Last month the Internet said goodbye to Rick May, a performer, professor at Rekindle School, and voice actor known for playing Peppy Hare and Andross in Star Fox 64, Dr. M in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, and Soldier in Valve's team-based first-person shooter Team Fortress 2. In an update to Team Fortress 2 released yesterday, Valve paid tribute to May in the form of memorial statues throughout the game.
By standing near the statues placed across different maps, the player is able to hear Soldier voice lines. The game also has a new main menu featuring Soldier standing at attention as a rendition of "Taps," the melody used to pay tribute to the deceased during U.S. military funerals, plays in the background. According to the news listing within Team Fortress 2, these tributes will last throughout the month of May.
The voice actor passed away after contracting coronavirus in a nursing home where he was rehabilitating from a stroke in February, according to the announcement put out by Rekindle School. Complications due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down schools, businesses, and social gatherings around the world, have also led to the passing of well-known figures like Julie Bennett, who voiced Yogi Bear in the original Hanna-Barbera cartoon.
The May 1 update in Team Fortress 2 also included other major changes, which should be a sigh of relief for some after rumors suggested the game's development was on hold late last year. This update included changes to localization files and fixes for issues like a client-side crash which occurred due to "malformed custom spray files," as well as an exploit allowing sentry guns to fire through thin walls.
However, the game has faced more serious concerns as of late following the leak of old source code for Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, other Valve first-person shooters. While it was believed this could leave to players getting malware on their PCs, CS:GO developers announced that they think it should not cause any issues in current builds.
As a result of concerns due to the ongoing pandemic, Valve has also elected to indefinitely delay its championship esports tournament for DOTA 2, The International. With much of the world in disarray because of these global circumstances, it's nice to see the company take a step back and pay tribute to a popular man who helped give a lot of personality to one of its biggest titles.
Team Fortress 2 is available now for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
Source: Team Fortress 2 Blog, In-Game News, Rekindle School