If you ever looked at 2009's incredible replica Portal gun and thought "ooh, I'd like that", now's your chance to put your money where your mouth is.

Custom replica specialists Volpin Props, whose amazing work we've featured before, are putting one of these babies up for auction as part of this year's Child's Play charity drive, meaning your money isn't just going towards securing a replica Portal gun, it's going to a good cause.

For more information — and to check out a thorough guide to how Volpin put one of these together — hit the link below.

Portal Gun for Child's Play [Volpin, via PC Gamer]

Tara and Seth are getting married. They also happen to love Portal. So they hired Gawker artist Sam Spratt to design their save-the-date for their upcoming spring wedding.

Seth tells Kotaku that he and his fiance are both big sci-fi geeks and love the game Portal. They wanted to do something incredibly different and quirky to bring some personality to this so the two worked with Spratt to make something untraditional with some sentimental value and nerd-love.

Spratt, himself a big gamer, said it was a treat to bring some flavor from a game he and the couple loves into something so unusual with Seth.

Save the Date Illustration and cards by Sam Spratt. Check out Sam's portfolio and become a fan of his Facebook Artist's Page.

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!]

Portal gags are usually overplayed, we know, but this tattoo-inspired piece was too pretty to ignore. By Jimiyo, available later today on Teefury.

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!

Those who own Team Fortress 2 can pick up an all-important hat - and a very useful skillet - free for use in that game if they go grab Left 4 Dead 2 before 7 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday).

What's more, the game is $6.79, (roughly 6.47 times the price of freedom), so you can see, Valve's keen to sell some damn Left 4 Dead 2. Grab it and you get a trucker hat worn by Ellis, the alleged friend of Whitaker, who runs the gun shop across from Liberty Mall in L4D2. The skillet is, well, you've seen what it can do in Left 4 Dead 2.

Already own Left 4 Dead 2 and TF2 on the PC? You'll see the items show up shortly.

Free Hats! [TF2 Blog]

Who doesn't love sending Half-Life 2's headcrab zombies to the great beyond with a few whacks of Gordon Freeman's trusty crowbar? And who wouldn't love to have said bloody, shambling headcrab zombie in statue form?

Thankfully, the next great Gaming Heads creation based on Valve's Half-Life games is coming soon. The figure makers is opening up pre-orders for the 1/4 scale headcrab zombie next Monday, October 4. No price yet. But like Gaming Heads' previous releases, the Tank from Left 4 Dead and the Heavy from Team Fortress 2, we expect the headcrab zombie to cost a pretty penny.

1/4 Scale Headcrab Zombie [Gaming Heads]

No longer will you have to endure hours of Team Fortress 2 play just to unlock the game's hidden weapons, defensive items and wearable accessories. Today, Valve opened the Mann Co. Store, which lets you buy goods with real-world cash.

The update not only introduces a way to buy new guns, hats and fish-wrapped-in-newspaper melee weapons, it includes the long-promised Polycount Pack update. That's the community created item sets, which add 17 new items for five of the game's classes. Players can blow real-world cash on those items starting today. Prices range from 49 cents to $4.99 USD. Funds can be deposited to the newly launched Steam Wallet.

Update: It appears that the TF2 store is full of items priced higher than $4.99 USD. Some hats run $7.49, $9.99 and even a ludicrous $17.49. Yikes.

What's not in this update? The new game mode that Valve had previously promised.

While Valve stands to profit from selling in-game items, so does the community. The in-game store FAQ notes "community contributors will receive a percentage of sales on items they've created."

The Mann Co. Store may be goods news for the lazy, but the miserly needn't be overly concerned about the change. Valve notes in its new Mann Co. Store FAQ that the Polycount Pack items are unlockable and craftable through normal means, just like other items.

Read more about the new "Mann-conomy" in the service's newly released FAQ and peruse the new item sets at the Team Fortress 2 official site to see if that five dollar Spy knife is something you'd like to buy.

Probably not a big deal, but... [TF2 Blog]