Like Mecha Combat? Maybe you'll like Dark Horizons.

[Stephen Zepp]

Those interested in a Mecha MFPS (multiplayer FPS, not necessarily massive) might want to check out Dark Horizons: Lore--(GameShark Review, Demo/Info) it's an independent game that's done quite well in the indie award space (IGDA finalist) in the last year or so.

Can be a bit slow at off-prime play times, but pretty damn fun during good server populations.

[Viin]

Those interested in a Mecha MFPS (multiplayer FPS, not necessarily massive) might want to check out Dark Horizons: Lore--(GameShark Review, Demo/Info) it's an independent game that's done quite well in the indie award space (IGDA finalist) in the last year or so.

Can be a bit slow at off-prime play times, but pretty damn fun during good server populations.

This looks interesting, I'll have to check it out this weekend.

Oh, FYI, Penny-Arcade has a free 14-day trial for EVE Online if anyone wants to check out their new interface and space stations and stuff. Looks pretty slick and from the dev blog they are going to be adding a crap ton new stuff soon. Now if only you could play it without joining a corp or mining your ass off ..

[Trippy]

Those interested in a Mecha MFPS (multiplayer FPS, not necessarily massive) might want to check out Dark Horizons: Lore--(GameShark Review, Demo/Info) it's an independent game that's done quite well in the indie award space (IGDA finalist) in the last year or so.

Ooo nice, downloading the demo right now.

[Shockeye]

Those interested in a Mecha MFPS (multiplayer FPS, not necessarily massive) might want to check out Dark Horizons: Lore--(GameShark Review, Demo/Info) it's an independent game that's done quite well in the indie award space (IGDA finalist) in the last year or so.

Can be a bit slow at off-prime play times, but pretty damn fun during good server populations.

Heh, you sure love your Garage Games.

Mayhaps I'll give the demo a look over the weekend.

[schild]

We're probably reviewing Dark Horizons soon.

[Stephen Zepp]

Those interested in a Mecha MFPS (multiplayer FPS, not necessarily massive) might want to check out Dark Horizons: Lore--(GameShark Review, Demo/Info) it's an independent game that's done quite well in the indie award space (IGDA finalist) in the last year or so.

Can be a bit slow at off-prime play times, but pretty damn fun during good server populations.

Heh, you sure love your Garage Games.

Mayhaps I'll give the demo a look over the weekend.

Well, I'm not out here spamming GG or anything, but he did seem interested in Mecha games, and it is one that's already in release!

[Shockeye]

This seems like as good a place as any to announce that Stephen Zepp has been hired by GarageGames.

so as of June 1st, 2005, I'll be a full time employee of GarageGames, focusing on the Education division as well as some commercial/serious gaming areas that GarageGames is exploring.

You can read his hiring adventure over at GarageGames in his .plan file.

It's good to see companies hiring knowledgeable and passionate people and I'm looking forward to where Torque engine games can go now with a dedicated person leading the education division over there.

Congrats, Stephen!

[chinslim]

Interesting...sounds like Cyberstrike - which I enjoyed alot back in the day.  Because you had to choose from slot-limited mod loadouts, the game was very balanced.

The sequel(Cyberstrike 2 - which Smed actually developed) went to hell because they crammed in a bazillion weapons systems and nifty gadgets which made the whole thing a complex mess.

(Smed was a well-known player and hacker back in the prime of the Cyberstrike days)

[Trippy]

I've only played the demo for a little bit but I agree with the GameShark review where they say the game feels like UT2004 with mechs as models instead of humanoids. Your mech is just as responsive as the characters in that kind of game (actually more so since you have jump jets) so the movement doesn't feel very robot-like and you can't target and blow off individual parts like legs and arms.

[Mesozoic]

I already have the full game.  Its entertaining as it is, but I'm really waiting for the infantry addition.

[Yegolev]

This seems like as good a place as any to announce that Stephen Zepp has been hired by GarageGames.

so as of June 1st, 2005, I'll be a full time employee of GarageGames, focusing on the Education division as well as some commercial/serious gaming areas that GarageGames is exploring.

You can read his hiring adventure over at GarageGames in his .plan file.

It's good to see companies hiring knowledgeable and passionate people and I'm looking forward to where Torque engine games can go now with a dedicated person leading the education division over there.

Congrats, Stephen!

Yes, congratulations.  Employment is good.

