An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

• Added Something Special For Someone Special
  
• Added The Snapped Pupil
  
• Added a new promo item
  
• Updated the Heavy's sandvich so it will only resupply ammo if the owner picks it up after dropping it. This means the only way to gain health from the sandvich is by eating it.
  
• Fixed the Red/Blue team skins not working on the Bonk Boy with the new styles
  
• Updated the in-game trading system to use the Steam trading menus
  
• Updated these items so they can be traded and crafted:
  • The Warsworn Helmet
    
  • The Bolgan
    
  • The Bolgan Family Crest
    
  • The Merc Medal
    
  • The Battle Bob
    
  • The Bushman's Boonie
• Updated cp_gravelpit
  • Fixed z-fighting on the fan in the Red spawn building
    
  • Fixed Red Engineers building inside their spawn room
• Hcqngrq gur ybpnyvmngvba svyrf
  

<a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=7317"><img src="http://media.steampowered.com/apps/tf2/blog/7317/boombox_sized.jpg" width="400" height="261" border="0"></a>

<i>My radio's bad from the Boulevard.
I'm a hip-hop gangster and my name is Todd.
Terrorising my neighbours with the heavy bass.
I keep the suckas in fear by the look on my face.</i>
-LL Cool J, 1985

Most people only know LL Cool J as a rapper, actor, fashion designer, record producer, and author. Now, though, you can add "spooky-ass Nostradamus" to that list, because we've just released a misc slot item for the Scout called "The Boston Boom Bringer" that pretty much exactly matches the lyrics LL penned <i>almost thirty years ago.</i> Is it a radio? Yes! Is it "bad"? Yes! When you taunt while it's equipped, will it play music to terrorize your neighbors and scare suckas? Yes! Are you a hip-hop gangster named Todd? That's gonna vary from person to person, obviously, but it's not totally out of the question! The point is, there's probably an LL Cool J song that predicts your death. The secondary point is everything we just said about the sweet new boom box item.

We went through LL Cool J’s back catalog looking for other prescient rap songs that described musical items available for the other eight classes, but apparently one of the Ls stands for “lazy”, because it doesn’t look like he wrote any. So just in case anyone out there wants to succeed where LL Cool J failed, we've added a special "Sound Device" category to both the in-game item submission UI and in the Workshop so that you can tag your sound-themed submissions. Make something good enough and it may join the ranks of <a href="http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Aladdin%27s_Private_Reserve">Aladdin’s Private Reserve</a>, <a href="http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Conquistador">The Conquistador</a>, and the <a href="http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Lucky_Shot">Lucky Shot</a>, all great community-made items we’ve shipped this year that were mentioned by name on rap oracle LL Cool J's 1987 album "Bigger and Deffer".

My radio's bad from the Boulevard.
I'm a hip-hop gangster and my name is Todd.
Terrorising my neighbours with the heavy bass.
I keep the suckas in fear by the look on my face.
-LL Cool J, 1985

Most people only know LL Cool J as a rapper, actor, fashion designer, record producer, and author. Now, though, you can add "spooky-ass Nostradamus" to that list, because we've just released a misc slot item for the Scout called "The Boston Boom Bringer" that pretty much exactly matches the lyrics LL penned almost thirty years ago. Is it a radio? Yes! Is it "bad"? Yes! When you taunt while it's equipped, will it play music to terrorize your neighbors and scare suckas? Yes! Are you a hip-hop gangster named Todd? That's gonna vary from person to person, obviously, but it's not totally out of the question! The point is, there's probably an LL Cool J song that predicts your death. The secondary point is everything we just said about the sweet new boom box item.

We went through LL Cool J’s back catalog looking for other prescient rap songs that described musical items available for the other eight classes, but apparently one of the Ls stands for “lazy”, because it doesn’t look like he wrote any. So just in case anyone out there wants to succeed where LL Cool J failed, we've added a special "Sound Device" category to both the in-game item submission UI and in the Workshop so that you can tag your sound-themed submissions. Make something good enough and it may join the ranks of Aladdin’s Private Reserve, The Conquistador, and the Lucky Shot, all great community-made items we’ve shipped this year that were mentioned by name on rap oracle LL Cool J's 1987 album "Bigger and Deffer".

