Australian Christmas

Just recently Valve has released the Australian Christmas update for Team Fortress 2.  A lot of new hats were released with this update including new class sets for the medic, demoman, and heavy.  Medieval mode was also added in which all players have to use melee weapons except for the sniper's huntsman and the new medic crossbow.  Valve also added in a new feature which allows you to buy stamps to support community mapmakers, those that buy stamps are given a hat that becomes progressively better as you buy more of the stamps.

The new item class sets include The Expert's Ordnance for the Demoman, The Hibernating Bear for the Heavy, and The Medieval Medic.  When a player has all the items of a set equipped they are given a special set effect.  One thing I liked about this update is that the new sets don't require you to have a hat for the full set.  Many players did not like the requirement to have a hat for the full set effect because of how hard they were to get unless you either bought them from the store, crafted them from a lot of metal, or traded with other players. 

The Medieval Mode is not quite what you'd expect from a Christmas update but it's very entertaining.  Red team defends the castle while the Blu team attacks from a wooden palisade behind a hill a short distance away.  On either side of the castle is two capture points as well as one final point in the back of the castle that must be captured for the Blu team to win.  The Blu team must first capture both points on either side of the castle before the castle gate will open.  The only entrance into the castle is the gate which results in it being the location of most of the fighting along with the final capture point.  Players have to use melee weapons, there are a few exceptions most notable are the sniper's huntsman and the new medic weapon the Crusader's Crossbow.  One amusing feature of this mode is that all text entered by players in chat is converted to Ye Olde English which can make conversing with other players both interesting and frustrating.   

Here's a video which will give you a very good idea of what Medieval Mode is like.




Sorry for the huge gap in blog posts everyone.