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The first piece of information to come out of Team Fortress 2's "War" update for the Soldier and Demoman classes is a savory one -- according to the game's official blog, players of the PC version of the game will now be able to craft their own weapons, hats and other inventory items. Formerly useless pieces of loot in a player's collection can now be combined using a specific blueprint, resulting in a brand new, much more desirable piece of equipment.

So, frequent updates, personal inventories, multiple classes and a crafting system? Seriously, this game is like, a couple dragons short of becoming the next big MMORPG.

[Via Big Download]

Valve has decided to inject some "healthy competition" into the next patch for its long-lasting, cartoonish multiplayer shooter, Team Fortress 2. The update will award three new weapons to both the Soldier and Demoman classes -- weapons which will be revealed piecemeal over the course of the next week. However, the two classes will be fighting during the week to unlock a secret fourth weapon for their profession. Whichever class can kill the other the most will be victorious, and can claim the additional armament.

You can stay on top of the current kill count on Valve's hub page for the update, which is appropriately titled "The War." Our money's on the Demoman, but that might just be because we love his Shrek-inspired accent.

No More Heroes' girl-crazy otaku protagonist, Travis Touchdown, must have found the Cosmic Key, because he's crossed over into the world of Valve games -- specifically Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2.

The L4D mod uses Travis to meet the game's quota for one leather-clad survivor, putting him, in his usual red jacket and Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly T-shirt (but no beam katana), in the place of ultra-pessimist Francis. While an L4D2 mod could address the lack of stabbing and cutting, it would seem mod creator ash_link isn't a fan of Valve's sequel, so, yeah ... that's probably not happening.

The Team Fortress 2 mod does about the same thing, replacing that game's Scout with a pint-sized, katana-wielding Touchdown. Head past the break to see for yourself. Seriously, go watch the video now.

[Via Destructoid]

Regardless of what some developers may say about Valve's digital distribution service, Steam, the Left 4 Dead 2 developer remains steadfast in its belief that listening to customers and developers is the best way to stay on top of the game. Ars Technica spoke with Valve director of business development Jason Holtman before his keynote at the Montreal International Games Summit, and Holtman explained his company's one-two-punch plan of listening to Steam customers and developers for advice on running the operation. "They're actually usually far better predictors of success than we ever could be," he said.

He was also quick to point out that, despite the cyclical claims that PC gaming is "dying," Steam has been enjoying strong digital sales for years. During his presentation in Montreal, he noted that Valve's games have doubling sales numbers (or more) when they're put on sale, with Team Fortress 2 sales having jumped by as much as 520 percent when the Sniper vs Spy update was released. With numbers like that to back up his claim, it's starting to make a lot more sense to us why developers were so happy to defend Steam last month.

We know how boring most holly jolly holiday cards can be, so we were glad to see that a handful of Valve-ified greeting cards are now available for purchase at the game maker's online store. Featuring characters from Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, and Team Fortress 2 in compromising holiday situations, there's no doubt that we'll actually – finally – send out greeting cards this year to everyone in our little black book. We're quite partial to the handful of TF2-themed images you see above (just look at The Spy, back with The Scout's mother!), but we're sure there's something for everyone in your list of Source Engine-loving holiday card receivers.

[Via Big Download]

Speaking to GI.biz, Valve's head of Steam, Jason Holtman, had some interesting things to say about the company's frequent deals and their effect on long-term game sales. According to Holtman, Steam's quick game sales -- offering Team Fortress 2 for $2.49 for only a few hours last month, for example -- don't have a negative impact on a game's long-term performance. Holtman notes that once a brick-and-mortar retailer reduces a game's price, people are reticent to ever pay a higher price again, but downloadable games are different. "You can have sales that are dramatically low and bring the price back up and people don't care," said Holtman, "They don't care at all."

Regarding the $2.49 Team Fortress 2 sale last month, Holtman said that sales actually increased the following weekend -- after it went back to full price. He also mentioned Steam's previous half-off sale of Left 4 Dead, noting that it didn't hurt retail sales at all (readers will recall that Valve claimed that it actually boosted retail sales). Holtman stated that it's possible to run several promotions without "sacrificing" either downloadable or retail sales, and added, "You don't have to hurt somebody to win."

Left 4 Dead survivor Bill's hat is now available in Team Fortress 2 for those who pre-ordered Left 4 Dead 2 from Steam or "participating retailers." Though the hat does ... apparently nothing, it implies – in the immortal words of Destiny's Child – "I'm not gonna give up, I'm not gon' stop, I'm gonna work harder, I'm a survivor."

Some may hold issue with the fact that the Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead universes have collided; however, Valve has explained the phenomena, stating that "while conducting a science experiment on parallel dimensions, Bill's hat fell off a table into the Team Fortress universe." Done! That's all the justification required. Oh, and if Bill's hat isn't enough incentive to pre-order the zombie apocalypse survival simulator, know that the game is currently 10% off on Steam.

[Thanks, ZaxCG2]

In our hurry to tell you about yesterday's two-hour-long Team Fortress 2 fire sale, we didn't really give you all the in-depth info about the accompanying Pumpkin Patch update which you so richly deserve. We'll rectify that now, but not before saying that a few short hours after the announcement was posted yesterday afternoon, the update went live! You can play it right now -- on PC, of course. Oh, you thought it might come to the 360? That's adorable.

