TF2 and a gamer's drought...

This summer has been mostly devoid of any substantial gaming - some Space Invaders Extreme here, some casual flash games there, but I've found one light at the end of my dark, empty tunnel of games: Team Fortress 2.

I'll tell you, I was always skeptical of TF. As a fan of Counter-Strike, I've always liked the harsh difficulty curve of Valve's online shooters. The idea of a class-based, team-centered FPS always scared me - who would ever want to be a medic?

But, as any gamer knows, when there's nothing else to play, you go with what you've got, and I had TF2.

And thank God for it.

Team Fortress 2 has more personality than many single-player games I've picked up, as well as some of the most memorably loveable characters ever to be rendered into cel-shaded life. The art direction is inspired, the violence and content perfectly tuned to its audience, the gameplay balanced impeccably.

But the thing that I love most about TF2... wait for it... is the teamwork. Unless everyone on your team is pro-level, the only way to win is through altruism and, in a strange way, role-playing. It takes intelligence and strategy to balance out a team, but somebody has to do it sooner or later, lest the rock-paper-scissors class styles be thrown out of balance. Everyone on the team counts.

You don't often find multiplayer games where players are meant to carry out specific tasks. It requires intelligence, selflessness, and strategy, but in the end, using each character's specific abilities will result in a bountiful harvest of frags and captures.

Enough about TF2. It's great - go play it - there's not much else I can say. I'm hoping to get a PS3 when I get home - so maybe by the end of this summer I'll have some MGS4 to blog on... I hope.

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