Same old story, again and again and again

Okay.
I'm getting a new computer.

Played two nights on my little brother's brand new computer (turns out he was pulling my leg: Crysis didn't run on the highest graphics settings possible. It was only on high. Same difference, if you ask me), and my framerate was over 60 nearly all the time, even in crazy-ass firefights it mostly stayed on green. I wasn't running the game on highest graphics settings, but it was still looking so much better than on my computer. I'll post a screenshot in a minute, so you can see for yourselves.
Anyway, naturally I felt the difference. And indeed I was doing better: I owned everyone even as much as trying to circlestrafe when I played as Heavy, aiming wasn't a complete pain in the ass when I was a Soldier and botching rocketjumps was history, circlestrafing was easier as a Pyro, and as a Medic I was able to switch between targets so fast I was almost surprised (do I even need to say that I got Second Opinion immediately when I tried it?), and keeping an eye on my surroundings was so much easier.
All of these are naturally worth a good old "WELL, DUH."



I was keeping that team together, for real. We didn't need another Medic. Look at that amount of healing, fifty-freaking-thousand, just what the hell. There were times I was keeping two Demomen, three Soldiers and one Heavy going, and healing all the Snipers and Scouts whenever they fell back screaming for Medic. I was having a ball, for real. And seven kills? As a Medic? Pretty hardcore for me.
I also had another epic long match in Gold Rush, when I was most of the time playing as Heavy. Result? 177 points. Insanity.

I honestly want to cry thinking about going back to playing the game on my own computer and its shitty framerate and ugly graphics... this is serious business. So I might buy myself a new computer, come autumn. Until then I'm still forced to play with the crazy handicap of 20 fps. I mean, I've been doing pretty well until now, surely I can continue playing like I always have. It's just... now I know what it feels like to have it better. And it's sweet.

Anyway, since I've been playing a lot as Medic, I finally have something to report about the status of my Medic achievements.
Mostly, RAGE.
If you've been reading this blog, you probably remember how Head of the Class was a serious thorn in my side, the progress count going back to zero or not including classes even though I played full rounds as them.
Now I'm having the same thing. All the Medic achievements that had any progress went back to zero. Family Practice, Peer Review, Doctor Assisted Homicide... all of them. Back to square one with each and every one of them. Thank GOD I hadn't been killing Scouts or Medics religiously, I would've gone postal. It should be easy as hell to start again on Family Practice (especially since I made a new friend last night), but I was already 13/20 through Doctor Assisted Homicide and I'm kinda pissed off about that.
I was thinking that it must be because I switched computers, but WHAT THE FUCK, STEAM. Also, I've been trying to read Steam's forums but I haven't yet seen anyone having the same problem.
Shit sucks.

But in the end losing some of my achievement progress isn't that big of a deal: after all I got two new achievements. I already told you I got Second Opinion: Dustbowl stage one, first point, juggled the charge between a Soldier and a Heavy, mainly because I was being attacked from both sides and they were there.
And tonight I got one of the achievements I was not trying to get, at all. One of the ones I thought would be impossible to get in normal gameplay or without acting like a complete idiot. Dare to wager a guess?



I admit we were kinda being total dicks there, but hey, no harm done! Actually the scoreboard screenshot earlier is from this very game, now that I think about it, and this was the last round, we were defending on Gold Rush's first stage. I was the only Medic, healing everyone near the last checkpoint. I got über, glued myself to this Heavy, and he started towards the building that the BLU had already invaded. Great, I thought, he's thinking the same that I am: we need to clean that building, and so we went. But he ran out of minigun ammo immediately, shooting at some Pyro in the distance, before we even got inside the building (we were still on the cart tracks, I think). And instead of turning around and going to get more ammo he drew out his fists and continued towards the building. I went AHAHA OKAY THEN and followed him.
So I was totally thinking that right, the building is swarming with BLU people, I might even get the achievement out of it, and the outlook of the match is looking good, we're probably not risking too much and hey! We might even clean up the building. Maybe they don't have any sentries up yet!
Positive thinking!
The Heavy was probably thinking the same (we didn't communicate at all: I'm still chickening out of using my mic), so we rush in, I über him and watch, nearly frozen solid, as the Heavy starts punching people. Of course there was a goddamn Soldier on his way and those bitches take million hits until they die, but somehow he really GOT the two kills and I got the achievement. Unfortunately the charge ran out immediately after the second kill, I saw that there were still people there (incidentally I didn't even see the sentry: went all OH GOD I HAD NO IDEA when I looked at the screenshots after the match. I just thought there were still too many people around), so I did what every self-respecting Medic does in a situation like that, and hightailed out of there (just jumped down over the railing).
Okay, so I totally hate leaving my healing targets to die like that (especially when the said healing target was nice enough to do something completely silly probably just for me), but since I know that I'm the only Medic in my team and BLU has control of that building (which often means that they will win), I know that if I die our chances of winning the match become slim to none. I don't do suicide attacks.
I thanked the Heavy for helping me with the achievement, of course, and I hope he doesn't hate me forever because I ditched him. I am sorry, Kyle, don't hate me! You were awesome.

