A Look Into the Greastest Game Of All Time, Part II

To start where we left off, the defense classes, starting with the Heavy, the lovable Russian. The Heavy has a mini gun named Sasha, is the slowest class, and likes sandwiches. General Heavy strategy is to stick close to a Medic, keep his mini gun ready, and general crowd control, since he has the most health; he also has the most longevity.


The Demoman is Valve's "Black, Scottish cyclops," Tavish DeGroot He is an alcoholic with a taste for explosive ordinance. He comes standard issue with a a grenade launcher, and a sticky bomb launcher, which allows for you to detonate at will, but can be destroyed by shooting. The special thing about the Demoman, however, is his melee capabilities, as he has multiple sword, and shield unlocks.


Last in the Defense category, and my all around favorite class, is the Engineer, also known as Dell Conagher. The Engineer, a soft spoken Texan, has 11 PhD's, all used to destroy anyone who opposes him. He can build items, such as a Sentry gun (Which has 3 levels, one being a simple gun, 2 having duel machine gun, and 3 adding a rocket launcher), Teleporter, and Dispense, which heal teammate. Then Engineer is one of the classes with the lowest class, but makes for it with the Gunslinger, a robotic fist which grants Dell more health, and gives him a fast-building, expendable mini-sentry.


First on Support is the Medic. The Medic is the greatest support character, giving health to teammates in the middle of battle with his medigun, a portable hospital on his back. The medic, after healing for a few moments, build up an Ubercharge, allowing him to turn himself, and his patient to become invulnerable for 7 seconds using an "Invulin." There are other mediguns, with different purposes, but the Invulin comes standard, and is best for general use.


Mr. Mundy, otherwise known as the Sniper, has a rather obvious job. Hailing from the Outback down-under, he got his skills from years of hunting big game. When he isn't killing people from 5 miles away, he's living in his van, or training for his strict "Jarate" regimen.


The last class, and most elusive, is the Spy, the illustrious French lady killer, or to be more accurate, man killer. With the power to become invisible, feign death, and kill with a single stab of a knife, the spy is one of the most dangerous classes. He can disguise himself, giving him unlimited access to your team, can place sappers on Engineer's buildings, and can be a general pest to somebody unlucky enough to walk by.


What ties all of these odd characters is a battle royal between two companies, Reliable Excavation and Demolition (RED), and the Builder's League United (BLU). This gives the reasoning for team colors and the building styles, BLU being more industrial and RED being rough. The TF2 team releases comics to build an intricate web of connections between characters, their pasts, and how the war has been raging for 100 years. TF2 has become the largest lore in the Valve universe, what really sets it apart from most other games for me. You get a feel for the characters you play, and have feelings for them, and the fun continues through an easy to use server system, where there are more game types than I could make in one post. If you ever get the time to, and have the space on your hard drive, hop on Steam, and start the download, TF2 is now a free game, and while you can't trade on the Free to play version, you can still receive items, and get item drops. The one drawback is the download size, which currently rests at just below 10 gigabytes, and with all the mods I’ve downloaded, I have 20 gigabytes worth of Team Fortress goodness, this game isn’t for the faint of heart, it does have gore, blood, and your characters do have the tendency to explode into giblets, but, it is a very good way to spend an hour or two, in my case, over 700.

11-11-11: Soon To Be the Greatest Day Ever

About 3 days ago, I was sitting at my desk, watching EpicMealTime on YouTube, when my friend came over. He asked me if I was following the update feed for the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and I just blankly stared at him.  For whatever reason, I didn't think that Bethesda had put out any information, probably from how they had treated Fallout: New Vegas, leaving me wondering more about the items they DID release rather than did not, but, to my amazement, there was more than just a snippet out. The Elder Scrolls Series is one of the longest running, and well-known, series in Video Game history. From Morrowind (Elder Scrolls III), to Oblivion (Elder Scrolls IV), Bethesda has become well known for their series that has a vast, open world, large character creation features, thousands of quests, and of course, the medieval feel. But now, quite possibly the greatest lore of all times is coming to Skyrim: Dragons

Looking into a new 20 minute demo released by Bethesda on the 12^th, they showed off most of the new mechanics, the highlights being the new duel wielding features. I have to admit, the idea of having an Ebony Long sword in one hand and a fireball spell in the other is just about enough to make pass out. The new fluid motions of game play, (making 3^rd person look like a viable way to play the game now) and Bethesda’s great knack for detail has made for putting icing on sweet rolls to clues on the bottom of keys. The inclusion of Dragon words gives you the power to make thunderstorms with the lightning targeting your foes to breathing fire. Bethesda took the game play mechanics of Bioshock 2, the attention to detail of Crysis, and its great charm from Oblivion and put it into a snowy world.

This new and exciting world fill me with questions, most of them revolving around wanting to have a dragon to ride, and whether or not the guards will tell that they’ve fought Mudcrabs fiercer than me. My biggest worry is that we’ll see a lot of what made Oblivion special, like floating paint brushes, will be gone. But in a world as large as Skyrim is set to be, there should be plenty of occasions where odd things happen. I can only hope that November 11^th comes faster than it feels like, I’ve spent more than 500 hours playing Oblivion, I can’t wait to spend another 500 on Skyrim.