Team Fortress 2 free to play after tomorrow's big update

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Matthew DeCarlo

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The Team Fortress 2 "War" event marches on as Soldiers receive a new weapon today. The Direct Hit rocket launcher was created for Soldiers "who have mastered the art of shotting at their targets instead of vaguely near them," with a 70% smaller blast radius, 80% faster rockets that do 25% more damage and are guaranteed to mini-crit on mid-air targets.

This follows yesterday's Demoman update, which brought a Close Combat Kit consisting of a sword and shield with mixed effects. The haunted Eyelander sword decapitates enemies when killed and decreases the Demoman's maximum health. Meanwhile, the Chargin' Targe shield replaces the sticky bomb launcher, protects against fire (+50%) and blast (+65%) damage, and can be used as a stabbing weapon.


The War has pitted Solider and Demoman players against each other, with the winner receiving a new (undisclosed) unlockable weapon. The event will end tomorrow night, and the Soldier is currently leading the Demoman's casualty count (4,923,531 versus 5,056,134). In addition to the new exclusive weapon, tomorrow's update will bring a crafting system, new maps, achievements, "surprises" and the remaining weapon unlocks.

To celebrate, Valve has announced that Team Fortress 2 will be free to play for four days immediately after the update (Thursday through Sunday). If interested, you can preload the game now. It's also worth noting that a new TF2 comic was introduced yesterday and today.

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I've had this game purchased via Steam for at least 8 months and never played it. I need to get off my duff, install it and check it out. Seems wildly popular right now....
 
Never had the chance to play it, this seems like the best time to start it up :) .
 
Yeah I'd definitely encourage you both to get into it. In some ways it's another typical FPS, but in other ways it's totally different. There are so many funny, quirky characteristics built into it that make it a blast. Also, Valve works continuously to keep the game/classes balanced, so there is no overpowered weapon, etc.

Not sure if we're allowed to do this (feel free to delete the comment if not), but I'm a member of a gaming forum called "Stompfest". We have several TF2 servers with a pretty large user group and very, very active community. Feel free to check it out: http://www.stompfest.com

I go by "medd" over there.
 
:) You're fine treeski. In fact, I plan to check out Stompfest. I've played a fair amount of TF2 over the last couple of weeks (recently bought the game).

It's also worth mentioning that there is a TechSpot Steam group -- though, it's not particularly active or anything.
 
i actually play this game competitively and the new rocket launcher is not going to make noobs happy... its going to make the better soldiers stand out that much more.

really fun game.. been playing it for over a year.. and eventhough i bought l4d and l4d2 recently i still play it alot since there is so many different ways to just have fun.
 
i might be more drawn to play tf2 if there weren't so many whiny little 11yr olds that infest the servers...
 
EXCellR8 said:
i might be more drawn to play tf2 if there weren't so many whiny little 11yr olds that infest the servers...

You clearly haven't played on the SF servers ;) But overall, I really haven't noticed that being much of a problem, especially not compared to CS:S.

@Matt: Thanks, let me know if you have any questions! All of the server IPs are at the right of the main page, along with current maps and player numbers. I'll check out the TS Steam group next time I'm at my desktop.
 
I also bought it a while back and just played it last night for the first time...and the first map I randomly picked had two men engaged in a very frank voice chat discussion about what they want to do to each other. A very very weird experience.
 
I can't wait for the unveiling of the rest of the new weapons and features the update will bring.

TF2 is such a good game. I used to be really into CoD 4 multiplayer, but my clan fell apart and now TF2 is my multiplayer game of choice. I don't miss CoD 4 at all!

The game and characters just are awesome. I can't wait for the rest of the "Meet the ..." trailers, especially the Pyro one.
 
@EXCellR8: Honestly (as treeski noted), I haven't really noted much of a problem with "whiny little 11yr olds" -- though, I haven't played the game too extensively. Most of the voice exchanges I've heard were game-appropriate and mature.
 
Just saying, whenever I pick the game up I always get stuck with what seems to be a significantly younger crowd. Sure, I can just mute them all but I like to able to communicate with other players. Maybe it's not so much of a problem now, but I've got better things to play anyways even though I bought the game in Orange Box like 2 years ago... Now if I could only play with some more experienced ppl on L4D I'd be set.
 
Can't wait for all to be revealed. Go soldier!

Best TF2 server EVER: tf2.drhim.com:27016 Older crowd, lots of friendly admins, and CUSTOM MAPS. So, for those who were complaining about 11 yr olds ruining the game, you can't do much better than that server.
 
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