Team Fortress 2 designer Jakob Jungels recently updated the official TF2 blog with exciting information: beginning with the next game update, the team will unveil new environments created using a new toolset.The decision to create new item types came from the variety of character achievements introduced in the last couple of upgrades. As achievement details become more involved, the designers wanted great environment diversity to spice up the gameplay. "As we create more and more maps with these achievement packs," Jungels wrote, "we want our level designers to have more to work with in terms of giving their settings a unique look."In order to diversity new levels, the Team Fortress 2 designers asked themselves questions concerning matters such as how to evolve existing assets without creating too many new set pieces (thereby increasing development time), creating unique experiences, and how to ensure environment versatility so that only important changes, rather than time-consuming superficial details, are made in future updates....

Gamers interested in a stylistic approach to 2D platforming should note the arrival of Eternity's Child on Valve's Steam digital distribution service. Even better, the visually appealing platformer developed by SilverSphere Studios is currently marked down 10 per cent from its standard price of $4.99, weighing in at only $4.49 until August 7.Boasting "quirky" hand-drawn 2D graphics, Eternity's Child should be a breath of fresh air for gamers tired of the seemingly never-ending swarm of photorealistic shooters. Graphics can only look so realistic, but games such as Team Fortress 2 and Eternity's Child, which feature a unique stylized approach, can seem fresh due to the unique approach to aesthetics. ...

You've now hopefully finished reading our wonderful guide to pyro achievements. Will this make you a better pyro? Indubitably. You will have better weapons, better skills, and generally be a sexier pyro for all to see. Well, maybe not the last one. However, if you took our advice, you should now have three new weapons: the flare gun, axetinguisher, and backburner. If you haven't been reading our guide that we spent so much time on (tsk tsk) then we will save you the effort of digging them up. First, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth parts are all viewable here on Big Download. Upon recieveing 10 achievements, you unlock the flare gun. After 15, it is the backburner. After 22, you recieve the axetinguisher. And then the killing can begin. We wish you all the luck in your continued journey to burn everything to the ground. If you notice any mistakes, please comment or email us!...

Glorious fire! You just love to burn things! We can't blame you, though. Nobody knows who you are, where you come from, or what your real gender even is, pyro, but we know that you sure love to set things on fire. Now that the higher ups have finally decided to give you some sweet new equipment, you must be pretty excited. But no! First you must complete some tasks, leaping through hoops before you get to purge the world in baptizing flames. Don't worry, though. We want to help you. We love your work. The pile of screaming, burning scouts? Exquisite. That's why we have crafted for you this very guide to ease your attempts to fulfill the strange objectives given to you. You have read the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth parts, so here is the sixth and final installment. Now you are ready to go and purge the world of flora, fauna, and anything else flammable....

Glorious fire! You just love to burn things! We can't blame you, though. Nobody knows who you are, where you come from, or what your real gender even is, pyro, but we know that you sure love to set things on fire. Now that the higher ups have finally decided to give you some sweet new equipment, you must be pretty excited. But no! First you must complete some tasks, leaping through hoops before you get to purge the world in baptizing flames. Don't worry, though. We want to help you. We love your work. The pile of screaming, burning scouts? Exquisite. That's why we have crafted for you this very guide to ease your attempts to fulfill the strange objectives given to you. You have read the first, second, third, and fourth parts, so here is the fifth. Soon you'll be back on the road, setting fire to all the wildlife as you pass by....

Glorious fire! You just love to burn things! We can't blame you, though. Nobody knows who you are, where you come from, or what your real gender even is, pyro, but we know that you sure love to set things on fire. Now that the higher ups have finally decided to give you some sweet new equipment, you must be pretty excited. But no! First you must complete some tasks, leaping through hoops before you get to purge the world in baptizing flames. Don't worry, though. We want to help you. We love your work. The pile of screaming, burning scouts? Exquisite. That's why we have crafted for you this very guide to ease your attempts to fulfill the strange objectives given to you. You have read the first, second, and third parts, so here is the fourth. Soon you'll be back on the road, setting fire to all the wildlife as you pass by....

The above image recently surfaced over at Halolz (there's a much larger version, if you can't read the captions). It assigns classic Dungeons & Dragons ethical alignments to each of the Team Fortress 2 classes, and supports each with a quote. Some of them -- like the Demoman -- are genius, but others are a stretch. Still, plenty of people can still appreciate the geek humor!There's a problem, though; the 4th edition of D&D cuts the alignments down to a measly four! Thankfully, that didn't stop the creators of this image. We have a feeling that these oldschool alignments will forever live in the nerd zeitgeist. ...

Glorious fire! You just love to burn things! We can't blame you, though. Nobody knows who you are, where you come from, or what your real gender even is, pyro, but we know that you sure love to set things on fire. Now that the higher ups have finally decided to give you some sweet new equipment, you must be pretty excited. But no! First you must complete some tasks, leaping through hoops before you get to purge the world in baptizing flames. Don't worry, though. We want to help you. We love your work. The pile of screaming, burning scouts? Exquisite. That's why we have crafted for you this very guide to ease your attempts to fulfill the strange objectives given to you. You have read the first and second parts, so here is the third. Soon you'll be back on the road, setting fire to all the wildlife as you pass by....

