Update: It seems GameSpot has pulled this story, though as of this update the story headline is still displayed on GameSpot's 360 page. For what it's worth, Kotaku is reporting the same thing, so we're not sure exactly why GameSpot's article has been pulled. See our original post below.
Gamers with the Xbox 360 version of Team Fortress 2 have had kind of a rough time. First we see the PC version get Medic updates and achievements, then the Pyro gets the same treatment, and now our good friend the Heavy is getting his own update (not to mention the Sandvich). We 360 gamers have sat idly by as PC gamers get to romp about with new weapons and there's a even a new map on the way. It's time to cheer up fanboys, because Valve has confirmed to GameSpot that all of the TF2 content released thus far should be hitting the Xbox 360 before the end of the year.
And now be sad again, because it looks like it's going to cost you. In an interview with VideoGaming247, Valve boss Gabe Newell spoke about the updates saying, "On the consoles, they want us to charge money for them, because that's in their model, and our model is very much more to grow the community by giving out free updates." Boy, we like the sound of Valve's model much better. From the sound of things, it's soundling like Microsoft wants Valve to charge for their content even if Valve doesn't want to (now thatsounds familiar).
Posted Mar 4th 2008 10:45AM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
More news on the Team Fortress 2 front as Valve busily plans the release of a new set of DLC and how they are planning on offering the content for free
Speaking with Eurogamer, Valve's VP of marketing Doug Lombardi mentioned that their development team is hard at work on new TF2 multiplayer maps for the 360 version and that their plan is to offer the content for free. Lombardi tells Eurogamer that "free is the way to go. The gamers play the game, they want to keep playing the game, so we've collected their fifty bucks at the start, and once they're in the park, they can ride any ride they want in the park. So, for us that's been the philosophy." And a DLC philosophy we whole-heartily agree with. But nothing is set in stone just yet as Microsoft has certain rules pertaining to free content and we all know how much Orange Box publisher EA loves to make a quick buck off of DLC. In a perfect world we would see TF2 DLC for free, but we have a feeling we're in for another Hidden Fronts disagreement either between Valve and Microsoft or between Valve and EA.
Yesterday, we mentioned that a new Team Fortress 2 title update was released via Xbox Live but that we were in the dark pertaining to any of the specifics. We went as far as to call out Valve on their lack of information support surrounding the Orange Box for consoles. But today, we eat our words. Valve developer Kerry hopped onto the Xbox.com forums to inform the masses about the TF2 update and tell us exactly what it fixes. We've posted Kerry's complete list of changes after the break as we're sure our fellow TF2 exploiters are ever so curious to know which exploits in their vast exploit arsenal are no longer effective. Anyway, check out the update list as we go on to officially retract out "evil Valve" comment that we made yesterday. We acknowledge that our name calling was a bit much, but we still stand behind our request at having some sort of Valve supported news hub for getting Orange Box updates. We still cool?
Update: We're now more informed about the changes that went into effect with this latest update. Check out all the details here.
Recently, Valve's magical Orange Box received a title update with its sole purpose being fixification of Team Fortress 2. Though, sadly, we don't know exactly what changes the update made seeing that Valve has no central news hub for Xbox 360 Orange Box owners. All we get are PC centric updates like this. Evil Valve. But we're guessing the update has something to do with changes that werementioned a few months back. We're also hearing from our oh so reliable X3F tipsters that the TF2 update adds the option for 14 player games, auto-balance management and other general class enhancements. Again, we can't be exactly sure what modifications were made seeing that Valve doesn't have a central news hub. Did we get that point across yet? Ahem, Valve, we need you to update us on things like this. Mmkay? And until they do, if while surfing the internets you spot a list or breakdown of what changes were put in place with the latest auto-update, please drop us a line. Thanks much.
