This might come as a surprise to you, but even in covering the ultra-pulp papier mache world of PC games we rarely have a chance to write ‘Mecha-’ as a prefix. And so it brings me great pleasure to announce that Valve are taking advantage of their Christmas mecha-update to introduce the mecha-engineer. Mecha mecha mecha.
Back in August, when sun was sun and Jessica Ennis was the new Joey Essex, Valve released a new mode - nay, a new game - for Team Fortress 2: Mann vs Machine. And lo, it was new and exciting. Unfortunately, it later transpired that they’d gone and shipped the thing with only one difficulty level. And lo, it was Hard. But that’s all to change.
Robots are bastards. Terminator taught us this. I, Robot taught us this. Wall-E didn’t teach us this, but there was always something suspicious about that little bugger. The point is, when you’re being swarmed by a hundred of them, and one has a bomb, and there’s also a big tractor with a bigger bomb in it, the previously ludicrous firepower at the disposal of Team Fortress 2’s nine classes doesn’t seem quite so ludicrous. It seems a little inadequate. 
While you were fast asleep in bed, a jittering flock of homicidal mechanical men infiltrated Team Fortress 2, signalling the beginning of the Mann vs Machine co-op update. Of course they did. The latest and final Valve post on the matter discusses some of the finer details behind the game's Mann Up mode: a semi-premium version of Mann vs Machine that rewards robot-smashing players with exclusive new hats and accessories.Our Spotlight units plug content our journalists have made, that our advertisers want to promote. Sometimes the promotion is paid for, but the content they go to is always independent with no client oversight or approval.
The second day of Mann vs Machine details have rolled out, discussing some of the more strategic elements of TF2's freshly revealed co-op, PvE horde-mode. Upgrades! Currencies! Potion type canteen things! Tactics! A hidden, clickable grenade launcher even reveals the UI you'll be using to embolden your armoury between waves. It looks nice! And it all arrives tomorrow!
It’s real, it’s happening. Team Fortress 2 is getting a brand new six player co-op mode called Mann vs Machine in which players from the red and blu teams combine to fight an army of grey robots.
I can’t quite believe I’m writing that sentence.
PC GAMING!
Oh god, oh my glob, oh my! Valve's latest Team Fortress 2 ARG has just hit top gear. There were jokes in the melted capacitor. There's a third Mann brother, Gray Mann, who has revealed himself to siblings Blutarch and Redmond having been kidnapped as a newborn by an eagle during the Great Eagle Scourge that plagued London in the early 19th century. Saxton Hale won the fiction rights to the Alamo in a game of poker with the American president. Previous Mann vs Machine clues make a tiny bit more sense. Mann vs Machine is surely afoot!
There are (probably) only a few hours until Team Fortress 2 updates. We're expect something game-changing; given it's the 300th update. Valve are putting a lot of effort into teasing the update, and if all it is is a new Pyro Flare gun, a lot of people will be sad. Here's what could be coming. 
There was a time when Valve would just tell you what was in their updates, but nowadays the developers have taken to sneaking information out in bits for the fans to reassemble - it's more fun that way. The latest Team Fortress 2 update patch landed with no patch notes and started depositing strange items into player's backpacks. They're building up to something. 
