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And it's fucking awesome.

Basically, it's a massive tactical FPS a la MAG which features huge infantry and vehicle combat, in-game currency and economy, and a ridiculously complex MMO-style progression system. And when I say ridiculously complex, I don't mean the kind of complexity that Call of Duty seems to love boasting of its customization system, I mean stare-at-the-skills-tab-for-15-minutes-and-still-not-be-able-to-figure-out-what-the-fuck-is-going-on complex. You learn the system though, and in doing so discover that the game is very geared towards specialization. You can only really be effective at a particular skill set if you focus on it, so there are some people who've put all their points into combat, others who've done the same with hacking and mobility, and others who have spent all their skill points on piloting dropships or tanks.

The game's more than solid as a large-scale FPS, but where it really shines is in its interaction with EVE Online. Both games run off the same server, dubbed Tranquility, and both deal with the same spaces in real time. Massive corporations controlled by Eve players (And potentially Dust mercenaries, as both can create corporations) will battle over districts, planets and ultimately whole galaxies for resources, power or strategic advantage, and the exploits of Dust mercenaries will be at the forefront of it all. CCP has five and even ten year plans for introducing more and more content to the constantly fluctuating game, and some of the stuff they've been proposing is goddamned unheard of. Once Eve and Dust are fully integrated, starship battles by Eve players will be occurring above the Dust battles, and all in real time. Dust players will be able to call support from Eve players on PC in the form of ordinance, which will range in power from tactical orbital strikes to planet-scorching blasts. At some point, the developers have suggested that they may be able to implement a drill-like pod that can be fired from one massive cruise ship into the other, effectively allowing a deployment of Dust mercenaries to invade and attack enemy ships.

TL;DR: Dust 514 may be the most ambitious shooter ever, and it's free to play.

"…a massive tactical FPS a la MAG…"

Seriously, for all its technical flaws and rough edges, MAG is actually one of the most enjoyable games I've ever played, and I can't figure for the life of me why large-scale shooters haven't caught on. Dust looks pretty dang good; never played EVE, but no time to start like the present, right? I could be convinced.

I have been on the open beta ever since last Friday.

Fuck, it is awesome, but it has a few flaws and bugs here and there since it is still in beta.

And holy fuck, having a teammate rain fire down into New Eden via spaceship on Eve Online is awesome.
Cross-gameplay is fucking awesome.

>Game
>PS3

If any Dust Bunnies want an EVE player to rain destructive firepower down on the battlefield, feel free to contract out Preston Mazur, my EVE character. I'll be hanging around Caldari systems.

Eve and Dust haven't been linked just yet, but they've said they will be very soon.

I'd be really excited, if there was even a possibility I could play. >tfw no PS3

On the other hand, I've heard a lot of EVE players aren't very enthusiastic about this. It's putting the fate of the in-game economy and a lot of their PVP efforts into the hands of console gamers. Not to mention it'll probably mess with game balance a ton.

CCP has said that they're going to keep Dust's and Eve's economies as separate as possible, and that companies have the option to use mercenaries to capture the planets, but it's not mandatory. At least I think it is. I've yet to find a consistent credible source of Dust info.

>2012 + 1
>PS3 exclusive
>

Seriously, what's the benefit of exclusivity?

Then, of course, it almost immediately got shut down temporarily to dedicate server space to the Battle of Asakai…

Product differentiation. I mean, it'd be great if there was just one god platform from which we could get all of the games we want, but then they would have no competition and monopolistic price control would ensue. It's a bit like the difference between fast food chains like McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, etc. They all offer a standard burger and the like, but each have their own signature meal(s) in order to compete.

[opinion] It just so happens that PS3 has the best signature meals. :p [/opinion]

I thought they had, but only for Faction Warfare. I don't know; I follow the news as best I can.

The DUST514 subreddit seems to be a good place to pick up info, and it's fairly active too. I'll be dropping into that one regularly.

All consoles have exclusives. Sony has exclusives like Nintendo have exclusives like Microsoft have exclusives. They're a way to tempt you to buying their console, as you can't get them anywhere else.

Even though I was able to play the closed beta because I play Eve Online, I didn't really play it that much because I couldn't get a middle ground on the look sensitivity, It was just fast fast to be able to hit anything at all even aiming down your sight or too slow to be able to look behind, and it really just ruined the closed beta for me.

Also you can use a USB Keyboard and Mouse to play Dust 514, Though you need to remember what keys correspond to which PS3 buttons, and some USB mouses like my optical mouse won't work properly on the PS3, so I'll look for another working mouse that will hopeful work right so I can play this game.

I know why there are multiple consoles and why they have exclusivity, but why did Dust choose PS3 over PC? Hell, making it available for PC, XBOX, and PS3 would probably increase the people that play the game by a fair bit.

It'd make loads more sense for it to be available for PC instead of PS3, as it could probably allow for a heavier load, and it would likely be easier to integrate with EVE. I seem to recall PS3 being a bitch to port to because it doesn't run on DirectX or has some other problem that PC and XBOX don't have.

As it stands, I'm not going to buy a PS3 entirely for this game, and I think it's gonna suffer because it's exclusive. If it's supposed to be an MMO, it thrives with a higher population a lot more than other games do, and it'd get that higher population by being nonexclusive or, at the least, PC exclusive.

Xbox declined having Dust because they didn't want to integrate their servers with the Tranquility server.

CCP chose PS3 because they were looking to make a FPS that both tied into Eve and was accessible enough to introduce potential Eve players to the lore. They decided that for that particular goal, the PS3 was the best choice.

I wouldn't get a PS3 just for this game, but if you don't have one you're missing out on a myriad of fantastic exclusives. I won't start foaming at the mouth about them though, that's for a different discussion and everybody looks for different things in the games and consoles they buy.