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Once my speeds increased from 3kb/s to 30kb/s (Adelphia's service was crap when we first got it), it was time to try something I had wanted to play for months: Team Fortress Classic. This game, an online, class-based, capture the flag style mod for Half-Life, consumed the following two summers of my life. Every night I would be up till the wee hours the morning, building sentry guns, infecting enemies, and sniping noobs. I was addicted.

Somewhere between 1997 and 1998, a sequel to TFC was announced. I wasn't very thrilled because the game was very heavily in the works and it didn't appear to be very much different from TFC. So I continued to backstab losers and blow up shit.

The months went by. Counter-Strike's popularity began to skyrocket, and TFC's fanbase was waning. Team Fortress 2's development was further delayed, and speculation about its possible transition to vaporware, just like Duke Nukem Forever (another game announced a decade ago which is still "under development"). The years rolled by, and Team Fortress 2 became something of an urban legend, while its predecessor continued to lose popularity in favor of Counter-Strike.

Nine years went by. Nine long years. Half-Life 2 was released. Counter-Strike Source was released. Day of Defeat Source was released. And still no Team Fortress 2. Occasionally I would try to relive the glory days by looking for a TFC server to play on, but of the couple dozen available, they were often laggy or running some idiotic third-party mod (like NeoTF). Feeling defeated, I went back to playing Counter-Strike Source.

Then, out of the blue, I was in Virginia with some friends and one of them showed me concept art for the new, improved, and highly stylized Team Fortress 2, scheduled for release around Christmas 2006. My heart was aflutter. After nine years, a completely different type of game was being offered. Sure, many of the maps would remain, and all of the classes were the same, but the thematic elements were completely overhauled. The realistic military-style imagery was replaced with humorous, The Incredibles-style artwork. I was stoked.

Sadly, TF2 was met with more delays and will be released in four days (on PC and X-Box 360 simultaneously). Having preordered the Orange Box about a week ago, I've been allowed to participate in the TF2 public beta.

For ten years I've waited for this game, and it was worth the wait. I have wet dreams about this game. I want to make love to it. I would marry it if I could. It's everything I could want and more. Each class has its own "personality." The classes have been tweaked such that every one of them is useful in some way—unlike in TFC, where the scout and pyro were practically useless and the heavy weapon guy was ridiculously overpowered. The maps are fun and tactically immersive. The graphics are sweet, and they finally got rid of grenades (no more nadespam).

The only thing I don't really like about TF2 is the removal of the medic's ability to infect enemy players in exchange for an invulnerability attack, called the "Übercharge." While this adds a different dimension of gameplay to the class, it also signifies the end of one of my favorite things to do in TFC. I can cope with this change, however, as the rest of the game is pure, solid kickass.

Jesus loves Team Fortress 2, and he hates Halo 3. Hooray!