Steam News

Team Fortress 2 Update Released

November 2, 2009, 6:47 pm - Valve - Product Update

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Team Fortress 2

• Added Bill's Hat for players who pre-purchase Left 4 Dead 2
  
• Fixed client-side perf problem after changing levels on Koth_Harvest_Event
  

Happy Halloween! Team Fortress 2 is on Sale - 2 Hours Only!

October 31, 2009, 11:05 am - Valve

Team Fortress 2 is available for only $2.49/£2.49/2,49€ for the next two hours. Offer ends exactly at 1:00pm Pacific Time.

Join in on the fun with in the The Terrifying Team Fortress 2 Haunted Halloween Special Update from October 29th thru November 2nd!

Read the official TF2 Blog Post that explains the madness.

Trick or Treat! Team Fortress 2 Halloween Sale - 2 Hours Only!

October 30, 2009, 5:11 pm - Valve

Team Fortress 2 is available for only $2.50/£2.50/2,50€ for the next two hours. Offer ends exactly at 7:00pm Pacific Time.

Join in on the fun with in the The Terrifying Team Fortress 2 Haunted Halloween Special Update from October 29th thru November 2nd!

Team Fortress 2 Update Released

October 29, 2009, 6:20 pm - Valve - Product Update

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Team Fortress 2

• Added a new community map: Koth_Harvest
  
• Added a Halloween edition called Koth_Harvest_Event
  
  • Contains a variety of Halloween related features: New hats, achievements, exploding pumpkins, ghosts, and more!
    
• Updated the CTF, Arena, and KOTH versions of Sawmill
  
  • Fixed Engineer exploit
    
• Added check to prevent clients from sending empty or all whitespace names to the server
  
• Fixed "item_found" announcements coloring the player names if the player has :: in their name
  
• QuickSwitch improvements
  
  • Added key input so you can cycle through it using the slot input keys
    
  • Added all loadout slots (not just primary, secondary, and melee)
    
  • Removed duplicate entries (should only see 1 flaregun, etc.)
    
  • Fixed a few small layout & empty slot bugs
    
  
  Community requests
  
  • Updated item_teamflag with flags to toggle the trail effects: 0 none, 1 all, 2 paper only, 3 color only
    
  • Added a "both" selection to the invalid winners field for team_control_point_master and team_control_point_round entities
    

Trick or Treat! Early Team Fortress 2 Halloween Sale - 2 Hours Only

October 29, 2009, 12:12 pm - Valve - General Announcement

Team Fortress 2 is available for only $2.49/£2.49/2,49€ for the next two hours. Offer ends exactly at 2:00pm Pacific Time.

Join in on the fun with in the The Terrifying Team Fortress 2 Haunted Halloween Special Update from October 29th thru November 2nd!

Team Fortress 2 Update Released

October 14, 2009, 2:00 pm - Valve - Product Update

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Team Fortress 2

• Added "+quickswitch" command, which brings up a small panel allowing you to rapidly change the loadout of your current class & active weapon slot
  
• Added server ConVar "tf_teamtalk" to allow alive/dead teammates to talk with each other during a match (default is 0)
  
• Added 1/2 Bonus Point for healing a teammate with a dropped sandvich
  
• Updated the class menu to show the local player's current class
  
• Updated server ConVar "tf_playergib" to have 3 settings for player gibs: 0: never, 1: normal, 2: always (default is 1)
  
• Updated "player_hurt" game event to include "damageamount" and "crit" values
  
• Fixed a rare crash in particle system
  
• Fixed being able to eat your sandvich (via taunt) and drop it in the same frame
  
• Fixed not correctly remembering the last weapon if you're using "remember active weapon" and the last weapon was the weapon in slot 0
  
• Fixed Medic not being able to release his UberCharge if his team won the previous round and the Medigun was his last active weapon (while using "remember last active weapon")
  
• Fixed not remembering the last active weapon correctly if the player didn't die before the next round restart
  
• Prevented servers from using steam:// commands in their MOTD text
  
• Fixed using the regen cabinets to get more health than you should when you switch between weapons with/without max health reduction attributes
  
• Fixed friendly-fire/spectator exploit using projectiles
  
• Fixed disguised spies not getting ammo from enemy dispensers
  
• Fixed thrown sandvich traveling through players before being activated
  
• Fixed sandviches sometimes spawning inside walls, or being thrown through thin walls
  
• Fixed fire overlay drawing on hats in DX80
  
• Fixed an exploit that allowed servers to corrupt client's item database
  
• Fixed full packet updates showing cloaked Spies for an instant
  
• Fixed a prediction error resulting in mis-predictions of crits
  

• Added new "func_flag_alert" entity that fires an alert when a player carrying a flag starts touching the entity
  
• Added server ConVar "bot_crouch" to make bots crouch
  
• Added model override for item_teamflag entity
  
• Added ability to turn off particle trail for players carrying the item_teamflag entity
  
• Updated team_train_watcher to support 8 cp/track links (was previously 4)
  

Team Fortress 2 Update Released

September 15, 2009, 3:21 pm - Valve - Product Update

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Engine

• If the installation is an HLTV relay we allow clients to connect as HLTV clients even if tv_enable is set to false. A recent exploit fix made it such that we ignore the flag indicating that the client is an HLTV client if tv_enable is false, but it is possible that relays won't have this ConVar set
  

