Team Fortress 2, which has been without an update for the longest time, has finally received a patch to prevent the spread of bots.

Team Fortress 2 has not had many major updates recently. However, it has been more than three months since the game's last update (and that was just a small map change and some tournament medals), although usually you can count on a small update every month or so. This week, however, Team Fortress 2 was quietly updated with a number of tools to help prevent the bot problem that has made matchmaking quite intolerable (it is notoriously difficult to remove them from the servers, as they are full of fake players who cheat and steal names).

This week's update includes several tweaks to help hunt down these pesky bots. Voting controls were tightened, matchmaking games no longer allow mid-match name changes by default, and a number of "security and stability improvements," presumably not publicly available, were made to keep Valve's methods from being realized by the bot creators.

From what we have heard, these fixes seem to be working. The update had the unfortunate side effect of breaking several server mods, but one Redditor noted that this also meant that bot training tools such as "cathook" were also broken. Reaction to the update on the TF2 subreddit has been generally overwhelmingly positive.

I have not confirmed this myself, but like Phil, I sincerely hope they are right. I often wander into Team Fortress 2 and can't see an effortless design under a swarm of server-busting robots. This week's update comes along with the Summer 2021 Collector's Case, which includes 18 new fan-made items and 6 new effects.

Thanks, PCGamesN.