KritzKast

Perhaps a little bit of a misnomer to title this one “live from” since we weren’t able to live stream the recording, though I’m hoping it will go some way to explaining why our audio isn’t perfect this week. We had a LAN party going on behind us. Not just any old LAN either. This was i52 the UK’s biggest LAN with somewhere in the region of three thousand BYOC attendees. Joining us on the hastily made up “sofa” were, the winners of the i52 Highlander match (We’re only in it for the Pizza), Lange (from teamfortress.tv), Aclus (TF2 fan artists) and Xerxes (still the VP of UKCS).

In the build up to i52 TF2 gets an update. Real life merch makes its way to the workshop. The End of the Line beta map goes into open beta. Valve have surreptitiously added “skill rating” to the game. Cyberleague.eu has an invitational 6v6 just as maincall.tf opens their doors. Huds.tf opens as the relaunch of tf2huds.net and the rather marvellous hudcreator goes live. YM via Reddit, gives us a chance to look at the original versions of Goldrush and Badwater. Finally, a developer of Binding of Isaac wants us all to think of TF2 items.

It’s a big week and so, amazingly, we skip over this week’s update to talk about a historic moment when the entire KritzKast podcast was together in one place. Makani confirms the fourth installment of the current TF2 comic for the end of the month, but in the meanwhile you can view Kevin Lennertz fan comic about the sniper. Everyong gets access to the hugely useful heatmaps.tf, but it’s not the only thing that’s heating up as we discuss the changes made by Twitch.tv. The DOTA 2 Workshop sparks interest as people find references to Source 2. For our cats in trees, we’re all rather taken by a fan-made Bonk Boy Mask. Lastly, we announce that kritzkast is leaving Feedburner.

It seems we can’t have another update to cactus canyon without having another cactus. There’s three in there now; Half Life 3 confirmed? No. What we do have back though is the level 3 mini-sentries. o/ ValveTime, run through their Top 5 Valve maps, betting on matches with keys and metal becomes a thing with Saloon.tf. The i49 Fragumentary is on the horizon as is an item replacement service from mods.tf  and McDonalds still haven’t made the TF2 connection with the Volcano Fragment Burger. Lastly, our servers‘ new build is almost, almost done. I can almost smell it.

We are loving the weekly updates to the beta maps. It gives us more and more to talk about each week. Thank you Valve. We also talk briefly about other items in the update…but really…..its all about the big changes to asteroid and subtle changes to canyon. Also Announced this week is the 4th annual Saxxy awards. This year you can start creating with portals since they have added the portal 2 DLC pack to load SFM up with aperture goodies. Out in the community we talk about TF2 retrospective, Spains first International TF2 Tournament . Why its called a retrospective is beyond us, but the promo video feels retro. Plus scrim.me. We have no idea how good it actually is, but seems good on the outside. If you know how good it is, tell us. Post a review in our subreddit.

We sink our teeth into the updated versions of the TF2 Beta maps, chewing on how they’ve changed the way they play. We also wonder if science has finally gone too far with the Red Neca Spy that has finally shipped. Meet the KritzKast Team (current hosts and editor) on the 8th of August for an evening off the air, off the game and generally off our faces. Be sure to RSVP on Reddit or FaceBook! Lastly, for those times in your life when you need to say something properly, say it with the help of our favourite mercenaries and Grizzly Berry’s TF2 Greeting Cards.

Whats better than a huge update with a new game mode? Testing said new game mode and letting valve know how we feel and how to change it before its released? Seems good to me. This week we saw to start of the TF2 Beta Maps, Early Access. In this we are exposed to the new game mode in the works, Robot Destruction. How do you feel about? Think its better with clap traps? Find out how we feel in the show. Plus the new PL map Cactus Canyon. Good times are coming. Plus watch our video of the week, Zero to Hero, promoting JumpAcademy.tf and its new Jump mentoring system.

Comp TF2 gets quite a look-in this week with the new TF2mix.com site, two teams from NA will be coming to i52, the Highlander Nations Cup has begun and both ETF2L and UGC are banning conga. Volcano Fragment is now a burger, TFTools have a charity stream, sadly not in a barrel of fish, and we should all relax and take a look at the scenery.

