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.

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Thanks Ant.

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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.

OptiLinks:	Thanks Ant and Acleacius.
Play:	Monkey Go Happy: Ninja Hunt 2.
Story:	David Hayter returns as Solid Snake with Konami's backing... In a Ford advert.
Media:	StarCrafts Season 5 Ep 2 Reaping Rewards. Good ol weed humor.
Follow-up:	Watch: SpaceX finally lands Falcon rocket on robo-barge in one piece.