Well like I said in another post I never gave this game a single look back when it first came out, was too busy playing SWG at the time. I have seen many posts here lately seeing some peeps have been returning to the game and having a good time, however I have a few questions I hope someone could shed some light on for me to help me make the final decision to try it out or not.

I have never played many fps games, just never really got into them and then after what they did to SWG and that fps style of play I cant stand at all. Is this fps (UI) and all like what swg is running now?

How hard is it to pick up on the fps style of play in this game? Basically will I be able to start enjoying it right away or will it take me a while to get things organized to my liking, which also brings up another question, is the UI customizable? Can I re-map any keys?

I live on east coast but my game time is very late at night.. usually 10pm to 3am EST, would I be better off joining the west coast server?

Any answers would be much appreciated and Thanks in advance.

The fps style is actually fps not that swg thing at all. You can step in and start killing straight away but in reality you need to practice, its not an easy game as a lot of the poeple playing have played for a while, theres no advantage gear wise (As there isn't really any in that sense) just that they will be more situationally aware and know the sounds and the circumstances. But its bloody fun and I've been playing on and off since beta.

The keys are all mappable, but the UI has little customisation but what there is of it can be moved resized etc, its not like an rpg the UI is largely just ergonomic.

As for which server I play on the euro server, but out of the other 2 definatly go emerald (east coast I think) as it has a higher population by far.

You will keep learning this game just learn to take breaks, when you're throwing the keyboard out of the window and smashing the mouse up, its time to put the kettle on and make a nice hot drink NOT COFFEE!!!

I was curious and in a moment of impulse spending, ordered the game from Direct2Drive. Honestly though, I'm not even sure what to say about my initial impression. I should probably see if there's a PDF manual or anything that came with it, otherwise basically I'm just looking on the map for flashing areas (I'm guessing that's where the combat is?) and teleporting there. Once there, it's typical FPS fare - a few guys shooting at each other (and me) with way better guns than I have so I've spent more "battle time" dead staring at the respawn screen than anything else.

I'll finish the month out, but with such low population and old-timey (actually PS almost reminds me of that C&C FPS that failed miserably a few years back, forget the name of it) gameplay, I'll likely cancel and just stick to BF2142 for my futuristic FPS needs.

Originally posted by DeadeX
I also have a question, do you deal more dmg by shooting someone in the head?
or is it the same all over the body?

Same all over the body.

Huxley will have headshots I believe, but PS does not.

Originally posted by Talyn

I was curious and in a moment of impulse spending, ordered the game from Direct2Drive. Honestly though, I'm not even sure what to say about my initial impression. I should probably see if there's a PDF manual or anything that came with it, otherwise basically I'm just looking on the map for flashing areas (I'm guessing that's where the combat is?) and teleporting there. Once there, it's typical FPS fare - a few guys shooting at each other (and me) with way better guns than I have so I've spent more "battle time" dead staring at the respawn screen than anything else.

I'll finish the month out, but with such low population and old-timey (actually PS almost reminds me of that C&C FPS that failed miserably a few years back, forget the name of it) gameplay, I'll likely cancel and just stick to BF2142 for my futuristic FPS needs.

A few things with it, Hit up Emerald Server if you are not on it, it has the best population for battles.  Hardest thing alot of people have when they start is knowing where to be and when.  When CR5's (some good ones) are hollaring on global locations, that is usally a place to start.  Another big thing is see where there are a few bases from 2 of the factions on a planet with of course the flashing conflict markers.. this all does help.  Some of the best battles are usally searhus, Cyssor, and Ish... Sorry haven't been playing the game recently so my spellings might be off. Another thing is look at the population chart, this will tell you how many of your guys are there, and how many of the other empires are nosing around.   If you want BFR, you have to hit up the caves, which sucks cause the caves are usally dead.. Best advice for Caves, grab AMS Cert, and CE Cert (don't need the special CE, just normal CE will do) go down to a place with somewhat of a population and start dropping mines and turrets.

Another good indicater of where to be is if on Global they are requesting Pop Lock on a planet.. means fill it up boys and girls we want to shut out the baddies!

As for the Head Shot Question:  No it doesn't matter where you hit a target, most weapons do damage based off of range..  (closer you are the more dam you can do)  So as long as it's not a stealther, you can't 1 shot a baddie with a sniper rifle, though there is a big debate if it's faster to reload a sniper rifle or have two rifles loaded and switch them out. 

Best advice starting out is specilize a little.  Because it will make you almost as geared up as anyone else in the game for that one specilization... Some easy things to do, Heavy Weapons person, Get a Rexo Suit cert, Your Heavy Assault Gun (Jackhammer, MiniChaingun, Lasher) and ATV, Scout Vehicles, or Harrasser cert, you get around fast and can squish any baddy toe to toe.  Another good one is the same loadout but run with Counter Spam, means grab the punisher and lob plasma gernades into building to help push the spammers back on the other side.  If you want to go air, then set up for air, there is no reason to take a rexo suit when starting off and you want to be an air jocky...  Though two options, if you want to stay in the air longer, it's good to have a glue gun (engineering cert) if you plan on hot dropping on bases in towers, then I would advice heavy assault gun.  Tanks are fun, but starting out can be annoying because it's hard to get people to get in the tank with you.  If you are playing with friends, then someone should cert up in the heavy tank.  Each character that I run in there is Specilized, All around all american Grunt.. Everything is geared up to get into infintry combat, and deal with vehicles (take anti vehicle too)  All out stealther, designed to get around fast and use massive hacking skills and Combat Engineer.  basically any version of a character can be played diffrently depending on who's running it.  Like stealthers arn't just stuck to hacking, or combat engineering, some are great for being a flanking assault, or better yet counter stealthing.  Run around in a stealthsuit, with dark light on and kill other stealthers!  Plus there is always Omni Max when you start out, you are mobile with max's and with 3 of them you should never have a horrid timer between dieing to suit up again.

Biggest thing with the game, Specilize when you start out so you get the best of the best for that line of work your doing.  Next learn the signs of where you should be.  This will make the game much more exciting if you can actually get into massive combat, or meduim sized combat.  I have to admit it's more of a zerg game anymore then the battles like the alamo from when it launched.

My personal thoughts on the game.  I love it, all around best FPS, I have a problem playing Halo, BF 2 and BF2142 because they seem slow and to small.  Yes I crave for that 100 vs 100 battles with massive vehicles, BFR's, and base infiltration...  It's the best! lol  You just have to know where to be!

I hope this all helps.

If you head to planetside.station.sony.com/howto/ you'll get a great bunch of options to help you out.  Also, you could visit forums.station.sony.com/ps/forums/show.m to get the official forum's FAQ.