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

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:

• Naughty/Nice Winter Crate Keys have been changed to regular MannCo Crate keys.
  

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:

• Fixed a Spy-cicle exploit
  
• Fixed the Manmelter idle effects showing on other flareguns
  

<a href="http://media.steampowered.com/apps/tf2/artwork/meet_the_christmas.jpg"><img src="http://www.teamfortress.com/images/posts/meet_the_christmas.jpg" height="275" width="420"border="0"></a>

With all the hustle and busty fustle of Australian Christmas, you probably thought we forgot the most important part of it: The gift-giving. Well, we didn't forget. We were hoping <i>you</i> would. But you didn't--you guys are sharp! So get your Gift-Gettin' Pants on, because you are about to <b>get gifts,</b> and we'd prefer you were wearing pants for it.

<b>GIFTED!</b> All the community items previously only available in the Nice Crates are now craftable, droppable, and available in all the ways you're used to getting them!

<b>ALSO THIS GIFT!</b> A free Secret Saxton for every premium account!

<b>DUCK! GIFT COMIN' ATCHA!</b> To acknowledge all you generous souls who've been handing out Secret Saxtons and piles of gifts since the formation of the TF economy, everybody is receiving a Spirit of Giving badge. It's a plate-sized x-ray illustrating to your peers exactly how big your heart is, and consequently, what a good person you are. You—and more importantly, everybody else—will actually be able to <b>see</b> your heart grow over time depending how many gifts you're giving. We strapped an actual decommissioned Soviet-era x-ray machine to several team members' chests, and trust us, the science checks out: The people in our experiment with the biggest hearts <b>were</b> in fact the nicest guys on staff. How do we know? You should have <b>seen</b> how many people showed up at their funerals.

<b>STOCKING STUFFER!</b> In an effort to get the gift-giving juices flowing, we've made every map as Smissmassy as possible by wrapping lights around every rope!
<b>BUT THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL...</b> was <i>inside you all along.</i> It's blood! Turns out you can sell it! See you at the plasma center! Merry Smissmas, everybody!

With all the hustle and busty fustle of Australian Christmas, you probably thought we forgot the most important part of it: The gift-giving. Well, we didn't forget. We were hoping you would. But you didn't--you guys are sharp! So get your Gift-Gettin' Pants on, because you are about to get gifts, and we'd prefer you were wearing pants for it.

GIFTED! All the community items previously only available in the Nice Crates are now craftable, droppable, and available in all the ways you're used to getting them!

ALSO THIS GIFT! A free Secret Saxton for every premium account!

DUCK! GIFT COMIN' ATCHA! To acknowledge all you generous souls who've been handing out Secret Saxtons and piles of gifts since the formation of the TF economy, everybody is receiving a Spirit of Giving badge. It's a plate-sized x-ray illustrating to your peers exactly how big your heart is, and consequently, what a good person you are. You—and more importantly, everybody else—will actually be able to see your heart grow over time depending how many gifts you're giving. We strapped an actual decommissioned Soviet-era x-ray machine to several team members' chests, and trust us, the science checks out: The people in our experiment with the biggest hearts were in fact the nicest guys on staff. How do we know? You should have seen how many people showed up at their funerals.

STOCKING STUFFER! In an effort to get the gift-giving juices flowing, we've made every map as Smissmassy as possible by wrapping lights around every rope!
BUT THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL... was inside you all along. It's blood! Turns out you can sell it! See you at the plasma center! Merry Smissmas, everybody!

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include:

• Added community-created winter items to the drop lists, the craft tables, and the store
  
• Added the Spirit of Giving
  
• Gifts from Secret Saxtons and Piles o' Gifts now have a chance to grant a gift in addition to whatever item they would have granted normally
  
• Fixed hearing the deny sound while rotating a sentry during placement
  
• Manmelter balance tweaks:
  • Added particle effect on muzzle that appears when ready to fire
    
  • Increased projectile speed while maintaining the same travel arc
    
  • Increased extinguish range
• Added festive lights to all ropes and cables
  
• Fixed a problem that would sometimes allow the detonator projectiles to crit on burning targets
  
• Updated the localization files
  
• Updated the gamehaptics file:
  • Added draw/melee swing/melee hit/crit forces for the The Sharp Dresser and the Spy-cicle
    
  • Added draw/recoil/reload/crit forces for the Pomson 6000
    
  • Added draw/recoil/crit forces for the Manmelter
    
  • Added draw/recoil force for the Wrap Assassin
    
  • Added melee hit/world hit force for the Third Degree
    
  • Added crit forces for the Holiday Punch
    
  • Fixed missing forces for Demoman swords
    
  • Refined recoil force for the Sandman