If you're a diehard Team Fortress 2 fan, you're already downloading the update. For those of you who haven't started it yet, restart your Steam clients to get the largest TF2 update to date!

Changes

• Added server map timeleft to upper right of scoreboard
  
• Added new firing sounds to The Backburner
  
• Removed the Custom Tab in the serverbrowser, and added the Tags field to the base Internet Tab
  
• Increased The Kritzkrieg's uber-charge rate bonus from 10% to 25%
  
• 32 player servers can now support an extra slot of SourceTV
  
• Made the freezecam item panel description easier to read
  
• Players now broadcast whether they chose a team directly or use autoteam
  
• Added proper handling of cart blocking recognition to Payload maps
  
  Bug fixes
  
• Fixed bug where switching from flaregun-wielding Pyro to another class meant you didn't get a full ammo loadout on first spawn
  
• Fixed Spy watch arm not using team skins
  
• Fixed weapon switching preventing you from using secondary attacks for a 0.2s window after the primary became available
  
• Fixed players getting stuck in a bad animation state when class switching while spinning the minigun
  
• Fixed a loophole that allowed players to pickup weapons of other classes

[ more bug fixes, the heavy class updates, arena mode (144 more words) ]

• Fixed a bug that resulted in players earning more crit chance bonus in large, single damage events than they are supposed to
  
• Fixed an issue with the floating HUD +X health indicators that resulted in them appearing incorrectly
  
• Fixed a bug which caused the minigun spinning & firing sounds to occasionally stop while the Heavy was still firing
  
• Fixes the Loadout player model panel causing the in-game player facial animation to perform incorrectly
  
• Fixed spectators not having the target ID labels display correctly
  
• Fixed the cart alarm sound occasionally getting stuck on in Payload maps
  
  Added 3 Heavy unlockables
  
• Natascha, The Sandvich, The Killing Gloves of Boxing
  
• Added 35 new Heavy achievements
  
  Added Arena game mode
  
• 5 arenas: Lumberyard, Ravine, Well, Granary, Badlands
  
• Added cp_steel, a community map by Jamie "Fishbus" Manson

Boy, you simply cannot make something like this up. Valve has revealed the last unlockable for the Heavy and as expected it's the Sandvich! This tasty treat will replace the shotgun in the third slot and will heal the Heavy for 120HP upon consumption.

The Sandvich is the Heavy’s first unlockable. It tastes as good as it looks and heals 120 health. Like in real life, the decision to eat a Sandvich must not be taken lightly; The Heavy is completely vulnerable during the four second eating process, and his loud, happy sounds of vigorous chewing will draw enemies like tiny ant cowards to a picnic. OF DEATH. On the bright side, the Heavy’s Sandvich supply is unlimited, so his only real concern is being caught short while enjoying this delicious edible device. The Sandvich is a great tool for a Heavy defending an area, as it gives him the ability to replenish health between enemy waves without having to abandon his post. Similarly, an offensive Heavy without a Medic can step back from the front line and grab a quick snack before resuming his rampage. Beware, however: the Heavy must set aside his shotgun to take the Sandvich, and enemy Snipers are much more dangerous for a Heavy wielding only a minigun.

Nope, that's not the end of this update. There's also a "Meet the Sandvich" video on display at the update page. You'll simply have to see it to believe it. Nomnomnom...


It should also be known that the update is planned for release for around 5:30PM EST. This is according to the HLDS mailing list, so the time is subject to change.

The announcements are already starting to pour in from this year's Games Convention out of Leipzig. 2K Games has officially announced that the PlayStation 3 version of BioShock will be released this October on the 21st. European PS3 owners will have to wait until the 24th in order to experience Rapture.

Created by the combined efforts of 2K Marin, 2K Boston, 2K Australia and Digital Extremes, the game will bring the world of Rapture to PS3 gamers everywhere with the addition of new challenge rooms, all of the downloadable content seen on the Xbox 360 and Trophy support.

"We are proud to introduce 2K Games' showcase title, BioShock, to an entirely new audience," said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K Games. "With the addition of the new Add-On Game Content we are able to extend the award-winning adventure while maintaining the perfect harmony that millions of players around the world have fallen in love with."

BioShock was previously released on the PC and Xbox 360 to much critical and fan acclaim. A thanks goes out to IGN for providing us with this news.

Crysis cost developers, Crytek, $22 million (USD) to make. This news came from a conference in which Crytek CEO and president, Cevat Yerli, had given at this year's Leipzig Games Convention.

