You are a loose cannon sandvich, but you are a damn good cop!

Lookie what I've got!



It did take a bit long (I've been mainly playing as a Heavy for a few nights now), but as you probably know, I'm not that good a Heavy. All thanks to Sonneteer who kept sticking to my ass (even when I'm munching away on my sandvich in respawn and while THE CART IS NEARING THE CHECKPOINT... yeah, I didn't notice anything, enthralled by my brand new beautiful sandvich, but apparently Sonny kept laughing until we got out: yeah, the cart is moving and I'm camping in respawn, all JUST ONE SANDVICH YOU GUYS THEN WE CAN GO) and helping me to get several of the achievements.
And having a darling Medic running to me with a full charge when I'm getting out of respawn after getting headshot... gotta love it.

And for fuck's sake, if a mediocre Heavy like me can get a bunch of achievements in a few hours, playing just like I normally would, anyone can. I understand if you want the unlockables NOW NOW RIGHT NOW I CAN'T WAIT, go ahead and farm, none of my business, but I fucking hate it when people whine about the achievements being too hard. And yeah, the idiots who come to a non-achievement-grinding server and run around boxing or trying to taunt... well, they're idiots. And they deserve their bans.
But it's possible to get most of the achievements - the 20 required for the unlockables - in regular gameplay without acting like an idiot. Why don't people understand that?
And yeah, I'm probably the only person who finds getting the achievements fun: farming them would take all the fun out of it. I don't even mind the unlockables being tied to the achievements. I don't mind that I don't have them from the get-go. Because getting them is not impossible.
Sure, getting the Spy unlockables would be impossible for me, but I don't play as the Spy, what the hell would I do with the Spy unlockables?
Jesus Christ, people are idiots.
Newsflash.

Besides, I'm learning some new tricks all the time while playing, and I don't think I've ever been a complete drag to my team while insisting to play as Heavy to get the achievements (and today I was an MVP several times, so it could be that in fact I might be even somewhat useful and learning something! Le gasp!). Sure I would be doing better as a Soldier or Medic or even a Demo, but hey, you can't expect to get better at playing as a certain class if you never actually play as that class.
So I'm slowly learning. And getting the achievements while I'm at it.

So, the Sandvich? Well now I know what I'll be doing during all the setups from now on. OM NOM NOMing away. I forget to use it in battle, and this far I've consumed a grand total of one sandvich when I actually needed some health. It's pretty useful, gotta admit. Especially since all Medics (except Sonny) hate me.
And it's pretty horrible to run out of Sasha ammo while you have the Sandvich equipped. Not that I've ever even killed anyone with the shotgun, but I feel much safer running to the closest ammo crate when I'm holding a boomstick INSTEAD OF FISTS. And running out of ammo while übered? Yeah, that's a whole different nightmare.
Also, I want to be able to hit people with the Sandvich! Come on, it would be epic!

And I'm probably getting Natascha after a few matches: while I don't have that many achievements yet, I have several that are just missing a few kills/captures/whatever. Party Loyalty is 46/50, Factory Worker 14/20, Soviet Union about 20/25... Pushkin the Cart, Lenin a Hand and Purge I'm also getting pretty soon.
And, yeah, I have (in addition to the five I already mentioned in some earlier post) Class Struggle, Stalin the Cart, Supreme Soviet, Own the Means of Production, Crock Block and Five Second Plan. And the first Milestone. So, four achievements and then Natasha will be mine.

I also have a new-found respect for Snipers. Because as a Heavy? Fuck I hate them.
I never thought I'd want a team with more than one Sniper, but the final checkpoint on Gold Rush? Yeah, I kinda wanted half of my team to go Sniper just to keep the three ominous figures standing there on the balcony in check, so that I could peek around the freaking corner without getting a bullet between my eyes.
Stupid fucking Snipers.

