Sniper

(Main Loadout)

PRIMARY: Strange Sniper Rifle [SP1: Headshot Kills], [SP2: Domination Kills], [SP3: Snipers Killed]
SECONDARY: Darwin's Danger Shield
MELEE: Kukri

HAT: Cold Killer
MISC1: Merc's Muffler
MISC2: Sir Hootsalot
ACTION: Schadenfreunde

It seems Valve is slowly daring a lot more when it comes to hats, the Cold Killer is here to prove that, it drops from Nice crates and one of the best things you can get at that. If it wasn't for this no Sniper hat would be a keeper. The same can be said about his miscs. Sir hootsalot is too cute to endure, give the owl a misc slot already. The merc's Muffler is a great all-class misc that happens to look good on Sniper. A sad day (or sad set of updates) for sniper cosmetics.

As for the guns there's no surprise there. The stock sniper rifle or the AWPer Hand are the only weapons a sniper should be allowed to use. Sure it might exist the Sydney Sleeper with its feature that cancels headshots and applies jarate to the enemy. Sure there's the Machine which you get bonus for slow charged slugs. Sure there is the Hitman's Heatmaker which is something I have no idea how works, but sure as hell if I knew I wouldn't like it at all. But in a perfect world everyone would ignore these failed excuses for sniper rifles creating miserable excuses for snipers and would all use the standard sniper rifles.

This isn't a perfect world so I have to remind you there isn't any "surprise" here. But maybe there is, someone might think it's preposterous that I'm not using a clearly upgrade of the stock sniper rifle. Well, my dear friends, learn this now. The sniper rifle is all you neeed, and all you'll ever need.

I on one hand I'm pretty sure about using the stock sniper rifle as my primary weapon, on the other hand I'm not so sure about any of the other weapons. On the secondary slot I generally choose the Darwin's Danger Shield because I generally play sniper on sniper safe maps like 2fort or trade servers. There's nothing less useful on a regular match than a sniper, and I'm sure as hell not "that guy", so I always try to be useful while playing. If somehow I play regularly non a server that I get backstabbed I change for the Razorback, though that's rare.

Even rarer is me using the Jarate. Don't get me wrong, this is a great item but my secondary item generally plays a more defensive role for me, if I fail I can accept I'm pretty much dead. On the Melee slot I'm not too sure as well. The stock Kukri always served me right, most people variations and they have a purpose for doing so. Tribalman's Shiv is for that sniper that has to deal with spies regularly, after getting hit by it the spy bleed for a few seconds revealing his locations. Useful, but as I said I won't be dealing with too many spies unless one cuts his way through 2fort all the way to the Battlements so I'd be fine without it.

The fact 2fort is one of my main sniper maps, since I don't see much to do on it anymore besides it, I'll be dealing much more with rocketed soldiers than snipers, so the Tribalman's lowered damage won't bring me many benefits, if any. People who use the Bushwacka have the Jarate ready so the mini-crit unleashed by it is instantly transformed in a full crit. Again, I won't be using Jarate, my main focus as a sniper is to sniper, nothing more.

The Shahanshah seems a viable choice, probably the best of these for my play style, though when I get hit I'll probably look for heal. Besides, I always like to go wild and hit careless people with my melee for quick disposal, that wouldn't be possible with that, especially on 2fort when a soldier is shooting at the opposite way I am located, less damage by taking him on his back wouldn't be so fine. So I'll probably stock to the regular Kukri as well, I hope it gets a strange variant soon.

Pyro

(Main loadout)

PRIMARY: Strange Flamethrower [SP1: Allies Extinguished], [SP2: Projectiles Reflected], [SP3: Domination Kills]
SECONDARY: Strange Shotgun [SP1: Airborne Enemies Killed], [SP2: Spies Killed], [SP3: Domination Kills]
MELEE: Strange Homewrecker [SP1: Sappers Destroyed]

HAT: Hottie's Hoodie
MISC1: Tribal Bones
MISC2: Winter Wonderland Wrap
ACTION: Director's Vision

My Pyro is pretty standard Pybro. "Upgrading" from the Backburner when you realize multiple airblasts will do wonders for you. One good thing about the flamethrower is that it "demands" at least 2 strange parts, some say it demands all of them, but I couldn't bother about posthumous kills so I used domination instead. I deliberated whether I should or not put in Buildings Destroyed. At first I was going to put buildings destroyed on all my weapons, even Scattergun and Knife, after all, all items counts kills but none counts buildings, so it was just logical for me to do that.

