If you want to know why Planetside 2 is one of our games of 2012 , look no further than the half hour of footage that SOE have been showing off at GDC. It's still in alpha, so there's some pop-in and a few glitches, but that ambitious sense of scale is there. Planetside 2's battlegrounds will support hundreds and hundreds of players on land and in the air.

The video demo shows plenty of both worlds. Infantry battles are fast and frantic, with strong overtones of Battlefield. As soldiers jetpack about the base, barrel-rolling planes swoop about overhead, nailing them with fierce rocket volleys. Halfway through the videos, day is turned to night and the battlefield is lit by the glittering lasers and rocketfire of the warring factions. Spectacular stuff. Read on for the demo in full, and 14 new screenshots, which can be clicked upon to be enlarged and admired.