I’m back, here’s a few things I’ve noted in the past week.

Valve is most likely making a DotA clone. Because the other two clones aren’t enough.

Then just as I back, Robin gets interviewed by PCgamer, and he reveals the polycount update will be coming out with item trading and a new game mode. Next month. Blast.

I guess we’ll just have to stare at some videos while we wait.

Well, a recent patch came out and they finally fixed that one bug that slipped under the radar since the spy update.

- Fixed a case where the Spy could start taunting and cloak at the same time

Sad that they went to town on it with an axe, I really loved this bug. Other changes include CSS beta tweaks like actually being able to see on dust and a supposed engine crash fix.

They also buffed the pyro just a little bit, his flamethrower does 10% more damage and afterburn has been reverted to 10 seconds. His flaregun also crits burning enemies at longer ranges. Exactly how long? Well, I’ve tested it a bit and found it to crit past roughly 800 units. That’s around one and a half granary containers or most of the 2fort bridge. Also, a flaregun crit does 90 damage, while a minicrit does around 40.

Valve changed a few things in the crafting system with a recent ninja patch. For instance, one scrap metal requires only 2 weapons now. You can also fabricate the new community weapons with two specific items, like the Critcola being made out of a kritzkrieg and a bonk drink. Check TF2items’ page on crafting for more.

They also seem to have upped the weekly item cap a bit, but I can’t be certain. Hats are becoming more and more common, so maybe people will finally stop making such a huge deal about them.

New patch, big deal. There’s been three new hats added, which are made out of more hats. Variants for the propaganda contest winners have also been added. They’re just the hats I mentioned, only with a small badge added on it.

The thing that baffles me is that now stickies can’t be shot out of the air. From what I’ve seen this mostly happens against a heavy, but why deprive him of a rare, short burst of glory against a class that already gives him enough trouble?

Over the past few days I’ve worked on the backend of the mod vault and other areas of the site, so we’ve had a bit of a pause in updates. That, and all of our editors decided to take an unannounced vacation.

Anyway, a new TF2 patch is out, and the TF2 blog got updated too with an interesting new section that allows you to submit avatars and custom weapons.

They’ve messed about with the dead ringer, making the fake deaths more convincing, but what’s still baffling is that a spy that feigns his death still gives a head to an eyelander wielding demoman. It seems Valve has some work to do on their priorities, as the gunboat and equalizer taunt combo sadly doesn’t work anymore. It’s quite a nerf to people who enjoyed that bug, and I’m certain I haven’t seen droves of steel-toed soldiers grenading themselves to the top of the scoreboard. Well, all in all there’s a ton of small changes to talk about, so I’m not going to go on on this subject. Rest in peace, scootlegs.

Also, feel free to spread my formspring around.

L4D got updated a while ago. Let’s see…

• Fixed a crash related to a Crash Course achievement
• Fixed an issue were bots and computer controlled special infected were being reported via “View Game Info”
• Added Team Versus 4 on 4 competitive matchmaking

 
The most significant change here is the new matchmaking search mode. Which is funny because IT DOESN’T REALLY WORK PROPERLY AT ALL.

 
SO! Valve got their butts out of winter break slack-town and got to work. “Doing what?” you may ask.

Nothing more than patching everybody’s favorite four player co-op zombie apocalypse survival game!

Here’s a full list of the changes. Now, I’d like to pont out a few of my favorite fixes:

- Added HUD elements to show status of other infected players.

This is a good one. I was tired of playing versus and not seeing another infected player’s name appear when I look at them. While I only expect this to mean that names are now shown, I wouldn’t be surprised if things like “pouncing” or “strangling” got indicated as well. (I can’t go and directly see the changes myself yet.)

- Tongue attacks that fail to paralyze or hang a Survivor will use the shorter ability delay timer.

This is nice for losers like me who would always miss with their first two tounge attacks and wind up dead while the next is rechagring.

- Easier to pounce a Survivor who is meleeing.

- Increased Minimum damage a Hunter pounce does.

This is just good for hunters who suck. Again, like me.

- Tank spawns at the same % through the map for both teams in versus mode. 

- Made the Tank and Witch spawn directly on the escape route.

- Bashable objects now appear with a red glow.

- Tanks hitting a car with an alarm disables the alarm permanently.

- Tank frustration timer is only reset by hitting Survivors with rocks or fists.

- Reduced autoshotgun damage against Tanks.

All good fixes. This makes tanks much easier to use for both teams, and makes sure that unfair tank spawns were less likely. It also encourages players to whack things as tanks, which not enough players (myself included) knew how to do. Also, it fixes the annoying “auto shottie = instant death” thing tanks run into.

- Fixed exploit where players could spawn infected bots

“:D” That’s all I can say. I hate people who do this.

Well, as soon as I can get back to L4D, I look forward to finding out how good these are myself. ‘Till then, cya!