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jp's Team Fortress 2 (PC)
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| [September 14, 2009 01:57:22 PM]
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It's a bit embarrassing to admit that I've started playing this game again hoping to win a virtual hat. So far I haven't had much luck...except for one hat!
The other day I won a hat called the "Cheater's Lament". The hat, which looks like a saintly halo, is apparently a reward to those who played the game honestly without using external applications to idle on servers hoping to get items faster than usual.
Thanks Valve!
I'm sure lots of people are really upset about it...but hey, it's my first TF2 hat!
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| [December 23, 2008 11:46:56 AM]
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Unlocked a few more achievements! And...for the first time ever I've spent more time playing as medic than engineer. :-)
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| [December 9, 2008 09:55:43 PM]
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Unlocked the "sandvich" for the heavy. I have no idea what it does (and I haven't bothered to look it up yet). The experience of unlocking achievements in this game has made me realize exactly how brilliant of a solution achievements are for the challenge of providing a way for players to have some sense of progress, reward them, and at the same time keep everything balanced and fair for everyone else.
Here's how achievements work on paper:
(1) Make up a list of arbitrary (strange/weird) things that players have to do in order to earn each achievement. Once achievements are earned, they cannot be "unearned" (in other words, you don't need to maintain them). Also, some achievements may require cumulative efforts, so that each time you play you may potentially contribute to them.
Here's how they seem to work in practice:
(1) Play the game for long enough and you will undoubtedly unlock achievements. These are essentially your reward for playing long enough. Unless you're a really obsessive player who will focus EXCLUSIVE on trying to earn the achievements, you will find that your earning them will come as a nice surprise and will make you feel nice and warm inside, and well rewarded for the hours you've put into playing the game. You will inevitably unlock the achievements if you play, regardless of how arbitrary and strange they may seem!
And that's the beauty of the system, you earn them anyways, but you feel special because they seem so unobtainable (or arbitrary). Hey, I honestly never TRIED to "Kill a burning enemy who was ignited by another Pyro" or "Ignite 10 enemies that have recently used a teleporter". It just sort of happened.
w00t!
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| [November 30, 2008 08:18:26 PM]
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W00t!
I was playing the other day when all of a sudden I heard a "ding" and see a message that I've unlocked a new achievement! (and then another one, immediately after it!) A Pyro achievement nonetheless!
Strange thing is that I wasn't even playing a Pyro at the time...and I wasn't even playing. I had JUST (as in less than two seconds) re-spawned as a medic or something. (it's quite possible that I had just swapped into medic from pyro)
What was the achievement? BBQ something... I was so intrigued as to how I earned a Pyro achievement when not actually playing that I looked it up.
The description is something like:
BarbeQueQ: Cause a dominated player to leave the server.
Ah! It made sense now! :-) w00t!
Also, to make things even more fun, I unlocked a new weapon (I chose the flare gun)! I thought that I would have gotten everything, but apparently my understanding of the new unlockables was mistaken. Oh well.
However, I was curious about the medic ones, since I had obtained the milestone achievement a while back. Was it possible that I had gotten the upgrade but hadn't noticed? Indeed I had. Double sweetness! (I went for the new needlegun)
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| [November 14, 2008 04:09:49 PM]
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Oooh.... I'm getting close to unlocking the "new" equipment for the Medic. Close, as in I have 11 achievements...I think I need one or two more. I think.
To be honest, I don't even know what achievements I have or which ones I'm close to getting. I don't even notice when I unlock them or make progress. The game is too intense for me to notice what's going on in the lower-right corner of the screen.
I am, however, looking forward to seeing what the new equipment is all about! Soon. Hopefully.
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| [October 31, 2008 10:13:28 PM]
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I hadn't really noticed how hard it is to practice and learn to play this game. Generally speaking, this game is pretty intense and high energy, so there isn't a lot of time to admire the scenery or even, discover the scenery! Although I've played more than 20 hours, there are maps I've never seen and areas I've never explored. Just the other day I noticed that there was an alternate route on one of the maps I had played most! Shocking, isn't it?
I could probably set up a server myself and look around, but that seems kind of boring. Hmm.. I guess I really do miss "Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory"'s slower (and kinder?) pacing. It was just as exciting, but a lot less intense.
Oh, I discovered that the Scout character can, essentially, fall from any height without taking any damage. I felt so clever when I realized that if you double-jump just as you're about to land, you take no damage. So, you can fall from literally anywhere!
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| [October 23, 2008 09:57:26 AM]
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I'm slowly starting to "expand" my areas of expertise in this game. On the one hand, I'm starting the learn the layout and nuances of the different maps. On the other hand, I'm trying get some more experience with the different classes. These are a few of my "insights". (in quotes because I'm sure that they're well known "facts" available in more than one strategy guide)
1) Engineer built dispensers are pretty important not only to help you get more materials to build other things but for healing! I hadn't noticed that other characters can also heal (slowly) when standing next to a dispenser. I now understand why some teams favor building a dispenser next to a capture point: it helps keep the defenders in peak condition! (ammo and health!)
2) Spys can zap more than one construction at a time! I guess this is a bias I have from Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory where "Covert Ops" can only use one satchel charge at a time.
3) You can "break" an uber by distancing the doctor from his "patient". Happened to me purely by accident as I used the flamethrowers secondary fire mode. (blast of air)
4) Sentry guns in unexpected locations can be VERY useful. Most maps seem to have a "usual" place to place a sentry gun...but it can be quite effective to change that at times. I was able to get 10 kills of a single sentry gun last night from that fact alone!
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| [October 7, 2008 03:37:29 PM]
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I'm amazed by how different it is to play this on a (barely?) adequate laptop compared to a (very decent) desktop machine. OMG. It's like playing a completely different game. It LOOKS essentially the same. You probably wouldn't tell the differece from screenshot. However, I am an incredibly more effective player on the desktop. Lightyears difference. (not that I'm that good, but I've gone from always being the last one on my team to being in the middle of the pack)
I'm not really sure WHY there is such a difference.
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| [February 14, 2008 11:08:45 PM]
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I've played this twice already and wow. Wow, because I had forgotten how hard it is go get "up to speed" in online FPS games. Sure, I can run around and shoot at the enemy, but I don't know the maps, don't know the objectives, and I don't know how to play each of the different classes.
For my first game I picked an engineer because it was the class that I started out with when I played Wolfenstein:Enemy Territory. I liked it because it didn't take me long to figure out what to do and I could help my team, as it where, without having really good aim. Bad idea for this game.
First of all, I thought that I would have to build things and that the locations of those things would be pre-determined. (ie, repair this bridge!) Not so. TF2 is a lot more flexible than that, allowing engineers to build anything essentially anywhere. That wasn't any good for me because I didn't know what places I should be building in. (ie, what's a good spot for the auto-gun?). Also, I realized that I didn't know HOW to build. (ie, what command/key?) Finally, I realized that you need to have "supplies" (points of some sort) in order to build. I haven't been able to figure out how you get these points but I did figure out how to build stuff. :-) Eventually.
Actually, I quickly switched over to medic and have figured that class out pretty well. I think.
In all, I look forward to playing some more and learning the nuances of each class...and each map! So far it seems like a very high-energy game.
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jp's Team Fortress 2 (PC)
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Current Status: Stopped playing - Something better came along
GameLog started on: Tuesday 12 February, 2008
GameLog closed on: Saturday 28 January, 2017 |
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