garagegames

Fallen Empire: Legions Open Beta Begins

5:20AM Mike Fahey | InstantAction.com has just launched the open beta for their web-based first-person shooter Fallen Empire: Legions. Think of it as Tribes light, with two different classes, two different maps, and two different gameplay modes currently available for your quick and dirty gaming pleasure – capture the flag and deathmatch. All you really need to know is that it’s a relatively simply yet generally satisfying FPS with jetpacks. Playing requires you sign up for an account at InstantAction.com, GarageGames’ web-based gaming portal, which is completely free of charge and gives you access to the rest of their game stable as well, including Marble Blast Online and Rokkitball. Hop on over and give it a try! More »

InstantAction.com’s Rokkitball Trailer

11:30AM Mike Fahey | Here’s the exclusive trailer for Rokkitball, the latest game to grace the lineup at GarageGames’ InstantAction.com web-based multiplayer gaming portal. It looks like guns and soccer. Or guns and basketball. We’ll just stick with guns and ball for now, until we get our hands on the game. It should be showing up at InstantAction later tonight, or possibly early tomorrow. Be sure and friend MikeFahey if you are signed up over there, as currently I have none and it makes me sad. More »

InstantAction.com Readies Rokkitball

11:00AM Mike Fahey | GarageGames’ labour of love, browser based action game portal InstantAction.com ads another title to their arsenal tomorrow with the introduction of Rokkitball. Rokkitball is a futuristic, team-based game that weaves together action and strategy to form a very compelling concept in browser-based gaming. Rokkitball brings a new level of multiplayer gaming to InstantAction, combining the frantic pace of a shooter with the team strategy of a real-world sport,” said Alex Swanson, Rokkitball Producer and Designer. “We plan to provide an on-going flow of new content to players through InstantAction, with several additional stadiums and enhanced team customisation options already in the works.” While we won’t know much more until we actually get to play the game, there will be a live chat with developer Alex Swanson tomorrow at 3PM Pacific, the same time the game goes live, where he will be discussing the creation of Rokkitball and all that entails. For now, check out our exclusive screens from the new title, and head over to InstantAction.com for more web-based multiplayer goodness.
News

InstantAction Enters Open Beta

4:20AM Mike Fahey | First announced back in September of last year, InstantAction.com is a web-based video game network created by GarageGames and IAC, featuring multiplayer action of all shapes and sizes with no downloads involved – basically workplace poison. Well now they’ve released said poison into the water supply, inviting the entire world to sign up for the site’s open beta. Games currently playable on the site include Marble Blast Online, Cyclomites, Think Tanks, and Screw Jumper, with the Tribes-like Fallen Empire: Legions on its way. Having spent a bit of time in the closed beta myself, all I can say is beware…the completely death of productivity lies within.

Video, Details on Tribes-Like Legions

6:38AM Brian Crecente | This brief snippet of GarageGames’ Fallen Empires: Legions really looks like Tribes to me, but of course I just have a passing interest in the game. I’m not obsessed like lots of fans are. Tim Aste, the game’s project manager, told us that they definitely were taking the best of Tribes and trying to turn it into their own game: “The approach we took when deciding what we would focus on when making this game was to attempt to find the core element that we all enjoyed about Tribes… after a bunch of discussion in which we attempted to break down ‘what made Tribes so much fun’… we hit upon the core element of ‘Freedom of Movement. Freedom of movement is what it is all about. Instead of trying to recapture the same game play, we wanted something that captured the same feel.” The video shows some of the experiments that the team has been doing to try and fine tune the player’s experience. Aste said the game will allow players to move on the ground and in the air and that both need to feel intuitive for it to work. More »

GarageGames Reveals Fallen Empire: Legions

3:20AM Mike Fahey | It’s always nice to put a name with a face. Late last year we posted about a leaked video of a Tribes-like web game from developer GarageGames. Now that web-based FPS has a name, and the name is Fallen Empires: Legions. Other than promising FPS gameplay “at its fastest and finest”, the release doesn’t really reveal any details, other than the fact that it will be a featured title at InstantAction.com, GG’s new web-based games service due to launch later this year. “This is a first person shooter built by hardcore gamers who are wildly passionate about the genre,” said Tim Aste, project director for Fallen Empire: Legions. “Legions won’t be just any ordinary jewel matching web game; in terms of graphics and gameplay it will set a new benchmark of what the future of gaming will be on the web.” From the video and screenshots I’ve seen so far, I’d say he’s right. Productivity is completely screwed. More »

GarageGames Working On Tribes Clone?

10:30AM Logan Booker | Can’t say I played much of Dynamix’ follow-up or 2K Australia/2K Boston’s attempt, but the original Starsiege: Tribes saw regular action on my computer back in the day. Shacknews has managed to get its hands on some early dev video of a new title GarageGames is working on, that looks very reminiscent of Dynamix’ team-based shooter. Shacknews points out that GarageGames was founded by ex-Dynamix employees, so it makes sense. Despite being early alpha code, I reckon it’s looking pretty slick. You can check out the video for yourself at the link below. Tribes-like GarageGames Web Title Revealed by Alpha Video Leak [Shacknews] More »

GarageGames Readies InstantAction.com

9:00AM Mike Fahey | IAC recently purchased the majority of indie developer and Torque engine creator GarageGames, and today the two companies announce the fruits of that transaction. InstantAction.com will eventually be a completely web-based action gaming portal, dedicated to serving high-quality video games without requiring downloads. I’m imagining it as a sort of Games.com, only instead of Scrabble and Yahtzee there’ll be… well, action games. The companies are introducing new technology that will enable graphically-rich, multiplayer games to run in standard web browsers. You can visit InstantAction.com right now and enter your email address for early public beta access, with the site expected to launch in early 2008. As well as the games portal, InstantAction is also launching a Game Development Fund aimed at encouraging new developers to create games for the internet. Personally I am kind of afraid of this. The last thing ADD boy here needs is quick and easy multiplayer action games at his fingertips. More »