Welcome—IF YOU DARE—to the Third Annual Scream Fortress Very Scary Halloween Special!



Let us be frank with you: Last year's special was pretty darn terrifying, even by our impossibly high standard of scary. To cite just one example: Dracula was taken to the hospital after witnessing just the loading screen of last year's update. That's not Terry Dracula your greengrocer, either. This is the Dracula we’re talking about. And if it scared Dracula, who eats ghosts and craps Frankensteins, we shudder to imagine what it must have done to you.

There are some questions in the TF universe--questions like "Is Pyro a boy or a girl?" or "Who will be the tenth class?"--that get asked so often that they become, in a sense, unanswerable.

Then there are the questions nobody has thought to ask. Questions like, "Every time you explain something supernatural in TF2 you say the Soldier angered a magician. Who is the magician?" Questions like, "If the TF mercs went out trick or treating, what costumes would they wear?"

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

• Fixed a client crash caused by corrupt particle data
• The Professor's Peculiarity can now be used as a crafting ingredient
• Football Manager 2012 promo items are now tradable and available for purchase
• Additional stability/performance work for both clients and servers
• Updated localization files

Halloween is almost upon us, and for those of you who don't have an irrational fear of Presidents' Day, it's the scariest time of the year. This morning, we were reviewing this year's Third Annual Scream Fortress Halloween Update, and we realized that it is probably too scary. Scratch that - it's definitely too scary. This much concentrated terror would be like throwing you into the deep end of a pool... With no lifeguard on duty! [sound of lightning hitting a bat] But then, oh thank God, here comes a lifeguard. Sayyyy, he looks familiar. OH MY GOD it's Dracula! No wait, it's even worse! It's legendary Hollywood triple threat, Ethan Hawke! Acting! Directing! Writing! But not swimming! Everyone knows he can't swim! What monster would hire Ethan Hawke to be a lifeguard? Does this cursed rec center not have ANY lifeguard hiring oversight committee? IT DOES NOT! AWOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Someone passed a link to us that pointed us to this Night of the Living Update! We really wanted to explore more of the house but were denied by some sort of a haunted multi-day lock mechanism. Dreadful. Suppose we'll just have to wait to see what other treats are unveiled over the next few days.

Boo!

Almost had you.

Required updates for Team Fortress 2 are now available. The specific changes include:

• Improvements to client stability related to loading mesh content during gameplay
• Fixed an engine error that mentioned CL_CallPostDataUpdates
• Fixed "Not Usable in Crafting" text not appearing under certain conditions on item tooltips in the trading UI

Last day to register for ESEA League Season 10! This season features $80,000 in cash prizes including a LAN event for all invite division playoffs. There's a whole host of other updates and changes to this year's season so be sure to check out their site for details and sign up.

With the fall comes a new season of Highlander over at ETF2L. Everyone is welcome and teams will be grouped together by region and skill level. In game items are planned to be handed out to all participants who finish their season. Signups are open today until October 30 with the first week of play starting Sunday November 6!

The Heavy has had his issues in the past but in this hilarious video, he's got a few more items to work through.

Who wouldn't want to look at a muscular baby with a mustache and chest hair busting through an adult bear while they're checking their email? Get it now in the Artwork section of the website.