Team Fortress 2

Back in June this year, the gaming world was surprised as Valve announced that Team Fortress 2 would adopt the Free-to-Play model.

Some gamers (mostly those who already brought the game prior to the model change) were more than a little hesitant about this radical change and sudden tsunami-influx of new players into the game; while many others, such as yours truly, REJOICED!!

Heavy: What sick man sends MORE babies to fight me??
I know he's laughing as he says that, it's just how he is.

After playing it ever since it went Free-to-Play, I've subsequently became a Premium member (after making purchases at the Mann. Co Store), I've feel that I've explored and played enough of the game to finally write about it proper.

Ever since its release in 2007, Team Fortress 2 has consistently stayed as one of the top multiplayer shooter games, alongside titles such as Call of Duty, Battlefield and Counter Strike. And after playing just a few months worth of it, I can see why.


This game is HILARIOUS. Everything from:the art style,
the sounds,
the weapons (HOLY MACKEREL LEVEL 42),
the maps (blurb for DeGroot Keep map - How did the manly men of Team Fortress appear at a tenth century battlement? Simple. The Soldier angered a magician.)
and even player deaths are hilarious.

Unable to laugh on the account that my head has been separated from my fucking torso. Along with my wank hand.

Its a different direction that from gritty realism that seems to be in all the modern shooters nowadays: Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Gears of War, Resistance, Battlefield etc etc. This cartoon-y direction is a fresh breath of air, which helps it to stand out from the rest.

In-game, it is very easy to pick out the classes thanks to the loving detail placed on each class. From a single glance, its very easy to get a rough idea of what strategies to implement against the class you're facing against, eg. if you come face to face against a pyro, keep the gap between the both of you as big as possible so that his flamethrowers short range can't touch you.

And boy oh boy, have they put alot of effort into each class, each class has completely different styles of playing. That's NINE years worth of development quality right there for you.

Can't say the same for other games that had even longer development times

Each class has a different role to play in any game, and a team consists of a well balanced variety will easily win over a team that's just spamming one or two classes en massed. Scouts scouting; Spies spying; Demos demolishing; Snipers sniping; Engineers engineering; Medics medicating; Pyros pyro-ing; Soldiers soldiering; and Heavies HOLYSHITHEPUNCHEDOUTALLMYBLOOD!!!!

So for now, lets have a review of all the classes available, with my own personal weapon loadout.

The Heavy

Arguably the main star of Team Fortress 2, to date, he has appeared in every single Meet The Team videos, and is on most of their promotional material.

Well, he is a ginormous Russian with a minigun almost as big as he is, that certainly makes him memorable.

The Heavy has the most health on the team at 300HP (450HP when overhealed), this high health, coupled with his various miniguns, make him an extremely dangerous target at short to medium range conflicts.

The only problem is that he's typically very slow while carrying his minigun, and when he's spinning it up, he becomes even slower, making him an easy target for Snipers aiming for his shiny head or Spies backstabbing his barnyard sized back. However, his large size and health makes him a great target for a friendly medic as cover, and when uber-ed by the medic, can send an entire team running like cowards.

Strangely enough, I don't actually see that many Heavies in the servers that I play, despite them being one of the deadliest classes around. They tend to be the number one target for a lot of players though, maybe that's why.

This is my custom heavy loadout:

ALL OF YOU ARE DEAD!!

• Default Minigun - with Strange properties that record the amount of kills, best compromise between all the primary Heavy weapons IMO.
• The Sandvich - mostly to heal the medics actually, if they're healing me; I only use it to heal myself when I don't have a medic healing me.
• Gloves of Running Urgently - when active, grants extra 30% movement speed so that I can get to my destination faster, but lose 6 hp per second, a very minor disadvantage considering the Heavy has so much HP.
• Coupe D'isaster - it's a hairpiece. Grants +100 to hair, -100 to male pattern baldness.

The Scout

The fastest class in the game and with his ability to double jump, he can literally run circles around his enemies. This Boston loudmouth thrash talker's playstyle is actually quite suicidal: he gets in close with his scattergun, fires a shot or two then runs off like mad.