And today marks the first time ever, when as a Demoman, I didn't panic or get nervous at all when I was übered. We're on Dustbowl, attacking, the third stage just started, and a Medic with a full charge sticks to me right out of the blue, informing via voicechat that Chrome, we're now going to take down the sentries.
So I was like "OKAY!" and went there, and took the sentries out, all cool and calm and collected, and then we rushed the second point and won within fifteen seconds, I think. MVP, bitches.
That was awesome.
I've been playing a lot as a Demo, too, since Badwater is hella awesome for causing some serious sticky havoc. I'm even starting to like being an offensive Demo: I usually played Demo more on defense, since it's easy to just lay down the stickies on the point and camp nearby. Now I find myself going Demo on offense too, since I don't have to lay my stickies anywhere and I can use them as remote-controlled regular 'nades and I'm getting better at using them like that. THE MAYHEM. IT IS SWEET.

And now I'm forced to take a little tiny break from playing: real life insists on interfering. But at least from next week onward I'll be sharing an apartment with another TF2 player, and we'll just see how deadly a pair me and Slaverstrike can make once we can actually communicate. That is, yell from one room to another. I'm definitely looking forward to it, haha.

Wtf.

Okay, am I just missing something here, or has there always been room for stats of a tenth class in tf2_playerstats.dmx?
I mean I'm quite sure that it wasn't there the last time I checked the file: that the stats ended on Engineer, and there was no "iPlayerClass" "10".
It could be that I'm just remembering wrong, wouldn't be the first time I've overlooked something like that.

So, um, does anyone know what it's all about, or are we now allowed to be pretty sure that there'll be a tenth class sooner or later?

My money's on the VIP.

ETA: Ha! I was RIGHT! The tenth class stats haven't always been there!

And oh yeah: this blog has a fuckload of hits every month, and while I know that most of them are probably me, and many are random hits from Google or wherever, there is still way too much traffic considering that I can name maybe 5-10 people who actually read this thing.
So, um, speak up, please, if you're actually reading this blog. You can comment anonymously, I think, and I'd love to hear if total strangers actually enjoy my tiresome babblings.

Just dicking around

I just had about the best Gravel Pit match ever.



Apparently the enemy team - who were still playing seriously after losing three rounds - weren't too thrilled to find out that it wasn't just six Scouts that were capping A. It was actually twelve.

Here I go!

Whoa, this took longer than I thought. Besides, been playing. Haha. So I'll just cut to the chase.
(I wish I could play on better graphics and post some screenshots: now this is just a wall of text.)

The Heavy unlockables

No, I haven't played much as Heavy (my FPS, and so forth and so forth, but I did pick it up at some point just to try it out a bit), but I have seen the unlockable weapons used in game. I still don't have much to say about them, so:
- The OM NOM NOM sound he makes while eating is priceless.
- Natasha sounds so fine! I really like the revving sound she makes while spun-up, and the firing sound is deliciously... hnngh. It's like Pulse Rifle from HL2: I love the sound it makes while firing. Sounds like it HURTS.

It took me a while to even notice when I was hit by Natasha. Random hits are barely noticeable since the slowdown doesn't last for very long, but when you're face-to-face with a Heavy and getting hit continuously while trying to make a getaway? Yeah, you're pretty much dead.

But yeah, I saw lots of unlockable weapons around already: about two hours after the update people were starting to show up with Natashas and KGBs and Sandviches. Hmph, farmers.
KGB I didn't see used in battle even once (ie. didn't get punched by it. I did saw Heavies running around with it), but I caught several Heavies with their pants down noming on their Sandviches. Easy to locate by the sound they make, easy to dispose of. Since they're usually on low health if they ARE eating.
But issocute.

And Meet the Sandvich was hella funny, even if it wasn't much more than a sandvich in a fridge. The voice acting makes the film, Soldier and Scout are... fuck, they're awesome. :D Scout's OHGODOHGODOHGOD YOU PUNCHED MY BLOOD OUT and his very manly scream in the end... and Soldier's usual "YOU CALL THAT BREAKING A SPINE?!" attitude... oh man, I love Solly.
And Scout abuse just makes me giggle uncontrollably (he had it COMING stupid Scout).

