If you'd like a free insane costume for the Heavy in Team Fortress 2, you have about two days to pick it up. It also helps if you want Saints Row: The Third on PC, as that's what you have to preorder to grab it.

The game, which is $49.99 comes with three pieces of flair: "The Mark of the Saint," or a shiny badge that any class may wear; then the "Apoco-Fists" and "The Cold War Luchador," which are Heavy-only. (Seen above). All this stuff is based on the Luchadores gang from Saints Row: The Third who are themselves rather robust individuals.

History Comes Alive! [Team Fortess Blog]

In an old Mr. Bean episode titled "Merry Christmas, Mr. Bean", the titular hero gets his head lodged in a turkey. It's a classic, and what inspired this Team Fortress 2 workshop creation.

Items in Steam Workshop are up for consideration in Team Fortress 2.

While the game is known for its funny hats, it also should be known for its fresh poultry. On players' heads.

If for some reason you have not seen the previously mentioned Mr. Bean episode, do yourself a favor and watch it here. If you've already seen it, do yourself a favor and watch it again. And again.

20 Lb Turkey [Steam Thanks, Trevor!]

Team Fortress 2 is getting some updates for Halloween: Objects, items, hats, you know the deal. It's also, though, got something a little more exciting: a new Team Fortress 2 comic.

One that tells the tale of how the Demo lost his eye. And how cute a Saxton Hale costume looks on a little fat kid. And how a kid can dress up as France and somehow get away with it.

You can read the comic below. For more info on the items being released for Halloween, head here.

Scream Fortress [Team Fortress 2]

Iain Andrews' site Steam Postcards has long been my wallpaper supplier of choice. Why? Because he plays games and takes screenshots that aren't the kind of thing you'd find in a magazine or popular internet video game website.

He instead takes, well, postcards. Scenic shots of the background, or the walls, or the sky, or whatever, finding stuff that just looks good, instead of stuff that makes the game look good.

His current subject of choice is id's RAGE, but scroll down the Tumblr page and you'll see games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Mirror's Edge, Mafia II, Team Fortress 2, Red Orchestra and even Kane & Lynch.

The images maybe aren't nice enough to print out and frame, but like I said, they're perfect for wallpapers!

Steam Postcards [enwandrews]

This Peanuts x Team Fortress 2 image was available as a shirt on TeeFury over the weekend. But by the time I sat down to write this, it was no longer available.

Ah well. While the shirt is gone, the image (by queenmob) is not, and thanks to the wonders of the internet you can enjoy it now and forever.

Well, not you specifically, "you" as in "people who don't work for Valve".

Ever since Team Fortress 2's recent Manniversary update, players have been able to show off fan-made weapons and items in The Workshop, a central spot where other players can vote on them. The best ones then get taken by Valve and turned into actual in-game items.

PC Gamer has dug through and found some of the better items uploaded so far, my favourite being the amazing "Mobile Engineer Pack" above. Other awesome examples include an umbrella for the Spy that turns him into Mary Poppins, and a very dashing moustache for the Heavy.

You can see more awesome fan-made contributions in the gallery above.

Team Fortress 2: the best of the Steam Workshop [PC Gamer]

Has it already been a full year since Valve launched the Team Fortress 2 Mann Co. Store, the in-game shop in which people trade cold hard cash for hats, weapons and hats? Yes, it has. Valve is therefore celebrating the shop's birthday and $2,000,000 in profits(!) for item creators with a high five-filled update.

Today, the "Manniversary Update" comes to Team Fortress 2, bringing with it a slew of changes: new hats and other non-hat items, load-out presets for your class of choice, a weeklong item "try before you buy" option, decals, slow-mo and shaky cam options for movie making, high five taunts and much much more.

Equally interesting is the launch of the Steam Workshop, "an improved item submission system" which lets item-creators submit, review and rate Team Fortress 2 items. "Rate items highly and you just might see them become available in-game," Valve says. "If your creation is accepted for distribution in-game, you can even earn a percentage of sales." With Steam Workshop, ou could be a percentage-of-a-millionaire!

There's a big old virtual goods sale to go along with the Manniversary Update (it runs until Monday), so if you've been eyeballing that new Engineer hat, now's the time to strike.

Manniversary Update [Team Fortress]

Team Fortress 2 used to be about guns. Now it's all about hats. Fancy, ridiculous, elaborate hats. Ever wonder how those hats are made?

Let Bay Raitt, formerly of WETA (he's responsible for Gollum's face in Lord of the Rings) but currently of Valve Software, explain.

In this step-by-step guide he shows people how a professional Team Fortress 2 hat goes from the drawing board to the game in just three easy steps. Well, OK, it's more than three. And they don't look easy at all.

Still, if you're into this kind of stuff, it's an interesting read, especially towards the end where Raitt starts talking about the game's improved item submission process.

Making of a Skull Hat [Valve]

Trendy Entertainment's tower defense action role-playing game Dungeon Defenders hits Steam next week, and Valve has packed the game a little care package, filled with tiny Team Fortress 2 dudes and an Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. What, no snacks?

Built especially for Dungeon Defender's Huntress class, this special version of Valve's Portal gun functions exactly as advertised, linking two different areas with those familiar blue and orange glowing circles. Players can use these nifty portals to send enemies careening into pits, refocus firepower where it's needed most, and just have a generally fun time screwing around.

Won't a Portal gun break the game? Trendy assures players that it won't, as the player will have to channel all of their mana into keeping portals open. It's just a fun new way to play the game that's already charmed the pants off mobile gamers everywhere.

And then there's the Team Fortress 2 familiars, a set of four tiny TF2 characters that follow your character about, doing stuff. What sort of stuff? How about repairing towers (Engineer), healing allies (Medic), setting things on fire (Pyro), and filling dungeon invaders with lead (Heavy)?

Those of you wondering why you should buy Dungeon Defenders on PC instead of Xbox Live Arcade or the PlayStation Network, there's your answer.

Dungeon Defenders [Steam Page]

NECA, specialists in action figures and props based on video games, will be bringing out lines of figures based on Valve properties in 2012. While we haven't yet seen the finished versions of these toys, we do today have some work-in-progress shots of Team Fortress 2's Demoman.

What's more interesting than the pictures themselves is the fact there's a Professor Layton Revoltech piece in the frame, as NECA say the TF2 figures are aiming for a similar level of articulation as Kaiyodo's famous toys.

As a bonus, the gallery above also includes a work-in-progress shot of Gordon Freeman's gravity gun from Half-Life 2, whose figure is also expected next year.

If you'd like to see some very rough pics of Freeman's figure, you can see them here.

Sculptor's Corner – Team Fortress, Rocky and a Surprise [PICS] [NECA]