Valve announced yesterday that they have made the beta version of the SDK available for Orange Box modders (Episode 2, TF2, Portal). You can launch the SDK by adding -beta srcsdk0122 to your command line when you start Steam. For more information, head on over to the Valve developer wiki. 
As early as tomorrow, January 24th, PC gamers may be seeing an official CTF version of the Well map for Team Fortress 2. PC Gamer reports: So that bumps the upcoming number of official maps up to three so far, who knows what else Valve has up their sleeves.
Originally posted here, there are some more exciting things coming for TF2. The medic will be getting two new weapons accessed via a new Loadout menu. One weapon will be the Overhealer which will be capable of doubling a friendly target's health and will be unlocked by acheiving half of the new medic achievements. The second weapon will be another healing weapon but more information is not available. There will be a new map called Goldrush and will feature a new escort gameplay mode where one team must escort a mining cart across the map. The more blue players surrounding the cart, the faster it goes, but any nearby red players will cause the cart to stop. Shacknews reports that the new gameplay mode and medic abilities will be available some time within the next month, with Badlands and Goldrush following shortly after. Valve has not said whether these features will be available on console versions of TF2.
Team Fortress 2 has received two updates in the last two days. The first one adding some nice features to both servers and clients, and the second one seeming to fix a couple things broke by the first update.
January 14th Update:
* Added new option for medigun beam to the Multiplayer->Advanced dialog. If on, the medigun beam will stay attached to the current target without the need to hold down the fire button
* Added new option for the sniper rifle to the Multiplayer->Advanced dialog. If disabled, the sniper rifle won't re-zoom after firing a zoomed shot
* Added "nextlevel" server cvar. If set to a valid map name, server will change to that map during the next changelevel
* Fixed PerfUI being used as a type of wall-hack on servers without sv_cheats set to 1
* Reduced Granary spawn advantage for capping the middle point
* Fixed players turning into "Scout" model after lagouts (and a variety of related issues, such as disappearing doors)
* Fixed obscure crash related to resolution changing
January 15th Update:
* Fixed medigun effect not being removed if the medic changed class while healing
* Fixed being able to zoom too quickly after firing a zoomed shot
According to this post, it seems as though Valve's Robin Walker has spilled the beans on some upcoming changes to the Pyro and Soldier classes in TF2!
Get ready for some big changes to the Team Fortress 2 game you have come to know and love. Valve's Robin Walker has verified that there will be 2 new maps released for the PC version in the next 2 months, emphasizing more on a new arena and vertical game play. As for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, it remains unclear whether the new updates will make it to these platforms. You can check out Robin's full statement below, and keep checking back for more on this and all updates pertaining to Team Fortress 2.
A few fixes and security additions have been issued for the Steam distribution platform. The changes are as follows:
Steam Client
- Added a new chat introduction dialog which is shown when you are first contacted by a potentially unfamiliar group member
- Added several new account security warnings to Friends
- Added the ability for the client to connect to multiple content servers and improved download pipelining
- Added "View Forum" option to the right click menu for individual games
- Fixed friends going auto-away when they are really active and typing
- Possible fix for games sometimes disappearing from the games tab
- Fix for non-Steam games getting permanently removed from Steam if the data fails to load on startup
- Fixed the in-game overlay becoming slow/unresponsive for some users after playing for several minutes or more
- Fixed the in-game overlay failing to come up for Windows 2000 users
- Improved in-game overlay compatibility with ATI Tool (video card tuning software)
Simply start Steam and click on the File menu and then select "Check for Steam Client Updates"
Turtle Rock Studios, creators of Counter-Strike: Source, Condition Zero, and the upcoming and highly anticipated title Left 4 Dead, has been acquired by Valve. Here is there official press release statement. "Half Life developer Valve has announced that it has acquired Orange County-based developer Turtle Rock Studios, currently working on the forthcoming Source-engine multiplayer zombie-slaying action title Left 4 Dead.
Valve president Gabe Newell called the acquisition "an easy decision" based on the long-standing relationship between the two. Turtle Rock previously has collaborated with Valve on a number of Counter-Strike projects, including the game's Xbox port.
Newell also said that the new internal studio would give Valve "a base from which to expand our development activities in the Los Angeles area."
Said Turtle Rock founder Michael Booth, "Valve has had great success bringing in projects and teams such as Team Fortress and Portal. As I spent time working and talking with the creators of those products over the past several years, it became clear that this was the right next step for myself, my colleagues at Turtle Rock, our customers, and our products. We are excited to be a part of such a visionary and forward-thinking company."Source: GamaSutra
A new Team Fortress 2 update has been released by the Valve Development team this evening. The update fixes several glitches and bugs, including a revamp of the map Well, but most importantly aims to improve the ability for players to filter custom content. Now, users will have the option of choosing what custom content they download from the servers. As always you can get the latest version of Team Fortress 2 by simply restarting your Steam Client.
Team Fortress Portal, a German Team Fortress 2 fan site, has claimed to have found all 36 achievements for the medic, not yet revealed by Steam. The image outlines all of the different achievements medics will soon be able to earn, and as shown, many require the effective use of team play and game experience. You can check out the full list of achievements below, along with an image that shows each achievement's individual badge. If this turns out to be correct, we can hopefully see a statement release from Valve soon.  Click To Enlarge
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