Tribes Vengeance Visuals Impress

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a PlanetTribes post showing off a new set of screenshots (proudly proclaiming the game '29% complete') for Tribes: Vengeance, a forthcoming Unreal-engine PC FPS being developed by System Shock 2 and Freedom Force creators Irrational. The title is an eagerly-awaited sequel to a franchise once thought extremely unwell, and an earlier preview at GameSpot explains that this newly unveiled title should ship in late 2004, and will concentrate on both single and multi-player gameplay aspects this time round.

Comments

Dear Tribes: eye-candy aint good for what ails ya.

[ArmorFiend]

What they have to show looks exactly like tribes 2 with a few better textures and individual leaves on trees. The problem with tribes 2 was not the graphics.

The problem with tribes 2 was the gameplay -- the areas to traverse were just too huge, targets too small, and timesteps too large to ever get anything but a lucky hit. Oh and there was no way to get in a net game with players of similar skill, so if you didn't buy the game from the get-go you were screwed.

While we're on the subject...

[breon.halling]

... The engine that powered Tribes & Tribes 2, the Torque engine, is available for $100.00USD. I believe you can use it royalty-free, 'til you've made half a million (USD). Not too shabby!

Amazing..

[malakai]

I play Tribes 2 to this day. There's no more than a few thousand of us on during the night, but the gameplay and maps is awesome.

I thought Tribes 2 team got completely shafted by the company/owner. I seem to recall their little gorup being bought out by a big group, and then discontinued. The developers somehow managed to take the source and sell it (Torque engine) for 100 bucks to anyone who wanted (so long as you make less than .5mill with it).

This was one of the first games that allowed 60 people on a server in an open terrain evrionment with realtime mesh level of detail, and a properly coded engine that allowed structures to sit on the terrain and not let the LOD pull triangles that supported the strucutre when you were at a distance (causing things like bridges to float in other poorly written terrain LOD system).

Nothing sense came close the the "dogfights" you have against other players as you not only ran around, but used your jet back for 6DOF. After playing tribes, any other game I play I constantly am jamming the right mouse button in reflex to 'jet out' of a situation (i do this in ET and get annoyed when i switch to an alternate fire mode).

Tribes two was a killer game, and the engine was so easy to mod. You could inherit and override any of the base graphics through a simple script system. Do like your default hud? make your own in seconds. A little more time if you want graphics. Yet somehow it fell under the radars of most games. I don't really understand it.

I'm really kinda upset Tribes 3 isn't using a torque engine... I don't trust that unreal can handle the massive outdoor areas, and put 60 people on a map.

We'll see...

-malakai

Re:Amazing..

[neostorm]

On the contrary, I don't think Tribes 2 "fell under the radar..." It was a pretty high profile game when it was released. It just failed to bring what most tribes players were expecting as a sequel. Draw distance was horrible on most maps, vehicles were over-emphasised for gameplay, and let's not forget those several patches that were released that crippled the already mediocre title.
The engine was very robust, but the team behind it ran in the wrong direction. I was an avid Tribes 1 fan back in the day, and I immediately went back to the original after playing with T2 for a while. It just seemed to be lacking the charm and playability of the first title.

Granted, the T3 screens look amazing. I've worked with both the Torque and the Unreal engines, and I can say that Unreal wins hands down for usability. It's a designers dream to work with, so hopefully the team can score on gameplay and we'll have ourselves another winner.

The REAL important thing...

[AvantLegion]

... is that the game is being developed by Irrational.

It makes me cry to see all these unused copies of Freedom Force in bargain bins. Don't make the same mistake! And of course, System Shock 2 is a Top 10 PC game of the last few years.

Looking Glass may be gone, but thank (insert deity here) that a lot of LG talent went to Irrational (even before LG's demise).

Re:Dear Tribes: eye-candy aint good for what ails

[dsaljurator]

T:V has a few aces up it's sleeve that T2 didn't have. The Current Producer of the game is Chris Mahnken (aka Thrax Panda) someone who unlike DaveG of fucking up t2 fame actually has real honest to goodness competition experience with Tribes. Irrational also hired Michael Johnston, (aka KineticPoet) a well know community member and modder, who also has a ton of competition experience. Neither of those guys liked T2 base.

Both of them post with some regularity on TribalWar and in in the Tribes On Topic Forum. If you want to stay up to date with what's going on in Tribes land, that forum (tot, not general) is a very good source of information and discussion (and flames)