On Monday, of Hi-Rez Studios, the creators of Global Agenda, announced that they're working on a new Tribes game. Now they're putting out a call for alpha testers. Read on for details on how to sign up.

Head to the Tribes Universe site for your chance to get in on the testing. To apply you'll need to answer several questions concerning your previous experience with Tribes and MMOs in general. Hi-Rez have said that they'll be giving priority to high level Global Agenda players, so if you have a top level Global Agenda character, it might be a good idea to mention it.

For more information about the game check out our post on the Tribes Universe announcement.

Halloween is fast approaching, the spirits are getting restless and trick or treaters are preparing to walk the earth in search of sweets. It doesn't matter how good their costumes are, they're not going to be able to compete with some of the Halloween events happening in the gaming world. Guild Wars, Aion, City of Heroes and Global Agenda are all running special Halloween events. Read on for an overview of the horrors that lie in store.

Guild Wars - The Return of the Mad King of Thorns


The Mad King is preparing to visit the kingdom of Tyria, and his spirits are already at large. Head to Lion's Arch or Kamadan and search for the Mad King's steward, he'll be the one dressed in candy. You'll hear news that the Mad King's Lunatic Court are hatching a plan to release the seals that keep their pumpkin headed leader confined for most of the year, turning the world into an everlasting Halloween party. It might sound like a good idea, but with special Halloween items on offer for completing these special quests, you'll probably want to put a stop to their mischief for the loot.

Come October 31st the Mad King of Thorns will make several appearances at the Lion's Arch and Kamadan, launching a series of ridiculous and deadly games. If you win, you get a special Halloween hat, if you lose, you suffer instant death (until you respawn, of course). If you're especially eager to get into the halloween spirit, a couple of ghoulish new Halloween costumes will be on sale at a reduced price until November 21st. For the full run down of Guild Wars Halloween events, check out the Guild Wars Halloween page.
Aion - The Harvest Revel


It's Halloween and someone has stolen all of the sugary treats. Even the winged immortals of Aion need sugary treats, so it's time to get them back, by beating the sugary crap out of some nearby wildlife. The Shulacks who were entrusted with watching the sweets instead ran off with them, and started gifting them to local animals. As a sugar obsessed member of the immortal race of Daeva, it's up to you to get them back. Retrieve enough goodies and you'll be rewarded with Revel Chocolate and the Pumpkin King's blessing, both of which grant powerful buffs to your character. You'll also get mystery boxes which could contain anything from potions from scrolls to enchantment stones. The event will kick off on October 27th. For more information on where to find the Halloween quests, check out the Aion Harvest Revel wiki.
City of Heroes - Monster Invasion


Zombies are invading all cities and dimensions in City of Heroes, spewing onto the streets, milling around, eating passers by and generally stinking up the place. Smite them with lasers, riddle them bullets or immobilise them with firm and repeated facepunches for special Halloween rewards. Look out for the circles of power that are appearing all over the place, these will summon much larger monsters into the world. You'll need a team of superheroes to take them down.

You'll also be able to do a bit of your own trick or treating, going door to door in Paragon city. If you're lucky the occupants of the home you pester might just give you a rare costume set. If you're really lucky you might get your very own slightly rubbish inanimate rock, which can then be thrown at enemies for very little damage. If you get a trick, you could find yourself fighting a horde of enemies, defeat enough of these and you'll be able to combine Halloween salvage to gain an additional costume slot for your character.

If you get your hands on one of the classic costumes, go door knocking while wearing it, and you might get a tip off for a special new quest, a mission to find the mysterious Malleus Mundi artefact. There are a ton of badges and awards to be earned in the event, which will last until October 31st. Check out the full list of rewards on the City of Heroes Halloween 2010 event page.
Global Agenda - Oasis Checkpoint of Doom


A crate load of new masks are up for grabs in Global Agenda's Halloween event. If you're over level 30, you'll be able to boot up the game between October 27th and October 31st play a new Defence map in the Raid list called the Oasis Checkpoint of Doom. This map will pit you and nine others against waves and waves of incoming enemies. Defeat them and you could win yourself one of thirteen new masks. If you defend well enough and take down the final boss, you'll get a guaranteed mask and along with a slew of other rewards.

