Ready Jet Go! Tribes Ascend Closed Beta

Tis the season to launch your closed beta, it seems. Joining in with the flurry of secretive practise goes is Hi-Rez Studios, who have today announced their closed beta is to begin on the 4th November. Those who buy the "VIP Starter Bundle" are guaranteed a way in, and it's pot luck for the rest. Oh, and there are two new screenshots.

I'm not sure I'm going to tolerate games saying they offer things like "verticality" every time they include a jump button, but perhaps Tribes is the last I'll let through. Jetpack-including manshoots are in the hands of a team who seem rather passionate about the series. And they're making it for free. (Well, I'm sure they're getting paid, but we won't have to contribute to that.) And they're keen to point out that Ascend will offer an alternative to the coming season's Modern Battlefields. Says Hi-Rez's COO, Todd Harris,

"This holiday season, shooter players can continue to hide in cover and crawl across the ground while playing one of the familiar military-style shooters... Or they can get off their belly, strap on a jetpack and join us in high flying, high-speed combat in Tribes: Ascend!"

Paying your way in to the "free" game seems to get you a bunch of the bits and bobs that it will try to bleed you of once you're in, and make sure you're in the beta. That'll cost you £20/$30.

And in other news, the Hi-Rez logo looks a lot like the Autobots'. I foresee a very dramatic court case.