Telefragging!

Well, I've been playing Team Fortress 2 for a year now, and as if to commemorate the occasion, something that's never happened to me before, happened today:



Yeah, a telefrag. I dunno if the poor enemy Engie was trying to melee it or something, all I know is that I killed him with my teleporter.
I've always wanted to do that.

And I'm seriously starting to love playing as the Scout. I've enjoyed playing on Turbine (which I previously regarded as completely shitty map), harassing enemies by being all over the place and snagging the intel while everyone was too busy handling the übered Heavy/Medic combo storming in and drawing sentry fire.

Please, dear Valve, give L4D a rest and update TF2 for a change.

I've also played lots of custom Payload maps lately (a Finnish server I find myself playing on these days has several PL customs in rotation) and I'm completely enamoured with both Half-Acre and Mill. Mill especially is wonderful, it's pretty well balanced throughout (although the first stage's last cap can easily get locked down by Engineers, BLU has a bit of a disadvantage because it's hard to form pushes through routes other than the one following the cart tracks) and very easy to look at. I love playing as Soldier and Demo there.
Payload version of Dustbowl is also great, although Demomen can lock the entire first stage down and it usually gets pretty ridiculous with both sides just chucking grenades at each other. I don't think I've ever even played on third stage.
And then again I fucking hate Great Heights (funny that it's got pretty high scores in FPSBanana), because the design is awful. RED has ridiculous advantage through the entire map from start to finish, starting with the horrible design of BLU spawn exits right at the start of the map. And I hate it that there's no collision on the edges of the map, but that might be just me, since Slaver finds nothing wrong with it (he hates the map too, ftr).
The first time I saw second stage I found it admirable that someone had actually used some water (there's this water part in the map, you have to actually escort the cart through the water, which I think is a pretty interesting idea in theory) and was then horribly disappointed because it doesn't work in practice at all. It just gets ridiculously spammy since you can't see into the water OR out of the water. It's a tedious spot in which neither of the teams know what's really happening. It might work if pulled off differently, it's just ... well, personally, and from the viewpoint of someone who has actually done some map designing before, I think the design is sloppy at best. Some great ideas here and there, they just haven't been pulled off very well. I'm not saying that I can do better, we'll just have to see about that. Haha.
So I just usually disconnect when Great Heights comes along, or decide to be an annoying nade-spamming Demo.
I also kinda like CP Freight. It's not that great, it's just ... well, it's like Fastlane. I don't know what makes it so fun to play, I just like playing a game or two there every once in a while.

Speaking of maps, me and Slaver are probably starting to work on our own custom TF2 CP map any day now. My PC can finally run Hammer without choking and dying, so all we gotta do now is sit down and brainstorm the initial design down.

Ahhh and why do I always forget to write about the things that I should? I played the F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin demo a couple of days ago. It was pretty fun, although I found the controls a bit jarring and they still haven't gotten rid of the very basic problem that troubled the first game: it's too goddamned linear. First they spook you a little, then you shoot some bad guys, and then it's back to spooking, repeat ad nauseum. I was hoping the demo would prove that they'd gotten over that, but unfortunately it didn't really seem so.
It scared me a lot, though: the neverending ghost hallway almost gave me several heart attacks, and Slaver actually scared the crap outta me by making some noise with his door totally unexpectedly right in the middle of the intensive spooking part. Fuuuuuck I nearly died.
But I love the sound design! It really crates a creepy atmosphere and while it might seem a bit cluttered every now and then with the music and effects and your character's heartbeats or panting, it just adds to the feeling of urgency and anxiety. I think it's rather brilliant.
And the water effects look really nice!
But the goddamned mecha battle at the end of the demo? It was SO OUT THERE and unexpected I didn't know if I should laugh or facepalm or like it or hate it. It was ridiculous, yet somehow brilliant. I was just running at the bad guys, wondering whether I can STEP ON THEM and SQUASH THEM. I never found out because they died of bullets first.
I don't think I'll buy the game next month (the demo wasn't that much fun), but we'll see, since I really liked the first F.E.A.R. It was a chilling gaming experience even though it was painfully linear, and the action was lots of fun.

Well now.

Gosh, 3D modeling is one of those things I can't do for a very long time without having a breather. I'm working on a school project, I'm slowly losing my mind with wonky vertices and accidental tris (Mudbox hates tris, so I should try to get rid of them before importing my model from Max) and I'm trying to escape (or rather postpone) the necessity of working on them by blogging. Sweet, sweet procrastination... so, I need to come up with something to write about.

