Team Fortress 2
tf2


The wonderful hat-trading, item-crafting Valve experiment that is Team Fortress 2 is about to get an all-important update that adds two new community maps while fixing some rather heinous exploits along the way.

Those who have fallen victim to spawn-campers and sentry-jumpers no longer need to live in terror as the Team Fortress 2 team says it has fixed the exploit in all maps, but noted Badwater as being the most notorious battleground for nefarious deeds.

“It didn't take long before clever players discovered how to use sentry jumping to build on roofs, Jumpers to move quickly behind enemy lines and spawn camp, and sneakily place buildings inside of their spawns,” the TF2 team said in a blog post. “While we love players coming up with new and inventive ways to win, let's face it: It's never fun to be gunned down from above and behind.”

The team also announced it’s adding two community-made Capture Point maps called “Process” and “Standin” due to their intuitive design. The team challenged other TF2 map makers to construct even better maps if they wished to be recognized as well.
Jul 5, 2013
Team Fortress 2

If you'd rather not get spoiled on whether or not there's an update coming soon, you'd better not read the rest of this sentence, and you also might want to skip directly to the last paragraph of this post. Then also don't read it, because SPOILER: This post is allllllll about an upcoming update.


First off: this update is going to have a list of patch notes longer than a stalemate on Hydro. Rather than just dropping all of that in your lap with no explanation, we figured we'd spend a few blog posts taking you through some of the soon-to-be-released update content, so you'd get an idea of the process behind some of the changes and additions we're making. Let’s start with maps.


TF2 has been evolving since the day we released it back in 2007. Unfortunately, as players' tactics and abilities have grown, so have the bugs and exploits in some of the maps. For example, since Badwater shipped in The Heavy Update, TF2 has added more than 140 weapons to the game, some of which introduced new capabilities: sentry jumping, rocket jumping with no health cost, the ability to pick up and move your buildings. All of these are just a fraction of the many ways players can now turn maps like Badwater upside down.




It didn't take long before clever players discovered how to use sentry jumping to build on roofs, Jumpers to move quickly behind enemy lines and spawn camp, and sneakily place buildings inside of their spawns. While we love players coming up with new and inventive ways to win, let's face it: It's never fun to be gunned down from above and behind.






And Badwater is just one of the maps with fixes in this update. In fact, the majority of maps in TF2 have gone through the same process. By eliminating these exploits and bugs, players can once again feel like they understand threats and the dangers presented in combat spaces.


Secondly: Sure, it’s great to fix the old maps, but we’re also adding two NEW community-created maps by Ian Cuslidge that, and here's another spoiler warning, are fricking awesome. Introducing two all-new Capture Point maps: Process and Standin. Beyond a great polish, both of these maps offer unique and exciting gameplay; Process with its five streamlined Capture Points and Standin with its triple Cap Point free-for-all.



cp_process


cp_process

These maps were selected by the TF2 team in part for their straightforward and intuitive layouts, and in part because they were a hell of a lot of fun to play. These CP maps were designed with little visual noise, were easy to understand and fun to navigate through. If you're a community map maker and want to see us ship your map, here's another spoiler on how to do that: Make it better than these.



cp_standin


cp_standin

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch - Valve
An update to Half-Life 2: Deathmatch has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Half-Life 2: Deathmatch. The major changes include:

  • Fixed dedicated servers not correctly identifying their version
Left 4 Dead

Celebrating Left 4 Dead 2 s official release on Linux and America s Day of Independence, we re putting L4D2 on sale for a stunning 75% off!

We know people have a busy weekend ahead of them with BBQs, sack races, blowing fingers off, and other fun summer time activities, so we made it a little more enticing to give it a try this weekend. We are making L4D2 free until 10am PST Monday morning.
Counter-Strike
The best shooters of all time
Half-Life - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Alec Meer)

“Added breakable functionality to all door types.”>

Well, first-person shooters, it only took you 21 years, but you’ve finally cracked it. Our ultimate foe has at last been defeated.

(more…)

Half-Life 2: Deathmatch - Valve
An update to Half-Life 2: Deathmatch has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Half-Life 2: Deathmatch. The major changes include:

  • Fixed a regression in the client prediction code
Team Fortress 2 - Valve
An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

  • Added the Summer Appetizer Crate to the drop list and added the Summer Appetizer Key to the Mann Co. Store
  • Fixed a server crash caused by multiple Spies sapping a building at the same time
  • Fixed a case where a Medic deploying Kritzkrieg on a Spy would sometimes result in permanent crit boost
Team Fortress 2
An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:
  • Added the Summer Appetizer Crate to the drop list and added the Summer Appetizer Key to the Mann Co. Store
  • Fixed a server crash caused by multiple Spies sapping a building at the same time
  • Fixed a case where a Medic deploying Kritzkrieg on a Spy would sometimes result in permanent crit boost
Left 4 Dead

The Extended Mutation System, Linux support, and other features and fixes are moving to Left 4 Dead 2 proper. Thanks to everyone who helped test all the changes in the Beta Build. You can find a complete list of the change notes here.

Linux
The Linux conversion is ready for primetime so we are opening it up to more people and releasing it officially on Steam. This will let us get feedback on more builds and distros.

SteamPipe
Some of you may have noticed a quick update to your game last week. That was our conversion over to SteamPipe. For L4D2 it was quick and painless as our system was already using VPKs. What does this change mean? For server operators there is an easier update path and smaller downloads. For clients, we have improved the downloading experience and you can now install L4D2 on any drive. You can get more details on the support page.

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