Thanks for your patience, everybody! And a really big thanks to our first round of testers, who were instrumental in helping us make the SFM a better user experience.

They were SO helpful, in fact, that we're happy to announce that SFM Beta is now open to everyone, for free, as of right now. We've also provided a new SFM-specific page in the Steam Community where you can view, rate and discuss all the latest user-created videos.

Plus, just so we don't all overdose on "Meet The Heavy" shorts, we've decided to release a new session, to give all you folks something new to riff on. So get out your guitar (and some audio recording equipment) and prepare to "Meet The Engineer".

You can download the Source Filmmaker here on Steam.

Season 5 of the Highlander league, The Round Robin is underway. Their goal is to create a fun atmosphere that caters to those who want some more structured games but without the pressure of the more serious competitive scene. Visit their site for more details and to sign up to participate in their league.

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

• Added new options for Pyrovision to the Advanced Options dialog
  • Added enable/disable for the HUD border
  • Added the ability to make the HUD border static
  • Added the ability to turn off the skybox depth of field
• Fixed The Sandvich and The Buffalo Steak Sandvich using the wrong models when thrown
• Fixed not seeing the blue team skin for the Robot Chicken Hat
• Fixed not seeing team colors on the sleeves for The Equalizer and The Escape Plan
• Fixed The Escape Plan allowing medic calls
• Fixed The Beggar's Bazooka exploding on random targets in the world when overloading
• Fixed The Hitman's Heatmaker bodyshot damage penalty affecting the Sniper's other weapons
• Fixed The Amputator's radius heal effect applying to players who have The Escape Plan deployed
• Fixed the Rainblower taunt attacking players through walls
• Optimized the Rainblower taunt particles
• Updated Sd_Doomsday
  • Fixed rocket lid staying open sometimes after a player drops the Australium on the lift
  • Fixed case where the lift could continue traveling up when a player with the Australium died at the same time he touched the lift
• Updated the localization files
• Updated the gamehaptics file:
  • Added recoil/reload/draw/crit forces for the Baby Face's Blaster
  • Added new recoil forces for The Beggar's Bazooka, The Cleaner's Carbine, The Hitman's Heatmaker, The Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol and The Scorch Shot
  • Added more detail to the reloads for the Scattergun, the Baby Face's Blaster, the SMG, and The Cleaner's Carbine

Be sure to check out the live stream for the ESEA Season 11 LAN Playoffs for TF2 starting today. The matches begin today and will be running until Sunday.

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

• Added sd_doomsday to the mapcycle files
• Fixed exploit that allowed Beggar's Bazooka to indefinitely hold rockets in the chamber without misfiring
• Fixed hatless hats not not-drawing correctly
• Fixed bugs with The Hitman’s Heatmaker
  • Headshot kills now properly decapitate
  • Bodyshot damage penalty is properly applied
  • Fixed sound issues while in focus
• Fixed missing DX8 particle effects
• Fixed seeing through Sniper fences in 2Fort when using Pyrovision
• Fixed the second style for the Robot Chicken hat
• Teddy Roosebelt can now get assist credits
• Updated sd_doomsday:
  • Players can now fall into the launch pad after the rocket lifts off
  • Optimized some prop_dynamics to reduce server hitching
  • Engineers can no longer build teleporters behind the spawn
  • Players will no longer get pushed through the terrain if the elevator falls on them
  • Death pits now kill dead ringer Spies
  • Lowered the frequency of announcer lines

Liked Balloonicorn so much in the Pyromania Update that you'd like to take him home with you? Because Balloonicorn could really use a place to crash at for a bit (one, two weeks max), he's going through a bit of a rough patch right now. Also, you totally won't even know he's there. Hey, look, also, could you pick Balloonicorn up some smokes on the way home? He's good for it, he's just waiting to get some money wired to him. Available through ThinkGeek and the Valve Store.

While you're at the Valve Store, check out all the other cool new TF stuff that we just got in.

