A nice thing about the new overlay is that it is very customizable, with the default being a square slot per player showing their avatar and their name. You can also bring up the full Mumble window in the overlay, making it possible to change channels, settings and so on from within the game. Everyone trying to alt-TAB out of a source game and back again knows how painful that can be.

If you want to try it out and help the team squash the last bugs before release, just download the latest snapshot and give it a try. A few of us have been running snapshots for two months without any serious problems.

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Yes there will be a .vpk-file release (finally). Unfortunately they will finish it up for Left 4 Dead first and then start porting it to Left 4 Dead 2. I really feel that they should devote the time and energy to port it right away, since Left 4 Dead feels more and more dated each time you play the sequel. That said I still will dust of Left 4 Dead in order to play this campaign.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/dead-before-dawn

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Updates to Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike: Source and Day of Defeat: Source have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:
Server Browser

• Fixed the server browser not saving filter settings properly

Team Fortress 2

• Fixed a speed exploit related to benchmarks
• Fixed Parasite hat not being posed correctly on class loadout panels
• Fixed a level change crash

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Left 4 Dead 2

• Added additional protection for critical files
• All add-on files will be loaded when connecting to a Non-Official server regardless of game mode
• Only approved custom maps will be loaded when connecting to an Official server
• Player’s can print the contents of the consistency list with “cl_print_consistency_list”. If the server has sv_consistency disabled, the user will be notified when they attempt to print the list
• Improvement to Hammer load times

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Some highlights:

• Alien Swarm is being released for free by Valve.
• Is a tactical, 4 player co-op action game with a top-down perspective.
• Complete game code and mod tools available to the community.
• The SDK is separate from that of other Source games.
• Features 4 unique classes.
• Over 40 weapons and equipment with many configurations.
• 8 unique characters.
• Has Easy, Normal, Hard, and Insane difficulties.
• Features only Campaign Mode and Offline Practice Mode.
• Uses L4D2 style add-on system for custom campaigns.
• Much less randomization than L4D so players can observe, learn, and overcome challenges.
• Uses a modified Source engine between the L4D2 and Portal 2 iterations.
• Supports dedicated and listen servers.
• Contains Valve game easter eggs.
• 64 achievements
• Does not currently support Mac or controllers.

Read more over at the Steam forums:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1365797

Go here to get the game. If you complete two missions in online co-op mode you get a free TF2 hat!

I have not been able to test the updates yet, but the servers are up and ready to go.

Updates to Team Fortress 2 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Team Fortress 2

• Added a Parasite hat to celebrate the release of Alien Swarm (http://www.alienswarm.com/)
• Fixed a client crash when opening the backpack while running in a language other than English.
• Fixed not being able to pick-up buildings in Arena mode.
• Fixed an exploit that allowed team kills with Wrangled sentries.
• Fixed a bug where teleporters could be given more than their normal amount of health.
• Fixed old demos with different data tables thinking the SourceTV player entity was burning.
• TF Bot Changes
  • Improved performance of bot computations that are done when a point is captured, a round starts, or a checkpoint reached.
  • Fixed Engineer bot infinite build-destroy behavior loop regression
  • Fixed Medic bots losing their charge if they touch a resupply cabinet
  • Fixed a crash due to having multiple types of bot systems running in-game simultaneously
  • Fixed bot behavior issue resulting in bot pile-ups near level 3 teleporter entrances
  • Bots no longer consider sapped sentries a dangerous threat
  • Bots will not try to navigate through enemy spawn rooms (unless they have won the round)
  • Bot Engineers will avoid building teleporters on steep slopes which can hinder teammate movement
  • Added tf_bot_pyro_always_reflect cvar. Set to 1 to make Pyro bots always reflect projectiles, regardless of difficulty level.

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All our servers have been updated and the GeoIP databases refreshed.

Read all about it here.

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Engine:
- Increased the resilience of client/server data table mismatches when playing back demos. This will make most old demo files playable again, but with potential visual side effects.

Team Fortress 2:
- Updated CP_Coldfront
- Added map to the default mapcycle and motd files.
- Fixed a server crash issue related to increased maxplayer servers.
- Fixed a couple Engineer building exploits.
- Updated the localization files.
- Improved the performance of the critboost particle effect.
- Fixed a server crash related to carrying buildings at round start.
- Fixed players picking up buildings before a round has started.
- Fixed an exploit where Engineers could create level 3 mini-sentries.

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- Fixed an exploit that allowed Engineers to build level 2/3 mini sentries.

- Fixed a bug that allowed sapped buildings to be picked up by the Engineer.

- Fixed a bug where Wrangled level 3 sentryguns would still fire rockets when they were out of ammo.

- Fixed a bug where players would go into reference poses when switching classes while carrying a building.

- Fixed seeing the changeclass label in the spectator HUD when using cl_hud_minmode.

- The amount of revenge crits a player can have at one time is now capped at 35.

- The Wrangler no longer shows the shotgun’s ammo count.

- Engineers can no longer pick up buildings while stunned or in loser state.

- Fixed Engineer shotgun and piston not using team skins for the Engineer’s arms.

- Fixed an issue where Wrangled sentrygun effects wouldn’t be attached to the sentrygun.

- The Gunslinger 3 hit combo now only increments the combo count when hitting enemy players.

- Fixed a crash in the control point progress bar.

- Fixed a server crash in the player death code, related to building carrying.

- Fixing performance spikes that occur at round start, and after each point capture, when TFBots are present in the server.

- Achievement fixes:

- The “Rio Grind” achievement limit is now correctly set to 50.

- Fixed a typo in Six-String Stinger achievement name.

- Fixed a bug in the “Death Metal” achievement that caused it to rapidly complete itself.

- Fixed getting the Six-String Stinger achievement without playing the guitar.

- Fixed sentrygun detection code in “Best Little Slaughterhouse in Texas” and “Deputized”.

- Missed notes from yesterday’s release:

- New response rules and sounds added for some classes

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