By John Walker on July 28th, 2011 at 9:28 pm.
What we already know about Hi Rez’s Tribes: Ascend is that a) it’s going to be pretty, and b) it’s going to be free. I can’t prove b to you, short of ripping open the heads of the Hi Rez staff, tearing out handfuls of their brains, and searching, frantically searching for the intent. But I can prove a with a new screenshot, which if you’ll click on it will expand in every direction. Plus there’s a few others we’ve not posted below.
28/07/2011 at 21:30 mcnostril says:
Because nothing says tribes like guns that take up half the screen.
28/07/2011 at 21:35 Khemm says:
You took these words right out of my mouth.
I was about to write something along these lines: ” The gun models do not take up enough screen space, I demand bigger ones”.
Hopefully, it’ll be possible to remove the guns entirely and adjust the FOV.
28/07/2011 at 21:39 Tacroy says:
As a guy who played Tribes 2 with a female character model because the way they held sniper rifles took up less of the screen, I am in agreement.
28/07/2011 at 21:51 Starky says:
Keep in mind those screenshots are 16:9 so if you have a 16:10 monitor you’d have a bit more vertical space.
That said I don’t mind the guns, real weapons block more vision than that anyway, and I kind of like big chunky sci-fi guns.
28/07/2011 at 21:55 felisc says:
yup.
28/07/2011 at 22:04 treat says:
Indeed. I too would lose my immersion of realism if it were possible to see around my guns in this inter-planetary jetpacking flag-capturing game.
28/07/2011 at 22:19 James says:
@treat
You’d lose your suspension of disbelief, you mean. You could still be immersed. Realism is a silly argument though, I agree.
28/07/2011 at 23:35 Davie says:
Doubtless there will be a certain class of player who thinks the only proper way to sneak up on someone is to hide behind the viewmodel of their gun.
29/07/2011 at 03:06 Dirtyboy says:
They’ll charge you money for more viewing area.
29/07/2011 at 08:47 Dan Forever says:
Yeah but the guns are so pretty, who wouldn’t want half their screen real estate occupied with guns as pretty as those?
You have two eyes! One too look at the gun and the other the bad guy.
29/07/2011 at 09:27 furiannn says:
Small guns DLC – £5
29/07/2011 at 09:31 badoli says:
I don’t need screenspace to kill ya! Shazbot!!!
28/07/2011 at 21:33 Red_Avatar says:
Oooo *likes*
28/07/2011 at 21:37 Daiv says:
So are non-GIGANTOR guns going to be a “premium” option?
28/07/2011 at 23:27 Balobam says:
I also believe if you haven’t given up and gone Premium within a month, the gun will start to increase in size until you see only gun, to an outsider you are nothing but a leggy gun blindly firing into all things everywhere
28/07/2011 at 21:45 HarrietTubgirl says:
Everyone always has to make comments about the size of the weapons with this game. I bet they will allow you to change the size of it or have a small weapons option like Unreal Tournament games had, given it’s on the Unreal engine there is a good possibility.
28/07/2011 at 21:51 Khemm says:
What if they won’t? You’ll THEN join the complainers’ brigade?
28/07/2011 at 22:14 Herzog says:
You couldnt change fov in Section 8. And Section 8 is using the UT3 engine.
28/07/2011 at 21:48 Fwiffo says:
I hope ‘Harabec Phoenix descends from the stars and slays the enemy team in his HERC” is a premium option.
For £1000.
28/07/2011 at 21:52 Dana says:
Shazbot !
28/07/2011 at 22:10 James says:
Shazbot!
28/07/2011 at 22:18 doktorjung says:
Better luck next time, dogmeat!
28/07/2011 at 23:50 BathroomCitizen says:
What a sha..
SHAZBOT!
29/07/2011 at 01:51 DrGonzo says:
I’M A MEDIC! Oops, wrong game.
29/07/2011 at 03:32 Khann says:
What was it.. v55 “I’m a medic” and v21 “Need a medic”?
Man I miss that game… maybe I need to re-install and see what kind of an Oceanic community is still around.
edit: nope, looks like v55 was “bye”
29/07/2011 at 08:11 Azmat says:
Humans… taste like… Fish [BioDerm of course]
Brwa ha ha haha
Umph!
I need a ride [psycho voice]
I’ve got your number! I’ve got aaaall your numbers! [psycho, again]
Aaaa-aaa-aaargh
They need to bring back those brilliant amazing taunts back to us. Shazbot, away!
29/07/2011 at 09:58 Strangineer says:
I need an APC pickup.
I need an APC pickup.
28/07/2011 at 21:59 Vagrant says:
Did they photoshop people into these screenshots? The character models (especially in that last shot) have AA problems that look a) out of place with the rest of the screen and b) look like low-res rendering issues circa 10 years ago.
