So, with the Uber Update and release of the long-awaited Meet the Medic trailer, Team Fortress 2 has become a free-to-play game. However, if I hadn't gotten two copies in June of last year*, CODE RED would never have evolved.
The main characters of CODE RED are nine mercenaries, the nine different classes of Team Fortress 2. It relied pretty much on the usage of these characters and their witty lines. If I didn't buy TF2 last June, I would not have access to the Source SDK (as I had taken advantage of the (full game) Portal 1 giveaway in May 2010), nor would CODE RED move on to include the zany machinima/CG sequences that began with "The Team Colors" and, officially, in CR Jul 24 2010.
Team Fortress 2 was pretty much worth trying and getting. Trying as in the first time I tried it was the Sniper vs Spy update in May 2009, and it had a free weekend. The War update's free weekend, however, was the sole reason I still even had the character lines for the February 2010 update (CODE RED pilot) and beyond.
When I head back in a couple of weeks, I'll do a few more experiments and let those updates finally install, but the main goal is to complete the CODE RED finale, because its setting, January 2, 2011, ended up being significant to those nine selected mercenaries and those around them.
*A copy was half-price $10 USD when I bought the two copies at the end of the Mac Update's free weekend. I admit I didn't anticipate the 2010 holiday sale's price.
The superslinger2007 (LF Productions) blog site
