So yeah, I did get banned from Xbox Live, screw that. Thing is, I was playing both Call of Duty 4 and Team Fortress 2 on both PC/Xbox 360. I enjoyed CoD4 a bit more on the 360, as it ran pretty well and nothing beats sitting down in front of my HDTV on the couch. Then again, Team Fortress 2 runs like butt on the 360, but does a great job maxed out on my laptop.

Ok, screw the platform debate, it’s Call of Duty 4 vs Team Fortress 2. I have already reviewed CoD4, so let’s start with TF2.

Team Fortress 2 is part of The Orange Box and is a multiplayer-only game. It’s the sequel to the legendary Half-Life 1 mod Team Fortress — that for the first time ever introduced action-shooting-roleplaying-gameplay. In Team Fortress 2 there are 9 classes in total. And the thing is that you’ll usually start off with one class, eventually grow tired of it and move on to the next one. Each class has it’s own vital role in the battlefield, so switching classes is like switching games altogether.

Let’s start off with the way I started playing it.

My initial class was The Spy. It’s the class that can disguise himself as the enemy. Once disguised, you can backstab people, killing them with a single strike. But this makes you lose your cover. When exposed, you can cloak yourself for a limited time and head for cover. Also, you have a Zapper that destroys enemy structures (built my Engineers). With the latest patches though, you can almost walk through friendly units (not bump in them), but you bump into enemy units. This is the typical way to find out who is a spy on your team.

Then I grew tired of Spying, and I went for the Engineer. The engineer can build 4 structures: a dispenser, a sentry, an exit and an entrance portals. First you have to build a dispenser that gives you Metal — the currency you spend on upgrading and building structures. It also heals nearby units and yourself. Then you build a sentry — and you can upgrade it 2 times. Once fully upgraded, it instantly kills pretty much anything. When you have a dispenser nearby and an upgraded sentry, you’re all set to take on anything. The main thing is to position yourself in a good way — so that the Demomen wouldn’t be able to get you. Also, entrance and exit portals are exactly what they sound like and are crucial to the success of your team.

My third class is The Pyro. He’s really simple — has an axe, a shotgun and a flamethrower and burns everything in sight. Although he doesn’t get burned himself. He’s great in close quarters combat, as he can burn everyone, and the enemies usually panic trying to kill him instead of immediately searching for first aid kits.

Afterwards I went for The Scout. He has a bat, a pistol and a shotgun. And runs REALLY FAST. He also can double-jump. He’s the class that will avoid damage and carry the flag. Although you need very stable framerate to play him properly.

Then comes The Demoman. He has 3 weapons - a bottle of Irish Whiskey, a grenade launcher and a sticky bomb launcher. The grenade launcher is awesome, and kills almost everything from first hit. You can also use this very well against Engineer structures. Or use a “mortar” style attack from above. The Sticky Bombs are great for guarding control points and setting up traps.

These are my favorable classes, I didn’t really feel the need to try out others at the moment.

There’s The Soldier, he carries a bazooka and can launch himself in the air with it.

The Medic heals everyone, and when he’s healed enough people, he can turn himself and the person he’s healing invulnerable for a limited time.

The Heavy carries a minigun (and is in love with it), he can take on lots of damage and is best used with a medic.

The Sniper is, well, a sniper. His worst enemy is the Spy that easily backstabs him while he’s zoomed in.

That’s about it, it plays out on Conquest-style or Capture The Flag-style maps. Each map has several “locations”, meaning that in a single game you’ll feel that the map has totally changed, while it didn’t. You can literally play thousands of hours and never have the same layout of the match.

On top of that, the animation is just awesome. Valve took a huge risk putting cell shaded animation with the ’60s cartoon style into Team Fortress 2. And I personally think that it’s awesome. It gives a certain style to the game that can’t really be described.

So that’s for TF2.

About Call of Duty 4.

There are dozens of game modes, and while playing you get this really good feeling, similar to when you play Paintball in real life - a sense of urgency and panic. There are also dozens of customizable classes, but nothing as significant as TF2.

Personally, I’d have to go with Team Fortress 2, as it’s just lighter, more colorful and just a lot of fun. Not to say that CoD4 isn’t fun, it just gets boring a bit faster than TF2.

Hooray for TF2!