DC Universe Online Preview
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Jens and his counterpart, senior producer Wes Yanagi, explained that DCUO isn't class-based like typical MMOs; instead, there are three different roles -- offense, defense, and support. That way, it's never a question of lacking a Paladin for a mission; in this game, characters are free to take on any of the aforementioned roles. Jens and Wes repeatedly stressed that the game is an action title taken online; the gameplay reflected that. Think of games like Spider-Man 2, Crackdown, and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. In DCUO, you'll be kicking ass in an open world, just like in those games -- only this time, it'll be online with thousands of others.
I saw the PC version, but a cool wrinkle is that either control configuration can be used on either platform. If you want to play with a keyboard and mouse on PS3, you can do that, and if you want to plug your DualShock 3 into your computer, that also works. Jens had both plugged in, and switching occurs on the fly in-game. As for cross-platform play, I was told that it's definitely doable from a technical perspective, and SOE would love to do it, but nothing has yet been finalized on that front.
The game's controls translate very well to the PS3 controller, since it's an action title -- the face buttons are used for attacks, while L2 and R2 are modifiers to use your powers (for example, another character I used had an awesome freeze ray, activated by holding L2 and pressing triangle). L3 activates and deactivates (movement mode) -- this controls whether you're walking around normally, or taking advantage of your character's power (like flying, for example). Simply looking in an enemy's general direction will target it, but you can also lock on manually.