He, along with the engineer, spy and sniper, have the lowest health at 125HP, so he has to rely on hit and run tactics. But since he has incredible mobility and can double jump, this is not a problem. Learning how to play the scout requires quite a bit of effort, I haven't gotten around to playing him without dying every minute.

One of his greatest contributions to the team is that he can accomplish his objectives twice as fast as the other classes (barring Soldiers and Demomen equipped with the Pain Train), whether he is capturing a point or pushing the cart. In Capture the Flag mode, his mobility gives him an advantage at actually being able to run back, and evade the enemies with the Intelligence.

As I said before, playing a scout isn't really that easy, as it's a bit suicidal; where most classes would avoid a lone Heavy in close range shootouts, the Scout actually runs in close with his scattergun, blasts him a few times then runs the fuck out. The scatterguns that the Scouts equip are deceptively powerful, three point blank blasts can kill any class except the Soldier and the Heavy.

This is my custom loadout:

What is your major malfunction, brudda??

• The Soda Popper - After 13 seconds of running and jumping, it can deal mini-crits for 8 seconds. But only has 2 shells compared to the 8 of the default scattergun, so I have to make sure each blasts count. On the other hand, it reloads very fast.
• BONK! Atomic Punch - Upon drinking it, the Scout becomes immune to damage for 6 seconds, but is unable to attack. Still susceptible to knockback from explosions and gunfire though. Very good for directing sentry gun fire so that your teammates can take out a sentry gun encampment. Contains water, radiation and sugar.
• Sandman - with Strange properties that record the amount of kills, its alternate fire enables you to launch a baseball which will stun and damage your target at medium to long range. Its disadvantage is that you reduces your maximum HP by 15, which is already pretty damn low in the first place. But, two words: TAUNT KILL. BONK!!!
• Mann Co. Cap - Painted gold with a can of paint I found in-game. I think it goes pretty well with his whole look, no?

The Soldier

Ahh, the military head hunter/collector lunatic from the American heartland (though the sanity of the rest of the team is pretty much questionable as well). The Soldier is currently one of my favorite classes to play, and is a very versatile class.

He is good for attacking and defending, has the 2nd highest health at 200HP, and his various rocket launchers deal very good AOE damage. Furthermore, he can equip different buff placers in his secondary slot to buff the teammates around him, making him a decent support class.

His signature skill is his ability to rocket jump: Point the rocket launcher at your feet, jump-crouch, fire the rocket and watch as your Soldier flies sky high with flaming boots (OF DOOM!!!) at the cost of some HP. This gives rather good mobility, as his movement speed is the 2nd lowest, he's only slightly faster than the Heavy. And if equipped with the Pain Train, the Soldier can accomplish objectives twice as fast like the Scout!

The Soldier is probably the most popular class from my playing experience thus far, as he's a very straight forward class to play and the learning curve is not very steep. But as the saying goes, "Easy to learn. Hard to master". He should continuous fire his rocket launcher as he arguably the 2nd most threatening class after the Heavy, thus good for crowd control, but he has to make sure most of them hit as his ammo is rather restricted (at best he has 24 rockets at his disposal). He is also the type of class that has to be constantly on the move, or he will be easy prey to the Spy and Sniper thanks to his low move speed. Furthermore, rocket jumping takes some practice to get used to, and failed rocket jumps not only deal unnecessary high self damage, it lowers his already pitiful ammo pile.

This is my custom loadout:

You are all WEAK! You are all BLEEDERS!!

• Black Box - with Strange properties that record the amount of kills, it heals you for 15HP for each enemy you damage with it, this helps with staying alive and staying in combat longer even with the aid of a medic. Best to fire onto a group of enemies for best results.
• The Buff Banner - After dishing out roughly 600 damage, it will be fully charged and can be released to buff you and your allies in a large radius to inflict mini crits on your enemies. Works especially well in large groups and with invulnerable uber-ed allies nearby. Excellent team offensive-support gear.
• The Equalizer - Damage and move speed increases as life is lower, I don't actually use this for combat though, its quite suicidal. I use it more for running away at low HP.
• Ghastlier Gibus - Recently upgraded from the Ghastly Gibus due to the Very Scary Halloween Special update patch. I like it 'cause it covers his eyes. Yes, I know. I find that he looks better (and less insane) when his eyes are covered. Plus I think it fits with his raving homicidal personality.

