team-fortress-2 posts

It's another busy new PC game release day tomorrow. We can already feel our bank account screaming that it can't take much more:

• Steam has new automatic updates to Magicka and Team Fortress 2.
• Europe's big game trade show Gamescom is now selling tickets for the 2011 edition.
• The space based MMO Black Prophecy has now officially launched in Europe. US players will get a closed beta test "soon"
• BioWare is warning fans to beware of various Star Wars The Old Republic beta testing scams.
• Check out this Team Fortress 2-Portal crossover map.
• A Dead Space movie is still being developed.

That's right folks; just average reviews for a game can send a publisher's stock price down the crapper. Lesson learned.

• Steam has new automatic updates available for download for Team Fortress 2 and Magicka.
• Earlier tonight sales of Minecraft crossed the 1.6 million mark.
• Black Mesa Source has finally gone gold. Well at least the soundtrack has.
• In related news, Valve's Gabe Newell says he thinks it would be fun to see Half-Life 1 get a graphical remake.
• Ubisoft is accused of using torrent-based files for the Assassin's Creed Brotherhood pre-order soundtrack.
• Finally check out some ShakyCam Portal 2 gameplay footage from PAX East.

PAX East 2011 is finished its first day. Look for reports from our editor Steven Wong in the near future:

• Steam has a new automatic update today for Team Fortress 2.
• Left 4 Dead 2 players can now check out a repeat of the Follow The Lifer mutation gameplay mode.
• Minecraft's creator Markus "Notch" Persson talks about generating terrain.
• Could Battlefield 3 allow for 256 players in one match? Sure but according to Digital Illusions it would not be a lot of fun to play.
• More info on Guild Wars 2's Thief profession has been revealed.

Team Fortress 2 continues to offer new in-game items that serve as cross over promos for other games. In this newest case, the multiplayer shooter from Valve is offering no less than eight in-game items for the game's various characters based on Sega's upcoming historical RTS game Total War Shogun 2.

Made by community member "LaroLaro" the eight Team Fortress 2 items can be acquired by pre-ordering Total War: Shogun 2 via Steam. Team Fortress 2 players can also choose to purchase the items in the Mann Co. in-game store or you can just play the game and hope for some lucky item drops.

In related news, from now until 1 pm Eastern time today you can get Empire Total War on Steam for $7.50. You can also get the new Total War Collection Bundle, which has five games in the RTS series (Rome: Total War Gold, Medieval 2 Total War, Empire Total War, Napoleon Total War Imperial Edition and Total War: Shogun 2) for just $64.99, a 50 percent discount.

Tomorrow PAX East 2011 begins and it might just be the single most attended US game event of the year. Who would have thought that just a couple of years ago?

• Steam has new automatic updates for Star Wars The Force Unleashed II, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2 and Magicka.
• As promised, open beta testing for Faxion Online has started.
• THQ exec Danny Bilson doesn't care for cut scenes in games.
• Call of Duty Black Ops is now officially the best selling game in US history.
• Finally, someone has figured out how to keep getting leveled up in Dragon Age 2 via a glitch.

Less than two days separate us from our PAX East 2011 coverage. Can you stand it? We can hardly wait:

• Steam has a new automatic patch for Trine available to download that adds iZ3D support.
• Team Fortress 2 meets The Dark Knight. We always thought the Demo was Bruce Wayne.
• Paradox Interactive has announced that Europa Universalis III Chronicles, containing the core strategy game and all four of its expansion packs, will be released on March 22.
• AMD has released an early preview version of its 11.4 Radeon Catalyst graphics drivers that fixes an issue with Dragon Age 2.

GDC 2011 is officially over and while we personally didn't attend we certainly got a lot of news from afar. Look for even more GDC related news and info bits over the weekend.

• If you are wondering when GDC 2012 will happen, wonder no more. It will be held in San Fransisco on March 5-9.
• Steam has a minor automatic update for Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch.
• The retail version of Two Worlds II in the UK has been delayed, again, to March 11.
• BioWare is hosting a live chat-demo of Dragon Age 2 on Saturday starting at 4 pm Eastern time.

Some interesting game announcements today. New Sins of a Solar Empire game? New and weird expansion for Magicka? The new game from the Minecraft team? Yep, PC gaming is totally dead ... not.

• Steam has a new update for Garry's Mod that adds the Half-Life 1 Source models.
• People who own Team Fortress 2 and pre-ordered Homefront can get an exclusive in-game Team Fortress 2 hat.
• Speaking of Homefront, there's some more info on the PC specific features for the upcoming game.
• Want to make a cool gaming PC case mod? There's a new web series that shows you how.

The Steam PC/Mac game download site will soon have a new feature that will allow people to use the Steam client in more locations and in different ways. Its creator Valve announced today that the Steam client software will soon introduce a "big picture mode".

While details are scarce, Valve states that the big picture mode will allow users to use Steam "on any TV or computer display in the house." Valve also states that the Steam client will also soon have support for controllers and navigation made for TVs. Valve plans to reveal more details on this mode during GDC this week to various game developers and publishers. It will also reveal to those same partners details about its in-game transaction features that have been put into Steamworks via Valve's multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2.

[Via email press release]

Team Fortress 2 hasn't has a big honking content update in a while (most likely because the folks at developer Valve have been busy finishing Portal 2). But that doesn't mean that Valve can't find some third parties to make some new maps to the multiplayer shooter.

And that's exactly what Valve has done for its latest Steam update. One is a Playload Race-based map called Nightfall from creators Aaron 'Psy' Garcha and Paul Good that takes place in a logging site. Another is a Playload map called Frontier from authors Patrick 'MangyCarface' Mulholland and Arhurt that is set in a rock quarry. Finally author Valentin '3DNJ' Levillain brings us his King of the Hill map titled Lakeside that is set in an ancient Egyptian archeology site. Bring in Indiana Jones on this one.