I can’t even explain how excited I was to have GTA IV and the new Goldrush update for Team Fortress 2 come out on consecutive days last week. Aside from suddenly getting very sick and not being able to play much TF2, the biggest disappointment about the update was the inclusion of cheats that could be entered into the console which would unlock all of the new Medic achievements and, by extension of that, the new medic weapons.

It goes without saying that allowing people to cheat and unlock those achievements is a real bummer. If people want to get their hands on the weapons without unlocking the achievements, that’s fine – just set a small requirement, like play Medic for 10 hours. But giving away achievements was a lame way to do it.

Luckily, Valve issued an update to the game this week which removed the console commands, although players who have already nabbed the weapons still have them. Valve claims they know who used the cheats, so hopefully everything will be straightened out and I can get on with upgrading my bonesaw.

via Steam News

I was such a huge fan of the first four “Meet the …” Team Fortress 2 videos, I couldn’t wait for the next one. It was a long wait, but finally, as Stephany informed us last month, the latest video is now here: Meet the Scout.

The Heavy is by far my favorite video still (cry some more!), I was pleasantly surprised that this one is good. I’m not a big fan of the Scout’s persona in the game, but how could you not laugh at him causing characters to get run down by a train and smacking a Heavy on the head?

So, which is your favorite so far?

See Also:

Meet the Heavy
Meet the Soldier
Meet the Engineer
Meet the Demoman

If you’re looking forward to the new Team Fortress 2 content as much as I am, you’ll want to take out a notepad before you start playing the video above. You’ll be treated to a guided tour of the new Goldrush map, although there’s no audio so you might want to open up Audiosurf in the background and get a TF2 track playing.

This is the first map for the new game mode Payload, where one team escorts a mine cart from one point to the next. The cart moves faster as more of the team’s players are next to it, but stops if an enemy enters the vicinity.

From the video, it looks like this is going to simultaneously be an Engineer’s paradise and hell. There are plenty of great places to set up a sentry gun, but with the nature of Payload, they’re going to have to be ready to abandon their turrets so that they can build new ones further into the level.

For me, as someone who plays mainly as a Demoman and Spy, it looks like this is going to be a great setup for spamming sticky bombs and backstabs.

Clearly, a lot of thought goes into the content Valve releases for Team Fortress 2. We heard for months that the Overhealer would be one of the new tools at Medic’s disposal in TF2, but it was scrapped when they felt it simply didn’t balance well. Valve finally has announced the final list of new weapons that Medics will soon be able to employ, and they certainly sound like they’ll help make the class more fun to play.

The Blutsaugher
For players that earn one third of the 36 new medic achievements, they will be given a new syringe gun. Called “The Blutsaugher,” this new weapon no longer has the ability to score critical hits against an opponent. Instead it will draw health from enemies each time a syringe hits. Especially useful as a weapon to retreat away from the fight while staying alive.

The Critzcrieg
Once a medic has earned two thirds of the achievements, they will be granted “The Critzcrieg.” This new medigun uses its ubercharge not for invulnerability, but to give its recipient 100% chance to fire critical ordinance. Medics and the player they are charging need to be careful though, because as much fun as it is to fire critical rockets as fast as you can, the other team will see what you’re up to and try to put a quick stop to your plan.

The Ubersaw
For the determined medic that has earned all 36 of the new achievements, they will find themselves the proud owner of “The Ubersaw,” which will take damage done in melee attacks and convert it directly to ubercharge. Four hits with this new weapon will fully charge whatever medigun the medic has equpped.

TF2 director Robin Walker spoke briefly with Shacknews at a Valve party last night, and he explained that, in addition to new weapons for the other eight classes, new maps and achievements are also high on the priority list.

We’re still pushing on new maps as well, because obviously map-makers aren’t terribly involved in this stuff, but our programmers are crushing away on the big new achievements. Aiming for around 35 new achievements for each class, and the three unlockables. We’re also going to be looking at ways that players can get items other than achievement unlocking. We really want everyone to sort of have that fun of choosing that trade-off, and obviously that gets more interesting as you get more items and so on.

And of course, as always, we’ll be seeing how the community reacts to these. That’s another reason why we like doing staggered releases, why we ship as fast as we can get done, because that way we learn as we go, instead of building all these achievements at once and then finding out that our entire achievement design philosophy is broken.

I’ve been on a Team Fortress hiatus as of late (there’s simply too much to play!), but there’s no doubt in my mind that the new Medic gear and the Goldrush map will suck me right back into TF2.

Team Fortress 2 players can expect some added content for the PC around April 20. This new content will include a new map called “Goldrush”, a new video called “Meet the Scout” and three unlockable weapons. No specific date for that week was provided but we will keep you informed when an exact release date is announced.

“Goldrush” is the first map to utilize cinematic physics from Half-Life 2: Episode Two and is also the first map for the new game mode “Payload.” In “Payload”, the Blue team must maneuver a mine cart full of explosives toward the base for the Red team. The cart moves faster with the amount of players present around it, and the Red team will only win if they can prevent the Blue team from reaching its goal.

