Dear EVE: What Can DUST 514 Do For You?
What I am currently picturing is Sony’s Elite Bro-Team manning the front lines in hastily-crafted Keystone Light armor arguing about who pounded the most beers last night. It’s a little extreme, I know, but the potential is there.
Hooah!
Seriously though, with Dust 514 being released exclusively for Sony’s PlayStation 3, the unfortunate PC players who spend their time exploring space and its infinite amount of trouble to get in to (or asteroids to mine) will have to sit back and contract Sony’s entourage. However, if we take a deeper look there may be more than meets the eye.
Sooo Pro
No Purchase Necessary
The boys over at CCP are online FPS. This can generate some nasty results though, one of which is what I like to call “Barrens Syndrome.” Barrens Syndrome (B.S. in the medical community) is characterized by a mass exodus of noobs to one location. This is named after The Barrens from World of Warcraft. Commonly referred to as “Barrens Chat”, this symptom can cause temporary frustration with the game and may lead to account deletion.
The perfect explanation
Now this obviously would be different for an FPS where you are contracted to kill the enemy by live EVE Online players. I can see a certain form of maturity as a pre-requisite for future advanced play. Being free, the game will certainly bring a lot of foot soldiers into the already thriving and vast EVE universe. Will these new recruits respect the universe the dedicated EVE players have spent 9 years building? Or will they turn it into their after school playground?
Interaction with the EVE Universe
From the start our PS3 connoisseurs will be tasked with joining armed faction disputes over contested boundaries of the large EVE universe empires. Those who work together in these fights will see the fruits of their labor when sovereignty of systems changes hands. The EVE Online PC pilots can directly, and quite violently, affect the outcome by sending lead down range onto the planet from orbit. However, the PC players are not invulnerable; the tables can be turned when the hired PS3 mercs’ attain ground-to-space artillery.
Pew pew from space
You know as well as I do that this game is all about power, dominance, and control of space. Dust 514 mercenaries and EVE Online pilots will be fighting to obtain territory, amass wealth, and raise grand empires. The potential is mind boggling; eventually CCP plans on introducing a system where live EVE Online players can directly contact DUST 514 mercs’ to fight their own battles for power and wealth. They would supply the console players with everything from weapons and structures, to tanks and armor. I am looking forward to this day, I believe there is much greatness to come when DUST 514 takes the stage and expands the already outstanding EVE universe. DUST 514 is said to release sometime in 2012. With the Beta gaining popularity my hopes are up for a solid release date to be announced in the near future.
Trauma//Vinnie Guererri
So I am currently active in the Dust 514 Beta and I am pleasantly surprised. Being a p/c and console gamer alike, and a past Eve Online player, I had high hopes but low expectations. The way CCP and Sony are going about this endeavor is very well thought out. As was expected, Dust will be very heavily weighted by however the economy evens out amongst players. Just like the loadouts that you set up for your ships on Eve, you do the same for your armor and weapons on your FPS character. There are only two complaints that I have. One is the ridiculously long load times. sometimes it will take 5 minutes to load up a potential game. This is incredibly long even by Beta standards. By the time I load up the map, sometimes I have already become engaged in something else. Second is the fact that it is only available to play from Thursday thru Saturday. My days off being Sun-Tues this kinda sucks. But word is from the higher-ups that Beta is getting ready to go 7-days in the very near future. Here’s to hoping.
hmmm ive never had the loading in problem, takes a while to load the game itself for me but not the matches, and the beta is open thur-mon in GMT time. Once it is released its going to suck at first, with the economy not balanced yet, and a bunch of cod style players running around lone wolf style throwing random grenades, but im willing to wait for the economy to balance out and the cod kids to notice that k/d doesnt matter (it does just not really a deciding factor) and they will actually have to work in teams, then they will get bored and quit. All in all the game is going to be amazing.
Thank you very much for the insight Jack!! I had a feeling you would have gotten the BETA by any means necessary lol! Excited for the wedding!