When comparing Warcraft III vs Team Fortress 2, the Slant community recommends Team Fortress 2 for most people. In the question“What are the best LAN party PC games?” Team Fortress 2 is ranked 6th while Warcraft III is ranked 24th. The most important reason people chose Team Fortress 2 is:
The game runs on Windows, OS X and Linux machines.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Four varied races give more play styles
In multiplayer and skirmish matches, you get to choose which race you would like to control: Humans, Orcs, Elves, and the Undead. Each faction have their own advantages and down-sides, as well as wholly unique play styles. For example, the Orcs have units that are tougher and can deal more damage, while Night Elves units are completely invisible while standing still during the game's night cycle. This makes for gameplay that can change dramatically depending on which race is chosen.
Pro Story-filled campaign gives players knowledge of the game world
Warcraft III has an excellent story that's told through the eyes of four separate races. As you progress through each race's story, you are presented with background knowledge of previous events in the world of Azeroth, while taking on new and challenging missions. Due to this, you are given a breadth of information about the races of the world, as well as key characters that make appearances in later missions and other Warcraft titles.
Pro Heroes that rank up and carry inventory adds a well done RPG icing
Pro Single Player campaign serves as a learning tool
The campaign acts as a tutorial for each of the game's four races. New units become available every mission, which feature their own unique abilities and skills. By giving you access to different units over time, the game allows you to acclimate yourself with each individual unit type as the campaign progresses. This gives you an understanding of how each race plays, thus helping you develop a desirable playstyle.
Pro Multiple build orders make each Multi-Player match feel different
Warcraft III gives players the freedom to build their bases in any order they choose, to fit any strategic purpose they need. This allows players to start each match with a certain strategy in mind, build toward it, then alter it if it's no longer viable. For instance, players can build toward a rush of low-cost units at the start of the match and abruptly switch their strategy, constructing buildings that will enable them to train flying units instead. This keeps matches interesting, requiring players to adapt their build order at a moment's notice if their strategies change.
Pro Wonderful design
Pro Cross-platform
The game runs on Windows, OS X and Linux machines.
Pro Pretty good VR support and options
To enable VR support, type -vr in console.
TF2 has 8 modes in which to control the game. They can be changed with the command vr_moveaim_mode in console. They offer choice in what combination of aiming and steering should be coupled to the rift and mouse and introduce the concept of dead zones - an area of the screen that controls differently when aiming or steering within its bounds than outside them.
Typing vr_calibration in console gives access to adjusting interpupillary distance (distance between eyes). You can get that information from an optician or use the calibration tool to help figure it out and set it there.
Calibration will help set accurate render point (camera position) and reduce nausea.
Pro Fair free to play model
This game is mostly pay-to-gain, as in to get more weapons. You can randomly get things, though. You can use the things you randomly get to be also used in crafting recipes to make other things.
Pro Includes Mann vs. Machine, a ridiculously fun co-op mode
Mann vs. Machine is a co-op mode in Team Fortress 2 that is comprised of gameplay in which 6 players team up to stop AI robots from deploying a bomb. Though not the central gameplay of Team Fortress 2, it is a mode that allows for co-op play to be enjoyed with the characters of the game.
Mann vs machine works quite well over LAN and is very fun to boot.
Pro Hectic FPS gameplay that utilizes 9 distinct classes, each with lots of varied items
TF2 has 9 playable classes - Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, Engineer, Medic, Sniper and Spy. This allows for a range of playstyles. For example, the Heavy, starting with 300 health (going up to 450), wielding a machine gun and usually assisted by a Medic, will be commonly found on the front-lines soaking up lots of damage and pulling the enemy team's focus; at the same time the Engineer will try and avoid direct battle as much as possible, providing infrastructure (teleports, sentry, dispensers). Add to this hundreds of weapons for each class providing different stats and you have an impressive amount of variety in gameplay.
Pro Tons to do in the game with plenty of game modes and plenty of community mods
TF2 has more than 10 game modes, plus variations on those, as well as community mods that offer a wide range of objective-based play. Classic game modes include Capture the Flag, Control Point, King of the Hill and Payload. There's also Mann vs. Machine, a co-operative game mode where you play against waves of AI controlled enemies.
Pro Engaged, active, fun, and creative community give the game a welcoming feel, even for outsiders
The TF2 community is know for actively engaging in different TF2 related activities. They create shorts using the source filmmaker, sell items via the steam workshop, build real-life sculptures, etc.
Pro Completely free to download and play any existing section of the game
The game can be downloaded and played for free, allowing anyone to try it out. There are some items that can be purchased with money, but those are optional and only decorative.
Pro Offline LAN support is pretty easy to implement
As long as users have logged in to offline mode on Steam before trying a LAN connection, LAN will work. Which could be an area of confusion, but luckily is easy enough to do if you know you need to do it.
Pro Fun and humorous gameplay with graphics and sound that fit with this theme
This game has a history of over-the-top characters, visuals, voice-overs, and various other items, which altogether create an amusing world both within the game and outside of it as well. You get a feeling a lot of thought has gone into the development of the characters as well as the world they live in. For a genre that is often filled with drab characters in a drab world, it is refreshing to see something so well fleshed out.
Cons
Con Heavy focus on micromanagement makes Warcraft III too strenuous for casual play
The combat in Warcraft III relies heavily on the micromanagement of units in each encounter. The crux of each engagement is unit placement: Each individual unit has to be positioned properly, with their abilities activated the moment they are off cooldown. Due to this, every battle requires constant focus and the maneuvering of individual units, which can be quite difficult for casual players to maintain.
Con Macromanagement supplies casual players with a difficult learning curve
Warcraft III provides players with a difficult balancing act of maintaining armies, upgrades, and economy. Each unit takes a large amount of resources to complete, so it is imperative to keep as many of your units alive as possible with each fight. In order to do so, you must research technologies that increase their effectiveness and resilience in combat, making it imperative that you queue these upgrades once you have the money to do so. However, as your army grows in size, you will gain less resources due to an Upkeep Tax that is levied against you once you reach a certain population. This will make it harder to replace fallen units and purchase additional unit upgrades. Because of this intensive macromanagement of army, upgrades, and resources, casual players will find it difficult to master the balancing act required in order to win each match.
Con Random critical hits add a significant luck element into the game and push certain types of players out
In most 'public' servers, an option called 'random crits' (short for 'random critical hits') exists by default. This allows a random percentage of your shots to multiply damage by 3 for a shot, and also remove the damage drop-off over range. This 'feature' gets increasingly more annoying as you get more experienced, as you will die more often than your opponent having x3 or more damage over you, actively making their experiences and wins less meaningful. Some classes are especially burnt by this. Medics don't use weapons often, Snipers only have secondary weapons and melees, and Spies only have their revolver (and most sidegrades of that revolver remove this ability entirely). Quickplay (a feature most newbies use to get a match) also disables these servers from appearing in the list, so there are very few 'nocrit' servers because many don't know they exist.
Con Free accounts are slightly limited
Free accounts do not get rare and cosmetic items nor as many storage slots for items.
Items are relevant as free accounts can only hold 50, while the game has much more than 50 pieces of equipment (that affect gameplay), let alone 50 weapons. While a premium account player can react to almost all situations with a counter item, with only 50 slots a newbie probably won't have or even be able to access it. A full inventory also means a free player will have to miss out or delete exclusive event items and cosmetics just to play the game as full as they can.
A free account is upgraded when any item is purchased with real money from the store.