And I think I have just the thing...



As some of you know, I draw quite a lot. And I've drawn quite a lot of Team Fortress 2 fanart as well. You might've even seen some of my work. At least in the form of my Steam avatar ans the quickest little Engineer oekaki that I posted a few months ago.
So there, have some fanart. I think Demo's the only class I've actually never drawn before this, since most of the time I just draw Engineers and Medics and Spies, mostly because they're the easiest classes to draw.
I might post some new work here every now and then, to deviate a bit from all the babbling.

I haven't really been playing much of TF2 lately. Last time I played was Saturday night, in the early morning hours, and I was drunk off my ass after an intensive evening full of drinking, rocking and multitasking in Rock Band (it's quite fun to do two things if you know the song: Weezer's Say it Ain't So was pretty easy, even when I was singing AND playing the bass at the same time). It would seem that I'm starting to abuse the hell out of fake clan tags, after changing my name to [RAGE]Chrome after raging at something during a Ravine match. I can't even remember what was it that ticked me off, ahaha.
But RAGE is gotta be the best faux clan name ever. I might even start wearing it, except then people would assume that I am in some kind of cool-sounding clan.

And Caramelldansen is indeed the best background music for intensive Arena matches.

Also, you need to beware: me and Slaver "cheat" hardcore in Arena matches. Whenever I have to sit out or when I die before Slaver, I just spectate him, and keep an eye on his back, telling him if there's something behind him. And vice versa. Don't be trying any backstabbing shenanigans against either of us, haha.
Neighbours probably hate us already because we play in the middle of the night, and the yelling gets quite bad sometimes (I once woke up a friend who lives just below us, and she came to tell me to STFU on our IRC channel. Too bad I can't check IRC when I have TF2 open, so I never noticed. Whoops). I talk a lot when I play, even when I'm alone, but knowing that there's someone in the next room who can hear me cursing at other players and relate, there's nothing stopping me from actually doing it to my heart's content.
And it's bleeding fantastic to relay all kinds of information to each other. The Spy's a Pyro near our spawn? I'm on it. Someone's trying to sneak up on us from behind? Consider it done. Sentry to the left? Gotta remember that. I have an übercharge, get your ass in here so we can take those sentries down! Right-o!
It's making me want to play over LAN in the same room with a small group of friends. Guys on our class have showed some interest to play TF2, so we might have to see if we can organise a LAN party in our school during the next free weekend. It would be awesome.
...actually, that's a fucking great idea.

And why is Warpath such a terrible, terrible map? I've only heard good things about it (although now that I think about it, I might've missed the sarcasm...), so I was kinda excited about getting to play on it.
And then it sucked. It was ugly, the map is maybe a bit too large for a pretty regular CP map, and the second points are practically free. I mean, yeah, the middle point seems to cause some epic battling, but once it's capped, the second point would seem to get capped without a doubt, and after that it's just a fucking grind over the last point.
I'm never gonna go back there again.

And I'm three hours shy from 100 hours as Soldier. Goddammit, when did this happen. I think I'll just play Medic for the next twenty hours, it's okay to hit 100 hours as Medic. As Soldier it's just... no.
(Also, I have no life.)

Anyway, I think I better get back to modeling now.
And I surely hope that I'm not the only person who sees everything as polygons after spending a few hours in Max. Vertices, everywhere.
Real life has a fucking ridiculous polycount.
(Takes forever to render it.)

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.

Ooh!

I have finally found a TF2 custom map that sounds so awesome that I'm dying to actually play on it. CP Steel. I saw the introduction video for it a couple of weeks ago and it picked my interest immediately, and now Chris of 1fort did a review of it and I'm going DO WANT.
Once again I might have to venture away from my safe, familiar servers, I'm really wanting to play on Steel. Or at least try it and decide if I like it or is all the hype just a load of bull.
And it might do me good either way, I'm finding myself playing on the 24/7 Gold Rush/Dustbowl server almost all the time or hopping from one server to another depending on when Hydro, Gold Rush or Dustbowl comes around.
So sick of all the other maps, you know the drill.

Don't really have anything else to post for now. A friend asked me (in a comment to one of my earlier posts) to list all the TF2 classes and their pros and cons and I'M WORKING ON IT. Haha. I tried to reply in a comment, found myself being as verbose as usual and decided to do a proper list and post it in a real entry, so I'm posting that once I'm done with it.