Anyway, I played about half an hour as a Heavy (when I noticed that my team didn't have any in Fastlane) and this far I have five achievements (Iron Kurtain, Red Oktoberfest, Rasputin, Communist Mani-Fisto and Marxman), so at least they aren't too difficult to get. No need to farm. :P

Badwater Basin

I like it. Very much. The map is huge, has lots of variation and as a Soldier and Demo I'm loving the higher ground (my big nerd moment: standing there on top of the cliffs near BLU's first respawn, going "I HAVE THE HIGHER GROUND!"). It's also very confusing because it's so large, and even after playing about an hour on it, I was still getting lost if I strayed too far from the cart tracks. In RED I was completely lost because I didn't have a cart I could follow, haha.
But it's very good map, I like it this far, and it's becoming my ultimate Demoman playground: I broke Demo's most points record just a few days ago while defending on Badwater.
And let me just tell you this: I'm a lousy Sniper, okay? I have a bad framerate, and I'm bad at aiming, and I haven't played as Sniper in several months (except one Sudden Death a while ago when everyone was forced to go Sniper, and I kinda owned that and got like four kills, but it doesn't count). But I was playing on Badwater Basin, right, and this was RIGHT after the update hit, fifteen minutes after. So, the enemy team had something like eight people, and over half of them were Heavies. Slaverstrike was playing as Sniper and owning, saying it's a headshot heaven. But he's a kickass Sniper, he would be owning even if there weren't thousands of Heavies in the enemy team.
So I wanted to give it a try too, because we had enough Medics and I was sucking as Soldier and Demo against the hordes of Heavies. I was kinda sure I wouldn't get any kills (and because Slaver's so much better, he would definitely headshot the guy I had in my sights just as I was fully charged, heh). But I decided to fuck it, and so I went Sniper.
And I owned. Haha.
Seriously, goddamn, just one Heavy after the other, inching their way forward while shooting, STANDING AROUND LIKE BLOODY IDIOTS. Even I can score a full-charged headshot without any trouble. I think I broke MY own Sniper record (which was 8 points, if I recall correctly), since I got at least five headshots and a couple of regular kills during one life.
And after I changed to Sniper, the enemy team started going Spy and Sniper to counter my and Slaver's headshooting antics, and that's when I got my butt handed to me (because I always get outshot by enemy Snipers), but the bottom line is that if the enemy team has hordes of Heavies? I'm going Sniper. Might even try out Spy, o ho ho.

Steel

Definitely the best thing about the update. I LOVE THE MAP. I've been looking forward to playing a game on Steel from May, but I never found a suitable server running it. So I naturally had very high expectations, and I realised that I could be very, very disappointed.
I wasn't. At all.
It's just... it's fucking awesome. So much variety! So much different tactics! and you need to adjust to the changes in the map every time a point is capped. So much... oh man. I applaud to the guy who made the map, it's seriously... it's definitely Valve quality. It could be made by Valve. It's really that good.
People say it's confusing and it takes a while to learn (and the losing team always whines about being lost and not knowing where to go, but those are just excuses, fucking idiots), but I actually think Badwater is so much more confusing than Steel. :D I was so lost on Badwater all the time, but Steel has so many signs on walls, how the hell CAN you get lost? Just follow the signs, they are huge, and they are EVERYWHERE. The map's also not quite as big as it seems. Okay, it got confusing after the enemies capped every point but E, and the main route out of respawn got closed, but still it didn't take very long to find my way to E: all I did was follow the signs. Besides, the map's very logical once you start thinking about it.
Sure it's a bit confusing what with the changing routes depending on what points are capped, but it doesn't take very long to learn how it works. I've played about five full matches on Steel at this point, and I think I have the map down, both from attack and defense viewpoints (and while I usually like defending much much more, on Steel I actually like to attack).