I kept that thought until I started doing my Rocket Launcher and took a long while until I could find buildings destroyed at a reasonable price. If it took that long to find this strange part just for one weapon let alone buy for all my weapons. Of course I didn't give up just because of that and its price which is one of the steepest on any strange part, I also realized it wouldn't do much for a Scattergun to count buildings since that really not a primary thing for scouts. Of course you're gonna destroy that lone dispenser, that pesky mini-sentry or the teleporter to finally be an asset to the team but none of those things are a scout's job to do. So I focused on what's best for each weapon and I think I made the right decision.

I eventually gave up on buildings destroyed for Flamethrower and decided to go for domination kills. I also thought about spies killed since I love burning those bastards to dust, but I thought it'd be nicer to see how many dominations I've had than how many spies I've bullied. The shotgun is not really on an emergency state because I have to finish all my primary weapons and its parts are not cheap ones. So right now it's emptied of strange parts even though I've had my shoty for a long while.

For Melee I go all Pybro because everyone loves a Pybro. besides, with a devastating and damage lasting gun like the Flamethrower and a convenient shotgun to deal massive damage on anyone coward (smart?) enough not to face me face to face. Why would I need anything else. The Axtinguisher is just flashy and youtube video worthy, most of the time it's not the best killing mechanic.

The cosmetic loadout is pretty hard to decide, most cool looking items for Pyro are new ones just released. The case of the Hottie's Hoodie and the Winter Wonderland Wrap, pretty fresh. They look good, but they don't look ultimate, definitive. The Tribal Bones as well, sure the Pyro looks good, but let's see what's in store for the Pyro in the future. For the action I chose the Director's Vision, again, for the lack of a better choice.

Heavy

(Main Loadout)

PRIMARY: Strange Minigun [SP1: Buildings Destroyed], [SP2: Heavies Killed], [SP3: Domination Kills]
SECONDARY: Strange Sandvich
MELEE: Strange Gloves of Running Urgently

HAT: Officer's Ushanka
MISC1: Security Shades
MISC2: Apparatchik's Apparel
ACTION: High Five

As I'm writing this text my primary weapon is almost complete, I have 1.44 worth of metal ready, it's Thursday so it means I'll start getting drops again, and the last strange part I need to complete my set on my Strange Minigun is the domination kills which can be bought for 1.66. The strange sandvich, just as the strange bu8ff banner, doesn't exist, but the existence of a strange festive variant makes it that soon enough we'll see a regular version on a new crate.

The gloves of running urgently is not a hard item to find, and the strange variant is kinda redundant since it probably won't be used as weapon just as a way to run faster. The hats available for Heavy are some of the best for any class, my favorite is the Officer's Ushanka. I'm a fan of vintage hats of the old, especially military hats. I kinda want one in real life as well.

Many other hats deserve a place on a Heavy's head, like the Skyrim styled Dragonborn Helmet which looks too cool. Another promotional hat from another awesome game the War Head, wore by the knight in Trine 2, also looks pretty good on a Heavy. The steel Ushanka U-clank-a is not a bad choice either. Or even the Crafty Hair, since it doesn't only resembles the hair from the soldier i X-Com, but also Guille from Street Fighter series. And I haven't even mentioned that the Team Captain is also wearable on the Heavy. So many good choices.

The same thing can't be said about miscs, so few are worth getting that it's hard to choose from the ones available. I was between Siberian Sophisticate and Apparatchik's Apparel. I thought the Siberian Sophisticate would go well with the Ushanka so at first I was more inclined for that one instead. But on second thought the Apparatchik's Apparel also looks good with the Ushanka, and stands more worthy of a change. So I ended up choosing that one instead. Another reasons is that the Apparatchik combines well with the Heavy's vest, something I think the Siberian doesn't do so well.

On the other slot I chose the Security's Shade, a must have for such a relentless killer like the Heavy, killing while looking good and mysterious. It gives him a "I don't give a damn" kinda vibe which is cool. I also thought about using the summer shades but its natural yellow color wouldn't do much for the heavy, though it looks pretty good. Maybe with a paint it wouldn't be so summer-ish.

I chose the High Five for the Heavy because he has the best animation when performing the taunt. Simple as that.