And I'm still pissed off about the goddamn Specialist. I've been mainly playing as Medic after last Friday, striving to actually GET IT, and while I did come pretty close to it a few times (I've been staring at my health healed points like a nutjob), I still haven't actually reached it.
Probably never will, the poor pessimistic soul that I am.
Also, I have ONCE AGAIN been on top of the scoreboard with 80-or-so points and feeling that I'm an absolutely appalling Medic. OH WOE. Can I never be good enough for me?

Dr. Feelgood + Medic = good times.

More custom map experiences, and also more gaming while drunk. It's disturbing how I'm not actually much worse player when I am drunk (when I play as my strongest classes, that is). This time I didn't even get shot to death by my own sentry!
And it's always entertaining to look at all the screenshots afterwards, and not remember doing this or that. Oh, I actually KILLED someone when I was a Scout? Oh I capped the intel twice in one life? That's kinda cool. I capped the intel when I was a Heavy, what the shit?! Goddamn I shotgunned a lot of people when I was an Engineer.
So yeah, was drunk, and actually played as classes I don't usually play as. I was Scout for a pretty long time, I think. Then I wanted to be a slow-ass fat Russian, and played some time as Heavy. Then I even went Demo, and that was a disaster because I can't play as Demo even when I'm sober. Oh dear.

Also had to go Medic at one point when Mötley Crue's Dr Feelgood came up on my playlist, and it was a bit too amusing to pass.
That was kinda horrible, though. "Oh, I have an über, didn't even notice! Let's go then, Scout!"

But yes, customs.

Played on 2fort Classic v2, and that was just horrible. I don't know if it's like the real classic version because (like I said) I haven't played TFC, but nevertheless the map was awful. I didn't do the mistake I did with Classic Badlands, though, and actually paid attention that the actual cap area was on battlements (good girl, you get a cookie for that).
Also, the map's ugly as fuck, but I suppose the map version is not final and the textures are eventually going to be replaced. The map is also confusing as hell because the textures look the same everywhere. Took me a minute to get out of my damn base, even though the map's quite similar to the 2fort I know. At least I hope the textures are going to be replaced, because it's gotta be one of the ugliest maps I've ever seen. Uglier than that horrible Ataraxia, for sure.
And what the fuck's up with not being able to get through the water without suffocating?

Another new one was 2fortified v1, which was quite a lot nicer map. It looked very nice (okay, I really like aesthetically pleasant maps, is that a crime?), but it was pretty confusing too. It's always such a blast to just suddenly bump into enemy intel while exploring places, and then have no idea how the hell to get back to your own base. But yeah, it was one of the nicer customs I've played on, would play on it again (hopefully when I'm not drunk as a duck).

I also played another game on Impact2 and apparently on Shock as well. What I remember from Impact2, is that it's much more fun when there's more people playing (no shit!) and healing Scouts while Dr Feelgood played. And getting dominated by some badass assault Medic and Jesus there's nothing I hate more than getting dominated by meléeing Medics.
And what comes to Shock... I really don't remember anything except being a Medic and staying alive for two consecutive übers. I suppose it didn't last for very long? We even had more people playing, so I should've paid some attention, but I seriously can't remember and I don't even have any screenshots of it (which means that some mod changed the map in the middle of the game, because otherwise I would've had the auto screenshot of final scoreboard).

But yeah, I guess that's it.

Oh it's April already. Goldrush month!

Anyway. Haven't been around, and my misadventures in TF2 can be easily summarised as "lots of sucking." I had a few pretty cool moments, like the epic Engineer cappan gaemz when we were playing in 2fort after a server crash and it was basically four against three, and we had three Engineers (I, and two of my friends). I got my sentry up in ramp room, and then I noticed that one of my friends had just gone and taken the intel.
I thought "I wanna do that too!" and so I started out towards the enemy base. My friend passed me by on the bridge, carrying the briefcase, all "'ello, old chap!" and I continued my perilous journey to the depths of the enemy base.
Well long story short, I also capped the intel, and we regarded it as a THING OF BEAUTY, doing two consecutive captures as Engineers. And then we got our asses properly kicked before we realised to change classes and start taking the game a bit more seriously. It was fun, though, as long as it lasted.

Finally got SOME reason to write, because today I played on some custom maps. I've been sticking to official Valve maps all this time (I have my misgivings about custom maps: no matter what people say, I will think that they suck, without exception), I think CP_Labor is the only custom map I've ever played (and I hate it, stupid linear map). But I've been getting SO tired of both Wells and 2fort, and I honestly would rather play any shitty custom map than the billionth round in Well or 2fort. I'd even play duel_duel2.

