Like Tribes: Ascend and Blacklight: Retribution before it, Planetside 2 pushes the boundaries for free-to-play shooter visuals. Gigantic environments burst with color, high-res character models use jumpjets to leap into the air, and tank rounds burst into humongous balls of flame as they smash into other vehicles.

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And that's just what it looks like during the day.Planetside 2's online world is entirely persistent. Wars waged at 2AM affect the landscape for those who log in the next day, and losing a base means that your faction also loses valuable resources. You see, thousands of players gather into a Planetside 2 server, fighting for their faction's chance at taking another chunk of the continent. Each chunk gives your faction additional resources, and these resources allow your faction to build vehicles and other important strategic assets for future conflicts. Even if you own a valuable piece of land the fight is far from over, as the resources are partially siphoned off by any players who own adjacent territories -- something Sony Online Entertainment hopes will fuel players to conflict on the front lines.The persistent world also means that victory in Planetside 2 is different than other shooters. There's no "Victory" screen at the end of a firefight, and you'll never see the credits roll. Instead, Planetside 2's sense of reward comes from the camaraderie you develop with your faction, in the stories you live to tell about an epic skirmish or the time you and a few friends managed to hold the line. You might ultimately lose an outpost two days after a valiant defense in a surprise attack, but you still have the experience and memories you crafted with your friends and fellow faction fighters.Combat in Planetside 2 feels a lot like EA's Battlefield franchise. You pick your class from familiar archetypes like engineer, riflemen or sniper, then, depending on the territory you're fighting over, play capture the flag, capture point, or other typical shooter modes. Planetside 2 doesn't do all that much to innovate in terms of modes, but it nails the gameplay. Shooting feels good; the weapons have heft. The levels are also vast, ensuring that no team can simply dominate the entire map. Just like a real battlefield, fights in Planetside 2 are composed of a number of small skirmishes taking place over great swaths of land, rather than just one clustered up field of war.How you fight also changes depending on the time of day. While SoE still hasn't finalized exactly how quickly the real-time day / night cycle occurs, they want players to coordinate online with their faction to play precision strikes that take advantage of the lighting. For instance, imagine a situation where players gather on boards and plot out a night assault on a neighboring territory. Prior to this they spend experience (called Credentials) to purchases flashlights and night vision scopes for the weapons. Then they assault in force: using their combined resources they roll in with tanks, gigantic drop ships and troops who are ready to take on enemies in a low-light environment. Their foes might not have planned appropriately, and the glaringly bright flash of their muzzles in the late hours will give their positions away. Having seen the day / night cycle in person, I can tell you that Planetside 2's lighting effects are downright awesome.Releasing alongside Planetside 2, the mobile app aims to keep you connected to the world at all times. For now it's for some Android devices and iPad only, but it allows you to see how the fight for the continent is going in real-time, as well as use their integrated voice chat system to talk with your friends who are playing the game. You can also review your stats and use the apps database to review stats on the vast number of upgradeable items and weapons.Planetside 2 doesn't have a firm release date, but it will enter beta later this year. We'll be diving headlong into battle soon, though, so stay tuned to IGN for more Planetside 2 information.