Now Playing: Team Fortress 2

I've finally succumbed to consumerism and bought into the current multiplayer fad. Of Valve's two babies (Half-Life 2 is now a grandaddy, so doesn't count), if Left 4 Dead is that girl next door chick you hang out with and is pretty cool, Team Fortress 2 feels like the real deal. The one you wanna' do all sorts of funny stuff too.

Team Fortress 2, after just a day of play, is very fun and addictive. There's something great about the cartoony style, a game that doesn't take itself too seriously. I haven't been stressed out in competitivity in the same way Left 4 Dead's Versus makes me feel. You die, it's cool, just respawn. The point system is more forgiving than L4D's.

Of course, the meat of the game is in the varied classes to play, and all have their own persistent achievements that lead to cool new equipments. For now, I'm pretty hooked on to the Sniper (for my twitchy trigger-finger and Razer mouse) and Spy (just because disguising as an enemy and backstabbing enemy snipers is better than Assassin's Creed will ever be). 107 achievements for those obsessive people to get stuck into - crazy!

There are varied modes of gameplay as there would be, but so far, I only like the continual flow of Capture the Flag in comparison to something like Arena, which is like your standard deathmatch, except you don't respawn upon death. So for nubs like me, it sucks to sit out when everyone's having oodles of fun. But I'll get better.

A great competitive shooty kinda' game and I can understand why this has been so popular since Oct '07. It feels more no-brainer and less stressful than Left 4 Dead because it's not about survival, just kill stuff, and maybe steal a briefcase or two. And perhaps I'm on nice servers that don't have overtly hyper kids that are critical of noobish-play. Plus TF2 has tons of updates out and coming, keeping the game fresh. Left 4 Dead feels creaky and slow in comparison.

But, at the end of the day, I think I prefer Left 4 Dead purely because Campaign is a romping good time with a good small group of buddies. And Versus, when you do well, is a more satisfying competition in that just having 4-a-side allows you to show off your skillz to your opponents, and shove it in their face.

It's not the same in TF2 on 24-player maps, people just don't notice your cool moves except perhaps the enemies you killed, and the occasional congratulations from your team-members. But teamwork and strategy are definetly present in both TF2 and L4D; just I think with the former, the complexities and combination of classes, is probably a lot deeper than just the one-two punch of two boss-infected types in L4D.

An interesting feature in TF2 though is Nemesis and Revenge. If one player on the opposing team kills you over and over, they will be branded as your nemesis, and dominate you. On the scoreboard, it shows and they have a star over their head in the map. It lets them brag that they are owning your nub-face, but when you get back at them enough times, you'll have enacted Revenge, and the game shoves it back in their face for your pleasure.

And when you are standing over the dead body of a just-killed enemy and doing a little taunting dance, which they see upon death, the epic emotions that rise from within are just priceless.