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This year's winter themed update for Team Fortress 2 is now live, in what is likely to be Valve's last major update before the company's Christmas break. While the update doesn't feature any new maps or weapons, it does feature a whole host of new holiday-themed cosmetic items, many of which were made by the community especially for this update. Many of the cosmetic items can be received by opening the Naughty and Nice winter crates, which have been available as a random drop in-game since December 6th 2013.
In order to get people in the mood for the holidays, Valve are also distributing free gifts to players who start up Team Fortress 2 during the event. All players will be awarded with a "Gift-Stuffed Stocking", which "contain goodies for good little Mercenaries" and will presumably provide random winter-themed items free of charge. Premium players, however, will also receive a free "Secret Saxton" item, which can be used to send a random item to a randomly selected player on the same server. A new "Giftapult" item has also been introduced, which can be used to "launch gift items to randomly-chosen online players", presumably filling in for Old Nick himself, which is helpful, as the character was actually murdered several years ago. Sorry kids.
The update has also introduced a small number of minor weapon and statistical tweaks designed to keep the game as balanced as possible. Affected weapons include the Battalion's Backup, which now provides an additional 20 max health for the user, the Concheror, which now provides an additional 2 health per second passive for the wearer, and several others. A wide variety of bug fixes and other improvements have also been made to a number of game's items and maps, which you can check out in the game's official changelog. Also be sure to head on over to read the accompanying blog post, which finishes with a rather promising statement from the game's development team.
In order to get people in the mood for the holidays, Valve are also distributing free gifts to players who start up Team Fortress 2 during the event. All players will be awarded with a "Gift-Stuffed Stocking", which "contain goodies for good little Mercenaries" and will presumably provide random winter-themed items free of charge. Premium players, however, will also receive a free "Secret Saxton" item, which can be used to send a random item to a randomly selected player on the same server. A new "Giftapult" item has also been introduced, which can be used to "launch gift items to randomly-chosen online players", presumably filling in for Old Nick himself, which is helpful, as the character was actually murdered several years ago. Sorry kids.
The update has also introduced a small number of minor weapon and statistical tweaks designed to keep the game as balanced as possible. Affected weapons include the Battalion's Backup, which now provides an additional 20 max health for the user, the Concheror, which now provides an additional 2 health per second passive for the wearer, and several others. A wide variety of bug fixes and other improvements have also been made to a number of game's items and maps, which you can check out in the game's official changelog. Also be sure to head on over to read the accompanying blog post, which finishes with a rather promising statement from the game's development team.
Bring on 2014! Merry Smissmas, everyone!2013's been a great year for Team Fortress 2, and next year's looking to be even better. We've got some truly big surprises planned for 2014, and since nobody wants them delayed until 2015, we'd better get back to work.