Team Fortress 2 Pyro update coming Thursday

by Justin McElroy on Jun 17th 2008 8:10AM

We didn't think it possible to get more satisfaction out of setting people and property ablaze, but the eternal optimists at Valve are attempting to improve on the experience with an update to Team Fortress 2's Pyro class, which the company has announced will arrive on Thursday. Expect the Axtinguisher (which sounds like something Strong Bad came up with) as well as two other weapons and 35 new achievements for the Fortress firebug.

What's more, all Steam users will be able to try out the new enhancements with a free Team Fortress 2 weekend beginning this Friday. (Note to new players: TF2 is not always a hellish world of flame, populated only by masked men spraying fire in every direction. That will pass, we promise.)

Tags: patches, PC, pyro, steam, team-fortress-2, updates

Reader Comments (47)

Any news on whether or not the "MEET THE SNIPER" video will be released this week?

It's out today.

11 am PUT (or something like that... why can't everyone just use GMT ?!) Anyway, I think it works out to about 6 or 7pm GMT.

It's up now. A little late, but better late than never, at least for Valve that is.

It's up, and I think it's the funniest one yet :D I hope Joystiq features it.
I lol'd so hard when the demo accidentally stabbed himself xD

How easy is it to get into TF2 at this point?

I bought the Orange Box, but i'm almost entirely a Single Player kind of guy, so I haven't tried out TF2 much. (except getting as far as finding out it doesn't have bots).

I'd kinda like to try it out, but I'm a little worried that I'll be stuck on a map I don't know, with weapons and abilities I don't know, and lots of people who've been playing since release will shout at me. And I'll cry.

It's not that hard, dude. Play Medic for a bit to get a feel for the game. And so what if you die a bit? It's called learning a new game. Dying a bunch is part of the process. Even single player games have that.

There are some pretty skillfull players, but it's far more accessible than Counter Strike since you don't have to wait around every time you die, so you aren't penalised too much for experimenting with the game.

You definitely shouldn't have any problems this weekend though, since there will be a free trial period starting Friday, so I'm guessing thousands of noobs will be trying out the game for the first time :D should be fun ;)

It's very easy to get into.
Hell, even my 6 year old cousin picked up on the game. He's only played a little, but he already knows most of the basics like how resupply lockers work and how to play a Spy.

There are Youtube videos showing how to effectively play each class, and there are newbie servers for helping the fresh meat get acquainted with the game.

There are a lot of classes, but they have very few weapons, and you can get the feel of a class pretty quickly.

Most people die a lot, and none of the maps are that huge so it's easy to get a feel for a map.

Start with Soldier, Scout, Pyro or Demo as they're the easiest to get into.

You will die a lot, but soon you'll learn what your class can or can't do, and where you should be going. It's also almost impossible for one person to lose a map for the team no matter how bad they are, so no-one will shout at you.

@ t_m : If you have any FPS chops, you will learn it quickly. Start with the medic or soldier. Check youtube for How To videos.

And if you don't like getting yelled at? Turn off all of the speech features and just support your teammates as best as you can til you feel like you have the hang of it. Then get your voice on.

ok. I'll give it a try if i have time.

Haven't played online FPS games since Quakeworld.. but it was much easier back then.. just log in and frag everyone. Tried CS:Source once and people weren't very forgiving of newbies, so i gave up.

:O!

I haven't played TF2 in like a month due to summer classes. What a great way to start again.

I've said this before, but Valve is definitely my absolute favourite gaming company.

I was expecting 'Valve time' like with the Medic Achievements. This makes this announcement a very very pleasant suprise indeed.

I don't think I will ever tire of TF2 :D

I sure hope there's a secondary weapon for his flamethrower, like oil that spills on the floor that he can ignite.

Wow, I wasn't expecting this update this soon. Someone must've lit a fire under Valve.

WHERE is the 360 update?

Valve, you are letting us down and our patience is wearing thin.

haha, console gamers haven't won over every single developer yet.

Long Live Steam!

Ditto. And has there been any change in the quality of TF2 over XboxLive yet? The last time I played it maybe around February (and really, it played this way since day one) it was laggy, difficult to find games to join and otherwise a frustrating experience. The gameplay itself is great, but if you can't even hold a connection to the host, what's the point?

Is Valve working on an update to improve stability for the 360?

"Long Live Steam!"? What, you like getting raped on the PC rather than the console?

Seriously, fuck all forms of digital distribution. I prefer to own the games I buy, not own a license to play them.

@Kizzle

Then by the box and then just put in the CD Key? It's not like they don't have both. As for other games on there, yeah I can see that but I haven't had any problems with licenses disappearing if that's what you mean.

I will admit, I didn't like steam at all from the beginning, but now it works better than way back when and creates a nice environment where hacks and piracy can't get to as easily.

As long as I am not paying money for a service, I don't consider it rape.

Agreed, this is really weak. The console versions of TF2 may not have as big a user-base as the pc version, but if you're going to put out a product, as a AAA developer you have an obligation to support it.

To all the console haters out there, I would take this as an ominous sign. If Valve won't update their games for consoles, what can you expect if/when some other platform comes out that takes sales from the pc?

Rick, TF2 360 is completely stable now. You always have a bunch of games with good connection to chose from. Even those indicated as poor connection are perfectly playable.

There are still plenty of people playing, both expert and noob.

But the game is so fun, its even fun when you lose, because its practically impossible to have a repeatable shut down strategy, no matter how god you are. There is always a way to undermine a repeat of a perfect attack or defense.

