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First Person Shooters (Games) Games

Valve's Team Fortress 2 Goes Free-To-Play 195

Posted by Soulskill from the we're-seeing-which-way-the-wind-blows dept.
heptapod writes "Valve has announced that Team Fortress 2 is now free to play. 'We've been toying with the idea of making Team Fortress free-to-play ever since the Mann-conomy update [in September 2010],' said Valve's Robin Walker. 'Team Fortress 2 would only be monetized by microtransaction payments. No advertising model will be pursued, Walker said. No premium subscription model will be used. No cynical "pay-to-win" options will be implemented, he assured.'"
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Valve's Team Fortress 2 Goes Free-To-Play More

Valve's Team Fortress 2 Goes Free-To-Play

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  • Splitting hairs (Score:3)

    by pushing-robot ( 1037830 ) on Friday June 24, 2011 @09:22AM (#36554290)

    No cynical "pay-to-win" options will be implemented, he assured.

    No, it's more of a pay-to-not-lose.

    • Re:Splitting hairs (Score:4, Informative)

      by Nimey ( 114278 ) on Friday June 24, 2011 @09:31AM (#36554428) Homepage Journal

      The only things you can buy in-game is stuff that you can earn with enough gameplay.

      Besides, all of those items have trade-offs versus standard kit. It's not like you can buy a gun for each class that clearly bests anything else.

      • Re:Splitting hairs (Score:4)

        by Danse ( 1026 ) on Friday June 24, 2011 @10:58AM (#36555874)

        The only things you can buy in-game is stuff that you can earn with enough gameplay. Besides, all of those items have trade-offs versus standard kit. It's not like you can buy a gun for each class that clearly bests anything else.

        Don't really agree with this. There are some weapons that are just clearly better. The Dead Ringer and Your Eternal Reward are clearly better than the default spy weapons. Same with the Backburner and Axtinguisher for the Pyro. There are other examples as well, but the list would start getting long. Bottom line is that there are plenty of weapons out there for some of the classes that make the default weapons seem pretty useless.

        • Re:Splitting hairs (Score:4, Informative)

          by SpeZek ( 970136 ) on Friday June 24, 2011 @11:18AM (#36556316) Journal

          The Dead Ringer and Your Eternal Reward are clearly better than the default spy weapons. Same with the Backburner and Axtinguisher for the Pyro.

          Maybe for you. I find the default Pryo weapon better than the backburner (putting out allies can be very useful, as well as reflecting projectiles -- I've gotten tons of kills from stupid soldiers who just keep firing and getting hit by their own rockets) and for a smart spy, the default cloak is infinitely more useful for actual sneaking around than the Dead Ringer, if you know where ammo drops are.

          If there's one thing Valve is good at, it's balance. I don't think any of the additional weapons are clearly better than the original ones.

          • [ ... airblast is better ... ]

            The Backburner has an airblast now, it's just particularly expensive in terms of fuel. So nobody uses it if you think you'll be airblasting a lot. And the Axtinguisher the GP referred to is only good on burning enemies. If you're in the water, you'd much rather have the regular axe.

        • I'd have to disagree with all of your points. My personal preference leans to a Spy played with the default invisibility watch default knife and the ambassador. I find Dead Ringer Spys are effective if you're looking to build up a good kill death ratio, but for actually accomplishing objectives and helping your team out the default set is better. As for the Pyro, I still prefer the degreaser/flare gun/axestinguisher combo for general purpose, but occasionally go backburner/shotgun/powerjack if I'm attemp

        • The only things you can buy in-game is stuff that you can earn with enough gameplay. Besides, all of those items have trade-offs versus standard kit. It's not like you can buy a gun for each class that clearly bests anything else.

          Don't really agree with this. There are some weapons that are just clearly better. The Dead Ringer and Your Eternal Reward are clearly better than the default spy weapons. Same with the Backburner and Axtinguisher for the Pyro. There are other examples as well, but the list would start getting long. Bottom line is that there are plenty of weapons out there for some of the classes that make the default weapons seem pretty useless.

          I've clocked over 600 hours as Spy, and I'll tell you right now that it's completely situational.

          The Your Eternal Reward is a tradeoff. You start off with no disguise, and if you miss a backstab or have to shoot someone, your disguise goes away until you get another backstab.

