Team Fortress 2

The zombies are here! The zombies are here!

Earlier this month we pointed out that Left 4 Dead 2-styled Hunter and Tank plushies were joining the adorably-engorged Boomer in the Valve store, but that they wouldn't start shipping until Dec. 27.

Well, they're shipping now and we've got our hands on them, along with some wonderful Team Fortress 2 plushie sticky bombs.

Check out our little video tour and the pics we snapped. These have officially beaten out my plush Giant Microbes as my favorite plushies in the house.

Steam is ringing in the season with ridiculous savings on some of the best games available for the PC and Mac, with weekly and daily specials from now through January 2. Now how much would you pay?

I don't feel I'm exaggerating in the least when I call the sale prices Steam is putting on PC and MAC games and publisher bundles ridiculous. They've got the newly-released Oddworld Oddbox at 50 percent off, for example. That's Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Abe's Exoddus, Munch's Oddysee, and Stranger's Wrath for $12.49. Ridiculous, right?

Along with normal sales, Steam will also feature a Holiday Bonus Sale each day, which will require users to qualify for additional savings. For instance, players that own Team Fortress 2 will gain an extra 10 percent off on Portal today.

Here's a list of the titles kicking off the first round of saving:

F1 2010 50%
Battlefield Bad Company 2 66%
Fallout 3 (Game of the Year) 33%
The Deus Ex Collection 85%
LEGO Batman 75%
Peggle & Peggle Nights 60%
Prince of Persia (Franchise) 75%
Portal 75%
F.E.A.R. (Franchise) 75%
Titan Quest Gold 75%
Super Meat Boy 75%

Why are you still here? You should be shopping.

Valve celebrates Australian Christmas the way our antipodean friends have done for hundreds of years—by releasing a new Team Fortress 2 update. This one's stuffed with 20 hats, new store items and the olde weapons-only "Medieval Mode."

To play Medieval Mode, a mostly melee affair, you'll probably want to head to DeGroot Keep, a capture point map where TF2 players are currently hacking each other to bits with knives, swords, axes and bonesaws. The medieval themed update also includes new weapons, like... *deep breath* The Claidheamohmor, The Back Scratcher, The Boston Basher, The Fists of Steel, The Amputator, The Crusaders Crossbow, The Ullapool Caber, The Loch-n-Load, The Buffalo Steak Sandvich, The Brass Beast, The Warriors Spirit, The Candy Cane, and The Jag.

Those new, stylized weapons for a handful of classes are purchasable at the Mann Co. Store if you don't feel like waiting for them to drop. For the full list of changes, additions and patch notes, fire up Steam and start playing.

Australian Christmas [Team Fortress]

WETA, the special effects team behind the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and District 9, have given Team Fortress 2 developers Valve a very special gift: a sentry gun. That works.

OK, so it doesn't shoot bullets, but it is life-size, does move, does track your motion and follows you, and does play authentic sound effects from the game.

It's now sitting in the entrance to Valve's headquarters. What's just as interesting, though, is why the gun is there; Valve say the gift was the result of a request, made "a few months ago we got a chance to visit Weta Workshop".

Why would Valve be flying down to New Zealand to visit Weta?

While the church downstairs prepares to celebrate the Christmas season, Tripwire Interactive has been busy creating an expansion for Killing Floor that lets you kill Santa Claus, along with a special present for fans of Valve's Team Fortress 2.

Killing Floor is a cooperative multiplayer Steam game that plays a little like Valve's Left 4 Dead series, only with mutants in place of zombies. It's developed by Tripwire Interactive, a development studio located on the top floor of a church in Roswell, Georgia. A church whose attendees might have serious issues with Killing Floor's Twisted Christmas event.

Running from December 14 through January 4, the Twisted Christmas event is free to everyone that owns Killing Floor. It replaces the game's regular collection of super-powered specimens with festive holiday-themed creatures hell-bent on your annihilation. It's got evil reindeer, evil gingerbread men, and yes Virginia; there is an evil Santa Claus. Santa even gets his own level, Santa's Evil Lair, which seems a little out of character for the jolly old elf but hey, we'll play along.

