All Aboard! - One of the achievements in the upcoming Train Achievement Pack for Team Fortress 2!

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Well, it's been a week since the big Team Fortress 2 update, and It's been an interesting week to say the least. Since everybody else is enamoured with GTA IV, I've taken it upon myself to give some impressions on the content.

First off, a new map type (payload) was officially introduced, as well as a new map to make use of it (Goldrush). The payload map type is actually old news as the TF2 community actually managed to beat Valve to the punch. The Goldrush map is really a more polished version of those efforts. The big difference is that the cart the attacking team is escorting is pretty much a mobile dispenser, doling out small bits of health and ammo to any players escorting it, as well as providing a little cover for one or two players. Also, if the attacking team leaves the cart alone long enough it will slowly roll back, away from the goal.

Since its release, Goldrush has possibly even surpassed Dustbowl as the most popular TF2 map. With good reason too, as it's a very good map. The moving focus point means defense needs to constantly adjust to the changing situation, instead of just falling back to the next point. To counter this, the offense is encouraged to stick close to the cart making them easier targets for snipers, soldiers, pyros and demomen. Spies are particularly useful if they can get behind the attacking group, easily bringing the cart to a screeching halt with a few backstabs. The map sometimes feels too tight at times, but for the most part flows quite well and presents alternate routes with few chokepoints. Having the payload explode and kill everyone nearby at the end is also a nice touch.

Aside from Goldrush, the rest of the update included the much talked about new weapons for the Medic, as well as the new achievements needed to unlock them. There has been a lot of concern about the balance of the new weapons, specifically the Critzcrieg and the Ubersaw, that they will break what is currently an extremely unbalanced game. So far however, I'd have to say that the new weapons keep the balance TF2 is known for. The Critzcrieg gives a big boost to attack power (100%) criticals, but leaves the attacker (and especially the Medic) even more painfully vulnerable than normal. I have yet to see the Ubersaw have much of an effect on the number of ubers, as Medics that run in saw in hand typically don't survive long enough to fall back and resume healing the rest of their team.

Now to talk about the achievements... This is the point where the gushing ends, as overall I'm pretty disappointed with the way the achievements were implemented.

There are a total of 39 new achievements for the Medic. Well... 36 really, as the other three each represent unlocking a new weapon and correspond to getting either 12, 24, or all 36 of the other achievements.

Yep, to get the new toys you need to get all 36 different achievements... Don't have to think to hard to see where this is going...

ACHIEVEMENT WHORING!!!

You really didn't have to play very much over the last week to see servers filled with Medics all trying to grind the achievements and get the new weapons with no regard to actually playing as a team and trying to complete the objective. It doesn't matter if they never play Medic, everyone it seems wants those achievements and weapons. Heck, there are maps and 24/7 servers whose sole purpose is for easily getting the achievements. In a way I'm actually thankful for these, as they help people get those out of the way and get on with being a productive player.

That's the thing though... everyone is just trying to get them over with. For the most part they aren't this cool thing you've earned through awesome play, but something you've spent an evening grinding away at. Heck, even I've given up and cheaply gotten a good third of them because even though I'm a very good Medic and play that more than any other class I didn't want to be the only one around without the new weapons because everyone else just whored them out. While I like the idea of having to earn the new weapons, having to get all 36 achievements to get them seems excessive. Maybe get the weapons after 4, 8, and 12 achievements so that those who just want the weapons can get them quickly with some of the easier achievements.

To make things even worse are what you need to do to get some of the achievements. Originally TF2 came with 17 achievements, and while a lot of them didn't have to be honestly earned, every single one of them still encouraged the player to try the different classes and maps, and to actually become proficient at them. Some of the Medic achievements seem to actually encourage being completely useless to your team. Why the hell would I want the Heavy I just ubered to punch people? Why would I try to kill 5 enemies and risk losing the ubercharge I've built up? Why would I go chasing Scouts around with either of my Syringe guns? Why would I waste time taunting over an enemy's body when I should be healing my teammates? Is yelling at Medic teammates to time their ubercharge with mine actually going to help anything?

I hope Valve has been paying attention to what's been happening and have been taking notes for the remaining class updates. While having the class updates in the same fashion wouldn't ruin the game for me, it would make me want to stay away from it for that week while the asshats get it out of their system.

So there you have it. Overall full of win, but the way the achievements were handled is just another classic example of an online scoreboard done wrong. (*cough*Destructoidleaderboard*cough*)