More on this later….the Day of Defeat Source forums on steampowered are ridiculous at the moment. Great for a laugh, but sometimes so pathetic it invokes pity. Will throw in my two cents later regarding the outcry and pandemonium (Bone, that’s how it’s spelled. You tried to spell it when we were playing Aqua last night, and I almost laughed but refrained, secure in my proud, godly spelling abilities).

The beta’s no more a beta! It’s all grown up and Achieving great things (although…having some trouble updating the FNF server….on the phone with Bat21 as I type this)!

Nice to see they changed the “TF2 Achievement Trophy” to a more DoD-appropriate chevron. Apparently someone up there at Valve listened closely to piu piu’s suggestions.

From the Steam news update:

Leveraging the recently released set of free services available in Steamworks, the Palermo Update adds 51 achievements to Day of Defeat: Source, player avatar displays in the scoreboard and win panel, and detailed player statistics that are integrated with the Steam Community features (www.steamcommunity.com).

In addition, this update adds support for popular features introduced in Valve’s Team Fortress 2 (TF2), the PC title named multiplayer game of the year by Gamespy.com and PC Gamer. These include “nemesis/revenge” freeze cam and new effects driven by the particle system introduced to the Source engine for TF2.

Finally, this update also introduces a new map, Palermo, which is a remix of the most popular community map, dod_salerno, originally created by Magnar “insta” Jennsen.

For more information, visit the Day of Defeat: Source Palermo site.

I’m excited. If we can get this dang server up…..Looks like a Day of Defeat weekend, folks! You TF2 fanatics take advantage of the free weekend and join us.

As confirmed on the surprisingly-frequently-updated TF2 Official Blog, Mr. Heavy W. Guy is the next Team Fortress 2 character slated for updates.

It seems the big difference with the Heavy update is that they’re opening a window into their design process. No doubt a lot of people are going to interpret this as “OMG tehy’re gona listen to all my hair-brained cool ideas”. Those lot of people need to read it a bit more carefully before they slag off Valve after it turns out totally different.

Personally, I hope fatty gets some goggles and a bandana.

M Bison is an FNF regular from way back in the TFC days of the server. He can usually be found shouting “Cry some more!” and quoting Ahnold. Here is his steam profile, in all it’s resplendent, Lobster-Hatted glory:

Hey, this new underwater cam is great! Waitaminit…

Blood and death on Mr. Buzzard’s old map, dod_fnf:

The DODS Project has some very serious dramatic ambitions, but I found this piece to be cooler than the ones with dialogue. It’s probably just me, but I think a serious treatment of the subject matter is best left to cinema. Machinima can be beautiful (Ignis Solus), and is often hilarious, but grave drama is yet to be done with success. Anyway, I thought this was fantastic:

So, where’s that “really soon” update that FuzzDad promised us?

Like that last scene out of The Exorcist.

Another phenomenon surrounding TF2 is the proliferation of parody songs.

Check out madlep’s version of “The Devil Went Down to Dustbowl” (click here if for some reason you don’t know the Charlie Daniels Band tune) over at Ubercharged.net. It’s accompanied by some lovely FragWagon.com screenshots!

Here’s a sample:

“Spy on the cap point, run boys, run.
The soldier’s in the house of the spammin’ gun.
Sniper in the battlement, shot you in the head.
“Medic, does your gun sting?”
“No, child, no.”