If your patience refuses to be shackled by the Icelandic wooing of CCP's launch date-less Dust 514, the developer has a sneaky way for you to get into its closed beta early: $20. The "Mercenary Pack" offers more than early access to the game's currently closed beta, but we're guessing a list of gun names and XP bonuses aren't getting you all hot and bothered (in case they do, we've dropped all that info after the break).

Interestingly, the pack sounds an awful lot like CCP's original pricing plan for Dust 514. CCP reps told us at Gamescom last year, "You effectively pay what we call a 'cover charge,' we're looking at likely around $20 for the initial download. That download gets you the game client plus a bundle of virtual currency which has the equivalent in-game value of $20." Since then, Dust 514 became free-to-play, eliminating the need for a "cover charge" system.

The Mercenary Pack also includes 4,000 AUR ($20 of in-game currency), which - wouldn't you know it - was planned as part of Dust's original pricing strategy. The pack should become available on PlayStation Network - for $19.99/€17.99/£15.99, depending on your territory - at some point today when PSN updates.