The update will temporarily introduce a King of the Hill map called "Harvest" into the mix, complete with Halloween-themed elements like collectible candy, exploding pumpkins, and the ghost of Zepheniah Mann, who temporarily freezes passersby in a gripping, powerful spell of fear. Five Achivements are available during the festivities, as well as a number of "Mildly Disturbing Halloween Hats," or paper bags with scary faces painted on them. If you're lucky, you might just get the one emblazoned with Joan Rivers' visage. Aaaaah!

Original: Actually, it's less than two hours now, so what are you waiting for? It's two dollars and fifty cents! It's usually twenty whole dollars. Go buy it. Now. Go!

If you grab it now (or if you already have it), you can enjoy the first annual Team Fortress Haunted Halloween Special, which will bring new haunted maps, exploding pumpkins and update-specific Steam Achievements. We'd write more, but that would only waste more time. Time you could spend buying Team Fortress 2.

[Via TF2 Official Blog]

A Team Fortress 2 forum poster named Pyranodon recently uploaded a magnificent piece of fan art for the cartoony shooter: A fake TF2 Class Update detailing the abilities of the game's new "Guard Dog." Though this canine is obviously way too overpowered to be implemented (it's a spy-tracker and a Jarate dispenser!), it's a pretty convincing mock-up -- so convincing, in fact, that Valve's Saxton Hale recently drafted a letter of commendation to the update's creator.

Well, perhaps "drafted" isn't the appropriate word to use there. Now that we think about it, neither is "commendation." We don't want to spoil it for you -- check out the fake update, check out the letter, and then join us as we happily remember why we love Valve so very much.

Valve has instituted a policy against cheating in Team Fortress 2 on PC, and the consequences will be dealt out in the next few days. If players are found to have used an "idling" application to make the game think they've been in a server, in order to increase the occurrence of randomly-generated items, Valve will take away all their items. "Going forward, if we find users using external applications, we'll remove all of their items," Valve's Erik Johnson said. "If you're interested, only about 4.5 percent of the players in TF2's community will be affected by this cleansing process."

If you aren't found cheating, you'll get -- a free hat! Specifically, a halo. The rate of appearance of all hats has also been increased. And now we wait for the news of Halo players being given free fortresses.

[Thanks, Amun]

Ever wondered about how Team Fortress 2's oft-visited battlegrounds are created? We assure you, it's not as simple as "insert spawn point, insert spawn point, insert weapons, publish." In fact, in a recent TF2 blog post, Valve explains that the game's mapmaking process is extremely exhaustive, involving countless hours of playtesting, revisions, and special care to ensure no map favors one class over another (except for the Mecha-Heavy, who's pretty much unstoppable on every map).

If you're interested in the fine craftsmanship, check out Valve's blog post. They've got a couple of neat time-lapse videos showing off the mapmaking process, as well as some info pertaining to a completely free King of the Hill community map pack! (That is to say, the King of the Hill gametype, and not the hee-larious Mike Judge cartoon.)

No, the next major update for Valve's oft-expanded FPS Team Fortress 2 won't be without elegance and social graces -- they adequately covered that base with the Sniper update's piping hot jars of urine. Rather, the update won't favor any particular class over another, distributing goodies to every class, and adding new maps into the ever-growing mix.

The first of these non-class specific additions is -- brace yourself -- new hats. Eighteen new hats, to be precise, which presumably add two new hats to each of the game's nine classes' wardrobes. (Math'd!) The first map to be revealed is Arena Offblast, a tricky little battleground perched atop a shear mountain cliff. Players will need to stay wary of the cliff's edges, lest they plummet to their death, and stain their lovely new hats with gray matter.

Stay tuned to the TF2 blog -- they should be adding more information about the classless update in the coming days.

Valve is serious about making some changes to Team Fortress 2. So serious, in fact, that it's enlisted the aid of top players from around the world in a closed beta. Shacknews caught up with Robin Walker, TF2 dev, who said that this beta is to get feedback on some potential changes, feedback only high-caliber players can provide.

"Up until now we've been successful at measuring that impact on the non-competitive TF2 community, because we have good internal proxies for it--the TF2 team itself, plus other internal and external playtesters, Walker said. "Our proxies for the high end competitive play aren't as good, and that's lead to us making some design decisions that have hurt it." It's good to see that Valve is continuing to support the PC version of the game. As for the Xbox 360 version, well, someone should check under the porch. It's starting to smell.

Listen, we don't know what Fauvism is, but we know cool art when we see it. Artist James Barnett's oil paintings of scenes from Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto 4 and Team Fortress 2, are done in the early 20th Century style known for strong lines and color.

We asked Barnett, who has spent more hours in those games than he cares to admit, what inspired him to create images from those games in the style of Les Fauves. He told us, "I really liked the idea of turning on its head the idea of PC 3D video games that had been trying so hard to get everything as close to reality as possible. You have teams of super-talented artists and designers, and you just try and imitate normal old reality? Come on, people! Do something weird! There are enough overmuscled, gritty space marines in brown-grey hallways. I'm less annoyed about this than I used to be thanks to games like Braid and Super Mario Galaxy, and cel shading, etc."

Barnett, who has also done woodcut pieces depicting the Space Invaders, added that the idea of using an age-old process to depict something that couldn't exist at the time was a nice experience. If you've got the cash, you can always purchase Barnett's work from his site. If you've got more cash, you can commission a piece.