On Fortress Forever and Team Fortress 2

[woah]

Perhaps many of you may or may not know, but Team Fortress 2 and Fortress Forever were released some time in the past few weeks. If you were a fan of Team Fortress Classic (or any of the previous Team Fortress games), this news may be significant to you.

 

http://www.fortress-forever.com

(Team Fortress 2 obviously on Steam)

 

First off, I can't say I'm a fan of Team Fortress 2. Yes, the taunts and such are entertaining, and so is the overall presentation (with the exception of the fact that the "old-western" style can be very awkward), but I find that the gameplay is just a dumbed down, "designed-for-the-masses" version of TFC. Much of the crowd that are drawn to it seem to consist of the same people who didn't give TFC the time of day, given its steep learning curve and competition. Anyone can pick up TF2 and do comparably well to someone who has been playing for much, much longer. In consequence, the gameplay becomes a boring "kill for kill" drag. Even though everyone is raving about it, I don't see it staying too popular for very long, as the community's initial reaction reminds me of the initial response to Counter-Strike: Source's release. The graphics in TF2 are quite stunning, and I can look over the fact that there are no grenades, but the gameplay just isn't doing it for me one bit. I'm under the impression that Team Fortress 2 is just a glossed over, mediocre game, and I think just about everyone is falling for this.

 

On the other hand, I find that Fortress Forever is extremely good. The many new additions are revitalizing, yet the overall gameplay stays true to the classic Team Fortress gameplay. There are some class design problems (such as the heavy being too fast and powerful, and the sniper's machine gun also being too powerful), but those are easy to look over (especially given the fact that the pyro is now an excellent class). The map design is near flawless too--without doubt much better than TF2's tiny, crowded levels. Well, CZ2, Crossover, Hunted, and several others are all currently there (with many other classics coming soon). Although the overall graphics quality (with attention to models, skins, and particle effects) is definitely not as good as TF2's, they're still very good, and I assume that with time they will become comparable to TF2's--especially given the fact that the tech now used in TF2 will be available to mod developers. I was quite surprised to find that a first release of a mod could be so polished and excellent.

 

So these are my impressions. My preference should be obvious. I'd be happy to hear others.

Edited September 26, 2007 by woah

[Komag]

I had no idea TF2 didn't have grenades. Holy crap that sucks, I LOVE grenades in TFC, they added so much more to the melee, timing those grenade tosses just right all the while you are shooting and strafing

[Unstoppable]

Well I've played almost all the Team fortress. From Quakeworld, TFC, Unreal Fortress, Fortress Evolution, and now TF2.

 

I have to disagree though about TF 2. It's a well made game and sure I miss the nades. However the game is way less spammy and you can actually get across the map since there aren't so many nades all over. Someone who has skill will be a newbie.

 

The graphics of course are sublime as are the facial expression and voice overs. I am going to give Fortress Forever a shot as well. I just purchased the orange box, if you pre order it's 5 bucks less than retail .

[Maximius]

I had no idea TF2 didn't have grenades. Holy crap that sucks, I LOVE grenades in TFC, they added so much more to the melee, timing those grenade tosses just right all the while you are shooting and strafing

 

Not to mention they are a form of propulsion as well. I'm just now learning a bit of conc jumping with the medic, I mean real jumping w/o stopping and waiting. That game just keeps giving and giving, before I uninstalled it due to class I was playing this Brit server that ran Dustbowl 24/7. I thought I had learned all there was to know about Dustbowl but I was wrong. Freaking good gaming, its the Jolt servers I think, mature crowd generally too so less BS. People know exactly what to do and they generally do it, good teamwork.

 

I will definitely try FF, but I'm leery of TF2 a bit.

[Unstoppable]

I was playing Fortress Forever earlier. It's pretty good and has a distinct feel to TF 2. I can seel myself playing both without a hitch .

[woah]

Not to mention they are a form of propulsion as well. I'm just now learning a bit of conc jumping with the medic, I mean real jumping w/o stopping and waiting. That game just keeps giving and giving, before I uninstalled it due to class I was playing this Brit server that ran Dustbowl 24/7. I thought I had learned all there was to know about Dustbowl but I was wrong. Freaking good gaming, its the Jolt servers I think, mature crowd generally too so less BS. People know exactly what to do and they generally do it, good teamwork.

 

I will definitely try FF, but I'm leery of TF2 a bit.

 

I have to agree 100%, and I believe you won't be disappointed with this in Fortress Forever. Conc grenades are just as effective, and if you're one of those who enjoy pulling off some nifty movement maneuvers, there's plenty of that. In addition to preserving a reasonable level of bunny hopping, and the well-known rocket jumping, pipe-bomb and sniper rifle propulsion, and all those other goods from TFC, the game also has an extremely neat thrust system, where if you jump from a declining-surface, you are propelled forward a bit, depending on the steepness of that surface. On the other hand, if you jump into an incline with enough force, you'll "launch" yourself a bit higher into the air, almost like a double jump. Mastering these techniques can be quite a challenge, but if you get them down, you can literally fly across the map as scout. Once skilled at this, it can be such a rewarding feeling to bound past several enemies in pursuit of you, evading their attacks, then briskly sweep the flag out from under the enemies' noses, and then disappear again by means of sheer speed.

[Serpentine]

I have to agree with the feelings so far. Playing FF seemed true to its roots, from the old quake TF down to TFC - it just feels right. The nades missing from TF2 really kill it for me - I wasnt much for the movement aspects of them in TFC (which is odd, because I use advanced movement in everything else).

 

The rather lackluster gameplay I have experienced in TF2 has actually stopped me from pre-ordering the Orange Box deal, unless Portal is amazing and Ep2 is decent, theres no way my hard earned student cash is going to it

[Maximius]

I will give TF2 a try for completeness sake but FF is sounding really solid. I cannot wait to try the new pyro, god I love the pyro class, I've always been best with med and pyro. Sometimes on Dustbowl if I can grab a sack of nades on the first two parts, and make it past defenses front line and catch a group coming out of the spawn, I burn every damned thing alive, sailing nades hither and yon, first napalm rockets as I close with the enemy and then its the bonnie torch. Most of the time they are not on guard coming out the door and before they know it they are burning. Get three or four snipers burning with maybe two or three napalm rockets while dancing side to side and hopping to trash their aim, then one pineapple grenade and all of them go down. Its glorious.

 

 

For anyone who still plays, let me suggest the last NEO server around, which also has Exten TF installed for that matter, its Eternal Howls NEO TFC, I cannot remember the complete name but its the onlyone that ever fills up anymore. For those who are not intimidated by NEO TFCs MUCH steeper learning curve, the rewards can be sweet, like the medic tossing three snarks onto a sniper deck, then hitting a key bound to "+snarkcam" and watch the little beauties ripping sniper flesh apart, then hit another key bound to "+detsnark" I think and boom. I think they have to be the most enraging way to die in NEO, next to being frozen by the pyros "popsicle cannon" as I like to call it. WHen I freeze someone with it after swooping in on them with the jetpack, I come over the mike saying "STICK AROUND." like arnie did in the first predator. Oooo ppl get pissed off!

 

In fact, speaking of arnie, there are a couple of clowns on TFC who have huge collections of his sound bites and who have conversations sometimes with them, its fucking hilarious. One night a regular guy was talking crap to the one arnie impersonator and the impersonator answered all his taunts with arnie. I almost peed my pants laughing.

Edited September 28, 2007 by Maximius