Team Fortress 2

I have recently been getting into more PC games, partially so I could play with friends and partially because every game developer decided to release their games all at the same time at the end of the year. Anyway, I upgraded my piece of crap computer to a better one, not exceptionally good but pretty good to do what I need it to do, I’m not a PC gamer so I’m not going to shed out ridiculous amounts of money on a computer.

My friend told me that I must get Team Fortress 2 because it’s ‘amazing’. I remember seeing this title in a store a long time ago, probably when it just came out and I thought it looked pretty damn awesome but I never played it until a few weeks ago, and I have to say this is  one of the best multiplayer experiences I have ever had. Team Fortress 2 is so much fun despite the high learning curve of each class.

I love the way this game looks. I have never seen a game that looks cartoony and fun yet so amazing and hard. Most of the classes actually take skill to master unlike in COD when anyone can have at least a small amount of success. If you’re one of those douche bags who run around with Ghost, Second Chance and a noob tube then this game might not be for you.

Each class is made up of a primary weapon, a secondary weapon and a melee weapon, some classes have more things, the Engineer has another two spots to create and demolish buildings and the Spy has an extra slot for disguises. Each class is different in it’s own way, they all wield their own weapons. The Soldier has a rocket launcher, shotgun and a shovel, the Scout has a Scattergun (shotgun), a pistol and a baseball bat, the Pyro has a flamethrower, a shotgun and a fire axe, the Demoman has a grenade launcher, don’t worry, it’s not like the noob tubes in Call of Duty, the grenades don’t explode on impact unless they hit someone, a sticky bomb launcher which can be detonated at anytime and a whiskey bottle, the Heavy has a mini gun, a shotgun and his fists, the Engineer has a shotgun, a pistol, a wrench, a PDA to create buildings and another to demolish. The Medic has a syringe gun, a medigun which heals people and a saw. The Sniper has a sniper rifle, a sub machine gun and a sword. Finally, the Spy has a revolver, a sapper which destroys buildings, a knife to backstab and finally a book of disguises.

These are all the vanilla loadouts of the classes, these slots can be change to different weapons, e.g. the Scout can change his secondary to a jar of milk or different energy drinks, the Demoman can have a range of different swords. There are a lot of items that I’m not going to go into because it would take forever.

Even though there is a learning curve on this game, there is a class for everyone. My favourites are the Scout and the Soldier. The Scout is definitely one of the hardest to master along with the Spy. The easiest is the Pyro, you’ll often hear people say W+M1, the mantra of the Pyro. If you play this game you’ll understand.

One thing I love about this game is that it is so balanced, there is nothing in this game that I’ve really gotten worked up about or that’s made me rage quit, in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever raged quitted from this game. I have shouted at my monitor because of Spies killing me a lot but then I stop and realise that the Spy class is really hard and either they are too good or I’m not playing right. Obviously Jesus made a really good comment on this game, ‘The moment you start making your vanilla weapons looks bad is the moment you have an unbalanced game.’ This is so true and Team Fortress 2 doesn’t fall into the unbalanced category. I still use the vanilla Scattergun for the Scout, I used the vanilla rocket launcher for the Solider for a long time, I use the vanilla syringe and medigun for the medic.

This game was recently made F2P, you may be called a F2P noob when you start, somehow I didn’t. A lot of people complained that they bought the game the day before it went F2P but to be honest, it’s worth the $10 or £10 or €10. There are a bunch of benefits to upgrading to a premium account, you can trade with other players, get more inventory space, that was the big one for me. I went into the store and found a cheap item that I wanted and bought it, it cost me 74 cents to upgrade my account. I have hardly covered anything in this article, maybe I’ll do another one on each class, discussing strategies and ways to play each class. There’s no reason not to try out this game, it’s free!

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

I bought this game when it came out and I loved it. Me and my friends would role in a squad raping everyone. We had plans for world domination, we would all have our class that we played as, it was very organised and it worked well. The game is extremely different from COD and if you like first person shooters and you’re getting bored of COD this is a great change. Eventually my friend persuaded me to come back to Modern Warefare 2 because he didn’t like it.

Admittedly, the single player isn’t as good. The storyline lacks the imagination of the Call of Duty series but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. The game itself looks amazing, the landscapes are beautiful. The single player might not be as good as other FPS games but there are definitely parts of the game that you won’t find in any other FPS. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 makes up for the single player with it’s multiplayer. The multiplayer is by far the best online experience I have ever encountered. Sure in Call of Duty there are loads of options and game types but you won’t find the maps, and the cooperation of the players in this game. The game doesn’t focus on kills and deaths, more so on points gathered. I enjoy games like this because you don’t get so frustrated when you die or become a different player when you’re on a massive killstreak. Instead of building up kills you are encouraged to gain points by either repairing vehicles, destroying vehicles, planting bombs, defusing bombs, healing, reviving, giving people ammo etc.

This brings me on to the classes. The multiplayer is divided into four different classes, Assault, Engineer, Medic and Recon. As an Assault your goal is to rush into the battlefield and kill. Killing isn’t everything, dropping ammo packs will also give you points, when another player is low on ammo they can resupply by walking over it. As you may have guessed, you can only use assault rifles as an Assault. As an Enginerr your job is to drive the vehicles. The vehicles being, tanks, quad bikes and helicopters. As a Engineer you can have a gadget, a drill that allows you to repair vehicles and this also gives you points. You can only use sub machine guns as an Engineer. As the Medic, your objective is to heal and revive. Healing works in the exact same way as resupplying as an Assault. Reviving brings people back from the brink of death and can potentially give you a lot of points. The Medic can only use light machine guns. I usually hate LMGs but they are really good in this game. As the Recon you are supposed to take people out to aid your fellow players on the battlefield. In my opinion there are only three good snipers in this game. They are all bolt action, the others have horrible sights and are semi automatic, one is full automatic. As a Recon you can call in mortar strikes and throw motion mines which help your team mates. Sniping in this game is insane. The sniping in this game is like no other. It’s not like in Call of Duty where the snipers are basically used like M14s. You actually have to snipe, you have to think as a sniper and when you get that kill from across the map, it is extremely rewarding.

Another thing that puts this game above others is the use of vehicles. You can drive a range of tanks, helicopters, quad bikes, boats, jet skis and humvees. The vehicles like tanks and helicopters can dominate if put in the right hands but if you aren’t an experienced pilot of gunner you are not going to last in a vehicle. Experience does play a key role when lethal vehicles are involved. Another great thing in this game is the UAVs. Instead of just calling one in, you use a stationary computer to fly it around, call in Hellfire strikes and shoot enemies if you have the right specs.

This game is severely underrated in my opinion and a lot of games are taking credit for things that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 have brought into the gaming world. Homefront for instance the Parrot Drone is pretty much the UAV in Bad Company 2. There is also a version of Conquest and Rush mixed into one game type in Homefront. I don’t know the name because I have no intention of playing Homefront, I haven’t heard great things about it even though I was excited for its release. Conquest in Bad Company 2 is when you capture flags and Rush is when you destroy things called ‘M-COM’ stations and move up the map when two are destroyed and repeat. Homefront act as if these things are new but they aren’t and now Homefront are taking credit for it when Bad Company 2 have already done it.

I have recently started playing this game again and I am loving it. Battlefield 3 is coming out and I am very excited for its release. The online can only get better.