bit-tech Shopping: Valve Team Fortress 2

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
• Microsoft Windows Vista
• Microsoft Windows XP
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Rating: 6

Time with product: 1 Month

Strengths: Creative concept with several different characters and weapons to choose from. Ability to coordinate with real teammates and opponents

Weaknesses: -NO SINGLE PLAYER OPTION-Limited backgrounds to play in-No handicap option or ability to select level of play (Beginner, Advanced, etc.)-Fun, but unrealistic graphics (cartoonish)-Slow load times

Summary: I've heard unbelievable things about this game and once the price dropped to $10-$15, I just had to get it. Generally it is a fun game and I enjoyed playing it but I think it is way too overrated. As a lot of other reviews described, this is an online team player game where both sides, blue and red, can choose between the same pool of 9 different types of soldiers. Everything from medic to spy and each has their own unique skills, abilities and weapons. My main gripe is that there is no single player option. Sure playing against real people is more fun but it would be nice to practice and learn how to play without causing the rest of your team to lose. A team made up of real people, most of which are real die-hards. Which is the worst part of the multiplayer online play: there are some team mates that are complete newbies and can't contribute anything to the game play, but even worse, most are diehards that literally kill you every 15 seconds! There is almost no way to compete. It would be nice to have some beginners boards, or other handicaps to give us a fighting chance of staying alive, etc. I think the real value would be to get a group of friends and team up against each other and have real coordination. We've talked about it but never found a good time to do so. Most games are a group of strangers and there isn?t much team work actually involved. Also, maybe it was just my computer but there is the ability to talk to people with a microphone, but it was always too garbled for me to understand. Also the load times and "updating" messages are unbearably long. Summary: A definite buy for $10-$15 but keep your expectations realistic.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 1 Month

Strengths: lots of job classes keep things interesting

Weaknesses: steep learning curve for me personally

Summary: i got this game because many of my friends have it and play via online and LAN and i wanted to join them. i mainly play FPS on consoles and mainly single player campaigns so this is really different for me. i'm not too experienced with computer FPS's and am still adjusting to the controls and multiplayer experience. it's a good game so far if you have a bunch of friends on the same level..the different job classes also keep things interesting. it'll probably be more fun when i get more used to the game.