By Alec Meer on June 10th, 2010 at 10:26 pm.
Valve! They’ve done it again! You’re going to like this comic about the launch of Fortified Team Two for Mac. You’re going to like it a lot. Unless you’re one of those people.
Which people? I ain’t telling. This place has their curvy stink all over them.
(Is that the first time we’ve seen Saxton Hale interacting with our brave teamsters, incidentally?Tell me, nerds. TELL ME.)
Also! Also! There’s a new offline training mode, featuring bots! And anyone playing TF2 on Mac before Monday gets free in-game iPod headphones! And there’s a new video, including a glimpse of the Engineer with a scoped shotgun! I’ve put a picture of the latter, which is possibly teasing the long-awaited engie update, below. Froth away, frothers.
You’d better all call it the SniSho, or I’ll be very cross.
But still no engineer update in sight… Also yes, it is the first time Saxton Hale has interacted with our brave teamsters.
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Didn’t you see the new shotgun the Engie has in the video?
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It looked amazing. I predict Engie Update within the month.
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Damn, how can I log in on a Mac before the 14th to get those headphones?
I need to find a soulless automaton and borrow their Mac.
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SNIPER SHOTGUN.
It’s so ingenius, it just might work.
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Honestly I think that shotgun is just a tease. They wouldn’t give a sniper shotgun to engie, would they?
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SniSho? As if. It’s either the Snotgun or the Shopper, and that’s that.
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I don’t think its a scope, I think its a Laser Aiming Module. Someone dug up a laser related sentry death icon added in a recent update.
So, a sentry that you can aim maybe?
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it’s a steam gauge
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I don’t even like playing TF2, but I crave these updates. Valve do this stuff better than anyone. Genuinely laughed a number of times reading that.
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The real question is whether or not it is worth doing a 9 gig download onto my macbook of a game I will never play on that machine just to get a set of in-game earbuds :P
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I’m not sure Valve could get any better at this than they already are.
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Now, if they could just integrate a football world cup BBC iPlayer picture-in-picture TV stream at the top right hand corner, a Spotify plug-in and a nice sound mixer, we’ll be able to multi-task some one-eyed-casual-couch-potato footie watching with a cool kwaito-electro-pop sound-track and some multi-player blasting.
Oh yeah, and beer obv.
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Scoped shotgun. Engie has clearly been playing Borderlands.
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Perhaps it also fires rockets?
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Is that Michael Avon Oeming on the art there?
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…it is, and how did I miss that he was doing these? Cool.
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A training mode is an excellent addition. In my mind, pretty much the only thing that needed adding.
I’ve not played for a few months now, but TF2 remains the classiest act around.
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Ahem:
Do you see yourself blubbering uncontrollably, surrounded by a ring of battle-hardened veterans who ridicule you for the slightest misstep? THIS WILL HAPPEN AND THEY ARE RIGHT TO TAUNT YOU.
Oh Valve, I could never hate you. ::Swoon::
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It’s not a sniper shotgun, notice the antenna. Forum speculation suggests that it’s the Morgan community suggestion, which is a shotgun that can also be deployed as a sentry that sticks to walls.
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LAPTOP GUN.
My favourite weapon in Perfect Dark.
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Saxton Hale wants to buy Aperture Science!
Also, his chest hair is in the shape of Australia! Details.
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THAT IS THE MOST AMUSING THING I’VE SEEN ALL WEEK and I’ve just been to a dinner party where a friend of mine randomly invited a couple of 60-year-old strangers who live on a houseboat
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Hehehe, lovin’ it :D
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I would dearly love it if someone playing on a Mac had the shiny versions of the weapons instead of the usual models.
Also, the shovel should be on fire at all times. All times.
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Incredible what mileage Valve manages to get from a single game.
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totally excited about that new shotty for the engie in the video. All else is meh.
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Have you no soul!?
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I thought I was the only one! It doesn’t look like a scope at all. If anything it reminds me of the modified shotgun in Bioshock as it’s sitting in a similar spot. Though if it were to take cues from borderlands I’d still be waiting with mad anticipation for the Engy update.
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Bot mode! Color me amazed!
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*Swoon*
Oh Valve, I love you.
The “admit one: gun show” explosion will be reused by me a great deal, oh yes.
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So the chance of a lowered price for TF2 when the update drops is still pretty high?
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It’s 50% off this week, only 7 english pounds
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It’s having a free weekend too.
