Valve has announced the release of an update to "Team Fortress 2" that was distributed through Steam.

"At 11 am PST all PC versions of Team Fortress 2, the class-based multiplayer action game named PC Game of the Year by Gamespy.com, will receive its largest update since the product was first made available on October 10, 2007, as part of Valve's best-selling Orange Box compilation.

The free update includes global optimizations for networking, graphics, and player statistics, plus improvements to Source TV for tournament viewing.

In addition, three of the currently available maps (Dustbowl, Granary, CTF_Well) have been iterated for enhanced performance and gameplay.

The release is headlined by the introduction of "Badlands," a new map that pushes control-point gameplay onto vertical landscapes.

Available free to all Team Fortress 2 PC gamers around the world automatically via Steam, there are too many features and improvements included in this update to list here. To view the full release notes and/or find out more about Team Fortress 2, please visit www.steamgames.com."