The Über Update, Day Three
The Über Update, Day Two
The Über Update, Day One
Happening in YOUR Community
The Saxxy Awards Are Here!
Saxxy Awards Show - LIVE! Wednesday, June 8th @ 3:00PM PDT
Double Drop Week
The Saxxy Nominees have been announced!
Battle Voting Continues!
Bonjour amis de cinéma
Saxxy Contest FAQ
The Replay Update
Mounts and Blades and Hats and Fires and Hats and Swords
Well That Was Close
Update on the Hatless Update: Now with 100% More Hat
June 22, 2011 - TF2 Team
War. Hunh. Yeah. What is it good for? Up until right this second, absolutely nothing. We'll say it again: Absolutely nothing.
But now Edwin Starr's going to have to rewrite that stupid song of his to something more accurate, because as of this moment, war is good for something. Like what, you ask? Free stuff. March on over to World War Wednesday for all the details—or "SITREP", as we learned when we stole Tom Clancy's mail.
Also, if you weren't eagle-eyed enough to notice, the Scout made a surprise appearance yesterday with a class pack of his own. Why make a class pack an Easter Egg? There's a very good reason. Probably. There's also the real reason, which was that it didn’t fit into our Mobster, Timbuktu or War themes.
June 21, 2011 - TF2 Team
Ahhhhhh, the desert. Sandy, camel-filled seductress. What secrets does she clutch to her fig-stuffed, wind-swept bosoms?
Lots. Don't believe us? The Sphinx. Bam. That's just one secret, too. We've got so many we just threw that one away and we don't even miss it.
It's probably clear to you by now that we've been doing quite a bit of research about the desert. And why? We're going to write a book about the desert. The great American desert book. We honestly can't believe nobody’s thought of this before. We are going to be billionaires.
Anyway, since you're probably already camped out at a bookstore waiting for our desert book to come out, why not take over one of the computers at the information kiosk and enjoy TimbukTuesday?
June 20, 2011 - TF2 Team
Welcome to Day One of the Über Update--the biggest, most ambitious update in the history of Team Fortress 2.
We've got a lot to announce as we get closer to the update's release this Thursday, June 23rd. We've been holding one of the surprises pretty close to the vest for months now. We don't want to ruin it, but we'll give you four clues to get you guessing:
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1.) It IS a "Meet the" short.
2.) It involves ONE of the two remaining classes.
3.) It's NOT the Pyro.
4.) It's the MEDIC.
Let the speculation begin! While you're puzzling that out, why not click over to the first of our class pack announcements: Mobster Monday. To make sure everything was as accurate as possible, we went deep undercover at the most Italian place we could find, The Olive Garden. We asked the Mafia about a million questions, none of which they understood, because our mouths were full of all the free breadsticks the Mafia gives you when you visit them (they're not such bad guys).
All that hanging out with mob guys must have rubbed off on us, because we've decided to celebrate the Über Update by giving you an offer you can't (or at least shouldn't) refuse--an unprecedented WEEK-LONG FREE WEEKEND of Team Fortress 2, starting right now!
Last but not least, today's the day we reveal our all-new website. Want a link to it? Too bad--you're already there!
June 15, 2011 - TF2 Team
- TF2Maps.net is wrapping up their Asymmetry/Symmetry Control Point Map Contest. Authors had a choice of making a symmetrical or asymmetrical control point map and five months to complete it. Head over to their contest page to download and play the collection. There are a couple servers running the collection. When you're done be sure to help them choose a winner!
- OZ Fortress wrapped up their 6th Ultiduo with yuki and bonobo taking top prize. More information and demos can be found their summary page.
- OZ Fortress also has a highlight video from their Cup 2 season compiled by Kaiza.
June 8, 2011 - TF2 Team
Hot damn! We're just minutes away from live-feeding the First Annual Saxxy Awards, and the anticipation is thick here at TF headquarters. Why? Because tonight, we are going to announce a contest winner every five minutes until someone dies! Hold on, there's somebody at the door. Keep rereading this paragraph until we get back.
Okay, we're back! Valve's lawyers said we need to make it clear that absolutely nobody is going to die as a result of these awards, and that we should erase that last paragraph. But guess what? We can't! We're live-feeding this blog post too! There's no going back! We're working without a net here. Literally anything could happen! Except for us claiming someone will die as a result of these awards, because we had to sign a pretty serious-looking stack of papers just now guaranteeing we will not mention it again.
What we can tell you is that all twenty of tonight's winners are going home with a handsome 100% Australium-plated Saxton Hale statuette, which'll look great on your virtual mantle, and even better buried waist-deep in the skull of one of your enemies, since it's also an in-game melee weapon. So technically we were right, and someone IS going to die as a result of these awards. Hold on, there's someone at the door again. While we go see who it is, why not settle in with a bowl of popcorn and click on over to the awards, which by the time you finish reading this might have already started.
