A non-tournament related TF2 thread. (and HL2, sort of)
 

So there's this here game called Team Fortress 2 that everyone seems to like at the moment. I was thinking of getting it, plus episodes 1+2 of Half-Life 2. (and Portal. Hello there Orange Box for only £16) Since I know it runs on the Source engine like HL2, which I already own, I started replaying that to test the performance on my hardware.

Now, the problem is, is that in some large areas my FPS in Half-Life 2 goes to hell. Areas like above the dam in Water Hazard where you destroy the Hunter-Chopper, or the railway bridge in Highway 17 (might be Sandtraps? I forget) are awful to go through. I'm using a 3Ghz processor and 2GB of RAM, so I guess I'd need a new graphics card? They cost at least £300 though, and I don't have that kind of money or the technical expertise to install it.

So, given my current hardware, would it still be worth getting the Orange Box stuff or not bother?

you might want to play on a slightly lower setting. for both Halflife and Tf2...and good luck with Portal.

Installing cards is pretty fool proof. The only thing that you really need to worry about is static. Otherwise you should know the type of port and if it is completely in (Hint all the pins should be in the mother board) then you just install a driver and your done on a video card.....


Now on to TF2.
I got the Dead ringer. The first time i played with it i was actually really good with spy. I mean i am normally really good with spy (because of a sociology class i can manipulate the enemy team to a small degree) but i usually died due to my extremely bad luck. With the dead ringer i got a chance to control that small variable and become a fucking awesome spy (i was the top of the score board) but then the Nerf came and now my favorite tool is degraded to nothing because one ass decided to spam the thing next to a scout recording a demo who posted it on You tube. This really pisses me off because now instead of allowing me to conserve my cloak i have to wait a long 18 seconds in disguise to use my DR again regardless of how long i actually used it. And they lowered the cloak time from 8 to 5....GAH

The areas in HL2 are a lot more expansive and focus more on atmosphere and immersion than TF2. I think you'd probably be able to get away with it if you ran the game on a very low setting. Shame you weren't around just last week, there was a free weekend where you could have tested it. They have these with some regularity (every few months usually) but you might not want to wait that long.

Everyone I hear talking about Dead Ringer says it sucks, but I've had some awesome games with it, it's a nice change of pace with the Spy, even after the change.

Okay, just had to say that.
Sounds like a graphics problem, yeah, most 'these areas are fine but when I see water/sky/explosions my computer lags' are usually graphics card problems.

And while TF2 is based on the Source engine it's based on a very very enhanced version. I could run Half Life 2 on decent settings on my old rig, but TF2 was a slug in molasses. So I'd recommend an upgrade before all else.

Onboard is the devil.

I should add that other large areas play fine. The chopper chase in Water Hazard where it's dropping enough mines to sink the Titanic, or most areas of Highway 17 play smoothly, it's just specific areas. Some levels like Ravenholm or Nova Prospekt are practically flawless. Probably with a lot of different textures/objects or other stuff at long-distance viewing. I've been playing on medium-ish settings but turning them down didn't improve my FPS in the 'problem' areas at all.
I'll reload a save game I have in Water Hazard and test the chopper fight area again...


Also, my sense of timing for missing things like a free weekend is superb. :shifty:

So I was looking at the stats page and saw SMG on top of the avg dmg/hit chart and my eyes bugged - but then I noticed that Sniper Rifle was way down the list and realized that the names got swapped. It'll probably be corrected soon so take screenshots asap!

You and me both. Why is it that I had absolutely no interest in Left 4 Dead when they had a free weekend and 40% off deal TWO WEEKS AGO!?!?

So hey, unrelated side-note: What's everyone's opinion on Left 4 Dead?


BACK ON TOPIC THOUGH, the new TF2 update hasn't been as hellish as I was dreading. Sure there are more snipers, but most of them are failsnipers just trying out the new weapons. So far I've only seen one body pinned to a wall from the Huntsman, and while I've been killed several times by the Spy's Ambassador, I haven't really noticed a major increase in the spy population. ......Although admittedly, part of the whole point of the spy update is to make it harder to notice the spy population......

With the increase in snipers (specifically, snipers who venture down from their notorious camping grounds thanks to the new weapons) and the supposed increase in spies, I've been doing pretty darn well as a pyro. So yeah. I'm a fairly happy little gamer.

Pyros and Scouts have been ruling the terf as of late.

It is fucking impossible to play a Heavy anymore. They seriously need to give Heavs something to counteract.

Psst Minigun and corners.


Honestly you can play TF2 fine as long as you scale it down. I roll a REALLY BAD COMPUTER and low-specced I get a solid 80 frames, it drops to 60 sometimes but that's it.

Pyro's been pretty fun now that every douchebag on the face of the Earth wants to play Spy.

And by "fun" I mean running in circles around the Dispenser for the entire match tagging the backstabbing infinitely invisble fucks but at least I'm racking up kills.