/ps2g/: What is?

---What is Planetside 2?---
Planetside 2 is a free-to-play MMO FPS. It's about a futuristic three-sided war on the planet of Auraxis. The gameplay itself is quite similar to the newer Battlefield games, but the scale of the battles is much larger, and the outcome of battles has more impact on a continental scale.

---How do I play?---
http://pastebin.com/CWn3VQJD      >New Player Walkthrough

---Is this game pay-to-win?---
A more accurate term is "pay to not grind". It uses a dual currency system, with "Certification Points" (colloquially known as Certs) that you earn in combat, and "Station Cash" (Smedbucks) that you can buy. Every non-cosmetic item can be earned with certs, but obviously buying them with Station Cash is going to be faster.

Anything officially considered a straight upgrade, like weapon attachments, armor for your tank, or explosives for your Engineer are only purchasable with certs, while anything officially considered a side-grade, generally different guns for infantry and vehicles, are purchasable with both Smedbucks and certs.

---Which faction should I play?---
There are three factions in Planetside 2: The Terran Republic (TR), the New Conglomerate (NC), and the Vanu Sovereignty (VS). Each has its own unique lore, equipment, aesthetics, and personality. Due to the frequent balancing changes, the balance of power is constantly shifting. Choose the faction YOU like, not what /vg/ happens to hate least today.

---Why does this game run like shit?---
It's very CPU-intensive, and extremely picky about what kind of hardware you have. See the tweaks pastebin for what you can do to improve performance.

---Official Links---
http://www.planetside2.com             >Website
http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2     >Forums
http://wiki.planetside-universe.com    >Wiki (has a bunch of PS1 stuff, too)
http://planetside.wikia.com/           >Official wiki (This one is run by Daybreak)
https://twitter.com/planetside2        >Twitter
https://www.facebook.com/PlanetSide2   >Facebook
http://www.twitch.tv/planetside2       >Twitch
http://www.youtube.com/Planetside2     >Youtube

---Notable Developers---
http://www.ps2tracker.net/             >PS2 dev tracker: an automated compilation of dev posts from Forumside and reddit
https://twitter.com/j_smedley          >John Smedley, Company CEO, Prince of Lies
https://twitter.com/andysites          >Andy Sites, Director of Development
https://twitter.com/PS2BillYeatts      >Bill Yeatts, Art Director
https://twitter.com/RadarX             >RadarX, Community Manager

Last updated: Feb. 25, 2015 (without permission of the original author, because fuck 'im)