Dealing With Class Rushes

In honor of the first title update to the Xbox version of The Orange Box since April 1st, 2008,I decided to throw together a small guide to help you all fight your way through a new trend that has emerged. That trend is Class Rushing.

This new Class Rushing isn't the one your Grandma used to play. This is a whole new beast that consumes an entire match and is completely unstoppable (except by the host.) While Valve "rushes" to fix this, there is only one thing to do: prepare yourself. So, without, further ado, I present to you a guide written to help you deal with Class Rushes.

The Scout Rush

This rush will haunt your dreams. The sound of pattering feet and "Doc, c'mon man!" will become a trigger of fear in your mind. Never again will you underestimate the power of a 2x capture speed multiplier.

But if you are a Scout who knows when to switch to Pistol, you may become a god. If you didn't even know you had a Pistol, immediately start dodging and don't stop. Your friends may wonder why you are hopping around in the Respawn Room, but you will be the better for never stopping the Dodge.

If an enemy Scout runs at you holding a Baseball Bat, take out yours as well and pray for a Critical Hit. If all else fails, hide and taunt until the match ends.

This Rush is best played on: Well and Granary, though it has its moments on Hydro.

The Soldier Rush

I am an excellent Soldier. I know all the best Rocket Jumps. I know when to switch to Shotgun; I know when to switch to Shovel. I crafted the Soldier into an art form through my controller, and yet...when you are in a Soldier Rush, your best bet is to jump/crouch everywhere and shoot at the ground near your enemies.

Sadly, this tactic is neither difficult or particularly inventive, but it works quite well. If you time your shots correctly, your screen will become filled with bloody body parts as your enemies explode. If not, your screen will be full of your own blood and guts.

This Rush is best played on:Gravel Pit and Granary because of excellent verticals.

The Pyro Rush

Take your Shotgun out and don't switch to Flamethrower unless your enemies can't see you. Why? Hit detection with the Flamethrower is bad, but a Shotgun blast from point blank can do 90 HP damage. Also, this is the only time in which a Pyro is guaranteed to not get a kill from afterburn damage.

No matter how ugly things become, do not attempt to W+M1 (or Forward+R1 on the Xbox.) The enemy Pyro will naturally backpedal and flame you in return. When moving forward, your flame is shorter. When moving backward, your enemy's flame is longer. So, yeah, you just died.

And always remember to taunt over your enemy when you kill them. Always.

This Rush is best played on:Dustbowl because the chokepoints keep it from becoming too chaotic.

The Demoman Rush

The grenade spam in this type of rush will bring you fond memories of Team Fortress Classic. But, in all honesty, this is the most fun you will have during a rush. The Demoman is so *cough*overpowered*cough* versatile that acting offensively and defensively as a team actually takes strategy.

It is possible that it will just degrade into spam, as aforementioned, but that is still visually entertaining. In fact, it reminds me a little of a screen from Meet the Demoman.

In this rush, the most important skill you can have is to know when to reload. If you completely waste your ammo (which happens more frequently than you might think), you better hope you aim your Bottle well.

This Rush is best played on: any map, even 2Fort and Hydro. It's that fun.

The Heavy Rush

WHIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

When you play this rush, turn down your speakers or you might go deaf. The sound of Sasha spinning and shooting does not cease and if one person is calling a Medic, everyone else is too.

If you are unlucky enough to turn a corner and spot a few Heavies that are already spun up, the remainder of your life will look like you are entering Hyperspace.

Quite frankly, the number of bullets wizzing through the air during a Heavy rush is astounding. You will be taking damage continually, so be ready to run. But to dominate in a Heavy rush, you must know where to find ammo. Ammo is all you need to succeed (unless your aim is terrible.)

This Rush is best played on: Well because health and ammo packs litter the floor. In addition, capturing the final point feels epic.

The Engineer Rush

Prepare for stalemates. Do not attempt on Attack/Defend maps like Dustbowl and Gravel Pit.

Uh, that's all there is to say about Engineer rushes really.

This Rush is best played on: 2Fort becuase it nicely complements the general unplayability of the map.

The Sniper Rush

When you play in a match set to Sniper Rush, it will suddenly feel like Halo or Call of Duty.

