Nov 3, 2010

Team Fortress 2 - Valve

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Team Fortress 2

Fixed a bug that prevented Mac players from getting the Halloween achievements
Fixed a bug that prevented Mac players from receiving the in-game notifications for items, duels, etc.
Fixed Engineers being able to build under the final capture point in Mann Manor
Added the Dealer's Visor for players who pre-purchase Poker Night from Telltale Games. See http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=4608&p=1 for full details.

Nov 3, 2010

Shh. Sascha is asleep.

Team Fortress 2 - SZ

<a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/31280/">Poker Night at the Inventory</a> is now available for pre-order. If you move fast, not only will you save 10% off the already low price, but you'll also pick yourself up a sweet pre-order bonus of this spiffy Poker Visor for your favorite Heavy. Once the game is released, you'll also be able to unlock new TF2 items by beating The Heavy, Max, Tycho, or Strong Bad at high stakes games of poker.

<a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/31280/"><img src="http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/telltalepoker.png" border="0" width="420" height="341"></a>

This is pretty exciting to us - it's the first time a game made by someone other than us allows you to find TF2 items by playing it. If you'd asked us, as we slaved away on TF2 back in '63, whether one day you'd be able to get the Heavy's first minigun off him by playing poker, we'd think you were nuts. Then we'd have hired you, because you had a vision for the future.

If you're curious, here's the set of items that you'll be able to collect inside Poker Night at the Inventory:
<ul>
<li>The Enthusiast's Timepiece - Tycho's favorite timepiece (equippable by the Spy)</li>
<li>License to Maim - Max's Badge (equippable by all classes)</li>
<li>The Lugermorph - A second chance at Max's personal armament (equippable by the Scout and the Engineer)</li>
<li>The Iron Curtain - The Heavy's first love (equippable by the Heavy, obviously)</li>
<li>Dangeresque, Too? - Strong Bad's styling glasses (equippable by the Demoman) </li>
</ul>

Nov 3, 2010

Shh. Sascha is asleep.

Team Fortress 2 - SZ

Poker Night at the Inventory is now available for pre-order. If you move fast, not only will you save 10% off the already low price, but you'll also pick yourself up a sweet pre-order bonus of this spiffy Poker Visor for your favorite Heavy. Once the game is released, you'll also be able to unlock new TF2 items by beating The Heavy, Max, Tycho, or Strong Bad at high stakes games of poker.

This is pretty exciting to us - it's the first time a game made by someone other than us allows you to find TF2 items by playing it. If you'd asked us, as we slaved away on TF2 back in '63, whether one day you'd be able to get the Heavy's first minigun off him by playing poker, we'd think you were nuts. Then we'd have hired you, because you had a vision for the future.

If you're curious, here's the set of items that you'll be able to collect inside Poker Night at the Inventory:

The Enthusiast's Timepiece - Tycho's favorite timepiece (equippable by the Spy)
License to Maim - Max's Badge (equippable by all classes)
The Lugermorph - A second chance at Max's personal armament (equippable by the Scout and the Engineer)
The Iron Curtain - The Heavy's first love (equippable by the Heavy, obviously)
Dangeresque, Too? - Strong Bad's styling glasses (equippable by the Demoman)

Nov 3, 2010

Shh. Sascha is asleep.

Team Fortress 2

The Enthusiast's Timepiece - Tycho's favorite timepiece (equippable by the Spy)
License to Maim - Max's Badge (equippable by all classes)
The Lugermorph - A second chance at Max's personal armament (equippable by the Scout and the Engineer)
The Iron Curtain - The Heavy's first love (equippable by the Heavy, obviously)
Dangeresque, Too? - Strong Bad's styling glasses (equippable by the Demoman)

Nov 3, 2010

How Valve Will Bribe Team Fortress 2 Players Into Playing Poker [Update]

Team Fortress 2

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]

Nov 3, 2010

This month’s biggest gaming tournaments

Counter-Strike: Source

We've had a look at esports around the world and rounded up a few of November's hottest gaming tournaments. StarCraft 2, Counter-Strike, Call of Duty 4, Team Fortress 2 and Quake Live all feature as the month kicks off with the massive Multiplay i41 event in the UK, and ends with the even bigger Dreamhack LAN party in Sweden, where the prize pools are worth thousands of pounds.