AND THE WINNERS ARE:
Most Inventive Kill:
The Lime One
Created by: [LapFox] The Limie One
Best Mid-air Murder:
Spy in the Sky
Created by: Q. and Quark
Biggest Massacre:
[TF2] Saxxy Awards - Biggest Massacre
Created by: tF
Funniest Replay:
TF2 Failed Griefing
Created by: ArseGravy
Best Getaway:
The Ninja Scout. TF2 REPLAY (Finals)
Created by: Goronix
Best Revenge:
Scout Comeback
Created by: Kaedechtu
Most Pwnage:
First Annual Saxxy Awards Film (by Maso)
Created by: Maso
Most Heroic:
uberblokK -The Medic Who blocked with an uber [Saxxy Most Heroic Finalist]
Created by: .G(omez)
Best Set Design:
'What is beauty?' - Best Set Design
Created by: WilliamBoo ONEHOSTAGEEVERYHOUR
Best Team Costume:
MIGHTY MEDIC UBER RANGERS!
Created by: Clovernoodle,
Darth Z,
Hamz The Gentle Manne,
Beep,
Legion,
Fire on the Mountain and
Moby The Duck
Best Original Soundtrack:
Saxton's Six
Created by: Zoolooman, Juno and rally
Best 30 second trailer:
Heavy Endorsing Guy
Created by: EdbotnikThe
Best Coordinated Combat:
TF2 - Best Coordinated Combat - SAXXY Awards
Created by: JulianosTheGreat
Most Dramatic:
The Spying - Team Fortress 2 Saxxy Awards
Created by: OneOfThoseDays and Damone
Best Cinematography:
Saxxy Award Entry
Created by: Sauctaliens
Best Editing:
The Battle for DeGroot Keep
Created by: Heeere's Johnny
Most Epic Fail:
TF2 Replay: Most Epic Fail Finalist
Created by: rage
Most Extreme Stunt:
Reflect! Reflect! Reflect!
Created by: [RMF]RIKUSYO
Players' Choice aka Most Controversial:
Badwater D
Created by: jig
Best Overall:
El Muchacho
Created by: xlr105 -Chicken Eater-
And that's a wrap! Thanks to everybody who submitted an entry, all the people who voted, and to Rebecca Black and Rick Astley, who submitted their own work several thousand times under different names. Read the rules next time, Rick Astley. Geez.
Thanks again! We can't wait to see what you'll come up with as the TF filmmaking tools evolve.
June 6, 2011 - TF2 Team
Tune in for the First Annual Saxxy Awards Show LIVE at 3:00PM PDT this Wednesday, June 8th! We'll be revealing a new category winner every five minutes! That's one hundred frantic, furious minutes of award-bestowing! As far as we know, nobody has ever attempted to hand out this many awards in so short a time.
June 2, 2011 - TF2 Team
Starting tomorrow find twice as many items. Enjoy!
June 2, 2011 - TF2 Team
Much like in the historical documentary 300, we have evaluated all of your movies and thrown the weak ones down a well, keeping only the Gerard Butlers. Now it's up to you, the TF2 community, to select the Gerard Butleriest.
"This is madness!" we hear you say. "No it is not!" we reply, just like in that immortal scene we always fast forward through to get to the fight scenes.
That's right. Unlike at other awards shows, where the winners are necromanced by magicians, the Saxxy Award winners in all twenty categories will be picked by YOU, the discriminating TF2 player, as well as by magicians.
Each player gets one vote per category. You can change your vote right up until the voting ends this Monday, June 6th, at 11:00am PST.
Click here to start judging!
May 23, 2011 - TF2 Team
At the close of the submission deadline last Thursday, we'd received tens of thousands of videos—many of them amazing, others less amazing but at least following the rules, and still more of them clips from King of Queens with Linkin Park songs dubbed over them. While we appreciate the passion of that final group, we should remind you that the King of Queens Metal Maelstrom contest isn't until next month.
For the rest of you, this is a reminder to get voting. As of last Thursday the Saxxys entered the all-important Battle Voting stage, with your choices bringing the strongest videos in each category to the top of the heap. Battle Voting ends Thursday, May 26th, so if you've got opinions, vote now while they still matter!
Once Battle Voting's culled the weak, Kevin James-based rap metal entries from the herd, a panel of immortal Valve combat film critics will descend from their monastery at the top of the Space Needle to choose a set of final nominees from each category. They will then bang an important-looking gong, thus re-opening the voting to the community. Each user will get ONE vote per category to help determine who will be taking home Saxxys.
Lastly, some clarifications: 1:01 IS a valid length for submissions, since it turns out YouTube is adding a second here or there during upload. Also, flagged videos ARE being screened and removed. We're listening and our fingers are hovering over the DELETE button, so keep flagging.
That's it! Thanks to the TF community as a whole for taking the time to vote, and specifically to the many talented folks out there who were willing to take the Replay Editor out for a spin and make some entertaining shorts in the process.
May 20, 2011 - By Francis the Talking France
Allo, mes amis! Ho ho ho!
Valve took a film class last week so they would be qualified to judge the many great entries in the Saxxy Awards contest! So many unfamiliar terms! Mise en scene! Auteur! Avante-garde! Montage! Even cinéma itself!
