The real gem from Sony Online Entertainment's booth this year is in their ownership of the first massively multiplayer online first-person shooter: PlanetSide. While there weren't any playable machines, one of the more skilled beta testers was asked to come and demonstrate the gameplay, and just watching him take over an enemy stronghold and declare victor over that continent gave me goosebumps.
With support for voice over IP, PlanetSide copies the strengths that have become obvious in Socom: U.S. Navy Seals, and does it with a style. The planet you are on has several (around ten, I think...) continents that you can conquer as one of three different empires, and security is never promised - twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The great thing about PlanetSide is that military strategy has never been so important, and the need for skilled units is second to the need for a good military plan.
As for the actual first-person gameplay, you can choose between an array of jobs such as pilot, combat pilot, engineer and soldier, and in each of these are dozens of combat skills and transportation units. There was no noticeable lag in gameplay (although I'm sure this depends on the connection speed of the user), and the game is supposedly very fluid even on a dial-up connection.
As for the massively multiplayer side, there are over 3000 people per server, so there is little chance that your stronghold won't always be protected by at least someone. And with the voice over IP support, this could be another one of those games that goes down in history for people starving to death for not having the strength to log out...
