To be honest, my first impression of the map wasn't all that great. To start, there weren't even enough players to get the game going. So, when we finally hit the go mark, we only had the minimum number of players to start the game. Suffice to say, I was not expecting it to be so gigantic.

Now, I am not at all good with vehicles, or the Engineer kit, so I absolutely detested this map at the start. I didn't want to play either the kit, or in a vehicle, because I'm always getting killed and just wasting the vehicle that could have gone to someone else, so I found myself jumping in as the Assault kit. And, of course, whenever I do end up driving a vehicle, I always manage to find myself in a bus full of crazy Lucy's. Combined with the fact that there seemed to be one player for every vehicle, I found that choice of kit to be self-destructive.

For the first half hour, Highway Tampa was a nightmare. As I walked the open desert, alone, and pretty much naked compared to a Walker, I was desperate for a ride to get somewhere faster. I was getting so desperate, I was even considered driving the Lucy bus.

My score was horrible; I had a point/death spread of at least -10, and no one ever seemed to want to come out of their vehicles to engage in some kind of infantry-based firefight. But after tinkering with the Engineer kit, and learning to play it a little better, things started to get a little fun for me. Despite still sucking, and finishing the game with a negative spread, the map started to grow on me.

Later in the night when I came back and the server was just about full, at either 52 or 62, it was a lot more fun. Infantry had a more predominant role in clearing out the complexes where the flags are, and the vehicles seemed to be a little more distracted with one another -- giving me a chance to survive long enough to find myself yelling, "You crazy, Lucy Bi--!".

By the end of the second game, which also lasted a lot less time due to there being more people, I was back to my normal +3 for point/death spread. I finished the game with about an average number of points, of 12 or so. I have to say, I enjoyed it a lot more the second time around. This is one of those maps that, unless there are a fair number of players, it's just too much boring time spent getting to the action, when the action is over relatively quickly.

I do agree, though, that this is a great training ground to test your vehicle and Engineer skills. Lots of open ground for maneuvering, and even more vehicles to maneuver from.

All in all, not a bad map; when you get used to it.