I also came really close to getting Sawbones! I was defending on Dustbowl, healing people on first point when I saw a Medic/Soldier combo disappearing behind the building on the left side of the first point, apparently trying to get behind our players, or sneak to second point. And because it's easy to follow people there and shoot them in the back, and I wasn't doing anything too important, I jumped down, drew my bonesaw and followed them. I killed the wonderfully oblivious Medic (took three hits) and then proceeded to bonesawing the Soldier, and missed after my fourth hit. DAMN. So close. I've been overlooking Sawbones completely as one of the achievements I might get to get closer to the Kritzkrieg, but now that I think of it, all I need is one tunnel Heavy and it's in the bag.
I think I've given two Medics their Sawbones, because most of the time I'm truly very oblivious to what's happening behind my back when I'm Heavy.

And now I'm three achievements away from the Kritzkrieg and yay! I have no idea what those three achievements will be, what with all my progress for Family Practice and Doctor Assisted Homicide reverting back to zero, but we'll see. Sawbones, I'm thinking.
SPECIALIST, FFFFF.

And, uh, if you're looking at my stats, I'll just have to come clean and tell you that the Sniper stats are actually not mine. I don't mind, really, because I don't play as Sniper, and probably never will, but I don't want anyone thinking that I could be a good Sniper. Too bad that everyone who was playing on server tonight probably thinks that I am. Some of them probably hate me now. FFFF CHROME YOU FUCKER NEVER PLAY AS SNIPER AGAIN SERIOUSLY. The 19 Sniper points are not mine! They are my little brother's.
So, I let my brother play. He asked if he could try Sniper out, and of course I let him. He was on top of the scoreboard all the time (except on Badlands: he was confused about the layout of the map, and never really got to take part in any action. On Hydro and Gravel Pit he was owning), and probably one of THOSE Snipers (the ones I hate). He was really good, I give him that, he also outplayed enemy Snipers most of the time (and because he's a "newbie" he didn't really know any of the usual Sniper positions, so I suppose some of the more experienced Snipers didn't even see him coming when he kept sniping from pretty obscure locations). And yeah, because he has some FPS experience (like 10 years of Action Quake...), he was pretty good at shooting the goddamn rifle from the hip. Which is annoying as heck. He had some epic runs on Gravel Pit, like getting two damn kills within few seconds with the rifle while running.
And then 2fort came up. And I told him he doesn't want to be Sniper on 2fort, that he would be spending the entire match glued on battlements and shooting at enemy Snipers, battling over who has the bigger Sniper penis, and he said that screw that, he's going to be an attack Sniper, he's going to go get the intel. Well good luck with that, I told him.
He did end up in the enemy base at first, he even got to the basement, where an enemy Medic bonesawed him in the back. Then he tried sniping from the bridge and all that, and after that, about ten minutes into the game, he was on the battlements, shooting at enemy Snipers and forming a serious rivalry with them. It was pretty humorous to watch, I admit: he was fuming whenever the enemy Sniper actually managed to shoot him, and cheering intensely whenever he owned him right back. And when the enemy Sniper took longer than usual to drag his ass out of respawn, he was getting worried that maybe he switched classes or quit, he can't do that. And then he left the battlements, jumped down and headed to the enemy base, and once he had got over the bridge he glanced up at the battlements, saw the enemy Sniper, went completely ":D!" and promptly headshot him into oblivion. I figure the enemy Sniper was pretty pissed at that point, damn, at least I would be: getting headshot from the bridge would be unnervingly annoying.
Anyway, their rivalry was horribly cute.
And I was thrilled to get my brother to play TF2.
Too bad he won't probably ever actually get the game: he says he's just interested in playing the Sniper. I loved watching him play (I've never watched anyone play TF2 before!), and as you probably know, I also love talking about this game and I like it when people know what I'm talking about. So I could babble about the game and my brother could actually contribute to the conversation. And my little bro is totally cool and I love having things in common with him, this being just one of them.

