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First Person Shooters (Games) Games

Team Fortress 2 Update To Bring Maps, Sniper and Spy Upgrades 88

Posted by Soulskill from the intensifying-rivalries dept.
Over the past several days, Valve has been releasing details on an update to Team Fortress 2. They first revealed that the Sniper was taking its turn in a series of class upgrades, getting a bow and arrow that's capable of pinning an enemy to a wall. Next, they showed off a pair of new maps — a sawmill arena map that's in the midst of heavy rainfall and a circular map built around a doomsday weapon. Valve also mentioned a new game mode called Payload Race — it's similar to a regular Payload match, but both teams have a cart to push. The next day brought about an electrified shield for the Sniper, and hinted that the Spy would be getting an update as well. The following announcement confirmed it, introducing a device that would allow the Spy to feign death, and another that lets the Spy remain invisible permanently, only draining their power while in motion.
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Team Fortress 2 Update To Bring Maps, Sniper and Spy Upgrades More

Team Fortress 2 Update To Bring Maps, Sniper and Spy Upgrades

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  • Payload Race (Score:5, Funny)

    by KronosReaver ( 932860 ) on Saturday May 16, 2009 @06:51AM (#27977719)

    Payload Race - When you and a co-worker return to work from lunch at the same time and have to race to the single bathroom.

  • Huzzah. (Score:1, Informative)

    by senorpoco ( 1396603 )
    Great, now update the XBOX version already.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Great, now update the XBOX version already.

      Haha, oh wow. Playing an FPS on a console. Priceless.

      • Great, now update the XBOX version already.

        Haha, oh wow. Playing an FPS on a console. Priceless.

        Three words. Fiftyeight inches tv.

        • I don't find it exciting to have a whole keyboard for something that requires a few buttons. Is not like TF2 is the most complex game out there. Some games are better for PC, I play a lot of Civilization and WOW on my pc, but some other games are enjoyed better on tv.

        • Hate to break this to you, but you can use your "Fiftyeight inches tv" as a monitor for your PC as well.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday May 16, 2009 @08:51AM (#27978197)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • In case you haven't figured it out, Gabe hates consoles. TF2 on xbox was just a cheap cash grab to fund further pc development.

      • Probably, but it's all I got till I can upgrade my PC.

        • Your PC can't play TF2? I have an old (6 years i think) PC i built for ~£300* (P4@2.8+some nvidia card+1.25GB), it handled HL2 fine. I also used the same setup to play the updated dod:s and dystopia(makes heavy use of effects) under wine. Valve are great at supporting old systems, so unless you have a really old setup / old laptop i doubt youll run into too many problems

          • I'm afraid mine's old, and the new games are just not playable due to graphics limitations. However, "Plants vs. Zombies" is fabulous, and I'm glad they've provided the complete X-Com pack, which was great fun to replay.

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by VGPowerlord ( 621254 )

            While it's still considered the Source engine, Team Fortress 2 (released October 2007) does have higher system requirements.

            They even call this version of the engine the "Orange Box engine" and it's also used by Portal, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, and Day of Defeat Source. It's also the basis of the Left 4 Dead engine; Valve even backported some of the new things from Left 4 Dead back to TF2.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re:Huzzah. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by interkin3tic ( 1469267 ) on Saturday May 16, 2009 @02:12PM (#27980413)

        In case you haven't figured it out, Gabe hates consoles. TF2 on xbox was just a cheap cash grab to fund further pc development.

        No, the reason they haven't updated isn't that "they hate consoles" or the paying customers who use them. They are a business. The reason they haven't updated was first because MS didn't want them to give anything away free, and now they're having problems fitting the updates in and keeping the game within the 360's system requirements.

        You could make a stronger case that MICROSOFT hates consoles more than valve, they're the ones who had been holding it up and who don't want consolers to think for a minute that they can get anything free.

        And cheap cash grab? To adapt it to the console they had to go through a lot more troubles in development. Cheap cash grab would mean releasing all the games of orange box separately, and probably just lumping console users with mouse and keyboarders in TF2, which would put them at a severe disadvantage but would probably be easier for valve.

        Which is not to say Gabe Newell is a fan of consoles, just that Valve is actually pretty great to all their customers when it's in their control. And it wouldn't exactly matter beans even if they did hate consoles.

        • Has the PS3 version been updated?
          While the PSN Store has some pretty ridiculous DLC cash grabs on it (Need for Speed, Disgaea) they also release some games and add-ons for free, and there's not monthly/yearly fee.
          The Xbox fanboys rave about Live being worth the money, but I haven't seen any argument for it that applies to me. The friend management on Live is much better than PSN but I either play locally with friends or online with random people.

