Skip to main content

Jump into massive interstellar battles with 'Project Aurora' on your phone

Project Aurora
PlayRaven
Eve Online is one of the biggest games ever made; a massive multiplayer online (MMO) universe with millions of players that’s been around since 2003. The game features complex true-to-life economies, political factions that often ally and sometimes betray each other, and epic space battles involving tens of thousands of players. It’s more than a game to many players. Some of the ships destroyed in battle cost thousands of real-world dollars to create, the Verge reports.

Eve Online went free-to-play last year as part of its Ascension expansion, and now its creators plan to bring the vast sci-fi universe to mobile devices with Project Aurora.

CCP Games, the developer of Eve Online, has partnered with PlayRaven to deliver its epic sci-fi universe to the handheld market. “We’re all longtime fans of CCP and EVE Online, so we’re immensely proud and honored to be working with such a legendary developer and beloved franchise,” co-founder and CEO Lasse Seppänen said in a press release. “It’s really a dream come true to have the opportunity to create a new Eve experience on mobile.”

CCP has tried Eve spinoffs before, with the PlayStation 3 exclusive Dust 514 and the virtual reality experience Eve Valkyrie, which supports Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, and HTC Vive. Engadget reports that you can even help search for real-life exoplanets with the Project Discovery mini-game launched earlier this year.

Other than a few screenshots, little has been revealed about the actual game itself, such as how the mobile experience may be integrated with the larger Eve universe. According to PlayRaven, players must work together to become the most powerful corporation in the universe by dominating the center of the galaxy.

“For years and years we have wanted to bring the Eve Universe to mobile devices in a way that is tailored to the platform and Eve fans.” Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games, said. “We wanted to find a partner who is passionate about Eve, has a track record of producing high quality and deep mobile games and is capable of creating completely new experiences on mobile.”

Project Aurora is planned for a wide release in 2018, with some limited availability sooner in certain territories in the upcoming months.

Editors' Recommendations

Mark Austin
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Mark’s first encounter with high-tech was a TRS-80. He spent 20 years working for Nintendo and Xbox as a writer and…
All Baobab Tree locations in Tales of Kenzera
Zau fights a dragon in Tales of Kenzera: Zau.

While it wasn't marketed as being a particularly punishing game, Tales of Kenzera: Zau is by no means easy. You will have plenty of environmental challenges that can instantly sap your life, and the enemies you face -- especially the bosses -- are no slouches. When you first begin, it will only take a couple of bad hits to send Zau to the land of the dead himself. Alongside the Trinkets you can unlock through hidden challenges around the map, there are also Baobab Trees where Zau can stop to reflect on his journey thus far, have a short dialogue with Kalunga, and get a small addition to his health bar. Like everything in the game, these trees aren't prohibitively hidden, but you could easily pass one by and have no idea where it was when trying to backtrack. These are all the Baobab Tree locations so you can max out your health bar.
All Baobab Tree locations
There are six Baobab Trees to find in Tales of Kenzera: Zau and each adds a small segment of health to your total. When you collect them all, you will roughly double your HP bar. Here are each of their locations in the rough order you should naturally find them in. Most can be picked up on your first time through that area.
Ikakaramba

This one is very hard to miss as it is directly on your critical path. If you do, you can fast travel to the nearby campfire to grab it.
The Great Cliffs

Read more
All Fallout games, ranked
The courier in his nuclear gear and holding his gun in Fallout: New Vegas key art.

Who would've thought the post-apocalypse could be such a fun time? The Fallout franchise has taken the idea of a Mad Max-like future and not only made it into a wildly popular game franchise but also a hit TV series. The core franchise has been around since the late '90s, and yet we've had only a handful of mainline entries in the series since it was revived by Bethesda with Fallout 3. With Starfield in the rearview mirror and the next Elder Scrolls title currently being the dev team's focus, it could be close to another decade before we can set foot in the wasteland ourselves once again. What better time, then, to look back at the franchise and rank all the games from best to worst?

Fallout: New Vegas

Read more
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is as fun to watch as it is to play
Monkeys race one another in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble.

I couldn’t tell you what the last Super Monkey Ball game I played was, but I can still talk your ear off about the series. That’s thanks to the speedrunning community that has formed around the franchise, making it into the most exciting game to watch when it's played at a high level. After spending close to a decade watching old games turned inside and out, I’m ready to finally dig into a new entry for myself.

Thankfully, I’m getting that chance on June 25 when Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble launches on Nintendo Switch. The latest entry in Sega’s precise platforming series comes loaded with content, from an adventure mode with 200 stages to multiple 16-player multiplayer modes. That’s all exciting, but my attention was on one question when I sat down to demo all of that last week: How fun will it be to watch players master it?

Read more