Conclusion

Keep your eyes on this one

From what we've seen in the test, there's plenty of reason to keep an eye out for the release of Tread Marks. It looks to be innovative, eye-catching, and best of all, fun! This juvenile-fantasy-come-true is being made intelligently as well; guns leave craters in the dirt, and best of all, the terrain doesn't end! If you're feeling antisocial, you can just pick a direction and drive as far as you want, using the hills you encounter to attempt to roll your tank.

Incoming missiles

What a beautiful sky

Game performance is actually quite impressive, considering that it hasn't been optimized at all. On the Celeron 400 / TNT test system, running 1024x768 at the highest possible detail level and texture size (basically, in the highest mode the demo can be set to) was just as smooth as any of the other graphics settings. Also, the readme warns of poor network performance, but we had no problems at all. Even as a test, network performance was stable and fast, with no notable hitches.

Flip, flip, flip

Check that guy out

Further bulletins as events warrant

Although there isn't too much to report now, be sure to keep your eyes on FiringSquad for more info, screenshots, and general mayhem. LongBow promises to include multi-colored terrain in future versions to alleviate the drab, monochromatic browns you see here. In particular, Tread Marks will have a variety of landscape and sky textures, and for a change of pace, some water courses as well. Tread Marks promises to have a compelling mix of action, absurdity, and explosions.

Close-up

Always a lot of smoke