Valve, the developers of Team Fortress 2, have recently announced an update to the 17-year-old game that has irritated players since day one. The ever-present first-person shooter has remained one of the most recognisable and loved games of the genre despite being nearly 20 years old.
In a recent update, the seemingly minor change of editing the Scout’s appearance has created shock and confusion among the game’s community. Scout, one of the most popular characters in the game, has been wearing the wrong-coloured trousers since 2007 when the game was released. The game has not seen a major update since 2017’s Jungle Inferno but continues to receive small bug patches.
The character is known for his speed and double-jumping ability, making him a prime candidate for both new and old players. The game’s characters’ outfits change depending on whether they are on the ‘Red’ or ‘Blu’ teams. His previous trousers for the Blu team were a khaki greyish-brown, now being changed to blue.
The Blu scout was able to wear a number of cosmetic items that made the two trousers clash, making his character wear the previous khaki trousers with blue belt hoops.
Valve has had a turbulent relationship with the diehard fans of the shooter with many complaints surrounding the large number of bots present in the game’s multiplayer lobbies and lack of major updates. But the game has continued its longevity in part due to the long term support the development team has provided, continuing to pushing out small bug fixes and patches 17 years after the game’s launch.
Fans of the game have rallied to protest the rampant bot problem by creating a petition with over 340,000 signatures, going as far as turning the signatures of the petition into a hardback book that was delivered to Valve’s HQ. The recent move comes after previous protests including negatively reviewing the game en-masse to make its overall ratings drop on the Steam homepage were unsuccessful.
Team Fortress 2 is available now on Steam.
Words by Jamie Calder
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