Tribes: Ascend Launches Today

Game's Site

Hi-rez games announced on their blog, that today is the day that they're popular free-to-play shooter Tribes: Ascend will officially launch. Yep, no more beta phases to go through, but that shouldn't stop you from bug reporting when you find something amiss. The game is self claimed as the "world's fasted shooter" and features jet packs, skiing, vehicles, and team based gameplay all centered around the Unreal 3 engine.

The release build of the game features 9 playable classes, 5 game-modes for you to try out, and a staggering 16 unique maps. I say staggering, because if you've played any free-to-play shooter, you know most only come with maybe 6 or so maps. So usually there isn't much variety, but this one decided to do different and pass the standard by a bit. Some of the more recent additions to the game is a new  CTF (Capture the Flag) map called, Raineance, and they also include a new game-mode called Capture and Hold. Another new feature coming with this build is a preview of the up-coming Custom Server Functionality that they're trying to get ready for players. Though I do find it odd they it isn't ready yet for the release build, am I the only one thinking this?

Now most of you are wondering about the cash shop that the game does have, since it is a F2P title and I know how people love to say that all F2P titles are pay to win. For this title, they're trying to give a more balance cash shop, by diving away from the pay-to-win model. This is done by selling cosmetic items and giving another way for players to earn items/loadouts more quickly than grinding for the items.