Boo! I hope that didn’t completely scare you, what with Halloween coming up and all the ghosts that totally aren’t fictional and monsters that totally exist coming out to haunt us. To celebrate this rather pointless special time of year, Valve have announced that Team Fortress 2 will be having a spooky update weekend.

The update will add five achievements to unlock some new ghostly hats, a new King of the Hill map (Harvest, a Halloween-themed map with a roaming ghost that will scare players stiff) and Pumpkin-bombs. It also seems that dead players will be able to interact in some way with the living. Not sure if this is restricted to this one map, but either way it sounds brilliant. The special runs October 29th-November 3rd.

Update: The game is also super cheap from now until 2:00pm PDT; go buy it!

Epic Games has put out the 5th title update for its third person shooter Gears of War 2 resolving a slew of glitches and a security hole that arose in the fourth patch. Plus, just in time for the Halloween Holiday, Epic is also treating gamers to another double XP weekend event Friday, October 30, through Monday, November 2.

Hit the jump for the full list of release notes via the official Gears forum. Read more…

Shacknews reports that Tripwire’s co-op survival horror game Killing Floor will be receiving a free update ’soon’, followed by some paid content after that. The free content includes a new level (foundry) and some new weapons, the Katana and the AK-47.

the paid content will include “four new playable characters including a Horzine foundry worker and a soldier in prototype Horzine body armor.” I don’t own Killing Floor, but as soon as it goes on sale, I’ll definitely give it a go. It looks like a more frantic and over the top version of Left 4 Dead’s Survival mode, which can only be good in my book.

Microsoft updated the Xbox 360 Dashboard in November of last year, but they’re already slated to make another update to the system. It doesn’t look like this will be graphical, though- Major Nelson says that the next NXE update will make the Dashboard much faster.

Nelson also makes a point of saying that a lot of very cool features will be coming with the update, presumably the Twitter and Facebook applications announced at E3. We don’t have many other details about the update, other than the fact that it’s coming this year.

(via Gizmodo)

True to their word, Valve are going to release a Left 4 Dead update next week, focused mainly on the community maps that have been created, and pushing for more to be made in the coming months. The update includes a much better matchmaking system, support for community maps, the full, non-beta SDK release, and obviously support for new maps, models, and textures (via an “add-ons” section).

This is an important update for PC fans of Left 4 Dead, since we’ll be getting a whole load more maps made by the community. Going on the support for TF2, there’ll be a lot of great maps, both well designed and ridiculously silly. I urge everyone with the skills to make a L4D map to do it!

Yes, it’s real. It was an April fool’s joke, and now it’s real. Snipers will be throwing jars of piss around. Jarate, when it spills on an opponent, grants 35% less damage resistance (they die faster) and, in the case of the Spy, shorts out the cloak. Jarate can be washed off with water, and it can be used on team-mates to put out any fires that may be happening in, on, or around them. The Sniper achievement titles have also been announced, and you can find them after the jump.

Read more…

Today’s update brings us the Ambassador, the replacement for the Spy’s Revolver. The Magnum-inspired gun features an engraving of the victim’s mother on the barrel, as well as the accuracy of a sniper rifle. Such a powerful weapon, though, is hindered by a cooldown between shots. Even so, it is probably one of the most aesthetically pleasing weapons yet. I’m willing to bet it’ll sound suitably epic, too.

Today, Meet the Spy was released! Oh, it was leaked, wasn’t it? Never mind. The true video is finally out: the HD version. It’s glorious. Also today is the list of the achievements for the Spy’s unlocks (which you can see after the jump). One that is noteworthy is the “Valve corporate achievement”: “Fail to understand what ‘Private’ means on YouTube. Needless to say, it’s been achieved.

Read more…

Welcome back to Team Fortress 2 update week, brought to you by Dapper Rouge: The catalogue for the Gentleman Scoundrel. Over the last few days we’ve been introduced to the Razorback, a shield to go on the Sniper’s back and protect him from spies (giving them a shock and making their knife unusable for a period of time). We’ve also been completely fooled by Valve, who have revealed that the Spy will also be part of the update.

His new toys include the “Dead Ringer” spy watch, which will leave a fake corpse of the Spy on the ground while the real Spy is cloaked for eight seconds. The “Cloak and Dagger” spy watch will grant a cloak regeneration ability, allowing spies to remain hidden forever while he’s standing still.

Sure, this is a little late. Give me a break here, okay? This week Valve will be releasing info on the Sniper update for the PC version of Team Fortress 2. I’ll update Ripten every day with the new stuff they announce, just as I did with the Scout update. Day one showed us the Huntsman, a bow to replace the Sniper rifle. It kills and pins enemies to the wall, and leaves arrows in the wounded flesh of the ones who don’t die. Simple stuff, but looks pretty fun.

Day two has brought us a load of new maps. Pipeline is a race to the finish with two bomb carts, with an uphill section at the end. Sawmill is an arena map set in a grassy, rainy landscape, and features, well, sawblades. Nucleus is a futuristic arena map that features a central point that comes out of some sort of pod. Very snazzy. Mor eot come every day until the update hits.