The quest for team victory dissipates and is replaced with the search for individual glory. Snap shots are very possible as a headshot will kill anyone without a charge. Furthermore, the SMG feels like an Assault Rifle. If you didn't have to switch to your Kukri to melee, it would become just like those games.

As expected, this rush is a superb way of training to be a good Sniper. If you want to frequent servers like this, you should crank down your sensitivity. Doing so will have a major payoff.

Your best chance of starting a kill streak would be to snipe from unexpected places and to stay in motion. The less the enemy suspects, the better your chance of an easy shot. I could make a Weighted Companion Sniper joke, but this picture will suffice.

This Rush is best played on: 2Fort, obviously. But forget about capping the Intel. Think about blasting out the brains of the guy across the way instead.

The Medic Rush

This type is very odd. The Medic is the best support class, but when he can only support his own kind, things become quirky. You start to realize how powerful the Needle Gun is when you play this rush. At the same time, you wonder if the Ubercharge is really too useful.

With health everywhere, the commodity to watch is ammo, but that rarely becomes a problem. Even when depleted, the Bonesaw deals out a solid amount of damage. But no matter what you do to try to kill an enemy Medic, deaths will be rare. The Medigun heals too fast for long-term damage to be an option.

Therefore, to be effective, you must attack hard and fast. Chase the enemy to the edges of the map and remember to cut corners. It will take a bit, but eventually they will die.

This Rush is best played on: Well, Granary, or Hydro because playing it anywhere else creates bizarre balance issues.

The Spy Rush

Last, but certainly not least. The first thing to do is to forget your disguise. Your not fooling anyone.

Play a couple rounds of all-Spy and everyone will stop using their knifes. The Revolver is king.

When everyone decides to disguise, it is a mess. Chaos erupts because the Spy lacks a good Spychecking weapon. Everyone will want to be a Pyro, but they can't. Too bad.

If you ignore the loss of espionage, the game is still very fun, and it is teaching you to aim as well. I just wish we had The Ambassador.

This Rush is best played on: 2Fort. Carrying the Intel reveals which team you are on, creating an interesting side effect.

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That's all for today! I hope you enjoyed the read!

Neat Tournament Ideas (With Posters)

By now (if you are someone serious enough about Team Fortress 2 Xbox 360 that you read a blog about it) you know that Valve has announced that a nice, simple title update/patch is coming to us very soon and has already been sent in for certification by Microsoft.

This update will include fixes to stop jackasses, excuse me, hackers, as well as a few hosting options that may have been inspired by one of my earlier articles. It is very exciting, mostly because I know it is true, and because it can no longer be slowed down by Valve.

These hosting options will bring the world of competitive Team Fortress 2 fully to our doorstep. We will be able to turn off random crits and damage spread, as well as set class limits. But now that these options are available, I would hate to see them wasted on just 6v6 matches.

So, to give the community a broader range of match/tournament ideas, I searched the internet, and here are two separate and awesome posters for tournaments that have happened over in the PC Team Fortress 2 community.

The first is for a Soldier and Medic only tournament. It is entirely 2v2 and with no critical hits or damage spread, it could become extremely intense and satisfying. Furthermore, it would make excellent use of the map Hydro, with quick rounds, but clear progression and defeat/victories.



The second is not based on a joke, believe it or not. Rather, it is a match style designed to introduce casual players to the competitive scene. It would be a 6v9 match where the casual team has one of each class and the other team is a clan. I think this would be a lot of fun and would be a great way for clans to practice.



Expect articles to come a bit more rapidly after this. I have been pretty busy lately, but things are clearing up. Also, any sign of movement from Valve rejuvenates my enthusiasm for Team Fortress 2.

Spah Sappin' Mah Poll!

I glance away for a moment and, out of the corner of my eye, I spot movement. A puff of smoke, perhaps a blur of color. I look directly at it quickly and nothing is there.

