Tribes: Ascend officially launches, gets a feature-filled patch

Today marks the official launch of Tribes: Ascend from Hi-Rez studios, even if it has been in a very open beta for some time now. It is, however, still free to play. Along with the launch, Hi-Rez released a rather sizable patch with a number of changes, including a new map, a new game type, and a preview of Custom Servers.

The Tribes franchise has had a long history, although it has been many a year since we’ve seen a new title launched. Ascend seems to have been largely well received by many, and it has already built up a community following. As one of the very few games of its subgenre within FPSs, it has gotten fans of less realistic shooters rather excited.

The Tribes games have always been pretty unique, and Ascend continues the tradition of fast-paced, high-flying shooting. There is something of a retro-vibe to it, which causes it to stand out from most of the FPSs released today (not that we don’t love those, too). However, if you want to get a good run down of the game, this is your one stop shop that comes complete with links to a number of tutorials that will have you delivering Blue Plate Specials while skiing like a pro.

If you’ve already been playing, you may be interested in checking out the full notes on the latest patch. However, here’s the run down on the biggest additions:

• A new CTF map called Raindance was added.
• Players can now test unowned weapons in Training mode.
• There’s now a 20 second warm up before matches start.
• A new gametype called Capture and Hold has been added with three maps. As you may guess, it is about capturing control point.
• A limited number of Custom Servers are now available for players to join, each featuring customized game rules. For example, there’s a mode with free vehicles and no light armored classes allowed that is cheekily called BF-Ascend. This is a preview of the full Custom Servers release that will come out at a later time.

Related Posts:

• Nearly 20 minutes of Tribes: Ascend demo footage makes its way onto the web
• The PC Will be the Lead Platform for Tribes: Ascend from Hi-Rez Studios
• Tribes Ascend open beta launched today