The TF2 blog reports that Valve are working on the Sniper update for Team Fortress 2, in an update billed as “the largest TF2 update yet, “include some new content for all classes”, and will release before the Sniper update.

The blog also mentions the status of the 360 version update: it’s in the works, but the measly memory limit on the console means that they’re having to spend a lot of time trying to fit it all on. I’ll make sure to keep you posted on this as well as the status of the Sniper update, just like I did for the Scout one. All that’s left to say is: it’s going to be a joy for Spy players when this releases. I sense a new backstab record.

The 2.70 update for the PS3 is now available, and includes a host of new features. The update features in-game text chat for up to 16 people at one time, and allows three text chat boxes per PS3, for use with the wireless keypad, the on-screen keyboard, or any keyboard peripheral you might have that works.

Finally, Sony. Sending single message after single message to my friends when trying to set up a game with them was tedious and stupid. See the rest of the new features after the jump (and a demo from Eric Lempel).
Read more…

Despite being posted on April the first, it appears that this Left 4 Dead blog post is accurate: Valve are to update the matchmaking system for PC users of Left 4 Dead. The extension adds support for third-party campaign servers (custom maps) and support for a party system. this will allow you and three buddies to team up and find another four players for versus mode. Also changing is the way that the game auto-matches you based on skill.

Why people still play the game without people they know is beyond me, but whatever floats your zombie-infested boat, I suppose. That said, I’m glad that these features are coming; it’s a chore finding servers with the things that you want to play, and the party system will, I’m sure, be a lot of fun.

The PS Blog reports that LittleBigPlanet will be receiving an update soon, including a multitude of fixes and improvements. The update notes are after the jump, and include such things as ‘the game doesn’t break much now’ and ‘it’s a bit better now’. Not really, but that’s the gist of it. The patch includes the ability to listen to your own music in some sections of the game, and a better way to manage clothing, as well as a few improvements to the UI and community aspects of the game.
Read more…

Keita Takahashi, Noby Noby Boy’s proud father, has posted an update on the PlayStation Blog today to let the world know that Noby Noby Boy will be receiving an update “in the hopes that more people can enjoy the game”. The update will include an offline multiplayer mode, Takahashi says, adding “it’ll still be fun”. Oh and regarding the long journey to Mars? “Please be patient.” Offline multiplayer sounds great to me, since Noby Noby Boy is best played with a friend in the room. What I really want from this mode is that each person controls each end of Boy, resulting in madness.

The page has updated for the last time today; the update has been released. Yesterday’s poll saw that the “Force-a-Nature” will be unlocked first, followed by the Sandman, and finally the energy drink. There have been a few other changes, including something I have been wanting for a long time- the ability to change the weapon that your disguised class is holding when playing as Spy. This means that we’ll need to start Spy-checking everyone, rather than just those with their primary weapon out. See the full release notes after the jump.
Read more…

Day 5 on the update page, and today it’s the Scout’s final weapon, the “Force-a-Nature”. This gun reloads slower and has a smaller clip, but knocks back enemies and, when fired while airborne, propels the user higher. Also today is a brand new TF2 T-Shirt, the “Force – a – nature t-shirt“- featuring none other than the Scout. Lastly, there’s a poll at the bottom of the page that Steam users can vote on- which order will the weapons be unlocked in? The way the results of the poll go is how it’ll happen.

Yes, there were achievements yesterday, but today they have been updated with how to get them. In doing so, Valve have revealed that the new Scattergun will be named “Force-A-Nature”, although we don’t really know much more than that (though the word “force” implies knockback of some kind). The new map is community made- CP_Egypt, bye Sean ‘Heyo’ Cutino. A “Dustbowl-style” map, it looks very different to the others- ignoring all the sand, of course. I’m intrigued to play it; I haven’t seen it on custom map servers, so I’m not familiar with it. Hit the jump for the list of achievements and how to go about getting them.
Read more…

Day three gives us the second item for the Scout, the energy drink, as well as the names of the achievements you’ll need to get to unlock it. The energy drink (branded “Bonk!”) will “blast ya into a few-second rush of radioactive energy so powerful you’ll be dodgin’ bullets like they ain’t even there!” However, “drinkers have reported experiencing feelings of lethargy that can last several seconds.” Essentially, it makes you faster, but then you’ll be tired out for a few seconds. Another genius unlockable, comparable in sheer silliness to the Sandvich. See the list of achievements after the jump.
Read more…

Valve have revealed that the much anticipated Scout weapons pack will release next Tuesday (24 February). In the week running up to the update, the site will update every day with a new feature of the update, just like with the Heavy update. The first unlockable for the scout is the “Sandman”- a bat that has the ability to send baseballs at the enemy, “stunning” them. The amount of stun is dependant on the distance the ball travels before contact. The catch here is that when wielding the Sandman, the Scout loses his double jump. See the diagram after the jump.
Read more…