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Free Tribes 1 and 2 Downloads, DVD Forthcoming
PoopShipDestroyer writes "In celebration for their upcoming game, Tribes: Vengence, Vivendi Universal Games is distributing the videogames Starsiege: Tribes and Tribes 2 for free via FilePlanet.com on May 4th, and also on a special-edition DVD-ROM bundled with the newsstand edition of the June issue of Computer Gaming World magazine. The price is certainly right."
Seriously, I was never that big of a fan of Tribes, despite my roommate's repeated installs of it on my machine without permission... It seemed like an interesting game, but I just didn't get into it. I might pick the magazine up just for the servers... y'know, in case we get really bored at a LAN party or something.
Then again, some people swear by the series. Not trying to troll here (even though the tone of this post really resembles a troll), but what's the advantage of Tribes over something like Unreal Tournament (the first one-- let's be fair here)? When I played Tribes it was a tedious exercise in jumping across huge, wide-open tracts of empty land only to get shot in the eye by a sniper halfway across it. I like UT's CTF maps a lot better; they're more inventive and offer genuine strategy (ie a sniper is at a lot more risk because the positions only allow him to shoot in a small area and not the entire field-- OK, so not all the maps followed this, but enough did). UT2K4 is good, but is there a reason I should really consider picking Tribes up again?
"Why Subscribe?" Good question...
these kind of gimmicks always work, ALWAYS. i can say this with a high degree of certainty as someone who has spent more than 3 years playing first person shooters and delving into the modding scene of UT, UT2003, Q3 and espically HL.
when something like this happens everyone with a P2 or greater and broadband internet hops on, and over-night thousands of new fans are born. just think about how many of these people will invest their money into the next release from these guys. it doesn't take a PhD in econmics to realize how much greater prospected sales will be for the upcoming tribes vengeance.
more power to them for realizing the future potential earning power of these games (which is nil, hint fucking hint lucasarts) and giving it out free, and i wish them luck with their next release.
Well, it may not be completely free but you can buy an engine license for Torque which *IS* the tribes engine.
This could be cool because I bought Tribes2 for Windows without realizing you needed to buy the Linux version if you wanted to play on Linux (I was on the Linux beta)... D'oh. So I never really played it much since I mostly just run Windows in VMware. Hopefully the Linux version will be available to download. However, are people even playing it any more? Last time I checked there were about 300 servers and 200 or less players playing.
The new Tribes should be interesting because it's using the Unreal engine. I'm very interested in seeing if it can handle maps of Tribes scale (hopefully they didn't make them smaller to keep the engine happy). The vehicles in UT2004 are the best of just about any game with vehicles so I hope they carry that over to the new Tribes.
I don't care for UT2003/2004's gameplay much so I'm hoping the new Tribes will bring a better feel to the game.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
Not only that, vugames.com requires FLASH. No thanks. HTML is what the web is based on, if their design guys have to use a crutch like FLASH and can't code an alternate HTML only site, I'm not interested.
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
Hmmm.. I don't know, I found the sniping in UT to be even worse. Hell, when I could run around and just snap-shot and instantly kill people it felt a lot like cheating. Plus you can't even tell where such an all-powerful shot came from. The sniper rifle is stupid and the head-shot stuff is even more stupid.
Tribes wasn't much better with the laser rifle but it didn't seem quite as bad as UT.
The main problem I have with the whole UT series is that there are too many weapons/fire modes. You never really know which weapon to use and end up just randomly picking one since it doesn't really matter. Many of them are also too powerful. You just die too quickly no matter how pumped up you get so the whole idea of "pumping up" becomes pointless.
The vehicles in UT2004 feel great, but again they do too much damage. Funny how I can take 2 or 3 rockets to the face but just lightly touching a vehicle kills me instantly. Stupid.
I'm hoping the new Tribes will bring some good gameplay to the Unreal engine.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
I dunno why you make a post like this every time a game developer makes a game freeware. You should be happy that the developer even cares about its fans enough to do something like this; most of them don't.