          The Dead Ringer is balanced by its loud decloak sound and the limit on how much cloak you can regenerate from ammo boxes/dropped weapons. I personally like the DR, but it is fairly useless at the start of Attack/Defense maps if you're

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ildon ( 413912 )

          But you can get all of those with just a few hours of playtime working toward the achievements for those particular weapons.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Hadlock ( 143607 )

        They've already introduced packs that provide an additional benefit for having all of them items in a particular pack. if you don't have the entire pack, that benefit is not realized. So there might not be a gun that clearly bests anything else, but there are packs that in practice you have to pay for, even if theoretically you could randomly get them through drops. Additionally there's a discount in the shop for these packs. It's not a huge bonus, but it is there. Hats are given away so rarely that you mig

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by makomk ( 752139 )

        Not sure that's true anymore with this free-to-play update; they've got some sort of scheme involving restricting earning items to "premium" players that have forked over money at some point, either for the game itself or in the item shop.

    • Unlockable items are meant to be balanced with the default set. Even if all you have is the default set the idea is you still can play well against players with unlockables. Some players even say most of the default weapons have an edge against unlockables.

      • Re:Splitting hairs (Score:4, Informative)

        by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Friday June 24, 2011 @10:20AM (#36555142)

        Most unlockables in TF2 are highly situational items and some more are very dependent on your play style. The aforementioned Natasha is a great tool to keep pesky scouts at bay but in pitched slug-it-out battles, especially against targets that receive healing, it's at best useless. It depends on your problem, and in some situations, having access to unlockables will give you an edge. But they're hardly a must-have to compete sensibly or be an asset for your team.

      • Yeah, that's true. The actual problem with the game since the Mann-conomy is another. Threats in TF2 used to be highly recognizable, both by sight (different silhouettes, different poses for holding guns, etc.) or by sound. Nowadays there are so many weapons and some of them look and sound so similar it is impossible to distinguish between them all in any useful way.

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by VGPowerlord ( 621254 )

          Yeah, that's true. The actual problem with the game since the Mann-conomy is another. Threats in TF2 used to be highly recognizable, both by sight (different silhouettes, different poses for holding guns, etc.) or by sound. Nowadays there are so many weapons and some of them look and sound so similar it is impossible to distinguish between them all in any useful way.

          Look and sound similar? They are very few weapons in the game that actually look similar.

          The ones I can think of are: The Minigun and Natascha look similar, but sound different. This is important, since they both have to spin-up before firing. Both their spin-up and firing sounds are different.

          The Flame Thrower and Backburner look similar from a distance and sound identical. However, the Backburner has a different "mouth" to it (it looks like a snake head).

          The Medic's Needle Gun and Blutsauger look quit

          • Ah, I see you're referring to the weapons in the class updates. Those were fine. My beef is that now instead of each class having two weapons for the same slot, there's a bajillion of them, and you can't possibly know all their strengths/weaknesses. As for sounding similar, the only one that I really can recall on short notice is a pistol for the Scout, which sounds almost like the Force-A-Nature.

            • As for sounding similar, the only one that I really can recall on short notice is a pistol for the Scout, which sounds almost like the Force-A-Nature.

              I hope you're joking.

              They really don't sound all that similar. I don't play Scout a lot, but the FaN is in my Scout loadout. It makes a loud cracking sound (twice since it generally fires twice before stopping, the ammo is wasted if you don't fire the second shot before reloading) and has more bass to it than the pistol

              The Shortstop (Scout's other primary replacement before the new update) on the other hand has more of a cracking sound than the pistol, but higher pitched and with less bass than the FaN.

              (I

          • Notes to all your examples:
            Miniguns: You get a full second audible warning every time before either of these weapons can fire.
            Flamethrowers: You can't tell from a distance, but they also can't hit you from anywhere but right on top of you. If they're close enough to be a threat you're close enough to know.
            Needleguns: Needles from both guns function the same 95% of the time. The times when there are differences (crits) the needles glow huge team colored auras. The differences are moot till there is a visu

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by TheLink ( 130905 )
          Would it be such a big problem? I used to play a mod called Prozac Team Fortress ( http://wiki.quakeworld.nu/Prozac-TF ). Most people don't keep changing their builds after a every respawn, so you just learn what they are doing/using and try to counter it.

          Stopped playing after too many people used aimbots, and fewer and fewer people played.

