Fallen Empire: Legions Gives Tribes a New Coat of Paint

Cole Stryker — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:00:00 GMT

I never got into Halo. I have nothing against squad-based combat; I spent plenty of hours in high school playing Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear. But there was one game that consumed my waking life more than any other. After working a ten-hour dinner shift at Mickie D's, I'd throw open my window to let the cool night air into my stuffy room and fire up Starsiege: Tribes, playing until dawn and sleeping through the afternoon. It was an easy way to avoid the summer heat and my nagging parents.

The easiest way to describe Tribes to the uninitiated is "Like Halo, but with jetpacks." It was the first online multiplayer game I experienced, and it remains one of my all-time fav's. Playing Halo after experiencing the mid-air bliss of Tribes was like going from a roller coaster to bumper cars.

"Like Halo, but AWESOME" also works.

Fallen Empire: Legions (ugh, again with the colons!), is developed by the same dudes who worked on Tribes, now known as Garage Games. As "spiritual successor", it retains many of the same elements, but major differences include a suped-up jetpack, which allows players to change direction in mid-air and play with momentum a bit more.

The game is free to play online, for now, and it will play in the comfort and convenience of your browser. It's been available for a while, but no one else is talking about it except for Tycho at Penny Arcade, so it bears repeating. Watch a promo video and sign up for free beta play at Instant Action.

NPD Wrap: The Times Are a Changin’

John Constantine — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:00:00 GMT

April’s come to a close and now, under the cold, hard light of math, three things are becoming clear. First, people freaking love Nintendo games. Sure, we already knew that, but over a million people bought Mario Kart for Wii in less than a week. Second, people freaking love Grand Theft Auto. Nearly two million people bought that in even less time. Third, our access to new videogames is going to change dramatically in the very near future. While these numbers may just look like numbers to us, to the people who publish videogames, the people who control when we get to engage these creations, the math is saying that 2008 is different. Tradition dictates that high profile, big hype games are held in reserve for the holiday push from late September through December and the rest of the year is just a slow trickle of quality goods. The math of March and April 2008 says that people will buy many, many games throughout the year, not just around Christmas. What happens now? Going forward, we’re going to see more games, more often. At least, until digital distribution destroys physical media and the whole issue becomes moot.

While the gigantic March sales numbers didn’t keep their drive through April, even with five days of juggernaut sales from Grand Theft Auto 4, all the players put in impressive showings. Wii sales kept pace, down to just 714K units from 721K, but Nintendo DS sales saw a more precipitous decline, down to 414K units from a powerful 698K despite the healthy software debut for both Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon SKUs. GTA4 moved the huge numbers expected, selling 1.85 million units with only days left in the reporting period but it failed to make an impact on HD console sales. Microsoft and Sony saw sales of their home consoles drop below the 200K mark but both companies can expect bigger sales through May thanks to GTA4 momentum and anticipation of marquee June titles Metal Gear Solid 4 and Ninja Gaiden 2. Software sales were cool on the whole. GTA4 and Mario Kart Wii dominated, but no third party was able to replicate the success Ubisoft and EA had in March with the debuts of Rainbox Six Vegas 2 and Army of Two.

Hardware Sales

Wii - 714,200

Nintendo DS - 414,800

PSP - 192,000

Xbox 360 - 188,000

PlayStation 3 - 187,100

PlayStation 2 - 124,400

Software Sales

GTA IV (360) – 1,850,000

Mario Kart Wii -1,120,000

GTA IV (PS3) – 1,000,000

Wii Play – 360,000

Super Smash Bros. Brawl – 326,000

Gran Turismo 5: Prologue – 224,000

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness – 202,000

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time – 202,000

Guitar Hero III – 152,000

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) -141,000

Out thanks to both Next-Gen and Kotaku for their coverage.

61 Frames Per Second : rainbow six

Fallen Empire: Legions Gives Tribes a New Coat of Paint

NPD Wrap: The Times Are a Changin’