Kotaku
Valve had a nice little gathering of souls last night at Blondie's Bar and No Grill here in SF to show of the new Team Fortress 2 map, Goldrush. If you are reading this, you are probably a big Team Fortress 2 fan, so I'll skip explanations of the game and dive right into the details.
First of all, I loved the look of it. The name certainly describes what the map was like, looking like something out of Disney's Big Thunder Mountain railroad ride. Lots of wooden structures, water towers and mine car tracks. But the map isn't just a new area, it also features a new gameplay type called Payload. Basically how it works is this: the map has three separate areas and players are split into offensive and defensive teams. The goal of the offensive team is to push a mine cart loaded with explosives through the map, capturing the defensive team's bases as they go. The cart moves faster depending on how many people are surrounding it and leaving it unattended will cause it to start rolling back towards the beginning again. The other team of course, tries to stop the payload from reaching it's goal.
The map wasn't the only thing going however. We were also privy to the new item system that will be instituted with the next update. This also ties in with the thirty six new achievements for the Medic class. By gathering some or all of the new achievements, you can gain three new unique items. One third of the achievements will net you The Blutauger, a new syringe gun. This weapon does not give critical damage, but instead sucks health from the enemy on impact. Earn two thirds of the achievements and you will get The Critzcrieg, a new medigun that will rapid fire critical rockets. Getting all the achievements will see you receiving The Ubersaw which takes melee combat damage and converts it into Ubercharge. Four direct hits with it will charge up whatever Medigun your Medic has currently equipped.
Team Fortress fans are going to have a field day with this new map and if you want to get all those new weapons (and I know you do) take a gander at all 36 achievements after the jump!
First Do No Harm: Play a full round without killing any enemies and score the highest on a team of six or more players
Quadruple Bypass: Heal a teammate who is taking fire form four enemies at once
Group Health: Work with two other medics to deploy three simultaneous Ubercharges
Surgical Prep: Have an Ubercharge ready before the set up phase ends
Trauma Queen: Deploy three Ubercharges in less than five minutes and assist in five kills during that time
Double Blind Trial: deploy an Ubercharge within eight seconds of a nearby enemy medic deploying his
Play Doctor: In a team with no Medics, be first to switch to Medic after a teammate calls medic and heal 500 health
Triage: Deploy an Ubercharge on a teammate less than a second before they are hit by a critical explosive
Preventative Medicine: Block the enemy from capturing a control point with an Ubercharged teammate
Consultation: Assist a fellow Medic in killing five enemies in a single life
Does It Hurt When I Do This?: Kill fifty Scouts with your syringe gun
Peer Review: Kill fifty Medics with your bone saw
Big Pharma: Assist a heavy in killing thirty enemies where neither of you die
You'll Feel a Little Prick: Assist in killing four enemies with a single Ubercharge on a Scout
Autoclave: Assist in burning eight enemies with a single Ubercharge on a Pyro
Blast Assist: Assist in exploding five enemies with a single Ubercharge on a Soldier
Blunt Trauma: Assist in punching out for enemies with a single Ubercharge on a Heavy
Medical Breakthrough: Assist in destroying eight enemy Engineer buildings with a single Ubercharge on a Demoman
Midwife Crisis: Heal an Engineer as he repairs his sentry gun while it's under enemy fire
Ubi Concordia, Ibi Victoria: Assist in killing five enemies on an enemy control point in a single life
Grand Rounds: Heal two hundred teammates after they have called for Medic
Infernal Medicine: Extinguish one hundred burning teammates
Doctor Assisted Homicide: Assist in killing twenty nemeses
Placebo Effect: Kill five enemies in a single life, while having your Ubercharge ready but undeployed
Sawbones: Hit enemies with your bone saw ten times in a row without dieing or missing
Intern: Accumulate seven thousand heal points in a single life
Specialist: Accumulate ten thousand heal points in a single life
Chief of Staff: Accumulate ten million total health points
Hypocritical Oath: Kill an enemy spy that you have been healing
Medical Intervention: Save a falling teammate from dying on impact
Second Opinion: Ubercharge two teammates at once
Autopsy Report: Provide an enemy with a freeze cam shot of you taunting above their ragdoll
FYI I am a Medic: use a bone saw to kill five enemy spies who have been calling for Medic
Family Practice: Ubercharge ten of your steam community friends
House Call: Join a game that one of your friends is in and then deploy an Ubercharge on him
Bedside Manner: be healing a teammate as he achieves an achievement of his own
Comments
I think i should buy this game at lunch
oh man some of those achievements are insane! how do they expect me to "Accumulate ten thousand heal points in a single life"?
wait...what? rapid fire crit rockets?
what happened to the medigun that permabuffed health to 200% but was very slow growing ubers?
