Tribes 2 and Planetside 2
Back in 1999, I would have to say that I was a typical annoying teenager, who didn't really connect with their parents much. That being said, I was quite surprised when out of the blue, my mother came home from shopping one day and gave me a computer game. I recall being confused as to why I got it, and she said it was in the $5 bin. I even think she said, well if you don't like it, I can take it back. I looked at it, and for a while it sat, unplayed. I had never heard of Tribes, nor been very interested in shooter style games.
Eventually I did install it, and was blown away. I hadn't realized that the game was an online game, and was welcomed with an intuitive menu for finding servers to play on. The servers themselves were fun, and I enjoyed a bit of a modification of the game style, called Defend and Destroy... In this case, it was kind of like a capture point map, where both teams had to defend their base against attack. I instantly latched on to being a defender/engineer/heavy. I even toyed with my own server for a bit, and made a few maps. Tribes 2 was an amazing game, and way ahead of its time. I see aspects of its game play used in many of the modern shooters today, like Team Fortress 2 and even Call of Duty. As it turns out, that $5 my mom spent randomly on a gift for me one day, ended up paying off in hundreds of hours of entertainment and creativity. To this day I am thankful for it.
That being said, while Tribes 2 support is now community based, and only a few servers remain, the game will not run on my Windows 7 based computer. While I have played it within the last 2 years, it is still very fun and entertaining. But the fact that it wont play on my laptop severely limits my ability to play on it.
Luckily I have Planetside 2 to satisfy my shooter needs. Planetside 2 is very similar to Tribes 2, in that most of the classes and vehicles are duplicated almost exactly. For example, in Planetside 2 you have the Sunderer, which is basically a Tribes 2 Jericho Mobile Point Base. You have a Flash ATV, which is basically a Wildcat Grav Cycle. You have a faction specific fighter, a Liberator Gunship, and a Galaxy Transport, where as in Tribes 2 you had a Shrike Fighter, a Thundersword Bomber, and a HAVOC Transport Gunship. Not to mention the various classes. Medics, Engineers, Snipers, Light Assaults, Medium Assaults, Heavies... The similarities don't just end there however. Generators, Forcefields, Power Units, and Control Points, are all included in both games.
The only real difference is that Planetside 2 is a perpetual game, played on a vast MMO scale, where as Tribes 2 was a smaller map, with often no more then 32 people per server. That being said the Tribes 2 games could often last hours if there was no timelimit.
So far my opinion on Planetside 2 is that it is amazing. I have nothing to really complain about, other then that perhaps purchasing items with Station Cash is a tad expensive. That being said, they are in it to make money. Otherwise for a free to play game, it is amazing. You do however need a fairly hefty computer to run the game. That is its one downfall. I would say however that it is worth purchasing a computer for.