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This is a very hot technical issue in gaming right now. The last 5 years have netted us decent techniques for doing network communications for low-latency gaming; with those in place now, we turn again to graphics.

Tribes and Tribes 2 were some of the first games to take on outdoor environments and do them well. Now, we have Unreal Tournament 2004 and Far Cry leading the pack with gloriously realistic outdoor playspaces.

It's only a matter of time before next generation gaming engines like these turn to non-linear gameplay such as what's in GTA 3 and we wind up with a world simulation that has a level of realism approaching reality.

...was regularly ranked in the top ten Tribes players in the world, according to the realtime stats at some site that tracks such things. She used to play 10+ hours/day 5+ days/week.

It was interesting to see the varied reactions of the guys. She didn't advertise that she was female, but if it came up the first reaction was usually disbelief and dismissal -- they assumed she was a guy lying about his gender. Then after adequate proof (using voice comm in game, for example) they'd be surprised, but accept the truth. Then they wanted to see pictures.

There were basically two reactions: anger and attraction. It was usually the younger guys who got angry -- for some reason they were pissed off that a girl could beat them. They'd get all bitchy at her and call her names, claim she was cheating and disappear. Maybe they'd be like that with anyone. Who knows?

Most of the older guys (heh -- meaning past puberty) ended up getting attracted to her. In fact a whole bunch of guys would flock around her online wherever she went... be it gaming, or IRC.

She went to TribesCon IV in Reno a couple years ago, and she was one of maybe three girls who came to play... out of 200+ total gamers. There were lots of girlfriends there, but they stayed off to the side.

Some of the guys became quite taken with her (it doesn't hurt that she's a hottie). Which got a little weird. Eventually she retired and got back into real life.

Cheers.

I am in much the same situation currently. I bought Tribes 2 some time ago and have begun playing regularly now that I have access to a a good connection. The graphics are admittedly somewhat dated, but the gameplay is rock solid. There are no major gameplay-ruining cheats, mostly due to a solid architecture and a very customizable interface. It emphasises strategy, tactics, and teamwork over pure fragging skills, but can be played as a pure FPS if you have the desire. The ability to move in the z-dimension with a jetpack literally adds a whole new dimension to combat. I've been able to make meaningful contributions even as a neophyte player, since the game also has some challenging support roles. There's a decent mix of servers running various rulesets and mission types, so you'll probably be able to find something that suits you. Although there are a fair number of clans, they don't tend to dominate any particular server. All in all it's a fun and balanced way to get a foot into door of online FP Shooters.

I'm very suprised that Garage Games was not mentioned in the article.

They allow you to buy the source code to the engine that powered Tribes 2 for $100.

Not only that, but they have released a project called Realm Wars. This is a game that the community contributes to. If you bought the source code, then you can contribute source code. If not, you can still download the demo, and contribute SCRIPTS, artwork, models and more.

It will be extremely interesting to see how this pans out.
(as long as I don't get any UE errors)

It's availiable for Win32 and Linux.

You can find more information about Tribes 2 here, here, and more about Linux Tribes here.

:)

-Gnight

Tribes 2 is going to have a linux client, and is in beta testing right now (for both windows and linux)

What I'd really like is for Tribes 2 to make it's release date... :-(