Like, he just got me to play Frets on Fire, which, if you didn't know, is a freeware rhythm game for PC that pays its homage to Guitar Hero itself. Instead of a plastic guitar, you just use the keyboard. I've been watching my brother play it for a few years but I never got around to playing it myself, but as I finally got my Guitar Hero virginity taken away last week, I decided to get Frets on Fire because it's the next best thing and I don't have money to get Guitar Hero right now.
I still suck gloriously at it: I can play some songs on Easy mode (Medium in Guitar Hero), but mostly I'm just sticking with Supaeasy (Guitar Hero's Easy). FOR THE TIME BEING. I'm pretty good in rhythm games (I play StepMania/DDR/Dancing Stage/what-have-you on expert) and I play guitar irl, so it's probably only a matter of time.

What else? I still need to post the pros and cons list, but it's still not done yet. And if I post it with this monster of an entry, no one's going to read this. Haha.

This is what you should expect from now on...

I'm still chickening out of playing Heavy. I'm one class away from Head of the Class achievement, and incidentally that one class is Heavy. Everything in Heavy just puts me off, the speed most of all (I love Soldier, but I'm still sometimes getting frustrated because he's so goddamn slow), and I think even the one round as one will be embarrassing torture for me. Especially if some poor Medic decides to stick to me. Medic's my mostly played class (with 30 hours), and I know noobish Heavies can be the most tedious of them all: chewing through their ammo without hitting anyone, not realising to pick up ammo whenever possible and then having to resort to shotgun when enemies are all over us and thinking they're bulletproof when I'm healing them, thus rushing into a sentry-infested enemy base with some insane kamikaze mentality and then getting angry at me because I didn't heal them.
And I'm quite sure I'd be one of those Heavies.
But it's only a round. Hey, I only had to play as a Demoman for about six minutes before the enemy captured our intelligence four times! Maybe I'll get just as lucky with Heavy!

And yes, before you ask: I'm not a very good player. Not outright BAD, but... maybe not even average. Also depends on the class. I think I'm a fairly good Medic, an average Pyro and Engineer, and a tolerable Soldier (when I'm having a good day) and Sniper. And I'm an absolutely appalling Scout and Demo. As a Spy I'm... I just don't know.
I'd like to play as Spy more. I even said to Ville (my only irl TF2 buddy) before starting to play today that I'd try out Spy. And I went out as a Spy when CP_Well came up.
And I absolutely sucked.
So I changed back to Soldier.
Goddamn Spy is so hard to nail down! I've had some good moments as a Spy, but most of the time enemies seem to see right through me, I fail to sap any buildings, and even botch backstabs on Heavies who're standing still. I don't know how that's even possible. :D Yeah, Spy's one of the hardest classes to master and I shouldn't expect to do well as a Spy after 45 minutes of playtime, but what bothers me is that I'm SO bad that I'm contributing absolutely nothing to my team.
I think I should just stick with Spy and not give up on it after few deaths, thinking it's useless. And only if my team starts whining about my uselessness, that's when I switch back to a class I can play as.

