Team Fortress 2 is a pretty great game, make no mistake. Community integration has made it even better. But what if it could be… far better? Like… a thousand times better? What if Valve released a single update (perhaps… The Final Update) that changed the game so extensively and added so many new gameplay elements, that you’d practically be playing a whole new game? What if this thing had bug fixes, balance fixes, all-new weapons, all-new maps, all-new… everything!

This could be done, believe it or not. And it is real, but for the time being, it is nothing more than a fan-made “fake update”… and, quite possibly, an upcoming server mod! Hey, that’s not too bad! Let’s check it out.

The world of digital distribution business is a wild one indeed. You know… “Dog Eat Dog”, and all that good stuff. And all that dog food s**t is starting to affect the brick-and-mortar game industry as well. Which is why in March of 2011, GameStop acquired Impulse, a digital distribution platform previously operated by Stardock. And now, Impulse is doing pretty well for itself, and in certain departments, it performs far better than Steam. But I can assure you I’m totally not talking about pricing. Steam is doing really well with pricing – I mean, who could ever say that Steam pricing sucks; and that Impulse has pricing which is… well, better? It’s ludicrous!

But I digress: there’s loads of digital distribution platforms. Some have come and gone, some are still alive after years in the business, and others have just been born. Which is why it’s so surprising that Impulse has just entered an interesting business arrangement with Valve. For the first time ever, Valve games can be purchased on a digital distribution service that’s not Steam. Read on!