Valve has released a new patch for Team Fortress 2. Downloaded automatically upon a restart of Steam, the patch provides a few tweaks and fixes, most notably a reduction in the requirements necessary to unlock the Medic's weapons. The adjusted requirements are in line with those of the Pyro's, which provided his three unlockable weapons after 10, 15, and 22 achievements, respectively.According to SteamPowered.com, the specific changes are as follows: Reduced Medic's unlockable requirements to match that of the Pyro's. Medic players now meeting the requirements will receive their unlockables shortly after joining a server Fixed Spy sapper viewmodel animation popping Fixed another issue with the Hot on your Heels achievement Incorporated the new Russian fonts into the base Team Fortress 2 fonts. Fixes the missing fonts problem when running in Russian with English VO ...

Glorious fire! You just love to burn things! We can't blame you, though. Nobody knows who you are, where you come from, or what your real gender even is, pyro, but we know that you sure love to set things on fire. Now that the higher ups have finally decided to give you some sweet new equipment, you must be pretty excited. But no! First you must complete some tasks, leaping through hoops before you get to purge the world in baptizing flames. Don't worry, though. We want to help you. We love your work. The pile of screaming, burning scouts? Exquisite. That's why we have crafted for you this very guide to ease your attempts to fulfill the strange objectives given to you. You have read the first part, so here is the second. Soon you'll be back on the road, setting fire to all the wildlife as you pass by....

Glorious fire! You just love to burn things! We can't blame you, though. Nobody knows who you are, where you come from, or what your real gender even is, pyro, but we know that you sure love to set things on fire. Now that the higher ups have finally decided to give you some sweet new equipment, you must be pretty excited. But no! First you must complete some tasks, leaping through hoops before you get to purge the world in baptizing flames. Don't worry, though. We want to help you. We love your work. The pile of screaming, burning scouts? Exquisite. That's why we have crafted for you this very guide to ease your attempts to fulfill the strange objectives given to you. Soon you'll be back on the road, setting fire to all the wildlife as you pass by. ...

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has since its inception set the standard of excellence for intelligent PC gaming-related blogging. A recent piece there called "Pyro Maniacs: Achieving Nothing in TF2" is no exception. In the article, RPS regular Alec Meer describes his experience logging into a Team Fortress 2 server designed specifically for grinding achievements. There was no legitimate competitive gameplay on this server. No, it was just an elaborate "obstacle course" for nailing achivements as fast as humanly possible. And if that's not horrific enough on its own, the conduct of the players on the server took digital douchebaggery to a whole new level.It's a story about the very worst the community has to offer -- achievement grinding that makes Asian MMOs look tame by comparison, immature shouting matches filled with obscenities and latent insecurities. It's everything that's wrong with modern gaming, all in one article. A must-read....

This week has been an exciting one for fans of Valve Software's Team Fortress 2 class-based shooter. On Wednesday, we were formally introduced to everyone's favorite long-distance assassin, the Sniper. Thursday saw the release of the Pryo update, which included 35 achievements and three new weapons for the fiery class, in addition to two new community maps.Rounding out the week is a reminder that Team Fortress 2 is free to through tomorrow evening, so gather some friends online and revel in yet another Valve masterpiece.For interesting behind-the-scenes info, browse the brand new TF2 Official Blog, a handy repository of information and strategies from the game's developers...

As expected, the newest Team Fortress 2 Pyro update is now available for download via Steam. The update will be automatically applied once Steam has been restarted. Gamers who have not yet purchased Team Fortress 2 will have the chance to play for free starting tomorrow and lasting until Sunday evening. Included in the update are 35 Pyro Achievements, three unlockable weapons, and two new community maps. The unlockable weapons -- Flare Gun, Backburner, and Axtinguisher -- are unlocked after earning 10, 15, and 25 achievements, respectively. On a more comedic note, Valve's newest TF2 character video, Meet the Sniper, was released earlier this week. Related Files: Download Meet the Sniper from Big Download....

The Team Fortress 2 classes are now a sort of gaming cultural phenomenon. Infusing a multiplayer shooter with such a stroke of personality was genius, and has inspired all sorts of people to cosplay as the characters, make comics about them, and watch the very funny "Meet The Class" videos (the sniper video was released not too long ago). The lack of women in the class line-up is fairly obvious though, and this has inspired people to come up with their own version of each class based on the fairer sex.1UP has a great article on two great artists to have converted TF2's classes into female form. There's a plethora of great talent out there doing so, and some of them are really taking to redesigning the characters. In particular, Frenzee and Heros-Shadow of deviantART both have very well designed female classes that take a break from simply being "male classes with breasts". For more information, as well as an interview with the incomparable Kirt Stanke, check out the 1UP article.Check out other TF2 videos on Big Download today! ...