We knew some changes were headed to Team Fortress 2, namely to the Medic, but CVG is now reporting some of the planned changes for other classes as well. Specifically, we're talking about the Pyro and Soldier classes. So far, the only change announced for the Pyro has to do with scoring. Basically, Pyros will now be rewarded with points when they successfully light an enemy on fire. The idea, according to Valve's Robin Walker is to reward the player for foiling enemy plans even when doing so didn't necessarily end in their death. The Soldier class is due for an interesting change as well, as Walker notes that Valve "is focused on making Soldiers a little more careful firing their rockets at point blank targets." We're not exactly sure what that would entail, especially when factoring in rocket jumps, so we'll just have to wait and see. The changes should be rolling out within the next two months.
Posted Jan 14th 2008 3:00PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
The new downloadable content (slash) update for Team Fortress 2prophecy is slowly becoming a reality, with confirmation that changes will be in place within two months.
Talking to ShackNews, Valve has confirmed that Team Fortress 2, one-fourth fifth of the Orange Box, will be receiving an update that'll bring significant gameplay tweaks aimed at being a "large scale modification to the core of the game," that will "debut in a limited fashion through the Medic first, but it'll be affecting all classes eventually". Specific gameplay changes were not detailed, but we do know they will rollout as part of the Medic Achievement Pack which, as it sounds, will bring 36 new achievements to the medic class. Valve also mentioned that they are working on two new multiplayer maps including a remake of Team Fortress's classic map Badlands, but both maps are currently slated to be only available on the PC with a 360 release yet to be determined.
There's a bunch to look forward to for TF2 fans, but we can't help being a bit bummed about the uncertainty of the two new maps releasing to the 360. We are also torn about the medic class getting all the tweaks and achievements, while the other classes sit on the sidelines. And 36 new achievements? That has to be a mistake ... right?
Posted Dec 12th 2007 2:15PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
NeoGAF member Shamrock was a bit annoyed at Valve for what he felt to be a lack of Team Fortress 2 news, updates or community interaction from Valve and he wanted answers. And after shooting off an email to Valve's Gabe Newell (who later handed it off to a Valve software engineer) he and the rest of us got a TF2 update. Yay!
According to Valve software engineer Kerry Davis, the TF2 development team has been busy lately, working on a patch as well as some downloadable content. The patch will fix numerous bugs in the game including bandwidth issues, stats reporting, menu enhancements and exploit fixing which are all issues they investigated after reading forum posts made by TF2 players (aww shucks, they listen to their community too!) The patch has already been submitted to Microsoft and should be applied before Christmas. Finally, Davis mentions that they are working on new multiplayer maps as well which do not have a release date just yet, but they'll be rolled out on both the PC and Xbox 360 which smells of free DLC to us. Oh, and Davis also reminds us that Valve cares, loves us and will do anything to please our ungrateful bums, except they refuse to wash our car. Which sort of stinks, seeing that our car is hella' dirty.
Wowzaz! We've just been blindsided by a new game demo on the XBLM this morning, we didn't even see it coming, but oddly enough we're loving it.
Available for download off the Marketplace to nearly all Xbox Live members around the globe is a brand new, Thanksgiving surprise The Orange Box: Half-Life 2 Episode 2 demo from team Valve. The demo, which we expect to feature only HL2 EP2 fun and not any other Orange Box goods, will take up 732MB of hard drive space and will probably leave you wanting more Orange Box fun ... especially Portal. Speaking of which, we're overjoyed about today's surprise HL2, but where's the Portal demo? We want demand Portal and we want demand cake!
Our maniacal robot overlords at Joystiq just wrote up their impressions of the Team Fortress 2 beta that PC players are currently enjoying. Sure, it's not the 360 version, but we're confident that the impressions will translate to our favorite console. Long story short: Joystiq is impressed. Rather than rehash their impressions, allow us to direct you, um, directly to them. We will, however, suffice it to say that The Orange Box is looking like a definite purchase for any self-respecting fanboy.