Also, there’s bizzare noise around the character flying in the 3rd screenshot.
28/07/2011 at 22:02 Vagrant says:
Not that I’m being a graphics whore, I’m just worried about progress if they’re having to edit in other players to their screenshot. And I hope that we get to assault flying bases like those shots lead me to believe. Fighting in tight spaces was my favorite part of Tribes.
There’s also a pun in there about a studio called High Rez releasing such low rez screenshots.
28/07/2011 at 22:09 James says:
I like that you’re thinking and concerned, but I’m not convinced they’re edited in. Maybe you’re right, but I assume they’ve probably got the issue of character models in the game locked-down.
28/07/2011 at 22:21 Malawi Frontier Guard says:
The jaggies on the last shot are due to jpg-compression. It’s a lot more visible on red parts of a picture.
29/07/2011 at 04:25 Kato says:
It’s actually possible for engines (not sure which one this uses) to anti-alias different parts of an image using different algorithms/framebuffers. It’s entirely possible that, in the interest of speed, players are rendered on a separate thread, and not anti-aliased. Not a likely solution, and especially unlikely to wind up in the final game, but extremely possible.
28/07/2011 at 21:59 Anthile says:
Is it just me or do all these Unreal3 engine sci-fi shooters look the same?
28/07/2011 at 22:22 Yuri says:
Surprisingly(and unfortunately), this looks more like Halo than standard Unreal. :(
29/07/2011 at 08:51 innociv says:
Just you. It was rather true a few years ago. All the games had that bloom grim gloss because no one understood how to use the material editor, but I think a ton of scifi UE3 games look different enough to where an informed one can’t immediately tell it’s UE3.
UE3 games also tend to run really well. The only UE3 game I’ve played that runs poorly is APB.
01/08/2011 at 04:40 Zudeo says:
For example, 2010′s Medal of Honor’s Single Player campaign uses Unreal 3 Engine. I haven’t had a problem detecting the majority of the games on the market but MoH’s was different. Try it, and you’ll see it just has hints of UE3 but that’s it. Definitely worth a try if you like military FPSs.
28/07/2011 at 22:00 treat says:
Hopefully they add a purchasable load out that contains no weapons at all so I can actually see where I’m going.
28/07/2011 at 22:01 James says:
Sweeeet, sweet intent….
28/07/2011 at 22:07 Crainey says:
Sure does look pretty, I’ve learnt not to get hyped about games though otherwise I’d be killing myself and getting involved in all sorts of shady business to get into the BF3 Alpha and Guild Wars 2.
28/07/2011 at 22:11 Hensler says:
As long as it has a Spinfusor, I’m already sold on it. You know, if it wasn’t already free.
28/07/2011 at 22:11 DarkNoghri says:
I only played Tribes a little bit, so I can’t really compare this to that very well.
However, one of my first thoughts was “Looks like Halo.” From the landscapes, to the architecture, to the weapon designs (including ammo counters), it looks like Halo to me.
Which says absolutely nothing about how it plays, but still…..
28/07/2011 at 23:25 RCGT says:
My thoughts exactly, look at the ammo counter on the assault rifle, the Forerunner-like structure, open maps, etc. Looks like it was torn out of the second level of Halo 1.
Jeez, they even included the compass thing, which in Halo supposedly pointed to the gas giant Threshold. Look, I loved Halo, but wholesale ripping it off isn’t gonna make anyone happy.
http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/MA5B_Individual_Combat_Weapon_System
29/07/2011 at 01:08 LyskTrevise says:
I assume that you mean Halo looks like Tribes, right?
Xbox Halo:CE NA Release Date: November 15, 2001
PC Tribes NA Release Date: November 30, 1998
29/07/2011 at 02:49 thebigJ_A says:
That would only make sense if the original Tribes and Halo looked alike. They don’t. Not much, anyway, whereas this New tribes looks very very much like Halo, even to the little compass on the gun and Forerunner-like buildings (original Tribes building weren’t like that).
28/07/2011 at 22:23 mehteh says:
I was interested in this until i found out it was going to 360 as well. Judging by these pics it is indeed focused for consoles as i suspected. Even the architecture in-game resembles the Halo universe. they’re obviously trying to grab Halo noobs. The size of the guns(if it isnt a FOV related issue) further reinforces this notion. Its ungodly huge and can barely see a thing
29/07/2011 at 19:08 tyren says:
They actually decided to scrap the 360 version, at least for now. Probably due to a lack of free-to-play support (among other developer-side annoyances) on 360.
