![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
So there have been a couple new games I've been playing of late. FF III has been one of them, certainly, but there's another I've been throwing immense amount of time into that I haven't talked about at all, and I don't know why.
Team Fortress 2.
Part of why I haven't talked about it may be that its appeal is so beautifully simple: Kill shit. Kill shit with fire, with explosives, with an oversized and ridiculously phallic minigun, with remote sentries, with absurdly satisfying headshots, with the humongous motherfucker in front of you that you just made invincible...just kill shit. It's so wonderfully cathartic.
Of course, there is a hell of a lot more to it than just that. At this point I've had the chance to try out all 9 classes, and I'm beginning to work out my favorites. There are a number of maps that I love playing Sniper on, just because you can nail people from clear across the freaking map and they never see it coming. Heavy is kind of a go-to for me, provided someone else is playing medic. Playing heavy is very simple: Meat-tank, and kill everything that moves. I absolutely adore playing the Demoman when I get the chance; explosive chaos 101. The pyro is also a good time if I feel like running into large groups of enemies and getting truly absurd numbers of kills.
There are a few I'm less fond of, or haven't gotten the hang of. Engineer is cool but only if I'm in a very patient mood, and there are usually other people on the team who are better at it than me. Scout I just can't get the hang of. The principle is easy enough, run and gun, but I'm not twitchy enough to be good at it. Soldier was my initial favorite but the more I play the more I find that he's very limited in many regards. Balanced, but by the same token there's no one thing that he's really good at. I like spy, but it's a very situational class and a difficult one to get the hang of. Medic is cool and all but I find it difficult to stay alive long enough to be of much good (the "shoot this motherfucker first" effect).
The game itself is just immensely fun. The cartoony style and raucous dialogue fit right in with the "Meet the X" videos they put out, and the whole game is just straightforwardly fun. I've only had a couple games where the teams were unbalanced and the game auto-balanced them after a little while. Voicechat is, yes, occasionally very annoying (though the incidence of homophobic/racial slurs has been lower than I was lead to believe), but it's also been extremely useful and in some games hilariously funny. The best places to play are definitely clan-owned servers, where you get people who are both good and know how to coordinate a team. The achievements are also hilarious. You get one Spy achievement for disguising yourself and getting an enemy medic to heal you, then stabbing that medic in the back. It's called "FYI I am a spy." The medic has one for using your melee weapon to kill disguised spies that ask you for healing, called "FYI I am a medic." It's fantastic. The more achievements the more gear you unlock. I already have new weapons for the Sniper and Spy, and I'm pretty close to getting some Pyro and Heavy stuff.
So yeah, TF2 is a good damn time and a great way to cut loose after a long day. It's far from perfect, but as online shooters go I have yet to see better.
Team Fortress 2.
Part of why I haven't talked about it may be that its appeal is so beautifully simple: Kill shit. Kill shit with fire, with explosives, with an oversized and ridiculously phallic minigun, with remote sentries, with absurdly satisfying headshots, with the humongous motherfucker in front of you that you just made invincible...just kill shit. It's so wonderfully cathartic.
Of course, there is a hell of a lot more to it than just that. At this point I've had the chance to try out all 9 classes, and I'm beginning to work out my favorites. There are a number of maps that I love playing Sniper on, just because you can nail people from clear across the freaking map and they never see it coming. Heavy is kind of a go-to for me, provided someone else is playing medic. Playing heavy is very simple: Meat-tank, and kill everything that moves. I absolutely adore playing the Demoman when I get the chance; explosive chaos 101. The pyro is also a good time if I feel like running into large groups of enemies and getting truly absurd numbers of kills.
There are a few I'm less fond of, or haven't gotten the hang of. Engineer is cool but only if I'm in a very patient mood, and there are usually other people on the team who are better at it than me. Scout I just can't get the hang of. The principle is easy enough, run and gun, but I'm not twitchy enough to be good at it. Soldier was my initial favorite but the more I play the more I find that he's very limited in many regards. Balanced, but by the same token there's no one thing that he's really good at. I like spy, but it's a very situational class and a difficult one to get the hang of. Medic is cool and all but I find it difficult to stay alive long enough to be of much good (the "shoot this motherfucker first" effect).
The game itself is just immensely fun. The cartoony style and raucous dialogue fit right in with the "Meet the X" videos they put out, and the whole game is just straightforwardly fun. I've only had a couple games where the teams were unbalanced and the game auto-balanced them after a little while. Voicechat is, yes, occasionally very annoying (though the incidence of homophobic/racial slurs has been lower than I was lead to believe), but it's also been extremely useful and in some games hilariously funny. The best places to play are definitely clan-owned servers, where you get people who are both good and know how to coordinate a team. The achievements are also hilarious. You get one Spy achievement for disguising yourself and getting an enemy medic to heal you, then stabbing that medic in the back. It's called "FYI I am a spy." The medic has one for using your melee weapon to kill disguised spies that ask you for healing, called "FYI I am a medic." It's fantastic. The more achievements the more gear you unlock. I already have new weapons for the Sniper and Spy, and I'm pretty close to getting some Pyro and Heavy stuff.
So yeah, TF2 is a good damn time and a great way to cut loose after a long day. It's far from perfect, but as online shooters go I have yet to see better.