Soldier

(Main Loadout)

PRIMARY: Strange Rocket Launcher [SP1: Buildings Destroyed], [SP2: Kills While Explosive Jumping], [SP3: Dominations]
SECONDARY: Buff Banner or The Gunboats
MELEE: Strange Escape Plan

HAT: Bill's Hat [Team Spirit]
MISC 1: Kringle Collection
MISC 2: Fancy Dress Uniform
ACTION: Director's Vision

The soldier is one of my favorite classes, recently the character I've played the most with was was the soldier. My primary weapon, as opposed to stupid Black Box and Liberty Launcher users, is the stock Rocket Launcher, following my philosophy of using the stock primary weapon for every character. In a previous blog post I've rant about how I dislike the Black Box, I even mentioned the Liberty launcher but never got around to rant about it too. I'll simply say I dislike those weapons, they're better if you stick to being alone like I always do, but I don't and won't use them.

It's easy to see how overpowered they get when you have soldiers on 2fort crowded with 32 people (24 is already enough and even safer), the get onto battlements and protect themselves in the middle viewer rocketing anyone who comes closer. Ammo is not a problem because of dropped weapon and health is regenerated by hitting anything that moves. The soldier becomes a walking tank, or in that case, a stationary tank.

The stock Rocket Launcher is awesome, and it looks awesome. No health regenerated keeps it from being overpowered and its 4 rocket clip let's you deal with anyone that crosses you path without having to rn away like a coward. Something mandatory for someone as crazy playing this game as I am. The buildings destroyed strange part keeps track of pesty Mini-Sentries, and actually gives you a reason to go after them, so feeble yet to deadly, the soldier is great against these perfect aim machines. Dealing with other buildings shouldn't be a problem as well, you might even get a Uber from time to time to destroy level 3 sentries, ad depending on your position, you can do without.

Kills while explosive Jumping is a great strange part to have in a rocket launcher, don't be shy to use that 4th rocket to reach great distances or heights. Also, opposed to the grenade launcher which depends too much of luck or the sticky which also depends on luck but also extreme time in the air since you still have to detonate them, you can actually aim in mid-air and try to pick targets. The dominations strange part at first was added due to lack of a better choice, or a more dedicated choice, but now I think it's the best choice I could have made.

For my secondary slot I either use the Buff Banner or the The Gunboats. It's too situational, some maps are more suited for one while some maps are more suited for the other. I can't decide one official choice since both shine at their own way and occasion. The Buff banner stands as a more defensive, safer item; while The Gunboats can be pretty helpful when taking high risks for great gains.

None of those items have a strange variant, strangely the Buff Banners has received a strange festive variant, and I even have the festive version, but my opinion on festive items is the same as botkillers, they don't look good and exist to be collectibles only. Hopefully a new crate will come out and contain the strange buff banner, it doesn't make any sense to have a festive but not a regular. I can't see Valve making strange The Gunboats though it could count how many explosive jumps the user has done. Easily farmed? Of course, but which weapons isn't? +attack and achievement idle no glass make wonders for any weapon so that's no longer an excuse.

The Escape plan also seems like a logical choice. Although after the nerf where the Equalizer became two weapons, the new equalizer and the escape plan and each one receives one bonus, the escape plan gets the speed while the equalizer gets the power; instead of both in the same weapon as the old one was. I use it, don't get me wrong, but sometimes I simply ignore it I don't know why. It's the logical choice and 90% of soldiers out there use it, with the lack of a better choice I'll stick to it. The strange variant is easily obtainable.

When it comes to the hat I was between two choice, the Bill's Hat and the Team Captain. After seeing the Team Captain is so overused as it is, it helps being the best looking hat in the game, I made my choice to use a Bill's Hat instead. In my opinion it doesn't look as flashy, but it's even cooler. If I ever get my hands on a Team Captain I'll make sure to use it as well, but my main goal, especially because of its price, is getting a Bill's Hat.

Buying items for the Scout is an expensive investment for sure, but buying items for Soldier is not any better. The Kringle Collection is one expensive cool-looking item that I hope I get someday. The Fancy Dress Uniform, now that it works with the Kringle looks better than ever. The Soldier gets a very professional look with this set. To finish, the director's vision, after all, not many choices available on the game yet.

I admit I don't see much fun in unusual hats in Team Fortress 2, I find them strange looking and way too expensive. I understand basic economics and something ugly as hell will be expensive if it's rare, so I just move on with my life and understand why unusual hats are so sought after, they're "unusual" items in the end.

What I do love in Team Fortress is build a perfect loadout for me to perform my daily gaming. What I bring you here right now is what I consider my main goal for my characters and what I think about some items. With time I've developed a quite different taste than what I had many played hours ago, so let's get onto it.

