It seems to me that most of the MMOs in development in past years have been mostly clones of their competition. This is extremely frustrating when one of the requirements of your job is to play as many of these games as possible. One of the reasons I'm excited about Jumpgate Evolution is because it seems to break that stale mold that has flooded the genre with redundantly repetitive products. Fortunately, during our first demonstration and live gameplay session at New York Comic Con, I learned this to be true. What's more, it’s more enjoyable than I previously thought it would be.

Our meeting with the Jumpgate Evolution team started with a bang when we realized Scott Brown, the President of NetDevil, would be giving us our tour. One of the first things he said to draw us in was about the kind of game JGE is striving to be. "What we're working on is both a full PvP and PvE MMO. You can play whichever way you want. One of the things we're trying to do is to not make you decide that you only want to do PvP or PvE. There are different parts of the game that have different rulesets, but both of which are complete games," said Brown.

In the fabric of Space-Time, there are an almost infinite amount of variables that make one either have a good or bad time. Douglas Adams referred to this as the "Whole General Sort of Mish-Mash," because everyone's experience was completely and utterly unique to them. That has the potential to bring both good and bad things to the table, but in the case of Jumpgate Evolution, there almost certainly is the potential to make everyone ecstatic. Not only will Codemasters have a playable version of the game at the New York Comic Convention February 6th through the 8th, but they have also released new media detailing the pure artistry that has gone into this game.

Now that Jumpgate is moving closer toward its beta stages, there is an enormous amount of media and also players who want a piece of the action involved in this game. The detail involved in just these few screenshots can tell even the most casual gamer why so many people are interested. The graphics are crystal-clear, the scale is massive and the potential is extraordinary. There are numerous influences involved here, but Codemasters really looks like they have something special and completely unique brewing in their studio.

This game has no release date as of yet, and even the beta time frame has not been announced, but that doesn't change the fact that hundreds of thousands of people every week make it a point to check the site multiple times for any updates regarding this possible masterpiece. The forums are crawling with activity, hoping to just catch a glimpse of what is to come, but alas, we will not know the true capability of this title until it is installed to our "Program Files" directory.

Jumpgate Evolution has surpassed the 150,000 Beta signup mark! This announcement comes three months after the signup program began, and Codemasters Online and NetDevil expect this number to continue to climb. Players should be invited into the Beta in the coming months.

"We encourage everyone looking to get into BETA to sign up as soon as possible to avoid disappointment," Edward Relf, director of marketing for Codemasters Online, said in today's press release.

Visit the game's official Web site to sign up for the Beta before it's too late. You can also check out the full press release here or after the jump.

The Jumpgate Evolution team has posted new screenshots in their gallery.

Also, check out our interview with Community Manager Nicole Hamlett if you missed it.