So this has been said by me before in other venues, but I thought I may as well regurgitate it here on my XFire blog so that there can be something for people to read on the one in a million chance that someone comes to my XFire profile and wants to read my bloggings. That was a really long sentence.

I would encourage anyone viewing this blog, however, to visit the squad at www.fighting69.com and check out the BBS there.

Now to the topic at hand; Team Fortress 2!

I was a huge fan of the Team Fortress Classic. I realize there are earlier iterations of the game going back to Quake days, but I was not much of an online gamer back then. I did briefly play some Team Fortress on Quake 2 at a friends house one weekend, but that was about it until I started playing the beloved Half-Life. I would go to my Dad's office at Southern Utah University and play there since he had the best computer I had access to there. I swiped his spare office key and started going in at night long after even the cleaning crew and left. I discovered a mod for Half-Life called Team Fortress Classic. I was hooked. I played TFC for countless hours, often going home just before the sun came up. TFC was as close to the perfect online game as anyone could get. I hated straight Deathmatch, I enjoyed team based games more but did not much care for Team Deathmatch either. My favorite game type was Capture the Flag. Working with others to achieve a goal beyond just killing anything that moved was much more satisfying to me. Add to that the Class system of TFC and you had something very unique. I had never played a game like this where you could be an engineer and build turrets, be a spy and disguise yourself as an enemy, or snipe people with your laser sight. The maps were very well designed and symetrical which I liked for fairness. Eventually I was drawn away from TFC by Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat, but I remember the great fun I had playing.

Present Day: Team Fortress 2

After nine years in the making we finally have TF2 in hand. I was slightly skeptical about the direction they went with the art but after playing the game for just a short time I can honestly say I love the style. They have struck a perfect blend of style, physics, and flow. The game, while cartoony in appearance still reacts the way you would expect it to. You are still blowing people up into bloody bits. You have the tight control and movement you are used to. The class system is perfectly intact. The grenades of the Classic are gone, but not missed. The balance of the classes seems fair. The speed of the game is fast. And the overall feeling I come away with is F U N ! ! !

Honestly, on a fun factor alone I could give this game a 10/10. I get a big dopey grin on my face playing. I love the new features and small improvements. The classes all have a different feel and are all fun to play. The little things they did to improve teamwork is great. I would recommend the game to any fan of the FPS whole heartedly.