Jeff Buckland reports:
''One of the most popular yet least understood online PC games has been Starsiege: Tribes, a game that was intended by now-dead developers Dynamix and publisher Sierra to be an offshoot of a more popular mech-based action game. Tribes wound up with all the popularity, though, as its fast-paced gameplay and open maps made for excellent futuristic fighting with plenty of depth. But the biggest thing was the ability to "ski", to take advantage of a physics bug in the game to use the jetpacks that all players had and a bit of skill to glide down slopes and fly high into the air at a high speed in order to win. While the two sequels to Tribes had much of the same elements, the community simply didn't take to them at all and the third game, not made by the original developers, wound up being a resounding failure.
Now, some of the original guys who made Tribes - whose studio, Dynamix, was closed by Sierra after Tribes 2 sold poorly - are using their new casual gaming site, InstantAction.com, to launch a new game in the style of Tribes. GarageGames' Fallen Empire: Legions is a pretty shameless ripoff, but hey, these are some of the guys that made the originals, so it's quite alright. We got a chance to play some of Fallen Empire during its ongoing beta test, and I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with what they have so far.''