• Backpack improvement
  
  • Added support for 100 slots in the backpack
    
  • Backpack can now be sorted by type
    
  • Multi-selection in the backpack is now done by holding down the Ctrl key
    
• Alt-fire on the Sandvich now drops sandviches
  
  • A single sandvich can be dropped at a time. Dropping the sandvich removes it from the Heavy
    
  • A Heavy can regain his sandvich by collecting a healthkit while already being at full health
    
  • Eating a sandvich using the taunt method now heals a Heavy to full health
    
  • Dropped sandviches heal 50% of the collector's health
    
• Medic regen changes
  
  • Base regen amount increased from 1/sec to 3/sec
    
  • Regen amount increase since time of last damage decreased from 3x to 2x
    
  • End result of above: Old healing scaled from 1/sec to 3/sec based on time since being damaged (maxed out at 10 seconds). New healing scales from 3/sec to 6/sec
    
• Blutsauger
  
  • Replaced "No critical hits" negative attribute with "-2 health drained per second on wearer"
    
  • Health drain stacks on top of the above Medic regen changes, lowering the base regen by 2h/sec
    
• Added "mp_windifference" server ConVar (default to 0)
  
  • When set to X, matches will be considered won if a team gets X points ahead of the other team
    
• Added a "Remember the active weapon between lives" option to the Multiplayer->Advanced options dialog
  
• Added "Disable weather effects" option to the Multiplayer->Advanced options dialog
  
• Added "Show non-standard items on spectated player" option to the Multiplayer->Advanced options dialog
  
  • If set (default), it'll show non-standard items being carried by the player you're spectating
    
• Tournament mode changes
  
  • New item whitelist allowing tournaments to control what items can be used by players
    
  • Added "item_whitelist_example.txt"
    
  • Added "item_show_whitelistable_definitions" command to get a list of whitelistable items
    
• Added Tournament mode Spectator HUD
  
  • Added "Use advanced spectator HUD in tournament mode" option to the Multiplayer->Advanced options dialog
    
  • Shows all the members of your team (or both if you're a spectator) at the top of the screen, along with class/health/respawn time/charge level
    
  • Spectator indices are now shown on the team members, and hitting the corresponding weapon selection key (slot1-slot12 commands) will spectate them
    
• Changed idle player check to include spectators & players who haven't chosen a team
  

• Fixed explosive radius detection using an axially aligned box instead of a sphere
  
  • Compensated by increasing the radius of grenades, pipes, and rockets to 50% of what they lost at the corners of the OBB
    
  • Grenades/Pipes radius change: 132->159
    
  • Rocket radius change: 121->146
    
  • End result of above: Explosives have had their radius reduced at some angles, and increased at others. Radius is now consistent, angles are now irrelevant
    
• Fixed Sniper using the reference pose if he has the Huntsman deployed when his team loses
  
• Fixed Spies speaking their response rules lines after killing a player as the class they were disguised as
  
• Fixed Medics getting MedicCallerPanels in their HUD for cloaked enemy Spies disguised as their team
  
• Fixed the Huntsman not firing crit arrows when the Sniper is being CritBoosted
  
• Fixed being able to fire the Huntsman under water if you jump into the water with the arrow charged
  
• Added check to prevent clients using the "firstperson" command to get out of thirdperson view while they're phasing, taunting or control stunned
  
• Fixed Halo glow effect not being hidden for cloak/disguised enemy Spies
  
• Fixed wearables not destroying their attached particles when they're removed
  
• Fixed several player & viewmodel simulation issues that occurred when the game was paused
  
• Fixed a DX8-based exploit that allowed modified particle effects to work under sv_pure 2
  

• Added the entindex() of the object being built to the "player_builtobject" game event
  
• Added flag to allow CTF map authors to turn off the Overtime mode when timers expire
  
• Added IgnitePlayer input to TFPlayer
  

Garry's Mod is 50% Off This Week Only

September 14, 2009, 1:41 pm - Valve - General Announcement

The physics sandbox Garry's Mod has just been updated to include Steam achievements and is now 50% Off until September 21st. Join in the fun today!

This game requires that you own a Source engine game such as Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 2, or Day of Defeat: Source. Click here for a full list of games that meet this requirement. Please note that Portal: First Slice and the bundled Half-Life 2: Deathmatch do not fulfill this requirement.

Source 2007 Engine Update Released

September 10, 2009, 10:29 am - Valve - Product Update

Updates to the Source 2007 Engine have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Source 2007 Engine

• Fixed an exploit that allowed files to be uploaded to the server at arbitrary locations in the file system
  
• Fixed a server crash caused by a client packet claiming to be an HLTV client when HLTV is disabled on the server
  
• Fixed a server crash caused by spoofing a client disconnect message
  
• Fixed a server crash caused by sending malformed reliable subchannel data
  

Garry's Mod Update Released

September 10, 2009, 10:23 am - Valve - Product Update

Updates to Garry's Mod have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Garry's Mod

• Added 10 achievements
  
• Reenabled voice_inputfromfile
  
• Fixed some unlocked achievements showing as locked