          Sony actually seems to understand that you can give stuff away

        • The reason it hasn't updated is from what I remember, Xbox 360 games patches can be no larger than 10MB in size. Also, Microsoft's cert process is very long.

          So they're waiting until they have a good number of updates out on PC, and then the 360 TF2 is going to get all of them as one big update. Due to MS's lengthy cert process, they couldn't get away with the hotfixes they do after each update.

          Now, patches are free on 360, you can't ever charge for them (1, because MS doesn't allow it. 2, because there's no

          • Er... what's the difference between patches and DLC? Because I know DLC has no such 10 mb limits.

            • Patches are updates to actual code, and Live automatically updates them. They -can- contain new data such as textures.

              DLC is content that sits in the game folder and can be deleted at any time. For example, Bungie patched a couple bugs in Halo 3 using the patch function, but maps are released as DLC since they're 150MB each minimum.

              Basically, data is DLC.

              New functionality and code is added via patches.

  • Damn it! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Lifyre ( 960576 ) on Saturday May 16, 2009 @07:12AM (#27977783)

    More feature creep! More BLOAT! NOOOOO!!

    Wait... Thats a good thing this time.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by LoRdTAW ( 99712 )

      Good thing? Maybe.

      I play TF2 allot and MY classes are Spy, Pyro, Engineer and scout. I am not the best player out there but damn they keep making it more difficult to play an "honest" game. The more class updats they add the more difficult they make certain maps.

      A spy with infinite cloak will be a problem on maps like dust bowl where a ninja cap will be a 1000x easier as a spy (or two) can stay cloaked indefinitely next to the point. Other maps with multiple cap points will not suffer that much such as payl

  • Valve is really paying us some fan service. Spy backstabs the sniper in the middle of his spotlight? Classic! Feign death has been sorely missed and should add a whole new dimension to what is already the most rewarding class in the game. Glad to see Arena mode is getting some love, the server I play on - 74.86.155.168:27015 - has only the stock maps so it will be good to see some more "arena only" maps by Valve (Watchtower doesn't count). Hopefully this should breathe some more life into the game; the "old

    • I love valve, they really take care of their fans. Any other company (Read as Bungie) would make you pay through the ass for a couple of new maps. Thank you Valve, keep setting the standard.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Hadlock ( 143607 )

        Did you see the crab-walking kit [teamfortress.com] on clearance? I love it.

        For those unfamiliar, there are no actual crabs in the game. Crab walking is this really bizzare motion due to his spindly arms/legs that the spy has if you crouch, look straight up while selecting the disguise menu. Sort of the ultimate spy-taunt. Oh, I am looking forward to all the new taunts(!) all games should take note and add taunts.

      • Except Bungie wanted to release much more maps than Microsoft allowed. But since Microsoft owns the Halo IP, Microsoft decided to chop off half the Mythic Map Pack and only include 3 maps instead of the original 6. It was so botched by Microsoft because Bungie had all 6 maps named in their patch in September '08, but Bungie could not legally discuss the maps. Even though the NAMES WERE RIGHT THERE. And they still can't talk about Longshore, Heretic, or Citadel, even though we can see the map names in the ac

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Clay Pigeon -TPF-VS- ( 624050 )

      Arena mode: because we wanted to add some counter strike to your team fortress.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Hadlock ( 143607 )

        It's not a bad idea. Counter Strike is getting pretty long in tooth but it's a very, very (arguably THE most popular game on the planet) popular game. If Valve could siphon off even 10% of that community to TF2, they'd all be driving gold plated Ferraris. Well maybe not, but they've owned that IP for quite some time now and while they're clearly profiting off it, they haven't done much with it until Arena came along. Since there's no AWP I gladly welcome any CS:S players who jump ship to TF2.

    • Feign death has been sorely missed and should add a whole new dimension to what is already the most rewarding class in the game

      Feign death was never useful in the original. It gave you an advantage for a few games, then people learned to always shoot corpses as they passed.

    • There's a reason Valve hasn't been releases Valve-branded CP maps... they outnumber the Valve-branded maps of others types.