I think they're trying to hint that they'd rather you play on steam ;)

Although it's also Microsoft's fault because there are much fewer hurdles for bringing new content to steam than there are to bring it to xbox live.

It really is a top notch experience on PC, the steamworks stuff is great and there are loads of excellent custom maps. You generally have lots more control over your experience with the game when you play it on PC (from maps, to mods, to customized rules, eg no crits).

Come, ye console gamers, and render yourselves unto the comforting bosom of steam. Her skin be soft, her luscious lips caressing ye, and her gentle words ejaculating tender thoughts.

I think some of you are missing the point - YES the pc may have more options, customisation etc. However, I FAR prefer to play my games on my comfy couch on my big tv on (shock) a joypad.

It's just far more...sociable..

It's not more sociable in my family, if monopolized the TV with video games when I'm home, everyone would turn against me fast. Nobody wants to watch me play TF 2 for hours. That's why get my dose of console games by plugging the PS3 into my monitor.

Oh and FYI, you can plug a computer into a TV pretty easily. All you need is a DVI to HDMI adaptor. You can also use a gamepad with a computer very easily. (I have an xbox 360 controller for when I play GRID, also on steam.)
In terms of space issues in the TV room, well, a recent laptop can play TF2, so the issue of practicallity isn't a factor either... especially since they often come with HDMI ports as well. A small desktop can also be very powerful but quiet and inobstrusive.

Damn...going to have to pick up the pace on cleaning the whole house because Thursday through the weekend is SHOT. SHOT I tell ya. =D

AWESOME news
I

I'd love to get into this game again (it's still my favorite multiplayer game on the 360) but like many, I'm waiting for a damn update.

If I went on right now, I'd bet I'd only be able to find 3-4 good, 16 player rooms, and half of them would lag out.

This is a shame Valve! We need the update on the 360. TF2 is an amazing game. I hate seeing it rot away like this.

And to clear up any confusion, I can't just get it on the PC. My PC can't run it.

Man, there may be something wrong with your internoodles if you cant find a good room.

ANyway, you are not satisfied with 3 or 4 16-players rooms?! You just need one at a time.

I don't know how crappy your computer can be - buy my laptop is 3 years old, it's 1.8 ghz mobile p4 with 1 GB RAM and an ATI 9600 video chipset. It runs at 640x480 with all the settings and effects set to low or off... But it runs SILKY smooth and I love it!

Just get an nvidia 9600 GT or a Radeon 3870 (or upcoming 4850) and you'll be running it in no time.

Or if you don't even want to spend that much, you could even get acceptable framerates with a Radeon 3850 or less.

Steam is a beautiful woman (or man?) gazing at you lustfully. She just wishes you had a bigger graphics card.

Burnin in the morning, burnin in the evening, burnin at supper time.

A message to those who complain that there are too many pyros, or that the pyro is such a noob class... run. Run far far away, but first know this... MRA-HA-HAAAA!!!

I'm curious though what the other two weapons are. Pyro is my primary class (over 4 times the usage of my secondary class the medic), and my friends were talking about this the other day. Possibilities like actual napalm that you could spray on the floors and walls, or incendiary shells for the shotgun.

It's not really a noob class. Noobs play as a pyro, but die rather quickly when they just run at a heavy or solder. Good pyros hang back and enjoy their diet of flambé spy.

We all know what a big TF2 fan I am, but this is gonna suck.It'll fuck up all the balance and make the game unplayable for at least a couple of days.While I'll unlock about 50% by playing/farming(then unlock the rest with my VAC-proof Achievement hack.) a majority of players will spend ages trying to unlock them which will result in only...I dunno 25% of players actually playing the game?

Now there's a question of balance.Having eight fucking pyro's on your team is a spy suicide.Lack of Spies means an increase in the amount of Engineers.This could go on for ages but you get the idea.Oh, and two-three engineers will easily nail hundreds of kills on those poor short-ranged Pyro's spoiling the game for everyone.

I dunno, I played a game last night with 4 pyros on a team. Granted, it only really worked on Dustbowl and Goldrush, but we destroyed them.

DESTROYED.

(And I still have 24 medic achievements to unlock, so I'll ride a pyro or two!)

They way I see it, is heavy happy fun time!

That's my concern too. But I play 360, and it looks like all updates will come to 360 at once, so the game will rebalance for a period and then will continue to be the butcher improv that it is.

your spleen here ---> .

35 achievements?

I know we've seen 35 everywhere this has been posted, but that seems to be a few short of the 39 the Medic had (or 36+3 milestones).

I guess we'll find out.

I just hope they're not as ridiculously stupid retarded hard as 95% of the Medic ones, but I'm sure they will be. *sigh*

Well, they are achievements, not quick check boxes. You're supposed to actually achieve something in the process.

I say, play the game as you normally do, if you happen to get an achievement, all the better.

Awe man..this game keeps on getting better and better, i just wish that they would do at least the map updates for Xbox 360..but this is definitly the best game i have ever played...peace out foo's

We're going to need more medics.

They better have done this better than the medic achievements. That is the first time I have been disappointed by something valve did, and it happened as soon as I got to a server where there were more than 4 medics in an 8 man team.

The thing I don't like about the achievements is that all the noobs playing that class will play selfishly for 2 weeks and not as a team to actually win.

Gameplay suffers in the short-run...

And a lot of the medic achievements were nuts impossible in actual gameplay with a real team trying to kick your ass.

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Team Fortress 2 Pyro update coming Thursday

Reader Comments (47)

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