The map also favours teamwork immensely. I mean, sure every Valve-made map promotes teamwork, and you can't win Dustbowl or Gold Rush without actually working together as a team, but with Steel? If your team doesn't communicate, you lose. Once every point but E is capped, there are just so many different routes to the point that it's impossible to win without coordinating your attack. With Dustbowl stage three, for example, pushing is fairly simple since there are only two routes to the point, and hardly anyone uses the canyon entrance anyhow. At least, hardly anyone ever forms pushes from there. Everyone's usually attacking from the same place, that is, the upper route. With Steel it isn't that simple, because there are three main routes to E, four if you count the lower level.
If your team is lost and everyone just tries to attack from different sides, you cannot possibly win (unless your team has all the superior players, ie. you're steamrolling). You need to coordinate a push, get all your team to attack from one place, preferably two to throw the defense off and cripple them. You can't expect to win if someone is attacking from the lower levels: someone comes in from A, someone comes from D, someone comes from C. It just doesn't work that way, especially if there's heavy sentry defense.
No, I've never won the map with a team that didn't communicate.

It might favour defense a bit, but it all depends on your tactic: enemy team capped every point but E when I was defending (and best feeling ever? Playing as Soldier and getting a crit when someone stands on E), and it was surprisingly easy to defend. Then again, if the enemy caps every point, defense does have harder time because it takes a longer time from respawn to the point.
The first time I was attacking, we got A, then got stuck battling over B, and when time was running out, I think a few Scouts went to cap E, which disrupted the enemy defense for a moment since E is all-or-nothing point, but we still couldn't keep a steady offense (I killed half of their team on the point, dammit, and then got killed, and we never capped the point. We were maybe minute on overtime at that point, so once we couldn't push anymore, the game was over).
The cramped spaces do favour some classes more than others, I think: Heavies are seriously going to have a field trip, but you just need to know how to deal with them.
Anyway, best thing about the update in my opinion, and you'll be finding me on 24/7 Steel servers. Best map, hands down.

Arena Mode

I TOLD YOU I WOULDN'T STAY ALIVE FOR LONGER THAN 30 SECONDS IN ANY GIVEN ARENA MATCH Haha. I suck at Arena. At this point, I don't like it very much because of that. Maybe it's a working game mode, maybe someone likes it, but I just don't think it's that fun. I always get killed thirty seconds into a round (well, not always, but most of the time. And if I do make it to the end, it's possible that I hadn't killed a single person because I was playing so carefully. Ehh), and since for some reason my team usually loses, I have to sit out the next round.
The spectating doesn't really bother me as long as there's a friend I can watch play, but it does get pretty annoying once all you can do is run out of respawn and get gibbed. Or burned. Or whatever.
Maybe it finally proves once and for all that I'm a horrible player.
Anyway, it was fun for a while - fun enough to stop me caring about the whole sucking at it part - but then it started getting more and more annoying. And it was much more fun on Lumberyard (haven't yet played on Ravine, since I'm now avoiding Arena maps altogether) than on the Arena-fied Granary, Well or Badlands. Maybe because Lumberyard was specifically made for Arena, the rest are the same old maps, just... Arena-fied.

Maybe it's just not my cup of tea. And my two cents: they should maybe remove crits from Arena on default. Because it does get kinda frustrating when you get out of respawn, run to the central area and get gibbed by a crit rocket from a Soldier who hadn't fired even a single rocket before that. Yeah.
Kritzkrieg should work, though.

But Lumberyard is awesome! I love the grass.

