Team Fortress 2 Hands-On

After playing four maps and testing out all nine classes in Team Fortress 2, it seems this game should be another of this year's entertaining arena shooters. It comes as part of the Orange and Black Box packages, which both contain Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and the first-person puzzler Portal. Like any team shooter hoping for longevity in the online space, the game needs an emphasis on teamwork. Valve seems to be on the right track in this department, with many of the classes complementing each other in specific, effective ways. Instead of being able to select a game mode and map separately, Team Fortress 2 fuses them together, meaning when you pick a map, you're also picking a mode. 2Fort, the most prominent map from Team Fortress Classic (TFC), will feature capture the flag, whereas the remaining five will have variations of control point capture modes.

Valve is fully intent on supporting this game after release. Valve Engineer Robin Walker told us, "As with any Valve product, you're guaranteed stuff will come out. We have people here working on content already." The extra content should be maps and "gameplay stuff," according to Valve's Marketing Director Doug Lombardi. As for price, Valve says it will all be free. "We have no plans to do booster packs for ten dollars," says Lombardi. Walker went on to add, "We've never charged for any extra content...We want people to be glad to be a customer of Valve."

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