When Crew Fortress 2 lastly acquired its long-awaited summer time replace final evening, I wasted no time ignoring its contents and becoming a member of the identical 24/7 Dustbowl server I normally play on. However this morning, Alice0 identified to me one thing I actually ought to have paid extra consideration to: one of many new maps has a sigil. An actual smiley and squishy seal. It is nice.
The map is Selbyen, a particular occasion map primarily based on a sleepy Norwegian fishing village, and the sigil is certainly central to the way it performs out. Slain mercenaries drop tubs of fish, which may then be scooped up and fed to the seal (who leaps, repeatedly and adorably, from an animal management van to the close by sea) for factors. The primary group to 100 fish swallowed wins, in addition to the seal, which wins regardless.
Being the focus of every spherical, the sigil is sort of consistently surrounded by gunfire, explosions, flamethrowers, and closely accented males pouring fish into it. Regardless of this, he all the time wears a contented face, bounces and sometimes blinks slowly like a glad cat. I find it irresistible. Is likely to be my favourite factor Badwater Basin has added to TF2. The one silent gun round tends to be mine, as I pause to admire—possibly even envy—this big bean who lives the higher life than he does.
Alas, not everybody appreciates the seal. For actually each different gamer I’ve seen thus far, the attract of profitable competitively outweighs the will to cease and cherish what good is left on the planet. To them, the sigil is not a buddy, and even an NPC – it is a counting machine, the place you merely dump collectibles till a victory state comes up. If these screenshots suck, it is as a result of my sigil-gazing time is routinely interrupted by some enterprising Demoman, too blinded by the dimensions of my bucket of fish to see the true prize path throughout the sand.
I am no less than emboldened by the video Alice shared within the first place, a spontaneous celebration of the seal throughout group traces (and, presumably, precise nations). A server-joining dance social gathering welcoming an ever-beaming new face to TF2 and exhibiting that some FPS video games is usually a chortle even when the taking pictures stops. The replace could have taken some time, however proper right here is Crew Fortress 2 at its finest.
