NewNews - Blacklight: Tango Down 2 Free to play?

Source: Joystiq - Blacklight sequel going free-to-play

I'm going to have to keep this post short since I'm still running at a busy schedule.  What am I busy with exactly?  Well, along with my job and making posts on here, I've been asked to help out on a week-long game development competition by producing music for two teams.

Anyways, it seems Joystiq got word from Dev team Zombie Studios that they're planning on releasing a sequel on a free-to-play basis with micro-transactions rather than charging a one time fee.  They're improving the game from the feedback they got from players of the first one, which I'm very upset about.  Instead of staying faithful to those who bought, played and gave feedback for the first one by releasing patches and updates, they're coming out with a sequel.  Sure it's going to be free, but it's also going to have players who spend money for premium items versus those who don't.  I bought the first one because I sincerely enjoyed trying it out at E3 2010, but was sadden to see 1-3 games tops available on average on team deathmatch.

Source: Youtube Channel MILEYCYRUSTHEVIRUS

There are a number of things the game could be improved for, but they were largely ignored on PC and was updated for the PS3 version.  I like the game, but I think I could enjoy it a lot more if the developers took the time to improve it.  Kills are sometimes delayed by lag, players die near instant (so those complaining about how Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is about who sees who first will absolutely hate this game), camping seems to be the main way to win, the user-interface for the menus were cluttered, and a lot of the social aspects just weren't there.  The only way to play co-op missions is to have the players within your friends list be invited directly, there isn't in-game text chatting, and the player never knows how many players there exactly on playing in each mode (practically zero in every mode except for team deathmatch).  What I did like about the game was the large array of customizable parts for each gun.  They affect what the gun and its reticle looks like, statistics, and the way they shoot.  The futuristic theme was also a nice touch to the graphics and environment.  Although near immediate death can be very annoying, it does its job of keeping a fast-paced match going.  The co-op missions was badly designed on the co-op part, but I find the mode to be very enjoyable (to an extent).  It's challenging, it lets the player practice all the controls and uses of the items and weapons, and it feels very different from other FPSs in terms of single-player/story mode.  The problem with it is that there's only 4 missions, the enemies become very predictable, and if you manage to die the game is over and you'd have to start from the very beginning.  I really want this game to be as good as the developers hope it to be, and so I'm hoping that the sequel really will be an improvement.  From the article on Joystiq, the developers won't be using assets from the previous game and will have entirely new content.