Anyone here a fan of the Starsiege Tribes series of computer games? The newest one is going to be released next month, but is in open beta right now and thus can be played already.
https://account.hirezstudios.com/tribesascend/?referral=388568&utm_campaign=emailAfter Tribes 2 was released, Sierra dissolved Dynamix, and so that was pretty much the end. A followup was released later, Tribes Vengeance, which Sierra handed off to Irrational Games to develop. Irrational is great at making single player games, and made a single player campaign for it, which was fun, but they lost the heart of the gameplay as an online multiplayer game. It could still be played that way, but was missing something, and had balance issues and the like.
Anyway, HiRez Studios has bought all of the rights to the Tribes franchise, and wants to develop it into a more broad product. They have plans of releasing an MMO in the Tribes universe for instance.
But anyway Tribes:Ascend is their release that follows the pattern of Tribes 1 & 2. Online pick-up games, 16 vs 16 matches being standard. They've actually been paying attention to their beta testers (novel concept!) and have vastly improved it since the closed beta. It's holding together pretty well. They still have more they need to do, like make more maps, etc. But it's getting there.
They're monetizing it differently. Instead of paying $50 (or whatever) to buy it, then play online for free like the others, this one is a completely free download and free to play. The cost comes in by allowing you to purchase upgrades instead of slowly earning them (though that option still exists). These upgrades are unlocking more weapon choices, increases in ammo capacity, etc.
I pretty much stick to the CTF mode. If you come in and play, look for me as "NecroBones".