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

• Added The Boston Boom-Bringer
  
• Fixed the Heavy bots not spawning in the commentary maps
  
• Updated ctf_doublecross:
  • Added a respawnroom visualizer to the dropdown spawn exit to prevent griefing
• Updated community and promotional items:
  • Soda Popper: improved model and texture
    
  • Winger: fixed first-person clip reloading
    
  • Apparition's Aspect: updated mesh to reduce clipping with many hats
    
  • Hero's Tail: added an additional style that more strongly responds to paint
    
  • Bonk Boy: added an additional style that leaves the Scout headphones visible
• Additional items are now paintable:
  • Lord Cockswain's Novelty Mutton Chops and Pipe
    
  • Planeswalker Goggles
    
  • Pilotka
    
  • Nanobalaclava
    
  • Cold War Luchador
    
  • Cremator's Conscience
    
  • Dashin' Hashshashin
    
  • Desert Marauder
• Relaxed equip region restrictions for the Earbuds so that they can be equipped with anything
  
• Lokalisierungsdateien aktualisiert
  

Updates to Team Fortress 2, 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 (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)

• Adjusted error messages on servers when players drop due to Steam authentication failure to be more clear
  
• Additional important server messages now go to the server log instead of just the console
  

Team Fortress 2

• Added The Conquistador
  
• Added The Map Maker's Medallion
  
• Added new promotional items
  
• Added information about item origins to the WebAPI
  
• Added "DamagedPlayer" animation event for the HUD, fired when the local player damages other players
  
• Fixed The Head Warmer not displaying unusual particle effects correctly
  
• Fixed paint applying incorrectly on Max's Severed Head
  
• Fixed a server crash caused by Holiday Punch critical attacks on physics objects
  
• Updated the Itsy Bitsy Spyer so it can also be equipped by the Sniper
  
• Updated cp_foundry:
  • Clip brush collision smoothing by the forward spawn alternate exit
    
  • Fixed Nobuild exploits
    
  • Fixed the teleporter player trap on the roof of the forward spawn alternate exit
    
  • Fixed Nodraw and texturing errors
    
  • Fixed clipping of barrels on final cap points
    
  • Fixed fade distance on props
    
  • Fixed lighting bugs in spytech vistas
    
  • Removed props hidden in geometry
    
  • Removed ability for players to cap the final point by standing on the catwalk behind it

If you thought the end of the world was the only thing to look forward to in 2012, guess again. There's a ton of TF2 stuff on the horizon, running for their lives just slightly ahead of the Mayan blood tornadoes.

<img src="http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/2012_a.jpg" width="420" height="73" border="0">

<b>A Secret TF2 Project!</b>
The TF2 team is working on something brand new for 2012. We can't tell you what it is, because they won't tell us, but what they WILL say is that it isn't a hat, it isn't a map, and go away. From this we can only conclude that the TF2 team is working on some ungodly hat-map hybrid that you can wear on your head while you run around in it. You heard it here first. Also last, because they just told us it's not that either. But it's<br />really cool.

<a href="http://steamcommunity.com/games/SteamWorkshop"><img src="http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/2012_b.jpg" width="420" height="73" border="0"></a>

<b>A Steam Workshop Blog!</b>
You might think we went a little overboard putting an exclamation mark on that title, but hear us out: we bought a gross of exclamatory punctuation on eBay, and we've got to get rid of these things before someone finds out how much we spent on them. ($7,000!!!!!!) Anyway, the blog is live! <a href="http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/">Check it out here</a> for the latest workshop news and announcements! There've been nearly 4000 user-generated items submitted so far, and we're going to keep shipping them throughout the year(!), so head over to the Workshop and vote on what you'd like to see."

<img src="http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/2012_c.jpg" width="420" height="73" border="0">

<b>The Last "Meet the Team" Short</b>
That title probably deserved an exclamation mark, but we over-estimated how many we had and now we're out. This year, the lovable, indecipherable <a href="http://www.teamfortress.com/classes.php?class=pyro">Pyro</a> finally gets some time in the spotlight. <i>There will be blood</i>. And not like in the movie <i>There Will Be Blood</i>, either, where there was only blood at the end, and not even very much of it. Ours has lots of blood pretty much all the way through. If the butterscotch mint-sucking old mummies who pick the Academy Awards thought <i>Look Out, There Might Be a Little Blood</i> was great, wait’ll they see how many gallons we managed to cram into our movie. They’re going to have to melt down Fort Knox to make all the Oscars we’re going to win.

<img src="http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/2012_d.jpg" width="420" height="73" border="0">

<b>The Second Annual Saxxy Awards</b>
Just in case the Oscar mummies don’t recognize the subtle dramatic undertones of the uninterrupted blood explosion that is Meet the Pyro, we can always stack the deck at the Saxxys, our own awards show. This year, expect the Saxxys to be much bigger and better, due to the imminent unveiling of another secret. Is it that we’re giving Meet the Pyro five Oscars? That’s not the secret, but let’s just say we’d like to thank the Academy. More specifically, we’d like to thank the Academy’s lawyers for not reading this blog post.

If you thought the end of the world was the only thing to look forward to in 2012, guess again. There's a ton of TF2 stuff on the horizon, running for their lives just slightly ahead of the Mayan blood tornadoes.



