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).
There's something tragic about posting the Meat Meet the Sandvich trailer on X3F. While Team Fortress 2 is spinning in countless machines as we type, this content is another item that must be added to a laundry list of missing features from the console version of the multiplayer title. However, keeping with our readers love of all things related to TF2 "Meet the" videos we present the latest. Meet Team Fortress 2's "Edible Device" and shotgun replacement, the Sandvich. Now, who was working on that petition to get this content on the Xbox 360?
Valve's Doug Lombardi (seen muzzled by an X3F sticker at E3 2008) recently cleared up some confusion regarding the content of Portal: Still Alive for the Xbox Live Arcade in an interview with OXM. "It's just a series of new challenges," Lombardi told the magazine. "[Portal: Still Alive is] another way for people to experience Portal, without having to buy the full Orange Box."
We can't say we're surprised. With such a focus on story we didn't expect Valve to do anything exclusively for the Xbox that would factor into actual canon of the series.
Lombardi later detailed that Valve has new projects in the works for the Xbox 360 but remain firm on its disinterest for PS3 and Wii development. It was also confirmed that Team Fortess 2 that the achievements and content added to the PC version of the game will come to the Xbox 360 at some point, whenValve has worked out how it wants to package and release that content.
Someone quick remind the lightning pace of the internet what Team Fortress 2 is. Awesome is what it is, and doubly awesome is another video introduction to one of the many classes in the popular shooter. Sure, playing it online could be problematic but the cold hard fact is that Valve's character portraits put a smile on our face and a swing in our step.
Allow us to help introduce the Sniper. Not the cold-hearted killer you might think he is, this professional assassin is governed by a set of strict rules atop his comfy camping chair--but unfortunately his parents do not approve.
Update: Well, it seems that no internet was any match for a decent game of Team Fortress 2. All of us (Xav, Richard and Dustin) attempted to get a game going but twice it crashed and once it was so laggy your character went for a swim in the 2Fort water without your permission! So. That in mind, tomorrow night at 9:30 PM - 11:30 PM we're going to host a roundtable of Halo 3 madness! Join us tomorrow and let us all thank Team Fortress 2's bad connection for a great time! Thaaaaaaaaank Youuuuuuuuu.
Just so the entire night isn't a bust. Some of our team are going to play some random online games and would love for you to join up. If you see any of us online playing, drop us a line and request an invite!
Original Post: That's right kids. Right now you are invited to jump onto Xbox Live and partake in some quality games of Bomberman Live and Team Fortress 2!
As usual add X3FLIVE to your friends list and use the Friends of Friends feature to track down Richard (SenseiRam), Dustin (SuperDunners), Alexander (Sli Xander) and/or Xav (Snypz) and try to jump into an open session. We still need to set up a telethon to save Terrence's internets.
So to recap. Just join the game in progress and if you don't find your way in send Xav (Gamertag Snypz) a message requesting to be invited. We are going to try and get as many people in the game as possible!
Community, listen up. Tonight at 9:30 PM EST we're throwing down on some Bomberman Live and Team Fortress 2 in another edition of X3F Live. Browse through your ridiculously long list of XBLA titles, dust off those copies of The Orange Box and prepare yo'self for a few games of each when we play Bomberman Live from 9:30-10:30PM and then switch to Team Fortress 2 from 10:30-11:30PM!
As usual add X3FLIVE to your friends list and use the Friends of Friends feature to track down Richard (SenseiRam), Dustin (SuperDunners), Alexander (Sli Xander) and/or Xav (Snypz) and try to jump into an open session. We still need to set up a telethon to save Terrence's internets.
This week I (that's Xav, Gamertag: Snypz) will be hosting the games so, if you're online and haven't been invited to a game send me a message and we'll try to get you in throughout the night.
We had so much fun playing Gears of War and Uno on Monday that we decided we're not going to wait another six months before our next X3F LIVE event. On Monday, June 16, we're handpicking two other titles from last week's poll and choo-choo-choosing it for another round of X3F LIVE madness.
Prepare yourself for another onslaught of gaming with the team at X3F (if you so choose) where we'll partake in a little Bomberman Live from 9:30 - 10:30PM EST and then retire to Team Fortress 2 from 10:30 - 11:30PM EST.
More details to come on Monday, but as usual add X3FLIVE to your friends list and use the Friends of Friends feature to track down Richard (SenseiRam), Dustin (SuperDunners), Alexander (Sli Xander) and/or Xav (Snypz). Someone really needs to get Terrence some new, Xbox Live compatible internets!
Eachweek, X3F tips gamers to the tricks of the trade of Achievement hording in Points>Life. Every week a new achievement is unlocked to help you continue your unhealthy obsession with the Xbox 360 meta-game.
This week on Points>Life we're giving you nothing! Well, actually what we're doing is going back and recapping the tips we've given you and added a little postmortem comment. After releasing each feature the X3F Army shared best practices on other methods to obtain similar achievements.
This week we go back to the last eight weeks of tips and tricks, so if you're new to Points>Life ... today is your day!
As PC gamers have known for some time, Team Fortress 2 has been receiving some significant updates, including more achievements and weapons. For some time it was unknown what sort of release these updates would see on 360, the existence of the achievements hinting that it would see some sort of release. Speaking at EA's Spring Showcase, Doug Lombardi of Valve said that there would be details coming soon on the content and confirmed that it would be seeing release. Apparently the devs were waiting for enough new content to create a DLC "Pack", which is more conducive to the 360's downloadable content structure. Unfortunately, there is no word now as to whether the pack will be free like its PC counter-part. Hopefully the forthcoming info including good news about the DLC's pricing.
Eachweek, X3F tips gamers to the tricks of the trade of Achievement hording in Points>Life. Every week a new achievement is unlocked to help you continue your unhealthy obsession with the Xbox 360 meta-game.
This week in Points>Life we tackle The Orange Box. While we could have copped out and threw out one of the easy achievements we tip you off on getting a hand-full of points in this fantastic compilation. Grab points in both Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 by following our guide above!
Music Credit:
"Collateral Damage Pt. 2" by Critical Mood
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Brooklyn Boston born and raised let us introduce you to the Scout; one of the stars of the hit title Team Fortress 2. While you may have thought the scrawny Southie kid was another pawn in the game of tactical shooters, you'd be wrong. In the informative video above we get to learn the truth about the kid who might run like the wind, but won't back down from any fight. You might think this video is a little late to the party, but we dare you to not laugh when the Scout puts a beating on that poor Heavy.
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.
It's a good thing too, because most of you would like to see more Portal. Speaking to Eurogamer, Valve spokesperson Doug Lombardi confirmed that there will be more Portal and, furthermore, it won't simply be "a bunch of new puzzles." When exactly we'll see the next installment of Portal remains a mystery. Also a mystery is exactly what form it will take. At this point, it's unclear if Valve intends to create a full blown sequel or if the company plans to stick to an episodic format in the vein of Half-Life 2. Speaking of Half-Life 2, Lombardi notes that Episode 3 details are still a long way away -- "months not weeks," according to Lombardi. Lombardi also reasserts that Valve wants additional content for its games to be free. That's a good to hear with new Team Fortress 2 content in the pipeline.
Now that we know there will be more Portal, allow us to create a subtitle for the sequel: The Quest for Cake. What would you call it?
We had so much fun playing Gears of War and Uno on Monday that we decided we're not going to wait another six months before our next X3F LIVE event. On Monday, June 16, we're handpicking two other titles from last week's poll and choo-choo-choosing it for another round of X3F LIVE madness.
Update: We're now more informed about the changes that went into effect with this latest update. Check out all the details 
