Team Fortress 2 Goes Free-to-Play, Meets the Medic

[syltman]

Oh and I recently just bought it...

 

[Rorschach II]

The only reason im slightly annoyed is that I DID actually buy the game this month :/. Its annoying to think that I could have waited a few weeks and got it for free. :'(

 

[DJ Jack]

Despite the fact I feel a bit saddened I didn't wait for an awesome go nuts deal like this to come out to join up with TF2, I am ecstatic to know that the player base for the game won't ever die down! Unless of course they release a TF3....

 

[-Dragmire-]

To be honest, I've never played TF2, but I did thoroughly enjoy the coop multiplayer in Resistance 2 which my friends tell me it "heavily borrows" from TF2. Now that it's F2P, I think I'll look into it.

 

[mikespoff]

Oh, and "Meet the Medic" is out. You can see it here to the right - but really, you clicked that before reading the post, didn't you?

...no, but only because I'd already seen it on the TF2 site...

This is awesome. More Free-to-Play games is unquestionably a good thing.

...and yes, I actually bought the game via the Orange Box, and I STILL think it's great that the game is now free. I was happy to pay money for it, it was worth the price I paid at the time. Now Valve have decided it makes better business sense to let people into the base experience for free and make money off microtransactions, and that's OK too.

(damn, I forgot: this is the Internet so I'm not supposed to be reasonable! )

 

[Awexsome]

It would be understandable for those who bought it very recently to be a bit annoyed but really the game has been dirt cheap for quite a while. And if you bought it before it was dirt cheap then would you give your years of playing the game back to save some money?

I know my answer is no. What would I have done with those 500 hours I have logged on it?

 

[Aprilgold]

Ok, thats out of the way, guys TF2 is NOT a MMO, and repeat, NOT an MMO! It can't be physically, just because it has a cash shop does not make it an MMO, people need to figure out that certain things CAN'T be a MMO, hell, every FPS MMO I would call out and say its just a Online FPS with RPG elements [god, good day for abbreviations] Ok, I myself bought TF2 when it was 20$, you want to know how much I would pay? OVER 9,000!! Nah, I'm kidding, but it felt like for what I payed, I was getting 8,080$ more.
Ok, so that's the short version, now for my rant, spoilered for convince.

Spoiler

Cool, your reading this, let us begin. Valve is not trying to scam people, valve dropped it on all of us, yes the only people to complain are the guys that bought it right before it was Free 2 play. Now I can get to my rant about many things TF2 related, so be prepared.

1: Hats. This is apparently what killed many people off TF2, but I can literally assure everyone that hates them that their avoidable, play on decent servers for one thing, you can tell the quality of a server by the chat going on, if you see a trade chat, leave it and go to another, you'll find one fun 24/7 server and enjoy playing on it. I never had a real issue with these, but apparently people hate it when content is added to a game.

2: Unbalanced Gameplay. I also hear this complaint quite often, and none of the weapons are unbalanced for pure killage, the best weapons, are the starter weapons. Ask any pro gamer that plays TF2, I can take a wager he will say its the base weapons that are the best. I hate hearing this a lot because its just un true, no class is stronger then another class without = amount of classes being able to destroy its weak spot, engineer, spy, pyro, solider, demo, heavy, scout, medic. You see this chain, all these classes can kill one another by using the others weakness.

3: THEY RIPPED ME OFF! This one is brand new from people claiming that they want their money back, guys, CALM THE FUCK DOWN! If you want your money back, their not going to GIVE you it back, Valve has a No Return policy, so tough noogies. Valve isn't evil because you bought their game, your just supporting this company, nothing wrong with that.

4: Its a kiddie game. This is my most hated complaint to this games name, because of its art style, many [By the way, all the manys are all across the net] because its art style is what it is, but that no means its bad or even kiddie, the gameplay is very tough if your new, but you'll learn. All the teamwork is there, and is very good.

Oh, if you haven't watch meet the medic.

Ok, in full, GET TF2, PLAY IT, ITS WORTH YOUR 0$ DOLLARS!

 

[swenson]

Ok, so that's the short version, now for my rant, spoilered for convince.

Spoiler

2: Unbalanced Gameplay. I also hear this complaint quite often, and none of the weapons are unbalanced for pure killage, the best weapons, are the starter weapons. Ask any pro gamer that plays TF2, I can take a wager he will say its the base weapons that are the best. I hate hearing this a lot because its just un true, no class is stronger then another class without = amount of classes being able to destroy its weak spot, engineer, spy, pyro, solider, demo, heavy, scout, medic. You see this chain, all these classes can kill one another by using the others weakness.

Just gotta say, you're right on there. A good player can play extremely well with any of the weapons. Literally the only weapons I can think of that might possibly be a little teeny-weeny bit overpowered are the Black Box (which you still have to be a good Soldier to get benefits from, and if you are then you'd be good with the ordinary rocket launcher anyway) and the Backburner now that it has airblast (but again, to be good with the airblast you have to be a good Pyro anyway, and therefore would be just as good with a different flamethrower).