I always prefer weapons first, then aesthetic items. So I'll go after any aesthetic item listed here after I get all the weapons I aim for and their respective strange parts. Of course new strange parts and new weapons come in every now and then, and I might change my mind sometimes. Like the Genuine King of Scotland cape, a misc item for the Demoman, I don't have any of the primary nor secondary weapons for him (two primary? Who knows) but I still bought the cape for a key some time ago

Scout

(Main Loadout)

PRIMARY: Strange Scattergun [SP1: Heavies Killed], [SP2: Scouts Killed] [SP3: Dominations]
SECONDAY: Strange Mad Milk [SP1: Allies Extinguished]
MELEE: Strange Atomizer

HAT: El Jefe
MISC 1: Fast Learner
MISC 2: Essential Accessories
ACTION: Schadenfreunde

Commentaries: All right, first let me clarify that I once got the Schadenfreunde taunt in a drop but it was stolen when my account got robbed. My primary weapon is complete and kickin', as always, I prefer the stock primary weapon for all character, I go over the edge for the other slots but primary is always stock. The secondary weapon is complete also, the only strange part possible for the Mad Milk is exactly that one, allies extinguished.

My main doubt about this loadout is the Atomizer, I used to think it's useless but after seeing it being used efficiently I changed my mind and started using it. The triple jump it grants is not to be performed relentlessly but in key situatiuons. I used to think I wouldn't have a limit and would constantly do it granting me many unexpected deaths, that hasn't come true, but I've encountered problems. Sometimes, even while double jumping it tracks as my third jump, maybe it's my keyboard, maybe it's about timing, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't supposed to happen. And the worst of all, I jump only twice and still receive damage. Sweet.

Of one thing I'm certain, I don't want the Sandman as my primary choice for the Scout, the health loss for an already weak character is crucial, and sometimes I think it's being used as a gimmick, something flashy and fun. Of course it has its benefits and all, the stun time sure has brought me many deaths as well as many kills, but right now I don't see much utility overall and also not fun at all to use. All in all, I might get the regular stock bat if I get tired of the Atomizer and somehow be unable to control its randomness of the timing for the third jump.

For the aethetic items I picked El Jefe, one of the very few cool Scout hats (along with Ye Old Bakers Boy which I once had two, one got in a crate and one in a drop, I sold one of them when I found someone actually paying the right price for craftable hats). Getting it Genuine would be a dream, but the price is astronomical for a mere hat so I might as well get a regular one and call it a day.

Okay, now let's talk a little bit about Team Fortress 2. What I wanted to address here was about overpowered weapons and some map styles. As I'm sure most people know by now Team Fortress started out as a simple class-based FPS focused on team play, every class had its weapons and you just used them. Choose a character, use the weapons, no choice involved.

With the sudden twist and major updates the classes started to get new items to be used and replaced over the stock items from the beginning. Now Team Fortress 2 offers dozens and dozens of new weapons with different stats and suitable for different situations. The game was well balanced with stock weapons, now not so much. At least not when it comes to some maps and game modes.

I have a little list of items I think should be nerfed or removed completely from the game, I know people love to use some of them but I just think it's unfair in some occasions or insanely cheap. Some weapons I think are more harmful than others so I rate them right after each one depending on how bad it is, the more '*' the worse it is. The weapons are:

Gunslinger (*****)
Dead Ringer (*****)
Frontier Justice (***)
Sydney Sleeper (**)
Black Box (**)
Kritzkrieg (*)

The Gunslinger, well, this is probably my main problem with weapons in Team Fortress 2. The Gunslinger is cheap, period. It doesn't have any function except encouraging bad play. Worse, coward play. But its worst side is shown when a King of the Hill map is being played, all a Gunslinger Engineer does is put down sentry, wait, use Frontier if needed, put down another one. If you're not familiar with it, it's the item that replaces the normal sentry gun with a fast build mini-sentry and 25 more HP.

The range on this thing is just like a normal one, you'll often die without realizing what's going on because these vile things are tiny and lethal. What if you manage to destroy it? Scripts make that the engineer only has to press a button for a new one to be built. And do they explode if attacked while in construction like the regular ones? No, they regenerate themselves, keep the damage, but continue on building.

Since an Engie spawns with 200 metal and the Mini-Sentry costs 100, even if you destroy the first one another one is at hand. While you're fighting those two regenerating, perfect aim machines the Engie can attack you with a crit Frontier Justice or a shotgun. A Heavy might survive the Shoty, but no other class could take that enormous amount of damage and get away with it.

Playing Scout on KOTH maps are a pain these days, and that's where the scouts should be most prominent, with its double capturing ability. It's not hard to see an Engie with 6 or more dominations playing with mini-sentries, with no effort at all. All they need to do is put down their killing machine and flee like cowards. Valve should address to this problem as fast as they can.

