Evans Space

Lately, I've been reading about DLC. A lot of DLC. And, maybe it's just my imagination, but more and more companies seem to be announcing DLC before the game releases. Some even giving a general date(soon after the game's release, usually). I'm all for DLC. Really, I am. It's a great little feature to keep games from dying a few weeks after their release. But for the love of God, stop announcing DLC before the actual game has released. It makes you look greedier than you already are.

We all know how DLC can be ridiculously high sometimes(sometimes! Now always). So when we hear about a game for a few months, letting the hype set in, then announcing there will be downloadable content soon after its release just isn't a smart thing to do nowadays. Unfortunately this seems to be a growing trend, with the whole RE 5 debacle a few weeks ago, the announcement of Godfather II DLC, now we have the announcement of map packs for Dark Athena. It sounds as if the content is almost, if not completely done and they're purposefully holding back because they know people will pay for it. Thankfully gamers have caught onto this and have started calling the companies out. Does it work? No. At least not now.

The smartest thing to do is to keep your mouths shut, and release the content a few months after the game's release. Realistically you guys shouldn't start creating downloadable content until after the game has actually gone on retail, but we all know that'll never happen. Go ahead, keep developing it 1 month after you started on the actual game, as always. Just keep it to yourselves, ok? Thanks.

Also, new InstantAction podcast. Listen to it, yo.

And no, I don't mean the actual bases in Tribes. Well, some bases are pretty good, but they're just bases. Tribes 'base' is, essentially, Tribes in its birthday suit. No modifications at all, other than a few base alterations. There are 5 basic aspects of 'base': Defend your flag, go after the enemy flag, defend your flag carrier, attack the enemy flag carrier, and of course capping the flag(if you have it). You're constantly doing something. Simply squatting behind the enemy base isn't a smart move, and it's actually frowned upon. You'll sometimes get kicked for doing such thing. Now, I don't normally play on 'base' servers. While I originally played Tribes without mods back in 1998/99, since then I've grown so accustomed to mods that 'base' looked boring. No new armors? Weapons? Turrets? It really didn't seem appealing, and I never saw the advantage. How wrong I was...

Tribes base is easily the most intense version of Tribes you can play nowadays. Simply watching a game is intense, which I've done a few times. To me, base players completely outrank every other player on the other servers for one simple reason: teamwork. They actually work as a team, which is what Tribes is all about. Go to any other server and it's every man for himself. While this isn't a bad thing, working with a team like you do in base is much more thrilling. Now, I'll admit that I've been a bit worried about going into a base game, mainly because of how much I know I'll suck and let my team down. You can get away with stupid shit on other servers, but not here. base is serious business.

But, with the recent news of Tribes coming back, I knew I'd better at least get a feel of it. I decided to join a game about half an hour ago, and it was just as expected. Intense-and hard-as hell. Right off the bat luck was against me since the map was Dangerous Crossing, one of my least favorite maps. I'm not exactly sure why I don't like it. I just don't. I played the game anyways and overall I sucked, but had a few highpoints. About half way through the game I got a pretty kick-ass midair disc hit, something I rarely do on any server. It didn't kill the flag carrier, but at least I hit him. I then tried to stop being Rambo, calm my shit down, and think about what position I'd be most useful in. Going after the flag carrier just wasn't cutting it for me. These guys knew the map like the back of their hand, memorizing which routes were the fastest. I'd decided to stay at the base whenever our flag was back home.

Defending your flag on Dangerous Crossing isn't terribly difficult, but you've gotta have at least 2 guys doing it. One for each entrance. And, as time went by, I found out that simply blocking the enemy from grabbing the flag, instead of trying to kill him when he's outside the base, is just as effective. I've seen this done before but never really attempted it. As the enemy is flying into the base, you jump right in his path, causing him to come to a dead stop. This allows my teammates to easily kill him(and me). So it was decided. Defense it was.

Overall I know I could've done better. Hell I could've capped the flag if my head wasn't up my ass. Scenario: Our flag is at the base. 2 guys, including me, are defending each entrance. I see our flag carrier approaching the base, so I step back to get out of his way. What I wasn't expecting him to do was throw the flag at me. I quickly realize this, but was too late. The enemy had already returned it before I had time to know what happened. I let my team down big time, but we still ended up winning with 7 points. It was certainly intense, and I can safely say I enjoyed it. I'll probably give it another go sometime tonight, then play on modded servers for a while.

Well, I'm still not sure if I'll be able to play the next incarnation of Tribes. From what I understand, they'll be releasing a standalone version of the game, as well as having it playable in a browser at PlayTribes.com. I'd much prefer to play on the standalone version. But even then, it kinda sounds like it'll be in OpenGL mode, which just won't work for me. That was my main worry. Still, they've yet to really get into details, so I could be totally wrong(which is what I'm hoping for)

InstantAction's newest podcast has an interview with Justin DuJardin, who worked on the game with Alex Rodberg(I think?) for about a year. If you're interested in knowing just how Tribes on IA will work, I'd highly recommend giving it a listen.

Edit: Also, they'll be showing off 'Tribes IA' (dunno what else to call it) next week at GDC. Not sure what exact date, maybe all week. Read up on it here.

You should know by now how much I enjoy Tribes, so imagine the surprise I got when I read that InstantAction would be bringing the game to browsers. 'Surprise' doesn't even come near to how I felt. As of now I can't play any of the games on their website, which sucks, but I still support them. Since Tribes runs perfectly well on this beast, I'm wondering if it might just be possible to play it in a browser. The graphics will obviously be lower than Fallen Empire: Legions, which works in my favor.

There's really not much else to say about this. I'm still in shock about it all. Really hope this brings back the Tribes community, or at least gives people a chance to play it who couldn't before.