Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is the sequel to the game that put class-based, multiplayer team warfare on the map. This year’s most anticipated online action game, TF2 delivers new gametypes, a signature art style powered by Valve’s next generation animation technology, persistent player statistics, and more.

Unlike other “class-based” games that offer a variety of combat classes only, Team Fortress 2 packs a wild variety of classes which provide a broad range of tactical abilities and personalities, and lend themselves to a variety of player skills. Play as the flame-throwing Pyro, the room clearing Heavy, or the Spy, a master of disguises. Other classes include: Scout, Sniper, Medic, Engineer, Demoman, or Soldier.

Team Fortress 2 is an excellent "sandbox" for explorations of this sort, and we've been quietly doing so for much of this last year. Some of the results of these explorations are TF "bots" — AI-driven player proxies with simulated humanlike senses, reaction times, and tactics. Although the TFBots are not yet complete, they play a pretty decent game of King of the Hill.

Badlands, New Mexico. Mann Co., the industry leader in selling products and getting in fights, today announced the deployment of the Mann-Conomy initiative to the warring mercenary factions in the ongoing global war between Builders League United (BLU) and Reliable Excavation Demolition (RED). The Mann-Conomy initiative represents the largest introduction of new items in the company's history, available for immediate trading, use, and sale.

The Mann-Conomy initiative will allow BLU and RED mercenaries to finally trade items with each other, escalating hostilities further through emotionally wrenching haggling sessions over hats.

A Halloween-themed update for Team Fortress 2 is now available free of charge.

The Headless headliner of the update is the introduction of the first non-player character in any TF game, the Headless Horsemann. A randomly generated boss monster, the Horsemann appears exclusively in Mann Manor, a new and completely spooky attack/defend map littered with exploding pumpkins.

The update also includes new achievements, the opening of the Halloween department of the Mann Co store, new community items from 10 new contributors, and more.