Update for the Scout coming soon. Too bad my computer's still out of commission and I'm too busy/lazy/poor to look at it.
The Sandman sounds awesome though. Even ubered opponents can be stunned by it. And yes, I know already, people will be crying foul about the lack of balance. Boohoo.
So far with all the new weapons, by gaining new abilities, there's always been a disadvantage that goes along with it. Like with the Sandman, the Scout won't be able to double jump while carrying it.
Anyway, once I get back into playing TF2 again, things should be interesting.

This is where you are wrong, Weclock. I'm looking forward to the update myself, but I'm a little sceptical about the Sandman. I will have to see if it's worth the doublejump.

Now Engineers with sentry/dispenser bases have a counter to ubered Heavies - one or two Sandman scouts to knock the Heavy to hell until he stops being invulnerable!
Would the balance to that in turn be that the uber timer stops while either of the medic and the Heavy are stunned?

I guess now it will be a good time to get some of my medic achievements done (the ones related to scouts).
By the way, any info if there is going to be a free-play weekend, like with the previous updates?

Wrong by a long shot.
Anyway, does anybody know if you just can't double jump while you have the Sandman SELECTED? So lets say you have the Sandman but have the shotgun selected, can you double jump then?

My guess would be that if you have the sandman at all that you will be unable to double jump. It would be a way better choice of weapon if all it did was stop you double jumping with it selected.

No idea, but it's very reminiscent of taking out the knife to run faster in CS, if all you have to do is select another weapon to double jump.
It would make more sense if you can't double jump at all while you carry the Sandman. The logic being that the new bat is heavier and all.

update #2 : Community Maps

They should include ctf_mach4 already. It's as ancient as 2fort, but considerably better, imho.

I forget if it's mach4 or mach5, but the latest one with the ramp to the top in the intel room makes that room less campy.
But I agree, it'd be nice to play something other than dustbowl and gravelpit ad nauseum. But whenever I don't feel like thinking, I always still resort to dustbowl.
Does anyone else like cp_industry? It's confusing at first but quite fun when you get used to it.

this is a primarily anti-steam community, few people do care.

Actually, from what I have gathered from reading around here, it is more just that a bunch of people feel the need to scream and rant against Steam because they think GoG is competing against it.
That being said, I am looking forward to this. TF2 is great, but it gets boring after time. The class packs do a lot to make it fun again, if only because 75% of the servers are a single class.

ctf_mach4 has licensing problems due to the original map which was available for TFC and thus can't be easily included in a map-pack.
Also, arena_hightower is made by Valve from what I know and not a community made map.

http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=604021
It's community made.