I also don't understand why Soldier's my "it doesn't matter if I suck, this is so much fun!" class. Like I said, I'm only a tolerable Soldier, and that's when I'm having a good day (or I'm playing in Granary. Seriously, there's magic in Granary. Magic that draws all the enemies to where I'm firing my rockets. Especially when it's a crit. It makes no sense that in Granary I'm actually a pretty good Soldier, and then in every other map I just seem to suck). But I like being a Soldier so much that I don't even care. With every other class I change to some other class when I'm having a horrible "get out of respawn, run to the battle, fire a few useless rounds, die" streak.
It doesn't even matter that I can't do rocket jumps! No, really, I can't seem to time the damn jumps at all. It was the best day EVER as a Soldier when I actually managed to jump into BLU's respawn hallways in Gravel Pit cap B (on a first try no less!) and kill a Medic with a full charge before he had the time to hit it.
And I don't mind that I can't do it properly, Soldier's still fun.
And now while I'm at it, here's more examples to make it absolutely clear how bad a Soldier I am: Pyros are my worst enemies. No, seriously. Out of all nine classes Pyros rape me like no other. BAD Pyros, even! Because only the suicidal (or noobish) ones would actually run right at a Soldier from a distance rather than trying to ambush one from behind. And those kill me so properly it's INSANE! Now it's even worse because I have this fear of Pyros and if I see one coming at me I totally lose my shit. :D I try to aim rockets at their feet when they're zigzagging towards me and I never hit and I'm on fire and panicking and backing off and then I'm dead.
So I'm the Soldier who's afraid of Pyros, and can't rocket jump.
And it's still fun!

So I had some usual sucky runs as a Soldier today. It was thanks to me we won a match in CP_Well, though: the enemy had two sentries up on their second cap, and I single-handedly took those down. I died (probably batted to death from behind by some Scout), but teammates capped the cleared point, and a few seconds later the last one. Whoo!
And why is it always me who ends up capturing enemy intel when I have like 40 health left? What happened to teamwork?
And what IS it with these aggressive Snipers suddenly?! Seriously, I had a Sniper dominate me in 2fort at one point. Yeah, I know, not that unusual, I was a Soldier, sure I'm an easy slow-moving target for Snipers... except that the fucker never shot me with his rifle. He was dominating me with the kukri and SMG. That was one of the most embarrassing moments in my life as a Soldier. Luckily I eventually got revenge on him, but still. Goddamn.
And today I had another Sniper come at me with his kukri and melée me to death. WTF! Snipers should stay in kitchen? on battlements at their endless Who's Got a Bigger Sniper Penis battles with enemy Snipers!
No, to be serious, my hat goes off to those Snipers. Glad to see some Snipers doing something else than camping the battlements in 2fort.

I did some ownage as a Pyro today, thankfully (and now, no laughing at my crappy graphics):



I have no idea how that happened (did our team suck?). Insane amount of deaths, wow (and I usually get more kills than assists, that's a lot of assists for me). That's what you get for doing suicide attacks as a Pyro. But I did a really cool capture with Ville (Slaverstrike there) when he was a Medic. Yay us!
...whoa, I just had an idea. If I could talk Ville into being a Medic when I go as a Heavy... maybe it wouldn't be so horrible then. It'd be horrible for Ville, though. :D But worth the try! I can tell him he can just ignore me and change the class if I'm beyond horrible.
Anyway. Hydro is my Pyro map. I LOVE Hydro (people don't really seem to like Hydro and I can't understand why! Hydro's one of my favourite maps, I think only Dustbowl is more fun for me. And Badlands, but that's probably only because it's new) and I always go Pyro in Hydro. I love the ambush possibilities in Hydro, and all the narrow caves and hallways and everything make it perfect for some serious raping. <3 And I don't seem to be that bad a Pyro in Hydro, so at least it works for me. I don't do much capping in Hydro, since I'm a very defensive Pyro (I'm kind of lost as an offensive Pyro, I would never go as a Pyro in Dustbowl or Gravel Pit when playing in BLU).

Also had the awesomest thing happen when playing in 2fort. It's only awesome if you're in the team that does, though. Sneaky Engineers! Too bad we just won, I would've loved to camp it out there and see how desperate the enemy team would get. Tee hee.
No, really, that's really fucking annoying thing to do. But fun, nevertheless, in moderation.
I absolutely hate it when enemy builds their sentries in my team's base, whatever the map. I had one Engineer giving me grey hairs in CTF_Well at one point, fucker was trying to build sentries on our sniper deck. Gladly I ran in while he was at it and could at least inform my team before our base was swarming with enemies.
Thankfully spawn camping is seriously frowned upon and happens practically never, because that's annoying as hell.

Might play a couple of rounds more before heading to bed. Gonna have a loooong day tomorrow.