TF2 Part 3: Revenge of the Beta

So I got my hands on the Beta when I got home from work (FINALLY). I will say this... Valve has a winner on its hands.
This game is just tons of fun. I've only tried a couple of classes, and while they are similar to the old TFC and TF, there are definate changes made and many hardcore TFC and TF players are gonna be disappointed. But if they just want a port of TFC, they can always download Fortress Forever which is just as fun, sans a few bugs, as the original. FF is a port to Source and a good one.
But back to the topic at hand, monkey paws and vanilla wafers in a succulent... mmm, I'll save that for later.

This game has a great feel and style to it with the... well I'd like to call it cel-shaded graphics. The art designer on this game should be fucking ear to ear with this one because its spot on. It breathes atmospehere as much as Bioshock did. Every character just looks and feels right. The taunts are not bad, and the voice acting and kill cam shots are priceless.
Being a beta, it does have its share of bugs. I've had to restart Steam or TF2 2-3 times now from crashes, but thats expected.
And some of the bigger characters like the Soldier or Heavy do seem to run like they belong in a Halo multiplayer game but that gets alleviated when you have a good engineer placing teleports at spawn for ya.
My main class was the medic, supporting all the characters for the capture the intelligence (CTF variant but the same idea). Theres just something so fun of keeping a Heavy alive, running behind him while he mows down the opposition. Its just... groovy.
And while I suck at the spy... there are already really good people doing it up good and getting me perturbed multiple times. If I could count the number of times you heard on my mic "Fucking spys...", heh, it would totally be like 3.

Get this game. Its bad ass and the first thing to actually look promising enough to pull me away from CSS for once... at least till UT3 comes out...

Team Fortress 2 WTF??

So you tout this selling point of a product, buy the Orange Box and get into the TF2 beta on Monday, Sept 17th!!!!!
So what should i expect after i pre-order and download said product? i should expect to play a fucking beta on Monday Sept 17th. Instead i am going to sleep and annoyed with Valve.
As a gamer, especially a PC gamer, we are used to delays in games and betas to said games. But, we are also used to INFORMATION. Seriously, if you cant finish the game for the beta, TELL YOUR CONSUMER BASE WHO BOUGHT THE GAME WITH THE INTENT ON JOINING THE BETA ON MONDAY SEPT17!!!
Even a fucking letter to one of the gaming blogs like Kotaku or Destructoid because obviously there is enough issues that the steam forums are bogged down like a hooker at taco bell.
I have no issue with these people if they can admit their faults. "Sorry, we fucked up, we cant give you the beta today, we'll give it to you ASAP" or "Buy the Orange Box and Get into the TF2 Beta... when we get it working".
Dont fucking come out balls deep saying "YOU BUY THIS BOX, YOU PLAY THIS GAME ON SEPT 17!!!"
Guess what Valve? theres 44 minutes left of Sept 17th.
Great fucking work.