Yeah all those titles, take them as you wish. Tribes: Ascend, if you remember it coming out many years ago, just recently got a major patch, after it was kicked out of the studio into the cold weather and left for dead 2 years ago as the studio focused on their other game Smite. Apparently the long comatose/near death game…(using SteamCharts, the game for the last two years has been very low with the total average players being about 300 and slowly dropping)…was enough of a passion project that the studio came back and not only patched it, changed everything about the it.

The quick notes:

1.All XP has been refunded and all weapons, upgrades, etc. have been unlocked.


2. Any gold (premium currency) that bought items has also been refunded and is now strictly used for cosmetic items such as new skins or voice packs.


3. All nine classes have been condensed to 3: Light, Medium, and Heavy.

4.All classes can mix and match weapons but no double weapons of the same type, ex: 2 sniper rifles or 3 spinfusers.

5.Light and Medium classes can choose between 3 weapons, Heavy classes can choose between 4.

6. Credits, “Off-map” abilities (Orbital artillery, etc.) and base upgrades have been removed.


7. All base components are one level. (No level 4 turrets, generators, etc.)


8. You no longer have to choose a class to deal with vehicles as all weapons now deal damage to them, including rifles and LMGs.

With all that being said, it’s still the rocket skiing, spinfuser jumping, fast paced game it always was. The added bonus of this patch is more people are now playing so you won’t have to deal with only 5 people on your server. The game play itself hasn’t changed, however you do have to get used to having more than 2 weapons now for any class. When I tried out the game again, the old habit of having only 2 guns kept getting me in trouble as my other two guns were never used. Being a Heavy/Support guy, I very much welcome the new weapons but it’s my fault that I keep spamming “Q” in order to go back to my last weapon only for the game to go through my weapons one by one down the list.


Other than the few a**holes that complain that they got killed by bullets instead of a spinfuser…then again there are a**holes in all games so you can’t help that fact…the majority of the players coming in/coming back seem good and seem enjoy the changes of the game or so I think going by the in-game chat. I haven’t taken a poll or anything in multiple servers but why would I? I want to play any game for fun, not for seriousness.

Even before they patched it, there were plenty of servers around…granted the majority of them were empty…but now a lot of servers are full.

It won’t last obviously, I read a fair amount of comments from people about the game saying it’s: “too little, too late” which is obviously coming from fans who really loved the game but were disheartened by the lack of love they got from the studio when they left. And I don’t blame them but I do encourage them to at least give it a try again, even for the “oh yeah I remember how fun this was” moments.

When I was shown this game by Wiggin, either him or myself came up with “Halo with ski’s.” It was unique, it was fun, and I really enjoyed it. A new take on FPS, who doesn’t want to ski into battle? I was sad and annoyed that they abandoned it. Sad because it’s a great game, annoyed that they went to work on Smite. (I don’t hate Smite, I just hate MOBAs) With them coming back to their “passion project” I don’t see them doing regular updates again but maybe something will come of it. Bring back the community? Updates every six months/yearly? Who knows. I just know that this game is one that stands out and deserves to keep going. I just hope that they know this and try to do something for it for the future. And no, I don’t mean making a sequel; this current game needs to be “maintained” so that more people can enjoy it without feeling like they’re playing a dead game. Because it was nearly death before, now it’s gotten an injection of super jet ski fuel, let’s hope that that fuel carries it enough to maybe do something for it.