Team Fortress 2 artwork revealed

I love the new style. I think it fits the game play, and if they animate it correctly to match the character design, it could make for one amazing gaming experience. All new FPS's are going to look "realistic", so this will be something fresh to enjoy.

Just re-iterating what everyone has said: I think the cartoony/arcade look is perfect. If I can totally gib a player with a long-hold sniper shot like I could in TFC, then I'd prefer to destroy a cartoony character than a realistic one!!

Pyro class is cool!

Devin, I think you've got the TF story a little mixed up. After the orignial TF (TF and QWTF both for Quake 1) The Team Fortress team planned on making TF2 for Quake 2. They went to id software with their plans and asked for help, but at the time id was unable or unwilling to provide what the team wanted/needed. A new upstart company called VALVe Software went to the TF team and offered their help in exchange for moving TF2 to their new Half-Life engine. (NOTE: VALVe was never TeamFortress Software, VALVe just brought the team in and bought the game, just like they did with CS) After VALVe aquired TF2 they announced the game would be ready for release just after the release of Half-Life. Before the release they announced that TF2 wasn't ready, but to tide us over until it was, they were releasing TFC as a free download. TF2 then proceeded to drop from the radar.

Now, we have new news and a screenshot and I can say I am happy with the new direction. The old TF2:BOA sounded cool, but it just wasn't TF (it was more like the Battlefield games). This new look just screams TF to me and I am excited as hell to play it.

The funny think to me is almost all of the old schoolers (and I'm talking TF/QWTF players NOT TFC players) love the new art direction, while most of the ones that hate it either have never played any variant of the Fortress games, or are people who think TFC was the first game.

Two things I've never done. 1. Played Team Fortress. 2. Posted a comment on Joystiq.

I took HL2 for a spin for about two hours to see what the fuss was about. It was brilliant but did not pull me away from FarCry. I finished the entire FarCry campaign and never played HL2 for more than those 2 hours. And you know why? Because if I’m going to be hunted down in an alternate reality, I would rather be on an island paradise that in a post apocalyptic world. After seeing this screenshot of what this game will look like I'm in. The art alone makes me want to play this game. Good decision Valve! Like me, there are tons of gamers who are tired of the same “real” graphics and depressing environments. Variety is the spice of life. From this sole screenshot I can say I will definitely buy this game if it scores 8’s or better on the reviews.

Totally agree with Pipisongo. Far Cry FTW!

Being an obsessive TFC fan, back in 2000 I was creaming my jeans when I saw the shots for the uber realistic Team Fortress 2. The descriptions of combat, the team talk, the helo insetions/evac - omfg what a game!!!

Then it got stuck in development limbo, tactical team shooters got very popular very quickly and quite frankly Valve missed the boat.

When I saw the picture yesterday, realised the TF2 I was expecting had been dumped in favour of a simple revamp of the old TFC game I was.....overjoyed. Really, to all the people whining, just go play Battlefield 2 cos thats pretty much all TF2 was ever going to be. Like Pipisongo says, thats been done to death.

If you never played TFC you are about to have your eyes opened in the best way possible. The gameplay is absolutely top notch and leans far more toward fun than realism.

Don't be fooled by the art style though, this isn't gonna be "Disney Mario Wars" believe me. Expect comedy dismemberment and exploding heads all over the place!

I don't give a stuff about HL2 Ep2 quite frankly, (HL2 was the biggest disappointment in living memory for me) but I'd pay full price for TF2.

It

Will

Rock.

im extremely excited for tf 2 this fall

look at the flame coming off the pyros flame thrower, the graphics are gonna be amazing

remember wind waker, remember xiii and all those games ?? both have recieved plenty of praise for their similar art directions

FF is gonna blow this out of the water. enjoy it kids

*Clap Clap Clap*

Valve is innovating here, and they're obviously intent on making sure that TF2 isn't going to be cookie cutter BF2 garbage. TFClassic was always ridiculous/lighthearted/fun without being too edgy in playstyle anyways, it will suit the game very well to have an art direction that goes with it.

People talked mad trash about WoW's art direction before it's release as well, but it's still dominating to this day, and the nay-sayers got pwned. By going with something more Disney like you don't have to stick to stark realism (it's been beat to death already), and you can even get away with alot more scaleability in your graphics without making it look like Pong, and retain that feel whether you're running a Radeon 9200 or a GeForce 7950.

Art > Poly Counts. Remember that, designers.

Fan-freakin-tastic

it's refreshing to see work like this.

i'd very much like to know who the concept artist was. anyone know?

Genius; this artwork is in the syle of how I remember the old days of the TF Quake mod. I have to admit that I was a little disapointed in it when it moved to HL. It was a little too realistic and it lost something essential to what made TF such an amazingly revolutionary and original game. I realize now that something was its humor and fantasy; when it was developed on HL the game became set in the context of the current era's military combat aesthetic (counterstrike is another example of what I am talking about). This aesthetic is tired, played out and more 'war simulators' are being made with the goal of not having great gameplay in mind, but to replicate actual, real world warfare as closely as possible. I am not saying that there can't be a good game made under these pretexts, I am simply suspect of their craft and motive more and more and also that (less importantly that the social implications mentioned), it's just getting old. I am glad that TF2 has made moves (as it looks from the art) back to the fantastical feel that the Quake mod invoked and am super pumped for this game and hope it's gameplay delivers as per the standards of this amazing artwork