Dust 514.... my new experiance.

I'm going to recap on some thought and write about my new Dust 514 experience so it's gonna be a long waffle....

It's been a long time since I've played an online first person shooter with a mouse and keyboard. The last time was when I was into Quake and Unreal Tournament in there various forms some years ago. Nostalgia had brought them back to be reinstalled over time but I was not really back to them online. The only online shooters I've played recently have been on the Xbox 360, CoD and BF being the main two. I have to say that BF beats CoD in my view, due to it having more variables to increase it's "realism"  complexity. 
So when CCP said they were bringing out an FPS in the Eve universe I was of course interested. The fact that there were some goodies in the Eve collectors edition that I could use for Dust 514 added to the mix.
About 8 month's or so ago I bought a cheap PS3 on sale and used some vouchers that helped to lessen the cost. The game is free after all so I started to check what it was all about.
Over the course of those 8 month's I've blogged about that roller coaster ride.

These are the main blog posts where I waffled my lil cotton socks off:

http://acasualcarebear.blogspot.ie/2014/04/dust-514.html

http://acasualcarebear.blogspot.ie/2014/04/dust-514-started.html

http://acasualcarebear.blogspot.ie/2014/04/dust-in-my-eye.html

http://acasualcarebear.blogspot.ie/2014/04/dust-to-dust.html

http://acasualcarebear.blogspot.ie/2014/07/dust-revisited.html

http://acasualcarebear.blogspot.ie/2014/11/return-to-dust.html

http://acasualcarebear.blogspot.ie/2014/11/more-dust.html

http://acasualcarebear.blogspot.ie/2014/12/dust-its-alive.html

I've reread some of those posts and mainly about what I had thought at the time. It has been a roller coaster. The highs and lows of CCP showing how unhelpful and insightful it can be towards itself and it's customers. The fanfest fiasco and it's wake showing lessons that were learnt and ignored. I'd like to say that CCP is well on the right track to making Dust 514 the game it should have started out as. Yet I've constantly got that feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop.
That's the biggest thing CCP has done to my consideration of the game. I like the game. I like it's idea's, it may have taken a long time to get to where it is now and it may be the precursor to a PC version. BUT there is that little "thing" in my head that says dont' invest, dont' buy into it, dont' get AURUM currency because CCP's are gonna screw it up in some way shape of form and in that moment I'm gonna be disappointed. It boiled down to that. So yes, a very big, long roller coaster.

Anyway, enough of my "considerations" of the game and onto my newest Dust 514 experiences.
My new experiences of the game have been great. The best way to describe these experiences is to say that it hasn't been the game or any changes since it's last update. It's nothing CCP has done. I've updated the way I use the PS3. Visual output and control method changes. That's a PC monitor and keyboard'n'mouse instead of a 32" tv and gamepad. Ho-Lee-Hell has it made a massive difference.
I bought a PS3/Wii to VGA cable. I had other spare components that made the connection to an LCD screen with speakers no hassle. I added a standard usb keyboard and mouse to the ps3 and what a difference. Did I say they made a difference..... Night and Day!

The cable is this one. The other bits I needed were from a local shop here and here.

Connecting the screen was finicky from the PS3 settings.
I needed to have the screen and new cable connected ans setup/powered while keep the PS3 connected to a TV, make the changes in the PS3's settings ensuring it was changed to use the D VGA out, scroll right to get to the next option letting it go to a black screen (because the monitor wasn't connected), unplug the video cable from the PS3 and plug in the new cable from the monitor and finish the settings change process.
Finicky.
No wonder people would just hook up the PS3 expect it to work straight away... see a black screen and say it doesn't work.
At least with the Xbox360 it was automatic and detected the new screen.
Once the PS3 was on the new screen and it all worked and sounded ok I was happy.
So I powered everything off and tidied up before setting up the PS3 in it's new home (my desk beside the 360). I can see myself buying some sort of vga switchbox with 3.5mm audio jack.... This looks interesting.... Hmmm I'm not an AV geek .... honest!

All in all I now had a PS3 on a monitor that gave it a sharper image, it was no longer letter boxed in game and the text and images were all properly shaped and no longer had any blurred effects. The addition of a standard keyboard and mouse made the control of the game precise and more intuitive than I though it would be. I will never use the joypad on Dust 514 again. Kudos to them on the mouse/keyboard integration on Dust 514.

The first match I played using my new setup scored me more kills than all my previous matches to date combined. The game is more accessible and more enjoyable. It feels like a new game. I can see myself getting into this game more. I think I've made the right changes to the hardware at the right time to make the most of the coming changes and updates to Dust514. I think there is more to come and a lot more enjoyment to be had.
The addition of daily "missions" with rewards you can work towards is by far teh best thing in game tht will make you say "one more game" to see if you can get the reward you've 90% progress on already just from playing.