With the release of The Orange Box fast approaching, we're itching to get all the info we can about its delicious contents. We're probably most excited for the collection's multiplayer offering, Team Fortress 2. So far, we've been enamored of the clever character class videos that Valve has released, but we haven't seen too much focus on how these various classes actually play. Enter Eurogamer, with a video of our personal favorite, the engineer. The video pretty much covers the things you'll be doing as an engineer, namely building things and dropping fools with your shotgun. Unfortunately, Eurogamer doesn't support embedded videos, so you'll have to leave the comfy confines of X3F to view it. We know it can be scary, but we also know that you can do it. Go ahead, click that "read" link. It's not nearly as scary as it seems.
Eurogamer has gotten their grubby little hands on a copy of Team Fortress 2 and laid down the first review of the game. We'll leave the pleasure of reading the whole review to our readers, but we're pretty sure you'd like an overall summary. Well here it is folks: it's good. According to Eurogamer, Team Fortress 2 achieves the unenviable task of providing an accessible team-based shooter experience that will satisfy both newcomers and the hardcore alike. Eurogamer even notes that the need for voice communication is nearly rendered moot by intuitive map designs and classes that counterbalance each other. That's quite an accomplishment if true. Oh, one last thing before you head off to read the review, Valve will be releasing more maps in addition to the six that are shipping with the game. Sounds pretty good to us. Now, go read the review and dream of October.
Alright, so we're beginning to understandthecharacters of Team Fortress 2, but what about their environment? In what sorts of places will we be wreaking havoc? A series of videos has been released giving a brief glimpse of each of Team Fortress 2's six maps: Hydro, Gravel Pit, Well, 2 Fort, Granary, and Dust Bowl. Unfortunately, all the videos are done in a grainy, almost black-and-white style that doesn't exactly mesh with YouTube. Hopefully we'll see some high resolution versions of these videos soon. Still, you can get an idea of the layout of each map and the game types available on them. We've embedded the rest of the videos after the break.
GameVideos has posted a handful of new videos of Team Fortress 2 gameplay. In all, we get to see the engineer, spy, sniper, scout, and soldier doing their thing. We noticed yesterday that the camera can pull away from the player in order to show off an emotion. Seeing these new videos, it has become clear that this is a player controlled action, so you can use it to taunt your living (or dead) opponents whenever you wish. Beyond that, the game plays out as you would expect. You have sixty seconds to prepare before each match, during which time you can select your class and figure out your strategy. The rest is pure mayhem. Our favorite video, embedded above, features the spy infiltrating the enemy base and laying waste to them with his butterfly knife. Everything we've seen of Team Fortress 2 points to good times ahead. Check out three more videos after the break.
Remember the Team Fortress 2video featuring the Heavy? You know, "I am Heavy Weapons Guy," and "WHO TOUCHED MY GUN?!" and all that? Well, we're hesitant to say it, but we think this video tops it. Something like Patton with a little extra derangement sprinkled on top, the video features the Soldier class as he explains to the troops the very invention of war. Apparently it involves Sun Tzu and the collection of animals. In short, the video is comedy gold and should not be missed. Watch it now or forever be an outcast in gaming circles.
We are all aboutTeam Fortress 2 here at X3F. While we certainly look forward to the classic gameplay, there can be no doubt that its luscious visual style is a big draw. The above video from Gamersyde shows off just how much work goes into all the environments and characters of Team Fortress 2. The team at Valve drew their inspiration from commercial drawings of the early 20th century. Hell, they even mention the work of Hayao Miyazaki as an influence. One of the overall goals of the design process was to make every character unique and easy to identify at a distance. With this in mind, the team set about creating unique color schemes and silhouettes for each character. There are also lots of technical elements discussed in the video. We're not really sure what a Phong highlight is, but if it makes Team Fortress 2 this pretty, we really don't care.
Update: We're now more informed about the changes that went into effect with this latest update. Check out all the details 
The new downloadable content (slash) update for Team Fortress 2 
Wowzaz! We've just been blindsided by a new game demo on the XBLM this morning, we didn't even see it coming, but oddly enough we're loving it.