          BTW it's not my imagination that they were using aimbots. They could head shot me when I just jump off some place, or when I'm invisible with jammer.

          BUT if I was standing

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by geekoid ( 135745 )

        Except the Dead Ringer. That shit is broke. Of course the spy is an over powered hacked to begin with.

        • The Spy is a Glass Cannon [tvtropes.org].

          The Dead Ringer is balanced by its much louder decloak sound than the normal cloaking devices. It's only really a problem if they're using the Saharan Spy set, which makes it completely silent (but also means they have the Your Eternal Reward knife).

          Spies in general are countered by Pyro, among other things.

          Plus, only a Dead Ringer Spy can run through an active fire fight and live through it... any other cloaking device makes him light up like a Christmas Tree when hit by any weap

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tr3vin ( 1220548 )
      No, I've played the game since release and you do not need to pay for any items to not lose. While they do have weapons that have different stats, everything is balanced fairly well. Victory depends more on your team's formation and how well they can play than anybody's items. Some people get anxious when they don't immediately have everything available and Valve is being sure to take advantage of that. Valve has also been really good to the community. When they first started selling items, they decided to
    • the game is flawed as fuck....and I still have fun everytime I play it. Even when I am raging against grenadiers. But. I still have fun.
      • I haven't bought TF2, though have considered doing one of the valve packs that include it many times... I honestly don't play anything but a handful of times a year, and have turned to QuakeLive when I have (though I've purchased Q3A). Free to play is awesome. I remember the original TF mod to Quake 1, the first weekend I was introduced to it, I think I got about 2 hours of sleep between friday night, and monday morning... that monday was so painful, my hands were just sore.
    • with your friends and everyone at the same equipment levels?

  • Free to play accounts are limited (Score:5, Informative)

    by VGPowerlord ( 621254 ) on Friday June 24, 2011 @09:26AM (#36554350)

    They've also made it so new accounts have limits, such as:
    No random cosmetic item drops.
    Can receive items in trades but not send them.
    Cannot gift items to other players
    50-slot backpack (as opposed to 300-slot for normal accounts)
    Limited crafting recipes.

    Of course, the way to "fix" this is to buy anything from the Mann Co. Store. That'd be easy... if it weren't for Valve having a $5 minimum on funds put into your Steam wallet.

    These restrictions make sense, though. They are in place to prevent people from creating a whole bunch of Steam accounts to farm item drops.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by arth1 ( 260657 )

      They've also made it so new accounts have limits, such as:
      No random cosmetic item drops.
      Can receive items in trades but not send them.
      Cannot gift items to other players
      50-slot backpack (as opposed to 300-slot for normal accounts)
      Limited crafting recipes.

      The problem I have with this is that they've taken away the option - you can't buy an account without these restrictions anymore; you can only get a "free" account.

      So unless you already have purchased TF2, your friends who have will have an advantage over you. And depending on their playing style, they may not even welcome you, if they have to make special considerations for your limited account's abilities.

      I'm all for the option of "free" play, but only as an option. I'd much rather buy a game with all t

      • The problem I have with this is that they've taken away the option - you can't buy an account without these restrictions anymore; you can only get a "free" account.

        So unless you already have purchased TF2, your friends who have will have an advantage over you. And depending on their playing style, they may not even welcome you, if they have to make special considerations for your limited account's abilities.

        I'm all for the option of "free" play, but only as an option. I'd much rather buy a game with all the bells and whistles, and not having to bring out my wallet for DLC at all. If I can't have that choice, I'll go elsewhere.

        Buying anything from the Mann Co. store removes these restrictions. I believe I already mentioned that.

        And most of the items in said store are cheaper than the game is, but Valve has a minimum of $5 that can be added to the Steam wallet.

        However, you can add $5 to your Steam wallet, buy a Rocket Jumper for $0.99 and have $3.99 left to spend on Steam daily sale games.

        • It doesn't work that way. You need to purchase $5 worth of items in TF2.

          • It doesn't work that way. You need to purchase $5 worth of items in TF2.

            Yes, it does work that way. The Steam Wallet is not-TF2 specific.

          • Where does it say that? It says you just have to buy an item.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Hadlock ( 143607 )

            ...or $1 worth of TF2 items and $4 worth of games.

