Author: John Irwin

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1507404457″ params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

We are joined by the man who’s name we cannot show, oh all right then it’s… the BEEPsman [Damnit Doug, stop editing my posts!] He’s here to talk about the TF2 Robitic Boogaloo where item makers have remade their hats for the robots. There will be a comic (hopefully) and so much other good stuff.

The Cave promos items and Smissmas cosmetics are now craftable. Menpo and the the Last Straw are paintable and the Digvulger has new styles. Valve has updated their Import Tool, lucky we have some item makers on the show to talk about that. You can get your hands on Bot Killer and Vintage items in the Steam Market. While we’re on about websites, Steam Chat is live in beta on a website. ozfortress’ League admin, bladez has created LiveLogs a site that will allow you to watch server logs as they happen. NECA’s action figures are available directly from the Valve store.

We have two videos for you this week. The first comes from STAR_ with whom we played a few hours of the new server mod, The Hidden.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BgdtfWMeTQ]

The second belongs to our player of the week, Dr Face, with his SFM short called “Man vs Martians”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcDk_9PmGq0]

I can’t tell you how close this episode came to being called “Gordon Freeman’s ass”. Good taste won out. For once. That said we did spend a disproportionate period of time looking at the new model from Gaming Heads.

In more sane moments we looked at the news that some items (festive sandvich, buff banner, huntsman and robo-sandvich) are now being allowed in Medieval mode. The Steam guides have gone live. ETF2L is running a Basket Ball tournament with teams of two having signed up across the world. It’s too late to enter now but there will be plenty of exciting viewing ahead. Speaking of which the ETF2L Season 3 Highlander grand finals have been played out. That Sonic All Stars racing game featuring a TF2 team is on Steam now.

Community Invasion – where KritzKast raids another community’s server ever Wednesday has begun. You can volunteer your community.

Best of all we have HelenAngel from SteamRep in the show with us. We plague her with questions about the latest scams and what you can do to protect yourself from being ripped off.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1507404148″ params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Hold on to your hats lads, we’re losing a few species of unusual headgear. Valve are messing with the status quo a little and taking the hats first introduced to the game, back out of the game. Never fear though, there’s new items on the way. The Cave has promo items,  Last Straw, Grizzled Growth and Prize Plushy. You’re in luck if you need to raise some dosh to buy Steam games as the Steam Community Market is now accepting Genuine items too.

On to the awesomest news we’ve heard in 2013; Gabe Newell has fessed up to The Nerdist Podcast (at the 1hr, 1min mark) that a 15 minute TF2 film is in the works.

In other steam news valve showed off their first official Steam Box – the Xi3 Piston at CES 2013 and there are more boxes in the works. Gabe takes the time to explain why a full on body suit controller isn’t the best solution.

Ruskeydoo gets his name in PCGamer with an article about item makers. We also get to see what Robin Walker looks like in a second article. No pics of this brother Kevin though.

News on MagicalKillaCow‘s mini marathon for Cancer Research UK: over £1111.11 was donated on the day, far exceeding his original aspirations. Our thanks to everyone who donated or came alone, or both. Special mention to Helene for working tirelessly to make sure everyone showed up and had a good time.

Speaking of fun on our servers, and Helene, we’re now running a KillCam comp. The idea is that the admin of the week will be wearing an orange Max head called First Among Equals. Get yourself killed by them, take their pic and post it here. The best/funniest/weirdest image wins the prize of the month.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1507403995″ params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

That’s it everybody. Smissmas is over. No more presents, No more festive keys, No more festive weapons. Don’t worry. there is no need to panic. We are here for you. Why don’t we all sit down and watch the latest TF2 Mix up together  That’s right, Its out. to celebrate, we’ve grabbed Evil Ninetales (one of the lucky raffle winners in the match) to join us this week. After less than a week, the videos have already racked up half a million views. To watch them, Either click here for the first video, or head over to TF2Mixup.com for all the details surrounding the match.

Strangly, that isn’t the only charity event TF2 is associated with this week. We also want to tell you about MagicalKillaCow’s 12 hour stream of TF2 on Saturday the 12th. As you can see from the picture above, some people who might be dropping by included ourselves, Sal, Byte, Kiptv, Star_ and Stabby Stabby. If your part of our steam group, facebook or twitter, we’ll let you know exactly when its happening and how you can help.

Other news in the world of TF2 this week include the UGC Allstars matches, featuring our very own Ruskeydoo. Ready Steady Pan Season 2 will be starting on Monday the 14th and even have a fancy new poster and website to celebrate it. Plus we ask why did somebody delete Golden Wrench number 38

Please don’t forget that you have a chance to win yourself a Vintage Lo-Fi Longwave by surgesting questions to ask brad pitt of Backpack.tf fame. Click here for more details

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1507403839″ params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

We’re back! Following our moments of insanity breaking into song for the KK200 show we’ve much to catch up on. Tempest didn’t quite make it through Smissmass unharmed so we were happy to have Helene, our head admin step up to fill the void.

Valve’s Mecha update brought with it new weapons in the form of the Vaccinator, Loose Cannon and Rescue Ranger. There were warm winter wears in the Nice Winter Crates and weapons wrapped in fairy lights in the Naughty Winter Crates. Though you could bypass the drop system all together and grab the lot, including reindeer hats and reindoonicorns in the Smissmass Bundle.

While we’re on the topic of buying things, it’s now possible to buy in game items outside of the game Mann Co. has finally broken free of TF2 and is running their own store website.

