International Space Station infected by a Virus. – That’s just sad. Really, really sad.

Google launches Chrome – I wanted to wait until I had some alone time with this browser before I wrote about it. It’s very sleek and super fast, especially if you use a lot of Google’s services (which I do). There is a darkside however. For you security consciousness people out there, you may want to check out Steve Gibson’s security podcast, aptly named Security Now. I’ll be sticking with Firefox for the time being.

Ubiquity, yet another reason not to ditch Firefox. – As you all know, another reason why Firefox is so near and dear to our hearts is because of all the great extensions available for it. Ubiquity is just another fine example of what a great extension can do for you. It has sped up my surfing by 28.37%, no kidding. Install it, check out the tutorial, and take it for a spin.

Google to Acquire Valve? – Say What? I’ll believe it when I see it. If you don’t know who Valve is, don’t bother clicking the link. If you don’t know who Google is, get off my site.

Amazon buys Shelfari. – Old news, I know, but I’m still excited. One of the reasons I stuck with Shelfari over Goodreads was the fact that Amazon was an investor in the company. Now that they own it, let all the Amazon goodness ooze right down onto it. Oh, and check out my shelf. Sweet stuff there.

I’ve been using runningmap.com – This isn’t new either, but it’s new to me. I thought I’d throw this out there to my fellow runners. This is what I ran today.

OK, I’ve played for 8.2 hours so far according to my steam page and I’m having a freaking blast. At first I was a little worried that the game was too simplified, but my fears were quickly squashed as I started to learn all the nuances of the game. Tactics, strategy, diversity, and team work are key to fun and victory in TF2. A team of just soldiers, or just HW Guys would get their collective asses handed to them. You really need to utilize every class to win this game.

If you’re not already familiar with Team Fortress Classic, you may be better off waiting for an official review. These are just my personal observations and thoughts. Another thing to remember is that this game, as of right now, is still technically in beta. Things are liable to change when it is officially released.

Big Changes:

No grenades: This sucks, but it’s sort of understandable. TFC was infamous for grenade spam. (I’m going to miss the EMP grenade though )

Graphics: Obviously. After 7+ years one would expect it to have slightly better graphics, and it does. But the player models are what really separate this game from all others. They look absolutely fantastic.

Every class kicks ass equally: This is a pretty big deal. I’ll get into each class in detail below.

Subtle Changes:

No more capture points: Instead they use control points similar to Battlefield. The more teammates attacking a point, the quicker your team controls that point.

No flag in CTF: Instead it is a briefcase (CTB?). The briefcase will stay where ever the enemy drops it for two minutes. Defending team members are not able to simply touch the flag anymore to reset it. If the attacking team touches the briefcase again, moves only three feet, and drops the case, the timer is reset to two minutes again. This minor change adds a whole new element to the game.

Secondary weapons actually matter: A shotgun, in this game, is a shotgun. They will take down any class fast. A pistol, in this game, is a pistol. Not just a thing to hold when you’re sick of holding you primary weapon. They hurt.

Classes:

Pyro – Flamethrower, shotgun, axe. He is devastating up close, but very vulnerable when out in the open. When up close, the Pyro can light enemies on fire. They remain on fire, and continue to lose health over time until they jump into water, get healed, enough time lapses, or they die. A lot of Pyros seem use a fire / shotgun combo and it seems to be quite effective. Pyros are great for uncloaking spies too. (yes, uncloaking. I’ll get to that)

Scout – Scattergun, pistol, club. This guy used to be practically useless. Now, not only is he fun to play, but he is an asset to any team . First of all, he’s extremely fast. He also has the ability to double jump and change directions mid jump (if one so chooses). His scattergun is deadly at close range and can even take down a Heavy (assuming you can get close enough) Another very important roll of the Scout is capturing control points. A Scout captures control points faster that any other class. (1 Scout = 2 of any other class)

Soldier – Rocket launcher, shotgun, shovel. Not much has changed here, but nothing really needed to.

Heavy – Gatling gun, shotgun, fists. Again, no major changes, but one subtle one. When the Heavy wants to shoot his gatling gun, there is a slight delay while the barrel starts to spin. His special ability is to spin the barrel with out actually shooting, thus saving ammo. The downside is he walks brutally slooooow when he does this.