I also have problems with the Dead Ringer. It makes fighting spies on big maps basically impossible. If you take in consideration that a spy should circle the metal in search of constant regeneration of its watch it becomes clear that a skilled and cautious spy will never engage in combat with his watch emptied. If someone plays it safe enough you can become basically invincible.

What I find most cheap about the dead ringer is not that the spy won't flicker upon bumping onto other players or the fact it takes considerably less damage while invisible with it equipped. No, it's not any of these ridiculous things. What I find most cheap about it is that it tricks the player into thinking he killed the spy (or someone if not paying attention). The "you've killed someone" icon is bad enough, now add that to the list of conveniences it hands out and it becomes incredibly cheap.

What actually should be done is encouraging the "team" aspect of it. You know you haven't killed anybody yet because your personal kill icon is not highlighted right? Most players won't have time to pay attention to your kill icon, most barely pay attention to theirs. So, you know you haven't killed anyone and that it was a spy with Dead Ringer, everyone saw the spy going down, but you were the one who killed him, so only you know he's alive. You should let your allies know that.

See? Good teamplay is encouraged, not bad habits or cheapness. Who knows, even you might get fooled by thinking someone else killed the spy, but that's your fault. The game blatantly screaming you've killed someone is not the player's fault when he gets backstabbed by the guy he thought he had just killed a few moments ago.

The only way to deal with this kind of situation is having a Pyro nearby. Pyros are by very nature spy killers, so their job is made harder even then. With the addition of the Spy-cicle the spy can flee and possibly recharge his watch and icicle knife.

It's funny to see spies complaining about Pyros chasing them down while that's a Pyro's job. It's like a medic complaining he's always the top priority of anyone. I often jest scornfully at spies raging about not being able to run rampant and backstab everyone while remaining invincible through metal circling. If you manage to do that with the regular watch without fooling everyone into thinking you're dead, without taking hit to trigger the cloak (actually do it yourself? Blasphemous!) and not having increased resistance while invisible? Then that's what I call skill. If you use the Dead Ringer, you're just a coward.

The Frontier Justice is not exactly overpowered or cheap by say, but if you put it together with the gunslinger and its mini-sentries it becomes quite unbalanced. If you take out the Gunslinger I have no real problems with this weapon.

The Sydney Sleeper (along with any sniper main weapons that's not the stock or the AWPer hand) is bad enough for not encouraging the sniper to look for headshots, but when you create a set that lets you avoid being killed by headshots entirely things get weird. I'm not one of those scumbag snipers that complain about each bodyshot they receive, but a weapon like that is just wrong.

I've heard many opinions on the black box, which is getting more and more popular now. When I play on servers I generally see more soldiers using the black box than the stock rocket launcher these days. This is alarming. I've heard that black box users tend to be more of lone fighters while other launcher users tend to think more for the team. I certainly see truth in that speech, but I'm not sure where the hyperbole due to the apparent dislike of said weapon begins to play along. I don't know, I simply dislike that weapon as well.

Of course it's quite tasty to have a weapon that even not killing anyone regenerates your health, killing snipers at 2fort battlements goes to a whole new level of superiority. After all the only problem would be running out of ammo, but the constant recharge over the weapons' dropped metal will take care of that just fine. I'm not much of a fan of the Liberty Launcher as well, but since I've rant about the black box already I'll let that one go. The one missing rocket would only be missed while fighting a heavy, which can easily be avoided, and rocket jumping, that most people don't use.

For Kritzkrieg I just think the 25% bonus for Ubercharge is pointless, the pro/con exchange has been filled already. The Medi Gun makes both the wearer and the heal target invincible for a while, while the Kritzkrieg doesn't make them invulnerable in exchange for the crits. It's not a major problem but I just don't see why it would fill in faster.

How would I balance things out there? I would like to see both the gunslinger and the dead ringer off this game, gone, but I fear Valve won't ever do that. So I would balance the gunslinger by making the mini-sentry destroyable with one hit of any weapon while it's being built; nothing game-breaking, simply just like normal sentries. The engineer won't have excuses to put down a sentry anywhere for guaranteed results, he'll have to think a little more through for that.

I would take off the kill feed lie and the decrease of damage of the dead ringer. The spy can have his non-flickering invisibility, I don't care. The nerf on the Gunslinger would make the frontier less abnormal, so for now I think I would keep it as it is. I would take off the no headshot kill for the Sydney Sleeper set. And I would reduce the health gained for a hit with the black box to 10 HP. As for the Kritzkrieg I would make it charge at the same rate as the Medi Gun.

