Team Fortress 2 (360): GOT LAG?
- Scribbled on October 10th, 2007 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Editorial Content, Microsoft Xbox 360, New Release(s), Shooter, WTF
The Orange Box has been released to rave reviews so far, but perhaps one of the reasons Team Fortress 2 is getting such high marks is that the reviewers are not playing on public servers - rather, on private ones. Even if they were playing on public servers, there isn’t much server load.
Well, get ready for one of the laggiest games you’ll ever see in its present state, because Team Fortress 2 will take you back to the days when your badass 9600 baud modem was pwning the news with their 1200 baud.
It is, quite frankly, the worst prepared game for the load of Xbox Live. I haven’t seen this much stuttering since Unreal Tournament and the original Counter-Strike. Then again, Valve isn’t known for making smooth multiplayer experiences; just the opposite.
Advice for Valve: play Halo 3 multiplayer and see one of the smoothest multiplayer experiences around. Learn network coding for once. And learn how to develop for a gamepad, too - the controls on the games in The Orange Box aren’t exactly intuitive. (Of course, the fact that everyone and their brother are used to Halo controls…)
Then again, you’re talking about a company who’s idea of “episodic content” is one episode every 3 years.
Anyone having lag problems on the PC side? Let us know and comment away.
October 10th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Remember when Episode one came out, not 3 years ago, but LAST YEAR?
October 10th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Lag on the PC side? Just depends on the server. I’ve been playing for more than a week and I haven’t notices any major lag issues.
October 10th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Yeah, i think they release content at a stellar pace compared to other companies. As for lag on the PC, there is none.
October 10th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Playing TF2 on the 360 is like playing one of those old movies where you HAND CRANKED THE F—ING PROJECTOR.
The best part is when my Scout starts moving around on his own accord, without me even touching the gamepad.
October 10th, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Thats it. I’m done with site.
This Falcon idiot is to much to take.
Sadly, She’s pretty much the only person/twit to post any comments and 95% of them are negitive, Holier than thou dip shit remarks.
Love 2old2play but gonna have say goodbye to this one.
jonah falcon…..snap out of it girl.
October 11th, 2007 at 12:17 am
Uh huh. How come there’s other reports of massive lag?
October 11th, 2007 at 1:20 am
And now - spawn camping! People are exploiting the hell out of the fact you can just set up a turret or three outside the spawn zones.
October 11th, 2007 at 1:34 am
Yeah. I totally agree Jonah - this game with a KILLER METACRITIC SCORE LAGS LIKE A MOFO.
Oh wait. No problems here
October 11th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
The Orange Box got the metacritic score, not the game. And reviewers don’t play on public, fully populated servers.
October 11th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
I bought the Orange Box for the 360 and although the HL2 package w/ portal is an absolute must have, with Halo 3 on the market TF2 will have 10 people playing it …by probably already. It’s just a decade behind what’s out there now.
October 12th, 2007 at 2:44 am
NO PROBLEMS HERE.
Keep up Jonah. Played with a TON of guys tonight. No one bitched. At all.
October 12th, 2007 at 3:05 am
Hey Jonah…learn to play the game and kill a turret or 2 or 3…they are pretty easy to kill…and lag…ive seen some pretty laggy halo 3 games..im on a fibre optic network so im pretty sure its not me…but yah..i love the game..portal rules…team fortress 3 is kool…very even classes…yes there is some lag…
October 12th, 2007 at 8:36 am
“Played with a TON of guys tonight” - on ranked or unranked? Tried playing ranked - there was like 2 games, and one I joined people were waiting for 10 minutes before they were booted because the host quit.
Unranked, there are tons of people.
And, by the way, I know how to play. (rolling eyes) Am a TFC vet.
October 12th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
I’ve played a bunch of ranked and unranked games, and have had minimal problems. I’ve noticed some lag, yeah, but I see lag all the time (except in Rainbow Six Vegas. Never, ever saw it. Ever) in games. I disconnected once, but that’s all my bad.
October 12th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
I’ve got both versions, and the 360 version definitely lags BAD.
The PC version has no lag whatsoever most of the time.
October 12th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
The lag is not around. Not sure if it’s because its 5pm, tho.
October 12th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
man this is terrible. I bought the game today and I’m so frustrated. I have waited 8 years and I can’t even enough this game. I really hope they fix this.
