Author: John Irwin

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The Halloween event is apon us. Which is more than can be said by the DOTA2 fans. We’re not shoving it in their faces, all I can say is that at least Swedish car manufacturer Volvo has a sense of humor.

In our evil update we get a new map, Helltower. It’s actually a revamp of Hightower with the addition of a hell mouth and spells and corpses and skeletons and yes, it as as complicated as it sounds. Maybe even more so. Alongside the map and fireballs there’s one hundred and two new items to find/buy/uncrate. I was going to list them all here then I thought.. why would I do that when you can find them all on the wiki? Along with the items is something quite interesting. The Enchantment: Eternaween which is supposed to make any map into a Halloween map.  There’s a couple of videos for you here too. The possibly leaked Valve Stream Fortress 2 vid and the removed taunts.

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What? Still no update? but we are so close to Halloween and we have no idea whats going to happen. not even mystery crates. Its ok everybody. We’ve still got a lot to talk about. We also invited Craig from Ablegamers to talk more about the TF2 event which happened this weekend. They raised over $11,000 in a 24hr period. That money will go towards giving the ablity to play games to those pysically can’t. Its either that or playing with your foot.

Breaking news from TF2center. its still not done. TF2 center being the “replacement” for TF2 lobby. They have missed their January prediction, however, it seems like things are back in full swing with testing and hopefully a release coming soon. keep your eye open for more information as we get it.

If its Community Contests you love, then we have 2. The first is the Round Robin Halloween event, Which was playing out as we recorded the show. One that you haven’t missed is the TF2Jump Contest. Over the course of 12 weeks and 12 maps, People will be challenged in different ways to do with Jumping in TF2. The goal is to find out who truly is the best Jumper in TF2.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYS4a6u4BQM?rel=0]
Lastly we bring you news from outside MCM Comic Con London, where Agro and Heartsman went and talked to many as cosplayer about why they selected their costume and how they went about making it. Check out these videos and see it first hand.

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This week, some of the team are off dealing with things outside of TF2 (I know, I didn’t realize that was out there either). However, we have 2 great guests to help fill in the gaps. Fukki, our admin of the month, and Bogon aka Scar, the head of TF2 Warehouse. But what are these group of Hosts going to be talking about. Certainly not an update as this week, there isn’t one. That doesn’t stop us though.

However we have not just 1, but 2 charity events on the show. The first is the second tip of the hat event. Last time they made $35,000 during a 48 hour live stream. Although the second is a long way off, its still very exciting. However this week, backpack.tf & TF2warehouse have joined forces to run a charity event for ablegamers, an amazing charity that give games to those who are not physically able to enjoy them in the way we take so much for granted. We even brought Bogon from TF2WH to explain all the details of the event.

If you feel like spending a bit of money on yourself awsell, then we have 2 new items that you might want to invest in. The first is a 1:1 scale sandvich……but this time with a massive bite taken out of it. Guess what, Its already sold out. The other is an item to help you believe you really are a pyro. A sweater replicating the pyros appearance. Not just for conventions, but also good around the house.

Also, Do you remember Fortress Forever? That fan mod of the original Team Fortress Classic. Its just been Greenlit. Which means that it can easily be downloaded and played via steam. Playing 6 years catch up on TF2.

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Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday, Team Fortress 2, Happy birthday to us. That’s right, this week marked 6 years of Team Fortress 2. What a ride its been and what a ride we are still on. This week we talk about the recent update, which added the keys for those 2 fall crates that were added last week and all the contents inside them. It also brought an end to 2 bugs that brought both pain and glee to players. What are they, you’ll have to listen to find out (we are such a tease)

Have you heard about Steam Dev Days? If you haven’t, check out the mini site valve have made for this invite only developers conference. As far as we can tell, its meant to be a way to get some of the new tech valve have made into the hands of developers in a relaxed environment. Such things as the new Steam OS, Steam machines and of course the new Steam controllers. Speaking of which, we now can see how they will play out in your hand, after valve released the video below showing how it handles different games.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeAjkbNq4xI?rel=0]

The way the workshop is used is changing. Besides Ruskeydoo giving his opinions of why the workshop fails sometimes, we also bring you news of the Gristly Gumbo Pot. Unlike most items on the workshop, this one comes with a website, Comic and technically lore as to its origins. Is this they way forward with promoting your workshop items?