Some rants could be found in here, most is out of reach because I doubt Valve would do something for items that are unbalanced just in some specific situations. Even though they unbalance it quite strongly. I think an item would have to be overpowered at all times to get a nerf, like the old Enforcer that actually took quite a long time to receive its viable weak point. All in all, this is what I feel about some weapons in Team Fortress 2.

This blog post is about a realization. The realization of what Team Fortress 2 really is. But before we begin take a look at this:

Isn't it scary? I think so. When I bought Team Fortress 2 nearly 2 years ago I had tried the Xbox 360 version very casualy, played mainly for some easy achievements and a few points added to my gamerscore with little to no effort. It was a fun little game from what I could tell. When I started to grow big on Steam I quickly found out that many people I visited via their profiles had been playing this game and not just it, they played a lot of it.

It started to catch my attention and if I ever took notice of that, it means it was pretty apparent. After a quick search I realized people often had 500 to 1000 hours on that game, some went on to 5000 hours. I had no idea how this many people had that much time invested in one multiplayer game. From the very brief contact I had with the game and from what I knew, it was a cartoonish, class-based Counter Strike; a little less centered on pure core, but still a compettive multiplayer. Playing Counter-Strike for 1000 hours seemed okay for some people, but the amount that had reached that status on Team Fortress 2 eluded me.

I bought the game on 2010's Christmas Sale, first played it a few days later. I thought the game was fun, yes, fun. It had many classes and it wasn't as competitive as Counter-Strike, and that was good. The fact you respawned intead of having to wait until the end of the round if you died was cool enough, at least you didn't have to sit and wait half the time.

At that point I didn't "get it", I remember playing 60-70 hours and saying: "Yeah, that was money well spent, now let's move on." and just like most games I play, I got bored and decided to play another one. But the game was good, the game was fun, the community was friendly enough, you didn't find that many a-holes as other games (Counter-Strike included), the class based system kept it fresh and I felt it was growwing on me.

I restarted playing for this second time and only stopped at 200 hours. At that point I still haven't had a clue on how people had over 1000 hours on it. It was a fun ride, those 2 hundred hours ran like the wind and when I suddenly realized I had 2 hundred hours on a game, multiplayer game, something I generally dislike, more than doubled the second place The Witcher at the time. Again, I stopped playing and felt it was a fun ride.

I don't remember exactly why I restarted playing Team Fortress 2 a few months later, but I did, and after some time I had 500 hours on the game. Well, is Steam's counter broken or am I getting addicted to this game? Am I suddenly realizing what those many people saw in this and why some had over 5000 hours in it? Yes, I was "getting it", I understood what Team Fortress was all about.

Team Fortress is not just about people shooting each other trying to frag up, Team Fortress is about forming a balanced team to reach the objective. You might not get that many kills as a Scout than that medic-pocketed Heavy over there, but on big capture the point maps you certainly have your role to play. You don't stand too much of a chance if you're a Heavy and a spy is lurking around, but stand near a pyro to see if the spy will try his luck on you.

Team Fortress is about strange weapons and their kill counter to tell a story about your past just after every kill. Team Fortress is about getting that super cool hat you wanted, even though you had to destroyd dozens of weapons in the process to create currency, and even though that stupid hat doesn't do anything to make you stronger, it gives you a good feeling inside knowing you might be unique. Also, Team Fortress is trying to do better and better, with its stats system that encourages the player to always try harder, even when it's just about remembering that "you were close". Sometimes that's all you need.

Joining trade servers is something I wouldn't see me doing a while back, hell, I would even make fun of anyone who would waste his time on that kind of thing. And the irony is, here I am, collecting halloween gifts, patiently waiting for items resets and buying/selling stuff.

But you know what is the best thing about Team Fortress? It's not the hats, the unusuals, halloween gifts, trade servers, stats or anything like that. The best thing is that, even though you might be going meta-game with trading, you never forget how fun it is to play the game. Because the game recicles itself every time. IF you start playing engineer you might spend some good 20-40 hours building sentries, dispensers, teleporters and fighting spies to keep you stuff up. But suddenly you get bored of it, no problem, because by playing soldier you'll feel the game renewed. Now you mission is not to build sentires up, but tore them down. Playing as each class is a unique experience and feels like a different game on itself. That keeps the game fresh. After playing all nine classes you might miss the good old days of engineering and go back to it. A game reborn.

