Icrontic on Team Fortress 2

I am not a gamer. I do not game. This is my chant to ward off the time pit that is gaming, but last night it failed me. I played TF2 until 3:30am.

Starcraft, Half-Life 2 (and Episode 1), half of Doom 3, and twice through the Warcraft 3 single-player campaign summarize my gaming experiences over the last three years. Yet Team Fortress 2 has sucked me in, and all I want today is another round of online fragging.

TF2 is what would happen if Chuck Jones and Jim Henson made an FPS together. All nine characters you can choose from are hilarious caricatures with fitting taunts, and the narrative is glib. You'll have your favorite character, but you'll be easily tempted to try other roles, and switch between respawns to cover weak points in your team (like five people yelling "MEDIC!" when no one chose that role).

On offense, the Scout bounces around like a 8-year-old on Jolly Ranchers, the Solider throws rockets at everything that moves, and the Pyro... well, it's not a pretty way to go. On defense, maybe you'll want to lob grenades as the Demoman, build turrets and supply depots as the Engineer, or mow the field with a chaingun as the two-ton Heavy. Or, play a support role as a medic (heal and blast needles), sniper (duh), or spy (disguise yourself or use invisibility to knife some lemmings). There's a character for every style of play, and you'll quickly try out the field as you rotate between moods and the needs of the round.

So join Icrontic's Steam group and follow me for some fragging fun tonight. I'll be the sniper bitch up on the ledge, getting stealth-stabbed by the spy.