Segnaro: Aha!

Caleb: I've actually found the achievements really easy to get. I was NOT playing engineer (I was owning face as a soldier, spy, and most notably, a homewrecker pyro (seriously, there's nothing like smashing a level 3 sentry to pieces that an engie has just moved and is still unpacking)), but i was lucky enough to get the Wrangler on a random drop, so i played that for a few mintes....got 2 achievements :)

They're all pretty awesome, IMHO, though It'll be interesting to see how they work in a "normal" game.

More interesting than that should be seeing whether the wrangler makes for changes in how certain maps are played. Having essentially unlimited range is a bit crazy. I don't think it'll unbalance things much, due to the downsides Valve added, but i'm curious to see if and how it affects the flow of maps (and which maps!).

Speaking of maps, Thunder Mountain and Upward are excellent (I love Thunder Mountain's flourishes, both audio and final-explosion-based). Coldfront is fine (i'd allready played it quite a bit before it became official). It's Hightower that's the odd one out. So far, it looks like one hell of a stalematefest. That said, I found it very enjoyable, especially when sneaking around back alleys as a pyro or spy (again, hopping around corners to homewreck stuff is great fun). Surprisingly, I found demoknight to be very useful on thsi map in a few weird ways. There are a number of major pathways that have T intersections with little used sidepaths, and they seem to be perfectly set up for hiding in and then charging out, sword swinging into enemies. There's even one part where the far side of the intersection is another side path that contains lots of health...makes for fun ambushes.

Anyways...yay Valve! (though a bit of a boo for no meet the team video)

Caleb: Also, if you really want one of the items (and didn't craft your life away in the search for the golden wrench), it appears that 1 Scrap Metal + 1 Ambassador = Southern Hospitality, the spiked wrench.

Davie: Some Engie achievements are remarkably easy--I'm pretty sure the first one I got just required you to repair another engineer's gun while it was under fire.

Also, Upward is the best map that's been released in a while. Incidentally, it's unerringly similar to a concept I'd come up with for a map, but lacked the Hammerskill to make it happen.

A great update, for sure. I'm just sad we still don't have Meet the Pyro.

Von Epp: Yeah, achievements look like they'll be really easy to get in a real game by doing productive stuff (as opposed to stuff like the Soldier revenge kill with a shovel while in mid-air, having fired three rockets, one of which hasn't hit the ground, with exactly 4 health, and two shotgun shells left [May not be an actual achievement]). Even with the engie-fest it was, I still managed to get the the five achievements you need to get the first unlock quite easy.

Once we're past the inevitable everyone wants to play an engineer post update phase, it'll be interesting to see how this changes strategy and teamwork. For example, you can build your sentries up to level three by the supply closet and then take them through another engineer's tele to the front line and the wrangler engie working with a traditional turtling engie seems like a strong combo.

I'm already loving that this makes offensive engineering that much more valuable. Also, as someone who played engineer sparingly, this is looking like it will make the role more fun in general.

Newt Pulsifer: Tom, in the first screenshot the left engy is holding a slightly different wrench. What is it!? Is this a community weapon for the guy who invented the mechanical glove?

LaZodiac: Thats the new wrench period. Southern Hospitality. No crits, I think its weaker, but it bleeds.

Joe!: Can someone clarify for me? The combat sentry or whatever its called.. can it be repaired by a different engy to the one who built it? And can you only build one at a single time?

MartinJ: I'm pretty sure I repaired someone's gunslinger sentry.

verendus: yeah, i've seen level 3 combat sentries.

Jaz: The Gunslinger seemed really cool when I had no idea you'd be able to move your big sentry. You can do some crazy shit with that thing, I've never seen a sentry race until now.

Aftershock: Level 3 mini-sentries are so cute. They're exactly the same as regular sentries but half as big.

Additionally, on the update page it says that the Gunslinger replaces the pistol, which it doesn't....

I generally always use the Southern Hospitality over the regular wrench, because it's great against spies and you shouldn't really be going up against pyro's anyway...

