Tribes:Ascend new patch

I must admit, I was not overly thrilled when I first tried this game. Limiting your initial experience to a single class of Medium Armor didn't allow you to get the real "Tribes" experience. This has now all changed with the latest patch.

A light, medium, and heavy class is now available from square one. In fact there are now 3 variants of each class - each with different abilities and weapons. As with most of the games out there, Ascend is a series of unlocks that allow better abilities and more weapon choices. You are still limited to carry only 2 weapons no matter what the class. With unlocks though, the primary and secondary weapon can be changed out. Most of the time, you have only 2 choices in each, although some classes have 3.

The "feel" is very very much Tribes in the T1/T2 sense. Speed and action are right on par. It even has a bit of insomniax feel to it with the deployable force fields, booster packs, and other goodies. Whats different is that you can't "build your own class" like you could with T1/T2 - the weapons you can carry, nades you can toss, packs you can wear are very class specific.

Tribes Vengence just didn't have the right feel to me - it was way too floaty - the maps were too small - it just wasn't the tribes feel we were all used to.
T:A is a whole different ball game! While we are limited in beta to I think 4 CTF maps, they are well designed - large open and plenty of room to maneuver. Action is fast and furious and I have found myself with "capper shakes".

The points come quickly enough for you to start unlocking things but to really have a change to explore the classes, I went ahead and bought the $30 VIP pack -which give lifetime VIP status (double XP points), and 3000 gold which allowed me to unlock almost all the classes (could have unlocked them all but spend some gold on upgrades) and gave a very reasonable jump into all the classes.

I have been playing mostly LD with a few LO incursions. Played a bit of "Technician" who is the turret monkey and accelerated repair. A bit of Heavy stuff but enjoying the freedom and speed of LD the most.

Was never a "top" player even when I played all the time. a 50/50 K/D ratio was a good run for me but I've been averaging 50/50 and have often been to the plus 75/25 or better - which for me is bloody amazing. I served up my share of "blue plate specials" (the games accolade for a MA), flag defenses, capper kills, and returns and have really enjoyed "Tribes" again. Played a bunch in the last few days.

I have at least 2 beta keys if anyone want to try this out - if you have beta and haven't played since the lasted big patch, I would suggest you give it another shot - you may be quite surprised. If you haven't - give it a couple of matches and see what you think. Let me know if you need a key!

 

I just played a match of CTF. I came away 11/5, one blue plate special and a capper kill.

Pretty fun.

 

Gets that old blood pumping again eh?

 

After playing a bit more, I am of the opinion that the P2P model isn't conducive to fun play, at least in this game. Also, the upgrades based on score is going to encourage the cowboy type play. Why stay and defend the base when it is more score-worthy to go duel? Some may say, "Well, do it for the team!" Yeah, and gimp yourself while others who won't "Do it for the team!" rack up huge scores thus nicer upgrades. Whatever happened to just get in and play with all classes equal within their specific grade?

I am wondering if there will be any good games to come out any more.