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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."
First tribes post!
Tribes 1 sucked, Tribes 2 was pretty good.
Why did they have to use a crappy POS like FilePlanet to distribute this? Sure it's free, you only have to pay FilePlanet $ for a fast connection and fast access to the files. Otherwise your stuck at something like 32kps transfer speed and waiting in line for 2-hours for the download to start.
Patiently waiting for mirrors to show ups.......
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...
In short, a better option for everyone (publisher, developer, game players) is to make games available at the source level. The effect is that the game will live forever, far beyond the original's limitations, as it is updated and modernized and built for newer, more capable systems. Furthermore, the game data itself, in the form of cheap CDs, could be sold by the publisher for an ongoing revenue stream.
Just something I'd like more game companies to consider.
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
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.
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
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
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 2 was the best game ever until they fudged it up. I paid 50$ for it the day it came out 3 years ago. Now it's free. Sorrow.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
I think it's is great when companies release their games for free, and I'm a sucker and will probably be downloading these soon.
But I haven't even booted Windows in months (except at work or when I need to work at home) and have been quite happy running Linux as many others are also.
I doubt that they will release the Tribes2 for Linux (even though after Loki went under all thier ports went back to the original publishers) but I remain hopeful that they will release it. And with Fileplanets file tracking they will get a solid number of how many people ARE interested in Linux gaming. I'd think it would be a good judgement on the current state, who would want to download it more then once? Besides the obsessive downloaders...
Give use the Linux version also, just so we can see how many downloads it gets.
Also considering you can pick up Tribes2 for Windows for $10 and if you are lucky you can find one for Linux for sale at the low price of $40
"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
The linux version or just the WinDOHs version?
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!
What about the serial number required for online play?
Will it be provided with the magazine/download?
And don't forget the great sound messages!
:-)
MOOoooOOOOooo!
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.
Maybe someone who downloaded both of them could post a .torrent ... /me crosses fingers and waits
After all this is why BT was made in the first place
____________
Having played both, and loving each, I'll share:
It's really all about pace for me and actual thinking. Most of the time, UT2K4 and the like are played a truly frenetic pace. From time to time, a handful of players will be standing still sniping or moving only a little while babysitting an objective or flag. While you are moving in UT2K4, you are moving fast and it's intense. UT2K4 is never peaceful, nor are there generally large strategic decisions.
Tribes (I played 2) can be peaceful. There are those wide open areas that you can navigate very quickly with light armor and skill but otherwise are slow to traverse on foot. You can also contribute to your team while remaining almost ignorant of combat going on around you and certaintly not firing a gun. To do this, you run around deploying sensors, or turrets or what have you or carry a repair gun to glue stuff back together. (Yes, link gun in 2K4 does this, but it feels like kludge)
It also makes a big differance that there are vehicles in capture the flag. And they work in that environment. One of the more beautiful team efforts you'll see in Tribes is one player grabbing the flag and begining to run home. Another player on his team will be flying a Shrike (a small hover plane) and will fly past the flag carrier and park the plan in his path. Guy #2 jumps out, the flag carrier jumps in and starts flying home.
There are just so many interesting tactical / strategic things to do in Tribes that aren't there in UT2K4. That's the selling point. I'll share two favorites.
You have becons. Usually you use them to let your team know where you've put something useful. They can also be put in target mode. All your teamates guns will see a dot which lets them know where to fire to hit your becon. Sounds a little useless until you put one on the underside of an enemy's defensive turret or vehicle station. Suddenly your teamates are lobbing mortars from halfway across the map with pinpoint accuracy to destroy things. Funny as hell.
The other is on a map that is normally dominated by snipers. There is a huge open area between the two relatively close flags that can be picked off. On the edges of these are a series of canyons. You can be daring and load up heavy (slow) armor and walk the canyons mortar in hand. If you manage to sneak up properly from behind. The map is hilariously set up so that well shot mortars are trapped and held in a small room that contains the enemy reequiping stations. Killing a stack of people and trashing those stations that way is hilarious.
Finally, in Tribes, when the action heats up and its a clutch moment, your adreniline does kick up. The cool thing about UT2K4 is that you're almost always at that level of intesity. Mostly because of that small field of view.
Frankly, while the vehicles in UT are very cool and the new mode is fun, I just don't think it's right. UT feels too high paced to have tank battles. I really feel that while the new modes are great, UT is at its finest when there aren't vehicles, when it's played on smallish maps between two fairly small teams. UT's indoor maps tend to be very very good, while the outdoor ones feel bland and average. Tribes had the opposite problem. Their interiors were pretty lame compared to the vast expenses between bases.
So why look at Tribes? Because you want a gaming experience that is more interesting, if slower paced. Why ignore Tribes? The learning curve is a bitch and it takes forever to finally get your first spinfusor kill.
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.
Then how can you be so very wrong? All this does from my perspective is piss me off that they're giving away things to Windows users but they couldn't be bothered to make some more money by releasing Mac and Linux versions. From both a business and "gimmick" perspective, turning these games into what is essentially abandonware at this stage is a bad move.
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.
If you haven't seen Travel, then you definitely should now. It's a really cool movie that perfectly captures the essence of Tribes 2. It's 190 MB, but definitely worth the download. I'd seed a torrent, but I'm behind a rather restrictive firewall.
"I would give my right hand to be ambidextrous."
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!
Team membership in the league is by invitation. A team goes through a series of trial matches to make sure it's adult enough. If you're interested in that kind of play, stop by and see if any of the member teams are recruiting. Most are, given the stale state of the game.
