E3 2002Tribes Aerial Assault impressions

The new version of Tribes for the PlayStation 2, subtitled Aerial Assault, is on display at E3 2002 in the Sony booth, and we got a chance to play with it for a few minutes. The game is looking more polished than it did at this time last year, and it seems to be pretty close to complete--the booth information placed it somewhere between 80 and 90 percent finished.

Tribes Aerial Assault is a pretty straightforward port of the PC game Tribes 2. The game seems to have translated pretty well to the PlayStation 2--it boasts a high frame rate and reasonably easy controls, and it's pretty fun to play. The most impressive aspect of the game is that it's already running online. The four network kiosks in the Sony booth were involved in a network game including other kiosks at Sierra in the South Hall, as well as beta testers of the game in Seattle. Clearly, the networking part of Tribes, which is essential to the team-based nature of the game, is already properly implemented and ready to go for when Sony is ready to launch its online plans.

The actual gameplay is pretty similar to the PC version's gameplay. You and your teammates fight against an equally well-armed team on giant battlefields featuring impressively varied terrain. Of course, the jetpack, which is a hallmark of Tribes gameplay, is included and fully functional. The only really obvious addition to the game is a lock-on feature, which you can use to keep your crosshairs centered on fast-moving targets. This feature helps out immeasurably, since playing first-person shooters can be pretty difficult with the analog sticks on a Dual Shock 2.

Tribes Aerial Assault looks like it's shaping up nicely. The menus for scoring, setup, vehicle access, and other functions are all easily accessible, and the game itself plays about as smoothly as a mouse-and-keyboard-oriented game can on a console. Look for Tribes Aerial Assault to figure prominently in the launch of the PlayStation 2's networking components.