Has Team Fortress 2 changed since becoming free to play?

Recently the popular FPS from Valve Team Fortress 2 has been made free to play on Steam. This of course has increased the number of players on its servers and made it easier to find a game but is the game better off for it?

For Valve making the game free means that their revenue source for TF2 will be from people making in game purchases of weapon sets or clothing. While many of these items are cheap (some as low as 50 cents) the large increase of people will mean that Valve's profit margins will not take a hit. The game before going free had been in a steady decline in terms of its player base. more or less because players who had bought the game were growing tired of it and had moved onto other games.

Team Fortress 2 will be four years old in october, its had a good run and for any game to last this long and still be popular is quite an achievement. Usually at about this time in a games life the developer would be well into making the next game in the series or will slowly stop supporting the game on their servers. So to see it go free to play tells us that Valve love the game but given that there have been no announcements as to a Team Fortress 3 it seems that the company are trying to milk TF2 for all its got. But to extend the life of a game does not make it better.

Over the past week (as many of you know) I've been asking you readers what you think of TF2 going free and if it has made the game better or worse. The responce I got was massive. I was so surprised at how many people had messaged me on facebook and Google+, sent me a Dm on twitter or emailed me with your thoughts on this game. Before even reading them this told me a lot. Team Fortress is popular and while its player base was shrinking the amount of people still playing is massive. After reading every single message, DM and email it seems the community are divided in their feelings.

Some people hate it because it means more servers are full and that while having one new player on the team was okay, having an entire team of them is just plain annoying. Also one reader pointed out that hackers can create accounts at no cost and make the game unenjoyable for other players.

On the other hand not every person with a free account is terrible at the game or wishes to disrupt it. It has increased the player base significantly meaning that there are little or no empty servers at any time of the day or night. Many seasoned players are just playing on servers that don't have any new players in them so the game becoming free has made no difference at all. One reader who goes by the name Amyler on steam had decided that not helping noobs was counter productive and was teaching them how to play:

"There is fun to be had in teaching people how to be better at the game. I've taught plenty of Pyro's to airblast burning allies, incoming rockets and planted stickybombs. I've taught medic's when to ubercharge and what loadout to use for matchtypes. I've taught Snipers to stop running into the front lines with the fucking uzi. Seeing people learn from what you tell them and get better is more entertaining then simply dominating a clueless opponent."

So it seems that if you're a hardcore player, you wont notice the influx of free players because odds are they play with other hardcores on their own servers or you help the noobs and create a community that has people help each other.

In my opinion making TF2 going free has given life to a dying game. It has allowed people who weren't sure if they wanted it or not a risk free chance to find out if they like it or not. Plus because of how balanced the class system is (provided you don't use community built weapons) this game could be used in e-sports tournaments as an entry level game.

Once again I'd like to thank my readers for sending me your opinions. Still if you want to weigh in on this debate feel free to comment below and tell me. Do you think that making Team Fortress 2 free has made it better or worse?

Sticking up for the ODST

Halo 3 ODST copped a pretty bad wrap because of its crippling lack of PvP multiplayer and that firefight mode lacked depth. Some have even said that the one thing the game has, its storyline, was shocking. I reckon it is the best game in the series after Halo 1.

Lets look at its weakest point. The lack of a more traditional multiplayer. It appears to me that Bungie were trying something new. Instead of having people trying to kill each other you would have people work together toward a common goal. Yeah its a good way of uniting the community but in reality its just the campaign without any discernable plot besides the Earth is being invaded by aliens and your job is to holdout as long as you can. Oh wait, that is the storyline. A developer can never fully satisfy the whole community with a sequel but in order to make future games better sometimes you've got to make mistakes. Still, firefight mode made it into Halo Reach and really complemented Halos traditional deathmatch.

The selling point of Halo ODST was the campaign. It was a simple story that had you as an ODST exploring New Mombasa to discover what had happened to the rest of your squad. While the exploration between levels felt like the game buying itself time it did mean you could play the game in any order you wanted to. That being said the side story of the girl who would argue with the superintendent (the A.I for the city. Yes she was arguing with the city itself) did inspire me to explore the city and discover all its secrets.

Without a doubt the music in this game is the best by a mile. The smooth jazz gave the whole game a noir feel set in a sci-fi universe. Plus it added to the game and didn't distract you from it. I'm a huge jazz fan so to see it appear in a game automatically earns it points because it is a genre hardly used by games but one that has a lot to offer them.

All in all the game put the superman like powers of master chief aside and gave players a challenge. One that I had not seen since Halo 1. For a game that was originally intended to be an add on to Halo 3 it has done incredibly well.

Till next week, peace. 

San Andreas goes HD

I don't normally talk about mods for games mostly because there are so many and most either make the game look better or add silly stuff into the game. But this one peaked my interest.

A group of fans have ported the Rockstar classic Grand Theft Auto San Andreas into the GTA 4 engine. It's a total conversion bringing everything including missions, vehicles, collectibles and all the radio stations into the latest rendition of the series.
These guys have put a lot of work into making San Andreas HD. All the graphics have been brought to the cutting edge for the latest generation of computers. While the walking and running controls in GTA 4 are terrible I'm really exicted at seeing Los Santos with brushed up graphics.

People who loved the game back in the day will enjoy it and new players will love it. If you are new I recommend getting the original game and playing that to truly experience the game in all its glory. You can pick up a copy for as little as $20 on Steam.

The mod is only available for the PC version of the game. Hopefully Rockstar see it and re-make San Andreas for modern consoles *HINT HINT!*

The original is my all time favorite GTA game and its good to see modders really putting themselves out there. So far the Mod is in beta and you can download it for free from their website.

Comment below and tell me, What's your favorite mod and why?

Australia is ready

Brendan O'Connor the minister for home affairs announced that following last weeks SCAG (Standing Committee of Attorneys-General) meeting in Canberra an R18+ rating (Restricted to persons over 18) for video games will be introduced in the coming months. After years of debate amongst both state and federal politicians it will finally happen. The hearing has come with great reception to Australian gamers all over the country.

The announcement has not come without controversy. Following the terrorist attacks in Norway a few days ago where so far 96 people have lost their lives, many of which are children, debate has flared to if violent video games should be banned outright. Brendan O'Connor has said that this terrible event will not change the decision.

What this means is that games once refused classification, such as Mortal Kombat 9, will now have a good chance at being given an R18+ classification. Games once modified to meet the previous highest rating of MA15+ (restricted to persons over 15 with adult supervision) may be able to be reclassified with the adults only rating in its unmodified form. The most prominent being the Grand Theft Auto series which is known for its strong violence and sexual content.

The legislation should go through by the end of the year. I’m looking forward to seeing kids try and get their hands on the latest Grand Theft Auto or Modern Warfare 3 and getting asked for ID just to see how they talk their way out of it.

Till next week,

Peace.