Team Fortress 2 Gets Surprise New Update 17 Years After Launch

Team Fortress 2, the acclaimed multiplayer first-person shooter from software giant Valve, has received a major improvement thanks to a recent update. While the changelog for this latest update may not seem like much at first glance, one notable addition is likely to be considered a big deal by many Team Fortress 2 fans.

Despite being nearly 17 years old, Valve's beloved team-based multiplayer FPS boasts a surprisingly active playerbase to this day. Although it hasn't been supported with consistent major content updates for a long time, the passionate community surrounding Team Fortress 2 has kept the game alive for more than a decade. In recent months, though, Valve has shown a greater desire to support the game more frequently due to player demand. Back in early 2023, the company surprised fans by announcing a proper, «update-sized update» for Team Fortress 2. The update in question, which was released in July of last year, ignited a major resurgence forthe multiplayer shooter, with the popular Steam game breaking its concurrent player count record 16 years after launch. Though the newest Team Fortress 2 update isn't nearly as massive as the one from July, it still includes a welcome change that's likely to catch the attention of many TF2 fans, especially those with lower-end PCs.

In the patch notes for a Team Fortress 2 update released on April 18, Valve revealed that 64-bit support has been added to the Windows and Linux versions of the game. Previously, the legendary multiplayer FPS only ran on 32-bit clients and servers, which prevented it from taking full advantage of modern CPUs. With the inclusion of 64-bit support, players should now expect significant performance boosts across the board on most compatible PCs. Improved framerate and technical enhancements are of vital importance for a competitive multiplayer game like this one.

Though this recent update is likely to be received positively by most fans, it still doesn't address Team Fortress 2's major bot