For more information on the Oasis Checkpoint of Doom check out the Global Agenda site. If you fancy getting involved you can join the PC Gamer US editors for some epic base defence action in the Play With PC Gamer event later today.

Are you ready for Wednesday Night's Global Agenda Event? This is your less-than-24-hours reminder. As mentioned earlier, PC Gamer will be having an event in-game trying our hands on Oasis Checkpoint of Doom. We can't wait to blast some spooky ghouls with you in our finely crafted PC Gamer brand power suits, and hope you'll join us in-game tomorrow!

The details:

Wednesday, October 27, at 4PM PST
Players must be level 30 to be able to join in the raid.
Raids will occur every 30 minutes

Giveaway:
Make up a battle cry that PC Gamer should use in tonight's raid and post in the comments below. Battle cry should be family friendly and non-offensive. The first fifteen entries with a valid battle cry will win a copy of Global Agenda.

This contest is open to everyone.



Global Agenda is currently on sale at 30% off and can be bought here or on Steam for $21. See you on the battlefield!

Update: Winners have been selected and codes have been mailed out. See you in game.

The developers of class-based first-person shooter Global Agenda have confirmed that they are working on a brand new entry in the classic Tribes series, called Tribes Universe. It'll have huge battlefields, vehicle combat and will feature massive scraps involving more than a hundred players. Oh, and jetpacks. It wouldn't be Tribes without jetpacks.

Global Agenda featured an MMO-style metagame in which armies of players could fight for control of territorial hexes by taking each other's bases, but it looks as though Hi-Rez Studios are thinking even bigger for Tribes Universe.

Writing on the Global Agenda forums, Hi-Rez founder and lead designer Erez Goren said that "we can’t transform Global Agenda to a large scale battle format but since we liked this concept a lot, we decided to create a new game based on large scale fighting."

He added that "while working through the design we kept coming back to one old and loved game that represented many of the concepts we where incorporating into the new game (jetpacks, vehicles, large open space, three armor types, futuristic weapons, etc). Many of you will know this game as Tribes, the original on-line multiplayer shooter. As of now, Hi-Rez Studios is the proud new owner of the Tribes franchise."

HiRezErez also posted a list of features that will be included in the game:

Three Tribes (factions)
Full clan (agency) support
First person view (third person for some vehicles)
Full vehicle support (ground and air)
Full persistent world with territory control (no instances)
PvP focused
Huge outdoor maps (about 10x the area of sonoran desert)
Large scale fights (100+ players)
Jetpacks, skiing, lots of weapons, etc.

Tribes Universe will be staging alpha testing early next year. If you're a level 50 Global Agenda player, you'll have first dibs on a spot in the testing program, so it might be a good idea to get levelling now if you want to increase your chances of grabbing a place. This will be the first Tribes game since Tribes: Vengeance in 2004. The idea of a new, bigger Tribes in Unreal Engine 3 makes me go a bit wibbly with excitement. Did you play the old games? Are you excited about the change to man a Shrike in a new Tribes title? Let us know in the comments below.

Come play dress-up with the PC Gamer US editors in Global Agenda on Wednesday, October 27, at 4PM PST and be one of the first to run through the new Halloween themed mission, Oasis Checkpoint of Doom.

Oasis Checkpoint is a Defense Raid mission where 10 players defend a facility from waves of NPC attackers. It's decorated with “tricks” and “treats” for the holiday event, lasting from October 27 through October 31. Learn more about Raid Defense in this developer video blog.

Players must be level 30 to be able to join in the raid.






Thirteen new Halloween-themed masks will be available as random drops in the Halloween mission, and the items range in rarity from Uncommon to Epic. Players who defeat the final boss will score an additional mask on top of the normal mission rewards.