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Source Engine Changes (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)

• Added ConVars sv_rcon_maxpacketsize and sv_rcon_maxpacketbans to allow server admins to control the maximum RCON packet size and whether or not users get banned for exceeding that limit. The defaults reflect the existing behavior.
• Fixed not being able to import custom spray images on Macs
• Fixed Macs cancelling http map downloads that take longer than 30 seconds

Team Fortress 2

• Added Pyrovision!
• Added new game mode Special Delivery and map Doomsday!
• Friendly players glow when carrying the flag
• Fixed rare cases where flag could fall out of the world
• Fixed cases where the Payload HUD looked like the cart is still on a hill when it isn't
• Fixed cases where some clients didn't receive broadcasts about long continuous particle effects being started or stopped
• Updated the HTML renderer for displaying server MOTD
• Votes created by a dedicated server no longer trigger a failed vote cooldown
• Fixed map triggered annotation events not working on dedicated servers
• Fixed the game crashing if tempents are created that use invalid materials
• Using a Name Tag while in game notifies everyone of the name change
• Fixed Strange Part: Projectiles Reflected not tracking grenade and sentry rocket deflections
• Added new items
  • City on Fire item sets
  • Pyroland weapons and cosmetics
  • Community-contributed cosmetic items for all classes
  • Mysterious treasures have been incinerated, but are now craftable
  • Added crafting recipe for Pile of Ash
  • Scorched Keys are now available in the store for a limited time
  • New promo item
• Weapon balancing changes
  • Gloves of Running Urgently
    • Removed self-damage over time penalty
    • Heavy takes mini-crits while active and for 3 seconds after switching away
    • Attack damage penalty reduced from -50% to -25%
  • Tomislav
    • Spin-up speed bonus reduced from +40% to +10%
  • Quick-Fix
    • Medic mirrors blast jump of their heal target
  • Crusader's Crossbow
    • Reload speed time reduced by +40%
  • Cozy Camper
    • Regenerates 1 heath per second
    • Reduced movement penalty from -90% to -80%
  • Sticky Jumper and Rocket Jumper
    • Added 'flying' sound to blast jumps
  • The Concheror
    • Changed rage building source from "damage done and damage received" to only "damage done"
    • Increased the rate at which Rage builds for this item by +25%
  • The Equalizer
    • Removed player move speed modification and added it to a new item named The Escape Plan
    • All owners of the Equalizer will be automatically granted The Escape Plan
  • Crit-a-Cola
    • Added +25% increased movement speed while active
    • Increased duration from 6 to 8 seconds
  • Atomic Bonk
    • Increased duration from 6 to 8 seconds
  • All Flamethrowers
    • Increased base damage by +10%.
  • Backburner
    • Removed +10% damage bonus attribute
    • Note: Because of base damage increase, damage remains unchanged
  • Degreaser
    • Added -10% damage penalty attribute
    • Note: Because of base damage increase, damage remains unchanged
  • Phlogistinator
    • Damage defense while taunting reduced from -90% to -75%
• Item bug fixes
  • Fixed sentry sometimes spawning in shielded mode while the Wrangler was equipped, but not deployed
  • Improved visual and audio cues for when the Manmelter is ready to fire
  • Fixed Manmelter being able to earn crits via friendly Pyro self-damage
  • Fixed Scotch Bonnet's blue team skin not showing
  • Fixed Unarmed Combat's taunt not working
  • Unarmed Combat's color now matches the team using it
  • Fixed the Apparition's Aspect showing a burning texture in DX8

The third and final day of Pyromania is here, and the update is now live! New items! New achievements! A new game mode! Pyrovision! Bongos! It's all live right now!

...is here!

Also! Because today's new items contain some Meet the Pyro spoilers, we're gonna hold off on announcing those until the update’s ready later today.

But! We are announcing something else RIGHT NOW: The beta release of the Source Filmmaker, the tool we use internally to make all of our "Meet the Team" shorts. You can check it out here.

At the end of the day, the Pyromania update is a celebration—not just of Team Fortress, but more importantly of you, the TF community, and even more importantly than that, of us, the TF blog post writers, and how great yesterday's blog post was. That Men Without Hats material was a career high. In fact, we decided to never touch this blog again in the hope that it might be preserved in a perfect state for future generations.