Team Fortress 2

Playing free has no in-game handicaps: all of the classes and their vanilla load-outs are unlocked, and new items are randomly found at the rate of one every hour or so. But before we get the bunting out, there is one problem: if your account hasn't purchased anything through Steam, you're not allowed to have a friends list. There are items on the store for as little as 49p, but the minimum amount you can deposit to pay for that is £4. A friends list isn't optional if you're going to put any time into Team Fortress 2, and fencing it off for total newbies seems uncharacteristically mean.

One more thing that stands out, mainly because the remainder is so polished, is TF2's recent addition of matchmaking from the title screen. Basically, it very rarely works and more often than not freezes up. The main way of finding a game in TF2 has always been picking servers, and this works flawlessly, so it seems odd to have an ostensibly easier route that often doesn't work.

As for the in-game shop, yes, I have bought some weapons. And accessories. And maybe a fedora. But that's it. There are random item drops that gradually award most of the usable weapons, but in truth the amount of time you'd have to grind to bag a specific item seems excessive - and there are long stretches where you can't score a drop for love nor money. But is that a problem?

You could argue that drops should reflect the class you're playing, occur more frequently, or crafting should require fewer raw materials. To do so misses the point that these items, especially the crates that can't be opened without paying, are teases. You take your chances or you pay up, and if you pay up then the game's that little bit more fun. Since when was paying for fun a bad thing?

Finally, there couldn't be a re-review without a word for Team Fortress 2's players. Perhaps it's the way the game forces you to play as a team, or the comedy of its violence, but the atmosphere in almost every TF2 game is welcoming. In one match, a random player turned up, opened a bunch of crates for everyone through trading back and forth, and then left with a cheery salutation.

In another, a Medic healing my Heavy asked to reverse the roles, then showed me how to move, where was best to stand on this level, and we switched back. At the end of the game he gifted me a pair of boxing gloves. You can mock hats all you want: from here, TF2's community looks extraordinarily civilized.

Team Fortress 2 is the purest embodiment of Valve's philosophy: listening to their audience, always updating, and forever over-delivering. It's also the best argument for Steam as a platform ever made: with an average of one update a fortnight it has expanded and changed so much, yet like its celebrated silhouettes, still stands out, utterly familiar. It understands that persistence is as much about personality as power, and is one of the most consistently surprising and inventive games you'll ever play. And at the risk of sounding like the press office, you can play it forever for free. Once again, Valve has outdone itself.