Raid timers will be reduced from 80 minutes to 30 minutes during the event in order to allow more players a chance to do a mission with PC Gamer. All the seasonal items received during the event will be wearable until the end of November.

Register for your free trial account here. Trial accounts are only able to reach level 12, though, and a one-time purchase of Global Agenda($30) will be required to advance beyond the level cap.

We'll see you in game!

Successful shooty-guns MMO Global Agenda was a success because it was designed from the ground up to appeal to people too busy with family to maintain a World of Warcraft commitment.

Speaking to EDGE, executive producer Todd Harris said, "World Of Warcraft has set the standard in terms of what the market place and end gamers think of as MMOs. We think there can be a lot of different types of MMOGs that can be successful. I think small can do it if they're conservative with their projections and their costs."

MMOs can't afford to try to be a huge phenomenon anymore - there are just too many of them. As Jim Edge pointed out, you need look no further than recent MMO tragedy APB for an example of what can go wrong when you think too big. Oh, Jim Edge. You are as wise as your beard is long.

Incidentally, I had ten copies of Global Agenda. I was quite looking forward to playing ten characters at once and cackling, but I accidentally mailed them out to ten people who came up with lame uses for jetpacks instead. I'm clumsy like that.

We've endured much, you and I. You had to endure two weeks of waiting to see if you were one of ten lucky readers who'd won a free copy of Global Agenda. I had to endure reading through a billion entries, each better than the last. To the ten of you who'll now be jetting around playing Global Agenda for free, my congratulations! We asked you for the ten lamest reasons or ways to use a jetpack. Here they are:

PD102 suggested "using a Jetpack to hover just above people's heads at a Cliff Richard concert." That's pretty lame, because other people behind you need to see Cliff Richard too. For shame!

Lack 26 may have let bitterness taint his entry. Better hope your supervisor at Jetpack Industries doesn't read PCGamer.com, Lack.
"Using it to deliver jetpacks, then having to trudge home in the rain having delivered said jetpack to those lucky enough to afford them; knowing all the while that your own life is miserable and empty in comparison and every day you have to go through the heartbreak of giving away what you most desire for yourself, a jetpack, to smiling, rich, happy families so they can soar like angels as a tiny speck drags its feet back down the driveway and through the gates."
Sir_Oddington reasons that there's no use flying around in the sky when you're missing out on a potential auxilliary poo storage chamber: "Hollow it out and use the metal shell as a spare sceptic tank." Pro tip: if someone then straps it to their back and tries to start that thing up, dive for cover.



contrapositive tells it like it is: "Reaper rushing."

DrugCrazed says: "To use as the beginning of a rube goldberg machine that pushes me up into the sky." I demand that the first step in the sequence is you turning on your apparently-but-not-really strapped on jetpack, which shoots off without you.

RichardDRMC is still fighting the good fight. He says, "Convert it to a podracer for little children. Then alienate one of the largest fan bases with some shitty prequals. Just sayin."

Bendito came dangerously close to my idea for a jetpack propelled rocking chair. He reckons you could use your jetpack for "Solo see-sawing".

jimangi wins a copy of Global Agenda because he'd "craft it into refined metal," but he also suggested that you could use your jetpack for "going to the shop for my copy of PC Gamer. That’s lame. Real men subscribe." Ah, I love the smell of patent advertising in the morning. The smell of victory.

Godl1keStev3 reckons that the height of laziness would be "using a jetpack to go DOWN the stairs." A winner is you, Stev3.

But Ociee made me lol the most with the mental image his entry conjures:
"Standing up."
Well done guys! I'll be sending you your codes via our forum's in-built "electromagnetic mail" system. Check your private messages for your keys. Once you have them, whack it into Steam.

Now, to fetch the list of codes from under the novelty magnets I've stuck onto my new non-cooling, curiously-jetpack-shaped, all-the-food-smells-like-paraffin fridge. It's a floating, smelly buffet!