Other updates

Increased The Kritzkrieg's uber-charge rate bonus from 10% to 25%

THANK YOU. Now I might be using the Kritzkrieg more, since it was... face it, it IS pretty useless most of the time. D: Now that the charge is so much easier to get, the uselessness of the charge itself doesn't hurt that much. I should try to use the Kritzkrieg more on clear attack/defense maps like Payload maps and Dustbowl and Gravel Pit, since it is pretty useful on defense when you don't have to go against sentries, and sometimes crits make clearing a point easy as pie.
And people have actually started using Kritzkriegs because of this: at least I've seen them around so much more than before the update. Which I think is cool, as long as the Medic knows how and when to use it.

And this next thing is not update related, but something I just wanted to talk about:

Weighted Companion Cube Soccer

As seen, for example here.

I hadn't even heard about this game mode before, but Slaver told me about it and we went to try it out almost instantly. It's lots of fun! I haven't played any of these strange "party modes" before, since I stick so much to official maps, but at least the Soccer is tons of fun.
So the game is ... well, it's soccer. Weighted Companion Cube is the ball, and you need to shoot it to "kick" it. And you need to get it in the enemy team's goal in order to win the round. The Cube radiates health and ammo (like a Weighted Companion Cube should <3), but there are usually no ammo pickups, and only one medium medkit between the team's goal poles, so you need to either salvage dropped weapons, or, better yet, stay close to the Cube. Which you need to do in order to score a goal.
The mode really requires some teamwork, it's nearly impossible to just push through by yourself, and if you just concentrate on killing others, ignoring the Cube, you'll lose pretty fast.
I don't know, but the cube seems to fly farther if you hit it with a crit. I don't know if the damage your weapon normally does has any effect on the "kick," but it would seem that strong projectiles like rockets and bombs make it go farther than, for example, shotgun shots do.
I didn't do any goals, but I had fun.
And it IS lots of fun, even without getting into fundamentals, and I highly recommend it to anyone who's getting bored of the same old capping business.

And then on a completely unrelated note, I finally got the Axtinguisher for Pyro. And after that my Arena adventures took a turn for worse since I started fooling around with it, trying to set people on fire and then hit them with the axe. No, didn't kill anyone. Haha.
Also broke Soldier's most points record on Steel (and once again, the very second I wander away from Newbies Only servers, I start owning. Maybe the latency really does that much, or maybe it's that everyone else just plainly sucks outside of Newbies Only. Haha. I found a random 24/7 Steel server, owned, got a most points record, dominated half of the enemy team and ended up on top of the scoreboard with a score of 130. Only Sonneteer was above me, as Medic. So, yeah), and got a new most points and kills record for Demo, like I told you.
And I even played more as a Sniper, on Gold Rush, and I was doing fairly good! I got owned by the enemy Sniper, but he was the scoreboard leader, so, yeah. Well at least he never got to dominate me, so it could've been worse.

And I can't wait to get the new damn computer.

And haha, now I'm heading out to try and own my little brother in-game: I told him about the Free Weekend and he replied dismissively something along the lines of "well... I MIGHT play if I have the time..." And now he's saying that he's played for like ten hours, and that the game is damn addicting. Well, duh. And apparently he's been trying out Soldier and Scout as well, so he hasn't been just being a pain in the ass Sniper.
So, here's to hoping he hasn't got too good at it yet, I can take advantage of his weaknesses and dominate him fair and square. Haha.

Well, I've never been this happy about being wrong before...

Okay, I was completely ready to squee over Meet the Sandvich and talk about Companion Cube Soccer since I was quite sure that the update won't come tonight, but SORRY, I WAS WRONG.

So at least I know what I'll be doing for the rest of the night. LUMBERYARD, STEEL, BADWATER BASIN, HERE I COME.

Expect a freaking massive entry tomorrow.

And more

So, I was mighty suspicious and prejudiced about the new game mode, having heard that it's going to be a some kind of a deathmatch. I knew Valve couldn't do that, not after putting all the emphasis on TEAM, but I was still a bit scared of what it would be.
But this makes me very intrigued. It's like a Sudden Death game mode!
I also know that I'll be dying thirty seconds into any given Arena match, haha.
And Lumberyard looks sweet and I can't wait to actually get to see it up close. Might even have to load the map locally the first freaking thing after the update and just look at it.

