Catching up with the last few day’s Internet and I wonder how on earth I missed the wonderful dancing TF2 characters videos by Professional Animator James Benson which PC Gamer posted on Thursday. Because I’m drunk, 24-7, that’s why. God knows what Walker’s excuse is (Answer: He Is A Bad Healer). Anyway, better late than never, as Delightful Fiancée put it after the last pregnancy scare. I want you to all stand up while watching these, so you’re ready to give a standing ovation. And… (more…)

The splendid chaps over at Multiplay – who do UK-based servers for all kinds of games – have been kind enough to provide us with an official RPS server for the purposes of The Engineer Update. The IP is 85.236.100.107:27315. And if I am right this will auto-launch from Steam: steam://connect/85.236.100.107:27315

Go shoot people.

We’ve only covered the Engineer Update a little because – oh, I don’t know. When Valve have got as good as playing their community as they are, seems that you’re surplus to requirements. And this one was expertly done, with the whole collection of Golden Wrenches building up to it – with the final heroes enshrined forever in this splendid list. I especially approve of crafter #97 “I Have Very Big Balls”. That you do, my friend, that you do. The full patch notes are here, if you want to get STRAIGHT TO THE FACTS. If you prefer a more scenic route, all the new weapons, achievements and maps are detailed here. And if you prefer experience to fancy-pants book-learnin’, you can just dive into the game and play the bloody thing. And, for a little RPS local colour, here’s the 2007 vintage Go Team! article Alec wrote about the joys of the Engineer. Anyone got any initial impressions?

The internet is probably full of information about this. Don’t you think?

Things are afoot in TeamFortress2Land, things of tease and mystery. Firstly there’s a new item: the golden wrench – a Midas weapon for the turning of people into gold – which internet boffins think might just be a clue as to the nature of the next update. But then there’s this TF2 comic, which tells a little tale of an engineer’s life, and unravels more of what seems to be an extra-complex history-explicating backstory for our favoured cartoonish shooter. All this seems ponderful enough… but wait! There are hidden links within the comic. On page four this, and then, within the source code of that page, a link to the obscured signature, here, and a portrait of the family, here. IT IS SOME KIND OF CLUE-BASED PUZZLE EVENT!

From the depths of the almighty Steamforums – via Simon Parkin, Via Kotaku – comes some fun reworking of Valves IP. One SF2-style is shown above, and an especially large shot multi-stage shot beneath the cut… but do follow the link to this venerable threadto see Fortcraft, The Legend of Sniper and more. (more…)

Valve! They’ve done it again! You’re going to like this comic about the launch of Fortified Team Two for Mac. You’re going to like it a lot. Unless you’re one of those people>.

Which people? I ain’t telling. This place has their curvy stink all over them.

(Is that the first time we’ve seen Saxton Hale interacting with our brave teamsters, incidentally?Tell me, nerds. TELL ME.)

Also! Also! There’s a new offline training mode, featuring bots! And anyone playing TF2 on Mac before Monday gets free in-game iPod headphones! And there’s a new video, including a glimpse of the Engineer with a scoped shotgun! I’ve put a picture of the latter, which is possibly teasing the long-awaited engie update, below. Froth away, frothers. (more…)

If I had my way, Portal guns would appear in all other games. Far Cry 2, Dragon Age, World Of Goo, Freecell, the lot. And they’d appear in real life. Imagine how great things would be if I had my way. However, if the modding project of one Pawn from 3-PG manages to escape some awkward obstacles, we could soon be seeing a mod that allows the Portal gun in Team Fortress 2. Called, rather wonderfully, Team Portress, the video below explains how the gun works in game, first demonstrating what it’s capable of, then showing you the weapon in a proper game. The catch? According to the poster, Valve has recently introduced a ban on custom items being given to players to prevent the anarchic distribution of hats.

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It is Team Fortress news so we must post it because it is Team Fortress news, even in the face of our great despair about what the morrow may bring for the UK. Valve’s monopoly on patch-centric gossip remains extraordinary, the presentation alone ensuring gents like us are duty-bound to cover it. This time, it’s a teaser for the long-awaited Engineer update… (more…)

Dan Kelly alerts us to the (apparently) now fixed bug which slipped in with the last TF2 update, which allowed you to build as many sentries and dispensers as they choose. “There’s something very cool about watching 40 sentries simultainiously bleep and take down a heavy,” he notes. You can follow the chaos on the TF2 forum, with lots of people doing their own ludicrous, glorious, game-ruining gun spam. And some footage with Spose’s NSFW I’m Awesome as a soundtrack follows… (more…)