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Oh. My. GAWD!
:D
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PROPERTY DAMAGE!
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BRAVE PRESS!
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The website says available on the Mac now but the store says coming soon. Why must you taunt me, Valve?
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Oh, it’s there now. Ignore me.
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A while ago I suggested to Valve via email (the slightly stupid idea) that the new engineer building should be a rocket launching pod that was directed by a laser sight attached to a 2 round shotgun. Of course this is a complete coincidence, but I’m still slightly smug about the potential of having an identical idea to the team.
Of course I didn’t use my steam name so even if they did use my idea and acknowledge it I wouldn’t get a shiny community weapon anyway.
I look forward to the next update in any case.
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Brilliance.
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I’m liking it. Except for the complete tripe of a menu redesign. Way too many buttons. Is it because Mac’s can’t right click? How do they play then?
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Macs have been able to right click for eons.
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I’ve been reading about how bad the new menus are, but the one screenshot I saw looked so horrible I thought it had to be a shop. Can someone post a picture? I don’t want to re-install just for this.
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The new menus.
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The new menus would be fine if they didn’t obscure the goddamn art, which is designed for menus on the left!
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Aggh, it wasn’t a shop.
What on earth was wrong with clear text descriptions that didn’t cover up half the screen?
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The press release for the training mode is absolute genius. I love it, it cracked me up good and proper.
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LOL @ the soldier choosing a hat to wear in the background of the video.
Only Valve does stuff like this, and that’s why I love them.
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haha yeah, after reading the text to the earbud page about hats, seeing the soldier standing over a crate of them in the background of the movie left me in hysterics.
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@airtekh – Heh! This little trailer has far too much incidental detail to be the product of any sane company. F’rex, the BLU team are standing outside “JOBBS Orchard”…
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Entertaining comic with some great structuring (id, ego, super-ego all present) but it came off that the comic’s purpose wasn’t to entertain parsay, but to advertise the flexibility of the “mac” and all its wonderful little gadgets (there is one for everyone, even the soldier). This comic was complete with a Mac logo yet there was no valve, tf2, hl2, steam or anything PC GAME related anywhere (besides the 3 stooges).
Yes entertaining, but obviously co-opting tf2 into a consumerist paradise (hell).
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Clearly this was all a ploy to advertise Apple’s new firewire pig-roaster. Or, alternately, just a fun way of promoting TF2 being released for Macs.
There was nothing PC game related, other then it being about 3 PC game characters?
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Uh huh. Because all the other comics have constantly name-dropped Valve, Steam, Team Fortress, and Half-Life (what?). I liked the one where Saxton Hale just talked about his Steam achievements for twelve pages.
I swear, some people just can’t stand anyone liking something they don’t like.
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Patrick, you are insane.
I don’t mean that in the nicest way possible.
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I really don’t mean this is an arsey way:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_se
I used to write ‘Praisie’ for précis.
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They’re launching the game for Mac. Were you expecting a comic where the heavy pisses in Steve Job’s mouth? Yes, the purpose was to say nice things about Macs, in a funny and silly way meant to be entertaining to non-mac users as well. It isn’t required that they do hard hitting satire.
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Again, love this. And I don’t even like comics (sorry Kieron) or play TF2. Except maybe now I’ll try the practice mode. Only the bots will know my shame.
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it’s probably not a scope. Looks like a mounted flare gun to me. DISCUSS.
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It is probably not a scope as the barrel of the shotgun is not long enough for it to be worth having a scope, the spread would be too high.
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We’re talking about a world where throwing a bottle of urine at your opponents is a viable tactic. Speak not of trivial plausabilities!
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Not to mention shotguns can fire slugs.
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Uh huh. Because all the other comics have constantly name-dropped Valve, Steam, Team Fortress, and Half-Life (what?). I liked the one where Saxton Hale just talked about his Steam achievements for twelve pages.
I swear, some people just can’t stand anyone liking something they don’t like.
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Is that the sleeve of a black turtleneck being rolled up in the last panel of the comic?
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If the night sky of Portal 2 has no moon, it is proof that TF2 is in the same universe as Portal and GLaDOS is The Announcer.
WATCH THE SKIES!
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Except, the night sky in TF2 has three moons.
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I love the Sniper’s total look of disgust near the start of the vid.
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I have literally no idea what went on in that comic.
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Here’s hoping we can snatch the earbuds right off their smug, fancy little heads with a timely domination, like with the Halloween top hat.
