Team Fortress 2

[SimpleJack]

Your friends are probably a bit dull, because if you're not forced to buy hats and other random shit, then the game isn't ruined, it just becomes more fun for the people with more money... if they started charging monthly fees to play the game then it would be ruined...

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

The game is solid, but, under certain circumstances, you'll be at a disadvantage to other players because of the time and effort they put into obtaining their gear. For instance, the spy is much easier to use once you get the cloak and dagger (thankfully you get this through an achievement.)

DeGroot Keep is going to be really frustrating with the starting weapons as well. You'll see why when half the players are using either the half-zatoichi(which, in my opinion, should really be banned from DeGroot Keep since it's only downside is completely negated by Medieval Mode) or killing gloves of boxing, and snipers are useless without the huntsman.

Just find a good server and make some friends. Avoid trading or achievement servers. Trading in general is not worth it. The tutorial is pretty good. Try a little of all the classes. You get an achievement for using all of them once in a round. I'm personally heavily skewed towards engineers, snipers, and spies with my time as an engineer being more than the next three classes combined.

 

[FightThePower]

Ignore what people say about the weapons. You can do perfectly well with the stock items, and most of the superior extra items are unlockable so you can earn them through achievements. Yeah, you'll be at a disadvantage if you use the Pistol instead of Mad Milk or the KGB instead of the GRU, but it doesn't make that much difference in pub play.

It's not ruined, it's still great fun. You don't need to buy anything from the store ever to do well, people going AFK for trading does happen, but thankfully not nearly as often as people say, since most people go onto a trade server. Good servers will kick those kind of people anyway.

 

[Irridium]

I recently bought the Orange Box off Steam to get HL2 and Portal, and obviously that means I now also own TF2, and it looks like fun, but a lot of people have told me the game has bee ruined by micro-transactions and hats, with certain players getting bought advantages over others and games being over run with people just asking for hats and trades instead of playing the game.


Is this true?

[HEADING=1]NO[/HEADING]

All weapons, new and old, are well balanced in the game. In fact, quite a few of the added weapons are inferior to the originals.

Being able to buy weapons has NOT affected the game in a negative way. All it does is allow people who don't have shit-tons of hours to play the game get some extra items. That is all.

You can find all the weapons/hats through normal gameplay(randomly awarded when you die or when you get a certain amount of achievements).

For further questions, I direct you to the TF2 PC group [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/The-Escapist-Team-Fortress-2-Group-PC].

 

[EHKOS]

If you go in there with only stock weapons, then yes. Once you get a couple weps you'll be fine.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I recently bought the Orange Box off Steam to get HL2 and Portal, and obviously that means I now also own TF2, and it looks like fun, but a lot of people have told me the game has bee ruined by micro-transactions and hats, with certain players getting bought advantages over others and games being over run with people just asking for hats and trades instead of playing the game.


Is this true?

You can gain all of the items through normal play, but you can also just be lazy and buy what you want. So, no, it hasn't been ruined by micro-transactions... just made crassly comercial.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

All those weapons are droppable, craftable, and some can be gotten by achievements. Hell, there's even trading, which makes it easier still. The point still stands that nothing in the store gives you an advantage, I have every weapon without spending a penny. I mean there's certainly issues with modern tf2, but that's not one of them,not by a long shot.

I didn't see the point of the qualifier "items you can buy in the store". With some very sparse, all the store items can be attained ingame through a lot of patience. Then again, it's patience and luck; if you simply never get a Degreaser after months of play, you may simply not become a competitive pyro.[/quote]Speak for yourself. =p I've done competitive matches as Pyro with the regular flamethrower just fine. At least the regular flamethrower's afterburn is of some concern to an enemy medic, and a bigger concern to everybody else's, and the airblast potential is just the same.

That said, almost every weapon in TF2 is meant to be a sidegrade, not an upgrade, and except for some melee weapons and a few secondaries, most times competitive players will use the vanilla equipment anyhow. So really, you're good to go the moment you first boot up the game. And if you're lucky you'll meet at least a few players will give you duplicate weapons. (I sure as hell don't know what to do with four Homewreckers)

Basically the added weapons will boost your versatility, because yes there'll be cases where the Wrangler will be crucial for an engineer. But one that doesn't have one can be just as useful to his team most times anyway. Or once in a blue moon the soldier will need his direct hit to get rid of a sentry fast, but most times his vanilla rocket launcher is his best primary weapon. So I honestly wouldn't worry.

 

[ntw3001]

No, it's not true. There are no weapons that can't be found during normal gameplay or through crafting (although the set hats are difficult to craft or find, so the criticism is probably justified for those. Only the spy one is really significant though, and it's not gamebreaking). Once you start playing, you'll find weapons quickly enough. It's true, though, that you'll be waiting some time before you build up enough spare stuff to be able to craft specific items you want.

Most of the genuinely useful gear (Kritzkreig, Axtinguisher, Gunslinger, Sandvich and such), which really gives the class something new to do, can be earned from achievements. So you'll get them just by playing the class for a while, rather than have to wait for the random drop system to give you what you want. Or you can just farm the achievements, if you're really eager to get the weapons quickly. You won't be underpowered without them, although the axtinguisher's improvement over the fire axe is really significant. I wouldn't want to have to use the fire axe, but that's more an issue of the class than the weapon.

 

[player3141]

I think the engineer update caused more damage than the micro-transaction system. I can't stand teams with 10 sentry turrets that are being controlled by a human.

 

[Stoic raptor]

No. Anything that you can buy you can craft and/or get in a drop (with the exception of keys).