And today is the big day. Or should be, at least. I'm preeetty sure the update will be pushed back to tomorrow or end of the week, seeing how Valve failed to keep even the updates of the update coming. I mean, all of the previous updates came about 9-10 pm my time, last night it was way over 1 am when I decided to just stop waiting and go to bed. And if it takes them so fucking long to update a goddamn web page how long do you think it will take them to get the actual fucking huge update out? Yeah, I wouldn't hold my breath. Besides, Valve Time. I'm gonna stay up tonight, but I'm not expecting the update hit Steam until tomorrow.
Or then it goes just like it went with the Medic update: I'll stay up, going F5 on Steam's forums, and then the update comes at 5 am when I'm way too tired to even play.
Valve needs to move to freaking Australia.

More Heavy stuff

So it would seem that the rumours were right and the Heavy gets a new minigun that does less the damage, but slows down enemies on hit. Natascha, she is called (and if I were Sasha, I'd be jealous. Poor Sasha).

But what I really like to comment, are some of the achievements, which finally got descriptions. Sure, most of them were easy to guess by file names, and there weren't really any big surprises. Several Medic-related indeed, so I'll be working with Heavies next week.
What I don't want to see, is someone trying to get Soviet Union and telling me to GTFO. Okay, if you want to be an idiot and don't want me to heal you, don't even think I'll be there saving you when you're on fire and dying. The only people I don't heal on default, unless they yell for Medic, are Spies, because I don't want to accidentally blow their cover. And that's not gonna change. I give you healings, whether you want it or not!
Or starting to taunt in the middle of an über to get Photostroika. Okay, sure, if we're steamrolling or there simply aren't any other enemies around, it's not that I've never launched a useless charge before, but if we're pushing for the Dustbowl's last point and my Heavy starts taunting... I'll ragequit for sure.
Even bigger DO NOT WANT TO SEE, is someone trying to get Redistribution of Health when I'm around.

Bitch, if you be stealing my medkit...

More Medic content to come? In MY TF2? It's more likely than you think!

Badwater Basin, the new Payload map was revealed last night. I am intrigued, it would seem like nice deviation from the Dustbowl-esque Gold Rush, and I'm definitely looking forward to getting to play a game on it.

But that's not why I post, because I'm finally about to post some real actual CONTENT in this blog apart from personal gaming experiences and commenting on news everyone already knows about. YOU MAY NOT EVEN KNOW ABOUT THIS YET, GASP. No, it's not exclusive info, this comes straight from TF2Chan, which I frequent like the little faghag that I am.



So, an interesting little fact came up when someone emailed Valve about the removed broken "Oktoberfest!" Medic taunt.

I don't know if you are aware, but some time ago someone found another medigun taunt from TF2 GCF. It was broken, so someone fixed it and made it work in-game (...an awful lot of "someones" here...), and I believe it was on Youtube as well (oh, here it is). Later on the taunt was removed in a patch, which made us all sad, because we had grown to love the crazy medigun-huffing Doctor.

So, Robin Walker responded to the question about reinstating the taunt with

"The reason we removed it was because we weren't done working on it, and had never intended to ship the content behind it yet. It's still coming, and when it arrives, it'll be even neater than what you've seen so far."

The rest is open for speculation, and oh my. New Medic content? Could it be?
This is also quite interesting in the light of the rumoured Heavy unlockables: if the Heavy really does get a healing sandwich to taunt with, could it be that this new Medic taunt would heal the good Doctor as well?
Oh how do I love speculation.

You can expect me to blog every day until next Tuesday...

So, like every self-respecting TF2 player already knows, the second part of the Heavy update came out last night (my time). They revealed the fists unlockable and the achievement names (which are as punny as always, and funny as hell. LOL COMMUNISM).

