Soldier and Demoman get an update

The Soldier/Demoman War! Update has gone live, but I'm going to be a little late to the party.... With all of the holiday releases on the 360, I've neglected my computer and Team Fortress 2 in general. Something tells me my TF2 abilities are going to be sore when I do get on to play for more than an hour or so.

Until then, I'm going to have to ponder the new weapons that went live with the update, including a more accurate missile launcher for the soldier, and a sticky grenade launcher that lets you selectively destroy bombs. All of the weapons seem to change the game a bit for both classes while maintaining a fair bit of balance. I can't say that my usual load out will change all that much, but once I've played and practiced a bit more I might be able to switch things up.

One thing that's continuing to amaze me about TF2 is the way these small incremental updates really let the community go wild about the game. Small events and contests driven by the game's characters themselves really help to sell the game to a larger and larger audience. I don't know how anyone could be on Steam and not own a copy (or two) of Team Fortress 2 at this point. It helps that the game is so easy on the hardware and that the cast of characters put forward a lot of personality.

A good example of the way a community driven contest really builds upon the game world is the propaganda contest Valve ran over the course of the update wind up. I don't envy the person who had to narrow down all of the entries, but pictured to the right is the grand prize winner's propaganda poster. Contests like this probably generate a lot of positive buzz and help to get a lot of people in the door with the free trial weekend. I'd like to see the Steam sales for TF2 over the course of the update and the free weekend. From my experience, TF2 is a game that I couldn't really put down after I picked it up.

Only recently have I managed to stray away, with more and more of my focus on the constrained console space. If you're an old Steam friend, or just want to get me in game, drop me a line or comment on this post and encourage me back to the Payload, Control Point, or KOTH battlefield (sorry CTF, never been a fan).