in order to take control of an enemy installation."

In practice, it reduces the number of regions connected to each other, creating a clearer battle flow that will funnel players more naturally towards set lanes - something not unlike the push and pull of a DoTA-like map. SOE hope the move will also give defenders more focus when preparing to deflect an assault.

Other changes include the addition of a short interactive tutorial, designed to better prepare new players. As for new toys, the Harasser of GU08 can now be equipped with Empire-specific weapons, and MAXs have been updated with extra abilities, again dependant on the player's faction.

Elsewhere, there's the now-standard plethora of tweaks and rebalances as SOE continue to tinker with the game. There are too many to list, so I'll instead point you to the GU09 patch notes.

Although I will highlight this significant update:


"Stopped a jump pad at the Allatum Bio Lab from launching you into a tree"


Game changer.

A series of tweets by SOE's president John Smedley have revealed an imminent promotion for PlanetSide 1, offering players of PlanetSide 2 - and former PS1 recruits - six months free membership to the original MMOFPS, ahead of an eventual plan to make it fully free-to-play. I'm guessing age will play a large part in whether you react to the sight of the 2003 shooter with a new-found respect for its many achievements, or recoil in horror at its graphics and creaky netcode. It was the best we had, damn it. Don't judge us.

"We did a mass grant of anyone who has ever played PS1 or PS2 with free time in PS1," Smedley announced, addressing some confusion over who was to be included in the promotion. "We weren't ready to announce it yet because the database grant is still ongoing and won't be done till morning. So please if you didn't get flagged chill. We are trying to do something cool for everyone and we were going to tell people when it's done. But people saw it and others broadcast the info.

"Please don't complain," he continued. "We aren't raising your taxes we are making a game free. This also gives us more time to make it F2P. So enjoy starting late morning."

No timeframe has been given for the full free-to-play switch, but the PS1 promotion should start soon.

Thanks, Massively.