Rob
If you "just didn't get into it", then it's doubtful that any comment you read on Slashdot will change your mind...
There are many reasons why Tribes (haven't played Tribes 2) kicked ass. For one, many features in it - vehicles, large outdoor maps, and to some extent flying - have only now showed up in UT2004. Tribes did it, what, 6 years ago? It was innovative in many, many ways - and the best part is that the innovations weren't simply a gimmick for the most part, they actually helped gameplay.
With different character "classes", Tribes felt a lot more team-oriented than any other game at the time - even if there was little actual communication involved. Nothing like running for the flag - or running back with it - and having your ass saved by a couple of guys sitting back lobbing mortars at the enemies chasing you. Nothing like sniping a guy across the map - in MID-AIR - and seeing his body fall down to the ground (possibly sans flag). Nothing like getting shot by a sniper - the same sniper - 2-3 times before you figure out where he is; another 4-5 times while you're trying to snipe back; then finally getting him, and having him congratulate you.
That was another part of it, I think - the people playing Tribes (at the time) were a lot friendlier and more fun to play against than your average 12-year-old (or 12-year-old sound-alike) CS regular.
I loved UT as well, and played it probably even more than Tribes - but mostly because all my friends were also playing it obsessively, and even had a couple of servers up for our use. They ARE two different games though, and comparing them isn't very fair to either one.
ClutterMe.com - easiest site creation on the Net. Just click and type.
I wonder if the linux version (only one I actually own) is offered under this promotion.
I would suspect not... but the article doesn't go into too many details.
It would be better if the game was "Free as in Speech" released, but not too realistic to expect considering the torque engine has license fees to depend on.
Tribes 1 borrowed a modified Red Baron engine.
Tribes 2 uses Torque (Which is actually nice with current hardware)
Tribes Vengeance uses the Unreal200X engine.
I played Tribes1 for 3 years, moving back to CS after the bad launch of Tribes2. Now with current hardware and patches, Tribes 2 is very enjoyable. Actually run the engine with all settings on max, and still nice. Of course, I still like Tribes1 with Anti-alias'ing, still a fun game.
"The company won't release their source so they don't care about their fans" is possibly one of the worst non-sequitur arguments I have ever heard.
Not everyone wants to share their code.
Period.
Let me repeat that.
Not everyone wants to share their code.
Period.
Just like you chose to only support companies that will release their code, the company can choose not to release their code. It's their code and their perogative to do what they want with it.
...and that's all there is to it.
I hope the number of "Basic" unmodified tribes 1 servers go up. Unmodified servers up this weekened was at 5, and 2 where password protected (but almost full, damn i need that password) Mod'ed was over 500.
Some people like playing Tribes mods where the weapons are insanely deadly, rockets, vulcan's, modified sniper rifles. Theres even a RPG mod for tribes.
One thing I really liked in tribes was sound packs, was kinda cool to have real sound clips from movies/music in game. I took every sound pack I could get and put them into one, Called it the Total Sound pack, was over 600 megs. Though I didn't have all the sounds mapped to a menu command, I could at least hear them if someone played them.
My very short stint into scripting/modding.
BTW, I have signed Tribes1 and Tribes2 boxes on my desk, with a little Tribescon 2000 winner logo, and tribe pocketwatch. Made it to the first 3 Tribescon's, now those are some lan parties, met the developers, and won some prizes.
Started tribes on a Dual Voodoo2 SLI system. Glide baby!
Looks like a just got rooked. Should have waited a month!
God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
Actully for a lot of people the game was messed up upon its release. There were lots of people experencing UE errors and crashes. Even their crummy patching program had to be patched in order to work. Plus having the stupid patch naming scheme (324253486etc_to3249433434_etc.exe, and no update_from_any_version.exe)*really* helped. I remember reading that some people had trouble running this on their high end systems, CGW for example couldn't get it running on five diffrent systems.