Damn that's a lot of achievements. Some seem a little too difficult, while others sound like they'll just happen on their own without trying.
@octoSink: I would advise you to look at some hunter forums. I got my orange box for 5 bucks and hellgate for 7 bucks and countless other games. Its old enough that people are selling their keys for less then 10 dollars.
Onto note, I am hoping this mode will bring it a familarity to Gold Rush in enemy territories.
Oh god... I can see it now:
Play Doctor: In a team with no Medics, be first to switch to Medic after a teammate calls medic and heal 500 health
Spy: Medic!
Team: BLEAUGH! Dead because I switched classes when I wasn't in spawn!
Engineer: A spy is sapping my sentry, teleporter, dispenser OH GOD A KNIFE IS IN MY NECK!
Intelligence: Byebye.
Team: Ok, I'm back. Who needs healing?
It will be glorious.
yes yes yes. gotta love this, any ideas when this is officially released? last i heard mid april - which is now.. can hardly wait.
this is.... ubercharged, with awesome
*smug*
I will actually want to play medic alot more now
Wow, some of these achievements look pretty hard.
also... when do we get?
@dethFLUX:
Getting ten thousand heal points in a single life isn't really that hard, if you're playing the medic conservatively and hanging back to buff / heal your whole team. it's the ones like blowing up eight structures with a demo man that'll be a challenge - though I guess you could just rush the third stage of dustbowl with an über and take out all the assorted crap engineers usually build in the first bottleneck.
Yikes! These achievements freak me out but I'll definitely be logging more hours as a Medic.
Ah but it will be a good time to be a Heavy after this patch.
WE MAKE GOOD TEAM!!
Wait, critical rockets? Since when was the medic a one-man army? >_>
Ah...ah...ah...
When is this going live?! I must have it!
Cant wait for this update.
Nobody, quote, NOBODY will ever get the uber saw. Mostly because if you do manage most of them you'll never get the friend based ones as you won't have any.
This is totally awesome. I play TF2 almost every night and already enjoy playing the medic where appropriate, so this will make it so much the better.
And I thought I loved mowing people down with the bonesaw before!
Well this is gonna invole me making a server JUST to unlock those achievments. And anyone who doesnt behave gets da BANHAMMER.
Damn.. some of those achievements are too difficult.. and a lot rely on other players :P
Most of the achievements, are beyond most players patience (at least most non-medic players). Shall be interesting to see how long it will be before the weapons appear on a regular basis.
Ugh, another set of achievements I won't ever be able to complete because I don't have 10 steam friends.
I really like the STEAM TF2 achievements, and I'm glad they're adding more... but without a point total assigned to them they're not as addictive as Xbox Achievements, IMO.
Still, TF2 is great, and the new map and Medic additions (my favorite class) will get me back in front of my PC.
a medic gun that fires crit rockets? i hope that's a typo or just explained wrong. medics are supposed to help their team, an achievement that'll encourage medics to ubercharge scouts instead of useful classes. do they even think these things through at all?
i like playing the game when the completely luck-based nature of the game happens to go my way and medic is my favourite class, i'd already have unlocked half these achievements by now if they were in the game. i also like the sound of the new map but valve are just complete idiots sometimes. a pyro can kill a medic in half a second except the times when it takes 10 of constant fire, a crit headshot kills instantly except when it doesn't, a wrench kills in one hit except when it kills in 5 etc. every valve game is the same and i don't know why they think anyone could enjoy having how well they do in the game dictated by random calculations rather than their own skill.
Wait Goldrush isn't out? I played a map with that same exact scenario last night.
What the hell some of these are insane.
Everyone is going to have a field day playing as a Medic. :D
One tactic I want to see more of is the medic rush. A team of medics clusters around the CP in a mutual healing circle - victory through non-violent resistance!
By my count at least 25 can be done with 3 players on a private server, pretty good setting up some of the more tricky ones.
