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Valve has announced a new mode for Team Fortress 2 that pits Red and Blu against a common threat: robots. Set to launch Wednesday, August 15, the Mann vs. Machine (MvM) update will introduce a co-op component that tasks you and up to five friends with stopping swarms of robots from deploying a bomb in one of Mann Co.'s strongholds.
As with many horde-style modes, enemies will attack in waves and you'll be able to upgrade your weapons and abilities during breathers, though we haven't found any detailed information about what kind of upgrades will be available. If you survive the onslaught, you'll be handsomely rewarded with "incredible loot" -- again, no specifics here.
The robots will be largely modeled off existing characters, including melee-oriented heavies, a sniper equipped with a bow and another with a rifle that shoots jarate-coated darts, quick fix and uber medics, as well as a demoman and scout. There will also be special robots such as the bomb carrier who gains buffs as the rounds unfold, an anti-engineer suicide bomber dubbed the "sentry buster," as well as giant versions of the solider, heavy and scout. It's likely that more enemy types have yet to be unveiled.
As it often does, Valve geared up for the MvM announcement with an alternate reality game that was said to be its most difficult to date, involving roughly 5,000 separate pieces of data. The ARG was so "needlessly complex" that the developer was concerned it might stump players for weeks, but the community prevailed in a mere 12 hours. If you're interested at all, Rock Paper Shotgun offers coverage on the ARG while The Escapist has a nice write-up on the goofy in-game lore behind this week's event.
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User Comments: 10
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Looks quite interesting...
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treeski said:
SUPER pumped about this. I haven't played much TF2 over the past year, but I'll definitely reinstall for some co-op action. This looks great!
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Team Lead: "We need to add something new to TF2 to continue selling hats into the near future"
Business Manager: "L4D and L4D2 made a lot of money. How similar is it to TF2? Can you replicate its success?"
Team Lead: "Hmm... I suppose we could take the zombies and replace them with robots..."
Business Manager: "Great, get to it! We've got hats to sell!"
Team Lead: "Zug, zug."
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LNCPapa said:
I don't wear hats but I shoot zombies in the face. I think I can be cross trained to shoot machines in the face too.
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DanUK said:
Haven't played TFC/TF2 in a longggg time however am definitely up for trying this out.. I'm a complete sucker for Horde game mode (recently busted out Gears 3 for a cheeky few rounds).
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Cota said:
Looking at the AI from Valve... this is gona be hard =D
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1 person liked this |Ranger12 said:
Perhaps this warrants a return of Techspot's Friday Night Fragfest?
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Perhaps this warrants a return of Techspot's Friday Night Fragfest?
Agreed, bring em back!
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1 person liked this |
+1 Burty, I haven't played TF2 in ages, being busy with life and all, but I guess it will be fun to give it a shot
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I never start out on easy mode with any game, and I mean ANY GAME. But even the normal mode of MvM makes me want to start playing on easy. It's a fun game mode with a challenging objective - One of Valve's best contributions to TF2.
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