Author: John Irwin

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Saxton is back on form discussing your emails along with Tempest, Agro and Greaver of GTV fame. The Kiwi shoutcaster has much to say on how to get into shoutcasting. I think he may have enjoyed himself too much as he’s just kicked off his own video podkast.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU_gVmbejYI]

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Summer is gone, and fall has started. With the turning of the seasons the leaves go from green to brown and TF2 drops another crate along with a special key.

Speaking of special, you really need to check out the Blimp Ruskeydoo was working on at KKC4. This thing is a super cool airship that floats behind you like a Balloonicorn. Quick heads up to anyone who’s entered Ruskeydoo’s UGC medal competition: they’ve had problems with their old servers and the old forum died. Good news is that they have an all new forum now, if you’ve submitted an entry before or are just hearing about it now head over to this post and (re)submit. The deadline has been pushed back so there’s still time to get your entry in.

Despite fixes Man vs Machine is no longer TF2’s focus, they’ve returned the game’s main menu backgrounds to normal.

There are three new items to celebrate the pre-release of XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

JimboMcB has given us a sneak peek at his new statistics website. It proves beyond doubt what we already knew, TF2 has the most thriving community in the Steamiverse.

However you may not be able to afford to splash out on keys and games after you’ve paid the $100 required to get your indy title  on Steam’s Greenlight. At least the money goes to Child’s Play charity. It’s not like Valve needs the cash either. New York Times reports that GabeN blew $1m on a new maker workshop so they could create a Virtual/Augmented Reality headset in-house.

If you’re wondering what happened to your e-mails… Pat has officially handed the task over the Saxton. We record a new weekly show on YouTube answering your e-mails. Check out our first Saxton Mail video.

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We get so much e-mail now Postman Pat is refusing to work so he’s outsourced the job to Saxton himself. I suppose it makes a change from beating up hippies. Still, it gives us an excuse to cam-up and make a YouTube video out of it. Enjoy.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erd_IXWZYV0]

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Somehow we have all recovered after i46 and managed to be able to do a show. I have no idea how. With all the videos, tournaments and contests we were running, we should all be dead. However this week all kinds of amazing things have appeared in the community and from valve, so it’s kind of hard to not do a show. What things i hear you say? How does one of the best SFM movies we’ve seen grab your attention? If it does check out this link and prepare to be amazed.

After you’ve watched that, have a read of the Respawn Hypothesis. This fantastic piece of thought provoking fan….art? makes you look at the game and the characters in a new and enlightened manor.

Then we delve into the darker side of Team fortress. At the heart of it all is “The spreadsheet scandle”. This all spawned from a post made on reddit, accusing people of fixing prices using the spreadsheet. If you want to read it all and make up your own mind, here is the reddit post. But on the lighter side….yet still darker is the Night of the living update 2. Thats right, Halloween is just around the corner and TF2 is ramping up for it.

Speaking of ramping up, Are you hyped for Greenlight and Black Mesa Source? If the answer to those questions was no, then clearly you don’t know enough about them. Check them out……now.

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Multiplay’s Insomnia 46 was the location where the five strong cast of KritzKast finally met for the first time. Ruskeydoo, Chronos, Tempest, Agro and yes even Postman Pat all trekked down, up, across and in to Telford UK for four solid days of TF2 related fun. This is the recording we made there and this is the stream.

While the Distinguished ducks were busy battling for Highlander medals the rest of the crew were getting interviews with a variety of people, some drunker than others. Oh and Ruskeydoo made a pass at a UKCS bloke in a dress.

Many thanks to everyone who came to visit with us in our clanbox and a special Yaaaoo to all the VanillaTV and eXtv crews who were beavering away diligently all weekend. We love you guys, can’t wait for the documentary to come out. Apologies for cutting the podkast short this week. We were using some new and experimental equipment which stopped recording a few minutes before we did.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpBJ7Eaa-Fg?list=PL181009F6BBA1CF04&hl=en_GB]

Lastly, big shout out to [T&HM]ferelah who travelled all the way from Australia to represent ozfortress and GreaverTV.

