From never before seen maps to various models, the latest Team Fortress 2 leak has given fans a lot to mull over.
The biggest Valve has seen to date; the 61GB leak includes various unreleased maps, models, PSDs (photoshop source design), and VMFs (valve map format) for Team Fortress 2. The latter is a format that stores raw map data and is used to save production-stage maps and prefabs.
While the exact source of the leak is unconfirmed at present, Richter Overtime has been sharing some of its contents on Twitter (opens in new tab), including what appears to be images of these unreleased maps and models.
What’s new?
Cycling through all the unreleased content, fans have found some pretty interesting concepts. It seems we could have had a capture-the-flag Dustbowl map that would have integrated all three stages of Dustbowl and even some of Goldrush. If sand’s not your thing, then what about a level four turret with a teleporter wacked on top?
The possibilities really do seem to be endless. Fans have been able to find a Bounty Mode test map and even in-dev templates of the original powerhouse map. This is all just after a day of research and digging, so there will definitely be more to find.
The rule of three
While I have given up on any chance of a third installment in the Team Fortress series, there are still some who keep up hope. With all of these unused maps and data, why shouldn’t Valve pick the series back up?
Unfortunately, despite all this content, it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting a new Team Fortress soon. It’s been almost 16 years since Team Fortress 2 was released, and Valve has never officially stated plans to develop another entry in the series. This isn’t a huge surprise as, historically, the developer doesn’t deal in threes. Portal got shelved after two games, and Half-Life fans have been waiting over a decade for the much-desired Half-Life 3. So the possibility of TF3 seems extremely unlikely at this point.
All we can hope now is that this content isn’t completely dead and buried. Even if the developer isn’t keen on creating a new series entry, all these unreleased maps and modes could make for a very hefty and welcome update. But I’m not holding my breath.
