Cream gravy.

After months of watching and waiting, Valve has FINALLY kicked off the last of Team Fortress 2’s class updates with a very interesting proposition. See, last week, the fanbase located some very interesting information in the game files that hinted at a very interesting modification of a stock weapon: the Golden Wrench, an implement imbued with the powers of Midas himself, able to turn your foes into valuable golden statues with only a few swings. So, here’s Valve’s proposition: Craft something before Thursday, and you’ll make an extra roll at one of these shiny babies. As with every other deal, though, there is one very large caveat: There’s only 100. Every time someone finds the 25th, 50th, 75th, and final wrenches, Valve has pledged to release another chunk of juicy Engineer Update details. As of posting this, 33 people have received their shiny implement of golden awesome, so get on TF2 and get crackin’!

On the Engineer Update side of things, Valve announced the shotgun replacement we saw back in the Mac Update trailer, which might just have the coolest damn name ever: Frontier Justice. Instead of firing off random crits, this little number grants you bonus crits based on how your sentry is doing. A sentry kill nets you 2 crits with your shotgun, while assists with it gives you one dose of critical justice. What makes it even better is that the shotgun gets 2 bonus crits whenever your sentry dies, meaning that it’s pretty useful for getting the heck outta dodge when things get hot, or protecting your newly built sentry when some big mean mother runs up and blows your old one to pieces. Oh, and you get those bonus crits even if you were the one that did the blowin’ up part. Nice.

The update hits the internets on Thursday night. Stay tuned for more information once it’s out.

[TF2 Blog: Engineer Update!]

In an interview with The Escapist Magazine, Robin Walker revealed a few pretty awesome details regarding their plans for future updates. While we don’t know anything specific yet, Robin hinted that a "very different game mode" was coming soon, along with a new payload map and some new community maps. But that’s not all. Robin also commented on how he feels the Spy’s disguise kit is reaching the end of it’s lifespan, as many players can spot a disguised Spy easily these days, hinting at some new form of disguise or other stealth toy for the Spy in it’s class pack. He also noted that the team feels that the Engineer is too "binary", in that some players are absolutely stymied when it comes to a sentry, while other players have no problems destroying them. He said that they’re hoping to remedy this in the near future.

But that’s not even the biggest news. When asked about a cereal box in Left 4 Dead that featured an offer to "collect all 10" TF2 action figures, Robin said that they had a few ideas of some new classes, but he wasn’t sure if they would be implemented or not. Still no word on when we’ll be seeing the Scout update.

New maps, a new gamemode, a retooling of the Spy and the Engineer, AND new classes? I love you Valve. Never change.

[From The Escapist]

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Not 2 weeks after the Pyro update hit computers everywhere, Valve has already announced that they are working on the next pack of achievements and weapons, this time focusing on the Heavy. On Tuesday, Robin Walker stated on their blog that they would be trying to “make the Heavy more viable when he has no Medic to pair with”.

Robin also said that the real key with the updates, specifically this one, is to make sure they enhance the role of the Heavy without making him overpowered, especially in the oft-used Heavy-Medic combo. Valve is currently planning on releasing updates for all nine of the classes in it’s insanely popular first-person shooter, referring to it as “a large scale modification to the core of the game.” No timeline has been set just yet for the update.

[From Shacknews and the Team Fortress blog.]

So, this morning, Valve finally dished out the dirt on the Pyro update for it’s awesome first-person shooter, Team Fortress 2. According to Valve, the pack will include 35 achievements, all of which have now been announced. Some of the more notable achievements are “Dance Dance Immolation," (Kill 5 enemies that are taunting) “BarbeQueQ,” (Cause an opponent you are Dominating to leave the server), and “OMGWTFBBQ," (Kill an enemy with a taunt.)

Along with the achievements, the pack will come with 2 of the most popular custom maps created by the community: CP_Fastlane, a fast-paced capture map done in the style of Badlands, and CTF_Turbine, a fun, 2fort-esque CTF map. Even better than both of these, though, is the announcement of the new Pyro weapons. Details, and an even bigger announcement from Valve, after the jump.

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Earlier today, Valve released the newest installment in it’s Team Fortress 2 video series, “Meet the Team,” this time focusing on the down to-Earth Sniper. The vid runs 1:40, and is, in my opinion, the best one yet. In the video, the Sniper talks about his job, his standards, and his parent’s disapproval of him being a “crazed gunman”. But that’s not all.

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