I must salute Valve for creating one of the most addictive game I've ever played, or should I blame them? I guess If I need to waste time on a game, at least be a quality game, and quality is something Team Fortress understands pretty well.

I was looking for this game for a while, I never bothered getting this at launch and missed out. I was hanging out when I came across a sealed copy of it. I bought the game. Playing right now. Now I have to find Spirit Tracks, which I thought would be easier but turns out it might be harder, most places only sell 3DS now, unfortunately. I'll probably buy online over at Ebay. Seems like after a long period of PC gaming I came back to my DS.

Do I have to speak about this sad press conference? Yeah, apparently do. Atrocious is the right word. Started out fine with the logical releases of Pikmin and new Mario. lazy Mario tell the truth, nothing new here, just the same game re-released. Then the casual crap started to storm in. A brief moment of calm when they started speaking about the 3DS and its awesome games to come, but Reggie doesn't want 3DS on the show, soccer moms are watching the live conference, so we just had a glimpse at small clips from Luigi's Mansion and Castlevania for example, and jumped back on the casual bandwagon.

It can be summarized as this: 3DS rocks, Wii U sucks. It's hard for a console to beat the original Wii as the worst piece of crap ever, but the Wii U is thriving and comes with a vengeance. Re-releases of games like Mass Effect 3 and batman Arkham City won't do any good. All the crap, Wii Fit, Wii Music, Sing, Nintendo Land, Wii Sports can go to hell. I'm done with Nintendo.

* Nintendo's Press Conference starts awkward as ever, with Miyamoto and his Pikmin backstage.
* Mintendo is bothered that consoles can't be played if the TV is being used by someone else and that they can't be taken elsewhere, in other words, Nintendo is bothered that consoles aren't handhelds. The Wii U is born.
* Miyamoto announces the next Pikmin, even though nothing new here, it's Nintendo, these days expect the worst.
* New Pikmin look awesome, always bugs me I had to wait the end of a console life cycle (Wii) to get something like it.
* Challenge mode on Pikmin, always welcome. Even recent Mario Kart had this, and it always push the play time.
* Reggie is back. 23 WIi U titles in one and a half an hour. Looks interesting, but what are these?
* Now they want to show how the WIi U is a social window. Boredom started.
* Wii U will support 2 separate gamepads, I can't help but feel it's a step back.
* The guide through how you manipulate games on this new "thing" is quite unnecessary.
* The inicial screen of the Wii U looks terrible, childish as ever.
* Mii verse? That sounds more of something flashy without substance than anything else.
* New Super Mario Bros U. Nothing revolutionary here yet. But Mari is Mario.
* Heck, even Mario now looks casual, it sends the wrong message: "look how inoffensive I am, you'll never lose".
* Batman for WIi U, what might come of this...
* A re-release already? This sure doesn't look good.
* I'm convinced the Wii U brings nothing really interesting to replay the game, even who haven't played it, will be better off playing for real consoles.
* Scribblenauts is announced for the Wii U, they say a definitive edition. Don't know how you can have a definitive experience with Scribblenauts, but okay.
* Darksiders II, Mass Effect 3, Trine 2, Ninja Gaiden, all coming eventually. Mass Effect 3? Really? How about Oblivion as well? That's what you get from skipping a generation.
* Oh noes, Wii Fit time. Now that's Nintendo.
* Kill me now, I absolutely hate these Nintendo casual adverts.
* Oh my god, here they come, new game, Sing!
* This is embarrassing, I'm just hoping someone shoots me now, this is what the industry has turned into!
* 3DS games should save the day.
* New Mario looks interesting.
New Paper Mario for the 3DS, now things start to get interesting. Thank God the Wii came out of the scene.
* Luigi's Mansion for the 3DS, who needs thye Wii?!
* Castlevania, Mickey, Scribblenauts, Kingdom Hearts, all coming to the 3DS. The 3DS looks good.
* No, not the Wii U back!
* Lego game for the Wii U. Kill me now.
* OH NO, Just Dance 4! This is too much fail on only one console! Wii U I hope you burn in hell!
* ZombiU from Ubisoft. Looks interesting, I'm sure it will be not.
* A camera that turns you into a zombie, what I waited all my life, not.
* Assassin's Creed is the only thing slightly interesting from Ubisoft, let's not forget Rayman too.
* OMG Nintendo land, more like fail land!
* Oh no, here comes Wii Sports.
* What an embarrassing game they chose to show in Nintendo land, stop this now.
* We get it, Nintendo land is casual crap, now move on! No need to keep this up for this long.
* This is ridiculous, only a clip from Luigi's Mansion, mickey, Castlevania and the likes, and 30 minutes for this crap Nintendo Land. The world is wrong!
* All right, we get it, you make consoles for families. Well, none of them are watching this, how about gamers?
* It ended. The 3DS was great. The Wii U was absolutely crap. One coin, two extremely different sides. Thanks Nintendo, for ruining the industry I love. Unfortunately they "decided" not to show anything about the 3DS, why care for a launched product right?
* Not done, they want to show happy families all over again, and how the WIi U is different! So much fail.
* I keep wishing it was all a joke, and Nintendo will start the real conference anything now.
* They keep going with the conference and instead of showing what they did not show, like 3DS games, they show more Wii Fit U! I'm done, Nintendo burn in hell. I'm literally laughing here, this is ridiculous!
* Nintendo R.I.P. 2006