Since I don't really play as Heavy (and won't start because of the update, not yet at least, but more on that later) I won't get into commenting the Killing Gloves of Boxing (and there are rumours already about the remaining two unlockables: apparently a new minigun that sacrifices some of the damage it causes to slow down the enemies it hits, and the shotgun is going to be replaced with a sandwich you can taunt with to get some HP back), but the achievements are somewhat relevant to me, as I plan to be going exclusively Medic after the update hits Steam (because joy! Fatties! Everywhere! I'm going to have a field day! Then again there are bound to be endless swarms of noobish fatties who tend to get on my nerves most of the time, but I'll do my healing job anyway, I'm just not going to stick), and some of the achievements seem to be Medic related.
So I'm planning to be sticking to any friend who's trying to get the achievements (without getting into farming and thus acting like an idiot), Sonneteer already has reserved an appointment with me. And since WE MAKE GOOD TEAM anyhow, I'll be happy to help. And if Slaver's going Heavy and needing assistance, he probably knows where to ask.

The achievements don't yet have any descriptions, but checking the file names gives most of them away. The Heavy is going to be getting a sandwich of some kind (making the rumour about the shotgun unlockable more legit) because one of the achievements is about eating sandwiches, and apparently the POW! taunt will go Hadouken, and be an instant kill after the update. That's cool, I just hope that every class would have an instakill taunt, but since Medic didn't get one, and I can't see how, for example, any of the Soldier taunts could kill anyone, I'll probably have to settle with the fact that not every class is going to get one (Demoman maybe: the Burp of Doom? Scout's BONK! taunt could also be worked into a kill taunt, and Spy's Cornish-game-hen-gutting knife-fencing as well).

But yeah, I'm just gonna sit tight and wait until they reveal the new Payload map and the new game mode (there are rumours regarding that as well, and it appears that the new mode could be a Deathmatch of sorts, which doesn't make me exactly happy. The community seems to be rooting for The Hunted, me included, but I'm afraid that won't be the case) and the new special Meet the... video. I'm giddy about the Payload map (now if we could only get another map like Dustbowl I'd be on cloud nine), and I'm just hoping that the new game mode won't be a complete disappointment.

There also seems to be something that could be a small easter egg concerning the inevitably upcoming Spy unlockables: in the icon for Spyalectical Materialism, it seems that the Spy is holding a revolver, equipped with a suppressor.
Interesting indeed. I am kind of hoping that the Spy would get the next unlockables, and it sure seems like it would be the case. I'm still wanting to learn to play as the Spy, but find myself chickening out, because it's near impossible to stay alive as a Spy these days: everyone's so familiar with all their tactics. And it'a not the constant spychecking or babysitting Engineers or any of that: most of the Spy tactics are just common knowledge these days, and any decent player knows how Spies act or at least strive to act.
Of course most of it is indeed because I suck as Spy, not because the Spy is underpowered or anything: I see from decent to downright awesome Spies wreak havoc every time I play, but sometimes I see even them whining how it's getting harder and harder to survive because everyone knows what they're up to. I don't want the Spy to be buffed, or made easier to play for people who are trying to learn the class, because part of Spy's charm IS the tough learning curve and the fact that not everyone can be good at it from the get-go, but... something to help him a bit would be nice, from the viewpoint of someone who's not a secret agent extraordinaire.
Yeah, I should be careful with what I wish for: Spies are a total pain in my butt whenever I'm an Engineer, and if they get too much help, well... my days of laid-back Engineering are pretty much over, haha.
Just my two cents.
And as much as I want the Soldier, Demoman or Engineer unlockables, I think Spy needs them much more than anyone else.

I kinda wish my little brother would buy his own copy of Team Fortress 2 (or at least take part in the next free weekend), because that would be a great incentive for me to pick up Spy. Because I know how he plays, and that's how I could own his ass, and drive him into paranoia (and teach him a thing or two about Spies: he practically never checks his back). Heh.

