The update also brings us three new community maps-Sunshine, Metalworks, and Swiftwater. There's also four new taunts-three community taunts for Pyro, Spy, and Soldier, and an official taunt for the Scout. There's a lot of general changes-improved UI, replaced sounds, and bug fixes. These can all be found on the Team Fortress 2 website.
Competitive Mode requires a premium TF2 Account. So you'll have to buy at least one item to become a premium member. You can even buy a 99 cent item and you'll be eligible. There's 18 ranks ranging from 'Fresh Meat' to 'death Merchant', and post-match medals.
Now for my personal thoughts on the matter. I feel like Valve made this update because Overwatch is the new hit team-based objective shooter and they feel the need to compete with them. That's a healthy attitude for big gaming companies to be fighting for our attention and wanting us to play their games. However, I feel like this update is too little, too late. TF2 is ten years old at this point and they should've done this update a long time ago. Why did they wait so long? Releasing the update right when Overwatch is still in the eye of the gaming zeigeist seems like a cry for help. However, that being said I do believe TF2 is the better game.
But just because TF2's better than Overwatch doesn't mean that Valve does a better job keeping the game relevant, new, or exciting. Overwatch released its own Competitive Mode and they're already talking about releasing a new hero-Ana. I feel like Blizzard's dev team for Overwatch is doing more exciting things than Valve is.
The interesting thing about all of this for me is that TF2 is what got me into competitive first person shooters. Before Overwatch was released it was in beta and I never got an invite from Blizzard. My friend is a huge TF2 veteran with some 7,000 total hours played. He showed me the game and I decided to start playing it. I loved the cartoon graphics and the comical death animations. I was hooked. I played TF2 a lot before Overwatch was released. I still do. My exceptional Mercy skills in Overwatch are due to my Medic skills from TF2. When playing Medic and Mercy you have to know the ins and outs of combat positioning. It isn't easy at first and not everyone can master it. But that's the fun of it for me. I also sometimes like to play Soldier, Sniper, and Spy but Medic is my main role. I have tons of fun playing Sniper using the bow and arrow, aka the Huntsman.
I got around to playing the new update today and I gotta say that TF2 is still great. However, I don't think this update is revolutionary for the game and I don't think it will bring in new players. I do think the Competitive Mode is a great idea though. I feel like Valve did the Competitive thing because of the success of competitive modes from CS: GO and Overwatch.
My favorite change is that the medic can now move as fast as the characters he's healing. So I can now move as fast as the Scout when I'm healing him. Pretty sick. I like to play a fairly offensive Medic so this is a change that buffs the heck outta the Medic.
Lastly, the update is awesome. If you play TF2 I'm sure you've already been playing the new Competitive Mode. If you want to try out a great f2p (free to play) team-based objective shooter that predates Overwatch then this is the game for you. This game was doing what Overwatch does back in the day when I was still a teeny bopper. Now, if you excuse me I have a team to heal.
"Medic!"-My teammates
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