Spy kills Sniper, everyone gets free Team Fortress 2 weekend
by Randy Nelson 
{ May 20th 2009 at 11:59PM } 
In memorial of Team Fortress 2's ill-fated Sniper -- and Thursday's impending Spy and Sniper class updates -- Valve is holding a free-play Memorial Day weekend for the game via Steam. This time it's a long one; the game will be open to all from tomorrow, May 21 through Monday, May 25.
According to Valve, those few gamers who don't already have the multiplayer classic installed on their PCs can begin pre-loading the game files now via the Steam client. Then, come Tuesday morning, the game will politely ask if they'd like to pony up the cash tofeed the addiction keep playing.
Until tomorrow, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the one character most likely to stab you in the back. We bet the Sniper wished he had.
According to Valve, those few gamers who don't already have the multiplayer classic installed on their PCs can begin pre-loading the game files now via the Steam client. Then, come Tuesday morning, the game will politely ask if they'd like to pony up the cash to
Until tomorrow, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the one character most likely to stab you in the back. We bet the Sniper wished he had.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DeepFriedSushi @ May 21st 2009 12:03AM
anyone know how large this thing is.
Slayer @ May 21st 2009 12:06AM
The game can take up to 7 gigs.
DeepFriedSushi @ May 21st 2009 12:12AM
really? orange box is is 7 gigs and it has portal and half life 2 on it.
Slayer @ May 21st 2009 12:13AM
It's probably from all the maps, updates, and other crap making the game take up that much space.
DigTheDoug @ May 21st 2009 12:27AM
It depends antirely if you have any other Source games already installed. It's can be 7 gigs, but it can also be smaller if you already have HL2 or Portal etc because the Source files are already present.
deanb @ May 21st 2009 12:31AM
TF2 is 7.3GB
All of HL2 is 16GB n Portal is 4.5GB.
The 7GB for Orange Box will more than likely be the original install size. TF2 has added quite a bit ( and some of my size is probably form about 10 or so custom maps)
jynxycat @ May 21st 2009 12:08AM
Jarate!
HighFiveJesus @ May 21st 2009 1:01AM
I have been shown who is the boss!
NintendoJunkie @ May 21st 2009 12:13AM
I can't wait to throw some Jarate on some spy that is cloaking as he is running away.
MechaGamerX @ May 21st 2009 12:26AM
Sniper, I shall avenge ye, for I am the holy diver of the interwebz.!!
First the spy...then it's /b/'s turn...
JXCgunrunna @ May 21st 2009 12:51AM
im with you on that one. Just let me get my R700 with stopping power and deep impact
CH3BURASHKA @ May 21st 2009 12:42AM
A 2 for 1 update! Awesome...
SecretAgentHam @ May 21st 2009 12:49AM
my prayers are answered! i was hoping this would happen. now i just hope there is a steam sale on this game this weekend or the orange box again... i would purchase in a heart beat.
pre-loading now!
ChiTownRuler23 @ May 21st 2009 12:52AM
quick question, Why doesn't valve release these updates on the 360 version i mean it cant be that hard.
Solstice @ May 21st 2009 12:58AM
It's not Valve's fault. Blame Microsoft's absurdly long certification process.
Premature ejaculation man @ May 21st 2009 1:04AM
There's a whole bunch of reasons thats due to Microsoft's policies on content, pricing and distribution times.
So when Vavle can instantly publish new content on their Steam service quickly, having to jump through a bunch of hoops and possibly have to pay Microsoft to host the content for free for their customers probably doesn't sound too enticing to them. The install base on the 360 is probably shrinking as well.
JerJer @ May 21st 2009 1:14AM
plus imagine how much easier it will be to just release an update once all the classes have been fitted with their respective new weapons rather than each one going through the whole certification process.
Einhanderkiller @ May 21st 2009 2:00AM
Somebody always asks this question in TF2-related stories.
Mitsuo @ May 21st 2009 2:09AM
I believe a reason why valve is basically holding off on the updates now is they want all the classes to be updated in one nice big package for little money. I originaly thought they might just release it for the 360 when half the classes have updates but now that the engineer is the only one left they may just wait till that's done then go for the 360.
ChiTownRuler23 @ May 21st 2009 2:09AM
*sigh* my copy of the orange box is gonna be collecting dust as soon as im done with the half life series
Robert Maynard @ May 21st 2009 2:49AM
Engineer, Demoman, Soldier are left to update. Not just Engineer.
Premaximum @ May 21st 2009 2:53AM
@Mitsuo
The Soldier also has not had an update.
deanb @ May 21st 2009 5:37AM
Apart from MS's faffing about with not wanting all this updates for Free, there is also the issue with the 360 having 512mb of shared memory. The PC version has 512mb of RAM as minimum not counting Video RAM too.
Kinda odd in an age where RAM is such a boost to PC performance and stupidly cheap to upgrade both consoles have powerful processors that get bottlenecked at how much RAM is available. At the time of production 1GB was only about £30 and that could of had a huge boost to games.
