It is 2006. Several years of inconsistent announcements, numerous delays and a growing association with Duke Nukem Forever indicates that an actual release of Team Fortress 2 is extremely unlikely. Then from out of the blue Gabe Newell (managing director of Valve) thrusts a teaser trailer into our faces confirming that TF2 is indeed on its way. Sporting a venturesome art style with what appeared to be innovative game play, the new look TF2 quickly soared to the top of many “most anticipated” lists. Launching in October of 2007, it became an instant favourite among reviewers, achieving a plethora of awards alongside its partner in success The Orange Box.

As an avid PC gamer, the desire for a new class based multiplayer game was immense. I desperately needed to escape the grenade spamming insta-prone aids festivity that was Battlefield 2. To my delight, and many other likeminded gamers, TF2 delivered just that. Besides the attractive stylized graphics and often comical game play, it shipped with a secret weapon, one which would inevitably be the key to TF2’s ongoing success and development.

Steam, the popular content delivery service functions as the core of TF2, supplying speedy updates and flawless content delivery. Gamer profiles and statistic pages are accessible through a simple yet faultless social network. Hell, you can even browse the web in-game using the Steam overlay. It is undoubtable TF2 would not be as popular as it is on PC today, if it was not for Steam. This is clear when we examine the unfortunate situation our console brethren currently face, which I’ll touch on a little later.

February 14^th – Badlands Released – New point Cappan.

The very first major content update came in the form of a new map labelled “Badlands”. Among all the commotion, servers popped up all over the place boasting [24/7 Badlands] tags. Well received by most, cp_Badlands now holds the 6th position for the most played map by hours.

April 29^th – The Medic update – Medic rush.

Valve had announced this update a month before release, leaving us to both speculate and look forward to the addition of 3 new medic weapons and 39 unique achievements. If that was not enough to get your average TF2 gamer salivating with glee, Valve announced a brand new game mode and map, which was to be released alongside the medic update. An exclusive trailer featured a fly through of the new Payload Game-mode map “Goldrush”. And so on the 29^th of April the masses crammed into 24/7 Goldrush servers, where two teams of 12 medics would heal each other in a race to unlock the new weapons. After a short while the medic hysteria eventually died down, but Goldrush fever never ended. Proving tremendously popular, the new Game-mode in conjunction with pl_Goldrush still holds the number 1 position for most played map by hours. With the inclusion of the achievement-unlock system, we saw the birth of [Achievement] servers. My medic stats are still out of proportion from succumbing to the temptation of gaining the new unlocks early.

June 19^th 2008 – The Pyro update – W + M1 Syndrome.

Again the Pyro pack was announced around a month before release. Valve stated that the Pyro was not only to receive the extra weapons but also major tweaking which included improved hit detection and a compression blast feature for the default flamethrower. Also 38 new achievements and a couple new maps made it in. Was not the best time for spies.

August 19^th 2008 – The Heavy update – “The heavy is a spy!”

A joyous occasion for medics and spies, the heavy update introduced 3 new weapons, 35 achievements and a new game-mode. The new Arena game mode played out much like a match of counter strike. Essentially its sudden death played in a smaller map than usual, an Arena. Sections of existing maps were used as arenas, as well as two never before seen maps. Lumberyard is most notable as it introduced a new “Alpine” setting. Arena was not as well received as the Payload game-mode and over time seems to of sunk towards the lower end of the spectrum. The second payload map named “Badwater Basin” was also ushered into play.

December 11^th 2008 – Mini Engineer Update – Not really major but content none the less.

Not officially hyped but well received was the miniature update to Engineers. Dispensers and Teleporters now had the option to be upgraded to level 3. Yielding faster Teleport recharge time and an increased amount of health and metal gained from dispensers. Also the option to have the status of your achievements tracked via a progress bar on the HUD was added (is that some mmo influence Gabe?). Making those hard to get achievements even more fun, oh god I love that ding. Spies were also given the ability to recharge their cloak by picking up ammo.

??? 2008 – Scout update – Double jumpan n’ bonkan

Announced but not fully revealed is the scout update. Set for an early 2009 release we can expect 3 new scout weapons, the additional achievements and perhaps a new Game-mode. Rumour has it the new game-mode could be “Hunted”, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. The theme from most recent interviews with Valve staff is that spies and engineers will most likely be getting total revamps in the future as well. So much stuff to come, I can’t wait bro!

Just like any other game, it does get repetitive with time. But the regular release of content is the magnet that keeps us coming back for more, and acts as a breath of fresh air for the loyal veterans. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the TF2 console players. Some good news though, Valve is preparing to port all the current updates and new content to the Xbox 360. Though Microsoft having made US $10 million from the CoD4 map pack. Have learnt they can swindle desperate console friends into paying for content which is otherwise free on PC. Originally Valve was not going to charge for the updates, but they believe the price will be justified as there will be only a single payment required for the entire downloadable package.

Call of duty 4 was included in the graph for update comparisons only, as both games were released around the same time. Although CoD4 is played by more (and there are certain reasons for that) it will be interesting to see which game stands the test of time, and is being played 3 years from now. I know which one I’ll be playing.

-LJ