Originally released as an exclusive package for the Xbox One, PC and Mac pilots on Elite: Dangerous will be able to spend their weekend enjoying space in an arena more common to the worlds of Unreal Tournament or Quake 3.
It’s called the Close Quarters Championship and no, I’m not talking about a special online tournament for Metal Gear Solid. It’s a series of online multiplayer modes for Elite: Dangerous that was previously only released for Xbox One pilots, although a new patch has now rolled it out to all users, instead of just those who had early access to the beta build.
CQC, accessible through the main menu, is a list of new modes that’s more akin to an arena shooter than a space sim, with capture the flag, team deathmatch for up to 12 players, free-for-all and more. It has a levelling and prestige system of its own (hello Call of Duty) and it’s something that Frontier hopes will catch on. “CQC will be a balanced, competitive experience, and we hope the eSports community will embrace it,” their FAQ says.
That’s a bit of a weird line to drop in a list of bullet points about the features of a new mode, but anyway. Players have access to three ships — the F63 Condor, Eagle and Sidewinder — and to make things more interesting, the targeting system in CQC is far less forgiving than the standard E:D experience. Enemies will be lost if they’re obscured by any object, be it a station wall, asteroid or whatever.
Ideally it leads to more interesting fights and manoeuvres that weren’t ordinary possible. You can pick up a string of upgrades in-game as well, which involves flying around picking up holograms (a little reminiscent of Star Wars: Battlefront, although E:D, in fairness, did it first).
Frontier’s latest patch for their space epic is so large that it doesn’t fit within the character limit for Steam announcements, but you can read the tweaks, fixes, additions and improvements on their blog. If you’ve been waiting for E:D to fill out with more content before jumping in, the inclusion of a tournament-esque PvP mode is as good a reason as any to break out the HOTAS setup.
Comments
13 responses to “Elite: Dangerous Adds Capture The Flag, Team Deathmatch And Free-For-All To The PC”
try as i might i just cant seem to get the hang of Elite, the complete lack of tutorial of any sorts makes it really hard to get the hang off. I mean even the X series have extremely lackluster tutorials and in some games start are unable to be finished due to missing items.
Just last night i was killed in solo mode for loitering while i was trying to land on my landing pad that i was designated and before that i fined 110 credits for violating a no fire zone that i didnt even know about
Yeah, it is a bit of a mess, that and the fact it is stuck on runtime 5.1 of Oculus Rift support (Which is now on 7.x) means I can’t run any other Oculus software if I want to be able to play in VR.
I’m disappointed with the game, with the internet requirement and the lack of VR support, and it is stupidly hard for new people to get into.
From the forums:
Also, a ton of stuff seems broken, particularly with transactions since the patch.
Latest patch upped the Oculus Rift runtime as well, according to what Frontier posted on Steam — that might solve your issues.
It was meant to, but it just crashes for me now, am trying to work through it.
*0.5, 0.7
Nitpick 😛
Apparently for whatever reason they just couldn’t get the newer runtimes it to work with the game, even Oculus couldn’t figure it out now to get it going either. Though I’ve seen there’s runtime switchers people have whipped up to be able to flip between versions (and without a restart required, I believe) so that’s not too bad I guess.
I don’t really get why people find it so hard to get into though, especially docking. Honestly never had any particular troubles with starting out in the game, it all seemed easy enough to figure out/understand.
It was easy when the game launched, I think coming at it new now, it is a very, very different beast.
And yes, 0.5 and 0.7
I think thats what the appeal is over No Mans Sky is about, being a space sim that is more open to casual players and isn’t bogged down by needlessly complicated game mechanics.
Why is every space sim about as friendly to operate as a nuclear submarine? Just give me a universe open to exploration and not have packs of rabid level 100 players chasing and killing me.
Its like this with the X series flying is extremely arcadey and simple.. so if combat, but where it gets complicated is with its economy, trade management and fleet/empire management due mostly to a very terrible UI and outdated systems.
Ive played Star Citizens arena and the flying is and combat is pretty simple, and yet elite seems the same but its just not clicking with me
Or better still, give me a damn campaign mode without the internet involved!
Just Googled, Squadron 42 will be playable offline 🙂
Apart from the tutorial training missions, you mean?
CQC is so much fun I don’t even know if I’ll be able to go back to the main game again.
I got the xbox preview day one. I thought my training years on the original BBC version would have given me a head start. Wrong!! No idea where to begin!! Where’s Lave and Diso?? That said, will invest a lot of time to master it. Turns out, Douglas Adams was right. Space is really big!!