With a thriving community and a constant flow of additions and improvements, Team Fortress 2 is certainly one of the most successful online communities on the PC. Now, TF2 players can get in on the ground floor with the upcoming string of updates for game as Valve has launched a public beta for the game.
Among other changes and additions, the beta will feature:
Three Natascha variants:
- -40% damage
- -25% damage, -25% health
- Spin-up/down time increased, slowdown-on-hit effect falls off over distance.
- cp_granary: new entrance added into the RED and BLU mid ramp room.
- cp_5gorge: 5 CP version of cp_gorge.
- Players being healed by a medic are immune to movement-impairing effects generated by hit-scan weapons.
via Team Fortress website
used to love TF2, but they pushed it too far. It’s too bad I quit playing sometime after Mann-conomy and Scream Fortress Update. I used to love TF2 with over 1400 hours logged online in the passed 2 or so years, but the direction they are taking it is just too far. The updates started out fun, and good for the most part, but it started spiraling out of control.
The store was a low blow, but I didn’t mind that. All the ridiculous hats, and paints, and then unsightly “uncommon” hats that had ugly effects coming off them were pretty bad, but I would have still played because of the solid game mechanics…
What ruined the game was when valve started putting stats onto cosmetic items. Sure you could earn them, after 3 months of collecting items — so obviously valve was trying to get you to pay 17.99 for the hat… ridiculous… not even activision gouges its customers like that.
Valve who once championed balance, fairness, etc etc, started implementing crap like 25 health, just for wearing a hat. Although TF2 will never be the same for me, I am still loyal enough to pre-order their next game (portal 2) but they’ve made me cautious….
while I agree with you that stat-item-sets were not their best idea pretty much everything else you complain about are pure cosmetic things … and the store? Right now I played 705 hours of TF2. I payed 20 Bucks for that game.
So do I feel bad for giving valve some extra money for some items I actually dont even care that much about? Hell no.
Even with the occasional bad decision on the road TF2 continues to be a great (maybe even the greatest) MP shooter I ever played and I continue to have a blast every time I play it.
I cant say that about any other shooter out there.
Two things are wrong about that first post:
- There’s no such thing as an item/hat that gives 25 health. What there is… is a hat that if used with 2 or 3 more items will give you a set boost of 25 health, alonside a penalty. In fact, most competitive players don’t use the new items because the penalties (as in, reduced damage, reduced ammo count, not having a secondary weapon, etc) are way too big. The items are quite balanced, the Valve team has been awesome in that regard.
You can play PERFECTLY with stock items, I still do it with several classes and I have all the weapons in the game.
- Any item in the game that affects gameplay can be traded/built if you play for 1 day or 2. No reason not to have whatever you want. Heck, the game is so crowded now, most of the time you can just ask someone for a weapon and they’ll trade it to you. I did that dozens of times with excess items I had.
I’d agree with you on the unusual hats and their silly effects though. Even though I love mine… I’d prefer if they had a checkbox for that (Show Unusuals: Yes/No).