            You're either a bad troll, or incredibly dense. Valve has for a long time had a walled garden around users with no financial stake in their steam account. This prevents hacking and spamming, etc. Once you have a paid game in steam, you have a lot less incentive (or, it becomes much more expensive) to hack/phish steam accounts from other accounts. It's also why VAC games are a lot less prone to hacking - why risk your account full of multiplayer games

        • However, you can add $5 to your Steam wallet, buy a Rocket Jumper for $0.99 and have $3.99 left to spend on Steam daily sale games.

          $5 - $0.99 = $3.99?

          I believe Steam approves of your arithmetic.

          • $5 - $0.99 = $3.99?

            I believe Steam approves of your arithmetic.

            I originally wrote $4 and thought "wait, that doesn't sound right" and changed it.

            I just changed it in the wrong direction... doh. I tell you, it's the brainwashing from stores so that we now expect everything to end in .99.

          • Re:Free to play accounts are limited (Score:5, Funny)

            by Ced_Ex ( 789138 ) on Friday June 24, 2011 @10:40AM (#36555520)

            However, you can add $5 to your Steam wallet, buy a Rocket Jumper for $0.99 and have $3.99 left to spend on Steam daily sale games.

            $5 - $0.99 = $3.99?

            I believe Steam approves of your arithmetic.

            He had to subtract his 2 cents for his thoughts.

      • you can't buy an account without these restrictions anymore; you can only get a "free" account.

        While that is technically true, you can permanently upgrade to the normal account with your first purchase in their store. See their FAQ [teamfortress.com].

        You have to add a minimum $5.00 to the Steam Wallet to buy stuff from the store, so practically you can look at this as the price of getting a normal account. If you feel like spending $1 on a cosmetic item is unfair to other players for whatever reason, there's a Map Stamp item which basically lets you vote on your favorite maps, and the creator gets a bit of that money.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by arth1 ( 260657 )

          And if it's the DLC system itself that you don't want to give money to

          Well, considering I said, in th e post you replied to:

          not having to bring out my wallet for DLC at all

          What do you think? :)

          Also, from what I can tell, you have to make a $5 purchase at the DLC store, not just $5 to Steam and any purchase. Unless there's something that costs exactly $5 (and not, say, $4.99), that means a $5 Steam wallet won't cut it.
          ICBW, but it's nevertheless the principle that I object to - having to buy extras later instead of upfront, and having to buy from more than one place.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Thiez ( 1281866 )

        > So unless you already have purchased TF2, your friends who have will have an advantage over you. And depending on their playing style, they may not even welcome you, if they have to make special considerations for your limited account's abilities.

        They will not. There is NO gameplay advantage between the two account types. In fact I wish I could downgrade so I won't receive those cosmetic item drops...

        If your friends don't welcome you, it's probably because they think you suck, or they don't like you.

    • I've been playing for years and I've never worn anything that was just cosmetic. And I never really do any of the crafting. I only use different items like the backburner etc which will still be available to everyone.

      I REALLY like that Valve has done this. This game has been a 5 star game for years, with constant updates. Now I want to go play..

    • What happens if I "owned" the game on Steam before, but never installed it? Do I get the 300-slots, or the 50-slots?

  • My favorite online FPS. Ever. (Score:3)

    by Viewsonic ( 584922 ) on Friday June 24, 2011 @09:29AM (#36554392)

    So far TF2 has been the only online shooter I've liked. I used to like Quake back in the day with grappling hooks and whatnot, but nothing since then has really been as enjoyable until I came along TF2. I'm glad more people will play, just means more kills.

    I guess what I am saying is, play this! It's worth it. Very fun.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hatta ( 162192 )

      I can't get into it. I don't want to have to worry about classes or teammates or objectives. I just want to shoot everything that moves. Deathmatch is all I really need from a multiplayer FPS.

      • Then you can play a solider. They are the bog standard shoot anything that moves class in the game. It was created exactly for people like yourself. If you only want deathmatches, just filter the servers and play just on those.

        The beauty of TF2 is that is caters to EVERY type of FPS fan, I think. The game offers many classes that all have different roles, some very straight forward, others a bit more complex. Even if you're absolutely terrible at FPS games, there are still support classes that allow a playe

      • I can't get into it. I don't want to have to worry about classes or teammates or objectives. I just want to shoot everything that moves.

        Sounds like sniper is the class for you.