No idea what to buy for your loved ones this coming Christmas? (only 69 shopping days left). If that’s the case, we have a selection of TF2 themed items you might want to consider. The first made its appearance at this weekends New York comic Con. Called the Portable Mercs, They seem like great TF2 toys for those who can’t afford a 3A model. But for those who can afford a 3A model, here’s another one. Just in time for Halloween, they have teased a blurry picture of a TF2 Ghost Statuette.  Not your bag? How about a Balloonicorn that won’t deflate? A 6inch Vinyl Balloonicorn? If its hats your after, check out Threnodi’s, our player of thew week, max’s severed head. A full hat that you can wear for cosplay, to scare the neighbors dog or just to confuse family members.

But what ever you do, Don’t buy them, from UK forbidden planet. In fact FUCK FORBIDDEN PLANET…….that’s better, I needed to get that out.

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Fall is coming. I say Fall, what I actually mean is Autumn but those crazy Americans have got me thinking “math” is something you study at school and “pants” should be warn on the outside and not just at Halloween. Anyway, Fall’s Acorn and Gourd crates are now dropping so that’s the seasons officially changed. More interestingly they’ve fixed the sound the Demoman makes when he charges forward. Turn your speakers down before you follow this link to hear what it was like when it was broken.

The Third Annual Saxxies have been announced. They’ll be accpting submissions from 11th Nov for one week. What you’ll not be able to enter with is a replay or original content. Which pretty much means it’s SFM only. Although I’ve a feeling they’ll accept stop motion animation.

Just in time for the Saxxies Maxxy, RoxyRox and VeLlix have pushed out their female sniper model. There can’t be many classes left that don’t have a female conversions.

And on the topic of conversions there’s the TF2 StarFox mod. It’s still in pre-alpha stage but the mod shows tremendous promise. In the mod you get to fly upside down and loop the loop, much like I’m doing with these show notes as we circle right back to Halloween and tf2chan’s invitation to join their spooky fan fics for Ghost Stories from Tuefort.

Lastly, Steam Family Beta is out for a few lucky people, included in that are Ruskeydoo and DougRattmAnnThEpyRo.

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The doubters have been proven wrong; Valve can count to three but only when it comes to Steam in the living room. They have released all their big announcements regarding the fan-titled Steam Box. Firstly there’s the new linux based operating system, SteamOS. Next comes the hardware, Steam Machines, available directly soon from Valve and other manufacturers. Lastly we see a brand new, and utterly unique take on the standard console controller. There’s no analogue sticks, just touch pads, hundreds of them, everywhere.

This is a TF2 podcast so we really should mention the update that dropped. The one where strange misc-slot items that are tradeable can now be listed on the Steam Community Market. There’s a bunch of Bombardier changes along with more stuff being added to the Mann Co. Store., including the Byzantine Bundle from the Total War Rome update.

Heartsman has been spending more time with KritzKast so we snuck him in to Eurogamer Expo 2013 and found some TF2 cosplayers and the Atomizer Bat.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmeICNWTwII?rel=0]

Round Robin are running a Halloween Special mentoring tournament. 3A Robots go on sale in Hong Kong and Ray’s the Dead hat tries to sneak into the game.

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Once again we are joined by the delightful Heartsman, while Ruskeydoo makes his way back to the internet. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have masses of things to talk about. TF2 updated this week with a reduction in Stickies for the Stickie Jumper, Plus a pile of exploits that leave us dazed and confused.

Halloween is coming. Boy do valve know it. After being bombarded with Halloween themed items already, they have requested that any item creators now tag them with the “Halloween 2013“. They have also stated that all Halloween items this year will be full moon items. But they also said that means people can be more extreme with their item creating. Hopefully this will result in an awesome Halloween.

What has really left us confused is what the possible announcement valve has this week. now, by the time you hear this, it will already be clear to you, but to us, we think its steam box related. I wonder how right we are? To find out more, head over to the teaser page valve have put in place.

More news on the 3A robot heavy appeared this week. In fact, we can now see the whole product. It looks beautiful. We also know that you can pre-order them from September 27th and they are expected to cost $220. Seems like a lot, but these are authentic articulating models with light up eyes. A very nice piece for any collector.

From that we jump into the amazing things that fans have been creating. Like a real life MannCo key for example. Or “Stop That Tank” The mod that merges MvM and Payload into 1 very confusing yet awesome mod. But most of all, we want to show you all of the hats ever made in TF2 in 1 painting. Not only that, but they are alphabetized. How could we not give the creator player of the week.