Engineer – Shotgun, wrench, toolbox, detonator (to detonate structures you have already built). The Engy is still as much fun to play now as he was in the original TFC. He can build upgradable turrets, teleports, and dispensers. The dispensers have been greatly improved. They offer infinite health and ammo to you and your teammates, and it regenerates metal over time for you and your fellow Engineers. (metal = material used for building)

Medic – Healing gun, syringe gun, bonesaw. The medic can heal players up to 150% of their base health and can fire the healing gun continuously. While healing, the Medic’s ubercharge is constantly charging up. When fully charged, he can make any player and himself invincible for ten seconds. (usually a Medic / Heavy combo), He is far more valuble a class than he was in the previous TFC. His syringe gun is a blast to use too.

Sniper – Sniper rifle, sub-machine gun, machete. Same old sniper with a few tweaks. When you first zoom in, your gun starts to charge. The more of a charge you have, the more powerful the shot. I believe it takes three seconds for a full charge. The sniper rifle still sports the same colored dot that warns your enemies that you are there. The machine, though not too powerful, is good enough to fend off the close combat intruders.

Demo – Grenade launcher, sticky bomb gun, a bottle of whiskey. This is my new favorite class. His grenade launcher acts a lot like the grenade launcher in the quake series, whereas you can bounce grenades around corners, but if you hit someone directly, the grenade will explode on impact. Delicious! The sticky bomb gun is extremely useful for defense too. You can lay up to 8 sticky bombs (on virtually any surface) and detonate them at a later time. The best thing is you can detonate them regardless of what weapon you currently have out.

Spy – Pistol, butterfly knife, cigarette case (where he keeps his disguises), elctro-sappers. So the role of the spy stays the same. He can disguise himself as any enemy class, and he can do it on the fly. No more standing still and waiting. He can also cloak himself for a short period of time. While cloaked, he cannot attack. He also has a new tool called the elctro-sapper (or something like that) that he puts on structures, i.e. turrets, teleports, and dispensers,… to sabotage them. And of course, the Spy still has the trademark one-shot-back-stab kill that we love so much.

Thoughts:

So far this game is a blast. Sometimes I even forget that it’s actually still in beta. My only real concern is that the game will burn out quickly. If TF2 were realeased as / is, I don’t think the game would have very long legs. Hopefully I’m wrong. And hopefully there will be a lot of support and new additions to keep people coming back for more.

The maps that we’re playing now are great too, but I won’t get into too much detail because hopefully there will be a ton of new maps at the final release.

Gameplay is very fast pace and almost feels Quake-ish at times. What doesn’t feel Quake-ish, however, is the need for strategy and tactics. You can’t rely on twitch alone in this game.

Valve has added stats tracking, as well as a variety of achievement goals that you can shoot for. It’s very similar to the way Battlefield 2 implemented the awards feature. You can keep track of your performance on your very own Steam Community page. Here’s mine. And here are my TF2 stats. Yes, I know, pathetic… But be warned! I’m finally starting to get the hang of it.

Frag you later.

Discuss it here…

On a side note, there is a mod worth mentioning for all you TFC fans. It’s called Fortress Forever and it is a beautiful re-skin of the original game using the source engine. Check it out.

When Steam was first introduced back in 2002, I was flat out against a service like this. One reason for this is because I liked to be able to put my new shiny games in my nice shiny game rack, but also…who in their right mind would want to download a 1+ gigabyte videogame over the Internet? Well as it turns out, I would. It took a few years of persuasion, and a whole new philosophy toward what the Internet can and should be used for, but I finally saw the light. People buy music and movies from places like iTunes, why are games any different? And Steam has a great feature that iTunes doesn’t, infinite downloads. Okay, I’ve never actually read the fine print, but I must have downloaded games like TFC, CS, CS:S, DoD:S, Half-Life 1&2 dozens of times, on half a dozen machines, and I’ve never had so much as a hiccup. Once you buy a game through Steam, help yourself to as many downloads of that game as your heart desires. But enough of why I am a born again Steam user, and on to the news at hand.

id! Before this, Steam’s video game library was comprised mostly of Valve’s own titles and games from a handful of independent developers and modders. With the exception of a few mainstream games, like the Call of Duty series and the Civilization series, the Steam library was devoid of any third party heavy hitters. Well that’s all history now. id software is the heavy hitter of the heavy hitters. According to Shacknews, every id title will be available through Steam… though I didn’t see Quake IV in the line-up. Maybe I just overlooked it. Regardless, if this doesn’t help launch the digital distribution of games to a new level, I can’t imagine what will.

Whose next? I would love to see the Battlefield series on there, but I think it would be a cold day in hell before EA sold a game through Steam. Then again, they may be crazy not to.