The
surprising return of Tribes: Ascend on PC Gamer is a look at
Tribes:
Ascend, and efforts by Hi-Rez Studios to revitalize their online shooter
that started with the release
late
last year of an "out of the blue" update that added new content and removed
all pay-to-win elements. The article features comments from Sean McBride who
discusses the history of this
Starsiege TRIBES remake, and why some
things turned out as they did. He also outlines their motivations, expressing
love for the franchise and a desire to leave the game in a better state, even if
it's not something that's going to make them any money. Here's word on where
things stand:
Although Tribes devotees may feel that their game was put
aside in favour of Smite, the MOBA’s success is what has allowed Hi-Rez to
re-establish a small Tribes development team. “We had enough manpower and enough
resources,” McBride says. “We’re, like, 225 people now—we could spare a few.”
Given the small size of the new team, I ask McBride if they ever considered
making a simpler, subtler update—a set of fixes rather than a major overhaul. “I
felt that if we didn’t do something fundamental and big then we wouldn’t have
players come back,” he says. “Let’s really embrace the fact that it’s going to
be different now and draw players back with that. Ultimately I felt like players
would be bored if it was totally the same game with some new maps and balance
changes.”
There’s a performative aspect to this decision too—the scope of the changes is a
way of building lines of communication with the community. “It set the stage,
right?” McBride says. “This is how big of a change we’re willing to make to the
game, so come back, talk about it, give us other ideas, you know?”
We all know the frustration of not knowing who to shoot at a party, and now
Party Saboteurs is available
on Steam early access,
capturing that experience in a Windows video game. The game features stylized
pixel art and is focused on local multiplayer, though online multiplayer support
is planned. Here's word:
Party Saboteurs brings the tension and strategy
from games like Spy Party and Town of Salem to the local multiplayer genre. The
players have to move carefully, trying to blend in with the other guests and, at
the same time, watching out for any awkward movements that might give up an
enemy spy.
Each player controls a spy who is trying to blend in an exclusive cocktail party
to complete their missions. The catch? At the same time, they are all
controlling snipers trying to identify and eliminate each other’s spies. There
are two ways to win: completing the missions first or killing the other spies.
A
new video from
Star Citizen offers a look at extravehicular activities in the early access
space combat game. Word is: "A brief look at the continuing development of our
three-stage EVA transitions designed to make first-person combat in the
persistent universe a thrilling experience." Thanks
DSOGaming.
Continue here to read the full story.
I got my new computer glasses and I'm very pleased with the outcome. Having them
tuned to monitor distance makes even the tiniest of typefaces readable. I don't
really see the direct impact of this blue light filter, but I assume it's part
of the effect, and it's certainly nice that they don't change the way I see
colors (even if I don't see them accurately). Barring an
Optigrab incident this
has turned out as well as I could have hoped.
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