Tribes: Ascend rises on XBLA, PC this year

by JC Fletcher on Mar 11th 2011 1:30PM

Hi-Rez Studios announced last year that it's doing something massive with the Tribes IP. It just revealed a much smaller-scale project as well. Tribes: Ascend is an Unreal Engine 3-based, multiplayer-only, downloadable Tribes game heading to XBLA and PC in 2011.

"Tribes fans appreciate the game's essence–athletic FPS combat combined with teamwork and strategy," Hi-Rez COO Todd Harris told PC Gamer. "As we began development of Tribes Universe, we focused first on capturing that essence–refining and modernizing iconic elements like jetpacks, skiing, and vehicles. We've had tremendous fun play-testing and realized the potential of a multiplayer focused title ahead of Tribes Universe."

Rocket past the break to see the trailer, which openly positions the game as a followup to Tribes 2.

Source: PC Gamer

Tags: hi-rez-studios, microsoft, pc, tribes, tribes-ascend, xbla, xbox

Reader Comments (63)

Video didn't do anything for me. Never played Tribes but it is spoken about in high reverence.

I'm interested in learning more.

@Truant

Think Team Fortress Classic but in an open environment.

@Credge

Heh, yep that's generally how I try to describe it.

@Credge

And sometimes on roller skates.

@TrueWhiteBoy

It's hard to imagine describing Tribes to someone who hasn't played it considering I use Tribes as a reference point for describing other games.

I'd say it was the yin to Unreal's yang if anything.

Speaking of which we really need a Tribes vs Unreal game already. (Quake is not even considered. Tribes and Unreal fans wouldn't be caught dead in a room with a copy of Quake in it).

@Truant

I just got a space boner!

@Truant

Try out Legions: Overdrive for a good example at Tribes combat.

http://www.legionsoverdrive.com/

The guys that made the original Tribes games made it. They never got a chance to completely finish it, but it's still fun.....and it's free :)

@Anticrawl

There is a whole room of Quake/Unreal/Tribes fans that disagree, I don't see why it needs to be a one or the other thing.

@Anticrawl

I agree with Draugdraugr. If anything, you've got some strange alternate reality going on, or you have a funny memory of the past.

The classic conflict was always between Unreal and Quake.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/12/15/
What's more, is it was just like any other fanboy war--ridiculous. You certainly could have an opinion about which game you thought was better, but there is always room for both.

Tribes, however, is in a different category. It's never been associated to be in the classic conflict described above.
It's just not even the same type of game. It was a classed objective-based large-scale shooter with jetpacks vehicles. Quake and Unreal were never about any of those things (yes, Unreal tournament 04 got vehicles years later... that's a different matter entirely).
As far as the Quake vs Unreal battle goes--Tribes is Switzerland.

@Tephlon

Actually in the Quake vs Unreal classic battle, Tribes is Mars.

@wterka
@wterka
Or you could actually play Tr.ibes 2 for free to see first hand how Tri.bes is. Go to www tribes.next.com/downloads and download it there. Take out the period between the S and N.

@Truant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvikgXkDi98

Dude talking at the end sounds identical to the Halo announcer in MP games. "Flag Stolen", "Flag Returned", etc. Same guy? Anyone know?

Hi Rez's other IP- Global Agenda, has a very Tribes-feel to it, so I have faith in their team to handle the Tribes IP well. I was a little worried to hear the next installment would be an MMO, but this news makes me glad to hear they are building a more accessible option.

Anybody know the answer on whether it's same guy doing Tribes voiceovers as does Halo MP? They sound super similar.

@OperaMando
I thought the same thing, but I don't think it is him.
The announcer in Halo is Jeff Steitzer and I couldn't find anything that links him to Tribes - (his IMDB - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0826245/)

@OperaMando

You do know that Halo was originally a Tribes clone right?

@Kungpowking

not really...it's so easy to call another fps game a clone of one that came before it. besides, all he was saying is that the announcers sound similar. no need to jump on the "halo is for n00bs" conclusion mat.

@Liquidfingers

Actually, if you look back far enough into the history of the development of Halo, it's real hard not to think of Tribes when they talk about it.

I can't seem to find the exact video, but in it they talked about large scale battles with vehicles... and at the time Tribes instantly popped into your head.

Saying it was a "tribes clone" is a bit much, but the comparison was definitely easy to make

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2et3cKlSSk&feature=related

@dhn
here's an hd version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV07MgjpoLE&feature=channel_video_title

Any Tribes news is good news.

I hope they bring back the old voice-binds in some fashion:

"Boom Baby!"

@tensider

SHAZBOT!

@SmashZilla

VGS! VGS! VGS!

Anyone else notice the red guy playing rock paper scissors with the blue guy at the end?

Spoiler: blue guy wins (scissors over paper)

I spy a super secret message. Diamond Sword always wins!

Damn it, why are you releasing this? All the hours wasted with the original Tribes with the Renegades mod and the 3dfiles community smack talk pack sucked up hundreds of hours. And now you want to steal my time again?

*sigh*

Here's my credit card.

@LaughingTarget

Renegades!

Some video highlights from one of our matches (with a crazy ending) oh so many years ago that I dug up a few weeks ago when I got yet another T2 itch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDR466RorPM

Oh god yes...

Just take my money already.

i hated this game on the pc back then. half of my computer class LAN'd quake Arena while the other half played tribes. IIRC, tribes had way too big of a learning curve for me.

