A Flurry of TF2-Related Games
With all the doom and gloom surrounding Team Fortress 2, sometimes we need to just walk away. Or at least take a break for a bit. While TF2 is very quiet, why not take a break? There’s a host of other games available to play.
Let’s start off with Fortress Forever. Or Team Fortress 1.5, as made by the community. This isn’t just any hommage to games like Quake Team Fortress, this has been rebuilt from the ground up. Rebalanced too. It keeps the class names from TFC, but with balance tweaks and bug fixes and nicer graphics. Medic should hopefully be the terrifying healing flag runner that we all love apart from me. Fortress Forever is finally 100% available on Steam, downloadable from Steam rather than sitting in the Greenlight section, waiting to be moved. Comments from fellow SPUFers have been very positive, and if SPUF agrees on something, then Fortress Forever must be doing something right. And it’s free to play! Yay!
Do you think you have what it takes to win? Yes? No? Guess what – it doesn’t matter! Up next: Gang Garrison 2. This is a side-scrolling pixel ‘demake’ of Team Fortress 2, complete with non-copyright-infringing mercenaries, some secret stuff and really awesome 8-bit music. Honestly, it’s worth the download for the music alone. The game is actually somewhat balanced as well. Although lag compensation can be a bit non-existent, it’s still a great laugh. There’s also a very good mechanic built into the game – there’s no hitscan bullets, all bullets are projectiles that have an arc. This means that Heavy and Sniper… Um, sorry, Overweight and Rifleman aren’t nearly as powerful as you think. There aren’t really any alternate weapons, each class has one or two signature weapons, bound to left and right click. And guess what, Gang Garrison 2 is ALSO FREE!
There’s also Team Fortress Classic. App number 20 on Steam. It’s clinging on for dear life. Unfortunately, the release of Fortress Forever will probably make TFC struggle even more, but let’s not forget that this is the reason that Team Fortress 2 and this blog exist. It costs €3.99, but is often on sale for €1.50 or some stupid price like that whenever Valve decides to do one of its mega sales.
On the more creative side, we could always go on and learn Source Film Maker. If Valve can’t entertain us with videos and stuff, make our own! I should probably get on and start learning this damn thing, but I LIKE Garry’s Mod.
Speaking of Garry’s Mod, there are LOADS of TF2 mods for the game. The newest and (in my opinion) best being Team Fortress 2 Bots. Ever wanted to see bots fight each other and use random cosmetics and weapons? You can’t do that in TF2 unless you set up a listen server with mods installed. In GMod, you just subscribe. You can also spawn bots as often as you want, so we can finally have those 64 mercenary battles we always wanted to see. There’s a ton of options and stuff too. Also, Medics will heal other NPCs. Medic healing a T-Rex, GO!
There’s other TF2 GMod mods too. The old TF2 zombies, which were removed from the base game, for example. And there’s a sentry buster.
I’m going to end this article with Overwatch, but there’s very little to say about it. All we’ve seen are videos so far, and the beta won’t be available until this autumn. Which is a long time. If you want something class-based to fill your TF2 void, the other games mentioned are far superior, mainly because you can actually play them.