185: Storming the Fortress

[Nathan Meunier]

Storming the Fortress

Can releasing a patch actually persuade new customers to purchase a game? If your game is Team Fortress 2, it can. Nathan Meunier speaks with Valve's Robin Walker, co-creator of the original Team Fortress, about the game's ongoing development.

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[Markness]

I wonder why they haven't already brought those updates for the 360 version. If I know the PC would get these updates first I wouldn't have bought it for the xbox.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Team Fortress is slowly approaching to take over as my favourite game.

Sure there still are a few bugs, a few Kobayashi Maru scenarios (like trying to beat Goldrush/Badlands against 4 engineers) and a few speedhackers/cheaters; but overall it's just a really great game.

Even in L4D there's still a bunch of knuckle-draggers that will Teamkill at random but the whole community in TF2 does little wrong except scream "HAX!" occasionally. And I can put up with that as they burn..BURN....BURN!

As the Pyro would say, "Hommana Hommana Ha!"

 

[brabz]

Very enjoyable read. Well researched and nice article flow. Makes me all the more jealous I picked up TF2 for 360 instead of PC though.

 

[AnotherFineMess]

That's it... today I'm going to get out of work, go to the nearest store and walk out of there with the orange box!

And great article!

 

[Graham]

Team Fortress 2 is probably the best thing Valve have ever released, it's close for me with Portal.

That's saying alot.

Personally, I've been playing a ton of L4D on my 360 recently and actually don't have The Orange Box. I didn't feel the need to get it after beating a friend's copy of Portal, but after reading this article, I know I need to pick it up for PC

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Undead Dragon King]

Here's a tip on how to get the "Rasputin" achievement (at least, this is how I got it.)

Playing as a Heavy, it's pretty easy getting the shot, burned, and blown up damage in a single life. It's the bludgeoning part that's tricky. You rarely see scouts, soldiers, demomen, or engineers running towards a heavy with their melee weapon, unless they want to occupy the spot of about 50 bullets.

So you have two approaches: During a team assault on a sentry gun, stand in the area around the engineer as he furiously whacks the sentry with his wrench. Seeing you right next to him, he might whack you in the process. It's really only useful to do if you've already been shot, burned, and recieved explosive damage, as you'll die either by the sentry or by the engineer's frenzied attack. That's how I did it.

Or you could just watch for the rare heavy coming at you with the KGB and take the hit. =/

 

[Nathan Meunier]

Thanks for the advice!

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Thanks for the advice!

Another way to do it is simply to charge a group with invulnerability on. Most of them will scatter apart from the soldier, demoman and pyro, which takes care of most of the damage; and then you'll probably get stabbed as soon as you come out. Bing, Rasputin.

 

[Abedeus]

That's it... today I'm going to get out of work, go to the nearest store and walk out of there with the orange box!

And great article!

Do it. Do it now. And thank God the orange box exists.


...Team Fortress 2 was so good I bought it alone, although now I would buy the Orange Box. But not on the Steam, retail version not only comes with an awesome box, DvDs and some other stuff, but also is CHEAPER.

 

[Fordo]

The Orange Box is possibly the best investment I've made in gaming in years. Running around with Gordon Freeman ate up some time. Portal helped me re-discover what really makes a great game.

TF2 has been my favorite game since Counter Strike first came out. The players for the most part are well manered. The action is always light hearted, while still deadly serious. Overall, it's a game I can spend 30 minutes on or several hours depending on how much time I've got.

The game was easy to jump into and have fun, but I've still to feel like I've mastered any one class.

 

[jahsol]

I have been thinking about buying the $99 valve bundle on steam, this article has just convinced me I need to.

 

[Undead Dragon King]

To The_root_of_all_evil:

I wasn't aware that getting backstabbed was bludgeoning damage...

 

[shMerker]

"Bludgeoned" just means being hit with a melee weapon, that includes the khukri, knife, axe, bonesaw, and broken bottle. I die inside a little bit every time I backstab a heavy and see that I just gave him the Rasputin achievement.

The things Walker said about the sentry and disguise seem to have been partially addressed already. The spy's cloak is now much more effective as it can be recharged by anything that gives ammo (Including an enemy dispenser!) and Engineers have been given upgradeable teleports and dispensers that make them more useful to the team and--coupled with the now defusable sticky bombs--better at keeping their sentries alive.

The constant updates have definitely been a major factor in getting me to keep coming back over the past year. There have been plenty of bug and balance exploits that could've ruined the game in the past that have been addressed by the team. Here's hoping Valve continue to deliver an evolving experience in what is one of the best games in a long time.

 

[Grenbyron]

With the exception of snip-hacks, still one of my favorite games to play with friends.

-Bio-Hazard (Mad Engineers Corps)

 

[Lord Harrab]

Team Fortress is slowly approaching to take over as my favourite game.

Sure there still are a few bugs, a few Kobayashi Maru scenarios (like trying to beat Goldrush/Badlands against 4 engineers) and a few speedhackers/cheaters; but overall it's just a really great game.

Even in L4D there's still a bunch of knuckle-draggers that will Teamkill at random but the whole community in TF2 does little wrong except scream "HAX!" occasionally. And I can put up with that as they burn..BURN....BURN!

As the Pyro would say, "Hommana Hommana Ha!"

Hudda hudda hudda! As a die-hard Pyro player with over three days combined playtime as the fire loving maniac, i must agree with this statement, I've met a lot of great people in this game, and even when my team is losing, I'm laughing and having fun.

 

[Tryss]

still love TF2 this far out of the release date. They got the formula right right his one.

 

[GCM]

Hudda hudda hudda! As a die-hard Pyro player with over three days combined playtime as the fire loving maniac, i must agree with this statement, I've met a lot of great people in this game, and even when my team is losing, I'm laughing and having fun.

Three days combined as Spy =P. I must say, it's a lot more about cloak and a lot less about disguise now. I don't think the disguise is dead just yet; running up as a friendly pyro certainly draws a lot less attention than running up as an enemy spy, but I'm sure something will come out that will fix that. Most of my work is around the cloak now, though, thank gawd for that update!

As for Rasputin, I got it while playing normally, which makes it ironic that Heavy is my second least played and I haven't even gotten the KGB yet. =P

I'd like to argue in favor of the Pyro. I'm telling ya, it's not all about "Mouse 1"!!

...

You also need "W". =D