This is going to be short because I spent all night playing Tribes Ascend instead of sleeping.
 
Guys, Tribes Ascend is really fucking good. It's like the best competitive FPS in the last three years. Nothing about this game is not incredible. The controls are amazing, the weapons are all great, even the Deathmatch mode is great and it's a fucking Tribes game.
 
Even the not CTF is fucking incredible.
 
It's like infinite flag chasing for fifteen minutes, it's so fucking good.
 
It's soooooo fucking good.
 
And the skiing, god damn the fucking skiing. All the maps are incredibly well designed for it and the act itself is incredibly fun and almost effortless. After awhile you aren't even paying attention to it anymore, it's subconscious. I think that's probably an accompllishment in and of itself.
 
Also skiing is a technique wherein you press the spacebar and it removes all friction from your character, allowing you to reach stupid speeds and shoot across a huge map in seconds. It works great. This game is great.
 
Did I mention this game has classes? Yeah they got rid of the loadout thing, kind of, but its okay. All the classes are divided into three armor classes and all have unique weapons, grenades, and sometimes even sometimes unique kit items like scramblers and sentries. You start off with two basic soldier variants and can unlock more through earning tokens in game or buying Tribes Gold, but so far this has largely been unnecessary as both these classes can pretty much cover any role in the game and the other classes just offer some nuance to fill specific roles. I dropped some money on Gold to get VIP status and decided to check out the Pathfinder and Jumper, the two flag carrier classes, and they are both fucking great. The Jumper can expend his remaning jet pack energy to get a burst of speed letting him hit top speeds extremely quickly while the Pathfinder regenrates jetpack energy very quickly and has a nitrous grenade that can be used to catch speed and air fast and if it hits an enemy it causes them to drop the flag.
 
The best part is no one ever realizes they dropped the flag and they just keep running while you return the flag and head to cap theirs.
 
Also this game has jet packs, maybe you've never played a Tribes game but yeah, those are there. They are fucking great.
 
There's only about three maps for each of the game modes right now, I haven't tried out Rabbit yet as it seems to be the least populated, but I can see myself playing on even just these for a long long long long long long long time. The spawns are really good at dropping you outside of the action on top of a hill so you can instantly get some speed going and either head to defend your own base or into the enemy's. The bases have multiple points of ingress but they all tend to have a main through line so that they can easily be defended by a few members of your team. Map size ranges from large to huuuuuuuuge, especially in CTF, and more than accommodate 32 players skiing around and piloting vehicles.
 
This game is just incredibly tight and joy to play.
 
Also it is the most open closed beta ever, you can get a key just from liking their fucking Facebook page, seriously why isn't everyone playing this.
 
You should all be ashamed of yourselves.
 
I need to sleep so I can play more Tribes later now. Okay good bye.
 
VGS.

That DOES sound awesome.

Was gonna get into the beta, but then forgot about it, shrugged it off because I have a lot of fps's to play already. But, you've definitely caught my attention... especially the skiing thing, I used to love surfing in counter-strike. Good thing it's Friday!

I thought it was cool for a while but got bored of it, Its like the ultimate Bunny jump FPS. Its just not my style, l but it was fun for a while so I recommend at least giving it a go.

tribes is dope

I thought it was cool for a while but got bored of it, Its like the ultimate Bunny jump FPS. Its just not my style, l but it was fun for a while so I recommend at least giving it a go.

I love the old Tribes, but yeah, don't play betas. Once it goes live I'll be in.

This thread is dumb why did you end the run-on interrogatory title of it with a period.

I got two beta keys from a friend yesterday. I didn't really spend much time with it because I saw some dude speed hacking and aim botting. Unfortunately there's already a few hacking tools for this game and a quick search on youtube brings up a plethora of videos featuring aimbot apps and speed hacks. Hopefully the Dev will put a quick end to this because I have some fond memories of this franchise from way back.

I haven't had time. I'm still trying to get through Skyrim and Saints Row 3. I haven't given BF3 the attention it needs this past month :(

@LordXavierBritish: You make it sound like it is impossible to kill someone. Never played tribes, so how do you hit someone when they are zapping through levels at breakneck speeds? Is all the fighting happening around the objectives?

@LordXavierBritish: You make it sound like it is impossible to kill someone. Never played tribes, so how do you hit someone when they are zapping through levels at breakneck speeds? Is all the fighting happening around the objectives?

I'm not playing it because I don't like these types of games (multiplayer focused shooters).

Because not everyone has the same tastes as you.

Because not everyone has the same tastes as you.

I like free to play FPS stuff, so I'll try it. Who in the world took my name, though? I thought I was the only person in the world who used "SexualTyrannosaur."

I played a bit of Ascend a few weeks back, but I didn't get that Tribes 2 feeling I was looking for. The mechanics were all there, I just couldn't find the same level of base-raping insanity that Tribes 2 had. Anyone else who played the hell out of Tribes 2 in its prime knows what I'm talking about. RUSH THE GENERATOR. Some of the most intense moments in my FPS career were spent attacking or defending generators that were swarming with heavy armored players. Tribes was way ahead of it's time, and it still is when I think about it...DICE should totally make the next one.

Shazbot!Shazbot!Shazbot!Shazbot!Shazbot!Shazbot!Shazbot!

@LordXavierBritish:

everyone not playing it right now[?]

Because it keeps disconnecting me from matches.

Other than the terrible, terrible UI and launcher, the gameplay is real tight. I'm still pretty bad at actually hitting moving targets but there's an awesome rush you get when you've got the flag and you're kiting the entire enemy team for five minutes.