28/07/2011 at 22:26 SpaceAkers says:
What’s the deal with the servers in this game? I can’t figure out the exact details, but it’s looking like a sub-optimal experience in that regard. If you can’t choose specific servers and stuff, kinda makes the game a non-starter for a competitive FPS……
28/07/2011 at 22:50 Teddy Leach says:
Please stop making me want things. I loved Tribes. Doubtless I will love this.
28/07/2011 at 23:14 Dowson says:
I often wonder why a lot of promotional shots are only at 1280×720.
Its just such a small resolution you can’t really make things out, and in this case, it makes the UI and Weapons seem a lot bigger than they probably will be at a normal resolution.
28/07/2011 at 23:38 dee says:
A lot of 3D console games use that resolution.
29/07/2011 at 02:25 Starky says:
That, or even lower than that and up-scale it.
28/07/2011 at 23:19 tungstenHead says:
Some part of me expects Hi-Rez Studios to be releasing absolutely mammoth sized screenshots at like 160,000 by 90,000 resolution. I also expect them to use higher quality jpegs.
The ammo counter on the chaingun (I presume) is impossible to see when the sunlight is glaring off the gun itself which is something that needs to be fixed.
Even still, at “free” this is definitely worth a shot. Looking forwards to hitting the slopes. Well, maybe not so much the hitting them.
29/07/2011 at 00:38 moondog548 says:
Pastel is the new brown, innit?
29/07/2011 at 01:02 Ultra Superior says:
ouch.
Maybe this version will be free and if you pay for a DLC you’ll get a version with better graphics?
29/07/2011 at 05:13 pipman3000 says:
needs more gray and brown. i want it to look like someone smeared shit all over necrotic flesh and put it in gray scale.
29/07/2011 at 01:35 Pointless Puppies says:
Have there been any details released as to how they’ll pull in revenue? Because I don’t want to get excited for a game if their idea of F2P is emulating Battlefield Heroes.
If they do something like TF2 then I’m good (new weapons being purely sidegrades, mixed with a cash shop that sells weapons that can all be acquired without spending cash, plus some PURELY AESTHETIC cash-only items). Otherwise I’ll just grab my coat.
29/07/2011 at 02:55 Retribution says:
Afaik they’ll be selling specific kits, armors, and equipment configurations
29/07/2011 at 09:03 Warskull says:
Unlike previous tribes there are only preset loadouts which you have to buy or grind to unlock. Knowing Hi-Rez the grind will probably be brutal and the starter loadouts will probably just be bad. Since each loadout is 2 weapon only, you definitely do not start with all weapons.
29/07/2011 at 01:44 matrices says:
You know, I was playing Q3 Live the other day and admiring all the old sights and sounds. In particular, I liked how the guns didn’t take up half the goddamn screen.
The moronization of gaming continues apace.
29/07/2011 at 02:04 H8Cr1me says:
Player model and weapons look awesome…the environments, not so much. Too Bland! And that palm tree looks horrible.
29/07/2011 at 02:27 Starky says:
I swear half the assets in this game seem to be taken from those generic asset collections you can buy then use royalty free.
29/07/2011 at 02:29 Fixious says:
Remember, this game won’t have mod/map making support, limited to 2 weapons, no dedicated servers, no custom loadouts. The list goes on.
In my opinion, it isn’t Tribes.
29/07/2011 at 02:44 thebigJ_A says:
There you are, Halo.
29/07/2011 at 05:08 pipman3000 says:
Oh my god COLORS!!!
29/07/2011 at 08:18 Bilbo says:
“I can’t prove b to you, short of ripping open the heads of the Hi Rez staff, tearing out handfuls of their brains, and searching, frantically searching for the intent.”
OK, settle down, Jerry Holkins
29/07/2011 at 08:47 innociv says:
If there is skii’ing, I’m interested.
29/07/2011 at 12:39 DeanLearner says:
Sometimes I walk around with a box in front of my right eye, just for the ultimate Tribes 1 Mortar launcher experience.
Mummy says if I am having fun it isn’t silly.
29/07/2011 at 12:58 Hayvic says:
What is this game? Looks like a Halo ripoff.
29/07/2011 at 15:12 Shark says:
You know, the more I hear and see about this game, the more I get excited…
for Firefall.
This game looks like it has three of the worst things of modern games: being clearly made for consoles, marketed at the mainstream fps crowd and having Pay-to-Win(tm).
Sigh.
29/07/2011 at 15:43 Eukatheude says:
Oooh this looks pretty.
01/08/2011 at 00:52 Zudeo says:
Fine. If they want to keep the Cpt. Gigantor guns, then I’ll deal. But if for any friggin reason the ends of the guns get cut off in Eyefinity while running or otherwise, I’ll go completely apeshit.