In other news, I'm finally getting back to somewhat regular gaming schedule, it's just that I'm playing on my own computer now, and thus suffering the crappy fps. Which is the main reason for NOT playing as Heavy: I simply can't. Sure, I can shoot at people and score some hits and kills, but what bothers me is that the game gets a fucking seizure every time I try to turn around very fast, which means that anyone attempting to circle-strafe me kills me, no exceptions.
The difficulty of fast 180 degree or even 90 degree turns is the worst thing that bothers me about the low fps, no matter what class I'm playing as. It's just that I don't necessarily have to turn so fast as any other class but as the Heavy. Sure I like to check my back for Spies after every wrench hit while I'm upgrading or repairing my sentry, but I can live without it, and I'm a twitchy Medic, checking around me all the time, but at least I don't necessarily have to do anything else (like shoot) while I do that, so it makes it a bit easier. And as a Soldier circle-strafers are not as big an issue as they are with Heavy, for some reason, so I can still make it as a Soldier, somewhat.
But once I got used to the crappy fps and the game getting seizures in bigger firefights once again... it's not that bad. It's a serious handicap, sure, and I'm not doing nearly as well as I was with the good framerate. Right now I'm once again one of those Soldiers who can only kill stuff with crockets, haha.
But at least I can still rocket jump, which I've started to abuse hardcore. Killed five attacking people on Gravel Pit's cap B one night just by firing at them from the roof (I love it how people just don't look up), and I'm starting to like Badlands again, because the spire cap point is awesome as hell to jump to and kill everyone - whether they were trying to attack or defend - on it before even landing. Same with Gravel Pit's cap C (except a server regular scored the most awesome kill ever against me a few nights ago: gibbed me while I was flying. That was so bleeding awesome I didn't even feel bad for dying. I don't think I've ever congratulated anyone on killing me before - not that it's hard, or anything - but he completely deserved that. And it wasn't a fluke, he just said he wasn't sure if it would hit. I wish I could've seen myself, it must've been so awesome). And Granary's middle point.
Also, constant rocketjumping gets me killed so much it's not even funny. My kills/deaths ratio has been horrible lately. Medics still hate me (I know I'm not worthy of your constant attention but HEAL PLZ you insufferable amateurs! And dammit if having a Medic doesn't make a difference: thanks Sonneteer. Sonny? Ha, I like that, can I call you Sonny?), so I'm running around with less than 100 HP almost all the time. Especially since I do jumps that I wouldn't necessarily have to do, but dammit I like to take shortcuts and sneak up on enemies from where they don't expect me to appear. Yeah, I know, it's supposed to be the tradeoff, but that's why the "MEEEDIIIIIC!"
And at least the low fps doesn't really affect my Demoman antics, although naturally it's harder to get straight hits with bombs (getting better at that all the time!).
Being a Pyro is also much like it was before, except that I can't really do circle-strafing, but I don't even do that very much since I'm trying to get behind enemies' backs anyhow, at which point top-notch circle-strafing doesn't really matter. I hadn't played as Pyro in forever, not since I got the Backburner and decided that it's overpowered (and that was before the nerfing), but now I'm finding the fun in it again. And I should really learn to use the airburst. I always, always forget to use it, and only remember it when it's too late, ie. after I've stepped on stickies, or got hit by a crit rocket or mowed down by an approaching über Heavy-Medic combo.

And I'm probably getting the new computer next month, so that will hopefully spell goodbye for the low fps altogether, and I can go back to not sucking this bad.

But, yeah, you can kinda expect me to blog about the Heavy update until next Tuesday. And after that you can expect to hear about the new Payload map and CP STEEL <3 and the new game mode and maybe some Heavy stuff as well.

Heavy update is a-coming!

I'm late again!

Also: EXCITED AS HELL I CAN'T WAIT CP STEEL FUCK YES.