Aside to one side the Mecha Update also brought with it a new MvM map, Big Rock, the Engineer Robot (we thought it would never happen) and a slew of fancy new giant robot types (in hats); Giant Burst Fire Soldier, Captain Punch, Sergeant Crits and Major Bomber. Oh and a new comic too.

Map makers, the unsung heroes of the TF2 creator community finally get some love in form of the stamps. When you taunt on a map a trail of stamps follow in your wake, assuming you’ve bought a stamp for that map. The more your buy the longer your trail. I wonder if you leave a trail of invisible stamps if you’re playing as spy?

Adult swim see a little more of their work appreciated in TF2. Someone at Valve must love these guys as there’s now an entire pack of items with hints of characters you may recognise from the mad genius animators. We didn’t though..

The previously closed beta for Steam on Linux has been opened up to the public. It’s only a matter of time till we get Neon Genesis Evangelion style pet penguins in game now.

It’s too late to make a Smissmass present now but that’s okay since there aren’t any left but Mann Co. branded GameCom Commander headsets were briefly available on the Valve store.  Technically you can still get your hands on (should this be “your ears on”, or “on your ears”, no probably not) them directly from plantronics.

Lastly, a quick update on our hat, the Lo-Fi Longwave. We gave out close to 700 of these beauties following the release of KK200. Twitter, facebook and Steam each received a budget of 200 (plus a few more). They have all now been distributed, largely due to the speedy and efficient coding of JimboMcB. Please join these groups if you haven’t done so yet. We’ve already got things brewing for 2013 and news of them will surely break there first.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1507241923″ params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

It’s good to have someone on the kast who actually knows what’s going on, we have Ruskeydoo. He’s made a fair crack with experiments to figure out what the Ullapool caber changes mean.

With Christmas (in Tempest’s case literally) round the corner, Valve add back in the Naughty and Nice Winter crates. A search function is added to the Mann Co. store. Players who owned the the free Faerie Solitaire game before December 13th get the Genuine Faerie Solitaire Pin. Steam Game Guides appear on the beta version of Steam. But the biggest story this week is the Steam Community Market. Finally there’s a legitimate way to buy and sell 2nd hand items. All money goes back into your steam wallet and Valve takes a share of the profit, again.

In other Valve news, theirs reason to believe that the Steam Linux beta will be opened up soon and Value opens a studio in San Francisco.

Finally, back to the community for news that the next Ready Steady Pan Tournament will see 70 teams for North America and Europe, though only 5 teams have signed up in Asia to date.

PotW goes to SuperSoupy for his festive video entitled “How the Spy Sapped Christmas”, shown below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhylS96mREk?rel=0]
This week’s show was edited by our new guest editor, DougRattmAnnThEpyRo – our thanks to you good sir.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1507241890″ params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Just to keep you interested before you start reading the rest of the episode. This week we discuss redundant Caber tactics, Play with toys and rip Samuel Jackson a new asshole. Got your attention? Good. Now your with us, I’ll tell you in more detail about how we talk about big picture being available for the masses. Plus we have a great discussion as to why the Caber nerf was justified but also upsetting. After that, how could we not talk about VGA10. Sorry i should rephrase that. How could we not talk about VGA10 and how Sam Jackson shouldn’t host it. (If Sam Jackson is reading this. I have huge respect for your body of work, So please don’t quote the bible and kill me)

However, We couldn’t get through this episode with out talking about toys. We’ve got a toy for everybody. If your into sandvitches (I’m looking at your Ruskey) then ThreeA have given an extra 200 Sandvitches for valve to sell on their store. However if your looking to buy one of them. your already too late. However your not too late to pre-order your sniper Gaming heads Statue. It may cost a lot, But boy to they look good. Lastly we have been given a sneak preview of the NECA Action figures for the Pyro and Demoman. If you haven’t pre-ordered yours, check out our blog post to help you find the best place for you.

In the rest of the TF2 world, we talk about the Finals of the Round Robin Mentor Tournament. Please have a watch, its a good game. While your at it, watch this charity match over at Bar Room Heroes. You get to root for either the young-lings or the elderly folk. Plus there is a possibility that we may have another ready steady pan tournament. All in all this turns out to be a great episode.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1507241812″ params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

It seemed like the show was going to be a little light on content this week. Luckily for us, we know how to turn a small amount of news into a large amount of debate. Ranging from what F2P players can actually do, to how we should organize our backpack. This is due to the minor update with massive affect on traders. Including the New “Upgrade to Premium Gift” and the back being able to expand to 2000 slots. But also news in the world of trading is the new restriction that forces players to have steamguard on before any trade can take place. Some are not happy with this, Personally we are.

This week also saw the end of the Saxxy voting. Now its a case of waiting til Friday for the winners to be made public. Except of cource for the best overall winner, which will be announced on GTTV for the Spike tv Game Awards. We also take the time to remind you to follow the TF2mixup’s Facebook page. Although your chance to play in the match may have passed, We can tell you that there will soon be a way to get hold of in game items signed by some of the famous players of the match. So keep your eyes pealed for more info coming soon.

Are you into Comp? Are you into Stats? Do you like numbers? Do we have a site for you. Take a look at Logs.tf and see in amazing detail how some people play, What classes are more vulnerable on certain maps and how many kills people really get. When you add onto that the new pyro poster on the valve store (that we said was coming in episode 191….called it) and the steam sale, its very easy to see how what some would consider a slow week actually turns out to be very big indeed.