Team Fortress 2

While most titles get forgotten about a few months after its release, Valve continues to update their games with new patches and new content. None have gotten more attention in the past year than Team Fortress 2 which has seen new game modes, levels and updates to two of its character classes. Now the official Team Fortress 2 web site has posted work that the dev team is getting back to work on even more updates.

According to Team Fortress co-creator Robin Walker, the team has actually spent a few weeks helping out the Left 4 Dead team finish of their zombie co-op action game that's due out in November. Specifically Walker stated that they have helped out on the game's Versus mode (one team of humans against another team of zombies..sound familiar?) But fear not, as Walker states, "Now that we're wrapping up that work, we'll be returning to TF2. We've got a bunch of exciting changes coming down the pipe for the next class update. Feels good to be home again!."

Comrade! It is good to see you. I see you have completed the gauntlet our wise commanders have given you. Da, I know. It was hard. But it was all for glorious Mother Russia! You may not have completed all of the tasks given to you, but our masters were generous. After 10 tasks, they gave you a delicious Sandvich. After 15 tasks, a glorious new minigun to mow down the dirty American Scouts. And at 22 tasks complete, you were given the K.G.B., a killing machine named after our most important government service. If you must still peruse the guide, though, it is divided into 5 parts, labeled, in the Russian tradition, plain and intelligently. Part one, two, three, four, and five are all freely available to you, and we wish you happy hunting. For Mother Russia!

Da, Comrade? Vat can we help you with? Oh, you haf your new orders? Glorious! Praise to Mother Russia in all her visdom! We heard you will be gettink new weapons to assist in your fight for one of the Amerikanski corporations. While we do not applaud you working for capitalist dogs, we do not question to visdom of the Motherland. So, in celebration of your new orders and weapons, we will give you this document. It details how to acquire your new armaments. Do not misuse it or distribute it to the enemies of Mother Russia, or we will be forced to inform the KGB of your treasonous actions! You may view parts one, two, three, and four of our guide as well.

Da, Comrade? Vat can we help you with? Oh, you haf your new orders? Glorious! Praise to Mother Russia in all her visdom! We heard you will be gettink new weapons to assist in your fight for one of the Amerikanski corporations. While we do not applaud you working for capitalist dogs, we do not question to visdom of the Motherland. So, in celebration of your new orders and weapons, we will give you this document. It details how to acquire your new armaments. Do not misuse it or distribute it to the enemies of Mother Russia, or we will be forced to inform the KGB of your treasonous actions! You may view parts one, two, and three of our guide as well.

Da, Comrade? Vat can we help you with? Oh, you haf your new orders? Glorious! Praise to Mother Russia in all her visdom! We heard you will be gettink new weapons to assist in your fight for one of the Amerikanski corporations. While we do not applaud you working for capitalist dogs, we do not question to visdom of the Motherland. So, in celebration of your new orders and weapons, we will give you this document. It details how to acquire your new armaments. Do not misuse it or distribute it to the enemies of Mother Russia, or we will be forced to inform the KGB of your treasonous actions! You may view parts one and two of our guide as well.

Da, Comrade? Vat can we help you with? Oh, you haf your new orders? Glorious! Praise to Mother Russia in all her visdom! We heard you will be gettink new weapons to assist in your fight for one of the Amerikanski corporations. While we do not applaud you working for capitalist dogs, we do not question to visdom of the Motherland. So, in celebration of your new orders and weapons, we will give you this document. It details how to acquire your new armaments. Do not misuse it or distribute it to the enemies of Mother Russia, or we will be forced to inform the KGB of your treasonous actions! You may view part one of our guide as well.

Da, Comrade? Vat can we help you with? Oh, you haf your new orders? Glorious! Praise to Mother Russia in all her visdom! We heard you will be gettink new weapons to assist in your fight for one of the Amerikanski corporations. While we do not applaud you working for capitalist dogs, we do not question to visdom of the Motherland. So, in celebration of your new orders and weapons, we will give you this document. It details how to acquire your new armaments. Do not misuse it or distribute it to the enemies of Mother Russia, or we will be forced to inform the KGB of your treasonous actions!

There have been many talks about how developing games for consoles is better than developing for PCs and vice-verse but one of the biggest pluses for PC games is that for the most part free content updates for games (new levels, modes, weapons, etc) are still the norm rather than the exception. It's certainly a formula that works for Valve and its founder Gabe Newell clearly doesn't like how console companies try to charge for that same content.

