"They feared players would become dependant on grenades and spam them."

You mean like CoD?

I was really looking forward to Brothers In Arms. The cartoony nature of TF2 was very off-putting to me and I never got into it. I tried again right around the time people started showing up with stacks of hats on their heads and I turned around, uninstalled it, and never looked back.

Moving this video to ant's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

@Payback

I pretty much think it's the perfect casual FPS.

Similar to how nades aren't abusive, I think it's one of the few shooters where snipers are not blatantly overpowered. Most characters need several body shots to kill and some need several headshots when Medic buffed.

The class variety is also tremendous, and there's a significant skill ceiling to playing most characters beyond the usual FPS reactions. Knowing how to decloak and approach as spy, or perfecting rocket jumping is something way beyond what most modern shooters like CoD require.

Hats have never really bothered me. What has slightly is that it's become impossible to get access to most weapons without paying because of the sheer quantity.

Having said that, this really only kicks when you have 60-70% and the odds stack against you of finding the rest. It's not really a balance issue either as while there are definitely 'optimal' choices (say gunboats for soldier), none are anywhere near game breaking. Where they are (say, soldier's equalizer), they're usually rebalanced.