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Team Fortress 2 – The Shogun Pack, The New Community Map Pack, “Tron Fortress”, and “The Demo Knight” [Updated with Homefront Promo Info]

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Yes, lots of stuff.

Team Fortress 2 – The Shogun Pack, The New Community Map Pack, “Tron Fortress”, and “The Demo Knight” [Updated with Homefront Promo Info]

First up is the Shogun Pack, or the Three-Way Shogun Pack if you want it to sound really, really weird. Blog post is right here.

Cower, peasants! Flee, terrified ronin! Crap in your ancient Japanese bamboo underpants, feudal warlords!

No, thanks. I’m good.

For something approaches unlike anything you have ever seen! The Shogun Pack — a collaboration between Team Fortress 2, the TF community, and Total War: Shogun 2 — descends upon you like a rising sun! (But in reverse.)

Oh god no. More promo items. Aww, s**t. Now I’m really going to flee.

That’s right, Japan fans! Unlike other updates, The Shogun Pack represents a three-way partnership of feudal clans to depose a crooked emperor (the emperor being played in this case by “a lack of updates” for this metaphor to work). The awe-inspiring result? Eight all-new, Shogun-themed items for your head-wearing and/or neck-cleaving pleasure. And, in keeping with the three-way theme, you’ve got three ways to get your hands on them:

  • 1. Pre-order Total War: Shogun 2 from Steam and get all eight items free. (You: “THAT’S INCREDIBLE!”)
  • 2. Buy all eight items in Team Fortress 2’s Mann Co. Store. (You: “I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! I WON’T BELIEVE IT!”)
  • 3. Collect all eight items through in-game item drops or crafting. (You: “SOMEONE CALL AN AMBULANCE! I’M HAVING A HEART ATTACK! FROM JOY!”)

But you can bet your sweet backpack the pre-purchase items will be “Genuine”. Because… I dunno.

Heading over to the official Shogun Pack page

Thanks to the hard work of our resident TF community samurai, LaroLaro, fans of feudal Japan can equip eight all-new class-based items, from samurai swords to sumo top knots.

Get your hands on all eight items through any one of three ways: pre-purchase Total War: Shogun 2 on Steam; find the items through in-game item drops; or purchase the items separately or in bundles from the Mann Co. Store.

Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Now, now, hold up. There’s always a catch. The pre-purchase offer ends on Monday. Because the game is released on that very same day. No, I have no idea what Valve was thinking.

Details on the items are on Total War: Shogun 2’s Steam Store page:

HATS 

  • THE DREAD KNOT…a samurai topknot for the Heavy
  • THE SAMUR-EYE…a kabuto helmet for the Demo Man
  • THE GEISHA BOY… a geisha hairdo for the Medic
  • THE NOH MERCY…a terrifying oni mask for the Spy

WEAPONS

  • THE HALF-ZATOICHI…a Level 5 Katana for the Demo Man and Soldier
  • THE CONCHEROR…a Level 5 Sashimono for the Soldier
  • CONNIVER’S KUNAI…a Level 1 Kunai for the Spy
  • THE FAN O’WAR…a Level 5 Gunbai for the Scout

Keep an eye on the Official Team Fortress 2 Wiki, as even more details should surface over there shortly. 

Again, blog post is here, Shogun Pack page is here.

Let us know what you think about this new pack.

In case you might have missed it, Half-Life inspired alternate universe epic war shooter Homefront is also getting a TF2 promotion.

Pre-purchasing Homefront (the game gets released on March 15th in the US, so we’ll take a guess and say that’s the deadline) will get you the Hero’s Hachimaki in TF2. Not a bad offer for what seems to be a very promising game. Here’s Homefront’s Steam Store page.

Next is… the new Community Map Pack! Yeaaaaaaaaah. Map packs! Blog post is here.

We’ve been listening to our community’s famished cries for content…

You might be confusing the HL community for the TF2 community.

…and damn it, we decided to do something about it. Unfortunately, the button that bans everybody in the community at once doesn’t seem to be working (every time we press it we just get sparks and the smell of burnt fur). So we went with our tried-and-true Plan B: an all-new map pack, featuring some community favorites including a new map from the guy behind cp_mountainlab, the winner of TF2Maps.net‘s Art Pass Contest.

Don’t forget you can always purchase Map Stamps in the Mann-Co store to show support for your favorite community maps, all proceeds (minus any taxes) go directly to the hardworking map creators.

Let’s check out the official map pack page, shall we?

The new maps are:

 – PLR_Nightfall, by Aaron ‘Psy’ Garcha and Paul Good: “Nine out of ten mercenaries will tell you: If you’re looking for a place to see who can push bombs into a shallow pit the fastest, there’s no better location than a damp logging site, in the middle of the rain, in the middle of a forest, in the middle of the night. Nine out of ten mercenaries are idiots, though, so you might not want to put much stock in it.”

 – PL_Frontier, by Patrick ‘MangyCarface’ Mulholland and Arhurt: “Meet “Li’l Chew Chew”–a razor-toothed BLU payload designed to messily devour any merc dumb enough to blunder in front of its path through this single-stage payload map. Eat your way past RED’s defenses astride a gleaming metal death machine, powered by the blood of your enemies, and also gasoline (mostly gasoline, to be honest).”

 – KOTH_Lakeside, by Valentin ‘3DNJ’ Levillain: “In 2630 BC, the ancient Egyptians hauled up massive amounts of stone from this dig site for their pyramid-shaped tombs. Now, millennia later, honor their effort by filling those tombs to brimming with bullet-riddled, shrapnel-filled corpses in this fast-paced King of the Hill map.”

Hey, it’s better than nothing.

Just so the voices in my head stop ranting about leaving links everywhere, map pack page here, blog post here.

Next up is “Tron Fortress”. A few months ago, we talked about a Tron skin pack released for TF2. But now, the modders behind it are taking it to the next level, taking your average Badlands and giving it an insane makeover:

Hot damn. Amazing stuff.

We’ll go ahead and assume the map was made by Decap. Let’s go through the video description.

Movie by decap featuring some of the world’s best players.

Yeah, well, no wonder, since it felt like a frag montage at times.

Alright, alright, I kid, I kid.

Huge thanks to Akatsuki for making the original player skins, Bolty for the particle effects and Ravidge for hat removal items.

Currently only the class skins are available, but watch http://tf2tron.blogspot.com/ for updates. A lot of the effects in the video are not viable in game for a number of reasons. There’s still a lot of items and maps that are yet to be converted, so if you’re interested in contributing, post a comment on that site.

Not viable? So then why and how did you put them in the video?

In any case, superb video! There’s a blog post at the official TF2 Tron blog, and:

More updates coming soon.

It’s gonna be a painful “soon”!

We’re really looking forward to seeing the map itself, as well as future updates.

And last, but most certainly not least is “The Demo Knight”. Created by the same person behind last year’s amazing “Law Abiding Engineer” video, this is pretty… well, see for yourself.

This is pretty extraordinary. Volume is a bit low, and the lip sync was off in some parts, but otherwise, this is one of the best TF2-themed videos we’ve ever seen.

Well, we’ve crammed everything we could find in this beast of an article. Let us know what you think about all these topics in the comments section. Thanks for reading!

2 Comments

  1. Great timing for the Shogun Pack…

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