TF2 - Meet the Medic

[kregg]

The latest video from the "Meet the" series is up... Meet the Medic.

If anyone wants to give it a go, it is now free to play, so all you need is a Steam account and hey-presto, you can be a bad-ass medic.

[NickThissen]

I'm going to try it. I've tried it for about 5 minutes on the xbox when I borrowed someone's copy of the orange box but didn't really enjoy it, but that might have been because I wanted to play HL2 instead

What kind of game is it, I understand it's mostly a first person shooter and you've got different classes (medic, pyro, etc), but are there objectives for example or is it just 'team deathmatch'? If there's objectives, is it like call of duty (simple objectives that are the same on each map such as domination, capture the flag, etc) or are the objectives different for each map and more complex, such as having to escort vehicles, build stuff, destroy stuff, steal stuff, etc (I'm thinking W:ET or quake wars, stuff like that)..?

[kregg]

It's mostly a game based at teamwork and co-operation. At first you go into it (or at least I did) thinking it's all about killing the opponent, but it's actually mostly based on completing objectives. It's just that the other team will try to stop you completing that objective, so you probably will end up killing them in the process in order to achieve the objective.

The objectives are very simple, nowhere near the kind of Quake Wars. Similar to Call of Duty style, perhaps maybe a bit easier/harder? (I've never played COD multiplayer so I have no clue to be honest).

Since there are less than a dozen types of maps, it would be easier if I pointed you here instead of going into great detail what they all do. I know it's incredibly lazy, but I spent the morning typing up this massive essay of a post and submitted it and now it's gone. It probably asked me to log in as usual when I type up my posts, but I must've thought it had submitted upon pressing post and closed the browser window... >_<

Also, you may want to check out the wiki from time to time for strategies, crafting recipes, and possible weapons for each class. There is so much content in TF2 that it's almost essential to give the wiki a brief look at least once to understand TF2 (one of TF2's downside's I suppose, but the game is really easy to get into... it's just if you want to get weapon/hat X, or you want to master a certain class for competitive play, the wiki is the best choice)

[NickThissen]

Thanks. I gave it a try this morning, played for about 30 minutes. I thought it was kind of boring, but that's most likely because I haven't really seen much yet. I played the game where you have to escort the bomb/cart/train/thing. The idea is good but kind of boring, it was just running to the cart, standing there shooting until you died and do it all again. I couldn't figure out any kind of strategies being used at all, it seems every just ran to the cart and did the same as me.

It also wasn't clear to me that there's more weapons? Do you need to unlock them or something? I thought the 3 weapons (per class) were the only weapons, so they're not?

I'll probably give it a try again later, I don't want to give up on it too soon as it does seem like it could be a fun game, but I haven't seen that yet...

[EntityX]

I know it's incredibly lazy, but I spent the morning typing up this massive essay of a post and submitted it and now it's gone. It probably asked me to log in as usual when I type up my posts, but I must've thought it had submitted upon pressing post and closed the browser window... >_<

Sometimes it's good to type up giant posts in Word or perhaps Notepad and save periodically so you don't lose your work if something unexpected happens. And sometimes maybe it's better to just lose the post if it happens to disappear because what you were saying was unnecessary.

[kregg]

Thanks. I gave it a try this morning, played for about 30 minutes. I thought it was kind of boring, but that's most likely because I haven't really seen much yet. I played the game where you have to escort the bomb/cart/train/thing. The idea is good but kind of boring, it was just running to the cart, standing there shooting until you died and do it all again. I couldn't figure out any kind of strategies being used at all, it seems every just ran to the cart and did the same as me.

It also wasn't clear to me that there's more weapons? Do you need to unlock them or something? I thought the 3 weapons (per class) were the only weapons, so they're not?

I'll probably give it a try again later, I don't want to give up on it too soon as it does seem like it could be a fun game, but I haven't seen that yet...

Did you try out different classes? The easiest ones to pick up are Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, Medic, and Engineer, while the harder ones are the Scout, Spy, Soldier, and the Sniper, with the Spy being the most hardest to master. Did you try until you were on the opposing side trying to defend the bomb cart?

Also, did you try different maps and game modes? Some maps are unbelievably dull (i.e. tc_hydro is a map that is literally phased out due to the unpopularity of the map), and some are more exciting. I personally find the attack/defend maps pretty exciting to play, especially with a friend (but isn't that the case with all games?)

To answer your question about weapons - yes, there are ways of obtaining them. If you have more money than sense, you can buy them and get the weapons quickly. If you don't want to do that and obtain them for free, there are two ways:
1. Wait for the system to "randomly drop" a weapon for you. While this ensures everyone has a fair chance of winning a weapon, the system is pretty dull and is only useful for occasionally getting new items that can't be obtained from achievements (see point #2) or getting a duplicate item for crafting a newer item.
2. You can complete achievements which in turn will unlock weapons. This works by completing a number of achievements (this could be any achivements) in order to unlock “milestones”, which in turn will give you a new weapon for that class. So, for example:

• The Engineer needs 5 achievements unlocked in order to unlock the 1st milestone, and hence the first weapon (Frontier Justice – basically a shotgun that gives you revenge crits if your sentry/dispenser is destroyed).
• You can do any achievement in any order, but as long as you do 5, you will unlock it.
• The next milestone requires you to complete 11 achievements in order to unlock it.
• You've completed 5, so you just need to complete 6 more in order to unlock that milestone.

Personally, I find the achievement system great since it actually rewards you for good gameplay technique, and you also learn different playstyle techniques you never thought of before.

I guess if you didn't like the simplicity of any of the game types after a few goes, then it seems like TF2 isn't for you. Ah well - at least you didn't have to pay to find out!

[kregg]

Sometimes it's good to type up giant posts in Word or perhaps Notepad and save periodically so you don't lose your work if something unexpected happens. And sometimes maybe it's better to just lose the post if it happens to disappear because what you were saying was unnecessary.

I've been known to ramble on too much. See above post and my blog for perfect examples.