Category: TeamFortress

Portal 2′s Perpetual Testing Initiative Hits 1.3 Million Downloads; 35,000 User-Created Test Chambers; And More!

May 11th, 2012 · By Vic · 5 Comments

Released barely two days ago, Portal 2′s latest DLC offering, the Perpetual Testing Initiative has turned out to be a pretty massive success, as heralded by a press release from Valve in which they announced some of the PeTI service’s early statistics. Apparently, over 35,000 custom puzzle levels have already been created and published over the Steam Workshop. In total, the Portal 2 playerbase have already consumed over 1.3 million test chamber downloads.

In celebration, Valve is holding a Weekend Workshop sale on the Steam Store, during which Portal 2 will remain at its Midweek Madness discount of 66% off (about 6 dollars/5 euros), Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim will be 33% off, and within Team Fortress 2′s in-game Mann Co Store, many of the officially released, community-created Steam Workshop items will be available for 50% off their regular price. Now that’s science for you. Quick, go buy things!

And if you haven’t had enough science within the PeTI, then allow me to provide you with some of my recommendations: CaretCaret’s “12 Angry Tests” series, which contains some of the greatest level design, puzzle gameplay and bizarre humor I have ever experienced; Jaxe’s excellent “Decay” mini-series, sporting some incredible level design, built for intermediate to skilled Portal players; Motanum’s A La Tag series, with unique and innovatie gameplay strongly focused on gel gameplay; and the Podcast 17 Community Chamber collection, encompassing all puzzle levels created by my brothers in arms and colleagues: the Podcast 17 community members.

Never-Before-Seen Valve Ad For The Orange Box Is Unearthed

April 2nd, 2012 · By Vic · 23 Comments

Back in 2007, the launch of The Orange Box was a pretty big deal. You had Episode Two, the long-awaited TF2, and the very intriguing Portal – all in one box, for just $50. So Valve went above and beyond in promoting the thing. They partnered up with EA for the retail release and for promotional activities. And only last year for Portal 2, did Valve start handling its own promotional stuff. But it seems like their earliest experiments with it go all the way back to the time of The Orange Box. And only now can we actually see what they were up to.

In 3 Hours, Valve And Dark Horse Will Announce Their Next Project

March 30th, 2012 · By Vic · 7 Comments

In case you forgot, November of last year saw the release of the best-selling ”Valve Presents: The Sacrifice And Other Steam-Powered Stories“, a 200-page print anthology of Valve’s greatest online comic book series: Portal 2: Lab Rat; Left 4 Dead: The Sacrifice, and the Team Fortress 2 comic shorts. Certain listings indicated that the comic was actually the first volume in a series, and since then, Valve has released quite a few other comics – most notably, the absolutely superb Dota 2: Are We Heroes Yet, a number of TF2 comic shorts, and a few Portal 2 comic shorts.

At precisely 6PM, at the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, Valve and Dark Horse will be announcing their next project – so says the Valve Store’s official Facebook page. This might be Volume 2 of the “Valve Presents” series, and if it’s being announced this early, we can expect a slightly earlier release date – possibly September. Perhaps it will be a tie-in of sorts with Dota 2, and maybe even CS:GO. Who knows, at this point? We’ve got 3 hours to go until then, and we’ll let you know whatever they reveal.

TF2 Gets One-Of-A-Kind Daily Rotation Prize Hats, Strange Weapon Mods, And More

March 29th, 2012 · By Vic · 6 Comments

While the mysterious “TF2 2012″ surprise Valve has planned (most likely a new game mode involving team combat against a war robot, to be released alongside the final Meet the Team video, “Meet the Pyro”) remains to be released, possibly some time around summer, that doesn’t mean Valve isn’t going to be holding off on content. And they just proved that today, with a pretty important addition to Team Fortress 2 that might change the way it’s played for a while!

TF2: Public Voting For The Next Dr. Grordbort Item Pack; And The Scout Gets His Very Own Boombox

February 11th, 2012 · By Vic · 2 Comments

The Doctor Grordbort item packs have brought new life to Team Fortress 2, at the cost of art style purity. Based on WETA Workshop’s wacky line of steampunk gizmos, we’ve had three of these: one for the Soldier; one for the Pyro; and one for the Engineer. And Valve and WETA aren’t done yet – hit the jump to find out why and how!

TF2 To Get Secret New Project In 2012, Steam Workshop Blog Goes Live, “Meet The Pyro” Is On The Way, And More!

February 3rd, 2012 · By Vic · 10 Comments

It’s now 2012. What are we all looking forward to? Well, we’re looking forward to another disappointing E3, for one. We’re totally not looking forward to a war in the Middle East, because it might end up being a war in Middle Everywhere. And we’re somewhat looking forward to the end of the world, because the Mayans told us about it, and they had ancient aliens on their side. Not the Combine, though. They might be ancient, but they’re not into sun gods or anything like that – they just want to steal our plants. Oh, and our water.

So what can we do? Well, we can ready our emergency supplies for the war in Middle Everywhere. We can ready our games for a disappointing E3. But when it comes to the apocalypse, at the hands of the long-lost Mayan army, returning to Earth with the power of a thousand rayguns and an ancient alien battle corps, then all we can do is… play Team Fortress 2, I guess.

“The Biggest Team Fortress 2 Update Ever” – A Fan-Made Fake Update And Server Mod That Makes TF2 Even Better

January 30th, 2012 · By Vic · 5 Comments

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.

Gaming Heads Reveals Medic Replica Statuettes; Pre-Orders Live On 28th January

January 29th, 2012 · By Vic · 5 Comments

Ever since 2010, Gaming Heads has been teaming up with Valve, to deliver an array of terrific replica statuettes, based off all sorts of beloved characters from the Valve multiverse. They’ve had a TF2 line (probably their most popular), featuring the Soldier and the Heavy; a L4D line, featuring the Tank; and a Half-Life line, with none other than the beloved Headcrab Zombie. Or you can call him the Mawman, if you’re old-fashioned. They don’t, though.

But their TF2 line is about to get a new piece – the Medic!

« Older Entries