New Team Fortress 2 info and Launch Date set-ish

IGN recently got some juicy bits and pieces of info about Team Fortress 2 (TF2) from an interview of several Valve employees.

What is interesting about TF2 is that it seems like Valve is trying to create a very fine tuned and definite experience as opposed to most, if not all, other multiplayer games out there. To that end classes have been and are being revamped significantly, an interesting dynamic of paper scissor rock is being set up where, for instance, pyro kills scout in closed space, scout kills pyro in open space favoring gameplay.

Maps are specific, each is tied to one and only one game mode because variations between them can cause unfavorable gameplay that has not been fine tuned to the minutest of details as Valve really wants to do hence does not go with the rest of TF2's spirit.

Downloadable content has been confirmed, more maps and 'stuff like that' will be on the way after the initial shipment of six maps in TF2. The newer downloadable maps may also contribute to the ongoing storyline behind TF2.

Wait what? Storyline? Thats what Charlie Brown said.

Development is 'technically done' on the Xbox 360 and PC, Electronic Arts UK is working on the Playstation 3 port, networking is still being implemented but "[pause] it's rending and running the games and whatnot". Both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions will be ports of the PC, just to clarify, there is no simultaneous Xbox 360/PC development, everything goes on the PC first, the consoles second.

For those of you fearing that EA will call the shots here hence ruin TF2 you can put your minds at ease, Robin Walker of Valve says clearly that "EA is our retail distributor, they're not our publisher, they don't make any of those kinds of decisions". Big sigh and relief. Right now the only thing that can apparently delay the launch of this game is quality, with bucket loads of spit and some polish released it will be.

A simultaneous Septermber-ish release date has been set.