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Yeah I know the picture is a bit over the top, But it finally happened. Over 2 years worth of waiting and Robots (or Tobar) have finally made it into TF2 in the form of Mann vs Machine.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, You’ll know that Mann vs Machine is TF2’s first Co-Op Mode, letting 6 players team up against an onslaught of Robots modeled after the TF2 Characters. But its less like a horde mode and more like MOBA. With upgrades, Canteens and loads of loot. Its less of a game mode and more of a new game. Really. We tried our hardest to cover it all, But first watch the promo video, play it for yourself and then come listen to our opinions of it.

Somehow, that was not the only thing Valve did this week. They added in the AWPer hand for the sniper, but only if you pre-order CS:GO. But more excitingly, Valve announced  the new version of Steam and let all Tf2 Fans a sneak peak via the TF2 Game Hub. Wow, valve. Can’t you give us 2 minutes to take it all in.

Apparently not. Because they also Officially announced the dates for this years Saxxy awards. Featuring some very interesting changes: everything must be submitted via SFM, A category called “best Original Universe” and The winners being shown on Spike TV. Plus ruskey has a little contest of his own to get your ideas for a medal into TF2. Intrested in taking part? Then head over to ugcleague.com

How did we manage to get through it all in one episode? Because we are so hyped for i46 this coming weekend. Remember to tune in over the weekend for mountains of footage. Now if its alright for you, i’m going to go pack the car and head off.

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AAAAARRRGGGH! Tempest isn’t here and Ruskeydoo has taken his role. He’s not got an easy job either. There are huge list of updates ranging from Kong King the new map, some exploits a name change for the Hou-Long Heatermaker, and Carrier Tanks appearing across your favourite maps. This can only mean one thing; the start of the Mann vs Machine ARG.

This time the Alternate Reality Game seems to revolve around capacitors. It was cracked in a day to reveal the first Blood Bothers comic book. In which Grey Mann makes his first appearance, unless you count his dubious simularity to Half-Life’s GMan.

We’re splurging on the hats this week. Not only does the player of the week get one, but another four go out to the winners of our GamersUN/Hypernia competition.

Also taking home the prizes are the competitors of the Ready Steady Pan Tournament. Each win a pin designed by Ruskeydoo himself.

The ETF2L Highlander Nations Cup draws to a conclusion with Germany fighting France for first place. This as The Reddit Round Robin begin their fifth event.

Something for the ladies as they get their own sub-reddit page Team Fortress 2X. And then there’s your emails to take the team off on random tangents. Lastly a big shout out to Joaquin for providing us with the SFM background for this week’s show.

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It’s going to be another six years before the Chinese get to celebrate Year of the Dog but then when has sticking to a calendar ever been on Valve’s priority list? Team Fortress has a massive crossover with the SQUARE ENIX game, Sleeping Dogs in the form of The Triad Pack. Unlike usual crossovers, this has provided us with 4 rather unique weapons. Want to know how we feel about them? Well this week we talk in length about The Red-Tape Recorder, The Huo-Long Heatmaker, The Flying Guillotine, The Neon Annihilator.

We wouldn’t hold it against you if you thought that was all that happened this week. But actually there was another cross over promotion with Awesomenauts. But also the appearance of TF2sounds.com and the awesome Retro TF2 Server. But for us, the real news (for us at least) Is that we have new servers. Along witht hem, we have 2 different ways to get your hands on Lo-Fi’s Plus Beta keys and event FULL GAMES ON STEAM. Head over here to find out how

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Don’t mind the little things. TF2’s update was small in size but could have far reaching changes with a both the Name Tag and Description Tags falling in price. TF2 is looking to roll out quick joining servers as a group. TF2 MixUp unleashes all the videos from event 4. I think The outtakes are the best (Agro).

Gabe Newell has something to say about Windows 8 and it’s not very complimentary or hopeful.

James McVinnie, a cinematic designer at BioWare shows what can be done with SFM and a couple of Kinects. Then he shows us how it was done.

Team Fortress 2 models that NECA has been working on for ages are spotted at the San Diego Comic Con and the SPUFfer, Huff, gets a tour of Valve Studios.