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For a start, snipers are useful on Turbine rarely, but when they are, it’s chiefly to lock down an already dominant position. Hence you don’t see so much of the sniper duels of the 2Forts battlements and the four snipers per team; instead, they’re maintenance to help you keep the open space.

The “closed” game of sentries in the centre and snipers/demomen can be fun on both sides, particularly when the dominant side overstretches and gets its intel poached by a spy, turning it in on itself and allowing its dominance to be destroyed. It becomes a very tactical game, requiring teamwork, and it rewards the player who doesn’t just run out into the thick of the action thoughtlessly.

The “open” game, with the balance of power swaying and engineers cowering in the intel room tunnels, is fast and frenetic. Medics and soldiers and heavies charge across the wide open space to raid for the intel, and get brutalised by spies and pyros hiding in the little cubby-holes where the health live. Scouts also have plenty of opportunity to round the obstacles at high speed and shoot people in the back – in fact, some of my best scout scores have come on that map. Meanwhile, demomen and engineers try to lock down exits in the hope of closing the game down into something more friendly to their playstyle.

I heartily recommend giving it a try if you haven’t already, and spending the short amount of time needed to understand how to use the terrain to the best advantage.

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cp_castle is a nice push map, but needs at least 8v8, and the last capture point can be too difficult to cap due to the whole hairpin turn chokepoint. That said it has a very nice feel and looks the part. This map is probably on a par with Turbine, but for more players.

ctf_turbine is a nice small map, ideal for as little as 5v5. If you played it in earlier versions and got penned in at the spawn, the spawncamping issues have been almost completely solved with a second spawn exit (I say almost completely solved because it exits onto the same corridor as the other exit so spawncamping is still possible in the hands of a skilled player). The middle section also got more cover added, so it can no longer be dominated by sentries. All in all it’s a fairly strong effort that’s definitely worth a look.

ctf_floodzone is more of a funmap that revolves around a single, massive chokepoint. You will literally spend hours on this map just fighting over it. Occasionally either team does get pushed back to a previous CP to mix things up a bit, but they can usually bounce back if the other team doesn’t really carry their momentum over and push up with their snipers. Snipers can cover the whole middle of the map right down to the spawn, but you can usually escape if you make a run for it. A fair map that will keep you occupied for hours at a time, but not one that will produce a variety of tactics and playstyles.

ctf_mach When I tried Mach I honestly didn’t like it. It was too small and a lot of the indoor areas had very low ceiling which basically voided the Scout’s major asset: mobility, as well as rocket and pipe jumping. The middle area is small and congested, and there are stuck points on the lifts. It may have been improved since I last played it, but be wary it’s probably not as great as some people make out.

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@Chris R: I agree, some of the custom maps are fantastic, I highly recommend players to at least try them. But for god’s sake, avoid the Mario one like the plague…

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Admittedly, shotguns are a major misstep. They simply aren’t a very good choice in 95% of situations. But most every other weapon has some worth. The only reason things like the P90 seem so prevalent and overpowered is because they’re easy to use. A gun with 50 rounds in a clip that still reloads at a recent speed is easy for anyone to get kills with, but I’ve topped the scoreboards on tough servers with a Skorpion. The problem is most people don’t experiment. A well tuned set of perks will beat even the most seemingly over-powered weapon.

Similarly, I’m not worried about unlockables in TF2. I get the feeling the overcharger was scrapped because it unbalanced the game hugely, not that it was 0.5% more effective than the regular medigun. Although, yeah, I’d prefer more maps as well.

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I would also prefer new maps to new abilities, maybe new server modes (the melee-only sudden death is genius). I do trust the guys to make the right decision. I haven’t had as much fun playing a FPS in years. The balance and the cartoonishness are great, which I think leads to my favorite part of TF2: the players are the most pleasant and team oriented I’ve found. Been playing some CoD4 and the difference is shocking.

BTW, been lurking for a long time, great site, good comments. Best wishes from across the pond.

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Apparently I’m one of the few not terrified when designers try something new and interesting. Sounds like most of you would rather have Team Fortress Classic with upgraded graphics than the wonderful game we received.

You don’t have to be monotonously cynical about everything in life. Really.

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Adorable news-fumbler, Mr. Tom Francis wrote:

Er, I may have oversold it a little. Most people focus on the idea that everyone would have been running around with double-health, and that’s my fault: Valve stressed that they hadn’t settled for sure on those figures, and I reported them anyway. There didn’t seem another way of communicating the severity of the changes they were talking about.

Like most, I was dubious about how the balancing would work out. However I’m slightly disappointed that they couldn’t find a way to do it as it fits my Medic play-style, which involves me flitting around trying to heal everyone and invariably being killed before I can trigger an über.

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