TF2!

[MinisterofDOOM]

TF2 is basically my ideal multiplayer game. The perfect balance of teamwork and chaos. It's a very welcome reprieve from the recent slew of over-realistic, too-serious team-based shooters. Games are fast-paced and hectic, but still offer more opportunity for strategy than straight-up deathmatch.

The map designs are great. They put a LOT of thought into balancing the maps for individual classes. They also obviously designed the maps carefully to help promote continued fighting. There aren't a lot of "down" areas, and there's not much to take your mind off combat and the objective.

The classes are more unique than they were in TFC, and there is a lot more emphasis on inter-class support. You see a lot of duos running around: medic/heavy soldier/scout, etc.

They also went to some effort to try and balance gameplay so that the experience is more equal for novices and veterans alike.The sniper rifle, for instance, only does critical damage after a chargeup meter has filled (and it only fills when zoomed). This basically kills players like me, who can snipe the crap out of a battlefield without ever zooming (probably 90% of my UT2K4 kills back in the day were un-zoomed shock rifle headshots).

My favorite class so far is the Scout. The scout's speed combined with the fast firing, accurate pistol caters well to my play style.I found myself sucking pretty bad as a sniper--something that doesn't happen to me too often in FPS games.The soldier is fun, but I think they need to balance the rocket launcher a little better. The rocket is easy to dodge and the firing rate is slow. Battles with lighter classes basically degrade into "peek-a-boo."

One big change from TFC that I thought would bug me was the removal of grenades across the board. Now only the Demoman has grenades. Standard and class-specific grenades have been removed. They're not missed, though.

I haven't tried any of the other support classes yet (aside from the sniper), but I can already see how much impact a good medic can have on a game. The medic's healing ability is more conducive to use on the battlefield and a lot easier to aim. Now they just have to follow the heal target and the heal "stream" follows them on it's own. The Medic can also give himself and his target temporary invulnerability. During one game when I was playing a Heavy, a well-timed invulnerability charge on me helped us push through to the last cap point and win--definitely a sweet moment.

The game could definitely still use some balancing, though. The maps are too close-quartered and hectic for the sniper to be able to be very mobile and still remain useful. The crit gauge just takes too long to build after zooming. And the zoom is too deep to be able to run around while zoomed. I think if they took out the gauge but restricted one-hit-kills to zoomed mode only it would help a lot.

One cool thing about the TF2 beta is that it includes developer commentary on three maps. I've been a fan of Valve's commentary modes in the past (Lost Coast, HL2 Ep1) and this time is definitely worth listening to again. They offer a lot of insight into the changes from TFC, and also give you a good primer on the classes, game modes, and map designs that really helps you to jump right into the game without being utterly lost.

[480sx]

Dude i played TF back in the quake plat form days, i cant freaken wait. Have they set a date yet? Oh and how did you get on the beta testing? Id love to get in on that..

[MinisterofDOOM]

Official release is October 10th.

All you have to do to get the beta is preorder the Orange Box (HL2 Episodes 1 & 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2) on Steam.