05/11/2010 - MLG Pro Circuit Dallas StarCraft 2 tournament

3 day event
$17,500 prize pool
1v1 matches with 128 participants
MLG Pro Circuit site

12/11/2010 - Multiplay i41, Newbury UK
A three day event hosting the following major tournaments.

The Multiplay Counter-Strike:Source Cup

£8,000 prize pot
128 teams
Counter-Strike:Source Cup site

The Thermaltake StarCraft 2 cup

£5,000 prize pot
1v1 matches with 512 participants
Thermaltake Starcraft 2 cup link

The Multiplay Call of Duty 4 Cup Sponsored by Rustlers Gamesafe

up to £8,000 prize pool
up to 128 teams
Multiplay Call of Duty 4 Cup link

The Multiplay Team Fortress 2 Cup

up to £9,600 prize pool
up to 128 teams
Multiplay Team Fortress 2 Cup link

13/11/2010 - GOM TV StarCraft 2 Open, Seoul, South Korea
An ongoing tournament, season two running since the 18th of October. Started with 64 players and already down to just 4.

Season Two Finals

£112,500 prize pool, with £56,350 going to the winner of this final

final is a best of 7

free to watch live online, $20 for a season ticket to access videos on demand

GOM TV StarCraft 2 Open link

25/11/2010 - DreamHack Winter
A three day event hosting the following major tournaments.

DreamHack SteelSeries StarCraft 2 LAN-tournament

Battlenet EU
$26,900 prize pool
1v1 matches with 64 participants
DreamHack Winter link

MSI Counter-strike Championship

$34,200 prize pool
64 teams
MSI Counter-strike Championship link

Kaspersky Quake Live Championship

£6500 prize pool
Quake Live Championship link

If you know of any other game tournaments we've missed, let us know in the comments and we'll add them in.

Nov 3, 2010

Team Fortress 2 Polycount Pack review

Team Fortress 2

Scouts are throwing bottles of milk at people. Snipers are dressed up like crocodiles, but they’re firing pee-filled darts instead of bullets. Spies are stabbing you with a knife that hides your body and steals your identity. Pyros are bludgeoning people with a car battery on a stick. Team Fortress 2 has, once again, gone utterly insane.

The Polycount Pack is 17 community-created items that Valve have introduced into Team Fortress 2, our favourite online shooter. To get them, you can wait for the items to drop, or you can buy them. You can buy individual weapons for anywhere between 60p and £3, and hats cost as much as £12. The Polycount bundle costs £30, and that’s a lot of money. You don’t have to buy it; you could just wait, or beg for items on friendly servers in your sexiest voice, but it’s definitely easier to just shell out the cash.

It contains items for the Spy, Soldier, Pyro, Sniper, and Scout classes. Each class gets a themed hat and a couple of items – wearing all of them confers a bonus. This means that the new hats actually impact the combat: if I want to wear my Respectless Rubber Glove instead of the Attendant cap, I don’t get to move 10% faster. That’s annoying.
Boxes and bugles
The Soldier receives the Black Box, a rocket launcher that can heal you for 15 health on every hit, but, frustratingly, only carries three rockets in its clip. The Battalion’s Backup is a bugle that charges up as you take damage, and when that bar is full, you can unleash a powerful defensive buff that protects nearby team members. Wear those with the Grenadier’s Softcap, and you can bask in the glow of a 20% damage reduction from sentry fire. Suddenly you’ve become the Medic’s new favourite pet.

The Sniper’s Croc-o-style set, when you’ve equipped all four items, makes you immune to headshots. Your rifle fires darts of pee that can’t score headshots either, instead dealing damage and coating the enemy in crit-yielding Jarate. Some of the other sets of items are more prone to switching up – the Pyro’s new Degreaser is a flamethrower that does less burn damage, but greatly increases the speed with which you switch weapons. This makes it ideal for your trusty Axtinguisher. Likewise, you might not care for the Spy’s new cloak- replenishing pistol or Fez hat, but his new knife is incredible. Stab someone in the back and it hides their body, instantly disguises you as them and makes almost zero noise.

Are these items essential? Nah: you can still own the enemy team with the vanilla weapons. The new items all have their drawbacks. On the other hand, are they fun to use? Do they give you great options without crippling your less cash- happy opponents? The short answer: yes. If only it was £10, I’d even say you had to buy it.

Jaz McDougall