Author: John Irwin

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This week its all about Highlanders, Lans and Merchandise….weird. I think i only mentioned 2 of them in the episode title. But oh well, here it goes. We start by keeping up to date with all the changes in TF2 world. This week the word “Fixed” creeps up a lot. But you can also have a look at the new steam beta and possible change your status to “Looking to play” or “Looking to Trade”

But then the show really starts. Firstly You can now see all of the TF2 Mixup Videos. Each of them featuring celebrities from across gaming and gaming culture, playing in 1 epic Highlander game. Head over to TF2mixup.com for all the details and to help donate some money towards Child’s Play, the charity the whole event was created for.

Or if you’d rather give your money to TF2, then head over to eXtines sponsorship drive. What is the drive for you ask? Well its to get 2 of the best US teams over to UK’s i46 Lan party. Just imagine. The best in europe and the best in the US, finally get to go head to head. Don’t you want to see that? Or maybe you’d like to see the Medals Ruskydoo and Comedian Made for the winners of i46’s highlander cup

Then to round it all off, valve have put loads of more merchandise for us to buy, 2 t-shirts, One with a ballonicorn and the other with…..shall we say both sides of the pyro. But as usual the fans have trumped valves merch with their own.

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It’s official, Pyromania is over. The little piles of cocaine have all vanished, the scorched keys and crates have returned to their normal state. To celebrate?? the items released over the last few weeks are now all available in bundles at the Mann Co. store.

But that’s really not the biggest thing that’s happened this week. That esteemed prize goes to Steam’s GreenLight initiative. Valve is turning over the role of finding and rating new games for the steam platform to the steam community at large.

The Summer sale is in effect. We’re all buying every game there ever was at hugely discounted prices, so that we can have them and install them when we finally get bored of Team Fortress 2. If you’re anything like us, that means your pile of shame is just going to bigger. At least we now have Steam badges. And why would you be playing games when you could be making your own films now that the Source Filmmaker we talked about last week is available for everyone?

Before you start thinking we’ve forgotten about TF2 for a week, we haven’t. There’s the return of FortTeamCharlie, the pre-SFM TF2 video episodes. The sneak peek of the next episode is below or you could find it on our YouTube channel.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u0Ij1i7UA8]

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After everything that happened last week, its kinda hard to think that we’d have much to talk about this week. But sure enough there is plenty. Mainly because we didn’t cover everything last week. We missed out Source film maker. In fact we wanted to cover it properly, so we invited MaxofS2d to join us and explain exactly why is so damn amazing. of course we know, But he knows better, faster and harder than we do.

But if you thought that was all we could muster, you are so very wrong. We also want to show you a sneak peak at a game called Hero’s Academy. When you see the TF2 characters making an appearance, then you’ll know why we want to show it to you. Just in the same way we want to tell you about Notch (creator of minecraft) being on the Swedish team for the highlander nationals.

If you’ve ever thought that we the TF2 community were unlike any other community, you were right. Plus, we have proof. a blog post by Yanis, Valves economist, reveals that the level of charity in TF2 is so high, that it makes pricing item very hard for Valve, due to statisics being hard to read. Damn us for being so charitable.

Finally to top it off (besides your emails) we have three great things to show you in community corner. A Lego scene depicting Pyro vision, The Robot chicken hat coming to the real world and Leon being turned into TF2 (see above).

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The update to end all updates, Pyromania is apon us. We finally get to see the world through the Pyro’s eyes and it’s a very fluffy sing song world too. There’s Doomsday, a new game mode and a balloonicorn. Nothing to see here, move along. Burning Bongos, the Lollichop and Rainblower, now with exciting new taunt.

If you thought that was it for the update you’ll be sorely mistaken my good Sir. Pyrovision Goggles turn the world into a singsong rainbow coloured world so you can see the world how the Pyro does.

Pyro’s not the only one with new swag. The Sniper, Soldier and Scout all get some bad ass weapons and hats! Not to be outdone there’s a great leveller of current items including nurfs/changes to the Gloves of Running Urgently (GRU), the Equalizer and the Crusader’s Crossbow.

We find out the truth, or part of it at least, of the Adult Swim crossover and get exposed to the tenth class, turns out it was a Sandvich all along.

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What does our episode name mean? How very mysterious. In fact, everything this week has been very mysterious, Mainly due to valves massive ARG that they have been running. What’s that….you don’t know anything about it? well worry no, because we’ve tried to gather all the info and explain what happened as it happened. You’ll here how 7 new items were mysteriously added to the game. You’ll also hear how these 7 items’ description changed when equipped with the Eliminating The Impossible. Then of course there are Sherlock Holmes references, Banana Errors, QR codes and a hearing with saxton hale.

In the end, its far to big to summarize in just a few sentences, So really if you want all the info about the ARG, your going to have to listen to the episode. You’ll also hear our predictions of what could be coming in the update. Yes i know we’ve already had 2 days revealed, but this was recorded on Sunday, So our predictions were genuinely wild.