Slaziman @ May 21st 2009 5:55AM
deanb, that's not an issue, consoles don't need to run a bloated OS, an anti-virus, and other background apps. Besides, games are optimized specially for consoles, you can't just compare the PC system reqs with console hardware.
Tiago @ May 21st 2009 6:36AM
Yes, but in this case the problem really is memory, Valve has said so a frew weeks back when asked about the updates for the Xbox360.
What they said was that the original game was already a tight fit on the 512 Megs and to add all this new stuff they were working on general optimizations to the entire game as to be able to have the game work with all this new content.
And that "bloated" OS and antivirus and whatnot don't take up THAT much memory.
Nowadays a med-low end computer should have at least 1Gb RAM, those extra 512 aren't all taken up by background apps. (Those get paged out to virtual memory on the hard drive while gaming btw.) And there's also the fact someone already stated that computers usually have dedicated video mamery while xbox360's 512 must do it all.
Brian @ May 21st 2009 1:03AM
Gentlemen.
Anticrawl @ May 21st 2009 1:18AM
Gentlemen.
http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Gentlemen
michas_pi @ May 21st 2009 5:53AM
Next-genTLEMEN.
Mychas @ May 23rd 2009 3:15PM
Oh Hi Michas
Ryan @ May 21st 2009 1:09AM
This article failed to mention that the final sniper update weapon is essentially the sniper's PEE in a JAR.
This. Is. Brilliant.
HighFiveJesus @ May 21st 2009 1:15AM
and how its effects are washed off when you go into the water.
Anticrawl @ May 21st 2009 2:09AM
I dunno, that sniper was up there for days drinking nothing but coffee. I'm pretty sure that piss would be vile and not something you can just "wash off."
Haon @ May 21st 2009 1:44AM
Sweet. More fodder for my spy. Thanks valve.
BPMOmega [gamertag] @ May 21st 2009 2:18AM
I'm gonna guess that TF2 will be discounted for the weekend, as well. They usually do that with the free weekends/days.
Of course, if you wanted TF2, you should've gotten the Orange Box deal a couple weeks ago (all OB games for $10, wasn't it?). Oh, well. Even at $20 (its current standard price), it's a great value.
SecretAgentHam @ May 21st 2009 2:21AM
i die a little inside everytime someone mentions that sale. i cant believe i missed out on it.
BPMOmega [gamertag] @ May 21st 2009 2:22AM
You also die a little on the outside, too--[stabs you in the back]
Gentlemen.
twh @ May 21st 2009 2:41AM
Wow, that's a first. Whenever you see a 'Meet the [Class]' vid, it's ALWAYS the red schooling the blues. This is one of those rare times where Blue gets their comeuppance.
twh @ May 21st 2009 2:41AM
Er, I mean revenge. Not comeuppance.
BPMOmega [gamertag] @ May 21st 2009 3:37AM
Uh, not really. RED Spy first killed BLU Sniper and Medic. Then BLU Soldier killed BLU Spy. Finally RED Spy killed BLU Heavy and Soldier.
And BLU Scout was probably killed off-screen.
False @ May 21st 2009 3:55AM
Actually, the Red DID school the Blues. The Blue Spy got his brains blown out by his own Soldier and the Red Spy ran off with the Blue Scout's mom. Sounds like Red won to me.
d889 @ May 21st 2009 3:32AM
i am probably the only person who wishes tf2 was what we saw back in 1999-2000, before they changed it to this weird ass comic book style game.
sigh i miss the good old days of tfc
Charlie_Six @ May 21st 2009 3:41AM
You're not the only one. I don't mind the cartoon style, as it's very refreshing for an FPS. But I do think they stuck too close to Team Fortress Classic, which itself was a remake of the original Team Fortress. I was hoping TF2 would be a totally different game, not more of what I had already played.
xbit @ May 21st 2009 4:08AM
Pfft... TFC was just a poor man's QuakeWorld Team Fortress. A pale, skill-less, imitation of the original.
Poisoned Al @ May 21st 2009 7:30AM
This is going to be a NIGHTMARE. The update isn't even out yet, but there is already hoards of worthless spies shitting the servers up.
deanb @ May 21st 2009 7:50AM
You have played TF2 pre- and post-class updates before haven't you?
Pexxle -=SilverHand (RP)=- @ May 21st 2009 8:47AM
.
Brandon @ May 21st 2009 11:15AM
Just preloaded the game, I have it here on 'MyGames' and I see no way to play it for free. What the hell Valve?
David @ May 21st 2009 3:02PM
I can't play it either. Apparently, even though it's Thursday, the free weekend still hasn't started... some have cited "Valve Time" as the reasoning behind it. Some may find that an amusing aside, but I just view it as vague, annoying, and potentially dishonest..
Ostentaneous @ May 21st 2009 4:37PM
I just wanna say that the timeframes mentioned in this article confused me. You can't post something at 11:59pm and talk about it starting tomorrow.
d889 @ May 21st 2009 8:35PM
meh i bought half-life in 1998 and have been with the entire series since its beginning, but i guess i just miss the nostalgia... oh well its just like how the beta days of counter-strike was so much fun before steam.