EVE Online

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www.eve-online.com

The guys on the BritPod podcast were talking about this the other day and I thought I'd check it out. It's basically an Elite-style MMOG and I've been waiting for nigh on twenty years for a good successor to Elite and Frontier. From what I've read, EVE is massively involving, taking about a week to get past the scratching-around beginning phase that isn't really much fun. That sounds a bit extreme to me, but apparently you can work for player-operated corporations at the first rungs of the ladder, which will help a bit.

One thing that does put me off is that, like Freelancer, you don't pilot the ship yourself, rather you program in a course and the ship follows it. It looks like this is intended to ensure 'realistic' engagements at extreme range than the in-your-face dogfighting often found in space-sims, which I like the idea of.

The other thing that puts me off is the price. I don't think CCP are quite as profiteering as Blizzard, but the thought of shelling out an additional £7.50 a month does not fill me with a warm fuzzy glow. That said, you don't have to shell out £30 for the game (it's a 500mb download), so it's more a case of deciding if I have the time to justify paying for two MMOGs.

I'm really enjoying WoW at the moment, so I'm not going to do anything right away but the next time I hit a levelling flat-spot I might just download EVE and buy a 1-month subscription. It could be the game I've been looking for ever since my Amiga went up in smoke.