The Engineer

 The defining camping and turtling class for the game. This Texan genius engineer is a vital part of any team, his buildings enables teams to get to the frontline quickly, staying there and holding it.

The Engineer has average movespeed, but very low health at 125HP (150HP if equipped with the Gunslinger). Engineers have a unique resource to build their buildings called Metal. Each Engineer can only carry 200 Metal maximum, and be restored by picking up ammunition, weapons, the health locker and his own dispenser at set rates per intervals.

Engineers are capable of holding their own in a fight as long as they have their Sentry guns and Dispensers up, but they always have to keep an eye out for spies who will come along and place sappers on his buildings, disabling them and slowly damaging them. Spies will be their greatest threat, as the Engineer has to choose between getting rid of the sappers and risk getting backstabbed by the spy OR try to kill the spy and risk losing his buildings.

While Engineers are self sufficient, their greatest allies will be their fellow Engineers and the Pyros. Engineers can help fix each others buildings and help to set up the buildings faster, a nest of two Engineers working together is far more dangerous than 2 separate nests far from each other. And one Engineer can work to kill the Spy while the other removes the sappers. The Pyro on the other hand, while near a dispenser, will continuously use his flamethrower, which will set fire to any invisible or disguised spies. Furthermore, the Pyros can use their flamethrower's airblast to blow away rockets, grenades, sticky bombs and even enemies (especially invulnerable ones) to keep the buildings safe.


An Engineer can construct 3 buildings:

• A Sentry gun that has 3 levels of deadliness, primarily used for defending, sentry guns can easily take out any class short of a overhealed heavy and invulnerable ones, alternatively, with the Gunslinger, they build Mini-Sentries. <Detailed information on Sentry Guns found here>
• Dispensers which can heal nearby units and replenish ammunition, has three levels, with each level healing and replenishing more than the last level. It's also the primary source of Metal for Engineers. Dispensers are vital for keeping a team healthy and sufficiently armed for prolonged confrontations.  <Detailed information on Dispensers found here>
• Teleporters, well, teleport (duh), quickly bringing your teammates to the frontlines upon a full charge, which each level reducing the time it takes for a full charge. This actually consists of two buildings, one entrance and one exit, a one way journey. Upgrading one end upgrades the other, same goes for repairs. <Detailed information on Dispensers found here>
  

This is my custom loadout:

Take it like a man, shorty.

• Frontier Justice - Can store critical hits for your sentry kills and assists, though the criticals are only accessible upon the destruction of the Sentry guns, and they don't carry over upon death. However, the critical hits can be very devastating, killing most classes in 2-3 hits. But must be extra careful as this shotgun can only carry 3 shells maximum.
• The Wrangler - It's a special tool that lets you have direct control of your sentry gun, you can then manually fire the sentry gun's armaments outside of its normal range. At the same time, the sentry gun gains a forcefield to block 66% of the incoming damage.
• The Jag - This particular wrench lets you build 30% faster as long as you're whacking them with this. The downside is the 25% damage reduction, but then you have your shotgun for them spies, so it's not a big deal for me.
• Mining Light - For the physical representation of constantly streaming bright ideas.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Damn, that was another long ass article. And I only covered FOUR out of the NINE classes!! Bloody hell, writing long articles is starting to be a consistent thing with me isn't it?

Anyways, this has been a pretty long article. I will continue on the remaining 5 classes in my next post.

Until then, laugh along with the Meet the Team videos made by Valve. It'll really put a smile on your face.

• Meet The Heavy
• Meet The Soldier
• Meet The Engineer
• Meet The Demoman
• Meet The Scout
• Meet The Spy
• Meet The Sniper
• Meet The Sandvich
• Meet The Medic
• Meet the Pyro (someday....)

Adios, kids.

DotA: Why is it so popular? Part 2

And we're back again, on the topic of the popularity of DotA and the reasons behind it.

From my last post, I covered two points: the sheer variety and intensity of the game itself; and the fact that there are a lot of people playing it, which would probably include a few of your gamer friends.

