Hardware: Online Arena is an online multiplayer game that focuses on vehicular destruction using varying means such as missiles, lasers and machine guns. The game was released for PlayStation 2 with the launch of online play for the console and was possibly the first online game for PS2. The game was not a huge commercial success, selling very little. Later the game was added onto the network access disk that comes when you buy the network adaptor and during 2005 was one of the three most popular games played online having over 200 users on at any one time.
Includes:
Online multiplayer military action game
Offline mode available but online play strongly recommended
Multiple game modes include 'King of the Hill', 'Team King of the Hill', 'Deathmatch' and 'Team Deathmatch'
5 different expansive environments
8 tanks and jeeps to choose from
Wide array of weapons, from cannons to heavy missiles
Talk to other players online with a USB headset
For 1-16 players
Online Arena is a very functional title, eschewing presentation in favour of what it does best, which is to present arcade-style blasting action without letting real-world physics get in the way of a good time. It has to be said that vehicle handling is straight out of the cartoons, with tanks developing the ability the race off of cliffs and buildings and soar through the air before bouncing like a space hopper when they finally touch bare earth.
That said, the sole objective of Hardware: Online Arena or 'HOA' is to destroy everything that moves with your weapons. Or at least that's what you do most of the time, using tanks and jeeps to combust rivals or enemy clan members. Some strategy is involved and in modes such as capture the flag it is needed but mostly the player just blows up anything that isn't on their side.
This provides a lot of explosions and although the premise may be simple it provides a lot of entertainment and there are many different situations that can occur in the same environment. A game can turn either which way between two warring game clans and the result is not always the same. The main things to do are these:
Go head to head with friends or enemies
Destroy anybody with your arsenal in deathmatch
Team up and take out a rival clan in team deathmatch
Source: Wikipedia, "Hardware: Online Arena", available under the CC-BY-SA License.