Eve Online: The Online Spreadsheet?

I have played World of Warcraft for a number of years, pretty much since Pre-Order beta back in early 2005. Prior to that I had played Star Wars Galaxies, had a great time until Sony decided to screw over a huge percentage of its player base by introducing a terrible new combat upgrade. Quitting SWG wasn't really hard to do I just found myself wondering what to do next until a friend showed me WoW and suggested I try it. So I got into beta and the rest, up until Eve came along, is history.

I'd tried Eve twice before but the combat just seemed so limp and weak, target a ship, press the gun button and shoot the target down. It just did not appeal, but the game had a strange draw to me. I love the idea of the universe, travelling around it and seeing the sights; it just kept calling to me. Eventually I quit WoW after 5 years of playing and gave Eve another go, this time determined to stick at it and give the game its proper attention. Eve is beautiful, yet it runs exceptionally well on my aging 2004 PC; sure the visuals are a little 2003 but CCP have upgraded it nicely and downloads for it are tiny compared to some of the other MMOs out there (Everquest 2? 10gb!). Don't judge this game off the visuals alone, but even if you are a graphics nut you will find something oddly beautiful when you cycle your camera around your vessel.

I slowly got into Eve, but found it incredibly complex. You don't just shoot things, you need to take into account distances, damage types, shields, resistances, ship types and that takes some time. Thankfully CCP have introduced an excellent tutorial system and it eases you into the game extremely well. Although PvP is pretty accessable at an early stage, you will find yourself up against vastly superior ships and players; however don't let this scare you off. There are plenty of players willing to teach you the ropes, not only combat but also mining, manufacturing, salvaging, piracy, along with so much other stuff it's quite astounding.

I don't intend to do a 'review', this is just a post to people who have yet to try it, or those who have tried it and not liked it, to give it a go (again). There's more to Eve than numbers, although it does play a heavy part. It's the intelligent person's MMO but it also caters for those of us with a penchant for making stuff explode! Just to wet your whistle have a gander at some in game shots.