Tribes Ascend Beta

[Frostedone]

Does anyone remember Starseige Tribes or Tribes Vengeance? We'll the franchise is back with Tribes Ascend.

It is in closed beta right now, but you can get a free beat key by "liking" their page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tribesascend?sk=app_126443417467788

Then just download the game here: https://account.hirezstudios.com/tribesascend/

The game will be released later in 2012 and will be PC exclusive. It will be free to play.

I downloaded the beta last week and am loving it so far: I played Starseige Tribes back in the late 90s but was never that good at it, but this seems to be pretty much the same style of game. It is online only.

Here are some highlights of this game:

1. Old style shooter. No iron sights or down the sights aiming like Call of Duty or Battlefield here. It is the old school "from the hip" shooting like Quake, Unreal Tournament, and so forth.

2. It is incredibly faced paced. Everyone can "ski" across a map at 80-200 miles per hour.

3. Every class gets a motherf***ing jetpack.

4. There are 12 classes (11 in the beta) with different armor (light, medium, and heavy) and each class has completely different weapon loadouts, HP, and mobility.

5. You can ride and battle in vehicles a la Unreal Tournament.

6. Each map is HUGE.

7. Finally the weapons are all really unique. Don't expect AK47s here. Most weapons are projectiles, ballistics, or explosives with some bullet firing guns. Most of the weapons fire in a way that you need to "lead" the shot. They are futuristic laser guns or really cool rocket launcher (Spinfusor) style weapons.

8. The main modes are "Capture the Flag", Team DM, and "Rabbit" which is a free for all deathmatch.

Basically if you like old school competitive FPS games you'll love this. If you want a beta key you better hurry though since it ends Jan 23rd.

Also if you get the beta all of your unlocks and experience will travel into the full version so your progress will not get erased.

I am not a bot or anything, I just love this game. (I was accused of being one when I posted a topic about Aliens Colonial Marines a couple of years ago).

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

I got it the other day, it's pretty awesome. My only problem is concerning slow projectiles, even if you land a hit there's a chance that the shot won't even be registered. I've posted on the forum and I've been told its latency, but there are numerous threads on it. I've had projectiles hit people straight in the chest and it deal no damage, similarly there have been cases where I've been less accurate and the shots have been registered. There's no consistency, it's infuriating to have a game place so much emphasis in skill shots only for it to ultimately come down to luck. I wish it was a minor issue, but it happens so often that I can't be bothered. It's not just a case of me missing either, I've had people shoot me in the face and nothing happen, and I've witnessed other people having the same problem in-game whether they know it or not.

I hope they fix that shit, whether it's an issue of latency (even though my ping is usually <40) or dodgy explosions (they could explode on a horizontal plane instead of a sphere) I don't know, but for the moment I'm gonna stick to the Ranger.

 

[phereck]

I loved it, however, the lack of being able to fully customize your loadout like in the past tribes games is dissapointing, but i forgive it, seeing that it would be hard to do in a free to play game

 

[Frostedone]

Yeah lag is a problem sometimes. I guess that is why it is good that it is still in beta and not officially released yet.

As for classes, I stick to the Juggernaut and Sentinel, with Technician as my backup main.

 

[thatonedude11]

Never played a Tribes game before, but I got the beta and am enjoying it so far. Each kill is inherently more satisfying than a kill in CoD or Battlefield, and I'm liking the fast-paced nature of the game.

That being said, I have a few gripes. Unlocking new classes happens really slowly. I guess this is to encourage people to pay money, but it's annoying being restricted to two classes for several hours. And yes, there are lag issues, but because it's a beta I'm not worrying about it.

 

[Zaik]

Neato, I need to make a fake ass fb account really quick to like them and get a free beta key.


Here's to hoping they do a much better job of recreating tribes this time than they did with Vengeance. It kinda felt hollow and crappy, and I gave up on it after a few weeks.


Edit: Well, some fun was definitely had, but WHARE'S TEH DEFENSES? Hopefully they get put in later, seems only 4 of the 12 classes are available yet.

 

[Frostedone]

Neato, I need to make a fake ass fb account really quick to like them and get a free beta key.


Here's to hoping they do a much better job of recreating tribes this time than they did with Vengeance. It kinda felt hollow and crappy, and I gave up on it after a few weeks.


Edit: Well, some fun was definitely had, but WHARE'S TEH DEFENSES? Hopefully they get put in later, seems only 4 of the 12 classes are available yet.

For defense I find that the Technician and his turrets work fairly well. Also it is good to have a couple of Juggernauts and Brutes guarding your team's generator since those are always attacked and the Juggernaut and Brute can take a ton of hits.

If you have not unlocked them yet I would recommend the Juggernaut over the Brute due to the better mobility and Mortar weapon. It does incredible damage and can bounce off of walls to reach hard to reach places.

 

[Vykrel]

the game is looking fantastic... has the XBLA version been canceled? i dont have a nice enough PC to play it, and i would gladly pay 15 bucks for a console version.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well I haven't played the beta for a long time so this may have all been fixed already, but the big issues they had:
- weapon size and animations, I'm trying to kill people and they fill my screen with pointless sparkly shit... this isn't suppose to be some fucking sluggish drool on fire button and win modern shooter, I need my screen space to see shit
In a game like this weapons on screen only need two features, show me what weapon I got equipped and what state it's in.

- lag management, I understand there will always be lag but the game hasto compensate for that, if I nailed someone in a near impossible shot you can't then nullify it due to lag, I can only shoot what I see and if the game isn't showing me the right picture we got a real big problem

- huge open area maps yaaay, wait won't that mean all the players are spread widely apart and firefights are few and far between... well yes that is another issue, map design needs lots of choke points or this will be one lonely game
Maybe that will also fix the battlefield overview problem, but it wouldn't hurt if they did something extra in that area.

