Jumpgate Evolution - I may have found the answer. submitted by Pepperoni

Most of us are tired of fumbling through the failed releases of these "one month wonder" MMO's, and so we should be. It seems as though every game is trying to hump the structure of World of Warcraft, and I would say given it's success, this copy-catting will progress into the future for a number of years until someone breaks the mold.

Until then I have been looking into alternate styles of MMO universes to try and get my multiplayer immersion fix, and now I think I have found a title with a great deal of promise.

Some may remember the name Jumpgate, it was a project made by Netdevil back in 2001 featuring the same type of space shooter format, coming this June is their revival of the Jumpgate universe with Codemasters to produce this graphically stunning, action shooter, flight simulator - Jumpgate Evolution.



On first glance of JGE you will notice it looks just like the game EVE online, which is a point and click sci-fi MMO that takes you through space battling between 4 rival factions in a number of different ships and ship types, a fantastic player driven economy and a well structured pvp system. However, EVE's immense initial learning curve and heavy tutorial drives people away before the 14 day trial finishes. Unfortunately, EVE's skill system is based around time. Someone who has been playing the game for 5 years with their skills ticking away for 5 years will always have the better on someone who just started, no matter how many hours they put into it.

However, unlike EVE, JGE features an experience and leveling type of character development like many fantasy RPG's. You skill up by practicing that skill, whether it be flying fighters or shooting gattling guns and you level up from exp as you kill enemies in both PvE and PvP.



JGE's server size or "shards" will be about 2,500+ and will all be the same server type, you can play to end level by doing pure pve content if you are so inclined, but also you can switch to an alternate character development story which is PVP intense. This switch can be done as many times as you like, whenever you like as you level.

The PvP content is boasting territory control and defense, large scale pvp battles with capital ships and stations and the PvE being scripted epic raid boss encounters involving alien mother ships and such.

As you can tell, my information has been very brief, not a ton of information is known about the game, despite a advertised June release date. Right now JGE is in family and friends beta and is awaiting closed beta within this week or the next.




These 2 videos sum up most of what I and the rest of the community know very well, they were released a few days ago and are very exciting news. I feel that this game is showing a great deal of potential and I would love to see Twelve get involved.





The Jumpgate Evolution US community site is located at;

http://us.jumpgateevolution.com/

Here you can sign up for the imminent beta.

I encourage you to also read through the Massively.com page on JGE, featuring many reviews and updates, including fantastic high definition developer diaries;

http://www.massively.com/category/jumpgate-evolution

And also the varies youtube videos.

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