Further to add to my excitement, the gameplay demo avaliable on youtube (see video) also shows a game which seems to play like a true Tribes games - the gameplay does not seem watered down at all. This is pure Tribes madness, with players "skiing" all over the map, flags getting captured, vehicles causing havok left right and centre - and it all looks beatiful in the Unreal 3 Engine. As far as free games go this is looking to set the standard for any free FPS in the future, Global Agenda tried, Battlefield Play For Free was ok, TF2 got converted, but Tribes:Ascended is looking to be the first truely hardcore FPS game to be free to play from launch - and looking at the trend it will not be the last I bet.

All players will have access to the jetpack, guns, grenades etc etc - you can be fully competitive without paying a penny. The "paying" aspect of the game seems to follow a League of Legends sort of deal, where in LoL a certain group of heros are free each week/month and that free pool rotates over time - if you want to play a character perminantly it will involve either shelling out a small about of cash, or playing about 30 or so games to earn enough in-game currency to unlock your fav hero. So far - although not 100% confirmed - Hi-Rez Studios plans to have many weapons and plenty of equipment in the game, and will be making as many "classes" as possible to select from. To access any class, any time, you will have to purchase it, otherwise the range of free classes will change over a period of time to give all players a taste of every class/gun combo on a regular basis.

Tribes has always been a competitive game at heart, and is an epic game to watch in action as players glide and jetpack all over, and my only worry is that by going free to play that gamers may loose out should they wish to play competitively, and will have to shell out to get all the weapons etc - but we would normally have to pay for a game box/ CD key anyway so thats not the biggest problem. Here's hoping more info about how the servers etc will work in the near future will be revealed, but until then you can guarentee this game should be a blast to play and should be able to fill a rainy day here and there for most FPS junkies at the very least - I however will be playing alot more than that unless Hi-Rez Studios mess this one up!