- some UI upgrades, the health bar is really tiny could go with a more pronounced representation since it is absolutely vital to this sort of game, same goes for ammo

- the speed is not well presented the numbers may say you travel at 90mph but looking at the screen you get no feel for it and with it no satisfaction, also represents no downside to dash at ludicrous speeds, I think a tunnel vision effect would improve this immensely

There were also a bunch of class skill and weapon issues but I'm sure that will be ironed out.
On the whole it's a very cool game but I was expecting Tribes taken to another level, this is more a Tribes HD expansion.

 

[Zaik]

Neato, I need to make a fake ass fb account really quick to like them and get a free beta key.


Here's to hoping they do a much better job of recreating tribes this time than they did with Vengeance. It kinda felt hollow and crappy, and I gave up on it after a few weeks.


Edit: Well, some fun was definitely had, but WHARE'S TEH DEFENSES? Hopefully they get put in later, seems only 4 of the 12 classes are available yet.

For defense I find that the Technician and his turrets work fairly well. Also it is good to have a couple of Juggernauts and Brutes guarding your team's generator since those are always attacked and the Juggernaut and Brute can take a ton of hits.

If you have not unlocked them yet I would recommend the Juggernaut over the Brute due to the better mobility and Mortar weapon. It does incredible damage and can bounce off of walls to reach hard to reach places.

I was playing the wrong mode, went to CTF and got exactly what I was looking for.

and yes the mortar weapon is stupid powerful, I've been dropped from near full health with a single shot. I've not bought any of the classes yet though, and i'll probably just stick to the medium armor one with the spinfusor for a while.

 

[Vkmies]

Fuck yes, TRIBES!

When my new HDD arrives, i'm so gonna like their faceboooooks! Want to play some Tribes! What a classic!

 

[MrTub]

Thank you, I completely forgot that you could get a beta key from their facebook

 

[Frostedone]

Neato, I need to make a fake ass fb account really quick to like them and get a free beta key.


Here's to hoping they do a much better job of recreating tribes this time than they did with Vengeance. It kinda felt hollow and crappy, and I gave up on it after a few weeks.


Edit: Well, some fun was definitely had, but WHARE'S TEH DEFENSES? Hopefully they get put in later, seems only 4 of the 12 classes are available yet.

For defense I find that the Technician and his turrets work fairly well. Also it is good to have a couple of Juggernauts and Brutes guarding your team's generator since those are always attacked and the Juggernaut and Brute can take a ton of hits.

If you have not unlocked them yet I would recommend the Juggernaut over the Brute due to the better mobility and Mortar weapon. It does incredible damage and can bounce off of walls to reach hard to reach places.

I was playing the wrong mode, went to CTF and got exactly what I was looking for.

and yes the mortar weapon is stupid powerful, I've been dropped from near full health with a single shot. I've not bought any of the classes yet though, and i'll probably just stick to the medium armor one with the spinfusor for a while.

If you pay $30 for the VIP pack you get enough gold to buy like 5 or 6 more classes.

 

[Jdb]

I don't like it surprisingly. I don't like classes having inherent advantages and disadvantages against other classes. Sometimes it feels like the game is punishing me for the way I want to play. Other times it feels like fake difficulty in the opposite direction - a game that's easy for the wrong reasons. Overall, it feels too restrictive. I would prefer characters with similar stats and arsenals with a deeper base system. Anything to reduce character skill being a factor in victory.

 

[Dandark]

I just tried this game yesterday and it was pretty fun. However I am having trouble.
I am pretty overwhelmed with it right now because "Holy crap dat speed and splosians everywhere!". It seems like a lot of fun though, the skiing is hard to learn but I am getting the hang of it.

 

[endtherapture]

I tried the game, really wanted to like it, but even on the lowest settings it runs at like 10FPS or less, so was pretty much unplayable for me.

 

[Windcaler]

Ive been playing it for awhile. Way back when Tribes 2 was new I played it competitivly but then I got deployed overseas and didnt think to ever pick it up again. Tribes ascend is a faithful continuation of the old tribes 2 game. I love it because Ive really been craving a face paced fps and theres no better feeling then getting on my jumper and rocketing past the enemy base for a flag grab at 250+ mph and turning it in before the enemy can catch you.

I do have some problems with the game though. 1. There isnt enough info on the various classes until you play them. 2. There is no ability to try a class before you buy it so you could drop a whole bunch of money (real or in game currency) to find you hate the class you just bought. This happened to me with the juggernaught. 3. Tribes gold still seems a little overpriced to me, especially since theres no way to try before you buy.

If they were to impliment a system where there was a random class or two every week or month that was free to play and had a mouse over description of class weapons/equipment then I wouldnt really have a problem with the game

 

[DazZ.]

I loved it, however, the lack of being able to fully customize your loadout like in the past tribes games is dissapointing, but i forgive it, seeing that it would be hard to do in a free to play game

You may enjoy the latest big update then.

 

[Toasty Virus]

I just downloaded it, to have all my files become corrupt and have to download it again :[

I'll report back when I actually get a chance to play.

 

[Fat Hippo]

I loved it, however, the lack of being able to fully customize your loadout like in the past tribes games is dissapointing, but i forgive it, seeing that it would be hard to do in a free to play game

You may enjoy the latest big update then.

The new update adds some nice customization to the classes, but it has unfortunately also added a really terrible interface. Before the update you could see everything at a glance, get the upgrades you wanted between games, maybe change a perk, and those 30 seconds were plenty of time. But now you have to navigate about 10'000 stupid menus, because it only uses about half of the screen to display all of the information. I really hope they overhaul this interface, because its current state is abysmal.