(Editors note: Yes indeedy it is my good man! I've gotten lots of requests to bring it back so people could see what kind of strange and weird mail we get, and to also answer a few questions. )

Maybe it's just me, but the QWTF/TFC debate is getting a bit ridiculous. I started on TFC, but I've also played QWTF quite a bit, so I think I know what I'm talking about. QWTF was the original: while it doesn't have the graphics and eye candy that TFC has, it does a good job of transforming Quake multiplayer from just random deathmatches where He Who Has the Biggest Gun automatically wins to a team game where *gasp!* the player has goals that he can't always accomplish alone! However, QWTF also has the disadvantage of not being quite so accessible for new players. If I hadn't cut my teeth on TFC, I'd have thought "Bind a key to +det5? what the hell?" That's TFC's biggest advantage over QWTF: it's easy to use for beginners, while retaining most of the flexibility of QWTF, so there's always something new to try. Meanwhile, TFC's other advantages include better graphics, continued support from Valve (The TF team seems to have abandoned QWTF since they began working on TF2). Also, people are beginning to carve the tombstone for QWTF, but those same people dislike TFC because it attracts newbies. These people don't seem to realize that everyone (yes, even them) was a newbie at one point. I , you, and they all had a time when we weren't absolutely certain of the difference between a Demoman and a Soldier (ok, maybe not that particular fact, but something of that nature). As to the argument that TFC sucks because it plays a bit slower than QWTF, these people obviously have never played a decent sized game of TFC on a LAN. With all the people in one place, games can get extremely intense, just as fast and furious as any game of QWTF. I have yet to hear a decent argument for why TFC sucks. In fact, if anyone can give me a good reason why they think that TFC is so bad, I'd welcome them. In fact, if anyone would like to give me a reason, please e-mail me and we'll discuss it.

(Editors note: Lets not kid ourselves, the Half-Life netcode in general is the weakest link in Half-Life. This is getting addressed in a soon to come patch. For the rest of your speech, you have a very good point; there are lamers in every game, and people just have to realize that. It's the server admins job to find people to police their servers, not Valve. People like the true Classic TeamFortress (TF1) and that's cool by me, I enjoy it on the lan quite often. I personally like TFC, it is still being developed and TFC will only get better. )

It seems to me that while Planetfortress is basically American, however it enjoys the visitation of many nationalities (British, Australian, Canadian, the list probably goes on). Yet much of the news you post is American based, and caters mostly for Americans. When I say this i'm reffering to things such as playtests, new sites, and such (yes I am aware that you get sent news by some sites, but in my opinion no American is hooked into the respective 'scenes'). So, a suggestion. Why not have sa 'corespondents', who are responsible for keeping tabs on the communities in other countries, reporting new sites, tournaments and the like.

(Editors note: An interesting perspective on things. I agree that we are most definitely American based, and our postings reflect that. A vast majority of our readers are American, and we receive mostly American news. Though, we don't get a whole lot of news from other places: and when we do, it is always posted, unless it's something worthless as we do occasionally get pointless things from all sorts of people. Corespondents are not a bad idea at all, assuming they can keep respective tabs on what is going on. )

OK, first off, I would like to congradulate the teams of Sierra and Valve on a great game and sequel. Now that that's done, I'd like to share an idea with you. It could be very successful if taken seriously. It's name is TFM. It's TF(C or 2), but with a twist. It's set in mediviel times. Team Fortress Medival would be a first of a kind, no-one has a really good multi-player medivial game. There could be many classes, soldiers, two-handed swordsmen (HWGuys), Archers-Bowmen and Crossbowers, pikemen, berserks, clerics, assassins, cavalry and even magi or paladins. The game is fit perfectly for your team. Each class would have weaknesses and strengths (duh) and there could be opposing castles which wanted to destroy rival factions. This could be complemented by Siege Weapons (engi) like the trebuchet and ballista. There could also be sides of good or evil. Evil would control Necromancers, who, given enough time, could repair or raise a harmed or dead warrior. Imagine the scene as an army of undead stalk clumsily out of the mists.

(Editors note: Well, we are just a fan site of TeamFortress; but oddly enough I do remember a conversion for HexenII that set Team Fortress in a mediviel setting. I've not played it; but they have sent in news about releases a few times. That may be worth checking out. Also, you could always take a shot at making a mod for TF2 (mediviel style) when it comes out. )

System Requirements. by Barkingdog 66

I really want to say that TF2 is a great looking to be a great game but I would like to know what the systemrequirements are. For example would a Pentium 200 with 3d card and 64 mb be capable of playing TF2?

(Editors note: Valve is going with some pretty cool technology in TF2 that will use any and all processor speed you can offer. But you'll be able to custimize what you get so it runs the smoothest on your machine. -- There are no set requirements but I would guess your system would be near the minimum req. )

Patch Problems? by Vinnie da Worm

Have you guys had any experience with lag and increased latency with the new patch from Valve?

(Editors note: There was no change to the netcode in the latest patch, so you won't be getting worse lag because of it. )

Gameplay Question by Mohamed

Will Team fortress 2 be a multiplayer ONLY game , or will it include some kind of single player action?

(Editors note: In TF2, you'll be able to play like your online against a team of bots (and have bots on your team) very similar to Quake3 and UT, though the bots will be very teamplay smart. )

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