Game of the Week: Team Fortress 2

To be honest I was hesitant about making Team Fortress 2 my game of the week. Firstly it's only a beta (although all levels from the final release are included) that you get access to by paying for a pre-order. Secondly, well, this is the killer. The game has been crashing on me so many times that the stress of having to restart my computer everytime it freezes has taken all the fun out of the game (a problem that's pretty widespread, it seems). With that said the game is, when it works, incredibly fun.

I didn't play the original Team Fortress so I can't really compare the two but, from what I've heard, it's nothing like the original. The cartoon style presentation is instantly appealing and breathes far more life and humor into the game then a more realistic looking game would. Also, the varied classes means there's someone for everyone and the lack of grenades helps new players avoid the 'nade spam' thats present in many online FPS games.

At the moment my favourite classes are heavy, spy, and the engineer although all classes have something that appeals to me. The great thing about the classes is that everyone has their own part to play in a match. For example, the heavy teamed with the medic can create a temporarily invulnerable killing machine that can slaughter an entire team in a few seconds.

One thing I find annoying is constantly being stabbed in the back by spies but I also believe it adds to the suspense because you never know whether or not the guy in front of you is actually on your team or a spy disguised as one. On servers with friendly fire off this can create a bit of a problem for spies as some people will resort to shooting their own team mates (knowing full well they can't be damaged) to figure out who's actually a spy.

It's an amazing game that rarely gets boring but the crash issue means I (and many other people) can't play it as it should be played. Of course it's just a beta and problems are to be expected but since this particular issue (freezing and a sound loop) has been around since Episode One many people are not counting on Valve being able to fix the issue.