But, somehow, I feel that was just scratching the surface of the issue.

Fluffy kitteh interval!

I believe that to get to one of the core reasons for DotA's popularity, we need to go back to its early development history.

It is generally acknowledged that DotA is basically a spiritual successor to Aeon of Strife. Aeon of Strife started in Starcraft, and later made the jump to Warcraft III. But, Warcraft III's version was most likely much more popular, as Warcraft III itself has actual Hero units with RPG elements, which meant making an actual RPG would be easier. Who knew?

Now, this is the point where I believe made the game gain popularity.


The Jump

First, lets study the core games, in this case, Warcraft III. Players who play Warcraft III will no doubt realise that the one thing that will set the pros apart from the norm is Micromanagement, a gameplay skill imported from Starcraft.

Micromanagement in this case basically refers to a players ability to directly control the actions of your units, controlling their every movement, who they are attacking, when to use their abilities etc etc.

Starcraft is much more popular, or infamous depending on your opinion, for this actually (and ascends to godlike levels in competitive gaming, as much as 300-400 actions per minute), but they both require micromanagement if you wanna be truly skilled at playing it.

By the time you finish reading this sentence, JulyZerg has micromanaged
200 Zerglings to give you a heart transplant. And a haircut.

But, the fact is Micromanagement in the -craft series is. Not. Easy. It requires players to be very specific with a few group of units, while managing resources and base building. A lot of players can't handle that amount of detailed work, and some player dislike doing a lot of detailed work on such a minor level.

Then comes along Aeon of Strife made by Eul in Warcraft III.

Random Gamer: Wait, controlling only one hero? Hell, that's easy. Let's do it!!

Aeon of Strife gave players a chance to play the heroes from the Ladder matches without having to worry about Micromanagement, nor base building, and instead, just concentrate on using their heroes to kill other heroes.

This simplifying of the game eventually garnered enough followers to lead into the development of Defense of the Ancients by Steve Feak (Guinsoo), then later, its development was taken over by IceFrog.

IceFrog seen here interacting and exchanging ideas with the man with a plan, Sokka.

Of course, later on, this would lead to DotA actually requiring players to have a different set of skills altogether in order to be considered a good player. But during its early days, it proved to be appealing to players on both sides of the Micromanagement issue (whether they were good or bad at it).

It presented a whole new gameplay concept to a game where being able to order your own units to dance around the enemies (literally) can bring you defeat or victory. It was, for its time, a much simpler alternative to hardcore strategy gaming.


The Birth and Evolution of a genre

Moreover, under Guinsoo and IceFrog, the game received constant updates from the developers, it ensured that the DotA , with each new version, will have some changes from its previous editions. 

Seriously, if you can, boot up DotA Allstars v5.84c (the map version that I started playing DotA with), and compare it with the current map, DotA v.6.72f. The difference is astounding, its almost like two different games altogether.

Like how Katie Holmes transforms into Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Dark Knight.

As long as the updates kept coming at a steady rate, players always have something to look forward to. With that promise, this ensures that the game will not become stagnant and boring, something that a lot of games are unable to get out of and is a major threat to a game's longevity, especially those heavily focused on multiplayer elements.

Major changes come with every few versions, such as major hero revamps, new heroes/items/recipes and, new mechanics; and this can potentially changes the way DotA is played entirely. Players then have to come up with whole new strategies and gameplay styles to adjust to the new changes.

Furthermore, the game has a huge active community, where players can present new ideas and talk about strategies; at the same time, the development team can interact with their fanbase and deliver the things that fans want. This is a relationship that very few big name gaming companies (Valve, Blizzard to name a few) actually have.

That is how DotA survives and grows exponentially: with a decent starting community, word spreads, it brings in more players, and those new players bring in newer ones. It's a snowball effect. Heck, even non-gamers would have heard of DotA , thats how popular it is.

When Starcraft 2 came out with an even more advanced level editor, one of the top maps to be re-created using that engine is, you guessed it (If you didn't, dude, wtf do you think you've been reading up till now?): DotA . Everyone wants a piece of the glory, even Blizzard, eventhough Valve has already gotten IceFrog on board for DotA 2.

