The last ten or so new games that I've gotten and played regularly have either been open source or from independent game developers (people coding out of their basements). The trouble with looking for games in these sectors is that they are often far from complete, and sometimes the developers put a very half-assed effort into them (They just want to make a game because it would be 'cool'). For example, I got a driving simulation once that was just four tires connect magically and a rollercoaster road suspended in the clouds. Not to mention the physics were comparable to a flash game. The 90% crap rule can probably be applied here.

But, there are always gems. I would invite you to share your finds in this thread!
Battlefront - war games that introduced an awesome combination of real time and turn based. You've probably heard of it.

Mount&Blade - Sort of an action RPG, where you head a party (Sometimes in excess of 80 troops!) and go across the lands fighting for one or the other side of the war, operating as a merchant, or other special missions. There is absolutely zero magic in the game, and while there is a preist class, he operates more like a real world preist and can recruit people very well. The action bits happen when you meet an enemy while traversing the map, and you and your party can charge across the field to meet them, or hang back on top of a hill and molest the enemy with arrows as they try to charge up the hill. Still in pretty early beta stages, but a new release comes out about every 4 days. Being developed by a man and his wife.

I have more, I just have to dig them up again.

Thanks for the links Tuss, very interesting.

Mount & Blade sounds good. I think I'll try it...

Mount&Blade was nice.

Here's a free browser-based MMO I like a lot, Dark Throne.
Basically, you build a kingdom, defend it, and attack others(put very simply)

You can get there via www.darkthrone.com , but if you use this link to get there, I get more citizens

http://www.darkthrone.com/recruit.dt?uid=V30311B30243Y30243K30345I30362T30243

Johan, I've joined the game and will see if I get the hang of it, whats your name in the game?

Vorlayn is my in-game name.
PM me (in-game) if you have any questions.
Best advice: don't level up too fast, and use the recruiter.
I'm a member of The Spy Network (an alliance).
Should you become interested in spying, then you're welcome to join. Have fun!

I used to play dark throne, don't remember why I stopped.
Try Fall of Empires: http://www.fallofempires.com/register.php?cid=480
Fair warning, spend your initial cash fast, there is no protection, and the top players pounce on noobs.

Whole bunch 'o open source games at sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/trove_list.php?form_cat=80
As Tuss sai, the biggest problem with these games is that most of them are either incomplete or very low-end.

http://www.bay12games.com/lcs/index.htm

Liberal Crime Squad

Text based game where you recruit people and build a heirarchy to forward your political agenda. Sometimes by force.

That one's fun.

Have you tried out "attack of the killer swarm" form experimentalgameplay.com? Like that one, though it's bloody.

another nice indie: http://www.spidweb.com

Edited by Johann67 at 13:23 on May, 30th 2005