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Recommended reading A mod that lets you play Half-Life 2 multiplayer as the mercs from Team Fortress 2 is coming to Steam Valve announces Team Fortress 2 is getting 'a much-needed update' focused on Mann vs. Machine: 'A chilling cautionary tale where an artificial consciousness tried to take all our jobs' Team Fortress 2 gets a boost on Steam charts with summer update, including a slew of community creations After almost 18 years, Team Fortress 2 just had its toughest tournament ever, and there could be more to come Half-Life 2 becomes a loot-hoarding roguelike dungeon crawl in this Next Fest mod demo Here's a mod that puts Halo's multiplayer into Half-Life, which to me feels like putting tea in your coffee The sequel to Half-Life modding classic Pirates, Vikings & Knights quietly hit 1.0 after nearly 18 years of development: 'It's been over 6,500 days since PVK2 was unleashed' Team Fortress 2 Pre-Fortress 2, a mod that bridges the gap between Team Fortress Classic and TF2, is coming to Steam with a whole lotta grenades 23 August 2025 The mod adds class-specific throwables and reinstates numerous weapons for OG TF. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Valve, PF2 Team) Team Fortress 2 modders love nothing more than imagining alternate histories for Valve's long-running multiplayer shooter, and this year has seen several of these nostalgia-tinged conversions migrate from the rolling pastures of the web into Steam's smog-belching metropolis. In March, Team Fortress 2 Classic revealed it would be launching on Valve's platform sometime in 2025, while Team Fortress 2 Legacy—which reverts TF2's core systems to their 2008 standard—also plans to infiltrate Steam's base before the year is out. Now, another revisionist TF2 mod has announced it is joining this merry throng. Pre-Fortress 2 positions itself as the evolutionary missing-link between the original Half-Life mod and Valve's hat-tastic sequel, reintroducing several ideas present in Team Fortress but deemed vestigial for TF2, while embellishing them with the sequel's quirky, cartoonish character. Foremost among these are grenades. Pre-Fortress 2 flings throwable explosives back into the action, expanding your ordnance way beyond the traditional deadly pineapple with class-specific grenades. Scouts receive concussion grenades and, er, bear-traps, while pyros get napalm grenades, engineers EMP grenades, medics healing grenades… you see how this works. Related Articles A mod that lets you play Half-Life 2 multiplayer as the mercs from Team Fortress 2 is coming to Steam Valve announces Team Fortress 2 is getting 'a much-needed update' focused on Mann vs. Machine: 'A chilling cautionary tale where an artificial consciousness tried to take all our jobs' Team Fortress 2 gets a boost on Steam charts with summer update, including a slew of community creations Pre-Fortress 2 - Grenade Showcase - YouTube Alongside this, Pre-Fortress 2 reinstates numerous weapons and more specific mechanics from Team Fortress Classic. Your arsenal is expanded to include the nailgun, the tranquilizer, the detonation pipe launcher, and the flame rocket. On the systems side, flag-throwing is revived, while the medic can heal teammates with his syringe or jab opponents with it to infect them with rot. The mod even throws in a few ideas of its own. Engineers can repair the armour of allies using their wrench, while both teleporters and dispensers are team-agnostic, letting anyone use them. The flame rocket allows its wielder to perform a rocket-jump, while random critical hits are a thing of the past (or, given the point on the timeline where Pre-Fortress 2 inserts itself, future). There's no word on when Pre-Fortress 2 will arrive on Steam. But if you simply can't wait for that hybridised Team Fortress action, you can download the mod on the Pre-Fortress 2 website. This is normally the bit where I'd write about how Valve abandoned Team Fortress 2 to become a bot-riddled mess, but in all fairness, TF2 is getting quite a bit of love from its prodigal parent this year. July brought a substantial update that added a bunch of community-made maps, while Valve is planning another "much-needed" update in August targeting TF2's cooperative mod Mann vs. Machine. There's even a third patch slated for October. Between this and the great mod migration, 2025 is shaping up to be the best year TF2 has enjoyed for some time. The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Best gaming laptop 2025All our current recommendations 👉Check out our full guide👈 1. Best overall: Razer Blade 16 (2025) 2. Best budget: Gigabyte G6X 3. Best 14-inch: Razer Blade 14 (2025) 4. Best mid-range: MSI Vector 16 HX AI 5. Best high-performance: Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 6. Best 17-inch: Gigabyte Aorus 17X Contributor Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. A mod that lets you play Half-Life 2 multiplayer as the mercs from Team Fortress 2 is coming to Steam Valve announces Team Fortress 2 is getting 'a much-needed update' focused on Mann vs. Machine: 'A chilling cautionary tale where an artificial consciousness tried to take all our jobs' Team Fortress 2 gets a boost on Steam charts with summer update, including a slew of community creations After almost 18 years, Team Fortress 2 just had its toughest tournament ever, and there could be more to come Half-Life 2 becomes a loot-hoarding roguelike dungeon crawl in this Next Fest mod demo Here's a mod that puts Halo's multiplayer into Half-Life, which to me feels like putting tea in your coffee Latest in FPS By surrendering to an 'open weapons' default, Battlefield 6 is giving up the most special thing about Battlefield After stretching the definition of 'beta' for 8 years, Escape From Tarkov is finally hitting 1.0 Amid sweeping changes, it's refreshing to see that the Battlefield 6 beta was an actual playtest, and not a glorified demo You've got approximately 12 months left to enjoy Overwatch 2 because it just got the Persona 5 collaboration kiss of death Nightdive's System Shock 2 remaster now supports 26 years of mods and fan missions To the dismay of sweaty 'movement kids,' Battlefield 6 is nerfing Call of Duty sliding and jumping to maintain a 'traditional Battlefield experience' Latest in News Bluesky goes dark in Mississippi over 'likely unconstitutional' age verification law Marvel Rivals dev's transparent, 18-minute breakdown of how ranked isn't rigged fails to placate players who hate losing After stretching the definition of 'beta' for 8 years, Escape From Tarkov is finally hitting 1.0 Even more games are moving out of Silksong's way: 'I feel like a little krill trying not to get eaten by a blue whale' Enshrouded's next big update is bringing way more water to the survival RPG than I expected 'I think the United States should be given 10% of Intel': US president Trump wants a piece of the action, says CEO Lip Bu Tan has already forked over $10 billion because he wants to 'keep his job' HARDWARE BUYING GUIDES LATEST GAME REVIEWS Best Hall effect keyboards in 2025: the fastest, most customisable keyboards for competitive gaming Best PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming in 2025: the only Gen 5 drives I will allow in my PC Best graphics cards in 2025: I've tested pretty much every AMD and Nvidia GPU of the past 20 years and these are today's top cards Best gaming laptop in 2025: I've put the best of this new generation head-to-head and we have a winner Best gaming chair in 2025: I've tested a ton of gaming chairs and these are the seats I'd suggest for any PC gamer Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater review Elgato 4K S review MSI Stealth 18 HX AI review MSI MPG CoreLiquid P13 360 review Asus ROG Falcata PC Gamer is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. 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