October 12th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
I just downloaded an update for it a couple of hours ago, laggy as a mo-fo, but surprising that makes it feel like good ol TFC on the 56k
and why the hell are there no grenades, i miss the badass EMP
October 13th, 2007 at 2:38 am
I am soo dissapointed! We waited for such a long time for Valve to release this and to have this much lag in the final version? Didn’t they test it? As far as I am concerned it is unplayable. They had better get on this!
October 13th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
There is some serious, serious lag. If I load a multiplayer game, it’ll lag about 85% of the time. The game, in it’s current condition, is unplayable and that makes me severely pissed. I just spent $60 primarily for TF2 and I’m stuck with 3 hours of Portal instead.
October 14th, 2007 at 11:41 am
my PC gets alot of lag, and I have a 2000 dollar computer with a top graphics card. think its the servers maybe? idk.
October 15th, 2007 at 10:00 am
I waited on buying Halo 3 because I wanted TF2 and did not have the cash for both. Since it is almost unplayable due to all the lag, I am re-thinking my purchase.
The other games are great, but I paid for a Live Gold account and I want to use it. I might as well be playing Quake 3 on dialup.
October 15th, 2007 at 10:27 am
There’s no lag anymore. Valve tweaked the matchmaking so people with low ping are booted from the game.
October 15th, 2007 at 11:43 am
Anyone else confirm this? No more lag? I have actually been waiting on buying the orange box until I hear Valve has fixed the issues with the 360 version lagging.
And wow, I’m kinda surprised by the audacity of some of the commenters here. Don’t rag on Jonah just cause you don’t like what he’s saying.
I just randomly googled this page looking for reports of lag, since there are MANY. To say you are not coming to this blog anymore because of a comment that is accurate and not overreaching in the tiniest way is kinda scary. There are lots of people out there that are way too loyal to some companies/ideals. If Valve started giving you crap on a stick for $60 would you still pay it…?
You have to demand high quality stuff or it will only go downhill from there.
Just my .02
October 15th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Well, I’m sure people with bad connections will have lag. My issue was that routinely have a great connection, and I was suffering really bad lag.
Valve is always, ALWAYS updating software. Did you get that auto-update for the Xbox 360 version of The Orange Box?
October 15th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
“There’s no lag anymore. Valve tweaked the matchmaking so people with low ping are booted from the game.” - Jonah Falcon
Low ping is good. Low ping means less ms to communicate.
I have 2.5 mbps up AND down, and on the 360, it’s got major lag. PC wise, it’s great.
October 16th, 2007 at 12:37 am
I meant bad ping.
October 16th, 2007 at 12:47 am
How do you know if your game has been updated or not?
October 16th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
[...] you’re still having problems with lag in Team Fortress 2, well, Valve has a patch coming to solve your problem. It’s currently undergoing [...]
October 17th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
You’re pretty negative.. I’ve been having lag problems for sure - but you can’t shit-talk valve so much. Show me one other independent developer (not owned by a conglomosaurus) with as much integrity, innovation and credibility. You are an internet whiner. Who gave you a soapbox?
October 17th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
I disagree, I’ve played this game everyday since it came out. I’ve had two very laggy games - that’s it.
You’re review is misleading and irresponsible. The game is one of the best multiplayers out there. Calling it the worst prepared game on xbox live is simply incorrect. They spent years on this game. I understand some of you are experiencing lag but allow them to patch it, just like every other MP game.
October 17th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Valve publicly released info about the undergoing patch that will be out in a week/this weekend to fix TF2s lag problem on the 360, it’s a router problem i heard so not EVERYONE would be getting it, just the intelligent people that use routers.
all you people debating about this are fucking retarded, hahahaha, seriously do some research for fucks sake.
October 17th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
told ya’….from 1up
No, console kids, you aren’t crazy.
Team Fortress 2, part of Valve’s epic The Orange Box compilation that was released last week, is experiencing some serious lag issues on Xbox Live. The vast majority of complaints stem from gamers attempting to participate in more competitive 6v6 or 8v8 matches, where “connection to host lost” messages became common place or gameplay rendered completely unplayable by never ending lag.
Valve realizes things are amiss, however, and told 1UP the studio has already dispatched a title update to Microsoft. Unlike the PC world, patches are not immediate and the hopeful remedy has to make the rounds through Microsoft’s certification process and through the Xbox Live pipes. Valve anticipates the title update will arrive in gamers’ hands either sometime this weekend or early next week, but no specific date is available.
