Dust 514

If you're like me, the mere idea of space is mind-blowing.  The infinite vastness of the cosmos is often more than we can put into words.  Lacking words, several companies have made television shows, movies, and video games which take space as their stage.  The game that probably encompasses the scale of space best is the MMORPG (World of Warcraft type games) EVE Online.

Wikipedia calls it "...a player-driven, persistent-world MMORPG set in a science fiction space setting.  Characters pilot customizable ships through a galaxy of over 7,500 star systems.  Most star systems are connected to one or more other star systems by means of stargates.  The star systems can contain moons, planets, stations, wormholes, asteroid belts and complexes."

This game has been getting a lot of press lately, whether it be the US Diplomat recently killed in Benghazi or the player who aspired to be more like his avatar (in a good way).  It is rare for a game to make a splash in the news world that doesn't involve the breakdown of the civilized world as we know it, but it is also making advances in the gaming community as well.

Dust 514 is a Playstation 3 MMOFPS (Massively Multiplayer First Person Shooter).  The gaming site, IGN, has an entire page dedicated to the game.  You can view videos there that explain an ambitious project that seeks to integrate mercenary combat with the goals of EVE Online's players.  Corporations will be able to hire mercenaries to take the fight from space-side to planet-side.  This brings together two typically polarized gamer types (MMO and FPS) to create what could potentially one of the most engaging gaming experiences in existence.

I would encourage anyone with a PS3 to check it out.  Currently it is in Beta, but websites seem to be giving these out left and right.  All I had to do to get my own was search "Dust 514 Beta Code" in Google and limit the search to results from the day and I had mine before I could even get home from work.  I haven't had much time to play it but this is the first time I have been excited for a shooter in .... well.... ever.  Check out CCP's (company which makes EVE) YouTube Video below and get very, very excited.