Team Fortress 2 Preview

Last, but not least, is the Medic, whose main purpose is replenishing the health of his companions with a unique healing device. The developers incorporated a nifty little element that allows the Medic to remain "tethered" to another character, building up a healing charge. When the charge is full, both the medic and the "tethered" player become invulnerable for 10 seconds. This clearly offers you a tremendous advantage if you need to break through strong defenses.

Where is everyone?

The damn machine ate my coin! Cough it up, ya bastard!

In terms of overall gameplay and design, Valve is looking to refresh the multiplayer scene. They decided to improve upon certain standards and do away with some issues that were noticed even in the ever-popular Counter-Strike. For instance, many gamers complained how most maps in multiplayer games feel repetitive. With Team Fortress 2 things are a bit different. On maps like, Hydro, the game showcases a mode featuring a string of randomly selected control points. As the match begins, each team gets their own base. There are four control points between the bases and the game randomly chooses two of these points to be in contention, while barricading other parts of the stage to maintain the flow of battle. The map will restart as soon as a team captures a control point and the game selects two new control points. The ultimate goal here is to capture the main enemy base, but in order to do so, your team must control all four points on the map. The sudden death mode was also put in. It starts once the match time comes to an end. At this point, players can no longer respawn, which represents another one of Valve's efforts to make the gameplay more dynamic.

Normally, there will be additional modes on offer. We've learned about capture-the-documents, where your team has to reclaim three suitcases from the enemy's base. Of course, this is easier said than done, since you have to protect your own base at the same time.

Incidentally, when it comes to maps, modes and such, Valve clarified that there won't be any difference between the PC, PS3 and 360 versions of the game. The only dissimilarity is that the PC edition supports up to 24 players on a server, while the console versions support 16 players per server. They also specified there won't be any cross-platform support.

Apart from all of the aforementioned features, the development team is really paying attention to every detail to keep players motivated as they play. The comprehensive statistics system is used to indicate your performance on the battlefield. You also get a chance to snapshot moments from within the game. There's also the thoroughly entertaining nemesis feature. This basically means that if an opponent kills you five times, without you retaliating, he will be marked with two fists over his head as your arch-nemesis. Should you manage to take this particular player out later on, you'll receive extra points.

All in all, the Orange Box will definitely be regarded as one of the best moves on Valve's part. If you pre-purchase the bundle, you pay 45 bucks (55 for the 360 or PS3 version) and you get the long-awaited Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2; plus, the package includes the original Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One. Also, recently Valve revealed that those who pre-order the Orange Box will get a chance to participate in the TF 2 beta next week.

The Orange Box will be available come October 10, 2007, for the PC and Xbox 360, while PS3 users must wait until November 13, 2007.