After the kerfuffle  caused with the demo-nerf last week it perhaps shouldn’t be a surprise to discover that Valve have unnerfed the nerf. Valve have also introduced Buy Orders to the Steam Marketplace to spoil bot’s fun. TF2Maps.net have run another 72hr mapping contest using The War of the Worlds as their theme. Elsewhere on their forums the idea of monetary compensation for mappers has sparked debate. Medi20 has released his art as a coloring book. And finally MrShadowNinja (a.k.a. Zonicboom) earns player of the week for his pixelated Lo-Fi Longwave.

I think this is the first time we’ve ever released two shows in one week. There’s a good reason for that, we didn’t know we were going to do it until we were half way through #278 and realised there was still so much more to talk about. Most importantly there’s been nerfs applied to Pyro, Heavy and Demo’s favourite weapons. Oh, and here’s a few links you may need; Jerma shares his impressions of Fat Guy Engie, Unnecessary Censorship Central works their magic censoring Expiration Date, and there’s unusual taunts now.

Some may say that “bread does not need to be this wibbly” and who are we to argue? The Love & War update is out! It was launched with an amazing SFM on the first day taking up the love portion of the title. War was met with 5 new weapons, 4 bready reskins tens of new cosmetic items. In fact so much has happened we have had to split this week’s podcast in two.  #279 will be coming very soon. For now though you’ll just have to make do with Agro’s rant on how Conga is ruining the game.

Bread is clearly important, so in typical Valve fashion, they found a unique delivery method by having it randomly fall out of teleporters. This week’s update brings new life to the Eureka Effect. Leaked files, found by FacePunch user ‘testinglol’, reveal some interesting potential weapons, mechanics and game modes. Bored of exploding into meat chunks? CheezKurds and Greatjob_ have made a mod that replaces silly gibs with loaves of bread. Similarly, a Market Gardener mod by Murray0722 let’s you finally slam dunk your opponents. Tumblr VS Reddit (NA East) Round 2 happened, you may watch it here. As the communities battle it out, ETF2L announce the 3rd Highlander Nations Cup. For those with a Wii you can finally use your favourite TF2 class as a Mii. World Bread Day begets/baguettes some intriguing speculation. Finally we invite you to listen to an interview with the mapper Heyo watch this week’s video of the week: Meet the Bread Heavy.

Our first hint at new weapons from valves mouth in over a year. That’s what the blog post released this week showed us. We also got exposed to a few ideas valve thought weren’t worth releasing….we can see why. the BASE jumper on the other hand. Its all about getting Americans over to England too. Chronos is heading over in August, which of course means a meet up of all of us and YOU, if your in london on the 8th of august (exact location tbc). The fundraiser for getting 2 US teams over for I52 starts now. We need to raise $1200 to get 2 teams to try and take on the EU powerhouses. Finally the score will be settled in an arena built for a contest of such magnitude. Also getting some talk time is the TF2 mod that brings quake to life again (or player of the week), A calculation of how many sticky bombs it would take to get to the moon, Amazing work from the lego community who have made an amazing machina, News that the medic could have been in poker night 2 and a couple of fantastic videos of the week. One take Hotline Miami and puts a TF2 spin on it, the other takes frozen and….well….puts a Tf2 spin on it.

What do you do when you can’t pick a video of the week. You get 3 videos of the week. Thats right, this week we have 3 videos that are required viewing. The first is a TF2 take on lion kings “Be Prepared” made by KungfuBellyDancer. The second is a mock up of a super smash bros game….but with valve characters made by CrazyHalo. Then there is Rappy ‘n’ Demo. Impressive, if for nothing more than its 26 minute run time, but if your easily confused this may not be for you. June 27th. Mark that date as the start of the next 72hour mapping contest. The theme is yet to be announced, But we’ve been informed its worth waiting for. Looking forward to EOTL? You may be impressed by the progress made and how it differs from the original trailer we once saw. Also out this week is the continuation of the moments of glory montages. watch the best of the best from clip #200-#300 Also, props to Pip for adding Lo-Fi’s to the KK subreddit

Fr0z3nR is back to bring us up to date with the Tale of Two Skillsets and the mapper interviews, this first with Icarus. In the oddest story of 2014 a Serbian Communist Party have stolen a TF2 poster  created by Florida artist, Brian Houtz. There’s a new way to show your love for TF2 with a Buff Banner Backpack. Steam in-home streaming is available for everyone. ETF2L is running an experimental cup featuring 3 new maps: koth_fuel_a4, cp_intermodal_rc3a and pl_rust_b7.