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.

The real news today is that we won’t have to wait too long for the Pyro update to be released. Steam announced that the big update would be released on Thursday, containing 35 new Pyro-centric achievements and 2 user-created maps that “highlight the great work being done in the community and distribute those works to all TF2 players.” Along with the pack, 3 new weapons for the Pyro class will be released, which can be unlocked by completing a certain number of the achievements.

As of today, only one weapon has been announced: The Axtinguisher, a replacement ax for the Pyro. The Axtinguisher deals half the normal damage as a normal ax. However, when used on a burning enemy, the weapon guarantees a critical hit. What is presumed to be the second weapon, a replacement for the Shotgun, can be seen at about the 1:14 mark in the video: A small handgun-like weapon, in team colors. Though there’s a ton of speculation about what exactly this weapon is, I guess we’ll just have to wait until Thursday to find out just exactly what it is.

[Valve, through Joystiq]