4 days into my new column, and already I'm behind where I want to be :/

Last week was one of those weeks where a lot happened, and a lot didn't... After a good couple of months of rumors, we finally got TF2 for the Mac. Earbuds struck a chord ala Halos, with players sporting the gear reportedly receiving a good amount of heckling. Thankfully, Mac Fans have had to put up with plenty of heckling about their lack of gaming capabilities for the last 15 years, I'm sure a little more won't dissuade them from playing the best multiplayer FPS available to them. Still, shame on the bullys... We need to welcome new players with friendliness not mockery. It was a free weekend for TF2, but player numbers jumped 10K to 30,000... Hopefully we'll be seeing these Mac players stick around.

Some of the Mac-kery was even aimed at the brand new Training mode implicating it's base training approach as a sign of Mac gamers clueless-ness. Jeez, can we please not turn into Counter-Strike players? This is a great new feature and while it may only be useful to a fraction of the TF2 population, it's the fraction that needs to be enticed to stay. PC FPSs are even more brutal to newcomers than the popular console FPSs, and the short training section will help new players settle in more easily. I for one am very excited about their inclusion and look forward to more and more training scenarios. A very simple Soldier Rocket Jumping tutorial would help round out that training significantly before moving onto other classes.

This new training mode renews another pipe dream of mine. Valve needs to implement a race to the middle training scenario, where players can practice their roll outs with a bot medic following them. Truly, a speedy roll out is one of the things that most hampers pub players entering the competitive scene. When even just one soldier is slow to mid in a TF2Lobby 6v6 match, the team is at a significant disadvantage. This probably easy to implement training device would be extremely helpful to players of all skill levels, not just introductory level players.

On top of the World Cup going on (perhaps part of the reason finding free time is a lil harder right now, I need a laptop in the living room :D ) the annual e3 video game conference just kicked off. While Valve has been playing coy, and perhaps even induced too much hysteria, with their discussion of surprises, the curtain is starting to be pulled back. Tomorrow will be the time for Valve's in depth discussion of things, but today we got a brand new Portal 2 teaser which can be viewed on our YouTube Channel. On top of that, Valve announced that Portal 2 will be coming to the PS3 with it's SteamWorks functionality. Cross-Platform gameplay is apparently not a part of that, but the SteamWorks functionality will bring the PS3 users all the constant updates that Valve is known for. While Valve has grumbled about developing for the PS3 in the past, the inclusion of SteamWorks indicates the level of Valve's frustration with Microsoft's heavily restricted X-Box Live service. Valve tried to offer Portal for download via X-Box Live Arcade but was unable to do that due to file size limits. The capability to update TF2 was also significantly hampered, with Valve really only able to patch TF2 for the X-Box twice. The inclusion of SteamWorks with Portal could be a good sign for the re-appearance of TF2 on a console, which would be great for it's overall visibility in the video game scene.  Valve's biggest news will come out tomorrow, keep your fingers crossed for anything about the Engineer.

Alright, before I end, someone asked in the comments of my last post about Broken Demos and rollback patches. Yes, unfortunately Valve's update last week broke demos again. The work-a-round to this problem is either the use of a rollback patch, which hasn't been released for any of the latest patches, or installing a no-steam version of TF2 and updating it to the patch level of the demos you want to play. Yes this is all a major pain in the ass.... It's unknown if Valve's new demo system will solve this problem which rears it's head all too often.. If the new system does not allow older demos to be played back in a newer version of TF2 (after the system is implemented, I don't have unrealistic expectations), then Valve NEEDS to figure out another solution. For the good of the competitive game, and thus the game as a whole, this issue of demos breaking cannot be allowed to continue.

As a community contributor, my level of production has gone up and down throughout my year here at Community Fortress. As with everyone in this scene, my involvement has been affected by real life distractions. Players disappear and come back as their school fluctuates or other commitments appear. Most recently a move and a return to the cooking world (gotta make that dollar) have sucked up my free time, and slowed my involvement. For a moment there, it looked like I was heading for unemployment again (my choice) and the potentials of working harder on eXtv and trying to make a living with that and other freelance work seemed very appealing. But, the situation at my work has changed favorably and I'm going to continue to cook. Working a good number of nights means my availability for the SpaceWhales, casts, and other things is a bit more limited. Good thing eXtv is post-produced and I can get plenty of work done during the day. I just need to crack the whip on myself.

Anyways, I wanted to start up doing a new series of blog posts for this site that appear more frequently, to ensure that I'm staying involved and eXpressing my opinions on this game and big events in the community. Posts will be about updates + changes, about desired updates, map rotations, news analysis, and all sorts of tangents.

Like the World Cup. Oh boy am I excited for tomorrow's match between the USA and England... Soccer is a unique sport that actually can give us quite a bit of inspiration in Team Fortress 2. The ball in Soccer is a team-wide commitment. If one player messes up their touch and gives the ball away, the team has lost everything they've been building for. The Uber in TF2 is the same way, it should be nurtured by the whole team and is really a shared responsibility between the Medic and the other players. Formation and shape is hugely important in Soccer, with players stretching out the defense or working in close with fast passes to each other. "Shape" is an important concept in TF2 as well that's not as present in casual games as it should be. How are the Medic, Sollys, and Demo working together? Are the scouts properly watching the flanks, or are they getting too aggressive and shut down? When a TF2 team is scattered all over the place, they are almost always ineffective. When the team moves with purpose, things happen.

Plus, who doesn't love a global throwdown? It's just great to see different playing philosophies and cultures come together in one place. Hopefully we'll see more intercontinental TF2 matches, and perhaps even down the road a NA regions cup. Man, that'd be sweet. Till next time...