Now, your first project is to create something similar but superior to JumpStart Baby 2000.  I only stipulate that you create something that is three times bigger and doesn't hit the CDROM every three minutes.  Please PM me when you are done.

[Yegolev]

I'm being serious this time.

[Stephen Zepp]

This seems like as good a place as any to announce that Stephen Zepp has been hired by GarageGames.

so as of June 1st, 2005, I'll be a full time employee of GarageGames, focusing on the Education division as well as some commercial/serious gaming areas that GarageGames is exploring.

You can read his hiring adventure over at GarageGames in his .plan file.

It's good to see companies hiring knowledgeable and passionate people and I'm looking forward to where Torque engine games can go now with a dedicated person leading the education division over there.

Congrats, Stephen!

Yes, congratulations.  Employment is good.

Now, your first project is to create something similar but superior to JumpStart Baby 2000.  I only stipulate that you create something that is three times bigger and doesn't hit the CDROM every three minutes.  Please PM me when you are done.

Hehe..actually, GarageGames focuses primarily on "casual" level gamers, although I can say that we are an official XBox 360 developer, and will be having a title released at or near launch (I've searched for "official" release of the game in dev currently but it's not being discussed by MS, so I'm not able to say which title unfortunately).

Thanks for the gratz! It's been pretty damned cool watching a lot of the neat things going on...and that's just the first week!

[Driakos]

This looks interesting, I'll have to check it out this weekend.

Oh, FYI, Penny-Arcade has a free 14-day trial for EVE Online if anyone wants to check out their new interface and space stations and stuff. Looks pretty slick and from the dev blog they are going to be adding a crap ton new stuff soon. Now if only you could play it without joining a corp or mining your ass off ..

I've had EVE for 2 months now, and I'm not sure you can call anything in that game playing.  I really dig some aspects of it, but it lacks so much interaction it quickly becomes an mood add-on for whatever is on television.  Needs more things to DO instead of watch.

[Viin]

I've had EVE for 2 months now, and I'm not sure you can call anything in that game playing.  I really dig some aspects of it, but it lacks so much interaction it quickly becomes an mood add-on for whatever is on television.  Needs more things to DO instead of watch.

Yah, travelling certainly is a watching activity so I tend to browse websites while doing it (like right now). However, the PvP and combat can be a lot of fun. Check out the Dev Blogs for the newer stuff coming up - most of it is aimed at increasing conflict between the corporations and allegiances, so if you are in one of those it could get pretty interesting.

The only real aspects I don't like about EVE is the mining and travel times. If I could just build an outpost that allowed drones to mine the system for me, I'd be all over that. And then easier ways to jump around would be nice (maybe some jump gates that go further than one system, or something). Of course, if you got rid of the travel times you'd lose some of the localization (prices, available resources, etc). Ah well.

[HaemishM]

There's always Starport, which does everything you asked for, has twitch gameplay and is free to play. It just isn't 3d or as pretty.

[Stephen Zepp]

This seems like as good a place as any to announce that Stephen Zepp has been hired by GarageGames.

so as of June 1st, 2005, I'll be a full time employee of GarageGames, focusing on the Education division as well as some commercial/serious gaming areas that GarageGames is exploring.

You can read his hiring adventure over at GarageGames in his .plan file.

It's good to see companies hiring knowledgeable and passionate people and I'm looking forward to where Torque engine games can go now with a dedicated person leading the education division over there.

Congrats, Stephen!

After a couple of discussions that have recently resurfaced, I figured it was important to clarify some things here to the community:

I first came here quite a while ago as a fully independent (self funded, virtual volunteer team) executive producer for a project known as "Nemesis Vortex". In the first several months, I threw out several design "trial balloons" in an attempt to get feedback from what I perceived as a very experienced, knowledgeable, and extremely jaded gamer community. This was extremely successful (both in "good" and "bad" ways in relation to my project), and I wound up staying around on f13!

Just recently, I've started working full time for GarageGames in areas unrelated to my original project (which is still ongoing as an independent project), and I just wanted to make sure that this was stated so that people don't suddenly start thinking that GG is working on a MMOG or anything--while it may happen in the future, there aren't currently any official GG projects, or even plans to develop a game of this type.

Personally, I enjoy the concepts and designs (and even in some cases the implementations) of MMOGs, but the opinions I express here about them are unrelated to GarageGames, or my position there.