Dammit this will most likely split my tf2 time in half oh well if it's.... Ahh who am I kinding this'll be a blast

really? "our flag is secure"... i was hoping for "shazbot"

@jwmaag
You read my mind!

@jwmaag V-G-S

@jwmaag

a flag being a standard, i think they mean "Tribes" isn't lost to history, and in the hands of those with reverence for it.

well Shazbot!

I've been sorta looking for an FPS to replace TF2 with since the Mann-conomy. Seems only fitting that Tribes now looks to replace TF2 as it was once TF2 that replaced Tribes.

I can't wait to start, huge maps, setting up satellite bases, blowing up generators, repairing generators.... tank and air combat!

I just hope that Tribes Ascend lives up to the IP that spawned it.

@Scuffles

it being a console release as well, I'm concerned about huge maps. Just like what happened with Crysis' jump to multi-platform, I fear the large maps might be one of the first concessions to make it workable. We'll see of course, they haven't done much but say they are working on it so far.

Definitely interested to check it out, Quake, Unreal, Tribes, all of em were classics and hopefully it stays true to the IP, as opposed to making sure its another CS/ET/MW2 Style shooter. Tribes had aspects like that, but they were uniquely 'tribal'

One word - goosebumps.

I'm bummed there was no actual gameplay footage, but I'm definitely interested to hear more about this.

Hmmm...honestly this is the 360s biggest console exclusive IMO.

@Jack Kevorkian I agree.

It would be so badass if they brought the original to PSN. I remember getting an NVidia card that came with a special Tribes CD that had increased graphical fiedlity only possible on the NVidia GPU. Would be great to see that version of the leaping-off point for a "Tribes HD" release.

This seems like will be extremely hard on XBLA. The aim sensitivity needed for Tribes is very high.

Hopefully they don't screw up the PC version while trying to make this work.

@wterka

Yeah I'm a console guy nowadays but there's no doubt I'll be playing this on the PC. I don't see how Tribes can even work on consoles.

My last comment seems to have disappeared into oblivion but the gist of it was that it's incredible how, even now about 7 years later, games that are seen as "going beyond normal shooters" with team based gameplay, class based gameplay, vehicle gameplay, sprawling maps, etc all still only include a subset of what Tribes pioneered for them all those years ago.

It's crazy that there still isn't another game that has matched the depth of Tribes even after this long. It's like we've gone backwards.

@Vcize

Well, you did say you switched to consoles, and when games make it from PC over to console they usually suffer from some sort of simplification. Just look at Crysis 2 and Dragon Age 2. As more devs went multi-platform, they need/want to appeal to all platforms, and things can suffer from that. Tribes I think is going to suffer from this, I cant see them transferring the complexity of Tribes to the console, for a list of reasons, starting at controller config, I'd list other reasons but more than likely nobody wants to hear em ;)

Definitely interested to see how it pans out, however.

@Draugdraugr

That's a fair point, but there have been plenty of PC exclusive shooters to come out that still couldn't compare.

Remember when Tribes came out the Battlefield series didn't even exist yet. They've released several games since then, and they're seen as the biggest team-oriented, vehicle oriented, large environment shooter out there and even what that franchise has is 1/10th of what T2 offered on those fronts.

@Vcize

Fair enough, you're absolutely right that nothing has matched up to it, though I think part of that is because gameplay standards had slipped, so no one tries to be as ambitious as they were with the Tribes franchise - I guess it'd be foolish to not include that the pubs/devs are themselves partly responsible, because they're inclined to make (fiscally) safe games.

I noticed they were using UE3, which is a little disappointing (thought not surprising) The Ue3 netcode certainly isn't the best, and it seems like nothing compares to the original tribes netcode. Not that it is a concern for me personally, but I'd love to see this being as connection friendly as the first tribes, the pings you could get from your dial-up in the first tribes games were nothing short of remarkable.

I just hope they make sure it's a true successor to the tribes franchise and not in name/weapons only.

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Tribes: Ascend

Tribes: Ascend rises on XBLA, PC this year

Reader Comments (63)

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 1:33PM Truant said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 1:42PM Credge said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:02PM TrueWhiteBoy said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:09PM Mister Darcy said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:23PM Anticrawl said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:37PM ijustw1n said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:54PM wterka said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 3:00PM Draugdraugr said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:11PM Tephlon said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 10:04PM Vcize said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 11:10PM JIAGPOS said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 11:14PM JIAGPOS said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 1:36PM OperaMando said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 1:43PM Frostfell said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:10PM OperaMando said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:17PM DrMacTavish said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 4:46PM Kungpowking said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 6:09PM Liquidfingers said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:24PM Tephlon said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 1:37PM dhn said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 1:38PM dhn said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 1:46PM Arsenal said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 1:48PM tensider said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 4:16PM SmashZilla said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:51PM Tephlon said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 1:56PM swiftfix said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 1:59PM TheOtherJames said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:05PM LaughingTarget said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 3:03PM Vcize said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:08PM NinjaJesus said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:08PM Huey2k2 said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:10PM bshido said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:13PM Stuwie said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:15PM jwmaag said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:28PM Erluti said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 3:12PM phinn said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 3:27PM fid said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:26PM Scuffles said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 3:04PM Draugdraugr said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:26PM Anticrawl said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:29PM Trojan said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:46PM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 3:12PM phinn said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:48PM matthargett said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:52PM wterka said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 3:02PM Vcize said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 2:56PM Vcize said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 3:14PM Draugdraugr said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 3:26PM Vcize said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 3:40PM Draugdraugr said

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