Valve’s long anticipated update for Team Fortress 2 for this year has finally released.
As reported by GameRant, this update is primarily made of a lot of community made content. That includes 14 all-new maps, 20 new unusual effects, six new taunts, a dozen new War Paints, and the Summer 2023 Cosmetic Case, which itself contains 25 community created items.
The update of course also comes with many fixes and changes. Valve is commemorating the occasion with a special in-game Summer Event, that is live from now until September 15, 2023.
However, the community isn’t quite happy with everything Valve did. While they added a lot of fixes to the game, there are even more issues that had been addressed by community created fixes, but Valve failed to address themselves.
As a result, Team Fortress 2 isn’t quite up to date to be playable again in 2023. While Steam users can certainly buy and download the game, they are going to be picking up a game that’s basically broken without community fixes added into it.
Of course, Team Fortress 2 deserves so much better. While their influence came quite a few years too late, the multiplayer shooter did inspire the production and release of Blizzard’s Overwatch. Of course, that also makes it the progenitor of Overwatch’s many competitors and colleagues, such as Respawn’s Apex Legends, and Riot Games’ Valorant.
It is supremely ironic that there is a generation gap between the players who were there for Team Fortress 2 when it first came out, and the younger player base on Overwatch, Valorant, and others.
Releasing in 2007 for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, all the way back in 2007, Team Fortress 2 is the sequel to 1999’s Team Fortress Classic, which traces its origin all the way back to a Quake mod called Team Fortress.
Truthfully, what Team Fortress probably really deserves is an entirely new game, a Team Fortress 3 for the new generation of PCs and game platforms. Even if Valve had addressed all the bugs and issues Team Fortress 2 has on modern platforms, the game’s graphics, audio, design, and other elements are all definitely outdated.
It’s not that there won’t be an audience for Team Fortress 2, but for Valve to realize the franchise’s potential, they do have to move on to make a new game to match what modern day gamers expect and want to see. Hopefully, this update is a hint towards Valve doing exactly that.