  • Here come teh n00bs!!!!!! Srsly.... Ahem.. Seriously though F2P is always feared by longterm players and fiercely resisted but more often than not it can breathe new life into long running games and drives innovation. DDO was on it's last legs until the switch, LOTRO has been getting more and more content, if handled correctly the move can be a great thing for the game and the community.
    • I haven't played TF2 in a few months and just logging on I would like to rescind the previous comment and replace it with this. People who have just started playing TF2, 'Shut The Fuck Up!' You don't need to sing, whistle, constantly laugh or talk shit every time you kill someone or die.

  • What kind of freaking news is this? You could always play it for free. It's a FPS not an MMO.

    • DERP. You had to BUY it first. It's entirely free now. I guess the Internet loves to argue semantics.....

  • A model economy (Score:4, Funny)

    by Veggiesama ( 1203068 ) on Friday June 24, 2011 @09:42AM (#36554608)

    The rich, and those with more money than sense, subsidize everyone else's play by purchasing useless cosmetic doohickeys that fund further development of the game to the enjoyment and benefit of all.

    Why can't the real world work this way?

    • In full disclosure, I did buy a pair of keys to open some Mann Co. crates I found while playing. For 5 bucks, I got extra weapons I already had (later gifted to a friend) and color-dyed my pyro's vintage merryweather [tf2wiki.net] helmet.

      I felt like it was kind of a rip-off, but if you see a pyro with a purple helmet coming your way, you better run.

    • Why can't the real world work this way?

      Government will always fail once the rich discover they can purchase themselves entitlements. Forget all that crap about people voting them for themselves.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Toonol ( 1057698 )
        Government will always fail once the rich discover they can purchase themselves entitlements

        What are the largest components of the US budget?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )

      It can. see: Taxes.

      Also see: Soda.
      You know why you can get a dollar burger? 3 dollar tacos fries and drink? It's subsidized, mostly, by the soda.

  • Does it run on Linux? WINE rating goes from garbage to platinum. http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=9901 [winehq.org]

    • As seems to be the case with Wine, performance seems to be all over the place depending on distrobution, hardware, and version of the software (both the Wine and the version of app you're trying to run). It's been my experience that the performance of Source engine based games has been in the toilet for the last year or two - I'm thinking they made some update to the engine that Wine doesn't like. I'm running a 1.8 GHz Core2Duo, 2GB of RAM, and a Nvidia 7300 - not hte beefiest machine by far, but it most so

    • probably runs on some versions and not others, and I don't mean minor version, but tiny.

      Wine promised to stop introducing regressions through better testing, but it was a lie. Source engine games in particular seem to change with every Wine release.

    • Over the years I've tried TF2 in Wine about a half a dozen times, and every time I immediately went back to the native client under Windows. The performance just isn't there, and even a few of the HUD elements are always messed up. In short, it looked like playing TF2 on an emulator, and that is pointless when I have a copy of Windows.

    • This will be a terribly controversial statement, but TF2 on linux plays like proof that linux has hidden costs.

      My old 2.6 ghz dual core with a GTX260 could run at about 45-60fps@1080p under windows with everything maxed. Same machine under ubuntu and I was getting wild fluctuation between 5 and 40fps (also at 1080p) with the graphics turned down. I hear some people with monstrous machines can get it to run at a consistent 60 under linux, but you're going to pay through the nose to get hardware that can do

  • I'm not being sarcastic, I am glad. I got years of enjoyment, and it was worth it. I wish all games went free after a time period, like say 5 years, when it's been replaced and outdated. At least I can now set it up for private LAN parties at work without buying extra copies.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Machtyn ( 759119 )
      Agreed. For as much enjoyment as I've gotten from the Orange Box (TF2 and Portal), I'm not too terribly upset at having spent $50 for Portal 2.

      Don't get me wrong, Portal 2 is an awesome game, has beautiful, well thought out levels, great voice acting, and such. To me (a cheap-skate), $50 on a game that I completed in 9-11 hours (single player) is too much - I would have accepted $30.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )

      Yep, got the Orange box for 10 bucks. Best 10 bucks I ever spent on games.

  • Last night I tried to sign in to play, and TF2 wouldn't even launch. It looks like their service was *massively* overloaded.

    I bought the game 4 years ago now and I have gotten my money out of it in hours played, however it still irks me that a game I paid for is unavailable to me because of free players jumping on board.

