Play Team Fortress 2 for Free!

[fantanoice]

You’re one of the four gamers out there who hasn’t yet played Team Fortress 2, now is the time to do so. Game developer Valve is letting gamers play the game for free for a week ahead of a massive content patch.

The new “Uber” update features extra pieces of equipment for some of the character classes. The company is also teasing a “meet the” short video, which is a funny series that introduces the characters that players take control of in Team Fortress 2. As usual, the update features ridiculous weapons and the video promises to be another hilarious take on the first person shooter (FPS) genre. The game’s style, which regularly mocks a lot of tropes common in the FPS genre, is part of the reasons it’s so successful.

The game will be free to download and play through Sunday. Team Fortress 2 is a multiplayer FPS game that lets players team up in huge capture-the-flag and king-of-the-hill style matches. Players can choose from one of several classes that all fulfill certain roles, like the speedy scout who is good for carrying intel (the game’s version of a flag) or the medic, who can heal and supercharge friendly players. It’s one of Valve’s unusual stunts to try to pick up additional gamers, even though the game is already incredibly popular.

http://www.aeropause.com/wordpress/archives/images/2008/08/tf2-heavy.jpg

Source: Venture Beat (http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/20/team-fortress-2-free/) via Team Fortress (http://www.teamfortress.com/)

[Jason]

Ah, I'm really looking forward to this. The two classes I play for preference are Medic and Pyro, which annoyingly have been the last two to get a full 'meet the...' update, so the chance to get a little bit of love suits me nicely, although the usual problem of having the unlock/achievement whores hogging the class for a week or two will no doubt raise its head.

Either way, more TF2 is good news as far as I'm concerned, I've been playing it a lot recently. :)

[Jason]

Also, here's the various 'meet the...' videos available so far:

Meet The Sniper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyNuriXG3BQ

Meet The Heavy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY5qJHZCz2I

Meet The Scout
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGbWGs2SRe8

Meet The Demoman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmYQUHEnX80

Meet The Soldier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGvXDX-BiQY

Meet The Engineer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSJo83h-fqE

Meet The Spy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnuYi-nzE90

Meet The Sandvich
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMfzUZNXRbE

Meet The Medic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36lSzUMBJnc

[Betty]

I want my meet the medic video...

[MyNameDidntFit]

Soon, deary, soon.

[Jason]

Okay, wow.

Far from being a free weekend, it appears that TF2 has actually gone free to play permanently.

Valve, creators of bestselling game franchises (such as Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead, and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), announced today that after four years and over 200 updates, its popular and critically-acclaimed online action game Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is now Free To Play (F2P).
The F2P announcement comes as part of the "Über Update". Released today, it is the largest content pack delivered to TF2 since it shipped in 2007.

New players interested in experiencing what PC Gamer calls "the most fun you can have online" will have access to training and offline practice modes, so they can hone their skills before jumping into the ever-expanding TF2 universe.
To celebrate the launch of the Über Update, Valve has released "Meet the Medic," the latest in its series of TF2 animated shorts.

TF2 is now Free to Play for PC & Mac players via Steam.

For more information on Free to Play, please visit http://www.teamfortress.com/freetoplay.

For more information on the "Über Update" and "Meet the Medic", please visit http://www.teamfortress.com/uberupdate.

Wow, Valve. Wow.

EDIT: I've edited the 'Meet the Medic' video into my earlier post, by the way.

[happysister]

loved the Meet the Medic. XD and that's awesome that TF2 is now free to play. for like, forever. o.o i know one guy who wants to play it badly.

[Betty]

Forever? But thats like... forever??

Damnit I spent money on it :|

[happysister]

i did too, but that's because i think the game is worth the money. that part doesn't really bother me.

[fantanoice]

Finally my friends have no excuse not to play it with me.

[Konrad]

I had a hunch that's what it was all about when they said there was a F2P project coming up. I have neither been playing much, nor spending money on any actual in-game stuff in TF2 - but I guess ill wait a week or two until the meet-the-whatever rage calms down and classes are even again, and play some more TF2 to see what changed.

Edit: Come to think of it... Well. Welcome to hacker-town. What with Steam accounts being free, and this game being free, and the delay on VAC bans, there is nothing stopping people from just playing with god knows what cheats and making a new account every two weeks or so.

[Kozahk]

Finally my friends have no excuse not to play it with me.

What friends?

This sounds pretty good. I once had it on the Orange Box for 360, but the console version of it was pretty much broken. Will have to give this a try next time I feel like giving a shit.

[Jason]

Edit: Come to think of it... Well. Welcome to hacker-town. What with Steam accounts being free, and this game being free, and the delay on VAC bans, there is nothing stopping people from just playing with god knows what cheats and making a new account every two weeks or so.

Q. Won’t going Free to Play mean more griefers and cheaters?
We’re increasing our focus on making sure that hostile players can’t ruin your fun. Specifically, we’ll be keeping a close eye on players exploiting the ability to make infinite free accounts to bypass bans. We’ve built systems that’ll allow us to measure and track what these players are doing, and respond quickly.

Looks like Valve are already anticipating that one. :)

[MyNameDidntFit]

Saw this coming a mile away.

Gabe's constant talk of "entertainment as a service" and the introduction of the Mann. Co Store pretty much held up a giant fricking neon sign saying "we're going to make this F2P with microtransactions". TF2 is their experiment platform. It was inevitable.

Also, let's face it: anyone that wanted to pay for TF2 has already paid for it.

[CemeteryGates]

Also, let's face it: anyone that wanted to pay for TF2 has already paid for it.


After 4 or so years being out there? You're damn right.

As for me? I was always curious, but not willing to pay for it (since my old PC wouldn't run any game post-2004 anyway). Just finished downloading. Time to check it out, after all this time.

[iebo]

I'm one of those four players that still haven't played it. In fact I recently joined Steam specifically so I could download and try Team Fortress 2. I'll let you know what my username is once I get it downloaded.

[exilen]

I think this is a smart decision by steam, considering how it's user base was diminishing over time. Since the release of the Man Co store, it was foreshadowing a free release.

Are many of the veteran players angered at steam's decision to make the game F2p?

[MyNameDidntFit]

That's a mixed kettle of fish there ex. On one hand, a lot of people are just happy to have more players and don't really mind that they paid for it. One the other hand you have those who are riled up by the influx of 'noobs' disrupting their usual servers and the potential for griefing/hacking presented by free Steam accounts and free TF2.

There's a lot more to it than that if you care enough to read everyone's opinion, but that's the gist of the two camps. Three camps if you include people who simply don't give a damn, I guess.