Valve’s networking experience is on the PC, but you have to wonder how an multiplayer-only game gets released with online networking issues this severe? Valve worked on The Orange Box for Xbox 360 internally, and with so many competitive multiplayer games available — and more on the horizon — if this issue isn’t nipped in the bud quick, it could leave a permanently sour taste in gamers’ mouths.
Expectedly, this does not appear to be an issue in the PC version.
October 17th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Jonah what do you know about coding?? Until you make amazing games that revolutionize the first-person genre (Counter-strike and Half-life) I’d keep my mouth shut.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Zack, what do you know about typing?? Until you make amazing devices that revolutionize the word-processing genre (Keyboard and Mouse) I’d keep my mouth shut.
October 23rd, 2007 at 6:19 am
im having some lag problems, not so its unplayable, only thing im confused about is hacks, already they are using them on some servers, but i guss they will always be hacks but i wana know about this update to stop lag
October 27th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
[...] Xboxic is reporting that a new update for Team Fortress 2 is now active, for those of you who were having lag problems. [...]
October 31st, 2007 at 12:35 am
This is one of the best multiplayer experiences I have ever had.
It’s also one of the laggiest for the 360.
I get disconnected quite often (from the host that usually can’t support 12-16 players)
I really do hope they figure something out by the time CoD4 releases. Now thats a game with no lag.
November 19th, 2007 at 4:24 am
1) Buy PC
2) Install TF2
3) ???
4) Profit!
November 19th, 2007 at 7:54 am
to all those who waited for TF2 for 10 years only to fall at the final hurdle and buy the xbox 360 version: HAHAHAHA! you muppets! what were you thinking?? burn your 360 and build a pc, you know you want too… im sorry your consumerist brains weren’t able to guide you past the 360 case around the game but if you knew your gaming history you would have gotten this on pc [or mac i suppose]Also…im sorry but Halo 3 [and all the other halo's] are indeed amazing examples of when FPS games go wrong. the blue and red team idea has been done guys! get a new gimmick and learn how to jump properly.
also F**K the game pad, grow some balls and use a mouse and keyboard.
November 19th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Yeah, there’s never any lag on PCs. (rolling eyes)
November 27th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Valve is trying to release a patch to fix the lag on the 360 version, so hopefully Microsoft will let it through.
December 6th, 2007 at 6:00 am
Thank god I only rented this game whew. It is terrible soo laggy. Now I guess I know why I haven’t seen anyone playing this on my friends list its trash. Too bad the game is actually quite fun in the 1 in a million chance your lag free. Shoulda kept this nerdy pc shit on the pc for all them losers like mister mark said.
December 6th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Random Asian: How’s the patch worked for you?
December 13th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Damnit, though I got the game patched it still does lag as hell…
December 21st, 2007 at 2:21 am
quit hateing, TF2 kick @$$ BIG TIME, at least for the good ol’ PS3
January 14th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
WTF!?
your recommending HALO 3?! XDXDXDXDXDXD
dude that game is [bleep] and LAGGY
April 28th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I have major lag on my laptop, any help or patches would be great.
June 26th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
“# Jonah Falcon Says:
November 19th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Yeah, there’s never any lag on PCs. (rolling eyes)”
It sure as hell lags a lot less than any 360 I’ve ever played online. My average ping on the servers I use for most source online games (i.e TF2, Zombie Panic Source, Cstrike Source and others) is around 20-40. Better than the bullshit I’ve experienced on any 360 game… Virtually all 360 games I’ve played lag to a rediculous amount including Halo 3 although it was a lot more playable than most. Plus PC version TF2 32 player servers are much more fun than having a boring 4 on 4 on the 360. Online gaming isn’t worth the effort on the 360 especially not for £40 a year with very little worth actually paying for on live.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:07 am
its cos tf2 isnt meant to be played on consoles, that why valve gets u almost no patches or mayor updates, and theres lagzorz
if you really wanna play tf2 get a good computer
October 6th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
I lag like crazy for some reason I just reinstalled Windows Xp and still laging but not as much Im going to go get a new grapghics card though. anyone with anymore ideas to speed it up please post.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
mister mark TF2 is also red vs blue and halo was awesome all except you always get some stupid kid and 1 guy who lags everyone else out. I would sell my 360 if games came out the same time for pc as 360