Team Fortress 2 players, get ready to experience a combination of awe, jealousy and then more awe with Community Fortress collection of the top ten TF2 kills from tournaments around the world in August, as highlighted by the Team Fortress 2 blog. Predictably, many of them show sickeningly skilled Demomen juggling enemies with perfectly timed sticky explosions, but there are a few Heavy and Medic kills, and an unbelievable shot from a Soldier at number six, just under two minutes in. Spectacular stuff. Which one's your favourite?

Wednesday October 5. That will be the day in which the Portal 2 Peer Review DLC will be released. The free mission pack will extend Atlas and Peabody's co-op adventure and add a new challenge mode for single player and co-op maps.

Back when Valve announced first DLC pack, they also mentioned leaderboards so all your friends and a bunch of strangers will all know how exactly how smart you are (or aren't), which explains the 'Peer Review' handle. That means your performance will be graded by both Glados AND the conglomerate hivemind of the The Internet. NO PRESSURE.

In more 'free stuff from Valve' news, the third volume of the Portal 2 soundtrack, Songs to Test By, is available now on the Portal 2 site, featuring such classic hits as Some Assembly Required, Your Precious Moon and Robots FTW.

As writers, one of the ways we reassure ourselves about our career choice is by wearing fancy hats. Now, we finally have an in-game TF2 item to continue that tradition. If you buy Episode 1 of PC Gamer Digital from Steam, you'll receive The Killer Exclusive--a dashing tan fedora that declares outwardly to your opponents "I am (or am impersonating) a member of the media, and I deserve your respect!"

Click within for answers to probable Qs that you may have about our stylish TF2 tie-in.

About-to-be-asked questions:

The Killer Exclusive can be equipped to any of TF2's nine character classes.
The Killer Exclusive activates automatically in TF2. Buy Ep. 1, launch the game, and it should appear in your backpack.
If you already have Episode 1 of PC Gamer Digital, you should already have The Killer Exclusive.
Episode 1 can be gifted to others on Steam.
Steam considers Episode 1 as DLC for PC Gamer Digital, so you need to install that before you can view Episode 1.
PC Gamer Digital is currently only available in the US. Within weeks, PC Gamer Digital will be available globally through Steam. The promotion will still be active at that time.
If you have questions about PC Gamer Digital, we posted a big ol' FAQ about it here.


And as a reminder, our compatriots at PC Gamer in the UK are also offering the item through their version of the magazine.

We'll likely be holding an "exclusive" hat-wearer-only TF2 event on our server over the weekend so we can capture an image or video of us all romping around with the hat, killing each other in some kind of murderous press conference. Watch the PC Gamer Steam group for that.

Team Fortress Arcade recreates Team Fortress 2 as an old-school scrolling arcade shooter. You play as one of the nine TF2 classes, rendered in adorable 2D sprite form. You can gang up with three friends and fight your way Eastwards to face off against each level boss, a member of the Red team. The first boss is the Red Scout. He chugs bonk and zooms around in zig zags. Hilarious and annoying, it captures the Scout perfectly.

It's made by Eric Ruth, who also created the fantastic de-make of Left 4 Dead, which can be downloaded for free on Fileplanet. Team Fortress Arcade is also free to download now on PikiGeek.

It's been a year since Valve announced the launch of the Team Fortress 2 Mann-conomy update, which let players pay money for in-game items like weapons, and of course, hats. Community modellers could submit new weapons, and pick up a share of the profits if their item made it into the game. It was a huge, game-changing update, and its success is likely one of the biggest reasons behind Valve's decision to make Team Fortress 2 free.

So one year on, how has the Mann-conomy changed Team Fortress 2? One thing's obvious. There are quite a lot of hats in TF2 these days. Team Fortress 2's transition into a hat wearing simulator with some added shooting is almost complete, and it's easy to forget now that hats were the most controversial and surprising part of the update. Controversial because of their hefty price tags. Surprising because of the enormous number of players happy to pay up for a smart piece of virtual headwear.