My own team, the Mature Asskickers, has similar requirements of recruits. Although it started as a Tribes 2 team, it's since expanded to encompass several other games. Our forums are almost as busy as SlashDot. ;)
Also check out the Tribes newsgroup. It's quiet there right now, mostly a few old regulars passing the time, but I'm sure it'll spark up when the free download is available. The group sports a "watchdog" who barks loudly at strangers asking moronic newbie questions. (I was a "victim" when I first posted there; it's sort of a right of passage.)
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.
Now I don't feel so bad about warezing Tribes and buying Tribes 2 at a flea market for $2.00
Seriously, I think that Tribes was meant to be warezed. It was a multiplayer only game that had a small footprint, the CD wasn't required to play, and there was no CD key copy protection.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Shrike capping, loved it. The real genius was having your own shrike to jump out of, grabbing the flag, and then meeting up with your shrike on the other side.
Clowns like you are the reason that such games, BF:V, for example, require the CD in the drive all the time now. There's NOTHING that is needed to run the game on the CD, just that dorks like you abuse the system, leading to irritation for us all.
Nice going.
Unreal is claustrophobic, whereas the Tribes series is outside on immense maps. You can just go out and ski if you get bored, while in Unreal, there is little more than a cramped arena and narrow halls to run around in. The Tribes series has vehicles for hauling your compatriots to the enemy base, and turrets for reinforcing defenses, and mines for defense and intrusion detection. There are different classes, and the ability to hide and heal yourself inthe enemy base. I like the Unreal series, but the Tribes series is better, with the same intense combat inside enemy bases, mixed with strategy and tactical elements.
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
Did we play on the same server? I was [DEMB]-Jason?
But serriously. I loved hunting for snipers, and then being a sniper also. I was usually Engineer class with repair gun, rail, missles, grenade launcher, EMP grenades (to take out heavies with shield pack), and an Inventory station to place lasers to catch flag runners.
I loved how people hosting would put a long delay before a game starts so the teams could get a strategy going. Then in game these teams would develop where two heavies would protect an Engineer placing forward lasers to kill flag runners, then the Eng would heal the heavies while returning to base.
Or on Tribes 2, groups would wait by the vehicle pad for a guy to fly the transport so they could just swamp the enemy base.
Or coordinating a bombing run as a distraction for the transport unloading flag runners.
there is just so much to the Renagades mod for Tribes 1 that made it great.
jason
Unless you were an engineere of light and a heavy with the chain gun trached you. The was an 2 second kill. I always hated that.....
:-) Then set up lasers to kill flag runners.
But then I was the guy that would team up with another engineer using the rail gun on opposite hills across a valley to snipe the same person at the same time.
jason
I'm forgetting the map name. But it had a square base with the vulnerable to the open air in the center. I would start matches with an odd technique: Suit up in medium armor with energy and hop a Shrike. Come in from the side, let the shrike bounce along the back of the base, swipe the flag and get out. Usually in the begining, people got the turrets up quick enough that light armor was still at risk of getting pinged to death, but a medium could survive quite easily. Plus, everyone was so busy setting up, that you could actually make it back to the shrike as often as not.
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.
Even better; combining them.
Can anyone bring me some Shazbot!
It's been a long time since I played tribes, and I thought I was over it. The last Linux patch never worked for my system, and since then that system has died. I have a Mac now.
I figured I could live without computer games any more, but then this story had to come up and remind just how awesome tribes was. Now I want to play it again, and I have nothing I can play it on! I think I'm going to cry.
This is really great news. I know I'm about a week late on this subject, but I felt it was worth commenting on anyhow.
I played Tribes 1 when it first came out and for a couple of years afterwards. In fact, it was the first online game I ever got into, and haven't really gotten into any in the same way since. Tribes, IMO, had a combination of amazing graphics (even now they are pretty good) and awesome team-centric gaming. Even from the first Doom, it was always so much more enjoyable to experience something, compared to deathmatch style killfests.
That's to say nothing of the networking code, which is to this day some of the best I have ever experienced. I remember playing games with wide open maps and a couple dozen players (many times with a dozen or so in my line of sight) on a 28k modem. And it was playable! I tried that with Return to Castle Wolfenstein a year or so ago and it was not even worth trying to play.
Several other posters have mentioned it, but there are an aweful lot of modded servers out there. I stay away from them like the plague. Even back in the day when Renegade first came out I wanted nothing to do with them. Sure, some people will rave about it, but there was something so pure and balanced about the native, untouched game that couldn't be bested. I don't want one-shot kill sniper guns. Sure, the lasers can be pretty deadly even from across an entire map (I used to love playing as a sniper), but the sniper rifle wouldn't kill someone in one shot unless they were already damaged. If you're stupid enough to stand out in the open long enough to get shot twice from the same person, that's too bad.
I could go on and on about the merits of Tribes. The physics model was great too (you could ski down the hillsides and gain incredible speed if you you what you were doing). I know that was unpopular with people too, so you can't really do it in Tribes 2. Im just really thrilled that they are choosing to re-release these games. It's hard enough just getting those older games to run on a new system. Like some of the other posters, I'm hoping that it will rejuvenate the tribes community.
Nowadays, if you try to get in on any game that is more than a month old, you're going to get owned by all the veterans who never stopped playing in the first place. Hopefully we will see some newer players to balance out the skill levels and make the game fun to play for newbies and those of us just returning to the game after a long break.
Haha, to this day I still say "Shazbot!"