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So Macs are the blue team.
PCs are the red team.
They get fancy earbuds, meanwhile our spies had sex with their mothers.
I think we win.
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Note that the RED team always wins against the BLU team in their videos.
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I love that comic. I love it so much. I love every tiniest panel of it.
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“America’s #1 war-themed hat simulator”, it’s just so awesome!
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Best description of TF2 ever.
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I love the irony of jonfitt’s comment. I presume he calls us soulless automotons because of the rather weak argument that mac fans are fad followers while he froths at the mouth for a piece of iPod digital memorabilia. how astutely pathetic.
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I would kill a man in cold blood for Valve.
Double so if I got an exclusive hat for it.
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THATS NOT A SCOPE ON THAT SHOTGUN! IS EVERYONE BLIND??
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Well, the shovel just might, seeing as it is in line for a rebalance (utter garbage compared to the equalizer).
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The thing on the shotgun can be a “detector”. Maybe it able to detect spys. So a engineer with this tool can reveal spys from distance.
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Fuck thats funny.
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Thats not a scope at all! those a remote thing on one end and the other end has no hole to see out of!
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This man speaks truth.
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BRAVE PRESS!
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My theory is that shotgun has an antenna that can detect the position of enemy sentries, which would give a reason to get into the action and not sit on their own sentry. Engineers don’t need more protection against spies, since that would just lead to longer matches.
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I have nothing valuable to say except that I’m laughing my ass off at work right now. This is so funny and entertaining, it makes every other company’s PR attempts look plain stupid.
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That’s interesting… Pyro really IS female? O.o
http://yfrog.com/mkpyrofemalej
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Oh lord, the disturbing-deviant-art-picture ratio is going to spiral out of control.
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It changes between saying him and her.
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@VashPL
From what I hear, the pronoun changes at random whenever you start the game
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Is he gonna battle Steve Jobs in the next issue? I CAN HARDLY WAIT!!!
zewy
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(Let’s try that again – I imploded.)
BACKSTAGE FURY PUNCH!
Once, I harboured a dream of taking over the world with small, well-engineered household appliances, that were so tempting people would pay you to invade their homes.
Funny how life works out.
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I love Valve. I love them.
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If they do give the engineer a sniper shotgun, I’m never going to play any other class than the engineer. Ever.
Time to solve some practical problems! ^_^
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Actually, I think it’s not a sniper shotgun, but a target locator/tagger that’ll boost the sniper’s damage. or something.
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Have you noticed how much anti authority the soldier is?
He doesn’t even like being said what is going to like. He was hostile towards the announcer after she ordered him around in the other comic, which also mentioned a brawl against the police.
It’s kinda funny considering how much martial he pretends to behave
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Obviously you’ve never met someone of Chief Master Sergeant or equivalent rank.
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Sergeants in the thick of war have a problem with following, or hearing, orders that will get them killed.
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I’d love it if the Maccers get some kind of exclusive skin or hat, maybe an apple logo somewhere…
Of couse, if that were the case, I’d have to stop playing as a pyro and use the sniper instead.
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They get earphones.
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You are right, they do!
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Borrowing a MacBook from the office this weekend so I can install TF2 just to get the earbuds.
Yes I’m that shallow (it’s downloading as I type this on said MacBook while still being in the office).
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PC related gaming.
PC.
PC.
Apple? Will RPS be doing XBox next, that’s a PC in all but name after all. Sigh… Curse you Steve Jobs, it looks like your Orwellian marketed tide of cheap plastic shit and the lock into being forever Apple that buying so much as one of those devices forces upon people is destined to impose itself upon all the things I hold dear, even RPS…
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To be fair they never said Windows gaming. PC’s can run any OS they like as long as they are personal computers. It was Apple that decided the term PC meant Windows with their stupid misleading adverts, not Rock Paper Shotgun.
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Nevermind that many other companies have ported their games to Mac. Who cares, right? They aren’t worth one line in RPS. Bunch of lame stupid tiny weenie companies. They suck! Valve rox! I love Valve, etc.
Ah, Valve groupies. They see a dildo even on news about Mac. That’s how pathetic they gets. And then… hey, let’s just throw in a screenshot with the fat fella with a shotgun so no one can say we did a piece just for Mac on RPS.
Well…
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Exactly. Every single mac I’ve ever seen anyone using has Windows installed on it in some manner anyway (either using Bootcamp for dual booting or a virtual machine) including the one I’m typing on right now.