@Hoboman725: That was poorly worded. What the thing really does is that it's ubercharge target won't be invulnerable, but every shot will be a critical one.
But holy crap some of those achievements sound like a bitch to get.
Medical Breakthrough would require at least 3 enemy engineers in the same spot.
Sawbones: You try meleeing 10 times in a row without missing once or getting killed
@Clarke: there's a custom map out with minecarts, I've played it to can't remember what it's called
speaking of making steam friends to earn achievements, is the kotaku group on steam actually official?
Why does Valve keep making it more and more obvious that the 360 version is garbage?
Looks like I'm finally investing in a decent build of TF2.
Why have you forsaken the console version, Valve!?? Why!!!!
@Hollowcow: Because it is an afterthought and not worth bothering with.
Any word as to when this + Badlands will be released onto the consoles? Really tired of waiting for new content... esp. since I play this game every night. :'(
Great so they're separating the community into have and have-nots based on whether or not you do nothing but play TF2.
I enjoy TF2 on an occasional basis, and looking at that list I'd get maybe two of those. Why should I get less play options just because I don't devote my life to playing the game? I paid the same amount of money for the game that everyone else did.
If they keep up with this they're basically going to create a game that's totally unapproachable for newbies and more casual players. It'll be a wasteland of obnoxious 14 years olds with all the upgrades.
@dethFLUX:
they expect you to learn how to play the medic.
i've done it numerous times. shame the achievement wasn't out there already.
I think the wording on the new Medigun is extremly poor Mr. Flynn de Marco.
"The Critzcrieg, a new medigun that will rapid fire critical rockets" does NOT explain what it does.
The difference is, that instead of your Medigun target going invulnable when you use the Übercharge, they get 100% crits as long as your charge lasts.
Please reword this for the sake of those not in the know.
WoW, they've figured out a way to add grinding for better gear... to TF2. Thanks Valve :-p
I plan on getting these the honest way, but I imagine there are going to be a lot of private servers going up in the next few weeks for clans to cheat these out.
I love playing medic, so this shouldn't be too bad...
damnit. i'm never going to get the ubersaw. screw these "friends" achievements. i'm a loner online and i like it that way.
Wow I don't think I'd be able to accomplish most of those achievements but seeing how good the new weapons are maybe making the achievements as hard as hell is a good thing. Most of the achievements seem only possible if you join a game of just friends to specifically gain these achievements.
Second Opinion: Ubercharge two teammates at once
Wait....what?
Bedside manner sounds like the hardest to get if you don't hop aboard early...
Regardless, I really look forward to this. :)
@Blebleman:
Yeah, the Invulnability lingers for a moment when you switch target, you so can have 2 people invulnable at the same time.
Its hard to keep it up though.
@Stevedroid:
I think what will be more likely to happen:
Medic 1: Haha! SOlider lets go with all Crit Rockets!
Solider1: Yeah!!!
New Medic (Other Team): Umm...I have an uber ready...
Heavy: Uber Me!
Uber Heavy vs. Critting Solider
Winner: Uber Heavy
Assuming Both Solider and Heavy are being played by good players.
About time they give the medic some love. I wonder how this is going to change the game though. Will we see more spam soldiers around? I'm for sure going to pick up the medic class and play around with this all when it releases.
@Hoboman725: Quarry?
Getting all those Achievments will be hard thus the reward for the crit rocket rapid fire medigun seems like a just reward for awesome medics. side note: uber bone saw = hell yes.
Cant wait to see the engineer and spy gear.
Gonna love playing this on release day, entire games full of medics :\
Dear Valve,
Please have my love child.
XOXO,
Taggart6
I'm curious as to whether those precise stats are being calculated right now...
Maybe some of us will have some achievements unlocked when they come out.
@Pezdispenser: just play dustbowl-only servers and make sure you're healing someone when/if your team defends the map without losing a point. it doesn't happen that often but when it does you always see a list of about 5 people come up on the HUD who've just earned that achievement so if you're healing someone, the odds are you'll unlock that one. that's really the only way you can predict when someone's going to get an achievement because so many people still don't have that one and you know exactly when it'll get unlocked.
Some of these achievements are going to be hard for me to get ;_;
sigh... I don't like being a medic...
First time I notice the Medic looks like Egon from Ghostbusters
since you gotta get the weapons via achievements, how's it gonna work on the ps3?