The Medic class will be the first class to receive the new unlockable weapons, with other classes eventually will be getting in on the fun as well. These three weapons will be unlocked by earning a specific number of class-specific achievements and can be equipped via a loadout menu.

Valve is also currently testing a Medic gun which when charged will allow 10 seconds of constant critical hits.

Via: Shacknews

Back in January, Valve revealed that it was toying with new unlockable weapons for the various classes. The only particular one they spoke about, though, was the Overhealer which was naturally for healers. Using it, medics would be able to heal teammates up to 200% their normal health permanently (rather than 150% and having that figure slowly fall back to 100% when not being healed). There had to be some drawback, and that was the concept of having either a modified Ubercharge or not having one at all.

But through the rigorous testing Valve puts things through, they’ve determined that the feature just doesn’t work and won’t make its way into the game. In an email reply sent to a concerned TF2 player (who also complained about feeling like the Pyro is underpowered), Valve’s Robin Walker wrote:

Thanks a bunch for the long & detailed feedback. It’s always great to get feedback with this amount of time & thought put into it. We’re still thinking about the relationship between the Pyro & the core combat classes, in particular that of the Pyro & the Soldier. We’ve tried a couple of things in our internal playtests, but haven’t found anything we like enough to ship yet. The recent update to the flamethrower with the audio cue played when you’re hitting an enemy seems to have been a good step.

No details on the Pyro’s unlockable weapons yet, sorry. We’re still focusing on the Medic, and the underlying system. Your fire axe will be happy to hear that the Overhealer didn’t work out as well as we wanted it to, and won’t be making an appearance.

I was pretty interested to see how this mechanic would work in game, but I can see how it could potentially break down.

Steam forums via Evil Avatar

Steam users should get ready for a big day tomorrow. Team Fortress 2, Source Forge and SourceTV will all be updated through the Steam client.

The new Badlands map for TF2 is included in the package along with changes to Dust Bowl, Capture the Flag and Granary. You’ll also be able to see Pyro’s flamethrower flames on SourceTV after updating. Complete details follow the break.
Read the full article

SomethingAwful.com recently asked some of their readers to Photoshop together some very simple achievements for Team Fortress 2. Of course, the results address some of the more boneheaded activity you can see in any average match, such as aiming for a Heavy that’s being guarded by two medics. In fact, some of these could probably be applied to every other online PC shooter (singing into the voice chat, getting killed while trying to pull off a stunt, killing yourself numerous times). Of all of them though, the one I really wish no one would ever get would be the “Use disgusting goatse-ish spray” achievement. Seriously people, that image has been haunting online games for years now, and it needs to die.

You can view the rest of the “achievements” by clicking the link below.

Via SomethingAwful.com

An update for Team Fortress 2 released earlier today has, in essence, added a new map – ‘Well’ is now playable as a capture the flag map. Sure, it’s not entirely original, but it’s something new to try out while you wait for the completely new maps.

There were also some other changes made. The changelist is as follows:

• Added new capture the flag map CTF_Well
• Added Spanish map descriptions
• Added new option to auto-save a scoreboard screenshot at the end of a map to the Multiplayer->Advanced dialog
• Added more particle optimizations for mid range and low end hardware
• Updated CP_GravelPit to fix all known exploits and changed the scoring method to score per capture rather than per round
• Updated “nextlevel” CVAR to trigger a changelevel at the end of the current round (not mini-round)
• Fixed SourceTV demo recording problem
• Fixed mp_stalemate_enable not preventing Sudden Death mode on some maps
• Fixed a couple cases where player stats were not being recorded correctly
• Fixed some log entries being truncated
• Fixed crash caused by trying to import a custom player spray
• Removed the “Reset Stats” button from the Player Stats screen

We know that changes are coming to Team Fortress 2 in the form of new maps and some sort of “large-scale modification,” but until now we had no idea what that actually meant. CVG has the first details on all of it, and while they don’t go into great detail, suffice it to say that I let out quite the maniacal laugh as I read.

In addition to the remake of Badlands, which we already knew about, the other new map is called Goldrush and is focused on a new, unnamed game mode. Basically, you’ll need to escort a mining cart through several map segments – the more players near it, the faster it moves. But if any enemies are nearby, it’ll stop. Just take a minute and think about what amazing gameplay opportunities are bound to come from this. And if you’re an engineer, take a minute to wipe your tears. It’s okay, we’ll wait.

We also already knew about new Medic achievements, but now we’ve found out that there will be new, unlockable weapons that you will be rewarded with – and they won’t necessarily be “better.” For instance, the Medic will be getting two new mediguns, one of which will allow you to overcharge a player’s health to 200% the norm, but you won’t be able to Ubercharge them. (The idea is still being played with.) Multiply possibilities for these “Loadouts,” as the screen where you change things up is called, across all of the classes, and you’ve got an even more highly replayable game.

More details as we get them.

via CVG