Kill Spy // by TheGr4yFox

Sentry Sabotage – TF2 IRL

This week, we try to cover a topic, and fail.  We have some good conversations about games, though.

First off, Alex and Jonathan talk about the wildly different whether in their wildly different states.

Alex discusses Shadows of the Damned, a grindhouse-type game with an angry Mexican and a lot of penis jokes.  Despite Jonathan’s reservations, Alex also has nothing but good things to say about Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon.  We’re also looking to start up a regular, monthly AssBrodeo.  Check the forums for more info.

Jonathan pimps the Steam Summer Sale, which has ended already, and reminds everyone just how much fun Team Fortress 2 is.  He also talks about HOARD, a game about dragons, and Terraria, a game with Minecraft‘s addictiveness AND a purpose.  Bonus!

Sam wishes F.E.A.R. 3 was scarier, wishes Far Cry 2 was less realistic, and wishes Crysis 2 was eligible for marriage.  Jonathan and Alex are suitably disturbed.

Alex brings a themed version of Name That Game! to bear this week: Lousy Games!  He scraped the bottom of Metacritic’s barrel, and brought a number of truly terrible games to the table.

Next week, we really do get to our topic.  See you then!

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This week, we talk about the past six months, covering the games we’ve loved, the games we’ve hated, and the games we don’t really care about either way.

Up first, Jonathan talks about how smart that Cracked.com writer was to call for a free-to-play model in the competitive gaming market, as Team Fortress 2, Tribes, and WoW all go the way of the microtransaction.  He also does a terrible job of describing Solar 2, although in fairness, it’s not an easy game to describe.  Jonathan’s also surprised to find that Yakuza 4 is more RPG than Beat-Em-Up, though perhaps he shouldn’t be.

Alex talks about Trenched, the latest release from Double Fine.  Given that Trenched is a variation on the tower defense genre, and Alex has little love for the tower defense genre, his verdict may surprise you (or not).  He’s also picked up the Captain America table for Pinball FX2, which he’s been very pleased with.  Finally, Alex went sales bin diving and came up with a copy of Daisenryaku VII Exceed, a modern military tactical strategy game for the PS2.

Sam played some games, but left no notes to remind me what they were when writing the show notes, so those’ll have to be a surprise.

Interesting tidbits from the topic:

• Sam gets it wrong about Portal 2 and L.A. Noire.
• Jonathan puts a bunch of weird indie games on his “Great” list.
• Sam praises a couple of sequels.
• Alex thinks Child of Eden is pretty, but not much more.
• Everybody’s less than impressed with Duke Nukem Forever.

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Meet the Medic

Page 2: Team Fortress 2 Now Free to Play for a Wee—Make That Forever:

The Uber Update is coming to TF2, and the game was set to be free for a week.  Valve also recently added Free2Play MMOs to Steam, and coyly let slip that they were planning on getting into the F2P market at some point.  Well, “some point” is today.

Team Fortress 2 has gone Free-to-Play.  The game will be supported entirely by the Mann Co. store.  If you’ve already purchased the game or spent money in the store, you’re account will be upgraded to “Premium” status, which confers a bunch of bonuses that, since I haven’t played in over a year, I don’t understand.

I really enjoyed TF2, but haven’t been in a shooter mood for a long while.  As this announcement doesn’t really affect me, I’ll continue to have fond memories of the game without getting back into it.  How about you, though?  Will the free-to-play model get you to give it a chance (again)?