As spoilerised last week, the last Scout weapon upgrade has been officially announced by Valve, the Force-A-Nature. “Anything this baby hits better PACK A LUNCH, ’cause it’s going for a ride!” It’s a double-barrelled shotgun with a kickback so powerful it can rocket-jump.
It seems that if you’re in the air when you fire this monstrous shotgun, the recoil will propel you upward. Bouncy Scouts just got bouncier. It’s going to have a hefty impact on any it hits, balanced out by taking a big long time to reload.
Related Stories:
If Valve had any intention of having the Sandman or Bonk to be unlocked first via voting, they would have made their update pages be a lot more exciting.
That, or not put the voting page on the F-A-N update.
This update had such wonderful writing that I was knocked laughing backwards into a forest. This must be the work of those Old Man Murray guys.
I look forward to this! You can tell a boatload of effort went into designing and testing. The quality of these updates show that Valve are really having fun making and playing new content, y’know? You can tell when a company is half-assing or just working up content to please a publisher, etc… these TF2 updates really shine!
Also, nobody here has pitched a fit about balance issues; I find RPS folk to be more sensible than most, and it’s refreshing! If there’s anything worth hating it’s snot-nosed punks who immediately bemoan any alterations to their now-and-forever perfectly-tuned class.
“Erlam’s was a bit…much”
How is saying I’d prefer the default weapons whining or complaining?
It’s the same way with the Pyro axe, the Pyro Flaregun, the HW gun, etc. For example, I don’t think hitting a ball at someone and stunning them is worth losing double-jump. Not sure how that’s complaining.
How is the regular pyro axe better than the axetinguisher? Do you really melee that often as a pyro? Just curious, as thus far the melee replacements have been pretty much guarenteed to be used over the regular ones as melee is generally pretty last resort without some sort of special use for it. Losing the double jump is a bit of a downside though compared to the others mind you.
There’s no advantage to the regular pyro axe, seeing as everything you achieve with it can be achieved more effectively with the flamethrower or the shotgun, should you be underwater. However the high crit rate makes it a satisfying weapon to use in non-serious play. You can just run around and axe people using Spy-esque sneaking tactics, and it’s even more fun if people react with melee as well. But there’s not a lot of use to the regular axe apart from that, and since the Axtinguisher grants you the power to mow down Heavies, it is a preferred choice.
‘How is the regular pyro axe better than the axetinguisher?’
Watch and learn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LHw9M1wdVE
I do love that Newman vid, although the fireaxe only is an interesting tactic, goo for sneaky pyros. Some fantastic airblast/rocket/grenade jumping. Amazing skill.
“Watch and learn.”
So.. its better for using melee only.. well yeah obviously. Awesome use of airblasting though.
Scout update is OUT as of 10:25 EST Feb 24, 2009.
And let me be the first to add here the phrase heard round the world
“WTF?”
It looked like valve was going to announce a new race payload map style, or perhaps a “meet the” video, but none of that. Some GREAT changes were patched into the game though. I’m not complaining, but talk about a fake out!
Disguised spies can now switch weapons. That’s my favorite part of the update.
I think we’ll see the new map soon enough.
“Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
Hope the energy drink is the first unlock. Because sentries are a pain.”
Looks like democracy failed you yet again. I’m not complaining, this should be fun – download in progress – yay! 94% done, woo!
I’ve just got TF2. Any advice about how a complete noob can go about learning what to do in the least painful manner? (eg what kind of servers, websites with all the basics mapped out, what stuff to learn first and how to go about it?)
I did have a bit of a blast last night but I couldn’t even find the correct buttons for changing classes (it said use [ and ] but these didn’t work).
I could just learn by spending hours and hours pratfalling around random servers but I don’t really have enough time and would prefer to try things out a bit more systematically.
@TeeJay, there is a TF2 wiki that has a lot of useful information on it for new and old players alike (http://tf2wiki.net/wiki/Main_Page), oh and to change classes you use the comma key [ , ], ideally whilst already dead. Full stop [ . ] to change teams. For servers I’ve no idea, I usually just mess around in publics searching for one with good latency.
@TeeJay
Start here:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=701625
Thanks for the links & advice – I’ll check them out.