Even though that amount of money could power a third world country for a few years, the EA published game must have managed to turn round a tidy profit. And in the face of massive piracy on PC, that's no mean feat.

"If it wasn't profitable I wouldn't be able to stand here," he told attendees, reports IGN.

It's good to see that despite the rampant piracy of Crysis, it still managed to earn enough profits to cover that $22 million cost of development.

The fifth part to the massive Heavy update has been unveiled to an unsuspecting public. The Arena mode has been detailed, but is it what you wanted?

TF2 Arena keeps the class diversity of Team Fortress 2 while focusing goals around combat between two teams. Where other game modes lean towards a broad overall strategy for the team over a number of lives, Arena concentrates on the specific tactical choices the teams make in a single fight.

Arena features smaller maps that play out in shorter periods of time. The round ends once one team has no players left in the arena, or when the central capture point has unlocked and been captured. Rounds tend to be very fast and highly competitive, with an emphasis on your team’s class makeup and your plan to counter the opposing team’s class choices. Arena mode is great for smaller matches of three vs. three players, while still comfortably supporting huge knockdown twelve-on-twelve brawls.

Also of note for the Arena mode is the fact that there may be few or zero health packs in a map, there will be little to no water in any of the maps, each class will have their distinct advantages, and the initial release comes with five Arena based maps.

Three existing maps (Well, Granary, and Badlands) have been given an Arena treatment and will undergo significant changes around the central cap point to suit this new mode. These maps are joined by two new maps, which are noted below.

Lumberyard is the first new Arena map. You may have seen the setting appear in the background to some of the Heavy update pages previously.


Last, we have the Ravine.


The last reveal will come tomorrow with the last unlockable for the Heavy. Might we also witness the release of that "very special" Meet the... video? Let's hope so.

[ individual descriptions of the new maps (179 more words) ]

Lumberyard:

Lumberyard has an unbalanced structure, with one half of the map climbing up towards a large mountain peak, while the other dips down into a valley. A series of rooftops at the map’s center serves as the key battleground area, with lateral flanking being the key maneuver at ground level. When the capture point becomes active after 60 seconds, multiple entrances open up into the central control point, which becomes the focus of the fighting as the match nears its end. Lumberyard is one of the few Arena maps without water, and contains only a single health kit. The kit sits on a log above a deadly pit, making it a great ambush spot for Pyros, Demomen, and Soldiers to send unwary enemies to their deaths.

Ravine:

In contrast to Lumberyard, Ravine has a far more open ground level with emphasis on control of four key choke points. A series of canals in Ravine’s lower level provide an excellent opportunity for stealth kills and flanking maneuvers. Like all arena maps, the capture point in the middle becomes active after 60 seconds.

The Xbox Live Arcade version of Duke Nukem 3D may be closer to release than you think. The achievements for the game have popped up at Achieve 360 Points, a site that typically obtains a list of achievements shortly before the game's release.

Duke Nukem 3D on the Live Arcade will have a total of 12 achievements totaling 200 points. There are nine single player achievements and three multiplayer achievements.

You can find the full list of achievements and what it takes to obtain them over at Achieve360Points.com.

The publisher for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky says that the release of the game will be pushed back, but only by a week.


This means that the game will now see a September 5 release date instead of one in late August. I think we can all agree that a delay of merely a week is not a bad thing at all.

Bohemia Interactive revealed today that Armed Assault 2 is currently slated to be released in Europe during the first quarter of 2009. The North American release date has not yet been revealed.

Additionally, the company released four new screenshots of ArmA 2 and you can view those right now.


Armed Assault 2 is the sequel to the popular realistic FPS, Armed Assault.

Nope, this isn't a joke. Someone, who doesn't much care for non-disclosure agreements broke theirs and is offering up 150 photos of Fallout 3 in action!

Keep in mind that these aren't direct screenshots, but rather photographs of a game screen. We'll have just a handful of them here for you that you can view right now!

[ view the full image gallery (84 more words) ]

These are just a fraction of the screens! To see the rest of the gallery, head on over to CNG4u.com before their site gets hammered with visitors.

Just how good can a game based on Nazi's, the Supernatural, WWII, and people named BJ be? Apparently, it is turning out to be quite good, at least according to PC Gamer.

As I watch Eric play - bouncing stick grenades off walls, diving behind ruined tanks and taking careful aim at a malevolent Nazi's head, I start to get into this. Wolfenstein plays like a return to the kind of shooters that have become unfashionable; a gun at the bottom of the screen, dozens of enemies up front, ammo drops and explosions ahead.

