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Team Fortress 2's Fate Unearthed In Missing Games Feature

Posted by simoniker on from the buried-in-desert-with-e.t. dept.

Thanks to IGN PC for the latest part of its feature discussing some notable PC games that were announced but, so far, never released. In particular, Valve's Team Fortress 2, as originally previewed by IGN in January 1999, is focused on, with Valve's Doug Lombardi clarifying: "Some time after we announced Team Fortress 2, which was then being created on the HL1 tech, the decision was made to move the project to the Source Engine, the same engine used for HL2. The project is still in development here at Valve and we will be announcing more info after HL2 ships." Other forgotten games include Digital Anvil's Loose Cannon ("...this hardly looks like a living project"), and Sid Meier's Dinosaurs ("...never found its niche. Extinct.")

11 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. Duke Nukem Forever by BigHungryJoe · · Score: 4, Informative

    Of course, Duke Nukem Forever was at the top of the list, but for some reason the link is to part 3 in the series.

    Part 1 is here.

    What happened to all the people that put money down on that game?

    1. Re:Duke Nukem Forever by burns210 · · Score: 3, Funny

      the recieved letters saying the game would ship 'real soon now'.

  2. The problem with holding off on releaseses.. by Inoshiro · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is that, for example, they could've released TF2 back in 1999 based on the HL1 engine, enjoyed decent success, and made Team Fortress that much more fresh in people's minds. Then they could've started updating it as Team Fortress 3 on the HL2 engine as they're doing now with 2.

    Whenever a company decides to miss a ship window like that, they're deciding against income and market share. I don't think it was a wise business decision, because it could've easily been another one of those Half-Life 1-based items that generated attention and income for the team while working on Half-Life 2. All they have to show for their work is vapour and promises, not products.

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  3. Missed the boat? by spineboy · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I remember when TeamFortress was THE GAME!. It was the first on-line team style game. Now of course there are many games- namely Counter-Strike, Americas Army, to name some of the bigger ones. They are essentially what TF2 was supposed to be.

    I hope that Valve remembers WHY everyone played TF - they played it 'cause it was fun. Not because of the ultra-uber graphics, realistic looking maps/scenarios or other features.

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  4. TF was a Quake Mod by Bulln-Bulln · · Score: 4, Informative

    Quote from IGN:
    Team Fortress began life as a free add-on to Half-Life.

    Team Fortress began life as a free add-on to Quake1 (QuakeWorld to be more specific), not HL.

    Hey IGN: Great journalism... ;)

  5. That is by no means "new" news. by Spiffae · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That Doug Lombardi quote comes from somewhere soon after HL2 was shown at E3 in May of 2003. There was a lot of excitement over Source and Half-Life 2, and they slipped in that Team Fortress 2 was still in the works.

    If anyone looked at the HL2 source code leak, you noticed that the code was divided in half. Half of it was about Half-Life2, and the other half was about Team Fortress 2. this is in no way a "dead" project, simply an completely secretive one. Some of the stuff in that code was really cool, a lot of good gameplay ideas, and what seemed to be some impressive innovation.

    I'm guessing we'll hear more (and maybe see more) about Team Fortress 2 this E3 (May 12-14).

  6. Does this mean my Gamstop Pre-Order is still good? by WarlockD · · Score: 5, Funny

    I mean I did reserve $10 on it in 1999, so in theory I still can get it redeamed...right?

  7. Re:Yea. by Pluvius · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But they do say "I would've played Duke Nukem Forever if it came out back in 1999, but now there's no reason to play it when I've got HL2, Doom 3, etc."

    You might say that it's possible that DNF will be as good as its contemporaries whenever it comes out, but I don't think that it is possible. Once you're this far behind schedule, it's at the least extremely hard to catch up.

    Rob

  8. but... by ADRA · · Score: 2, Informative

    Team fortress was for Q1, Team fortress classic was a mod for Half-Life, which is actaully what everyone's talking about.

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  9. Re:Does this mean my Gamstop Pre-Order is still go by Fiz+Ocelot · · Score: 2, Interesting

    We should start charging interest for reserve money held longer than 1 year....

  10. I wonder will it be free by PingKing · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wouldn't be surprised if Valve release TF2 as a free add-on for HL2. Not only would it bump up sales for HL2, it would create an instant online multiplayer community for HL2.

    Hell, they did it for the first game - why not the sequel?

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