The fabled Team Fortress 2 project from Valve Software is apparently not dead after all. PlanetFortress got a confirmation from Valve that the game is in fact in full production right now and more information about the game will be released "in the coming months". We saw some tech demonstration stuff from Valve a couple of years ago at E3 which seems to have made it's way in to Counter-Strike (Voice communication for one) but havent seen or heard much about TF2 since. The only other real certainty is that TeamFortress2 will be based on Valve's own internal 3D engine technology, lets call it ValveTech. Just to aggravate the Valve guys, I'm gonna include some really old TF2 screenshots that will make them say "Damn it those suck compared to what we have now!" and then send us some new shots. Right guys?

[old ass screenshots!]

For anyone hoping Team Fortress 2 wouldn't be too far off, Stomped is reporting that Sierra and Valve won't be showing the game at the upcoming E3 (May 17 - 19). TF2 was not shown at last year's E3 either. The Playstation2 version of Half-Life, in development at Gearbox, will be on display.

Has it been a long time since we've heard about this game or what? Gamespot Australia has a new interview with Robin Walker of Valve, talking to him about Team Fortress 2 (thanks Blues News). There's actual a good amount of info in the interview, touching on the subjects of classes, the real-time voice feature, helper AI, bots and a lot more. A must read for everyone looking forward to the game.

GS: So Is playing Commander any fun?

RW: Yes. It is a lot of fun. We actually have a backup plan for that, so we're not too concerned about that. What we're looking at is, our view is that the Commander really is an RTS (Realtime Strategy) player, which is why we're tentatively calling TF2 a First-Person Strategy now. There's some kinky buzzwords for you. We really are designing the Commander to be something an RTS player, can move into very easily. The interface is identical to an RTS's, you can get in there. Everything they're used to works, like being able to hot-key groups of players, drag and select, and shift to do multiple commands, all that sort of stuff works, and we really hope to entice RTS players into trying this sort of game <snip>

GS: Can we please have the game by 2005?

RW: Ah. You'll absolutely have it way before then. We've been working on a lot of stuff this year, not just TF2.

There's an interview with Yahn Bernier of Valve on Fortress Center. There's questions in there about the engine, the gameplay, skill levels and the licensing of their own engine to other companies.

There's an interview with Dr. Steven Collins of Havok on TF2Bunker, talking to the chief technical officer about the physics API his company has created for use in games. Valve is one of the companies who licensed this API.

The Catacombs has an interview with Valve programmer Yahn Bernier asking him about Team Fortress Classic 1.5

Valve is just making all kinds of waves right now. The latest move by Valve is that they have released a stand-alone version of TF v1.5 (Better known as TF Classic) for anyone to download and play. You dont even need a copy of Half-Life or a CD. The game is fully functional but limited, and you have an option to buy it from the download site (Real.com.. again) for 30 bucks. You have to register first though. Thanks JayZee.

Anyone want to take some guesses on what Valve is up to with this?

note: This also brings into question if that Counter-Strike for $19.99 showing up on EB yesterday was a goofup or not.. Hmmmm

AVault has done some digging on TeamFortress2 and got Yahn from Valve to answer a few questions on recent events. Most interesting being that Valve is using their own engine technology now.

Josh Holes of Playnow was lucky enough to pay a visit to the Valve offices (Thanks BluesNews) and get a look at what the folks there are working on. One of the biggest things mentioned in the article is the confirmation that Valve Software is working on their own in-house engine technology. This was all pretty much speculated bordering on fact with the huge number of 3D programmers they were bringing but now...

What is holding further development of TF2 is that Valve are currently building a new engine to drive TF2, and have been doing so for a number of months. As far as Robin Walker is concerned, this new engine will allow them to do things with TF2 they otherwise couldn't have. It will also make it more scalable across a wider range of system specifications, both capable of delivering superior graphics on high end systems, whilst also making it possible to play on low end computers. It's not another re-tooling of the Quake engine - it's a completely new beast. <snip>

I guess all those TeamFortress2 screenshots are now obsolete. What do they call this new engine? Hm... well I'd put my money on the name ValveTech. :) (6:20 update, how quickly we forget. Check out this news Maarten ran on May 18th.)

PlanetFortress will be holding a chat session with Valve's Erik Johnson, Robin Walker, Yahn Bernier, John Cook and Harry T soon. PF is looking for TFC/TF2 programming and mapping questions. They can be sent to PFinterview@planetfortress.com.

Planet Half-Life has a chat log from yesterday's IRC event with Robin Walker and Erik Johnson from Valve. They discuss the new Team Fortress Classic and the upcoming Team Fortress 2.

There's an interview with Yahn Bernier on 3D GameForce, talking to the Valve engineer about a couple of things related to Team Fortress 2, such as cheating, voice communication and different game types.

There's a Gabe Newell interview on TF Funnies which is, despite being dated May 18, pretty recent. They discuss Team Fortress2, but the page also has a Valve vacation video of programmer Mike Dussault crashing into a car on his scooter after screaming "waaasssuup" to fellow programmer Gary McTaggert.

Saw on Blues News that there's a Team Fortress 2 Q&A on the Sierra TF2 message board. The emphasis of the Q&A is on actual gameplay features in the game so it's good for those who are already TF players.

The guys at Valvesector have quite the scoop on TeamFortress2. They have some incredibly in depth information on several of the weapons that are currently in the game. Of course the game is in the middle of development so things are surely to change, also this information has a 'concealed source' but the number of people talking about this info made it impossible to ignore. Check it out, but take it with a grain of salt.

The armor in TF2 is based on stopping power and how much you have. The thicker the armor the more you'll stop certain weapons. There are 3 types of armor light medium and heavy. For example a ranger's sub machine gun can penetrate light armor fairly easily so it only absorbs 10%-20%,
<snip>

I can however confirm that these screenshots are from TeamFortress2. I imagine a lot has changed since those shots though.

Team Fortress 2 the Becoming has posted a short interview with Robin Walker of the TF2 team.

EvilAvatar has a pretty interesting interview with Gabe Newell talking about the goals of TF2 and the PowerPlay stuff. Gabe shares his wisdom right here, and you can look at some older screenshots of TF2 right here.

Our goal isn't to create a realistic game. Our goal is to build the best on-line gaming platform, and that this is based on delivering an entertaining and approachable social experience. Realism is a tool, not a goal. There will be lots of ways that high skill players will be able to do things that lesser players can't. That's part of the fun.

PC.IGN has an interview with Robin Walker of Valve, talking about, what else, the highly anticipated Team Fortress 2. Still no word on when the heck we're gonna see this one :|

The TF2 Bunker has two new screenshots of Valve's Team Fortress 2. They show a spy and a female medic.

Seems there was a lot of confusion lately about TF2 being shown or not at E3. Actually a PR person for Sierra claimed that Valve Software was busy with the Half-Life Dreamcast port and wouldnt be showing TF2 because of this. That is not the case, actually GearBox Software is working on that. Here's the quote from Gabe Newell courtesy of TFTribune.com:

No one at Valve is working on the Dreamcast version of Half-Life.  That's being handled by Gearbox and Captivation.  However the E3 booth is going to focus on the Dreamcast version of Half-Life in support of the marketing activities that Sega and Havas are going to be doing for the launch of that product.