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Trying Dust 514 Beta

I've been saying, "I should try Dust 514" but I hadn't.  I finally remembered that I have a television and other ways to play games outside of my computer.  So, I decided on a slow morning off to give it a try.  I really don't remember how to use the playstation.  When I finally found Dust on my playstation I started it up and got the playstation move notification message.  I started down at my controller.  It is blue and hoped I wouldn't have to dig out the PS3 move thingies to play.  I didn't remember anyone saying they had to use the move to play it.

Upon start I had to enter my Sony Store login stuff.  Okay.  It is a random e-mail address not connected to Eve.  As I figured out my e-mail address I had to say that the foggy background screen and music I found to be quite lovely.

I have a 60 inch Sony Wega.  It is about seven years old now.

So, about the entire experience:

First Dust synced to CCPs servers.  Then it gave me updates on the newest patch notes. That was cute I thought.  As it downloaded something else I noticed that the images it was showing me looked more like water colors.  I'm not sure how I feel about that. On one side the water colors carry a feeling of unique artwork.  On the other they don't give justice to how pretty Eve is.  I guess it will depend on how Dust looks.

I'm writing this step by step to catch my opinions without knowledge of the future.

I validated my e-mail and trotted off to make some crackers while it finished downloading the patch or whatever information it needed to download.  While I was finishing plating my crackers it finished and the intro move started. I ran to watch and all I can say is that it kicks ass.  Even if you have no interest in Dust, the introduction movie is bad ass. They need to update Eve's introduction movie like that.  It gave me the shivers and made me want to play.

You pick your Race and then pick your subrace.  I was making a ground version of Sugar so I went with Minmatar and Sebiestor Tribe.  I also got to pick a picture.  No avatar customization experience here. Just pick your favorite helmeted head.  Fortunately, the one I picked was female as I had hoped.  My little body representation was subtle feminine without it being chicks in power armor.

Next it gave me 4 class options.  Arbiter, Enforcer, Sentinel and Artificer.  It is clear that these are a start and you can cross train later.  Since Sugar is Ms Pewpew I had to chose the Enforcer which was close quarters combat.  I am more attracted to the Artificer but I will just make Chella later if I like the game to do that.

I went with Sugar Ranier to tie all of myselves together.  Once I started, seeing things like the Eve captain's quarters, the galaxy map and stations just excited me.  It quickly explains that you don't lose skills and you keep gaining skill points and that if you lose your stuff in battle you don't get it back.  It is fast but makes sense to me as an Eve player.

It hints that one day you may be able to fight for land that you can own.  Sov Dust?  Interesting.  It hints at a lot of promises and unique possibilities for the future.

So you start in captain's quarters or Merc quarters. Whatever.  And you have 500k unallocated skill points.  It looks as if you continue to gain them and then you allocate them.  I think I figured out how to join my corps public chat.  I found that the screens in the quarters are interactive.  One had various things including SoonTM as a notice.  There is a lot of subtle humor inside of these menus and options that are very obvious to me as an Eve player.

So the captains quarters in Dust do what they should do in Eve.  You walk around and interact with various pieces of it.  I suggested this myself a few months ago. It is amusing to see it happening.  There is a chick that talks to you.  She talks a bit fast. I'm not sure if that is an accident thing, intentional to keep peoples attention,  regional or unintentional.  I also figured out how to get into my corporation's public chat room and planted myself in there.

I found the instant battle option and chose a skirmish battle. The other type was a kill everyone over and over and whoever does the most killings the fastest wins.  I think.  It said it was searching and then it was time to start.  I figured out how to pick a spawning point. I saw other people heading away from it so figured I'd go be social.  My main goal was to see what the game itself was like.  I realized, when I got to the battle conference area that I had not checked to see if I even had gear on.  There was starter gear options and I just took them and went with it.

It is a First Person Shooter like most.  Some of the people were blue and some green over their icons and I was worried that I was not shooting the right group.  After a while, I saw some red people.  Pleased that the colors were simple and understandable I shot at them.  I died a lot. I killed a few people.  I was more productive here then I was in Planetside 2.  I don't think I ever killed anyone in that game just died over and over again.  Here I just respanwed, picked the basic front line fit and went back at it.  It is very accessible in that way. I ran around after other people and helped them out.  It was easier then trying to run around by myself all the time and I hoped they had more of a clue then I did as to what was going on.  I had to figure out how to jump at one point.  I kept throwing grenades at myself figuring out controls.  The normal new stuff.

I expected the graphics to be a bit sharper. They are kinda rough edged.  After I adjusted it gave everything a gritty, dirty, dusty feel.  Maybe its the planet types or something?  The 'merc' quarters were dark enough that I was debating changing my video settings to make things a bit brighter. I did like the prebattle spawn point.  All in all it was interesting but it didn't hold my attention like Eve does. However, I have never yet had a FPS hold my attention for very long. I did like it significantly more then I have other ones but eventually I grew board of running around.

I can see where all the depth and fitting skills of Eve can and will come into play for those that are really into it.  I'm never going to be someone that is really into it.  FPS do not appeal to me.  Many of my coworkers can play them for hours and hours. I can take about thirty minutes.  Play in Dust is very frantic and fast.  The objectives are changing the announcer is telling you that things are being taken or lost.  There is a lot of movement and lot to do I think.  I have no idea if that skirmish battle had any long lasting effects like the trailer told me it will.

I don't actually like that for long periods of time.  Hence why I am not the target audience for Dust as a daily player game.  But for those that are it seems that the pieces are all there and the ground work laid.  I don't have tons of time on all sorts of FPS to snob snob about.  I'll play it a bit more and see how I feel.  Maybe try playing in a more interactive way with other players vs just the pick up group feel.

I've been offered a dust corp to join and help me get started.  I don't think I have a head set or microphone for the play station.  I've never socially gamed through it before.  I'll have to see if I like it enough to invest in actual equipment.

End result: I do like it well enough but FPS are not my thing and this has not suddenly made me want to abandon Eve to take up FPS play.

Comments

  1. I also tried Dust this past weekend. I could not get the hang of the controller and mostly moved to some area and sat in a crouched position to shoot any reds passing by. I intended to be a healer type, but the action seems way too fast to heal anyone. My son came by and took over and went to work killing up everyone. Knowing EVE, I was able to upgrade his weapons and armor and he really went to work. He actually went back later to play more, commenting that it was like Battlefield 3. I expect I could play it with a keyboard/mouse, but the controller thing made me lose interest.

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  2. I played Dust back in the summer avenue started closed Beta. I played for about and hour running around. I didn't play Dust again till the recent open Dust Beta.

    I was never bug on FPS games and Dust was my real first MMO one. I could see much improvement in game as compared to back in summer when I played. The graphic of Dust was well Dusty it was never sharp and detailed like in EVE, it still isn't.

    I died more playing Dust than I can remember to count but hey just got back up and back to it. I dawned on me though I may play the game here and there I'll never be into it full time. It just wasn't my kind of game and much prefer EVE. But I'd still keep a Dust character for who knows what can happen.

    The PS3 controls was just not something I could play Dust with and just did not work for me. I came to the conclusion I'd likely play it more the day it likely arrive on the PC. But i'd likely keep a character around until that happen acquiring some amount of SP slowly, which is better than none at all.

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