I know of a couple of people who use Windows 7 as their primary OS on MacBook Pro’s. Lets not start a whole us vs them argument even if it is a cornerstone of the Apple marketing team vision.
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@ Mario: WTF? Valve groupie? What? I think you’ve misread a comment and then taken it upon yourself to berate me for something I didn’t say.
I don’t play TF2 (don’t like it) and Steam for me is a necessity as I’m in the ED DoD league. Aside from that I love a bit of Half Life (but have lost interest in Ep3 or HL3 or whatever they’ll flog out of their tired old IP next), but who owns a PC and doesn’t like Half Life?
My lament is that Apple and all it’s horrific satanic marketing and the sneaky ways it ties you into it’s platform for life (just like Steam which you erroneously think I love so much) has found a valid “in” to my beloved RPS.
In future can I suggest you comment on what I’ve written as opposed to what the voices told you I meant.
@Jon_Hill and Malibu Stacey: I like Apple’s OS, I like Apple’s tech. I don’t like APPLE as a company but that doesn’t mean they don’t make good stuff. Actually to be technically correct: I don’t like Apple’s MARKETING or it’s business model. But I don’t feel any need to do the whole “Us vs Them” thing. Actually I think it was Apple that started the whole “PC vs Mac” bullshit with their stupid adverts. Case in point.
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There have been PC snobs badmouthing the Mac as long as there’s been a Mac. The Apple ads just returned fire.
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Indeed monkey, marios’s comment says quite a lot about him.
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There is sniper shotgun already in bad company 2 and its very very good.
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Um, why is the shovel on fire? That made no sense.
I do have to hand it to Valve — their advertising is clever and entertaining — however I’m finding it a bit tiresome that RPS seems to make a drool-filled news story out of every advert they put together? (or at least enough of their adverts to give that impression — Valve simply don’t seem to release enough games to warrant the sheer amount of coverage they get).
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People in getting excited about stuff they like shock.
RPS isn’t the BBC, they can cover whatever they like whenever they like as often as like. That’s one of the things which makes this place so good.
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Fact of the matter is that apart from Valve’s work, most games advertising is dreadfully generic and riskfree marketing claptrap. This is closer to art than marketing, in more ways than one. I’m sure RPS would be covering continuous newsreels from other companies/games just as much if they were half as entertaining as this.
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Its just because they get big fat bribes from Valve, obv.
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Not to mention those golden TF2 hats, of course.
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Even if TF2 as a game didn’t exist, I’d still read these comics, because they’re funny, clever and just plain addictive. Complaining because they come from Valve is just insane. When any other developer/publisher starts doing free marketing that would be good enough to buy as a seperate product, then you’ll have a point, however tenuous.
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Why is the shovel on fire? Because that is how you can tell that it is on. Did you even read the comic?
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I’m betting it’s a sensor / laser pointer so that the engineer can manually aim his sentry.
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“It looks like some kinda hospital for fruit!”
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Maybe the shotgun shots nano-healing pellets that repair turrets from long distances.
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I figured the same thing. that it’s a guiding system for something. It doesn’t really look like a scope as much as it does a red dot system.
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The only thing worse than Valve fanoyism is the snarly, cynical, pretentious and condescending anti-Valveism that crops up as a response.
Two sides, same coin. But at least fanboys have something positive to say.
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>> But at least fanboys have something positive to say.
Except when they are talking about anti-valvism
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Ahh, and there it is.
I was expecting one of either 2 replies:
Either a rabid Valve-fan trying to start a pile-on,
or
An accusation of fanboyism. However backhanded.
Thanks Mario.
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You surely know how it is, don’t you? You said yourself you were expecting it. There’s no middle ground in this war between valve lovers and valve haters. Everything revolves around hating or loving. Valve. There’s no between, etc.
You sure have a point there. But you are wrong.
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Hmm no. No that’s not my point.
My point is that the comments on this thread are, on the whole, the middle ground. There is expression of like for Valve, yes, but it’s not of the ilk that comes out of the Steam forums. Consider them more as votes of appreciation for Vavle’s marketing style, which is suitably humerous to impress. It’s not the slavering adoration of a “fanboy”.
