Greg Hasting's Tournament Paintball Max'd
Itching for some paintball action? Activision has you covered this fall.
Preview by Ken Horowitz (Email)
September 22nd 2005
The Basics: Activision is finally releasing the next installment in their popular paintball series, adding a slew of new features and some Xbox Live-only bonuses. By combining the best of sports competition with the tactical play of a first-person shooter, Tournament Paintball Max’d should provide fans with the hours of enjoyment as they battle through the single-player career mode or duke it out online with up to thirteen buddies.
The game boasts over 200 fields of play, as well as some deep customization (make your own play fields!), and gamers will love the licensed pro players, authentic equipment, and twenty actual playing areas. The Xbox version also includes single elimination tournaments, leaderboards, and downloadable content. All this is set to over 19 licensed music tracks from artists including B Real and Octane.
What do we think? This is a pretty interesting direction to take the FPS genre. Paintball is a pretty popular sport, and it’s about time it gets the attention it deserves. The first Greg Hasting game was something of a sleeper hit, with just over 120,000 gamers blasting each other online. The sequel looks like it may top those numbers, and I’m getting the feeling that this is going to be for paintball what the Tony Hawk series has been for skateboarding. That, my friends, is a good thing. There’s a ton of options here, and everything is 100% authentic (148 pieces of real gear? Insane!). How can you go wrong?
I’m most intrigued by the ability to build your own field. As if the huge amount of areas already included weren’t enough, you can now create your own. That holds some incredible potential, and I can already foresee some truly wicked designs. Xbox Live gamers are very creative (remember Forza Motorsports?), and you could conceivably spend hours online without ever playing on a standard field. Give this some time and you’re sure to see some impressive layouts.
It may seem a bit odd to spend time online with a FPS that doesn’t involve fragging or massive explosions, but trust me; this looks to be one hell of an alternative. If everything goes right, Activision could have a breakthrough hit on their hands.
Greg Hasting's Tournament Paintball Max'd is also in development for the PS2 platform
