Nothing Wins the Justice

Team Fortress 2:

Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer only first person shooter in which you have 2 teams competing against each other in a variety of maps and game modes. Players choose from 9 different classes and the interactions between combinations of these classes are what really make the game fun and interesting.

Many of you know that I quite like this game and still play it fairly often. During the week I joined friends playing it twice. As it was a multiplayer game, it was one I chose to play rather than selected at random. It is available from Steam for $19.99, I purchased it as part of the Orange Box, which is a pack I pre-ordered on Steam.

There has recently been a large update to the game which added another 18 new hats (of which I still have none) and several new maps, including a new map type.

During the week I was able to try the new game mode King of the Hill on Sawmill. King of the Hill is a quick game mode that shares some similarities to Arena. There is a single capture point in the middle of the map and both teams compete to seize and hold that ground. Most of the arena maps now have a King of the Hill variant. Overall it works very well, once the point has been captured, the round has at most about 6 minutes left. I've only had a chance to try Sawmill on this mode but I've really enjoyed it.

I also tried cp_Yukon, which is a new community 5-point capture map, I did have fun with this one despite being autobalanced away from my friends early on. The teams playing were not quite able to take the 2nd last point from the other team for long so the map unforunately stalemated rather than completing.

To anyone who plays first person shooters and does not have the Orange Box I seriously recommend getting it, it's only $29.99 and it contains 5 great games.

Flatout 2:

The Flatout series is a racing one, as is pretty obvious from the screenshot. It is unusual in that it is a racing game which really encourages you in single player to stick in the main pack of cars if you want to earn money. It can be played as a standard racer, get out ahead and get the fastest around the track, but if you really want to earn start ramming into other cars, knocking over obstacles on the track and generally having a great time.

Damaging other cars and breakable structures in the course generate Nitro that mythical racing game substance that gives you a temporary speed boost. Coincidentally using some in order to speed up just as you ram someone is a pretty handy tactic to do a bit more damage and earn some cash. At the end of each race awards are given out for shortest lap, most damage to other cars, most terrain knocked over, that kind of thing. You also get separate rewards for damaging other cars hence why it becomes the easiest way to earn cash, especially when combined with still coming first.

I first encountered Flatout 2 at a LAN and had a lot of fun with it, hence why I ended up purchasing it in Steam's big end of year sale with the first game. The game still looks pretty good and it's variety of stunt modes work really well in multiplayer. Demonlition derby, driver bowling, high jump all can lead to great times.

Commander Keen: Keen Must Die:

Commander Keen is a rather old school platformer. You play Billy Blaze a young super genius who combats alien threats when he should be in bed. I played the demos of several of the Keen games as a kid and they are surprisingly difficult because Keen inconsiderately dies in a single hit, and I'm not very good at dodging those hits, or dangerous bits of terrain and my tendency to try to collect everything in a level leads me close to many of those things. If you want to try a game that few would associate with id Software then give it a shot, it's only $5 for most of the Keen games on Steam. The Keen game I played during the week is Commander Keen: Keen Must Die and I beat only the first level, I got frustrated and gave up on the second. Next time aliens, next time.

It is interesting and slightly sad to note that Billy's spry old grandad's game also got played this week, and that old fella is still staring in games today. William "B.J." Blazkowicz is the main character of the Wolfenstein series, which had a new release earlier this month.

I got Commander Keen as part of the Super ID Software Pack, my first Steam purchase, back some time in 2007.

GrubLord: Ooh - it's like a smorgasbord of gaming deliciousness...

With spood beasts!

Great reviewin', Ranmeister.

Much appreciated! Maybe I'll buy me this Flatout business. I'm sorta torn on whether to pick up a PC racer for gameplay (ie. this one) or a PS3 racer for sheer stupid eye candy (damn those things look good!).

Lunzo: Go for fun over eye candy.

As an aside: I personally hate how the games industry (media, blogosphere and developers) focuses on "ooh shiny" big budget releases instead of games with innovative, cool or plain old fun game-play. Keen kicks the crap out of "miscellaneous driving game which is really just an advertisement for the latest graphics engine from FooBar Enterprises and cost $lots to make 3 levels".

GrubLord: True enough.

But racing games are sorta in their own category of "not really about the gameplay"... I mean, the whole racing thing gets old after a while, and I do own Mario Kart Wii.

Ranneko: Well Flatout 2 I was introduced to at a LAN and would really like to play more of at a RanLAN. I should mention the other racing game I played during the week on Sunday.