On the other hand, you seem to be donning the mantle of the anti-valve in this thread, and in the other recent Portal thread, painting everyone else as a fanboy. It’s the sort of reactionary, knee-jerk that really gets to me on RPS precisely because it’s so unwarranted. For example, monkey’s post above is regarding RPS covering Macs, and tries to raise issues with that. You try to derail it, and shoe-horn in Valve/Anti-Valve sentiment.
Basically, let up a bit.
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I’ve been waiting for bots in TF2 ever since I got the Orange Box.
I AM A COWARD. But there is a solution!
Now I will head over to Offline Practice Mode to square off against their state-of-the-art bots.
Human teammates might judge me, but will these soulless automatons? YES. They’re not blind. But they ARE mute, so my incompetence is a secret they will take to their grave.
PS/ I love valve.
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A “Think Bullets” t-shirt would be FAB, Valve! Get on it!
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I’d buy two, one for myself, one for girlfriend-o-tron.
DO IT VALVe. YOU KNOW IT SHALL BE HENCEFORTH!
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“Think bullets”
What about a shotgun that shot smart bullets with heatseekers-heads?
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Oh. Auto-aim.
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I was thinking more of the Hivehand from HL/HLDM.
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Man, and I thought the new Engineer item would be STIMs for his Sentry.
Y’know, Surface To Idiot Missiles. Targets Backburner Pyros, FaN Scouts, and Blutsauger Medics with deadly homing accuracy.
(Blutsauger included because if you’re shooting needles, you’re not building Ubercharge nor are you healing anyone. Your innate health regen is better, especially in close quarters combat. The other two are completely self explanatory.)
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That’s no scope!
check out the antena on the back, it’s probably some sort of laser
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If PC’s are red and Macs are Blu, does this mean GNU/Linux is spectator?
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Awesome comic!
I like the idea of a red dot scope that allows you to aim the sentry gun where ever you point the red dot. I haven’t played TF2 for awhile but its about time I get back into it for a bit. I can still remember reading about the game before it came out and foaming at the mouth for it. Then I played it for a year straight and got my fix, time to get addicted again :)
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You know im sure its not actually going to be a SCOPED shotgun, just a precision one. I mean, when they put a scope on the direct hit, you couldn’t look through it, could you? It was just on there to indicate *precision*
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thats not a scope, telling by the steampunk brass, a gastank, possible incinerating enemys (antispy?) or increasing damage through higher projectile velocity.
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So, how many people noticed that the opening shot of a WINDOW is gently tinted in the corners to be red, green, yellow, and blue before the sniper pans sideways to the apple?
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Gently? I thought it was really obvious.
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Yeah, I guess so. The frustrating thing is that there was actually a significant piece of news there — single player TF2 — which, while still highlighted in the blurb, was somehow bumped from being the headline of the piece in favour of the raving about how Valve have “done it again!” with another comic strip. One would like to think that the adverts aren’t actually more important than the games.
(OTOH, unless the bots are rather better at their jobs than their L4D2 counterparts, it mightn’t be as big a story as I was imagining…)
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Damn you, reply button.
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Alec usually does a lot better than this. But truth be told I do largely ignore all ads/commercials/marketing efforts from companies (neither I’m very appreciative of these badly drawn comic strips, btw). So I do tend to downplay the Valve advertisement. Neither I understand very well where all the hoopla comes from. It seems somewhere in this planet it makes sense to advertise the advertisements.
Me? I’m more interested in their games. Which, unfortunately for me, means that for the past 3 years Valve have given me shit. Being that I have no interest in co-op games.
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So basically you hate other people because we can have fun with other people rather than hiding, Mario?
Your depressive angle isn’t appreciated. And it’s unbecoming.
I’m going to continue having fun playing games with other humans.
You can do whatever it is you do.
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Hate other people, hiding, unbecoming, depressive. You charted some scary psychological profile there. And I thought we were talking about video games. And then the “hate” word again. I could say I hate the “hate” word. What’s with the “hate” word, anyways? Do you people believe that just because someone doesn’t like something, they immediately hate it? Can’t you see how immature that really is?
Anyways, don’t worry. The immaturity and insult did work for you and a few others. I’m actually tired of it. Been taking this nonsense for a while now. It’s either have the same opinion has everyone, or be the constant target of this type of behavior. I prefer to talk with people who actually like to debate.
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Never have played it never will. So yeah, I guess I am one of those people.
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I like Valve.
I belive Valve that can make good games
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A solid slug shotgun perhaps?
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How ironic; that you know terms like id, ego, and super-ego, but can’t seem to figure out that pesky per se.
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