Our first attempt to play the ETF2L Highlander Exhibition match ran into some technical difficulties. This time around, we've been assured that the appropriate number of chickens have been sacrificed to the dark lord of the internet. You can find out all the details on how you can watch the match here. If you don't feel like firing up SourceTV, this time there are live streams as well.




While we're here, yesterday we forgot to link to the first productive use of TF2. Check it out!

We're getting a little slack around here on the blog posting front. In our defense, we've just had our second day of snow in Seattle, and that means civilization has pretty much broken down entirely. We were about to eat our last intern when we realized we wouldn't have anyone who knew how to operate the blog posting tool/machine/software/doohickey. Luckily the intern, bless his little proactive (and tasty) heart, wrote a detailed description of how to use it on the company wiki. Around here, we call that a Career Limiting Move.

<a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/31280/"><img src="http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/demo_shades.png" width="420" height="330" border="0"></a>

In other news, <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/31280/">Poker Night at the Inventory</a> is out. I know this because last night I was slaughtered by a Demoman sporting <a href="http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Dangeresque_Shades">Dangeresque shades</a>, a <a href="http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Max%27s_Severed_Head">severed head</a>, and an inhuman sense of aim. Clearly, scientific proof that these items make you better at the game.

And while we're here, have some community links:
<ul>
<li>We're a little late linking to it, but we're not prepared to take the risk that you haven't seen <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVcY6PrdJ5c">TF2 LAN Trilogy (Part 1)</a> by Boneyard Production's AndyBoneS14. It's so awesome that we thought we'd already linked to it, because it seemed inconceivable that we hadn't. Turns out we were wrong, which is slightly more conceivable.</li>
<li>epic.LAN dropped us a line to let us know that they're kicking off their <a href="http://www.epiclan.co.uk/epic5/tf2">UK LAN TF2 Tournament</a>. There's money on the table, boyos!</li>
<li>TFPortal has put up <a href="http://www.tfportal.net/news/1610/tfportal-fanstuff-special-part-4-mods/">Part 4 of their TF2 Fanstuff Special</a>. They sent us a link when they put up Part 1, and then decided to shame us by seeing how many more parts they could release before we linked to them. On the bright side, Part 4 includes lots of neat community creations, so head over there and pretend that it's all part of this blog post.</li>

We're getting a little slack around here on the blog posting front. In our defense, we've just had our second day of snow in Seattle, and that means civilization has pretty much broken down entirely. We were about to eat our last intern when we realized we wouldn't have anyone who knew how to operate the blog posting tool/machine/software/doohickey. Luckily the intern, bless his little proactive (and tasty) heart, wrote a detailed description of how to use it on the company wiki. Around here, we call that a Career Limiting Move.



In other news, Poker Night at the Inventory is out. I know this because last night I was slaughtered by a Demoman sporting Dangeresque shades, a severed head, and an inhuman sense of aim. Clearly, scientific proof that these items make you better at the game.

And while we're here, have some community links:

• We're a little late linking to it, but we're not prepared to take the risk that you haven't seen TF2 LAN Trilogy (Part 1) by Boneyard Production's AndyBoneS14. It's so awesome that we thought we'd already linked to it, because it seemed inconceivable that we hadn't. Turns out we were wrong, which is slightly more conceivable.
  
• epic.LAN dropped us a line to let us know that they're kicking off their UK LAN TF2 Tournament. There's money on the table, boyos!
  
• TFPortal has put up Part 4 of their TF2 Fanstuff Special. They sent us a link when they put up Part 1, and then decided to shame us by seeing how many more parts they could release before we linked to them. On the bright side, Part 4 includes lots of neat community creations, so head over there and pretend that it's all part of this blog post.
  
  

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Team Fortress 2

• Fixed Crit-a-Cola behaving like Bonk! Atomic Punch.
  

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Source Engine Changes (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2, HL2:DM)

• [Windows] Added support for raw mouse input. Raw input reads directly from the mouse, bypassing Windows control panel mouse settings. This addresses issues with high DPI mice, and provides for a more reliable controller experience at various resolutions
  
• [Windows] Improved custom mouse acceleration
  
• [Windows] Updated mouse configuration UI to support raw input and acceleration; added tooltips to some of the options
  
• [Windows] Fixed UI tooltips so that they display correctly on first hover
  

Team Fortress 2

• Added the "Team Spirit" paint can.
  
• Added Telltale Games items:
  
  • Dangeresque, Too?: Strong Bad's styling glasses (equipped by the Demoman)
    
  • License to Maim: Max's Badge (equipped by all classes)
    
  • The Iron Curtain: The Heavy's first love (equipped by the Heavy, obviously)
    
  • The Enthusiast's Timepiece: Tycho's favorite timepiece (equipped by the Spy)
    
• Updated some item capabilities:
  
  • Employees badges can now have custom names.
    
