Team Fortress 2 artwork for the Mercenary Park update

After what feels like an eternity of waiting Valve has finally announced that the Pyro Update will be coming to Team Fortress 2 in the near future! There will be a lot of new maps to explore, cosmetics to collect, Contracts to solve, and naturally, Pyro changes to constantly argue over.

The Flamethrower's visuals will soon have better effects and a more consistent reach, Afterburn duration will be based on how long you've 'flamethrowered' someone in the face, and the Airblast is getting a whole bunch of tweaks in order to make it more consistent and fair for both sides. The full details haven't been released just yet, you can find out more about some of the new features and changes over at the official website.

While the update itself will be free, buying the Jungle Inferno Campaign Pass will give you access to 36 unique Contracts that can yield a variety of shiny cosmetics. Unlike the previous campaigns, however, you won't have to wait around for new Contracts to arrive - all of them will be available from the very start as a part of a choose-your-own-path sort of tree. More importantly, you will be able to do the Contracts in co-op! Any action your friends take (on the same server) that fulfills one of your Contract goals will count towards the completion of that Contract, and vice versa. A simple little feature, but a rather welcome one.

There really isn't much else I can tell you about the update, so instead allow me to leave you with the rather hilarious animated short. Enjoy, its a pretty damn good one!