Bosses? Sure! Kevin talks about characters from Wolfenstein 3D and Return to Castle Wolfenstein making cameos. We'd pay good money to see the robo-armoured Bavarian milk-maid from the first game. And even if Raven deny it, we'll still hold a candle for Robo-Hitler. We'd even take second best with Mecha-Himmler.

I'm glad to hear that the game is apparently going back to its roots with the gameplay. Mindless shooting? Over the top destruction and death? "Hell yes" is what immediately springs to mind.

You can read the rest of the massive preview over at CVG.

Community member, Bad Coupon, pointed out in our comments section that the details for the Heavy Achievements have been updated. It looks like a fairly balanced list with items that won't be too hard to obtain during the course of normal gameplay. Though, I'm sure that won't stop the farmers of the world.

Also of note is the one achievement, Konspicuous Konsumption, that seems to have spilled the beans on the last Heavy unlockable.

Eat 100 sandviches.

If the last unlockable is actually a sandwich that will help regain health in some capacity, then Valve made good on their promise to allow the Heavy to be more independent. We'll just have to wait and see next week on whether or not this is actually the case.

The Championship Gaming Series (CGS) has announced their new CEO today. This announcement comes after Andy Reif, the now former CEO of the CGS, stepped down after two years in charge in order to pursue other opportunities.

The new CEO, Dale Hopkins, formerly the COO of G4 networks, took the reins and will assume control over the league. For more information on the CGS, feel free to check out their site.

The next unlockable weapon for the Heavy has just been revealed. Move over Sasha, there's a new weapon in the Heavy's life. Meet Natascha, the unlockable weapon for the Minigun.

Here's a quote from the page explaining how Natascha works. You guys know what quotes are, right?

The Heavy's second unlockable, Natascha, slows enemies with her bullets. Anyone damaged by her will move slower for an instant, encouraging them to find cover or turn and face the Heavy, mano-a-tiny-itty-bitty-mano. Unfortunately, Natascha is slightly weaker than Sasha, so she takes longer to finish off a victim. As a result, Natascha's great against fleeing cowards, such as Scouts & Medics, and less great against anyone actively trying to kill her master. Heavies that like to jump around corners and surprise groups of startled enemy crybabies will also find her very useful, although they should look for a Sasha-wielding enemy Heavy before they leap.

The last two pieces to this "Heavy" update will come on Monday and Tuesday, with the actual update coming later on Tuesday as well. Feel free to try and guess at what the last unlockable will be while we go through the weekend.

Looking forward to purchasing and playing Bionic Commando: Rearmed on Steam? Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Christian Svensson, Capcom's Corporate Officer made a comment on their community forums about the situation.

Actually, I do have some bad news on the Steam front. At the last minute, we've been unable to reach mutually agreeable terms with Valve on BCR, so they won't be carrying it (unfortunately you'll have to get it elsewhere). I won't get into the details but we do continue to have a good relationship with Valve and future Capcom titles we expect to be carried on Steam.

You can speculate all you wish about what happened during the zero hour, but it won't change the fact that Bionic Commando won't be released on Steam right now, or possibly ever at all.

The third reveal has made its public appearance for the upcoming Heavy-oriented update for Team Fortress 2. Badwater Basin is a new map using the Payload game type, a mode which was introduced previously with Gold Rush.

Badwater Basin is a Payload map focusing on more open spaces and less chokepoints than Gold Rush. (A) Right out of the gate is a multi-level area where the Blu team needs to control the high ground while moving the cart through a tunnel below. This open area has few natural choke points, allowing Scouts, Soldiers, and Demomen to move creatively through the space, forcing the Red team to rapidly respond to choices made by Blu. (B) As the track winds its way into tighter spaces, vertical control becomes more important. Each successive checkpoint requires the Blu team to take control of defensive positions above the track, usually occupied by Red Engineers. (C) Eventually the track winds down and a large basin which the Blu team must assault from all sides in a final push to destroy the Red base.

Unlike Gold Rush, where the track is split into three separate stages, Badwater Basin uses a single large stage with several checkpoints. As a result, the Blu team is highly encouraged to push the cart hard after beating their way through the Red defensive line.

The map is looking and sounding like it'll be a ton of fun to play on. Don't start relaxing yet boys and girls, we still have three pieces of this update puzzle to reveal!