I just landed a mid-air disc on the enemy flag carrier and then swooped in to pick it up and I feel like the fucking god king of several relaties.
 
God this game is so fucking good.

I just landed a mid-air disc on the enemy flag carrier and then swooped in to pick it up and I feel like the fucking god king of several relaties.  God this game is so fucking good.

I have some reaaally good memories of Starsiege: Tribes, that was the first game that justified large-scale multiplayer shooters for me. I should give Ascend a shot, though I'm worried it won't be as insane as the original was. The crazy modded servers and custom maps were my favorite aspects of the game.

@AhmadMetallic: Unless I'm mistaken, a "disc" is just a Spinfusor shot. Landing a direct-hit on someone who's in mid-air while both players are traveling ~200 km/h is ridiculously fucking hard to do, especially since projectiles have such a slow travel time.

Anyway, I'm loving the shit out of this game (when my busted-ass computer lets me play it for more than 10 minutes without bluescreening). We should get some bombing-runs going or suggest it as a TNT or something. Incredible game is incredible.

I like upgrading/fixing turrets and defending the generators in CTF... :)

@LordXavierBritish: Well, ofcourse I was not just jumping around, I got pretty decent at skiing. I think its just a bit repetitive right now but I hope that will be changed with the release.

because you're playing a PC exclusive shooter so no one is interested. you're supposed to be playing an MMO.

@LordXavierBritish:

A flippin' link to their site would be convenient.

It's a reboot of the grand daddy of all sandbox shooters, so it ought to be good. Got try it out. Too tired to google a link to it right now. Has it been launched or is it still in beta?

Would have expected more fanfare from whoever is behind it, I mean there's been trailers floating around, but I can't remember seeing launch trailers, or anything mentioned in news segments on game sites either.

Either way, thanks for reminding me. Between Tribes Ascend and Firefall, that's some F2P shootin' I look forward to.

This game is simply fantastic. Haven't had an experience like it in years. I really hope it does take off in a big way, as the PC really needs a modern version of the classic fast-paced ultra-twitch shooter. Also flag pursuits of several people going high-speed in the air is never not fun.

On my list after I get a new power supply...

I will not do the Facebook equivalent of whoring myself out on Facebook to play a beta. Game sounds really fun though.

@LordXavierBritish said:

There are a few weapons like sniper rifles and automatic rifles that function similar to their regular FPS counterparts, but for the most part it is a lot of blowing dudes up with glowing discs.

Oh my.

I think I have to play this.

i hate this game, i should have gave my early access key to someone who likes this kind of stuff

@LordXavierBritish said:

I just landed a mid-air disc on the enemy flag carrier and then swooped in to pick it up and I feel like the fucking god king of several relaties. God this game is so fucking good.

agree. this game evokes feelings and a type of rush in me unlike any other game i've played since tribes 2

The game is awesome, yes. I have personally stopped playing because I want the game to fully launch.

I am also kinda hoping for a Tribes Ascend GB Group. Just sayin'.

I totally forgot this game even existed. Where can I apply for the beta? :D

@Kazona said:

I totally forgot this game even existed. Where can I apply for the beta? :D

All you have to do is like their Facebook page.

@Three0neFive: Sweet! Thanks!

I dun wanna.

This game has made me love FPSs again. Its soooooo goooood.

I love flagrunning. But I also love defending the base. BUT I ALSO LOVE HARASSING THE ENEMY GENERATOR. BUT I ALSO LOVE GETTING IN A DUEL WITH SOME RANDOM DOUCHIEPOO IN THE MIDDLE OF A WASTELAND AND SPENDING ALL OUR AMMO AND SWITCHING TO PISTOLS, THEN SPENDING ALL THAT AMMO AND GOING FISTIECUFFS!

I don't know what class I want to unlock next now :( Takes so long to get tokens.

MaceX is the name you can add me by. I need more people to play with :D

If you go and ask the typical FPS player nowadays, I know exactly what their response would be...

"It's not, like, real and shit. It's all space stuff or something. I wanna shoot guys and stuff, not run around all da time. Can I Prestige? No? Fuck dat. I wanna play some more MW3."

You know it's sad but truuuuuuuue.

I'm not playing it because I don't like these types of games (multiplayer focused shooters).

Hitscan weapons mixed with Skillshot weapons ruined the beta for me so I'll take a look at it again when it reaches release. They were using "skiing" too much as a gimmick/crutch, designing the maps like skate parks and it just made everything feel lame overall to a Tribes vet. Still feels a bit sluggish and the F2P system is designed to milk you dry if you want everything up front. If they bundle it into a retail product that won't nickle and dime me to death in the long run, I'll take another look.

I'll wait until it's final. It sounds fun, but I've got too many other games (Skyrim, Skyrim, Skyrim) to get through before I can go on with my life.

@LordXavierBritish: It makes me really sad that everyone is like "OH WOW THIS GAME IS GREAT!!!!!" Yet no body ever played Tribes Vengence back like 4 years ago :/

Had the same Jet-packing, Skii-shooting, Faced-paced goodness this one has now...

Did ANYONE here play Tribes Vengence?

I would if I could

@senorfuzzeh said:

Faced-paced goodness

My face runs at warp 8.

@Fripplebubby said:

@senorfuzzeh said:

Faced-paced goodness

My face runs at warp 8.

Mines running so face I can't even type properly

(Notice how I had to edit? Point proven at how amazing this game is)

@senorfuzzeh: My first and only Tribe's experience was Aerial Assault on PS2.

I'll wait until it's final. It sounds fun, but I've got too many other games (Skyrim, Skyrim, Skyrim) to get through before I can go on with my life.