And with DotA 2 coming around the corner, the exposure to DotA will be greater than ever before.


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


There is no doubt, that DotA is and will remain an influential factor in gaming history. It brought upon a whole new genre and helped to push the importance of a community-centered game to the gaming industry.

This is a short analysis of what I believe to be the reason for DotA 's rise to fame, it's a bit short I know, but hey, it's something no? This is mostly speaking from analysing my personal experience as a fellow DotA fan and a hardcore gamer.

DotA 2 is coming out sometime next year, I can't wait for it. Afterall, its the sequel to one of my most loved games of all time! There are other reasons too of course.

I wonder what it could be...

Till then, I take my leave, I hope my blog has entertained you. I have some n00bs to pawn.

Adios, kids.

DotA: Why is it so popular?

Well, this is something I've been meaning to do for quite some time. Finally gotten around to actually doing it.

Yay *confetti*

I've been scratching my head and wondering, what would be an appropriate game to have the honor of gracing the first ever post in this blog?

And finally, I got it. The one game that I've been playing almost continuously since 2004.

DotA!! Aka Defense of the Ancients.

Ignore the 2. And the Valve sign. And it says DOTA!

Now I won't bore you with the details of the history of DotA. So here's a link instead:

Dota Development history in Wikipedia

DotA pretty much started an entire genre by itself: Hero Defense, Action RTS or something. I think most gamers haven't really gotten around to giving it an official genre name. Perhaps its name will suffice as a genre name?

It's hard to estimate how many DotA players there are out there. But frankly, it has to be at least in the MILLIONS. Hell, it's probably one of the main reason, if not the only, that Warcraft III is still being played today. Just. For. DotA. Can you imagine that?

So why is it so popular? What makes it so engaging that everyone (Blizzard, Valve, Heroes of Newerth etc) wants a piece of the glory that is DotA?

Well. It's fun. Duh. 

Ok, so its more than just that, but it is not easy to pinpoint the exact reasons that makes it one of the current top dogs in gaming. But lets try shall we?

Unpredictable, intense gameplay

104 heroes, hundreds of items, at least 400 different skills. Two teams of 10 players. In one game.

And one giant pissed-off purple golem.

No two matches will ever be the same. And the outcome, extremely unpredictable. If both teams are evenly matched, then it is even more intense. 

Find a small opening in their strategy and positioning...
Wait for one small mistake from the other team...

Setting a plan...

And when it all comes together, and BAM!! VICTORY!!

I love it when a plan comes together

Victory is especially the sweeter when you and your friends were on the losing end, and manage to flip the game around and emerge victorious instead. Oh yea...


All my friends play it!! :D

Ok, so this is more of a reason for myself. But, honestly, I won't be surprised that a large number of veteran players started off playing DotA for this reason. If you had a lot of friends playing the same game, and they're always talking about the games they had, won't you be tempted to try it too?

But, having experienced friends who play DotA as well is a major bonus in another unexpected way for new players: It lessens the pressure on you (assuming your friends aren't assholes)

DotA has a very high entry level and is very demanding when it comes to gameplay skills, which I admit, after years of playing, I just take for granted: Last hitting, Denying, Ganking, Jungling, Orb Walking, Warding. This is just a small list of miscellaneous skills that DotA players do in-game all the time, sometimes without even thinking about it. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then this is your fellow veteran DotA players can help out with.

But help you I must. If win I want.

In-game, most people won't really teach you how to play the game. Hell, you'll be lucky enough that they have the time to teach you properly. If your friends are nice enough to bring you into the game, then they will be nice enough to actually give you a DotA 101 (once again, assuming your friends aren't assholes). It also makes teamwork a lot easier to coordinate and communicate as well.

And, after every game, you and your bunch of DotA buddies can talk excitedly, or depressingly depending on the performance, about the games you just had. This is another opportunity to learn as they point out what you could do better, or what mistakes you made during the game (assuming they are not asswipes, and if they didn't do any of the three for you, then you need new friends).

And with good memories, this actually helps to strengthen friendships. Heck, I actually made quite a number of friends through playing DotA, and with multiple sessions, actually became quite close with them. 

I think I went off-track somewhere there. *points to a random location in the southeastern direction*