The Planetside 2 Ultimate Empire Showdown drew to a close late Friday night, after several  hours of bloody battle. In a conflict that stretched from the lush forests of Amerish on servers worldwide, to a war for the hearts and minds of players on Facebook, there could only be one winner. With the Terran Republic claiming victory, it fell to Empire champion Total Biscuit to receive the winning trophy.

While war raged in the UES show floor, players in the US and Europe battled through a series of three challenges in order to win glory for their Empire. The evening started with Flight of the Galaxies, a mission to control as many facilities on Amerish as possible. The second challenge shifted focus to the Bastion, with those in control of the facility at the end of thirty minutes scoring a win. Territory Tyrant finished the set, with the Empire in possession of the majority of the map emerging victorious.

Although the overall scoreboard paints a different picture from the eventual winning Empire, those who took part can feel justly proud of what they achieved. As part of the VS team on Mallory that night, I can attest to how glorious it felt to empurple Amerish.

The future for Planetside 2 seems to be getting even bigger, with a partnership inked with MLG, and a roadmap of planned features and changes available for players to vote and comment on.  And if you missed all the action from the night, replays are up on the Planetside2 Twitch.tv page.

Gareth “Gazimoff” Harmer, Senior Contributing Editor

PlanetSide 2 has had competitive roots for some time now, and MLG has added them to their roster. Competing players will be able to qualify through MLG's own GameBattles online competition, and there will be PlanetSide 2 setups this March 15th, in the Dallas Winter Championship. In the next few weeks, MLG will release more information about upcoming broadcasts and more. 

If you play PlanetSide 2, now might be a good time to prep your game.

Julian "Mirai" Williams

Sony Online Entertainment aren't stopping to take pictures and mere months after launch are holding a massive PlanetSide 2 event. The Ultimate Empire Showdown is set to kick-off today at 4PM PST over on TwitchTV featuring fearless leaders and gaming superstars Total Biscuit, Seananners and Level Cap. 

The YouTube sensations will each be taking the helm of their favoured Empire. Total Biscuit the iron fist of the Terran Republic, Seananners the New Conglomerate freedom fighter and Level Cap of the technologically superior Vanu Sovereignty. If that isn't reason enough to tune in there will also be big announcements about the future of PlanetSide 2, John Smedley (SOE President) has been touting on Twitter. 

In the latest post by Matt Higby, big changes for PlanetSide 2 have been announced for the January 30 update.

As an obvious response to complaints by players of being camped at spawn points too easily, a number of adjustments have been made including giving more exit points, better cover on the roof of spawn buildings and lower XP gains for killing those who have just appeared in contrast to players with kills.

PlanetSide 2 landed with the concussive force of a drop pod late in 2012 and has garnered a series of accolades, including ZAM's FPS of the Year.

With a devilishly addictive mix of first person shooter bravado and no small amount of tactical depth, SOE has a bona fide hit on its hands.

As our third Game of Christmas, ZAM has partnered up with SOE to bring you a snazzy giveaway to aid your adventures across Auraxis. To get a chance to at a $10 Station Cash card, simply hop into PlanetSide 2 and take the best screenshot you can come up with.

It could be of some of the majestic vistas available on the continents of Esamir, Indar or Amerish. It could be a screenie of you performing a death defying stunt, or perhaps proof of an impressive feat of military prowess?

Whatever you choose, just send your screenshot to me at shawkes@zam.com and -- after due deliberation -- I will select the winners and send the SC card codes via email.

Good luck and good hunting!

11 Laden Hulks

10 Lords a Leaping (over a tall building in a single bound)

9 EQ2 Expansions

8 Maids a Milking

7 AD Carries

6 Emo Sha

5 Gold Rings (and one to rule them all...)

4 Character Paths

3 Warring Factions

2 Angry Charr

And UO in a Pear Tree

Scott "Jarimor" Hawkes, Editor in Chief

Planetside 2 took its servers down early this morning to apply the first large patch the game has seen since release late last month.

Game Update 1, as it's called, introduces a couple new features and a whole set of balance tweaks mainly focused on air vehicle weaponry. Possibly the most critical feature added to the game is the ability to finally honk your horn while speeding past infantry on your Flash or Sunderer. Some may say horns were added to give more customization and to let infantry know you're waiting for them to load up before you go on a Sunderer crusade, but we all know it's really there to make everyone turn around before you run over a full squad of camping teammates when there's a base to assault. That way they'll know you did it on purpose.

Aside from the new transport horns, there are 2 new Assault Rifles and a Light Machine Gun distributed across the 3 factions, as well as a Rocket Launcher for Heavy Assault classes of any empire. For more information on the philosophy on the new weapons, keep an eye out for Scott Hawkes' interview with Matt Higby on Friday.

A number of air vehicle weapons have been slightly nerfed with some even being renamed. With the Skyguard Lightning AA gun getting a small boost in the form of projectile speed increase and Aircraft resistances to some weapons being lowered, it seems like air dominance will be a little harder to establish now.

You can read the full patch notes for Game Update 1 Here.

Josh "Vazzaroth" Hagood

It's hard to remain neutral in the face of war, so SOE is asking fans of PlanetSide 2 to proudly fly the flag for their faction of choice.

Remaining completely objective, of course, there can be only one clear choice: the Terran Republic.

Very few video game executives are as visible and accessible as SOE President John Smedley. He threw down proof of that again last night with a quick post to the official PlanetSide 2 forums on the state of the recently launched free-to-play MMOFPS.

If you were locked in a firefight somewhere in Quartz Ridge all week, you might have missed this. 

You know him as Mike B aka Fony and he's back with another edition of The BFF Report. This time, he gives us his take on the state of PlanetSide 2. While he's already delivered a report on the beta, he's now got hundreds of hours of game play under his belt to go from.