In a new chat for Videogaming247, Newell is quoted as saying, "On the consoles, they want us to charge money for them, because that's in their model, and our model is very much more to grow the community by giving out free updates. That's harder for us." Newell likes that on the PC they are able to communicate and get updates for their games to their customers with a minimal of fuss and that's not true with consoles. He states, " . . . like any developer, we want nobody between us and the people who are playing our game. It's pretty self-interested, because when you have the ability to respond directly to what customers are telling you, you sell more copies of your games, and you sell more audiences, and you make more money. So anything that stands between us and them is a bad thing."

We have to admit, this is probably the silliest unlock we've seen so far. The final unlock revealed as a part of the Heavy update is none other than a sandwich. This is no ordinary sandwich, though. This sandwich is filled with such nutritional delights, such savory meats, that it heals a full 120 health upon consuming. You have to stand still for 4 seconds while eating, though, and you make vigorous consumption sounds when eating, drawing enemies like a picnic draws ants. Overall, it's a humorous and altogether useful addition to the game. Oh, and for those who want a little bit of comedy, scroll down and watch the "Meet the Sandvich" video for some extra hilarity.

If you want to try out the wild and wacky Sandvick in the game you can do so now as Valve has just updated the shooter with all of the updates previously revealed including two new weapons, new achievements for the Heavy class, a new Payload map and the new Arena gameplay mode with five new maps.

Download the "Meet the Sandvich" HD Trailer (10 MB)

Revealed a bit later than other updates in the past week, Valve has finally revealed the all new gameplay mode they plan to include as part of the upcoming Heavy class update for Team Fortress 2. The multiplayer shooter will add an Arena mode to the game that will also include five maps. Three of the maps are reworked versions of previous TF2 levels (Well, Granary and Badlands) while the other two maps are all new (Lumberyard and Ravine).

Arena mode matches are being designed to be shorter in time span than other TF2 matches. Round end where one team has all of their players killed or one time has captured and unlocked the sole capture point which is located in the center of the arena map. There will be little to no health pack in Arena mode levels. The Heavy update for TF2 is scheduled to be released tomorrow via Steam.

As anticipated, the next in a continuous chain of reveals for the upcoming Team Fortress 2 update has occurred. Today's unveiled item is a new weapon, "Natascha," a minigun for the Heavy character, who is the focus of the upcoming update.

The minigun, which is made available to players after unlocking a specific number of the Heavy's achievements, features a 25 percent decrease in damage, but offers a 10 percent chance to slow the opponent upon impact. The site points out that the slowdown effect is great for "fleeing cowards," most notably the Scout and Medic.

Update: The Killing Gloves of Boxing page has also been updated with the full descriptions of all the achievements in the Heavy class that will be added on Tuesday.

As promised, Valve has given us another taste of what their new update has to offer. This time, it's one of the new Payload maps. Badwater Basin is a response to the assertion (which is backed up by cold, hard data) that Gold Rush is heavily favored towards defenders. With much less chokepoints than Gold Rush and larger spaces, it helps keep players from getting stuck into a position to where they cannot advance. Also, instead of a 3-stage map, Badwater is just one large map with many checkpoints, which encourages the BLU team to keep pushing hard to add time. Just another awesome addition to the Heavy update!

Valve promised us more information on the Heavy update each weekday, and they did not disappoint. Today we have some juicy bits of information for you concerning the new achievements and the new melee weapon for the Heavy. First, the weapon. Dubbed the K.G.B. (or Killing Gloves of Boxing), they give the Heavy guaranteed criticals for 5 seconds if he kills an opponent with them. It appears, though, that it has a slower attack speed, and it take a full second and a half to switch to the minigun and wind-up to fire, reducing the impact of the critical bonus.

Second are the achievements. Notably, a lot of them deal with the interaction between the Heavy and the Medic. There are some interesting ones that appear to reveal more about the upcoming weapons. For example, Marxman and Five Second Plan both appear to show a weapon that has not been revealed yet. A mine? Return of the infamous MIRV from Team Fortress Classic? We'll find out soon enough! You can check out the full list of achievements and Valve's comments on the K.G.B. at the update's site.

Eidos has announced their participation as the latest publisher to support the Novint Falcon, a controller that claims to give gamers a greater advantage in three-dimensional video games by applying tactile control.

What sort of touch sensations will the Novint Falcon offer Eidos titles? "Simply imagine the feel of sandstone in your palms or the weight of a gun in your hand, and you've got the general idea," writes 1UP. Eidos plans support for Tomb Raider: Legend, Hitman: Blood Money, 25 to Life, Just Cause, BattleStations: Midway, and Kane and Lynch: Dead Men by the end of 2008.

In June, developer Valve announced future Novint Falcon support for The Orange Box, a collection containing Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. The Falcon will reportedly allow gamers to feel the weight of holding different objects with the gravity gun, the recoil of guns, and more.