The console market has been dominated by first person shooters for quite some time now. For some this is a problem, encouraging both developers’ publishers create a shooter in order to take the world by storm. CCP Games may seem to have fallen for the enticing offer but upon inspection this couldn’t be further from the truth. CCP Games are most famous for their work on EVE Online. EVE Online is a classic MMO set in space. Very well-known within the gaming community for its technical ability and uniqueness. The gameplay is often criticised for being abrasive and hard to due to its large learning/progression curve. This often pushes new players away. The players that do get past this barrier often stay and find the game extremely fulfilling. I find this game impressive because the entire player base is in one universe. This gives every player the chance to interact with each other, without having to transfer their character cross server. Considering the size of the player base just keeping the game running is incredibly impressive. Ever since its release it has gained more and more subscribers.

The community in EVE is the most interesting aspect of the game, for me at least. The game has its own in-game currency called ISK. It is used to buy and sell items, upgrade ships, and bargain with other players. The currency system has been so well designed that there is a complex and dynamic economy underneath the surface of the game. The price of blueprints can suddenly sky-rocket and fall if things go unchecked. In 2007 CCP Games even went far enough to employ a real life economist to manage the entire universe and create reports and predictions on what’s going to happen next. This is just one phenomenon that has occurred in EVE Online. The second is the politics. Alliances have been struck up between players and these alliances managed to create territories in different sections of the games map. All without the help of the developers.

There is no doubt in my mind that there isn’t some fight going on cross borders to try to take each other’s territories right now. This is one of the highlights of the game’s gameplay after all, but in the past there have been full-blown wars. These wars are often fully documented, and have massive consequences on the game as a whole. The Great Northern War is just one example. It lasted for about eight months and resulted in a coalition of six different alliances working together to take out one lonesome alliance. If this all seems scary and too complex. Don’t worry your pretty little face off, so do most people. EVE Online is tailored for a very niche player base. This is where Dust 514 comes in. CCP Games are rightly very proud of what they have created and want more people to see it. They are doing this in a cleaver little work around they have in the form of Dust 514. Targeting a new audience with the most popular genre out there, they are about to become much more famous.

Dust 514 is a free-to-play, PS3 exclusive, first person shooter, MMO and it’s due to take center stage in later months. Taking the sought after title of The first free-to-play FPS on the PS3. The game is set in the same universe as EVE Online. Not only is it the same universe, but players will be able to interact across game in a way that we have never seen before.

In Dust 514 you will play as a hired marine. You will be stationed in your own little quarters in one of the stations in the EVE universe. From here you will be able change your battle armour, customise weapons, and buy what takes your eye. It is a central hub where all of your stuff and information about your character can be found. Skills can be looked at and assigned and in the current build of the game the developers believe that it will take you seven years to unlock all of them. Which is handy as they already have a 10 year plan put in place for the game meaning that we are likely to see Dust 514 transfer over to Playstaion Orbis when that comes out.

From your quarters you will be able to look at available contracts. Not only will these contracts be the main portal into the gameplay section of the game but they will act like a virtual job. You work for someone and they will give you money, providing you do the job well of course. Most of the contracts will be computer generated and will offer small sums of ISK upon completion. Other contracts will be created by players that want specific objective to be run. These contracts will often yield you more money. Get good at a certain map or certain situations and the community is sure to notice. Soon you will become a sought after player and you may end up rolling in it. The ISK is the same money from game to game and will be earned for in-game actions. There is a secondary currency called Autumn. In order to get Aurum real life money will have to be spent in the Playstation Store. This will be how CCP Games make their money and keep going. Aurum will be used by players to buy what they want and when they want. CCP Games want to make the game fair though, so buying in-game items will never give you an advantage over other players. To do this most of the items will be either visual changes or sidegrades. Players that don’t want to pay will also be able to get the same items from the in-game market but it will take them much longer for them to earn the ISK to get them. This ensures that the play-to-win style of gameplay is kept over the pay-to-win.

Once a contract has been selected you will be sent to a war room, which acts like a pre-game lobby. Taking similarities from Playstaion Home, players will be able to walk around interact with each other and make last-minute changes before the big battle. These battles will all take place on one of the many planets that are found in the many different star systems that you can find in the EVE universe. Each planet has its own unique properties that will affect the way the game is played. Before being dropped into the battle you will be able to select which suit you want.

Suits work very similarly to loadouts. In the beginning players will be given the choice of a few different pre-sets. Heavy, scout, and assault being among them. Players will be allowed to customise their own suits which will affect the appearance of their armour, how the player moves, the weapons they have, among other things. These kits can be change in-game with use of certain installations. Once on the ground the player’s ultimate goal is to complete the objective in order to make ends meet. There will be many different ways for them to go about this. In one game mode attackers are asked to take control of a command center by allowing their Mobile Command Center dock with the enemies outpost. Meanwhile the enemy will be doing all they can to stop you. Either by destroying your MCC or by depleting your sides clones supply. The clones nearly act in the same way tokens work in Battlefield meaning attackers have a limited number of respawns.

A heavy emphasis of Dust 514 is the vehicles. Unlike many modern shooters all vehicles on the map have been bought with money. This means both Dust and EVE players will be able to buy them on the fly. Then they can be dropped off anywhere on the map by a dropship. Did I mention that they are fully customisable as well? This worth and deployment outlook is also applied to players who won’t just appear out of thin air after re-spawning. Items like nano hives help give players control of the battlefield. Instead of going to a set point and resupplying a player can drop down a nano hive and give players an ammo top up.

The technical prowess of what CCP Games do with their products is highly acclaimed. A small feature they added into Dust 514 is the map. It renders the entire battlefield in real-time 3D which allows you to see where stuff is and if anyone is going towards it or not. They also record the matches you play and allow you to view that back. Letting you see where weak points in your defensive was or how best to counter an especially good player. By far the most technically pleasing aspect of it all is the real-time interaction between both games. If you are stuck in a tight spot lay down a markerin Dust 514. This marker can then be seen from outer space by an EVE player who can then send down an orbital bombardment, all in real-time. At the same time the targets can attack the attacking space ship across game and all for reinforcements from other players in EVE Online.

Dust 514 promises to be a real game changer in many ways. Taking a MMO to consoles, creating the closest true cross platform play we have seen so far, and testing out a new free-to-play model on the console market.