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It's safe to play Team Fortress 2 on Xbox 360 now: The Orange Box gets updated photo

Sleep is for babies, gamers play all night! That's right, we here at Destructoid believe that videogames are a valid substitute for a good night's rest. As it turns out, the wonderful people at Valve share this belief with us (or maybe just Doug Lombardi?), because we just got word that the second update for The Orange Box (Xbox 360 version) is out right now.

The patch will primarily affect Team Fortress 2, as detailed below:

  • Reduced network bandwidth usage in multiplayer.
  • Improved overall game performance.
  • Arranged search results to favor preferred host conditions.
  • Improved searching for ranked games.
  • Addressed a possible false report of too little storage space on larger hard drives.

If you talk to anyone who's played Team Fortress 2 in the last couple of weeks, you'll most likely get one of two responses. You will hear unrivaled amounts of praise for the game if the person you're speaking with is a PC gamer, but if he/she happens to have played TF2 on the 360, you are going to hear lots of shouting and words like "lag" and "unplayable" will be brought up constantly.

I can't say how much better Team Fortress 2 will perform after this update (I have The Orange Box for PC), so that's where you guys will have to come into play. Has anyone gotten a chance to try out the game with the new patch yet?

[Thanks, Doug!] 


Continue: More Xbox 360 stories





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31 comments | showing # 1 to 31

Volomon's Avatar
Volomon at 10/27/2007 02:31
God, I don't even want to know how fucked up it is on PS3.
vexed alex's Avatar
vexed alex at 10/27/2007 02:32
Well, I'll test it out tonight, then. Think of it as Destructoid investigative reporting.
bottled dark's Avatar
bottled dark at 10/27/2007 02:34
now ill go buy it.
Cutie Honey's Avatar
Cutie Honey at 10/27/2007 02:49
And there will be much rejoycing. For 360 friends.
vexed alex's Avatar
vexed alex at 10/27/2007 02:53
Not many people play TF2....There are like four listed games on player games. Sad...
vampireblood's Avatar
vampireblood at 10/27/2007 02:58
Lol love that photo!
Velt's Avatar
Velt at 10/27/2007 03:00
How many lag in "ms" is unbereable? Because i play the PC version with 200ms (crappy location in south america, long distance, bad infraestructure).

Any improvements in the 360 version?
Lanae's Avatar
Lanae at 10/27/2007 04:53
the lag was bearable for me before the patch...
blueskies's Avatar
blueskies at 10/27/2007 05:34
The lag was generally pretty bad, especially with me having had fantastic experiences with the game on Steam on my PC, and having just played me some Halo. Some games were alright, but in general it was pretty bad. Hopefully the patch will clear things up, i'll jump on tomorrow evening.
Samit Sarkar's Avatar
Samit Sarkar at 10/27/2007 07:13
Typo: it should say “The patch will primarily affect Team Fortress 2”, instead of “effect”. Here’s a note on usage from Merriam-Webster (if you find it a bit confusing, just focus on the last sentence, and that should be enough):

usage Effect and affect are often confused because of their similar spelling and pronunciation. The verb affect (usage 2) usually has to do with pretense <she affected a cheery disposition despite feeling down>. The more common affect (usage 3) denotes having an effect or influence <the weather affected everyone’s mood>. The verb effect goes beyond mere influence; it refers to actual achievement of a final result <the new administration hopes to effect a peace settlement>. The uncommon noun affect, which has a meaning relating to psychology, is also sometimes mistakenly used for the very common effect. In ordinary use, the noun you will want is effect <waiting for the new law to take effect> <the weather had an effect on everyone’s mood>.

Oh yeah, about the game: I hope there are none of these issues on the PS3 version...
Marlboro Man's Avatar
Marlboro Man at 10/27/2007 08:37
It was bullshit for me, >=( Framerates jumping down to damn near a standstill then I'd just get dc'd. I pay for the 360's online service for this shit ?! It better be fucking fixed. M$ really needs to get their heads outta their asses.
waves's Avatar
waves at 10/27/2007 08:56
I was waiting for this to be patched before buying the game, but I finally broke down yesterday and bought it. Played through portal (awesome) and it was about midnight when I was playing Half Life 2 and I got disconnected from live for this patch.

