Play Team Fortress 2 Early

For free. No just kidding, unless you’re willing to dish out the 50 bucks ahead of time it looks like you’ll be waiting until October to get your hands on Team Fortress 2. Of course, those willing to pre-purchase The Orange Box are in luck because Valve has announced today that pre-purchasing the game will get you exclusive access to the TF2 beta starting next Monday, the 17th along with a 10% discount on the bundle. Of course if you get bored of the TF2 beta you can always play PopCap’s Peggle Extreme which Valve decided to throw in there for reasons beyond me.

Below is an exert taken from the official announcement on Steam:

Starting Monday, September 17, those who pre-purchase The Orange Box via Steam can download and activate the beta release of Team Fortress 2 (TF2). This year’s most anticipated online action game, TF2 delivers new game types, a signature art style powered by Valve’s next generation animation technology, persistent player statistics, and more.

As a special bonus, those who pre-purchase The Orange Box via Steam will also receive a copy of Peggle Extreme. PopCap and Valve have teamed up to create a special edition of the game cited by MSNBC as one of the “Top 5 Most Addicting Games of All Time.” This first ever collaboration is themed around content from Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal which will positively result in Extreme Fever.