No weapon is better than the other. Alternate weapons have advantages and disadvantages to the original. A lot of the time you will actually find people using the original weapons instead of the alternate.

It may seem complicated now, but there is a nice and thorough tutorial for tf2, and you can play offline to try all the original weapons and other stuff. Anything new you try (like crafting or changing weapons) will be explained when you first try it.

Even though, the game just might not be your style of game. Just try the game for a while and see how you like it.

 

[Zabriskie Point]

The cosmetic items don't give any advantage. And you can get all items without paying.

 

[Neverhoodian]

I recently bought the Orange Box off Steam to get HL2 and Portal, and obviously that means I now also own TF2, and it looks like fun, but a lot of people have told me the game has bee ruined by micro-transactions and hats, with certain players getting bought advantages over others and games being over run with people just asking for hats and trades instead of playing the game.


Is this true?

First off, unlockable weapons are meant as "sidegrades," not upgrades. Valve has done a (mostly) good job in this regard, as most of them are pretty well balanced. The one exception to this rule are the Polycount set bonuses, as the only way you get them is by wearing a particular hat. Valve has openly admitted that it was a bad idea though, and they're not going to tie hats to class stats again.

While I do think it would be better if everyone got access to the new weapons right away, it's not that big of a deal due to the aforementioned balancing. The drop rate is high enough that a new player like yourself will have lots of new unlockables to play with in the first few weeks, and you can always craft/trade for more. As for hats, I don't really care that much one way or another. TF2's always had a rather goofy vibe, so the inclusion of amusing headgear doesn't dramatically change the style for me. It can be a bit off-putting when people paint their hats though. Why Valve decided lime green and hot pink should be included as colors is beyond me.

Trade requests can usually be ignored easily enough. Many servers either have an auto-kick feature for inactive players or enable votekicking by the players, so idle traders tend to be rare. Also, there are dedicated trading servers, so that cuts down on trade requests in normal servers significantly.

In short, don't worry too much about getting all the items and just have fun playing the game. I'd recommend you play Training mode first, as it's a good primer for what you'll be getting into. After that, I'd recommend playing as either the Soldier or Medic first.

 

[the_dancy_vagrant]

I recently bought the Orange Box off Steam to get HL2 and Portal, and obviously that means I now also own TF2, and it looks like fun, but a lot of people have told me the game has bee ruined by micro-transactions and hats, with certain players getting bought advantages over others and games being over run with people just asking for hats and trades instead of playing the game.


Is this true?

Pretty much none of what you posted is true, as many others have said.

The main thing is finding servers that suit the style of play that you enjoy. Most of them will be specifically labeled as 'achievement farming' or 'item trading/crafting', so if that's not what you want to do then you shouldn't log onto them.

As for game balance RE: weapons, etc...well, I didn't start playing until after all of the various extra stuff had already been implemented. At first, I thought that I was at a disadvantage using nothing but the base equipment for each class. I wasn't - I was just not good at the game. Most of the extra equipment is kind of finnicky to use correctly. Just pay it no mind and log onto youtube to learn how to play each class. It'll save you a lot of frustration before your first match.

 

[thedeathscythe]

I recently bought the Orange Box off Steam to get HL2 and Portal, and obviously that means I now also own TF2, and it looks like fun, but a lot of people have told me the game has bee ruined by micro-transactions and hats, with certain players getting bought advantages over others and games being over run with people just asking for hats and trades instead of playing the game.


Is this true?

The hats are all attainable through playing, the hats that are microtransactions are actually user made hats and don't give any buffs. Maybe they do now, but when I played they didn't. I did just fine. In fact, you start out with just the vanilla classes, since you don't have anything, and I can reassure you, that playing as a team, playing smart as your class, and just getting used to the maps and the classes and the flow of the game, is much more valuable than any of the ingame hats. Half of the stuff I have is just for appearance (I'm pretty sure all the microtransaction stuff is too) and the other half I have that does give any buffs or debuffs is all free from just playing.

Have fun playing Team Fortress 2! It has tremendous lasting power compared to almost every other shooter.

 

[blankedboy]

Why not give it a shot and see for yourself? TF2 is loads of fun.

Well, um... how do I put this?

1.7 GHz Single Core Processor.

I'll just leave it at that.

640x480, minimum settings. You'll be fine.
And no, not really. There's shitloads of trading, but, long story short, don't do it and it won't get in your way. People who complain about it are just being morons.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

As for game balance RE: weapons, etc...well, I didn't start playing until after all of the various extra stuff had already been implemented. At first, I thought that I was at a disadvantage using nothing but the base equipment for each class. I wasn't - I was just not good at the game. Most of the extra equipment is kind of finnicky to use correctly. Just pay it no mind and log onto youtube to learn how to play each class. It'll save you a lot of frustration before your first match.

My advice for the starting TF2 player is to play medic and follow the team around, you get a feel of the maps, classes AND tactics that way, all the while still making yourself pretty useful to your team. As opposed to those people who go Sniper or Spy on their first go and basically waste a slot on your team as they fail to get (m)any kills.

 

[Danceofmasks]

You already own the game.

Just try to play it. If it doesn't run well enough, well .. cross that bridge when you get to it.

Also, this is a game where gear makes a lot less of a difference than skill.

 

[Hiphophippo]

I will never complain about the hat system. Why? Because I sold off a few the other day for some games on Steam. Fuck yea to trading virtual goods for steam games.

As for some of the weapons unbalancing the game....well...not to any real degree. Besides, play for a week and get some achievments and you'll start raking in weapons yourself anyway. Really, as someone mentioned the melee map degroot keep is maybe the only instance where certain weapons stand out above others.

But yes, play this game. It's brilliant fun.