By Jim Rossignol on December 16th, 2011 at 8:29 am.
They said it couldn’t be done, but they did it anyway: Valve’s free-to-play FPS, Team Fortress 2, has been updated with new items and stuff! Seasonal weapons are now available, with “naughty and nice” crate gifts appearing across levels in the game. You can learn about the new stuff in detail here, or just jump into the game and get automatically updated with Christmasness. And I have to admit, it does seem like the time of year to spend your hours blasting people into chunks with exotic weaponry, doesn’t it?
16/12/2011 at 08:44 Squirrelfanatic says:
I stopped playing TF2 a while ago (yeah… I know, it never really stops), but this stuff looks really fun. :) The comic is cool as well.
16/12/2011 at 08:50 bear912 says:
I’m a bit confused about pieces of this update. There are a few weapons which may only be available through crates, which would be an unfortunate move, but it’s rather unclear as to whether this is the case or not… If anyone figures out what is going on, let me know…
16/12/2011 at 08:59 Wang Tang says:
sounds to me as if the exclusivity is limited to this next week, and after that it’s the usual craft/drop/buy thingy.
16/12/2011 at 09:01 max pain says:
I understand that there are 14 new weapons and items only accessible by crates, for a week, then they’re gone.
+1 for this post having an alt-text! wohoo!
16/12/2011 at 09:18 Jackablade says:
The community weapons and items will be craftable, tradable and droppable after the week is up. The weapons with the christmas lights in the “naughty” crates are only available during the Christmas period.
You can see the other new items that have been added in the workshop page here:
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse?browsesort=accepted&p=1
16/12/2011 at 09:39 bear912 says:
Okay! I think I am alright with this. Thanks for the clarifications, guys!
16/12/2011 at 17:56 nemryn says:
Yeah, it looks like the stuff you can only get during this event is just the basic default weapons with lights on them, which is okay with me.
16/12/2011 at 09:16 Maxheadroom says:
Last year they gave everyone a free crate key, they doing that again this year? Still cant bring myself to actually pay for hats
16/12/2011 at 09:37 digitalfoundry says:
What a stupid update. Yeah, because everywhere in world it snows during Christmas. It’s not winter in the entire world.
16/12/2011 at 09:43 Jubaal says:
Bah Humbug
16/12/2011 at 09:53 f1x says:
Not sure if serious…
16/12/2011 at 10:00 diebroken says:
What is this ‘Christmas’?
16/12/2011 at 10:04 digitalfoundry says:
Neither serious nor trolling. Screw christmas, im waiting on the next Ramadan steam update.
16/12/2011 at 10:19 Jackablade says:
I agree. They totally should recognise me sweating in my underpants here.
16/12/2011 at 10:26 Wunce says:
Is it called the Australian Christmas everywhere or just here? Because if it was called the “Australian Christmas” everywhere then it seems kinda ignorant to have anything winter/snow related.
16/12/2011 at 10:49 westyfield says:
Um, you guys do know that Old Nick lives at the South Pole, right? They’re having a white Christmas.
16/12/2011 at 11:27 Man Raised by Puffins says:
I’d hazard that it’s more intended as an humourous juxtaposition, the lead dev is an Austrian himself.
16/12/2011 at 12:17 sneetch says:
It’s not serious. Not at all. They’ve been playing this “we haven’t a clue about anything” schtick since the very start. It’s the reason the sniper has such a terrible Australian accent despite several Aussies working on the game.
16/12/2011 at 14:39 IAmUnaware says:
You may not be familiar with the fiction of TF2, but the Australia in the TF2 universe only bears a slight resemblance to our own. TF2′s Australia is by a huge margin the most technologically advanced place on the planet–it’s where all the crazy tech like teleporters and personal cloaking devices came from–due to the element Australium, which is only found there and apparently exudes a peculiar type of radiation that turns the affected into a mustachioed hypermasculine genius who, strangely, often has chest hair in the shape of the geographic region he is from.
16/12/2011 at 17:04 digitalfoundry says:
Oh, and TF2 is crap. And there´s an entire hemisphere where it´s bright and warm, not snowy white.
16/12/2011 at 23:16 Spacewalk says:
With the current “summer” temperatures we’re getting down here, a White Christmas isn’t far off base.
16/12/2011 at 09:55 James G says:
Just in case people don’t realise, its not only TF2 that got a wintery update. I had Trine, Sanctum, Terraria, Defence Grid and Jamestown update yesterday as well. Also HL2:DM and Garry’s Mod, but I suspect that is source engine changes.
16/12/2011 at 10:00 Delusibeta says:
Also from today’s update:
Day of Defeat: Source
Added the “Valve Gift Grab 2011 – DoD:S” achievement
Counter-Strike: Source
Added the “Valve Gift Grab 2011 – CS:S” achievement
I’m suspicious. I’m predicting an encore of the Summer Camp.
16/12/2011 at 10:08 bear912 says:
Methinks you might be right.
Bear in mind, though, the prizes list on that page are probably just idle speculation. Every game on Steam? I have my doubts.
16/12/2011 at 10:46 James G says:
It would be a fantastic prize though, especially if it was given in perpetuity.
16/12/2011 at 10:27 Legion23 says:
Not gonna jump on the key/crate train this time…
16/12/2011 at 11:55 airtekh says:
I’m on a bit of a break from TF2 at the moment, but there seems to be a new map in this update so I think I’ll take a look (and hopefully not get re-addicted).
16/12/2011 at 13:00 Robin_G says:
I miss the old updates. At least when stuff was tied to achievements I could work towards it. Now you just twiddle your thumbs and hope for the random number generators to grant you access to the new game content. Or pay for keys and slightly increase your chances whilst actually doing something with all those locked boxes that just sit around in your inventory until you delete them.
And this time there is zero chance I will even get lucky and have one of the 14 new weapons drop for me until they are done shilling keys at us. I literally have no desire to boot up TF2, whereas at previous updates I was intently watching the download progress bar at some ungodly hour.
16/12/2011 at 14:49 IAmUnaware says:
There are a lot of people out there who are really into the whole buying keys and opening crates lottery thing, and will gladly trade you items and/or metal for your crates. Just ask the server every once in a while when you’re playing and you’ll be able to turn all those boxes into something useful. The new crates in particular are bringing a pretty great value right now.