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Due to commitments, Travel and Sickness, Only Tempest and Chronos were going to be on this weeks show. but we couldn’t have that. So we invited Doug our editor onto the show and the ever cuddly Heartsman. Why Heartsman? besides the fact that he’s a great personality to have on the show, he also just came back from a visit to valve. We poke him with sticks until we get all the information out of him that we could……without him getting in trouble.

After that we started talking about the new feature soon to be making its way into Steam. Family Sharing. Although this is still in closed beta, we still picked it apart and found out why it is a huge step forward and also a step back. Don’t understand, Click here for more details and let us explain all in the episode.

We also brought up ETF2L’s Rules changes. That doesn’t sound like something we’d normally do, but these changes could potentially see the meta game of 6v6 come alive in a way that even new viewer would see.

Lastly, we bring you 2 very different styles of parenting from TF2. What if spy ended up being scouts step father. or how would the soldier teach his kids if mother wasn’t around. Both of these are priceless and well worth a look at.

A huge congratulations also go out to [Pie] Monopoly for winning our Facebook contest and getting yourself the signed poster from i49.

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As the title would suggest we have a guest on the show this week, Torkz from ReachCast. So we get to talk PlanetSide 2 for a bit. Luckily he also plays a bit of TF2 so it’s not long before we’re back on track talking about the recent update. The one where they tweaked Chemistry Sets to allow a double clicked item in your backpack to be used in them. They also fixed that bazaar stretching effect in the 3D HUD.

Speaking of bazzar.tf it looks like Valve has it in for them. There’s now Trading Offers available directly through steam itself. Although the utility is far from complete it’s clear that keeping everything in game has a long way to beat the third party sites.

The winner of the ETF2L Highlander Nations Cup #2 has been decided in a monumental wipe where the American team showed a clean set of heals to the French lads. If you’re squeamish you may not want to watch this.

In much more jovial news The Round Robin has announced its candidacy for president  return to form with tRR8. If you’re a bit good at this Highlander game and think you’d make a stunning mentor then best get on to CSaur and Elena.

So this guy called Kevin has a brother, Robin who really likes TF2. It sounds like one of our in-jokes but really this story is true. It turns out that Kevin is just about the best brother in the world because he got some of the voice actors to wish his bro a happy birthday.

While we’re on the celebrations we announced a give-away a week ago to win 100 lo-fi and a signed poster. While we can’t tell you who won the poster (not till they’ve said its cool to name ‘um) we can tell you that everyone, yes everyone who entered will be getting a lo-fi.

Not certain where to put this in but we did promise a link so here’s the Rules to Hungarian Tarokk. That’ll save you a bit of typing in google.

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I think we have just about recovered after last weeks awesome adventures at I49. The problem is we kinda skipped over last weeks update. That’s the one that added Romovision into the game. You get Romovision by equipping the Hardy Laurel while playing MvM. You then see each of the robots with a Roman style. The only way at the moment to acquire this hat and romovision is by Pre-ordering Total War: Rome II. However, as of this week, if your lucky enough to be playing in a game with a player who owns said hat, then you too can view the world in Romovision if you wish.

This week however has given us another huge update with bug fixes galore. Party to celebrate Team Fortress’ 17th birthday, Partly as an excuse to add in the new Chemistry sets into the game. If your unsure what the chemistry set actually does, then have a read of this awesome guide putting things better than I could. Also in this update, we saw all of the “Gold Star” Items become dropable, giftable and of cource, purchasable from the Mann Co Store. This update also took away the last Salvage crate and replaced it with a reserved crate.

To put the cherry on top of the cake, Valve also showed off the first issue of their Bi-Monthly Comic book. Unlike previous comics, there is no update tied to it and no reason for it to exists other than to entertain, and entertain it does. If you haven’t already, go read up it now then carry on with the show.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmVsOl9qAhs?rel=0]

That video above is also something you simply NEED to watch. Its the trailer for the fan created TF2 Movie, End of the Line. If the final product is as jaw dropping as this trailer is, then we are in for a great Movie. Then to top it all off, Kritzkast are giving away 100 Lo-Fi Longwaves and 1 very special banner from I49, signed by as many celebs and teams as we could get onto 1 banner.