Major PlanetSide 2 update is live now, adds swampy Hossin continent

Two years in development, the Hossin continent is now accessible in PlanetSide 2 thanks to a major update available now. Originally scheduled for an April 2013 launch, Hossin is a swampy, infantry-oriented map which should please fans of mud and shades of brown. It also boasts an Interlink Facility and 80 new bases in a brand new biome.

That's not all the new update introduces: the long demanded Continent Locking feature has been switched on, allowing empires to conquer whole swathes of the game world. There are several caveats to this: only two Continents can be locked down at a once, so when a third is locked the first will open again. Continent Benefits have changed too, with early rewards of +25 XP offered to encourage play on Hossin. Meanwhile, outfit recruitment has been beefed up, with the freedom to customise outfit uniforms should you wish to look fancier than others. Your decal will also display on any captured base.

There's a catch though: the Continent isn't quite finished. PlanetSide 2 creative director Matt Higby explains that it's in working order, but that finetuning would have taken an additional three months. Higby justifies the 'Early Expedition' approach as a way to complete the maps with the input of the playerbase, which makes sense considering the iterative approach SOE has taken to the other continents.

"There isn't any other way to say it except to say that Hossin is not finished," he said. "If we wanted to 'finish' Hossin without sacrificing the quality level we've established, it would probably be three months before it was ready to go live - we don't want to wait that long, and we don't think you want to either."

You can read Higby's full statement here . There's also a loong list of bug fixes, which you can read among the full patch notes on the official PlanetSide 2 forum .

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.