Valve's TF2 "Heavy" Update - the roundup
Valve have become masters of suspense, letting information trickle out and leading their fans along with tidbits of news about their continuing saga of TF2 “refreshes”.
Cry some more
I hesitate to call them “updates” because every time they release a new “update” it adds an entirely new dimension to the base gameplay. The refreshes generally require even expert players to learn a whole new map, skillset, or strategy to keep up with the game.
First we had the Medic update, then the Pyro, and now the Heavy update is here.
The Heavy update includes the following:
New Weapons
The KGB (Killing Gloves of Boxing) - Melee weapon that gives +5 seconds of guaranteed critical hits (cumulative) when used to kill an opponent. If you get into a situation where you can punch multiple enemies, you can build up a good crit charge and then switch to your other weapons to become a one man army.
Natascha - New minigun that does 25% less damage per hit than Sasha, but slows enemies.
Sandvich - A unique new weapon - instead of doing damage, you pull out a “sandvich”, and eat loudly for four seconds (during which time you are vulnerable to attack), but you regain 120 health when finished snacking.
New Game mode
TF2 Arena: Think of it as controlled Sudden Death. Teams are randomly assigned and you play to win 5 quick matches. You have a small arena with a single central control point. Rush it and take it for the win, OR kill off all enemies. Either way, count on frenzied, quick matches.
In our IC trial run of arena_lumberyard today, the game crashed for everyone. Probably some bugs to be worked out.
New maps
Badwater Basin - a new Payload map that emphasizes more “open” areas instead of creating chokepoints like Goldrush.
Steel - a “community” map that has 5 control points - except this time the map changes depending on which points you choose to capture. Goal is to cap the final point.
Arena maps - Lumberyard, Ravine, Well, Badlands, and Granary - Lumberyard is a new “Alpine”-style map, with a completely different style of environment (breaking away from the desert/miner theme). Ravine is a new map in the familiar desert/mine style, and Well, Granary, and Badlands have undergone “significant” changes in order to fit in with the new game mode.
New Achievements
35 new achievements for the Heavy. Like previous updates, some seem almost a given, and others seem almost impossible under normal circumstances.
All in all, this is another feature packed FREE update from Valve.
If you’d like to join the Icrontic Crew in TF2, we play almost nightly. Check into our forums or join our Steam group.
I can't wait to play tonight!
Note: the checkpoint on Arena maps doesn't become capturable for 60 seconds. Could provide some interesting setup/scoping/strategery opportunities.
****ing destroyed my TF2 install. Restarted steam, closed all other apps, rebooted, verified, defragged, chkdsk, and nothing.
"The exception Privileged instructions." and memory error jargon every time it gets past the splash screen. Damn failure of an update.
I killed the TF2 files and will be reinstalling from Brian's backup to see if that does it.
Yup. Crashed everybody's TF2 first time it tried to run, hard locked Dras' comp, broke Keebs' TF2, renamed the server to Team Fortress Arena Server... methinks some more testing should have been run.
Need to fix up the server config, too, but I trust Ryder's on that. We should get back to a 2 out of 3 format for regular maps imo, since we can always just change them if we're bored. Maybe that's just me. Arena maps say they're supposed to be played until there's 5 wins in a row, whatever that means.
Valve has a pure 100% EPIC FAIL on their hands, Crashed Steam didnt Fubar my install like others and takes forever to update now i finally got connected after 2 hrs
Worked fine for this guy.
Other than the Crash That Shook The World (dumped EVERYBODY out of the game and crashed steam.exe for all of us), I have had no issues.
It's crashed me again twice more. On top of that, Ryder says it's not referencing the current maplist in any form - it's just looping the new maps.
Oh well. I'm gonna finish up this keyboard article instead and wait for Valve to tidy all this up.
At first I was like
But then I was like
( you know, because I'm at work and can't get the update, then missed the fireworks. Clever, huh?)
Actually, I'm screwed. Stuck at work until 1am, and I have to be up to help my sister(Fooman) move into college. Waking up at 5:45. Better not try to play TF2 tonight, could be hazardous to my already sleep-deprived health.
Bout time one of my classes gets an update though.
Love the vid!! LMAO
I was there for the first crash... and then it crashed on me two more times later in the evening. I gave up for the night on the third crash. I hope something can get fixed quick because i want to enjoy the new maps.
No crashes for this man; just frustration over players post-update.
Who sent all these HUGE MEN to fight each other?
It's a sniper and spy paradise right now. So many slow, bigheaded targets.
*was nothing but sniper last night*
Fix't!