It's fair to say that the community's goodwill towards Valve was an important factor in the update's success. Valve have been adding major updates to the game for free since launch, and for those who get Team Fortress 2 as part of the Orange Box, it's turned into an exceptional deal. Players pouring dozens of hours a week into the game were happy to spend a lot of money to play with new items, and show support for a game they loved. This has allowed Valve to get away with more than you might expect. The addition of crates, which can only be unlocked with a bought key, still feels like a mean addition.



Still, the Mann-conomy has almost certainly been a huge success financially, not just for Valve, but for community members who design the new items that sell in the Mann-Co Store. The creators of the Polycount Pack made a fortune. The five community members scored paychecks between $39,000 and $47,000 after just two weeks of the items going on sale. The amounts were too large to be processed by Paypal, so Valve flew out some of the item creators to Valve HQ to pay them in person.

One story that recently appeared on Reddit tells the story of one community member who says he made $15 from sales of the Southern Hospitality when it was released with the Engineer update. Pleased to have his item featured in the game, he emailed Valve boss Gabe Newell to say thanks. Next month, he got a cheque for more than $5,000. Newell had apparently bought close to ten thousand wrenches.

The Mann-conomy has also been used for charitable purposes. A series of items went on sale earlier this year to raise money for the victims of the Japan earthquake. $430,543.65 went to the Japanese Red Cross as a result.



The Mann-conomy is here to stay, and it's growing beyond the borders of TF2. Steam trading now lets players swap hats for unredeemed Steam games. Third party publishers are starting to add their support. By the second year Manniversary, we could be trading TF2 hats for Deus Ex: Human Revolution DLC.

Now, Team Fortress 2 is free. Valve have used TF2 as a testing ground for a lot of new ideas, not least the addition of micro-transactions. The ongoing TF2 beta regularly tests mad new weapons. But unlike most mad experiments, TF2 has turned out surprisingly well. the explosion of new items cluttering up everyone's backpacks makes your average TF2 server a confusing, bizarre but hilarious place to spend some time. We re-reviewed it when it went free to play a few months ago. It's better than ever. We can't wait to see what Valve do with TF2 next.

Need more TF2 hats? Claim your free Killer Exclusive cap in the latest issue of PC Gamer UK.

So now we know that Gordon Freeman will return in Renegade Ops. We can't say exactly why, but we can show you what he'll look like. See three new screenshots of Gordon's buggy in action below, along with some new artwork in which Gordon has a bit of a glare, perhaps a bit irate at how long it's taking for Episode 3 to come out.

 
Gordon Freeman will be a playable character in the PC version of Renegade Ops. The top down blaster will let us play as the Half Life hero and drive around in the Half Life 2 buggy, firing off rockets, taking out tanks with mounted machine guns and unleashing swarms of Antlions to quickly wipe out dozens of enemies at a time.

Renegade Ops is the latest from Just Cause and Just Cause 2 developers, Avalanche studios. A far cry from the sprawling, open world action of their previous titles, Renegade Ops will be a more traditional co-op shooter, with a very, very strange Gordon Freeman shaped twist.

“Working with Steam and the Half-Life team makes this game extra special.” said Sega's director of digital, John Clark. “Gordon Freeman is a deeply-established character in the gaming world and we are proud to have him included in Renegade Ops.”

Renegade Ops is out on Steam on October 14, and will cost $15.00 / £9.99 / €12.99 / AUD$ 20.00. Catch the first screenshot of Gordon in his buggy below, with more to follow on the site shortly. The One Free Man is back!

I'm in full on Oprah mode.

"YOU GET A HAT."
"YOU GET A HAT."
"YOU GET A HAT."
"EVERYBODY GETS A HAT."

Cue music, dancing and the wild celebrations. And possibly ticker tape.

If you subscribe to PC Gamer UK via Zinio, you'll be getting the exactly the same gifts that the print subscribers and news-stand subscribers are getting with issue 232. That means you'll be getting our PCG reader only TF2 hat, the "Killer Exclusive" and a free trial to the game streaming service Onlive. We'll be sending out the codes for both to the email account you registered your Zinio subscription to. Many Bothans suffered a slight inconvenience to get you this. So we made a press release. It's below.

