By the time you’re reading this, the game’s beta will have been upgraded to v1.46, which along with some balancing and a reduction in the size of the game’s initial install, also finally unlocked the game’s “full” multiplayer mode. Namely, the one that supports 256 players at once.

Those currently in the beta can try it out right now. If you are, and you do, drop us a line, let us know how it goes. Needless to say, we’re curious.

Tomorrow night at the Penny Arcade Expo, Sony’s MAG finally achieves its full potential, showing off the massive, 256-player action gameplay that gave the game its name. In honour of the event and for the sake of the MAG fans that couldn’t make it to PAX, Sony and Zipper have come up with a little trivia contest that could score several lucky players a spot in the beta test for the game.

Sony will be posting four MAG-related questions today on the official PlayStation Twitter account. The first six people to respond with the correct answer to each question to @SonyPlayStation will score beta access. Note that this only applies to US residents, and you’ll be agreeing to an NDA in order to play.

I hope everything goes well. While I’ll be at PAX, tomorrow night is NCsoft’s Aion launch party at the Space Needle, so I will be otherwise occupied.

MAG Meet-up at PAX Tomorrow Night! [PlayStation Blog]

Managing that many first-person shooter fans may sound like a nightmare, but individual squads will be broken down into eight person teams—and players will be rewarded for sticking with their squadron. Sony and Zipper have been relatively quiet on the game since its announcement at E3 last year, but recently showed the game off at an event held at the developer’s HQ.

That means brand new media, including our first in-game look at the title. Since MAG has to support such a huge battlefield and massive numbers of player characters on-screen, it may have to make some visual concessions. Judge for yourself how good MAG looks in our gallery. And don’t worry, it gets less brown eventually.

It’s not hard to imagine that Sony knew Microsoft would choose E3 to make its curtain-call announcement of Final Fantasy XIII for the 360. It’s likewise reasonable to believe they searched their catalogueof works under development for the best candidate to generate any buzz. What we got was a mixed bag — the trailer of an incredibly expansive shooter, but it didn’t even have a title. It was just MAG: Massive Action Game. It sounded tempting, but very incomplete.

In fact it was shown to a focus group less than a month before E3. One among that group, after seeing the MAG E3 debut, reached out to me, under a promise of anonymity, to describe what was shown and asked of the group. Put simply, MAG — whatever title it comes out under — will be a mercenary combat MMO. It will more than likely carry SOCOM branding, as Zipper Interactive is behind it. And if so, it could be called SOCOM: Shadow War or SOCOM: Zero.

For purposes of identity protection, my source, who has experience in other video game focus groups, will be called Orange. Being identified could cost Orange, and others, future work.