    TF2 servers were already frequently full of whiners and trolls, I'm afraid of what this new influx of players will mean. Hopefully the TF2 servers (yes, I know games aren't hosted on their

    • Last night I tried to sign in to play, and TF2 wouldn't even launch. It looks like their service was *massively* overloaded.

      I bought the game 4 years ago now and I have gotten my money out of it in hours played, however it still irks me that a game I paid for is unavailable to me because of free players jumping on board.

      You are aware that this happens after every update (large or small), as everyone who has CS:S, TF2, DOD:S, or HL2:DM (which is also free) as well as servers for all of the above try to update at once?

      Of course, now it will be worse as even more people need to update.

  • Was TF2 a subscription based game? "Free to play" is a term used by MMOs like Guild Wars to indicate that there is no monthly fee, while you still have to actually purchase the game.
    • In the time it took to type up that question, you could have just RTFA and figured it out for yourself.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        I'm confused as well. I have TF2 from Orange Box, but I've never played it. I was always under the impression that well, it was free to play... sure it cost $20 to buy it, but that doesn't seem like an overly big hump.

        I wasn't aware one had ot pay subscription fees or other stuff to play TF2, especially since plenty of people put up their own dedicated servers for it.

        Or is "free to play" now also encompassing the first initial purchase of the game as well?

  • This is interesting, but ..... (Score:3)

    by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Friday June 24, 2011 @12:04PM (#36557246) Journal

    As someone who's been kind of hooked on TF2 ever since they released the native OS X version (and gave me a good excuse to spend a lot of time in the game, as the Mac doesn't exactly have a plethora of other options!) -- I'm not sure the change in emphasis towards micropayments and inventory items is beneficial?

    It's a great shooter with just the basic characters and default weapon choices, really. The ability to occasionally find a new, alternative weapon is good too, since it keeps the game-play "fresh". But lately, with the "Mann Co. store" being added, you've got this overly-commercial vibe starting to permeate the game. Every time some other new game is released, it seems like they're throwing in new hats or other items related to it -- even if said hats or items really feel a little "out of place" with the overall theme of TF2 itself. And I've seen more and more servers hosting "custom maps" that exist primarily or ONLY for people to sit around "leveling up" their characters or trying to exchange items. (There was some stupid server I joined recently that offered maps stuffed full of endless stationary bots that kept regenerating every 2 seconds when killed, so you could stand there as, say, a Pyro, hold down the button for the flamethrower, and generate hundreds and hundreds of kills for yourself.) I guess this always existed ... but it seems like once the micropayments, limited-edition items and purchased items came about, it started attracting more of this crowd.

    I did really like the concept of offering a few items that you had to donate to charity to receive, via their store. My characters wear one of those they sold for the Tsunami victims in Japan. That, IMO, is a really GOOD use of the technology. (Why not make it more fun to donate to a cause, by giving back something that has essentially a zero cost to provide, yet still has value for the gamers? Heck, for a large enough charitable donation, I wouldn't even mind people being able to buy some SERIOUS weapons that always give them an edge in the game. How can you *really* get mad at someone who beats you repeatedly in a game because he or she donated generously to a good real-life cause??)

    But overall, I think it kind of detracts from the original point of the game ... to just hop in, "run and gun", and have a good time. Now I'm made to feel like I'm supposed to be regularly managing my inventory "backpack" and thinking carefully about what I want to swap and what I'd be better off hanging onto. That's more the arena of an RPG, isn't it?

  • "Valve has once again turned to Team Fortress 2 as the studioâ(TM)s outlet for experimentation, this time with a daring move to make the triple-A game entirely free to play."

    "Daring move"?

    The original TF (1996+) was a FREE mod that you played by often connecting through the FREE Gamespy server, connecting to any of a number of FREE games hosted all over. It was an *excellent* game, with a variety of extremely well-designed maps, novel & varied gameplay, and challenging mods.

    In fact the current game, while a significant facelift, doesn't markedly change much in terms of gameplay. Even the modern maps, while nicely prettified, are largely re-creations of 2fort4, Canalzone, Prison, etc. All of it was 100% free of charge.

    So while I commend Valve for finally releasing the game from serfdom, let's remember that it was Valve that originally decided that they would take a free game and charge for it in the first place.

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