- Get free trial of Onlive and exclusive content for Team Fortress 2
- New issue is world’s biggest gaming magazine at 196 pages

22/09/11 – Future, the special-interest media group, today reveals a world-first ‘covermount’ on a digital edition – for the new issue of PC Gamer, the global PC gaming authority.

Readers of the digital edition of PC Gamer issue 232, available via Zinio, can access exclusive gifts using download codes supplied by the magazine.

The gifts include a free 30-day trial of Onlive, the revolutionary new cloud gaming service. UK readers can play high-end videogames straight from their computer, TV or mobile device without the need for discs, downloads or specialist hardware.

Also free with the issue, out 28 September, is the “Killer Exclusive” – a hat for characters in classic multiplayer game Team Fortress 2, available exclusively to PC Gamer readers.

Inside the magazine there’s a world-exclusive hands-on with 2011’s most eagerly-awaited game, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

The download codes also replace the print edition’s monthly disc as the magazine moves to a more efficient, forward-thinking way of delivering its ‘covermounted’ content.

Tim Edwards, Editor of PC Gamer, says: “It’s vital that PC Gamer reflect the habits and interests of our readers. We know that they’re happy to play and download games online – and that they’re fast losing interest in games on DVD. This change lets us add a vast amount of extra content in terms of pagination, while giving away cool exclusives.”

At 196 pages, up from 132, PC Gamer 232 is the biggest issue this millennium – and the biggest games magazine in the world. It’s read by a huge 453,000 people*.

Online, PC Gamer continues to go from strength to strength. Launched in June 2010, www.PCGamer.com is the world’s biggest single-format games website. August 2011 was a record-breaking month for traffic with more than 2.8 million unique users – the site’s highest yet and an increase of 157%**.

James Binns, Future’s Head of PC Gaming, says: “The PC Gamer brand has never been in better shape. In August our website hit a new high, with over 2.8 million unique users, and this change to the print edition will give our readers more of what they want.”

PC Gamer 232 goes on sale 28 September priced at £5.99. To buy the digital edition visit www.zinio.com/pcgamer. For more information visit www/pcgamer.com.

An update has just been applied to the Team Fortress 2 beta on Steam that paves the way for multiple loadouts for each class, a great quality of life change for TF2 players. It also allows multiple misc slots, allowing you to carry more than one cosmetic item, and various balance changes. The full patchnotes are below.


Synced with all changes and fixes from the official release

Added support for multiple Misc slot items being equipped at the same time

Added support for character loadout presets


Undocumented changes
Updated the Foster's Facade and Noh Mercy to use the misc slot.

The class select screen now displays currently equipped loadout.

The Reserve Shooter can now be equipped by the Pyro and Soldier.

The Tomislav now reduces the wearer's health by 50.

Metal consumption while using the Widowmaker was reduced to 30 from 60.

The cloak delay when using the Enforcer was increased to 1 second from 0.5 seconds.

The Claidheamh Mòr charge extension is increased to 1 second up from 0.5 seconds.

The Grenade Launcher and Stickybomb Launcher now use the in-game slot notation on the loadout screen.


(Via TF2Wiki)



http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/September_21,_2011_Patch_(Beta)

PC Gamer UK is getting fatter, and it's not just because of the Krispy Kreme doughnut store that just opened in Bath. For our next issue, we're dropping the disk and adding an extra 60 pages or so to the mag, and we'll be giving away a load of free stuff to celebrate. The exclusive Team Fortress 2 hat you can see modelled by the Soldier above is just one of those items. Break the news AND your enemies faces with this fetching cap, free to all who purchase the next issue of PC Gamer UK.

Subscriber copies will be mailed out very soon, and the issue will hit store shelves on September 28. Within, you'll find a code that can be entered into Steam to instantly add the hat to your Team Fortress 2 backpack. It'll fit the head of every class, and we find it looks especially fetching on the Spy. His cloaking powers make him the ideal candidate for any press trip that's likely to end in a gun battle for a control point (which frankly is most of them). Once you've redeemed your code, be sure to put it on and come kill us on the PC Gamer Team Fortress 2 server.