Okay, you have read the news: The next class update is upon us. And once more we get a double-class update; this time updating both the soldier and the demo.
It will be interesting to see how Valve will handle these powerful, ergo difficult to keep balanced classes. More than ever it will be crucial that the new weapons will be balanced by inherent weaknesses and that the possible combination of weapons will not make those classes even more omnipotent than they already are. With the soldier I could imagine that they offer him ways to specialize more on certain tasks, since he’s pretty much a jack-of-all-trades already.
But chances are that by the time you read this Valve has already presented us with the first unlockable and we might have a clue in what direction these updates will go.
But of course this is a class update with a twist.
In fact it’s not only an update, it is a WAR; both classes competing for the option of a fourth unlockable only granted to the class which manages to kill more of its competing class during the week of the update.
Let’s hope that people don’t take this WAR too serious and start to spoil the fun. I think especially of medics who might choose only to heal one side, which would be utterly lame. If you are not playing demo or soldier please stay neutral and play as you would any other time.
Actually I should be disgusted by this. This is exactly the kind of nonsense I’m usually opposed against, distracting people from playing for the map goals, to work as a team to achieve those goals instead of engaging into silly deathmatch fights.
But for reasons I can’t quite fathom I have no problems with that in this case.
It’s probably the way Valve is presenting it, with all the effort they are going through and all the love of detail put into this update. In fact Valve has turned the updates and special events more and more into wonderful spectacles which go way beyond just adding new features to a game.
Another reason might be that the game – as much as I love it – has become a bit business as usual and this presents a welcome change of pace for a reasonable period of time, after which one returns to the “normal” game refreshed.
And while the veil has been lifted about the WAR, there is still much room for speculations about the new unlockables and – even more mysterious – the final unlockable; the great prize given to the victor of this war.
What kind of item could it be which could be given as well to the demo and the soldier. Personally I doubt it will be weapon. I also doubt it will be as skimpy as a merely decorative item. I expect something in between, more a passive weapon like the razorback or a tool/feature which can be used by both classes with equal efficiency. Ah, sweet speculations ... 
And we will see what other outrageous new stuff Valve has cooked up on their computer screens. Will we be spared new controversial items like Jarate? Will we see another disastrous gamebreaking weapon like the sandman?
Also, new maps. Personally I could pass on more Arena or KOTH maps and, dear Valve, please not another reincarnation of Sawmill. Many people would probably look forward to another good 5-CP-map, but I would also appreciate a good PLR-map or a really good CTF-maps (the ones we have are mediocre at best).
We are having an interesting week ahead of us. 
RSS 2.0