To top off the whole show, We’ve got Stars Highlander map making contest, ETF2L’s Highlander Nations cup and Steam for schools. Oh….did we mention that your emails will be read out live this week. seeing as one of our guests is mr Postman Pat himself. I know, I know. A dream come true.

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Possibly one of the worst, or best depending on your point of view, ideas was to stick a wooden chest on to the crotch of the demoman. Yet this is exactly what the latest update brings with the Liquor Locker. An unlikely equipment region equal only to the new “crsk”. This update also brings a fix to the Gentle Manne’s Service Medal, the Texas Half-Pants and the Something Special For Someone Special, the last two to prevent them being seen as flying items when a spy appearing to wear them cloaked.

Valve have hired an economist, Yanis Varoufakis, who has joined Michael Abrash in blogging his experience. The Dynamic Payload maps contest we talked with Fr0z3n in episode 170 about has come to an end. Mecha the Slag unveils his new creation, Robot Fortress. Little is yet revealed about this strange Monday Night Combat style modification but the video looks fun. We want to play it Mecha!

Speaking of fun, Cam Fortress holds all sorts of possibilities for moving around the world in a Team Fortress version of augmented reality. Follow the QR code below to get it on your andriod device.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXEBRMu-2ZU?rel=0] 

There’s a new player on the TF2 trading scene. TF2Bazaar seeks to take their place as an easy trading site together with craft numbers and pretty colours.

Our player of the week is named so for coding one of the coolest things to happen to reddit.com/r/tf2/.

The sidebar now features “TF2 Live Streams”. Every few minutes the page scans Twitch.tv and own3d sites for people streaming TF2. Check it out now or wait until Sunday when you can be sure to see KritzKast on that list.

Lastly, we’ve got news for KritzKastCon4 at i46. Novint have been kind enough to slip us a couple of their Falcons and we’ll be giving these away at the event.

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Would you believe it. Instead of a regular Update, we’ve been given a beta update. Only a small one, Just keeping it up to date with the main game and re-adding in the Split Equalizers. This turn of events has sparked us off onto all different discussions this week. Are valve hold back updates on purpose?, Are they going to nerf the equalizer? Why are we asking questions?

We then founds some real life hats that people have made based on TF2 hats. But if they were to be sold, would that be legal? We asked the question and the more important question. Would valve mind?

After that we ran over to the steam workshop to see all of Weta’s items for TF2. This could be your new place to find out about any new Grordbort Items. Not only has this got all the items we already know about, but also some that have yet to make it into the game. Maybe they could be joined by Some of the Item being created For Facepunch’s Latest Modeling Contest. The theme this time, Musique. To see some of what people have already come up with, Check out the latest Weekly warehouse.

On top of that, We talk about the future of Source Film Maker. This week the Writer of “9” (The Tim Burton Film) told the world that he would be making his next feature film using source film maker. But what does that mean for us? Does that mean we’ll never see it, or are we closer than ever?

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STAR_ makes a come back as guest host on this week’s show, broadcasting with Chronos, Agro and Zadkiel from ZadLAN which makes the absence of Tempest, Postman Pat and Ruskeydoo all the more profound.

The Surgeon gets a Side Satchel in the latest TF2 update. The Stickybomb Jumper and Rocket Jumper are modified and the Enforcer receives a welcome nerf but most important of all the Fruit Shoot can finally have unusual flies zipping around its half eaten form.

Valve’s map maker, Dave Riller, treats us all to a blog post on how he makes maps. Just as Hideous gets back into his (not so) weekly warehouse with a look a Combustible Lemon Launcher among others. It’s also a big week for the guys formally known as Reddit Round Robin. They launch the sign ups for season 5 and a brand new site TheRoundRob.in Do you see what they did there?

Closing this episode off we have the report that ozfortress are bringing back Capping 4 a Cause. The last event managed to raise over AUD$10,000 so they have high hopes for this one.

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Would you believe it, this week this absolutely no update. Its been a while since this has been the case. Some people even thing its because of an impending mega update. We think its because so much more is going on in the community this week. For example. you can now start voting on TF2maps.net’s Dynamic Payload Maps Contest. There are some amazing maps in here and we even got Fr0z3n from TF2maps.net to come on the show and talk us through some of them.

This is also the week that CTH (Could try harder) Launched their Ready Steady Pan Tournament. Now i’m not saying that its a bad idea. I just wish we’d thought of it first. Its right down our ally. basically Imagine a 6v6 tournament, only where the kill weapon must be a Frying Pan. Sounds crazy…but don’t you want to watch it.

After that we have a story about a man who found a way to get the Per Diem Perk Hat: The Dueler for a lot longer than he should. Normally You only get ti for a day, But through some crazy trickery, he managed to keep hold of his for over a month. Listen in to found out how he did it and what happened to him.

This week celebrations are in order. 1 year ago, VanillaTV was born. since then it has flourished into the best source to find and watch European TF2 matches. Both Live and recorded to watch whenever you want. So while your in the celebratory mood. Why not book your seat at KKC4. Yes, that right. Its back, and it bigger. We’ll explain all about it on the show, but if you can’t wait that long, head over to the promo page for all the information.