 

[CarlsonAndPeeters]

PC gamers are not making themselves look good over this. Everywhere (or many places) in TF2 they are complaining about console gamers (like myself) jumping at the opportunity to try out a fun, free PC game. Yes, I'm a n00b, many other people are n00bs; we're new to the game. In a few weeks, we'll have either gotten better or quit. They are being as rude and obnoxious as the whinny 12 year olds in CoD.

Can't we all just get along?

 

[Aprilgold]

Ok, so that's the short version, now for my rant, spoilered for convince.

Spoiler

2: Unbalanced Gameplay. I also hear this complaint quite often, and none of the weapons are unbalanced for pure killage, the best weapons, are the starter weapons. Ask any pro gamer that plays TF2, I can take a wager he will say its the base weapons that are the best. I hate hearing this a lot because its just un true, no class is stronger then another class without = amount of classes being able to destroy its weak spot, engineer, spy, pyro, solider, demo, heavy, scout, medic. You see this chain, all these classes can kill one another by using the others weakness.

Just gotta say, you're right on there. A good player can play extremely well with any of the weapons. Literally the only weapons I can think of that might possibly be a little teeny-weeny bit overpowered are the Black Box (which you still have to be a good Soldier to get benefits from, and if you are then you'd be good with the ordinary rocket launcher anyway) and the Backburner now that it has airblast (but again, to be good with the airblast you have to be a good Pyro anyway, and therefore would be just as good with a different flamethrower).

I agree, those weapons are a little overpowered, but its not such a big overpower to get you to become Bezus Bhrist. And I was going to add something in there about them, but no one likes to change weapon layouts if their comfy with theirs.

PC gamers are not making themselves look good over this. Everywhere (or many places) in TF2 they are complaining about console gamers (like myself) jumping at the opportunity to try out a fun, free PC game. Yes, I'm a n00b, many other people are n00bs; we're new to the game. In a few weeks, we'll have either gotten better or quit. They are being as rude and obnoxious as the whinny 12 year olds in CoD.

Can't we all just get along?

One thing to remember man, don't stop playing. Those guys are probably just getting used to all the new guys, when they mean NOOB, they really mean KEEP TRYING, TRY HARDER, get where I'm going with this. Its a great game, don't let the Douchnozzles ruin your fun, ignore them, play practice modes or rounds offline before trying to get out there if you feel you need too.
It takes time to get good at a class, so look up the wiki for hints and tips, or just learn through playing online, its harder, you'll have plenty of douches, but just go ahead and allow them to whine, you just try to enjoy.

 

[tahrey]

Speaking as someone whose computer may or may not be powerful enough to actually RUN TF2, I entirely welcome this news, as I can now try it out (and with it, finally discover if my machine can cope with - yes, try not to faint with disbelief - Portal. As in, "one".) without risking carefully guarded and presumably non-refundable beer money.

If it works, and I like it, I'll happily buy something from the Mann store... and probably the remainder of Orange Box too, if that's still a pay-for item.

Most Source games run pretty well on older systems. Before my new laptop, it ran on an even older laptop very well. Now you got a good benchmark

Er, no I don't actually. You haven't specified anything about those two machines, not even when each one was bought, or whether they were all so good at the time of purchase, let alone actual specs.

The game may be 4 years old, but my laptop is now a little more than 5, and it was already focussed on portability and battery life than gaming chops. I'd peg it's performance as "solid", rather than "screaming". It was pretty good when bought, and thanks to a couple RAM upgrades and a newer hard disk, has held its own; but, still, a few modern websites multitabbed in Firefox can make it seem slightly tardy. Not "slow" or "sluggish", just not responding with quite the same speed-of-thought zip anymore. Like you're operating it remotely with a couple hundred ms ping or whatever.

Once more I'll publish my spec, so you can tell me how your new/old ones compare

1.73Ghz Pentium-M (1mb cache, no HT, 533mhz FSB)
2Gb 533mhz DDR2 (PC4200)
120Gb hard disk, can't remember if 5400 or 7200 but it'll sustain better than 25mb/s copying large files, and the OS partition is effectively short-stroked (takes up the first 40gb only)
Integrated GM915 graphics
Some kinda audio but only a mono internal speaker and a built in microphone that's not really good for much. Got a hand-me-down headset knocking around somewhere, though.
XGA internal screen, SXGA external monitor (which tears noticeably on refresh unless it's set as the sole display - the GPU doesn't seem to be taking it's fair share of system RAM for a backbuffer like it should)
Decent built-in keyboard
Microsoft Intellimouse Optical <3
Tons of space on external USB HDDs

Now, is that enough to pwn with?

(BTW any desktop I have access to without spending money is likely to be similar or even worse - EG a 2.2Ghz Celeron-4 with i845 GPU, a 1600mhz Duron or Athlon XP 2300 with a GeForce2 MX440... this lappy was an upgrade from the D1600, and the others are systems people simply didn't want any more)