Try Team Fortress 2 for free this weekend. Gold Rush Update now available.

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

Source Engine

Improved particle performance on multi-core machines

Added FOV slider to Options | Video | Advanced for all games (moved there from TF2’s multiplayer options)

Fixed surround sound initialization problems with new speaker modes defined in Vista

Team Fortress 2

Added Goldrush

Added Character Info and Loadout to the main menu

Added 39 Medic achievements

Added unique Medic items:

The Blutsaugher, The Kritzkrieg, and The Ubersaw

Added new attack animations to most melee weapons

Added new speech for the Heavy and Demoman

Added Stopwatch mode to Tournament mode

Automatically used on Attack/Defense maps

Teleporter effect no longer shows up on invisible or disguised Spies

Spies disguised as their own team can now capture control points

Increased force taken by pipebombs by bullets and explosions

Target ID hud is now colored red or blue to match the spectator target

Tournament mode no longer ends matches early if the time limit is nearly up when a new round starts

Fixed exploit where clients could start benchmark mode on servers

Fixed drowning exploit that allowed players to regenerate health

Fixed reload exploit that allowed plays to fire instantly after switching weapons

Fixed flamethrower bug where a player flush against a wall couldn't be lit on fire from the front

Fixed invulnerability overlay not drawing if the invuln player was previously on fire

Fixed "times used" entry in teleporters maxing out at 32

Fixed rare client crash on level change during control point capturing

Minor fix to stat gathering to prevent players using sv_cheats to easily garner achievements

For mapmakers:

Mapmakers can now directly place the tf_gamerules entity into their map. Fixes Hammer thinking the inputs to it are broken

Mapmakers can now place Engineer buildings directly into a map, with an option for them to be invulnerable

Added "AddRedTeamScore" and "AddBlueTeamScore" inputs to tf_gamerules

Added "SetRequiredObserverTarget" input to tf_gamerules. Force spectators to use the specified viewpoint

Granary

Added setup time logic, and gates to the middle

Fixed an overlay alignment bug on one of blue's gate signs

Minor lighting fixes in red/blue spawns

2Fort

Added medium ammo and health to basement hallways

Added small ammo and health to top of spiral

Fixed a clip brush exploit outside blue sniper deck

Fixed number "2" overlay on front of red base not being assigned to the brush face

Portal

Fixed a rare crash related to bone setup

Sweet! I normally play a medic recently so this is good news for me. I get to play about every other weekend when I visit the GF in Bham. Next weekend I will be playing a good bit since she will be studying for finals mostly so maybe we can hook up and do some fraggin. I'll post my steam account later, I have 2 and I don't remember which account has HL2 installed under.

Don't understand why they removed the teleporter trail for Spies. :(

I bought a new video card. A Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3870 w/ 512MB GDDR4 memory. It came with a free copy of Orange Box, so I have been playing some TF2. It's pretty fun so far! @ Rap, let me know if you still play.

Yeah. I still play. My Steam ID is "rapturerapture". Let's pwn this. It's a lot of fun.

I have a guest pass for TF2 that I can email to someone if they want it. It expires Sept 20.

It allows you to play the full version of TF2 until it expires.

Let me know if you are interested.

I think I'm taking off this Friday, heading up to BHam tonight. I'm taking my laptop with me, cable/internet is getting installed Friday morning at the house my fiance is renting so I will be playing some TF2 shortly after till she get homes from school and probably in bits and pieces thru the weekend. We def. need to get together and get some frag on.

Disavowed, Mikeulus, Nobody, and Master Kim have it. Don't know about anyone else. Would be cool to start playing regularly. I've found some really cool servers. I've not yet found any annoying teenager screaming racist language.

I own the 360 version. Sorry.

TF2's gameplay is quite absorbing, yet graphically, I am not a big fan of cell-shading. Call Of Duty 4 is much more realistic and faster paced.

Technically, it's not cel-shading. I enjoy Team Fortress 2's unique, stylized visuals, and think about it: It's extremely difficult to confuse a screen shot of TF2 with another game.

COD4 is more realistic, but the gameplay itself isn't. Does faster gameplay or realism necessarily make the game better (not saying you think COD4 is better because of these)?