That said, there are some major issues in DUST 514 that simply scream "we've never made a shooter before." In all three of my play sessions, it was incredibly difficult to kill enemies --and no, it's not because I'm bad at games. It's unclear whether this is a simple balancing issue, but when you're standing in front of a player and shooting them in the face with rockets, and they still won't die, something is amiss.

Vehicles and ground combat also suffered from wonky control schemes. While there isn't necessarily a right and wrong to designing a game's controls, they felt clunky. Consider weapon swapping: instead of pressing triangle to switch weapons, players must hold the right trigger then use the right stick to navigate a menu, then let go of the right trigger while still holding the right stick in place before the weapon would finally switch. It was a bit over-the-top. Fortunately DUST 514 has yet to hit Beta, so there'll be some time to sort those issues out.

The poor balancing and control choices almost soiled an otherwise solid first experience with DUST 514. If not for the connectivity with EVE, it would have come off as somewhat generic. But the concept of intertwining a PC MMO with a first-person shooter is so striking that I can't wait for it to hit the market and see events unfold. The idea of corporations forming in DUST 514, and eventually getting so large and successful that they join a corporation from EVE Online is crazy, but in the most exciting way possible. It's good to see that CCP and Sony are investing so heavily in this idea, and aren't shying away from innovation or the idea of merging groups of two completely different players. I just have to hope that the issues I saw are fixed in the closed beta, which launches in April for Fanfest attendees, and June for everyone else. I can't wait to see where DUST 514 goes from there.