Apparently Valve thinks having nine character classes in Team Fortress 2 isn't enough choice for gamers. Their next goal is to give you a choice of different weapons, too. Valve is planning to slowly roll out unlockable weapons for each class, starting with Medics.

PC Gamer reports that the new weapons will have advantages and disadvantages in gameplay, rather than just being cosmetic ("here's a gold-plated shotgun!") or being enhanced versions of normal weapons ("here's a SUPER SHOTGUN!"). By unlocking half of the 35 (?!) new achievements planned for Medics, for example, a player can wield an Overhealer. This particular medigun allows the Medic to permanently double another character's maximum health (rather than just temporarily boosting their max health as with the normal medigun). The trade-off is that it takes much longer to give uber-charges. Another, unknown weapon will be unlocked by getting all 35 achievements. The new weapons will be selected from a new "Loadout" menu.

Valve is also planning to release a new game mode in a map called "Gold Rush." One team has to escort a mining cart to a point on the other side of the map and the other team tries to stop them. The cart goes faster as more people escort it, and stops if a player from the other team is in range. I was disappointed when the "VIP Escort" missions didn't make it into TF2 (or Counter-Strike: Source for that matter) but this game mode sort of reminds me of that. Frankly, it sounds extremely fun - all of the combat in the map is going to be focused in this one moving point. Valve also plans to release an updated version of the Team Fortress Classic map "Badlands" and will be switching the Control Point map "Well" to a Capture the Intelligence mode.

Unfortunately, there's a catch: these new additions is currently only planned for the PC version. I really can't imagine them not releasing this content for PS3 or 360 versions of the game (maybe for a few extra bucks) but either way, console gamers will have to wait longer than their PC brethren.