Everyone loves a good rumor. Don't lie to me, I know you do. The latest rumor comes from the mod team for Synergy. A forum posting (now since edited) revealed that the Synergy mod and four others will be able to be downloaded and updated via Steam through the use of the Steamworks SDK.

I would also like to inform you that we will be releasing Synergy and future updates through Steam! Valve Software has allowed us to do so by giving us access to the Steamworks SDK.

We are honored to be one of the four (sic) first selected mods to be given this opportunity. We will certainly put this to good use!

For you players, this means that you will see Achievements and Stats coming to Synergy in later updates. (Not to mention the automatic updates, provided by Steam.)

It certainly looks as though they let the cat out of the bag a little too early as the post has been edited to remove all of the above quoted information.

A little snooping around in the Steam registry content found the names of the other mods that may appear on Steam in the near future.

• D.I.P.R.I.P. Warm Up
  
• Insurgency
  
• Zombie Panic! Source
  
• Age of Chivalry

Those four mods, in addition to Synergy may end up be coming to Steam. Nothing has been announced by Valve yet, but we're hoping to hear back on it soon.

Would-be owners Call of Duty: World at War might want to check out Gamestop if you'd like to obtain instant access to the M4A1 weapon.

To give an advantage to the multiplayer elite on day 1, pre-order through GameStop and you’ll instantly get access to the M1A1 Carbine Assault Rifle! The M1A1 is a high-level (15+) assault rifle which you can have from the moment you start playing multiplayer.

• A much larger magazine-size than starting rifles so you can get more kills without slowing to reload.
  
• Pin-tight targeting sight helps with quicker aiming for accurate take downs and headshots.
  
• Lighting-fast semi-automatic firing gives you kill speeds you’ll need to blow away your competition.

You too can pick up a rifle that will give you those lightning-fast kill speeds to have a leg up on the competition. If you're interested in pre-ordering the game and want to give Gamestop your hard earned dollar, head on over to their website to pre-order. If you tell them that Zips sent you, you'll receive absolutely nothing extra at all!

Ah yes, the next piece of the massive Team Fortress 2 update (coming next Tuesday) has been revealed to all. The K.G.B., or Killing Gloves of Boxing, is the first unlockable weapon revealed for the Heavy.

The unlockable for the Heaviest pugilists out there is the K.G.B. Any time a Heavy kills an enemy with the K.G.B he receives five seconds of guaranteed critical hits. This crit-boost can be used to punch and kill further enemies, extending the boost time. Alternatively, the Heavy can switch to another weapon and use the boost to take out an enemy at range. The Heavy's slow movement speed, and the K.G.B's slower swing speed, make it a risky prospect.

Additionally, the icons and names of each of the 35 new achievements were revealed to the world yesterday. Do you want to know how to unlock any of those achievements? You're just going to have to wait, it's a secret.

The upcoming stand-alone expansion to Crysis, Crysis: Warhead, has a firm release date set of September 16th (September 12th for Europe). They even sent out a lovely press release that you can view. Awesome!

"We think Crysis Warhead is going to offer a tremendous experience to a wide range of gamers," said Cevat Yerli, CEO and President of Crytek. "Fans of Crysis are going to enjoy more of the open-ended gameplay, cutting-edge visuals and huge, epic battles from the first game, while also finally finding out what kind of havoc Psycho was wreaking on the other side of the island.

At the same time, we designed Warhead to be more accessible for gamers new to the Crysis franchise. It is a game with a story that can stand on its own, it has been optimized to run better on a wider range of PCs, and we are introducing Crysis Wars, a tailor-made experience for multiplayer gamers within the Crysis universe - all at a great value."

That "great value?" Warhead will retail for just $29.99 in stores or pony up $24.95 for a pre-order from the EA Store. You can find more information at the new Warhead website.

The Steam version of Unreal Tournament 3 has been updated with a number of small fixes. If you're an owner and avid player of the game and haven't yet skimmed over the change log, now is your chance!

Hit the break for the full details.

[ change log (69 more words) ]

• Fixed overlay mesh showing up on hidden sniper rifle when un-zoomed
  
• Added motion blur menu option for PC (defaults to off)
  
• Fixed zero extent collision bug in octree code (finding nodes in Z axis)
  
• LOD Hysteresis / LOD Decision making bug fix
  
• Fixed default mesh not having proper LOD settings
  
• Fixed rare darkwalker physics crash
  
• Added player name list to server browser