Frontier Developments Release Elite: Dangerous Arena

Published: February 16, 2016 2:18 PM /

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Elite Dangerous Arena Logo

Anyone who has played Frontier Development's Elite: Dangerous knows that this game can quickly turn even the most level-headed and calm players into mean bounty hunting and trading machines. But sometimes, all you want to do is take your personal ship, slap on some oversized weaponry and blast some fellow commanders to the afterlife of their choosing. If you're the type to ask shoot first and ask questions later, of if you're not all that into optimizing your trade routes to get the most out of that shipment of slaves you picked up at that backwater station floating above that gas giant in the middle of nowhere, then Frontier Developments has got you covered! 

The British development studio announced today in a blog post on their official site, that they are taking Elite: Dangerous' arena mode, a mode where you fight in deathmatches against other real players in a tournament titled Close Quarters Combat Championship (or CQC for short), and making it available as a stand-alone option on their store for a reduced price. If you've been having an eye (or two! I don't judge!) on grabbing Elite: Dangerous but the idea of a persistent universe doesn't sound as appealing to you, you can just grab the competitive mode so you can get a feel for the game's combat and can get straight to the good stuff. This version of the game has 4 arenas available across 3 modes; 8-player Free For All, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag. In addition to this you will have 4 ships available to use during these matches, with custom loadouts you can unlock by leveling up your rank.

 A little side note here: if you already own Elite: Dangerous you already have this mode, so this is purely for new players who want a little more action and a little less space truckin'. This version of the game will set you back $7.49 and can be bought from either their own store, or the Steam Store. If you at some point do decide the buy the full game, you will get the price of Arena as a discount for the full Elite: Dangerous Deluxe Edition. 

But wait! There's more! To celebrate the release of Elite: Dangerous Arena the developer is holding a series of CQC events! This event, titled CQC Mayhem, will feature a bunch of live streams hosted by several people from the developmental team. The first one of these will run from 6PM until 9 PM GMT and has players compete with the developers for prizes. For a full list of the schedule as well as more info as to whom you will be taking on you can check that out here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpE8n-DZsdM&feature=youtu.be

During the duration of the event, which will run from 16 of February until the 15th of March, you will have a chance of encountering one of 3 players controlled by people from the studio. You can recognize them by the FDEV prefix in front of their name, and if you manage to snag a screenshot of them you will be entered into a draw to win one of two premium goodie bags that have a variety of Elite: Dangerous merchandise in them. Both players who own the full game or the Arena equivalent will have a chance of encountering them, since all versions share the same server. 

 

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Chris Anderson
| Staff Writer

I've been playing games since I was just barely able to walk so I might as well write about them.