Aftershock: It appears level 3 mini-sentries have now been patched out :(

RIP.

verendus: I get the feeling the Gunslinger is going to be changed more often than the sandman.

Phydaux: The engineer update is the first time I've enjoyed playing when an update has come out.

All the changes are great. I haven't been much of a fan of the engineer (not having perfect placement of the sentry has been a downfall of mine.)

The gunslinger is great for an offensive engie, it dies quick at the front line so if your getting kills (unlikely) or assists (quite likely) it tops up your frontier justice with revenge crits. There is nothing like lining up some poor sucker who sees your little sentry as an easy kill when you're waiting for it to die to pop a crit into them. I'm not sure if using the wrangler with it is always a good idea, the wrangler is like having a massive sign saying sentry here, and the mini-sentry is so small it can go unnoticed in the chaos of battle and rack-up those assists.

I thought the wrangler would be great to kill people from across the map, but it's not quite that simple. Not until they ban snipers that is. Snipers are still the kings of long range, and if your sentry is too exposed it can be rocketed to death from very far away soldiers (unless you pack it up and hide). It is great fun to take a hand in killing people and spy checking with your own sentry though.

Also, Hightower needs a time limit. I played a match that lasted an hour and a half with both carts waiting to go up the lift.

Joe!: Heh played upward yesterday, that is a great map. My team all became scouts, rushing out desperately to stop the elevator going up.

Nonomu198: Bot games, Tom? Why?

Someursault: Something I ran into when I started using all three new unlocks at once was that I didn't have an all-purpose backup weapon. I was running around, throwing down quick tactical sentries with my Gunslinger, skittering away and putting up yet another sentry at an angle to flank and contain. These instant, disposable turrets had suited my purpose rather charmingly, and in the course of these high jinks, I was able to secure a cache of alarmingly fatal critical hits (each one more than capable of shredding a medic from full, at 180 damage a shot). Having made such convenient deposits to a bank of pure murder and then asked only to refrain from withdrawing more than thrice at a go, I brandished my Frontier Justice with a Doom Comic-esque glint in my eye: "well, here's me with my shining BFG9000, yet there's no cyberdemons in sight, just some misguided soldier who thought that killing my baby sentry was a trivial matter, of no significant consequence to anyone who may, for example, now bear the means of immediate lethal retaliation."

It was a happy moment, but after killing him and his disgruntled medic (who had expected better protection against enemy engineers, if nothing else), I realized something. I had to reload before firing any hand-held gun, since my pistol had been swapped for the Wrangler, and when I was finished reloading, I might want to keep those crits for situations just like the one so recently and satisfactorily concluded. What I needed was the pistol: it's a long-range spam cannon that doubles as a close-range backup, in case I've just got one crit left and want to make it count on a med rather than waste it on some errant pyro, and it's got effectively unlimited ammunition. I give up the Wrangler for this, but I'd been spending too much time on the move to make much use of that anyhow.

Quasar: I'm rocking the Frontier Justice/Pistol/Gunslinger combo at the moment... It's good fun throwing up a sentry to harrass an area, then charging in once it's killed and getting a revenge kill or two. Keeping the pistol means I've got something to fall back on if all else fails.

The independent Mini-Sentry is basically the opposite of the rather needy standard sentry, as it works best left alone while you go off to fight elsewhere, popping back to reload occasionally.

DoctorDisaster: I'm out of town this weekend, and it's kind of nice to hear these terrifying stories of engipocalypse from far, far away.

DoctorDisaster: I have not had the problems others have reported getting the engi achievements. After two evenings of completely ignoring the requirements and only slightly preferring the class, I've already hit two milestones. None of the ones I've picked up require any unlocks or oddball behavior.

Fatalcrash: Hi Tom! Dunno if you'll read this, and sorry for hijacking this post, but I wanted to point this out to you?

http://www.youtube.c... ...r_embedded

It's basically a group of GW owners deciding to 'donate' their wrenches away for charity. They've collected nearly $2000 so far, and at least three Golden Wrenches will be destroyed. Check it out!