  • The Stickybomb Jumper can now be gift wrapped.
    
  • The Spine-Chilling Skull and Voodoo Juju hats are now paintable.
    
  • Improved the Spine-Chilling Skull and Voodoo Juju hat positions on the Sniper.
    
• Added the original Ubersaw taunt to the Vita-Saw.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented the game from running on Fat32 systems.
  
• Fixed a problem with the Sackston Hale achievement sometimes not being awarded correctly.
  
• Fixed the holiday gamestartup sound files being included in the random startup selection after the holiday is over.
  
• Fixed numerous WebAPI issues.
  
• Fixed a Heavy exploit that let him run at full speed while shooting.
  
• Fixed a Frontier Justice exploit that let Engineers have infinite crits for their current life/round.
  
• Fixed the shotgun reload animations for the Soldier/Pyro/Heavy looping endlessly.
  
• Fixed the Medigun charge percent for other players being steppy.
  
• Fixed not being able to light arrows after the first arrow is fired unless they're drawn back.
  
• Updated the localization files
  

Updates to Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Source Engine Changes (CS:S, DoD:S, TF2, HL2:DM)

• Fixed a bug with voice recording intermittently not recording after playing in a level for a while (Mac)
  
• Fixed a rare client crash caused by text rendering (Mac)
  
• Updated the server browser localization files
  

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Team Fortress 2

• Fixed a bug that prevented Mac players from getting the Halloween achievements
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented Mac players from receiving the in-game notifications for items, duels, etc.
  
• Fixed Engineers being able to build under the final capture point in Mann Manor
  
• Added the Dealer's Visor for players who pre-purchase Poker Night from Telltale Games. See http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=4608&p=1 for full details.
  

<a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/31280/">Poker Night at the Inventory</a> is now available for pre-order. If you move fast, not only will you save 10% off the already low price, but you'll also pick yourself up a sweet pre-order bonus of this spiffy Poker Visor for your favorite Heavy. Once the game is released, you'll also be able to unlock new TF2 items by beating The Heavy, Max, Tycho, or Strong Bad at high stakes games of poker.

<a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/31280/"><img src="http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/telltalepoker.png" border="0" width="420" height="341"></a>

This is pretty exciting to us - it's the first time a game made by someone other than us allows you to find TF2 items by playing it. If you'd asked us, as we slaved away on TF2 back in '63, whether one day you'd be able to get the Heavy's first minigun off him by playing poker, we'd think you were nuts. Then we'd have hired you, because you had a vision for the future.

If you're curious, here's the set of items that you'll be able to collect inside Poker Night at the Inventory:
<ul>
<li><strong>The Enthusiast's Timepiece</strong> - Tycho's favorite timepiece <i>(equippable by the Spy)</i></li>
<li><strong>License to Maim</strong> - Max's Badge <i>(equippable by all classes)</i></li>
<li><strong>The Lugermorph</strong> - A second chance at Max's personal armament <i>(equippable by the Scout and the Engineer)</i></li>
<li><strong>The Iron Curtain</strong> - The Heavy's first love <i>(equippable by the Heavy, obviously)</i></li>
<li><strong>Dangeresque, Too?</strong> - Strong Bad's styling glasses <i>(equippable by the Demoman) </i></li>
</ul>

Poker Night at the Inventory is now available for pre-order. If you move fast, not only will you save 10% off the already low price, but you'll also pick yourself up a sweet pre-order bonus of this spiffy Poker Visor for your favorite Heavy. Once the game is released, you'll also be able to unlock new TF2 items by beating The Heavy, Max, Tycho, or Strong Bad at high stakes games of poker.



This is pretty exciting to us - it's the first time a game made by someone other than us allows you to find TF2 items by playing it. If you'd asked us, as we slaved away on TF2 back in '63, whether one day you'd be able to get the Heavy's first minigun off him by playing poker, we'd think you were nuts. Then we'd have hired you, because you had a vision for the future.

If you're curious, here's the set of items that you'll be able to collect inside Poker Night at the Inventory:

• The Enthusiast's Timepiece - Tycho's favorite timepiece (equippable by the Spy)
  
• License to Maim - Max's Badge (equippable by all classes)
  
• The Lugermorph - A second chance at Max's personal armament (equippable by the Scout and the Engineer)
  
• The Iron Curtain - The Heavy's first love (equippable by the Heavy, obviously)
  
• Dangeresque, Too? - Strong Bad's styling glasses (equippable by the Demoman)
  

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Team Fortress 2

• Fixed a minor issue with the Horseless Headless Horsemann