I scroll up the page and check on the poll. Which class is the reader favorite? I see the results, gasp, and immediately know that something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Poll Results
Spy- 64 votes (31%)
Medic- 23 votes (11%)
Scout- 22 votes (10%)
Pyro- 21 votes (10%)
Soldier- 19 votes (9 %)
Sniper- 17 votes (8%)
Engineer- 16 votes (7%)
Demoman- 14 votes (6%)
Heavy- 9 votes (4%)

This should be a close one! Why wasn't there a nine-way tie? And why in the world is the Medic, whose job was referred to by computerandvideogames.com as "joyless service," in second place? Isn't it supposed to be boring to play Medic? Apparently not.

Still, this oddity pales in comparison to the strangest thing of all: the Spy managed to take the victory with 41 votes and 20% over the nearest competitor. Why is this odd? Because most of the other classes did not receive half of that number of votes and most didn't reach that much percent.

This poll has been messed around with, and I am sure the Spy has something to do with it. Wait, what's that behind me?

SP-

Adapting To Survive and THRIVE

Many of you are probably keeping track of all things Valve in the last couple weeks.

For one thing, Left 4 Dead 2 is coming out on November 17, less than a year after the release of the first one. I, who never bought the first one but played it a couple times, was happy to hear this and I plan on buying it as soon as I can after its release.

Maybe you are one of those 32,000 people who have joined that cute boycotting group. Undoubtedly, that resolution won't last more than a few hours after seeing the first reviews.

I can see it now. In one day, 30,000 leave the group to go play their new favorite game. Good luck with Valve taking boycotting groups too seriously after that.

But I can't deny they have made a hilariously clever picture for themselves.



If you have been paying closer attention to Valve's noteworthy news, you have also stumbled across this wonderful interview by now. I highly suggest reading the entire thing if you haven't yet.

For the first time, Valve revealed a very specific tidbit of information regarding the update process of any game that has to go through Microsoft. That being, any required content following release must be 8 MB or less.

Which means, in essence, that there would be no possible way to ensure every player of Team Fortress 2 on the Xbox 360 would have all the unlockable weapons. I don't even think basic gameplay alterations to Team Fortress 2 on the PC version totals less than 8 MB.

Knowing this, and also knowing that Microsoft is unlikely to change their entire update process for one company leads me to think that a fresh start is in order.

To get right to the point, I think that Valve should release Team Fortress 2 over Xbox LIVE on November 17, 2009.

This would be an excellent move for Valve, using the hype surrounding Left 4 Dead 2 to promote their major multiplayer game, perhaps even adding incentive for purchase, such as 50% off Team Fortress 2 if they own Left 4 Dead 2.

But, since the patch size for the game would be so small, it would have to built without any problems and under the assumption that no major changes could be made afterward, especially not for free. More exactly, it would have to be designed like other games, with only map packs following release.

Obviously, it could not be made in the same way as the PC version, and it would entail a completely separate set of difficulties that would have to be addressed. Here is a list of problems in the current Team Fortress 2 that would have to be fixed before the release over Xbox LIVE:

• Lag and latency
• Class balancing
• Map balancing
• Bad competitive game
  
• Bad party game
• Cheating and hacking is easy
• Matchmaking is flawed

I will be writing several articles on how to fix each of these problems, if only to entertain the thought, as Valve is unlikely to notice this at all.

Dustbowl Takes the Title

Are you as surprised as I am? Who knew that this beauty had victory coming?

I am, of course, entirely joking. I slighted this map to win from the beginning due to the amount of time I see it being played on XBox LIVE matches.

I am wondering, though, how Gravel Pit managed to pull off a close second. On Xbox LIVE, the second most commonly played map is 2Fort (who placed third, but was nowhere near the top two.)

One possiblility is that hosts like 2Fort more than Gravel Pit. Personally, Gravel Pit is my favorite map of the six and I am glad it came in second.

It is dissapointing to see that Granary and Well scored low, but they are better suited for competitive players. My only explanation for this is that the majority of the community is casual, which may or may not be true.

Surprisingly, Hydro is NOT stradling the bottom of the rankings. No explanation is required.

Here are the final results:

1. Dustbowl: 178 votes (31%)
2. Gravel PIt: 170 votes (29%)
3. 2Fort: 83 votes (14%)
4. Granary: 59 votes (10%)
5. Hydro: 42 votes (7%)
6. Well: 36 votes (6%)

Now stop reading this and go play some Team Fortress 2!