It’s sometimes nice to just to stand back from the combat and watch 30 distant combatants leaping and twirling madly through the air with explosions going off everywhere. I can only play it for short periods before my fingers are raw and I realise I haven’t breathed in a couple of minutes. It’ll take a bit of adjustment from other shooting games to get into the swing of the frenzied combat of Tribes.

The key to not dying in the arse is to be able to maintain momentum and predict enemy movement to effectively place your shots. There’s no camping here, no using cover, if you stay still you’re dead. You won’t play this game like any other shooter. There’s a slight back story but essentially you’re an armoured soldier of the future who can shoot explosive goodness all over the place, while flying around on your jet pack and ‘skiing’ across the map at over 160mph (at least I think that’s what the numbers on my screen mean). If I had to simplify the gameplay I would describe it as a more serious version of Team Fortress… on crack! This atmosphere continues into the gameplay. Before you even start a match the menu creates an atmosphere of fun mixed with drama. Upon downloading the very reasonable 2GB required to play this game from the Hi-Rez Studios website, the first thing you’ll notice is the stylistic art displayed throughout the menu. Over the last couple of weeks I have been investing some serious time into Tribes and so far I think it is completely and utterly fantastic.

It takes the standard pay-or-play format, allowing you to access all content without paying a cent, though it would take considerably longer. Tribes is essentially the latest in a long line of free-to-play multiplayer games. The latest instalment of the Tribes franchise, Tribes: Ascend (Tribes), was released for open beta. A few weeks ago there was a very quiet shift in the online gaming scene, barely noticed but highly significant.

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