      For reference, here are the (pre-Sniper/Spy patch) numbers:
      CP (symmetric): 3 (cp_granary, cp_well, cp_badlands) plus 1 user (cp_fastlane)
      CP (assault): 2 (cp_dustbowl, cp_gravelpit) plus 3 user (cp_junction, cp_egypt, cp_steel)
      TC: 1 (tc_hydro)
      CTF: 2 (ctf_2fort, ctf_well) plus 1 user (ctf_turbine)
      PL: 2 (pl_goldrush, pl_badwater)
      Arena: 5 (arena_well, arena_badlands, arena_granary, arena_lu

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Hadlock ( 143607 )

        I think everyone here can agree Junction is possibly the worst serious TF2 map ever, to the point that most people have blocked it from their memory that valve ever included it. No I'm talking about a grainary/well/badlands style map that valve carefully put together and playtested. Those are fantastic maps and it shows in their replyability. Junction, Fastlane, Egypt etc are terrible community maps with low replay value. Payload maps are popular, but its 5 pt CP maps that make this game, keep the core grou

        • Payload maps are popular, but its 5 pt CP maps that make this game, keep the core group of gamers playing and people coming back.

          It's funny that you say that. The official stats [steampowered.com] disagree with you. Right now, the top 5 most played maps are (in order):
          ctf_2fort
          cp_dustbowl
          pl_goldrush
          pl_badwater
          cp_badlands

          That's a CTF map, a CP assault map, both payload maps, and then a CP symmetric (AKA 5 pt) map.

          P.S. The numbers at the bottom of my previous post were not counting the user contributed maps, so I'm not sure w

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Hadlock ( 143607 )

            Which of those maps is used in competitive play.

            • Which of those maps is used in competitive play.

              Beats me. I'm part of the core group of gamers... the people who play just to have fun.

              You never mentioned anything about competitive play earlier, you say the "core gamers..." which I took to mean the main player-base, which are non-competitive gamers.

              What, you want proof? The proof is in which classes are used in competitive play. As I recall, the normal 6-man competitive team consists of two Scouts, two Soldiers, a Medic, and a Demoman. Which class is t

  • This update is fan service. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by YojimboJango ( 978350 ) on Saturday May 16, 2009 @08:14AM (#27978015)
    If you watched the blog yesterday you'd have seen valve doing a lot of fun things for the fans.

    Over the course of the day the unlock for a sniper shield got darker and darker, then at around 3pm people on the forums started freaking out because there was a spy behind the sniper in the picture. The pictures were swapped in and out randomly till the actual announcement.

    They put a note on the blog saying, "When the Pyro hears about this she'll be inconsolable." There's been a debate over the Pyros gender for a long time on the forums. The post was left up for about an hour before it was stealth edited back to the masculine form. Still there was a lot of people going nuts on the forum over this.

    They trolled us pretty hard with a lot of this stuff, but overall it shows that they are paying close enough attention to the community to do so. They knew all the right buttons to press to get people talking and started mashing. I know of no other company that is this dedicated to having fun.

    • They put a note on the blog saying, "When the Pyro hears about this she'll be inconsolable." There's been a debate over the Pyros gender for a long time on the forums. The post was left up for about an hour before it was stealth edited back to the masculine form. Still there was a lot of people going nuts on the forum over this.

      More hilariously, they just leaked a "meet the spy" video, dropping a few more subtle hints, or at least things to encourage speculation.

      Its funny how these characters who have no real names and nothing besides one liners in game have far more character and personality than many characters in more cinematic games.

  • Not played TF2 but, didn't they add shields to counter strike only to make them the most hated weapon. Snipers should be powerful but weak( and rubbish at close range) adding a shield sounds stupid.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Not played TF2 but, didn't they add shields to counter strike only to make them the most hated weapon. Snipers should be powerful but weak( and rubbish at close range) adding a shield sounds stupid.

      It protects the sniper from one backstab from a spy, after which it shatters. I am not sure if picking up ammo will cause the sniper to receive another or if it will regenerate over time.

      It also makes the sniper move slower.

  • class updates are a pain (Score:4, Insightful)

    by tresstatus ( 260408 ) on Saturday May 16, 2009 @11:05AM (#27979123)
    i love teamfortress 2 and it's just about the only game that i play. my biggest complaint is these stupid class updates. they have been releasing them one at a time for a year or so. what happens is that every server you go on, every player is playing as that specific class so they can get all of the upgrades. the updates really ruin gameplay for 3 weeks or so until the new wears off. several of the people i play with all agree that they should just release all of the remaining class updates at the same time.... we all thought this when they first started releasing these updates.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by chammy ( 1096007 )
      I think it's a great chance to mix up the same old boring gameplay. It's fun for people who want to try new things and it's fun for people to destroy all the people trying the new things.
    • Play on a better sever: they have class limits on most servers I play on during that update (2 scout limit when that came out, 2 heavy limit, 2 pyro limit etc.)

      Or would you prefer to wait 2 years for all the classes to be released? Perhaps if you played the game without complaining you would realize that they have far more future plans after the class updates with even more additional weapons. Sure the fact you have to unlock the weapons is wrong. But releasing class improvements 1 at a time is more fun,

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