Score - 2/10

Sometimes I ask myself if E3 press conferences have the same reason to exist as in the past, to serve gamers with games. The more corporate side of things have been gradually taking over. I'm not one of those lunatics who don't stand corporate affairs and thing some corporations hate us while some love us. I keep it real and realise things are not pretty when someone is trying to make money, lots of them.

This case is different, I had thought E3 as a place for gamers, no one outside the core appeal of gaming is interested in it, at least not to the degree of spending a whole day watching conferences of cold corporations. These are the people E3 should aim for, and they're not. Sony's conference has made that clear as the day.

It seems more and more the overall direction the industry follows must be showcased in it, I guess we all can thank Nintendo for that change of direction. Doesn't matter now, the fact is we are seeing shows made for big shots in media, that are now paying attention to E3, broadcasting worldwide to non-core fans of video-games. we see shows loaded with stuff gamers are not interested, and worse it gets every year.

I gave Sony a 3 because this conference represents the "Nintendization" the industry has been suffering. I don't like that, if you like, the problem is all yours. i'm more of an old-school gamer myself, I'll applaud good measures, and dismiss bad ones. Most these days are bad ones, especially from the big guys.

* Sony's show is starting, they know how to make you anticipate it.
* So strange, just a bunch of random clips. Sony should just cut the crap.
* Jack Tretton, love this guy, he knows how to present.
* People talking about who won E3, this guy hits the nail on the head!
* this guy hosting is smooth, nice deal.
* New IP, Beyond. About ghosts and the beyond. Looks like one of those games that tries too hard to have a compelling story, if it succeeds, great.
* Judie Holmes played by Ellen Page.
* The trailer seems too pretentious. Emotional, mature and all that crap the guy says. Looks like a game that plays you. Modern gaming everybody.
* Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale. Basically a new name for Smash Bros Sony. Available for Vita and cross-compatible with the PS3.
* Everything from Microsoft and Sony seems too overdone, probably most of of what this game features will go unnoticed.
* Jesus, they ripped off Smash Bros, I mean, it's almost it, the screen, the stage, the perspective, everything. It's embarrassing really.
* Next game, Playstation Sports.
* It's funny, when we see a new fighting game we don't call it a rip off of any other that came before it, but when Smash Bros formula is emulated, we do. I'm strange, we all are.
* They talk about some indie game available for the PS Network. Good games.
* PS1 classics coming to VIta, now that's good news.
* Youtube and Crackle coming to Vita, like we care.
* Assassin's Creed Liberation with a female leading character! They be mad!
* Assassin's Creed for Vita has amazing graphics. Again, feels too pretentious, it's not stealth killing anymore (if it ever was). Yessir cap-tin.
* Far Cry 3 gameplay, in co-op, 4 players. The guy has a flamethrower.
* Looks like Sony wants to start its casual bit. Hang in there.
* I sense a storm of fail ahead, cap-in
* Sony don u C U bore me!?
* Book of Spells with collaboration of J.K. Rowling. That's something I'll stay away from.
* Why do I feel like Sony is trolling me?
* Sony always does that, it fills in a lot of crap and finishes big, no one remembers then.
* Sony you're grounded.
* Nintendo conference started early?
* Why was I born, God, why?
* Thanks Nintendo, thanks for the state of industry of today.
* Is this presentation an hour long? I swear it's been at least 20 minutes, and it's not the miserable time looking like years.
* It's been over half an hour since something remotely interesting came along. Now we have a new God of War: Ascension.
* The Last of Us playing, a game almost just made for E3 it seems.
* One thing I don't like about E3, it's bad that they show these games in conferences and then take years to release, it's getting old watching past games on latest E3's.
* Sony finished its presentation, a disaster in my opinion.

Score - 3/10