Team Fortress Full Speed Ahead

Valve LLC announced last week that it had acquired the Australian developer TF Software Pty. Ltd., the creators of Team Fortress, perhaps the most popular team-oriented multiplayer module for Quake available over the Internet.

Sierra Studios and Valve will be shipping Team Fortress 2 as a Half-Life expansion pack later in the year (after the release of the anticipated first-person shooter this summer).

"We looked at all of the different game platforms we could host TF 2 on," added Robin Walker, lead designer of Team Fortress 2. "Half-Life's advanced technology, as well as its flexibility for extensions, with features like client-side DLL support and add-on controllable HUD's (Heads Up Display), meant we could do things with Team Fortress 2 that wouldn't be possible on any other system."

"Half-Life is clearly perceived in both the user and press communities as the best single-player action game for 1998. Team Fortress is one of the most popular games being played on the Internet," said Scott Lynch, Senior Vice President of Sierra Studios, Half-Life's publisher. "Building TF 2 on top of Half-Life's will result in a multiplayer experience of much greater depth and broader appeal than anything currently available."