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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."
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...
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
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.
A valid point, except most games have a fair bit of licensed code that wasn't developed in-house; it's impossible for a company to just decide to release the source to everything. And what's the alternative - spending tons of man-hours on stripping all the licensed code from an old game, just to release it for free? Doesn't make much sense either way.
ClutterMe.com - easiest site creation on the Net. Just click and type.
These aren't all chump games. In fact, many of them are very popular, commercially successful games.
Impossible? Not at all.
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
He wants his freedom at the expense of other peoples freedom.
Others are "free" to choose how they want to distribute thier property, but that isn't good enough for him, he wants it to be free on his and only his terms.
Hey jvm, thanks for posting the itching question of "Will this include the Loki Linux release?" up on http://www.linuxgames.com/
At least now I have a place I can watch for the answer!
"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
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?
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.
Perhaps I haven't followed the development, but I don't seem to recall any of those source releases leading to further development. When is the last time you played the fully updated and evolved open source Doom?
I just think your whole arguement is a little silly. If a company wants to give away its source that is fine with me. If a company wants to give away binaries and protect its IP that should be okay too.
And who cares if this is just a publicity stunt to promote the new version of Tribes? It is still an really nice thing for them to do. Are you just opposed to the idea of doing something that may result in making money? Sorry to say, but they don't owe you anything. If you don't want their free gift, then don't take it. Just don't bitch about them not giving you more. You have no entitlement to their source code if they don't want to give it to you. If you want it, then reimplement the game from the ground up.
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.
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.
You obviously havn't looked very hard.
There is a thiving community build around engine work for Doom, Quake, and Quake 2, at least. And i'm sure there are others out there that I just havn't looked for yet.
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.
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.