A Secret TF2 Project!
The TF2 team is working on something brand new for 2012. We can't tell you what it is, because they won't tell us, but what they WILL say is that it isn't a hat, it isn't a map, and go away. From this we can only conclude that the TF2 team is working on some ungodly hat-map hybrid that you can wear on your head while you run around in it. You heard it here first. Also last, because they just told us it's not that either. But it's
really cool.



A Steam Workshop Blog!
You might think we went a little overboard putting an exclamation mark on that title, but hear us out: we bought a gross of exclamatory punctuation on eBay, and we've got to get rid of these things before someone finds out how much we spent on them. ($7,000!!!!!!) Anyway, the blog is live! Check it out here for the latest workshop news and announcements! There've been nearly 4000 user-generated items submitted so far, and we're going to keep shipping them throughout the year(!), so head over to the Workshop and vote on what you'd like to see."



The Last "Meet the Team" Short
That title probably deserved an exclamation mark, but we over-estimated how many we had and now we're out. This year, the lovable, indecipherable Pyro finally gets some time in the spotlight. There will be blood. And not like in the movie There Will Be Blood, either, where there was only blood at the end, and not even very much of it. Ours has lots of blood pretty much all the way through. If the butterscotch mint-sucking old mummies who pick the Academy Awards thought Look Out, There Might Be a Little Blood was great, wait’ll they see how many gallons we managed to cram into our movie. They’re going to have to melt down Fort Knox to make all the Oscars we’re going to win.



The Second Annual Saxxy Awards
Just in case the Oscar mummies don’t recognize the subtle dramatic undertones of the uninterrupted blood explosion that is Meet the Pyro, we can always stack the deck at the Saxxys, our own awards show. This year, expect the Saxxys to be much bigger and better, due to the imminent unveiling of another secret. Is it that we’re giving Meet the Pyro five Oscars? That’s not the secret, but let’s just say we’d like to thank the Academy. More specifically, we’d like to thank the Academy’s lawyers for not reading this blog post.

Updates to Team Fortress 2, 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 (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)

• Fixed a demo/replay playback crash
  
• Changed the way bot counts are displayed in the server browser: the bot column is now next to the player column and always visible. Bot count is no longer subtracted from maxplayers.
  

Team Fortress 2

• Added the Aladdin's Private Reserve for the Demo
  
• Fixed a bug where the Medic would lose his healing target's speed when deploying his ÜberCharge while using the Quick-Fix
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause some Team Spirit painted hats to show as black-painted in the Steam Community
  
• Localized the team goal strings for cp_steel and pl_frontier
  
• Added missing level_data strings to kill_eater_score_type elements in the GetSchema WebAPI response
  
• Updated pl_frontier with author-submitted fixes:
  • small prop adjustments
    
  • several unsewn/gappy displacements fixed up
    
  • func_push altered below final capture point
• Undocumented changes: Updated all localization files
  

An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

• Added new promo items
  
• Fixed paint preview not working for Mann Co. Store items
  
• Fixed the Lucky Shot not hiding the base Soldier helmet
  
• Did not update the localization files
  

Updates to Team Fortress 2, 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 (TF2, DoD:S, HL2:DM)

• Limit the effective FOV of players using wide-screen resolutions with aspect ratios wider than 1.85:1. The sv_restrict_aspect_ratio_fov ConVar can be changed to remove the restriction or make the restriction also apply to full-screen players.
  

Team Fortress 2

• Fixed Cp_Foundry not ending the map in the middle of a round when mp_timelimit is hit
  
• Fixed the Spy saying 'Prego' for one of his 'Thanks!' lines
  
• Fixed incorrect player animations for the Buff Banner and the Battalion's Backup
  
• Fixed some cases where strange Ullapool Cabers and wrenches would fail to correctly count kills
  
• Improvements for client stability
  
• Updated the localization files
  
• Crafting changes:
  • Added crafting recipes for weapons introduced during the holiday update
    
  • When selecting items for use in crafting, the items selected will show their quality in addition to the item name
    
  • Ellis's Cap can now be used as a crafting reagent
• Item changes
  • Added The Lucky Shot helmet
    
  • Added The Killer Exclusive to the Mann Co. store
    
  • Added Mask of the Shaman to the item drop list
    
  • Fixed particle display problems for items with multiple effects
    
  • Fixed the Dr. Whoa paint not drawing correctly for the Blue team
    
  • Updated the Desert Marauder and the Villain's Veil so they can be equipped together
    
  • Updated the Fancy Dress Uniform and the Kringle Collection so they can be equipped together
    
  • The Bombinomicon no longer shakes the screen and has a delay before the explosion so that Snipers, Spies, and others can get better feedback on the actual cause of death
    
  • The Bazaar Bargain functionality has changed: only one stored head is lost on a miss or a bodyshot and no heads are gained when missing while crit-boosted