One of the goals of the upcoming update will be to "make the Heavy more viable when he has no Medic to pair with," TF2 director Robin Walker wrote on the game's blog. However, he noted the key challenge is to enhance the Heavy without changing its role relative to the other classes, especially in the fabled Heavy-Medic combo.

Other variables to consider include the tactical pros and cons of the lumbering giant, such as the Heavy's limited mobility while firing and the minigun's spin-up time.

Class-specific achievements and unlockable weapons first hit the Medic class in April, followed by the Pyro class update in mid-June. The company plans to eventually bring the changes to all of the game's nine classes, referring to the shift as a "a large scale modification to the core of the game."

No timeline was provided for the Heavy update's expected release.

"We're really excited about where TF2 will be going over the next year," Walker told Shacknews earlier this year.

While the free tweaks and additions only currently apply to the PC version of the class-based multiplayer shooter, Valve has stated its hope to detail its support for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 editions of TF2 in the near future.

"We'll probably be making some announcements pretty soon on what will happen with the 360 stuff," Valve marketing VP Doug Lombardi teased back in May. "Unfortunately I don't know that any of that will make it to the [externally developed] PS3 [version]."

Thanks to Gnerma and TheIneffableBob for the tip.