Players that participate in the event will unlock a Baddest Santa as a multiplayer character. Players who participate in the event and own Team Fortress 2 will also score an extra bonus: A playable red or blue Pyro. Team Fortress 2 players will score Mr. Foster's trademark gas mask and business tie as equippable items for Pyro in that game.

Head over to the official event page for more on Killing Floor's Twisted Christmas event.

Valve is giving Steam users a new way to win video games—up to a hundred of them!—and even score some new headwear in Team Fortress 2. The "Great Steam Treasure Hunt" is a game for winning games.

From December 6 to 19, Steam users are tasked with completing online and in-game objectives, like setting up a Steam avatar and unlocking The Heavy's Iron Curtain in Poker Night at the Inventory, which can lead to winning free games. Prizes will be handed out bi-daily to lucky winners and at the end of the whole affair, Valve will hand out 100 games to three lucky Steam users.

There are also deals to be had, like cheaper copies of R.U.S.E. and even cheaper copies of Chime. Begin the hunt!

The Great Steam Treasure Hunt [Steam]

Telltale Games' crazy crossover card game features three characters with established voices - Team Fortress 2's Heavy, Strong Bad, and Max. But what does Penny Arcade's Tycho sound like? This trailer has the answer.

Poker Night At The Inventory is due out for PC and Mac this month.

Later this month, Telltale Games—makers of Sam & Max and Penny Arcade video games—will release a new poker title featuring, among others, Team Fortress 2's Heavy. That's not the only incentive luring TF2 fans to do some gambling.

To help promote Telltale's Poker Night at the Inventory, Valve is adding a few more items to the increasingly long list of equippable Team Fortress 2 goodies, including a new wristwatch for the Spy (The Enthusiast's Timepiece), Strong Bad's "styling" glasses (for the Demoman) and something known as the Lugermorph for the Scout and Engineer.

Of course, there's also a new visor and the Iron Curtain, a new mini-gun, for the Heavy. All are available to owners of Poker Night at the Inventory as unlockable items, but only the visor will be available to those who pre-order.

"Poker Night at the Inventory includes special rounds periodically where characters will buy in with un-lockable Team Fortress 2 items," Telltale explains. "If the player wins the round, the item becomes theirs to use in TF2."

Considering the price of some of those Mann Co. items in Team Fortress 2, five bucks now looks like a steal. You win, Valve.

Update: Telltale provided images of all the unlockables. We've also corrected the specifics surrounding the availability of items in Poker Night.

Shh. Sascha is asleep. [Team Fortress]

Halloween has come to Team Fortress 2! And so has the game's first boss monster, the axe-wielding, jack o' lantern behatted Horseless Headless Horsemann. It's all part of Valve's second annual TF2 Halloween special.

The latest update for the oft-updated Team Fortress 2 adds an all-new map, the spooky Mann Manor, as well as a quartet of new, potentially heart attack-inducing achievements. Even more frightening? The Halloween-themed achievements made available during last year's Halloween update are now achievable once more!

(Update: There's another new map in this update, Mountain Lab! Both new maps come from TF2Maps.net's Art Pass contest.)

Also new are fresh community made and Valve made items in the Mann Co. Store, some of which are only available while the TF2 Halloween special update is live. That's from today until November 8, by the way.

If you're at least this tall and don't suffer from a pre-existing heart condition, it's recommended that you start playing some Team Fortress 2 now. If you dare, of course.

Team Fortress 2 - Halloween Special [Team Fortress - thanks, gregfromtheinternet!]

The recently launched "Mann-conomy" for Team Fortress 2 has quickly become a profitable venture for the community modelers who cranked out new weapons, hats and accessories for Valve's game. Valve just sent out royalty check to creators... and they're big.

Five TF2 community members—Rob Laro, Shawn Spetch, Steven Skidmore, Spencer Kern, and Shaylyn Hamm—created new items for the game ranging from crocodile hats to jars of milk to sleek black rocket launchers, which players can purchase in-game. Two weeks later, some of these guys are sitting on royalties of up to $47,000 USD.

Not bad for a mackerel wrapped in newsprint.

Valve says that royalty payments exceeded PayPal's maximum deposit size, leading two community content creators to fly to Seattle to pick up checks in person.

Unsurprisingly, Valve says we should expect more regular updates on the community created side in Team Fortress 2. Everybody wins... with money!