Recent reviews by Poogy

My feelings for TF2 are forever complicated as of 2019. Having started playing on PC almost a decade earlier, it's safe to say that I was around for quite a deal of the updates and additions to the game, ever since Sniper vs. Spy if I recall correctly. For years I thought there wasn't a single thing Valve could do which would cause a rift in my enjoyment and constant returns to TF2.

You might think, "and then it went F2P, right?" Wrong. I had absolutely no problem with new people coming aboard the wild ride known as Team Fortress 2 for absolutely free, because I thought it was such a cool game that everyone should be able to play it without having to worry about a purchase. Sure, it brought in a wave of potatoheads that's merely whittled down as time goes on, but I gave new players the benefit of the doubt, especially since they started playing during a time where each class had all kinds of weapons capable of drastically changing their playstyle.

No, the update that made me lose a significant portion of my passion for TF2 is Meet Your Match.

Now I have no problem with Valve wanting to make it easier for players to simply jump into a game, or introduce a competitive mode, however the timing of the update being rather soon after Overwatch launched left a rather bad impression on me. It might not be the case, but I genuinely felt as if they were trying to compete with Blizzard's new and popular shooter; this isn't something TF2 really needed to do, though, because it already had a unique name for itself, and to be quite honest, MYM screamed "We want to be Overwatch, too!"

Be that as it may, what sets me off the most about the MYM update is how it affected community servers--why would new players bother looking for community servers when they can hit up matchmaking and get into a game with all the searching done for them? Shame it means missing out on some of the neat community-made game modes, like dodgeball, Versus Saxton Hale, or TF2 Smash...


TL;DR: TF2's changed substantially since it first came out, there's no denying that. But given how the most recent updates haven't been more substantial than balances, patches, and cosmetic cases, it's hard to feel the same degree of love and respect I had for the game as much as 5 years ago.

Heavy, I'll always love you, ya big lug.