The most recent Team Fortress 2 leak has offered players enough to think about, from previously unseen maps to new models.

The 61GB leak is the largest Valve has ever seen, and it contains a wide variety of unpublished Team Fortress 2 maps, models, PSDs (photoshop source design), and VMFs (valve map format). The latter is used to save production-ready maps and prefabs in a format that contains raw map data.

Richter Overtime has been tweeting what look to be photographs of these unannounced maps and models, albeit as currently the leak’s origin has not been verified.

So, what’s up?

Fans have discovered some intriguing ideas when cycling through the unreleased material. It seems that all three Dustbowl eras plus a portion of the Goldrush era may have been included into a single capture-the-flag Dustbowl map. Is sand not your thing? How about a teleporter perched atop a level-four turret instead?

The potential outcomes seem to be limitless. Fans have uncovered a test map for Bounty Mode and even in-development templates of the original powerhouse map. After just one day of investigation and digging, it is clear that there is much more to discover.

The golden ratio

Even while I no longer hold out hope for a third Team Fortress game, there are still fans who refuse to give up on the franchise. Why shouldn’t Valve revive the series, what with all this unused maps and data?

Despite this wealth of material, it doesn’t seem like a new Team Fortress will be arriving any time soon. Nearly 16 years have passed since the release of Team Fortress 2, and Valve has never announced any intentions to create a new instalment in the franchise. Considering the developer’s track record, this is not shocking news. After just two games, Portal was cancelled, and Half-Life fans have been waiting for Half-Life 3 for more than a decade. Therefore, it is quite improbable that TF3 will be made.

At this point, all we can do is hold out hope that this material hasn’t been utterly forgotten. All these unpublished maps and modes may make for a very substantial and welcome upgrade, even if the developer has no plans to launch a new instalment in the series. But at this point, I’m not going to get my hopes up.