We've had our team on the ground during Gamescom 2012 in Cologne, Germany to check out some of the hottest titles there. In our latest preview, we take a look at DUST 514 and how CCP plans to rock the gaming world. See what we found out and then leave us your thoughts in the comments.

CCP wants to change the universe… of EVE Online anyway. Like a clumsy yet attractive paramour, DUST 514 is both frustrating and exciting. It's a soap bubble lined with all my hopes and dreams, one that I'm terrified will burst if I so much as breathe. For those who don't know, the short version of the story is this: DUST 514 is a stand-alone FPS built within the EVE Online universe. Swaddled in high-tech machinery and peopled by legions of artillery-totting individuals in armor, it's easy to mistake DUST 514 for your average, run-of-the-mill shooter. Pretty, but not that special. However, there is so much more. DUST 514's unique selling point is this: there is a correlation between the DUST 514 and Eve Online, a living connection that exists in real-time, a marriage of two games, an impossibility made real. This was CCP's promise.

Read more of Cassandra Khaw's DUST 514: CCP Wants to Change the Universe.

"My only problem with the game? PS3-only. We can't have our cake and eat it too, can we?"

Kills it for me again and again. I was so hyped when I heard the original concept. I think this is the biggest mistake ever. Oh well - on to other things.

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Originally posted by mCalvert

Why do you keep annoying us with this console news?

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Agreed, it is no MMO either.

Should be posted on FPSGuru but here.

It surely must be a Sony cash incentive as to why they decided to produce a game that complimented EvE on a PS3, especially as Xbox is more popular and presumably there would be a little bit more of a cross-over there.

I can't see any reason for it other than to get a foothold in the console market. But even then, do they have any idea about that market? Do they honestly think this is what console gamers will go for?

But let's face it, they are hoping that long-term EvE vets will get the game to multibox EvE and DUST, some perhaps even buying a PS3 for it. Co-operative play of any kind will never work between PC and console players, they literally hate each other lol.

I wonder.. is it PS3 only, because multiplayer games are never cross-platform?  I don't know the technical reasons for it, but you never see PC users competing against console users, in any game.  Shooter, MMO, or otherwise.  Which means, maybe they HAD to pick a single platform, so that they could work it into the single EVE universe.  

Otherwise they'd have these alternate universes for PC and PS3, and maybe that just doesn't work with how they want to integrate it all together.  People keep complaining about this, as if it were some stupid whim CCP had, but I don't know, I think they would release it on PC, if it were possible to release it cross-platform, without compromising the single-universe they've got going.

Should they have chosen PC instead of the PS3?  Because maybe it is one or the other.  Or the 360..

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Originally posted by Vhaln
I wonder.. is it PS3 only, because multiplayer games are never cross-platform?  I don't know the technical reasons for it, but you never see PC users competing against console users, in any game.  Shooter, MMO, or otherwise.
 

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Of the recent games, I recall Portal 2 being cross platform multiplayer.

It is not that it is impossible but it is mostly not worth the effort...

Here's one logic: Maybe they think that if they released DUST 514 on PC, then EvE players may opt to play that instead of EvE, thus disrupting the population.

However, this fails when you consider the same applies no matter what platform it's released on, as whoever is playing DUST is potentially not playing EvE.

I think that's the thinking though, that you're traditional EvE player would rather stab their eyes than play a console FPS. So they potentially open a new untapped market, whilst also retaining the EvE players.

Still, console players are very fly-by-night, the simple comparison of a console gamers shelf of two dozen games he currently plays, against a few on a PC gamers hard-drive, only perhaps two of which he currently plays.

Originally posted by Vhaln

I wonder.. is it PS3 only, because multiplayer games are never cross-platform?  I don't know the technical reasons for it, but you never see PC users competing against console users, in any game.  Shooter, MMO, or otherwise.  Which means, maybe they HAD to pick a single platform, so that they could work it into the single EVE universe.  