Another issue was the game play, what moron thought that throwing you into a battle was a great way to start a basic tutorial? The one with the sluggesh plane that you had to fly to a base, land it near by, only to have the darn thing easily slide off the hills when you parked it, causing it to slide off and explode, and then have the mission instantly fail, was *brillent*. And the best part was including vehicals that the bots couldn't even operate themselves! That *really* helps prepair you for online battles or practice!
Most of the rabid fanboys chose to ingore the problems, or blamed those other then the holy programming "gods" who created the game, or Sierra for rushing the POS out the door and firing the programming team. No matter what the problem was, it was automatcially your fault.
The fanboys threw a shit storm each time when some magazines actully gave the unfinihsed game a fair review. Only when the game started fucking up for all of them did they start cairing and complaining.
I'll grab Tribes 2 for sure. I've eyeballed it dozens of times, knowing how much fun the first one is.
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
Having played tribes 2 quite a bit, the one thing I loved about the game was that it was quite deliberate. Not many things could instantaneously kill you. Even the aforementioned sniper rifle took two hits to kill. I always felt as though there was a fighting chance. The flying and jumping leads to alot of skill required to hit someone flying through the air.
UT more often or not you can get killed by some beginner spamming the flak cannon.
Tribes is a great game. Huge open areas, great maps... most importantly, it's damn fun. Tribes was way ahead of its time in many aspects, such as having vehicles.
There's a ton of good mods for Tribes. I'd try out Shifter and TAC. Shifter expands on the amount of armor/weapons/vehicles/items/etc. To me, Shifter is like the Team Fortress of Tribes. Each armor has its own speciality. TAC (Team Aerial Combat) is just what it sounds like. If you touch the ground anywhere but a base or an objective, you instantly die, so instead of walking, you have to fly around everywhere in vehicles. Of course, flag carriers can't fly themselves, so you have to rely on your team. Aerial firefights are incredibly fun, and they really encourage teamwork too.
I never got into Tribes 2 much. It seemed a bit sluggish, but maybe that's just because I kept trying to play it like the original.
I bought T2 the week it was released and has been my single favorite game of any system ever. Like others have echoed here, it isn't just a shoot and scoot, run around guns blazing fragfest. The first few times I played I really didn't like it, but stuck with it. After a week I was hooked.
The best part of the game is the strategic and coordinated SPONTANEOUS teamwork. You can tell you team that you have are going for the enemy flag, reinforce the defenses/offense, and command others to destroy certain items. For instance, you can call out "wait for my signal before attacking, I'll get the enemy flag". The command is acknowledged. Another player chimes in that they'll cover, and another that they'll attack the turrets. You give the signal and the team attacks at once. And the best part is that NONE of it was coordinated 30 seconds before the voice commands were given.
The servers have started to become more sparcely populated. Download the game and get online! Check out the War2003 mod, which lets you get mech armor and modified vehicles for more fun!
With today's hardware, the Tribes2 gaming experience should be great. Should be able to run at 1600x1200 with decent detail level...
Anyone who hasn't tried Tribes2 should give it a go when the free download is available. It'll be well worth it.
If you haven't played Tribes or Tribes 2, and are curious why it would be so hard to kill somebody, I will tell you.
Momentum.
In every weapon there is added movement in your projectiles along the vector of your motion. If you're flying through the air, the Cross-hair is NOT where your bullets are going to hit. So in order to get GOOD at Tribes you have to start aiming based on the movement of yourself AND the opponent as well as the speed of your projectiles.
When you've been happily lobbing mortars at stationary things and actually hitting them for a while, you start to fire things at people and wonder how hard it would be to hit them as well. It's not easy.
Most players just call it MA, for Mid-Air; shots fired while the opponent (and possibly yourself as well) is moving above the ground. Being blown out of the sky like a duck hunt is incredibly demoralizing.
On the other hand doing it to somebody else can be the greatest feeling in the world.
Sorry to wax evangelical, but after 3 years of Tribes 2, playing Counter-Strike and other FPS games is like being shut into a tiny box with a bunch of smacktards with training wheels. Once you've been playing with a full 3d range of motion, you may never like being stuck on the ground again.