In this the year of the Beijing Olympics, Valve is offering gamers a chance to go for the gold. Starting Friday, May 2 and going Sunday the 4th, everyone can play Team Fortress 2 for free! Free is good no matter how you slice, but they're tossing in three brand new features to boot!

Gold Rush is a brand spanking new map complete with a new mode called "Payload." Teams are split on offense (Blu) and defense (Red) just like in Dustbowl, but the object of the Blu team is to literally push a payload full of bombs from one capture point to the next until all three of Red's bases are blown to smithereens.

Over the next year Valve will be rolling out the biggest change to the game. Starting with the Medic class players will be able to earn three unique items by first earning some or all of the new achievements (for Medics there are 36 in all). These items will give players new choices as to how they play the class as well as offering new benefits for the team they're playing on. The other eight classes will be rolled out soon after the initial release.