team-fortress-2-mac posts

The strong hints given out by Valve on Wednesday turned out to be (shocker) true. As promised, Valve has finally given Mac gamers a way to play a native version of Valve's 2007 multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2. The Mac version is free if you have already paid for the PC version (and vice-verse) and both Mac and PC gamers can blow, stab and shoot each other (virtually of course.

Valve is giving folks a chance to purchase the full game for just $9.99 this weekend only (a 50 percent savings) and if that's not enough you can play the full version for free all weekend long. Finally if you purchase the Mac version of the game by June 14 you get a set of in-game earbuds for your character. Oh, did we mention both Mac and PC versions now have a new single player training mode as well as an offline mode for the Dustbowl map and all King of the Hill maps?

Update: The official Team Fortress 2 web site has a new makeover which includes a terrific new comic strip.

It looks like Valve is getting ready to release another one of their popular games on the Mac platform. While the developer hasn't come right out and said as such, the official Team Fortress 2 web site says big stuff is happening on Thursday. It also has the above screenshot with TF2 characters wearing very familiar looking earbuds.

Yep the consensus is that Valve is about to release their multiplayer shooter for the Mac on Thursday. TF2 was part of the Steam Mac beta test but it wasn't released when the Steam Mac client was finally released in May. We suspect the Mac players will be able to play against their PC counterparts and that if you already own TF2 for the PC you can get the Mac port for free. But that's just us.

Valve's announcement earlier this week that they are porting their games library to the Mac extends to Team Fortress 2 and today the game's official web site has posted up a quick Q&A answering fans' most asked questions about the move. Yes if you own the PC version of the multiplayer shooter the Mac version is free to download. Yes, Mac and PC TF2 players can play online against each other. Yes, the Mac port runs natively on OS X.

But the real reason we mention this small update is the new Saxton Hale comic book cover that accompanies the Q&A. Any excuse to show off the man's man in a new way is aces for us. So check out the larger cover art at the web site if you are man enough.

It's taken a long, long time but today Valve, after sending out some very clear hints earlier last week, made it official. They will finally be releasing native Mac versions for their library of games, including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series. It will also offer a native Mac version of its Steam client. Both the games and Steam will be released for the Mac sometime in April. There's no word yet on what other games offered on Steam will be released in their Mac versions

In addition to their previous games, Valve will also release their next game, Portal 2, for the Mac and it will be released at the same time as its PC version. Valve will also offer its Steamworks game development tools for the Mac which means Mac games will be able to support Steam achievements, leaderboards and the Steam Cloud features. Mac and Windows gamers will be able to play each other online as well. Valve is also porting its Source engine to the Mac which means third party games that use the Source engine as its basis will be able have their games available for both Windows and Mac. Finally if you own either a Mac or Windows game via Steam you will be able to play its counterpart free of charge. Also, with the Steam Cloud support players can play a game on a Windows machine, save their progress and then play later on a Mac at the same save point.