What do all of these words have in common? Un: They sound complicated enough that Valve decided they had no business judging cinéma. Deux: These words were all invented by me, Francis the Talking France! And so Valve has spared no expense in flying me tout de suite to the French-sounding town of Bellevue to judge the entries myself! C'est magnifique!
But onh-honh-honh. Why the sad French sounds? Because I see now this is too big a job for one talking France. So I am writing this poste de blog to announce that judging of the Saxxy Awards is now open to tout le monde! Le jugement est fantastique!
Click here to start your voting adventure! À bientôt!
May 10, 2011 - TF2 Team
You ask? We answer. Eventually. We've updated the Saxxy info page with answers to many of the questions pouring in from all you budding combat filmmakers.
Server admins can find all the info they need about enabling the replay system on their servers.
Additionally, several of you have asked for the Meet the Director comic without the text bubbles. Sure. Download the 22MB zip file here.
In community news: Community vs Pros goes live May 14th with a re-realized format that will select nine players from all corners of the TF2 community to face off against the six invited pros. Check out their promotional video of the event.
That's all for today. Keep those video submissions coming. Remember: The sky's the limit, but under a minute.
May 5, 2011 - TF2 Team
Steven Spielberg. Robert Scorcese. Socrates. The guy who made those Old Spice commercials.
What do these names have in common? They are the four best filmmakers in the world. And they all got there the same way: by competing in a filmmaking competition we're just now announcing.
Go pick up the berets that just flew off your shocked heads, filmmakers, directors and auteurs. Because The Replay Update is live, and we're celebrating with the First Annual Saxxy Awards--the most prestigious made-up contest since the "strongman competition" Robin Walker held at his house last year, where it turned out he just wanted help moving his couch.
While you're pondering your next blockbuster, take a minute to read the new comic, Meet the Director, to uncover the controversial circumstances that led to the creation of this major event.
April 28, 2011 - TF2 Team
Pre-purchase the "everything explained in the title" game Mount & Blade With Fire & Sword by May 3rd and you'll receive two new TF2 hats: The Hetman's Headpiece for the Engineer, and the Janissary Ketche for the Spy, pictured above.
What else is up? This: SpaceChem, the game Robin Walker dubbed "pretty much the greatest game ever made," has introduced three new TF2-themed levels. Travel to Australia, solve puzzles and unlock achievements to receive the new craftable element Moustachium in TF2. Use this new element to craft special SpaceChem-themed items, including a fishcake. That's right: this marks the start of a trend we're all for: other developer working their butts off to make a promotion for us. "Put your feet up, Team Fortress Team," SpaceChem seems to be saying. "You let us handle this one." Don't mind if we do, SpaceChem. Don't mind if we do.
And in community news:
- MGE, My Gaming Edge, is teaming up with ESEA this Saturday and Sunday to shoutcast the entire season eight LAN finals. They plan to have a 1000 slot Mumble server along with a stream via their channel on justin.tv. More information will be announced as it comes in including schedule and specific times through their Steam group here.
- Wanted more Ultiduo? May Cup #7 with a maximum of 64 teams participating in a double elimination tournament for a grand prize of $200 starts May 22nd. Additional information can be found here.
April 19, 2011 - TF2 Team
All of us here on the TF2 team have been asking to play Portal 2 for months now.
"Go away," the Portal guys told us. "You'll just try to put hats in it."
"Whaaattttt?" we said. "That's—psshhhh. If anything, we'll probably tell you to take some hats out of the game."
"There are no hats in the game."
After this, there was an awkward ten-minute silence while all of us on the TF2 team stared at the Portal guys, waiting for them to start laughing. Instead, they just told us to go away again. That's when we realized: with so little time left before release, we couldn't afford to waste any time playing the game. We had to fix it. Now. So late last night we snuck into the Portal 2 source code and copy/pasted some hats into it.
You're welcome, Portal 2 team.
Today, we pass the fruits of our clandestine game-saving labor onto you, the hat-loving public (or as you're more commonly known, the public). If you own any of the following hats in Team Fortress 2, you'll be able to equip them on your Cooperative Testing Initiative robots in Portal 2:
- Mann Co. Cap
- Prince Tavish's Crown
- Pyro's Beanie
- Fancy Fedora
- Master's Yellow Belt
- Tyrant's Helm
If you've been on the fence up until now—and who could blame you—you've finally got a reason to buy Portal 2. Courtesy of Team Fortress 2. The best game that Valve makes with a "2" on the end.
April 15, 2011 - TF2 Team
Against our explicit instructions, Robin "Judas" Walker somehow managed to sneak a hat into the Hatless Update yesterday. According to him, it's not a hat, it's a pin, and so not technically against the hat embargo. Much like the villain in Lethal Weapon 2, he seems to have found a loophole in the system and is untouchable.
Rest assured we're going to spend the weekend at the library looking up the definition of the word "pin," but in the meantime, our hands are tied, and we have no choice but to tell you about this spectacular deal. Pre-order Portal 2, and you'll get this suspiciously hat-like "pin" to wear proudly. It's like a hat for your chest. (No it's not. -Robin)