It s almost Smissmas break, everybody! Gifts under the tree. Stockings hung with care. Bodies buried under a tree in the forest after also being hung with care. Or shot. Or stabbed. Or beat to death with a shovel. Really, it s up to you. The important thing is Miss Pauling s got some kill-contracts with your name on them. And murder doesn t go on vacation.

Introducing the Tough Break Update, featuring 26 new contracts, including weapon-specific contracts and a new weapon-loaning program! This update will also ship with four new weapons collections, obtainable through two new weapons case drops and contract completion rewards, and one new cosmetics case! There are also four new community maps, three new taunts, gameplay balances, and more! Click here to check out the details.

Crash, the creator of Probed and one of the Senior Admins at TF2Maps.net, has been working on a series of up-to-date, highly informative mapping tutorials for Hammer. He's not finished making them, and plans to cover as many topics as possible, from the basics of the Hammer editor, to gameplay theory to art-passing and art detailing techniques. If you're at all interested in learning how to design a TF2 map, or are just looking to brush up on your skills, they're worth a look.

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:

• Fixed a dedicated server crash related to dropped weapons and the jack in PASS Time mode
• Updated the localization files

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 the Arkham Knight workshop contest winners and runners-up to the Mann Co. Store
• Added the Workshop Wonderland 2015 community medals
• Updated the models/materials for The Ward and made it paintable

The Bat Signal dances on a grim night sky above Gotham's police department, as a grim winged figure descends to the rooftop, where Commissioner Gordon waits, smoking a big pipe. He puffs on it grimly.

"I came as quickly as I could, Commissioner. Who is it this time? The Joker? The Riddler? Butt-Pants? Is Butt-Pants on the loose?"

"It's more important than that, old friend," says the Commissioner, grabbing his big pipe with both hands and lowering its weight slowly, with effort, to his side. "I want you to look at these community submissions."

A grim silence hangs in the air.

"What?"

"I said I want you to look at "

"No, I heard you. It's just that I just raced over from a prison break where I singlehandedly incapacitated ninety-six armed guys flawlessly, and then on the way here I also stopped Two Face and his goons from robbing a bank. They were armed too, by the way. And they had tasers. And there was a Medic with them, so every time I took one of them out he'd just revive the idiot again."

"Hm. That sounds frustrating."

"Yeah, I know, I was there. Point is I'm a little busy tonight. So when I see a Bat Signal in the sky, I'm assuming you need to tell me Catwoman shot the moon out of orbit or Penguin blew up the President or something. Not that you want me to look at community submissions."

"I just thought you'd want to be a part of "

"I am five seconds from kicking your ass right now, Jim."

That's right, everybody! We've got the winners of the Arkham Knight Contest! And, assuming you're not a winged vigilante with more pressing time commitments, you might want to scroll down to see who they are!

Winners
Winners will get a list of games from WB. All Arkham Knight owners prior to Nov 16th will get the winning items in Genuine Quality.

The Fear Monger

The Arkham Cowl

The Firefly

Honorable Mentions
Honorable Mentions will have their submissions showcased in the Mann Co. Store along with the winning items.

The Teufort Knight

Pocket Villains

Retro Batbelt

The Buttler (Belt Only)

The Batter s Bracers

Sixties Sidekick Set (Sidekick's Side Slick, The Bat Backup, The Crook Combatant)

The Caped Crusader

The Hood of Sorrows

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:

• Updated the Steam Controller config so +attack3 (special attack) can be bound for items like the Medic shield
• Fixed not being able to run a dedicated server and connect to it as a client on the same machine
• Fixed Killstreak icon alignment in the targetID panel when using cl_hud_minmode
• Fixed an exploit related to the Steam Controller and the turn rate for charging Demomen
• Updated the models/materials for The Medicine Manpurse, The Air Raider, and Pin Pals
• host_writeconfig now writes only bindings and convar values that are not default values. If you want a full config, use 'host_writeconfig full'.
• Mannpower update
  • Supernova
    • Reduced charge up time
    • Increased the amount that damage contributes to charge
    • Fixed a bug where outline effect showed on invisible Spies
  • Fixed a bug where crit melee attacks were multiplying on top of a base damage increase. Crit melee attacks now do the same damage
  • Demomen equipped with shields are now excluded from the across the board 30% melee damage increase
  • Added highlight effects to active revenge powerups
  • Reduced points for a flag capture now that the enemy cannot return a dropped flag by touching it

Yogscast just opened their yearly charity fundraiser: the Jingle Jam 2015! Donate at least $5 to receive two unique, custom-made TF2 items. If you're feeling particularly greedy, you can donate $25 to receive a host of awesome games, like Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, Medieval 2: Total War, Torchlight 2, and many others.

And remember, 100% of the proceeds go to amazing charities like Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders and Mental Health Foundation. So head on over and join the festivities!

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 Jingle Jam 2015 community medals
• Fixed a client crash when playing some maps with low quality models
• Fixed the B'aaarrgh-n-Britches hiding the hat bodygroup
• Fixed missing crit rocket sound for giant Soldiers in Mann vs. Machine mode
• Fixed control point HUD not being displayed for Mann vs. Machine maps with control points like Mannhattan
• Fixed broken ambient_generic entities in community maps where the sound being played was updated after the map was loaded
• Updated the Sheriff's Stetson and The Bone Dome to include new paint styles
• Updated the model/material for The Au Courant Assassin
• Updated pl_upward
  • Fixed a teleporter-trap exploit inside the tunnel after the first control point
• Updated PASS Time mode
  • Each class now has slightly different throwing power and arc
  • During overtime, the round doesn't end until the jack has been neutral for a few seconds (tf_passtime_overtime_idle_sec)
  • All available enemy goals will show a reticle on the HUD while carrying the jack
  • Added max pass range parameter to passtime_logic
  • Jack won't automatically respawn unless it's been picked up at least once
  • New map: pass_pinewood

We say this every year, but we had an especially hard time this year choosing the winners of the Saxxy Awards. The Extended category in particular was overflowing with quality submissions - who knew that the Heavy could be so adorable or so creative, how dark Nick's backstory was, and how hilariously terrifying a plane full of Scouts could be!

Congratulations to all the winners of the 2015 Saxxy Awards, who will be receiving the coveted Saxxy Award, equipable in Team Fortress, and to the Overall Winner, whose team will be flown out to meet the folks that make movies and games here at Valve.

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:

• Fixed a bug where non-Steam controllers could fail to initialize