 

Otherwise they'd have these alternate universes for PC and PS3, and maybe that just doesn't work with how they want to integrate it all together.  People keep complaining about this, as if it were some stupid whim CCP had, but I don't know, I think they would release it on PC, if it were possible to release it cross-platform, without compromising the single-universe they've got going.

 

Should they have chosen PC instead of the PS3?  Because maybe it is one or the other.  Or the 360..

 

 

Cross platform in a "shooter" never works out well. Most consoles shooters are designed to take advantage or rather to address the disadvantage of console controls. For example, hit boxes. Hit boxes are how the computer (yes...consoles are also computers) determine if you hit an object that you are shooting at. On consoles, since the aim of the controllers is normally slower and less precise then say a mouse, they make those hit boxes slightly larger. To visualise a hit box, stand a ingame avatar up with their arms held so that they are 90 degrees from the body. Now draw a box around the head, another around the upper body and arms and yet another around the legs. On a PC version of the game, you might see the hit boxes each drawn fairly close to the actual body surface. On a console however, you will see that the hit boxes are drawn further away from the outline of the body. Thus, you get a larger area that you can "hit". 

The above is not to degrade the console. It just is what it is and is one reason why the console and PC usually do not co-mingle. PC players would find it far too easy to take advantage of the console players and console players would cry foul if they were play eqaul skilled players on the PC.

Originally posted by Gruug
"My only problem with the game? PS3-only."  That sums up the whole article right there. There is nothing in this  that makes me want to run out and purchase a PS3 nor to sub to the PSN just to be able to play this one game. I can play games that look and play and have more features that is better on my PC.

 ^This^

 I'd rather spend my money on a new video card or toward a new PC or even on new games then to have to run out and buy a PS3 just so I can then buy and play this game. Its just not that Stellar. there are a few PC games like Planet side 2 coming that are just as good, and don't require the investment in buying a new platform

really weird decision to make it PS3 exclusive. EvE players are PC users, and the majority of PS3 players do not play EvE.

relly weird decision. hope it doesnt bite them in the ass.

Originally posted by Vegetto

Here's one logic: Maybe they think that if they released DUST 514 on PC, then EvE players may opt to play that instead of EvE, thus disrupting the population.

However, this fails when you consider the same applies no matter what platform it's released on, as whoever is playing DUST is potentially not playing EvE.

I think that's the thinking though, that you're traditional EvE player would rather stab their eyes than play a console FPS. So they potentially open a new untapped market, whilst also retaining the EvE players.

Still, console players are very fly-by-night, the simple comparison of a console gamers shelf of two dozen games he currently plays, against a few on a PC gamers hard-drive, only perhaps two of which he currently plays.

I think this is a common misunderstanding of their reasons, but yeah, it doesn't make sense, and I find it hard to believe they wouldn't see that, themselves...

Originally posted by Vhaln

I wonder.. is it PS3 only, because multiplayer games are never cross-platform?  I don't know the technical reasons for it, but you never see PC users competing against console users, in any game.  Shooter, MMO, or otherwise.  Which means, maybe they HAD to pick a single platform, so that they could work it into the single EVE universe.  

 

Otherwise they'd have these alternate universes for PC and PS3, and maybe that just doesn't work with how they want to integrate it all together.  People keep complaining about this, as if it were some stupid whim CCP had, but I don't know, I think they would release it on PC, if it were possible to release it cross-platform, without compromising the single-universe they've got going.

 

Should they have chosen PC instead of the PS3?  Because maybe it is one or the other.  Or the 360..

 

I assume they weren't able to fund the developement of DUST on PCs. They needed money Sony offered it. So yeah, partially that's the reason. An FPS can't remain balance if it's cross platform because console will always be at disatvange against PC (mouse keyboard is way way more accurate and flexible than pad).

Xbox was never an option due to how strict they are about any cross-platform interaction. Microsoft wants everything tog o through their servers making it much much harder to really do it properly.