So the first map I played on, was called CTF_Impact2. Seemed like a pretty basic CTF map, and I generally dislike CTF. Well, okay, I don't dislike CTF, I just prefer control point maps over it. Or maybe it's because there's only two official CTF maps and I hate them both? Anyway.
Couldn't really experience the map to the fullest, because we were basically playing two on two at that point, and I just concentrated on being a serious thorn in one poor Engineer's flesh, and dominating another equally as poor Soldier.

The second was called Shock, and it was a control point map with two capture points. The second one's locked until the first one's capped, you know the drill. I actually quite liked it, but I'd like to play it with more people. We were going three on three, which was kinda amusing, since the first point is so close to attacking team's respawn, and the second point is VERY close to the defending team's respawn. So the match consisted mostly of lots of standing around doing nothing. :D
I was playing Soldier, because it's the one class I don't have to know the terrain as well as with some other classes (the thing I hate about new maps is that I'm SO LOST at first), and it's kinda pointless being a Medic when you have only two team mates and one of them is an Engineer stuck in defending the last point, so. Apart from the Engineer we had a Heavy.
And the enemies had gone with a Demo-Engineer-Spy line-up, and I had my friend (the Demo) cursing at me through Steam's chat that WE'RE ATTACKING THREE ON THREE AND WTF WE HAVE AN ENGINEER AND A SPY, and I was like yeah, especially the Spy's kinda cute. How the hell did he think he will get away with ANY disguise when we have three people in a team? Oh lawdy. He did backstab me once (and I saw him get the Heavy a couple of times, just before I gibbed him), but I don't have eyes in the back of my head, so.
But yeah, a huge CP map is huge, and three on three got pretty boring after a while, so me and my friend decided to go MELEE ONLY. Too bad our team mates didn't appreciate, and I had the Engineer trying to shotgun me when I ran at my Demo friend with the shovel in hand, and he nailed me with the bottle when I was down to 40 HP. And the next time my team's Heavy kept ruining our nice shovel vs. bottle deathmatch. Phooie.
Well, our teams probably hated us, because BLUs were just trying to cap the last point and would've probably appreciated the help of their very capable Demoman, and RED was trying to defend and while I'm not really good player, a trigger-happy suicidal Soldier on the point wouldn't have hurt, but instead we were just frolicking somewhere in the happy melée land.
Well, I had fun.
But yeah, I want to play on that map again, preferably with more people.

Third map was Ataraxia, another CTF map, and I hated it. With burning passion. So cramped and confusing! And it was somehow ugly. I don't want to talk about it, it was horrible. I totally loved the air vents, and managed to sneak into the enemy's intel room a few times from there, completely unnoticed (and then they started building millions of sentries in there, bastards).

The fourth was Badlands Classic b3e, which is naturally a CTF map. I've never played TFC, so I have no idea how similar it is to the old Badlands, but can I just say this? I'm SO glad the new Badlands is NOTHING like this one. D: The map is SO confusing! It looks very pretty, though. But yeah, it took me several minutes to find to the enemy base (I thought I found it a couple of times, only to realise that it was still my own damn base), and finding the intel was preeetty tricky, even with all the huge signs on the walls. I basically used just one route during the entire game, thankfully enemies never found out, I would've been pretty easy prey.
And then I managed to actually get the intel. I was running towards our base (I was a Pyro), following the "intelligence" signs and ending up where our intel is.
But it won't cap. I'm standing there like wtf why doesn't it cap, and my team's screaming at me "CAP IT! WHAT'S GOING ON, CAP IT ALREADY!" and I'm like oh god what the fuck am I broken. And then one Scout stumbles by and is like FFS CHROME FOLLOW ME, and then leads me out of the pit and back to our respawn and a goddamn different capture area. Facepalm.jpg.
HOW COULD'VE I KNOWN? D: I don't know if it went like that in TFC Badlands!
I was pretty embarrassed, but it was a winning capture, so there was no harm done.

And now I know. And knowing's half the battle.

So, it wasn't that bad a first touch at custom maps, but I'm still looking forward to playing on a TRULY good custom map. We'll see, and I'll keep you up to date.

And now one of my Steam friends is asking me to play with her, so I guess I'll jump in for a moment. I should be sleeping, but I can't say no to her.