Deep in the bowels of Castle Shotgun, in one of the many lost rooms, forgotten testament to Jim’s Escher-like grasp of architecture, a light flickers into existence. It takes a few minutes to fill the scene, the first flutters of red doing little to illuminate, but slowly, as the seconds pass, it becomes stronger, until finally it stays constant. Machinery whirrs into life behind it, something grand, huge, and majestic, returning to operating efficiency.

The RPS TF2 server is back online. And it’s going to be busy. (more…)

This is somewhat inspired. You recall the Golden Wrenches circa the last Team Fortress 2 update? WiNGSPANNT despised his – number 31 – but had a bright idea of how to turn its annihilation into a force for good. In short, he’s using its destruction as an excuse to raise money for Child’s Play. To simplify the whole system, the twenty highest donators will be invited to join him on a server to observe this crushing to powder of a modern day Excalibur. Inspired by this Seven (Count ‘em!) other golden-wrench owners are going to follow suit, with the whole ceremony being recorded for posterity. Hurrah! Anyway, go forth and donate, or watch this video which explains what’s going on in further detail… (more…)

RPS’ ways are mysterious. How do you get us to post about something? You stick 40k figures in it. Or Transformers. Frankly, if you put Impactor in your game we’d probably end up skinning the site in your game’s honour. Anyway – 40k models for TF2. “Coming Soon” says the Youtube-page-notes. “I miss Impactor” cries our inner six-year olds, embarrassingly. Footage follows. (more…)

There’s a sixty second set up time before you start a map. Sixty seconds for the defending team to hustle, slapping down sentries at key locations, setting up sniper nests and anxiously sweating as they wait for that timer to trickle down to zero. It’s tense stuff, and it makes the coming chaos so much more powerful and brilliant. (more…)

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…)