The Pyro has a jetpack. If that information doesn’t make you shudder, that’s probably because you haven’t kept up with Team Fortress 2 in a while. Valve’s daily trickle of information for the Jungle Inferno update for the game revealed a revamp of the Pyro class which includes new weapons, balance changes, and even visual improvements to the Pyro’s flame effects. There’s even a crass new taunt for the Pyro that recreates the time-honored tradition of lighting farts on fire.
The Pyro is a master of the barbecue. The Pyro already has the best character video. The Pryo gave the game a pair of goggles that changes how everything appears to the player. The Pyro has a rocking body. The Pryo now jetpacks into the sky and rains hot flaming death on those below. The Pryo is objectively the best thing in Team Fortress 2 aside from the Sniper’s jar of urine.
Team Fortress 2 now has competitive matchmaking and player levels. The Meet Your Match update for Valve’s venerable team shooter adds ranked matchmaking, special medals, titles, a new Pass Time mode, and three new community maps. The main feature of the update is long-requested 6v6 ranked mode that separates aspiring pros from casual peons.
Climb the comp mode ranks to earn up to 18 titles and badges. Track all of your match and ongoing stats in-game. You can even earn stat medals by scoring in the top percentile of all players in your rank.
According to the FAQ, players will need a premium Team Fortress 2 account to participate in ranked games. Legacy Steam accounts that paid for the Team Fortress 2 prior to its change to a free-to-play title are automatically considered premium. Newer accounts must purchase something from the in-game store for the upgrade.
One of the biggest annual events that Valve hosts is the yearly Halloween update for Team Fortress 2. Past events have included special spooky maps, modes, cosmetic accessories, and weapons that could only be accessed during the holiday period. This year, Valve is trying something different. They’re doing nothing. Instead, Valve will flip the switch on Halloween tagged items in the Steam Workshop and let everyone play with user-made items for the holiday while re-enabling past events.
The reality is, if we produce a holiday-specific event map this year, it means we’ll have to stop working on everything else. So: We’ve decided to turn Halloween mostly over to you. This year’s Halloween Update will be a showcase of all the best Halloween-themed community content (items, maps, taunts and unusuals) you guys can come up with.
Whether this should be considered a “treat” or a “trick” is left up to each player.
Remember that promotional interactive teaser for Super 8 that came bundled with Portal 2? It was supposed to be part of an ongoing business and creative collaboration between Valve and J.J. Abrams’ production company Bad Robot. At the time, Abrams said he wanted to make movies or shows set in the Half-Life or Portal universes. Since that time, nothing’s really come of it and all that excitement went the same way Guillermo del Toro’s involvement in gaming went.
It looks like something’s come of it at last. It’s not a Portal movie though, so anyone wanting to see a found-footage film of Chell will have to be content with amateur YouTube productions. It’s a new Team Fortress 2 mode. PASS Time is the result of Bad Robot, Escalation Studios, and Valve working together. It’s like Halo’s Grifball or Rocket League, but with more killing. And hats. PASS Time is available now as an open beta in Team Fortress 2.
Valve has announced the Love and War update for Team Fortress 2. The first day’s reveal was new co-op emotes, achievements, and the longest official Team Fortress 2 short film made called Expiration Date. It’s the touching story of boy meets girl, boy gets girl, and mutant bread. By the way, that’s Ashley Burch from Borderlands 2’s Tina Tiny voicing Miss Pauling. And just who is Miss Pauling? She’s a character that was introduced into Team Fortress 2 lore back in the comic for the This is War update. As the shadowy Administrator’s assistant, she gets to handle everything the TF2 crew cannot.
Valve has updated Team Fortress 2 to add cosmetic weapon effects. The Two Cities update kicks off with Manhattan which features a new map, changes to statistics reporting, more achievements, and Killstreak Kit drops that can add nifty cosmetic glows to your mayhem.
The loot you’ll get from completing a Tour of Duty will work a bit differently for the Two Cities Tour. Completing a Two Cities Tour automatically grants you a Killstreak Kit, which you can apply to any weapon to transform it into a Killstreak weapon. Completing the Tour also grants you a fabricator and spare parts that you can use to craft progressively rarer Killstreak Kits, which will add cool visual effects to your weapon and eventually even your character.
No doubt Killstreak Kits will be found in a Steam Marketplace near you!
