I've always been academically fascinated by EVE Online -- any game with an economy robust enough to have its own crises is worth noting -- but its mechanics have always seemed remote, obtuse, and cold. Besides buying, selling, and trading, what is there to do, really? The answer to that is "play Dust 514," CCP's recently-announced FPS-strategy hybrid.

After the break, you can find a video of not only the new trailer for Dust 514, but CCP boss Hilmar Peturrson's presentation. "Dust battlefields will dictate who controls specific planets inside the EVE MMO," explains Peturrson, offering the clearest and most concise description of the game I've heard yet. To hear Peturrson tell it, EVE's various contractors and companies will be the ones funding Dust mercenary forces on the ground, the ultimate goal being that "these communities will meld over time." The presentation closes with a bit of cheek -- "While the fleet does the flying, the infantry does the dying" -- and the promise that someone "exceedingly clever" will figure out what the title means.

CCP Shanghai seem to have an exceedingly ambitious project on their hands. I'm not sure how multi-platform guild management is going to work, but I do know that CCP is taking the concept of the MMO in a direction I've never considered before. Most believe that neither MMOs nor real-time strategy games could possibly work on a console, but CCP seems determined to prove them wrong.

[Via GameSetWatch]