Huzzah!
mackisawesome's Avatar
mackisawesome at 10/27/2007 09:55
fail. pc version better
cjpkiller's Avatar
cjpkiller at 10/27/2007 09:58
agreed with mack
i feel bad for anyone who bought this for consoles...
kevvo's Avatar
kevvo at 10/27/2007 10:02
It isnt bad as some of you are making it out, I've played in many 8 on 8 matches over live that played smoothly, granted I could never host a game that was more than 4 on 4 before the patch, the game is still great on the consoles
Extreme_Drunk's Avatar
Extreme_Drunk at 10/27/2007 11:08
Man if I was limited to 8 on 8 for fort I'd probably be bored outta my mind
HarassmentPanda's Avatar
HarassmentPanda at 10/27/2007 11:12
I've never had too bad of a connection online, and my Internet sucks. I've had a few games I've lagged out of, but it has generally been perfectly playable.

I disagree with cjpkiller, why would you feel bad for people who bought this on a console? I've loved every minute I've spent with each game in The Orange Box. I'm not really into PC games, but I certainly don't feel bad for you because you buy them.
Jordan Grim Devore's Avatar
Jordan Grim Devore at 10/27/2007 12:04
Haha dammit all! I know the difference between affect and effect, but not at 3:30 a.m. when I'm writing posts apparently.
Velt's Avatar
Velt at 10/27/2007 12:54
So, any difference LIVE users?
GrayFox's Avatar
GrayFox at 10/27/2007 13:28
Yep, it is much better. I was actually able to have a legitimate game of TF2 without it being totally ruined by lag. Woo hoo!
GuitarAtomik's Avatar
GuitarAtomik at 10/27/2007 13:50
Thank Fucking God! Maybe now I can actually finish some matches!
TheStripe's Avatar
TheStripe at 10/27/2007 14:33
Wow, I must be stupid, because i love it on my XBox 360. It does lag, though I don't think I'd throw around the word "unplayable" unless it's also with "sporadically."

And the only part of this you can blame on microsoft is the fact that the patch took two weeks to hit because of their approval procedures. I don't like M$ anymore than the next guy, but blame for the now repaired lag issue falls squarely on Valve's shoulders.
Sheir's Avatar
Sheir at 10/27/2007 14:39
It actually lags more for me now, no joke.

I haven't lagged since I first got the game. Today I fire it up and sure enough, laggin' all over the place.

Maybe it was just the house.

I'm the man at that game anyway.
GuitarAtomik's Avatar
GuitarAtomik at 10/27/2007 14:43
It wasn't so bad until about a week ago for me. But when it hit it was COMPLETELY unplayable. It was all related to the number of players in the game though. I could tell the cut-off point seemed to be somewhere between 10 and 14 (depending on the host) since it would always start with someone joining and then always go back to normal when someone quit.

When the game works though, it's fun as hell!
A Dead Moose's Avatar
A Dead Moose at 10/27/2007 15:37
After the patch, the game became a lot more fun.

The Pyro finally became what he should be: the dominant close range class.

The demoman now only has 4 grenades in his launcher, but the fuse is quite a bit shorter.

But...
Now level 1 turrets push you back too.
Seriously, turrets ruin this game. Why promote camping? The things are rediculously fast and lethal. And very easy to build once you have a dispenser set up.
GuitarAtomik's Avatar
GuitarAtomik at 10/27/2007 15:48
@Dead Moose

that's lame. If anything, I thought the turrets needed to be nerfed a bit.
Gehof's Avatar
Gehof at 10/27/2007 17:15
Turrets are not a big deal if you know how to take care of them. Snipers and demo men are more than a match for any turret if you use them correctly. There's also the ubercharge to take into consideration. If you're any good / smart, then you've probably realized that it's your bread and butter for taking out turrets.
Twiggy's Avatar
Twiggy at 10/27/2007 17:33
TF2 is actually incredibly well balanced - I've found almost nothing to complain about. Every class has glaring weaknesses and shining, glorious specialties. And playing on steam reduces the swearing d-bag content by at least 80% compared to Live. PC FTW!
JayTapp's Avatar
JayTapp at 10/27/2007 22:52
I played maybe 1-2 hours after the patch. Same lag, same random disconnect.

Sorry but I refuse to play games under 16 people. Valve fix this or buy dedicated servers.

I have the right to whine because i pay for xbox live and i paid for this game.
Necros's Avatar
Necros at 10/28/2007 01:23
Good to know for when I eventually pick up the Orange Box. Actually buying a 360 kinda killed my wallet for a while.
Holyetheline's Avatar
Holyetheline at 10/28/2007 10:55
The new patch seems to be working great so far. I played TF2 a lot yesterday and everything was working great. There was very minimal lag and it was amazing.
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