See how I’m craftily maintaining the illusion of site activity while not posting anything even remotely relevant to Team Fortress 2? ‘Tis quite something to behold.

Happy New Year from TF2Strategy.com! Stay safe.

Okay okay, this is old news, but it’d be a dereliction of duty to just ignore posting it completely. Valve has gone temporarily monkeynuts, offering 10-90% off everything in the Steam Store. There’s plenty of bargains to be had, including BioShock and Portal for $5, Team Fortress 2 for $10, and some classics like HL: Opposing Force, HL: Blue Shift, DOOM and DOOM 2 for $1 a pop. There’s also 25% off World Of Goo which is a hands-down fantastic game and fully deserves your support.

If you’re like me and get tonnes of money in lieu of present for Christmas, I couldn’t name any more worthwhile cause than pumping it into video games where you can easily get 7 for the price of 1 (as I did myself). Go nuts!

So despite all my longing to get back on the ball, Christmas has once again rolled around, and hopefully a festive time is being had by all. This is just a quick note to say Merry Christmas to everyone from TF2S, and to wish you a happy and safe new year.

After an all-too-lengthy silence on the TF2 front, the glorious Valve have sprung a ninja update on everyone! It’s not a class pack, but it’s the next best thing. Let me give you the wrap (paraphrasing from the official TF2 blog -new post):

Changes in the new upgrade (just released!):

• Teleporters will be upgradeable to level 3, reducing cooldown.
• Dispensers will be upgradeable to level 3, healing and generating metal faster.
• Spies will be able to recharge their cloaking ability by picking up ammo off of the ground.
• A bunch of minor changes by adding particle systems and upgrading the HUD

Other newsbits:

• Scout will get the next class upgrade. Let your thoughts be known at the Steampowered TF2 Forum, and of course our fourms right here at TF2S!
• X360 update seriously in the works, to bring it up to speed with the PC version.
• Some improvements from L4D coming to TF2, such as better multicore support.

That’s the gist of it, but make sure you read the post in full the get every juicy word, straight from Walker’s mouth.

What does that mean for the site? Plenty. I’ve been lamenting my lack of productivity over the recent weeks, due to a number of factors that I’ll put in the admin blog because I know you don’t really care The main one of course was the addiction of Left 4 Dead - that game has pull! If you haven’t bought it, do so.

With this new resurgence of TF2 activity however, I’m pulling myself away from the undead to cover it as best I can. Look out for some new gallery content very soon, and hopefully some new guides and updates to old ones as I get to them. Christmas has come early! Now I gotta go open my present…

If by “imminent”, you mean in just a few hours, which I do. That’s right, Valve’s extensive delays have once again yielded delicious results, and with just hours to go, I’m getting that giddy feeling once again. It’s gonna be a good night.

A few reviews have been trickling, all very positive, and so far Left 4 Deadfor the X360 is sitting at a Metacritic score of 91, a single point behind TF2! This is consistent with my belief that L4D will offer a similar level of win as TF2, but in a completely different way.

And if you thought you were excited, spare a thought for what must be running through the collective head of the L4D team. In case you can’t quite fathom it, they’ve left some details in the Official L4D Blog, including the impending activation of the Valve Launch Box. Sounds ominous, but there’s some complementary news to go down with it.

And for the L4D media completists out there, there’s a brand new TV spot coming to a TV near you.