Is there a way to get Team Fortress 2 working?

Team Fortress 2 is now free to play! Is there an easy way to get a copy working on Ubuntu Natty?

Team Fortress 2 works pretty well for me, as well as a bunch of other games that use Source engine.

I recommend you to use plain Wine without PlayOnLinux. Winetricks is helpful, however.

Steam Games on Linux website has detailed information about which games can be played successfully, and what you have to do for that.
Team Fortress 2 on that website (Status: playable)

• First you have to Install the latest Wine.
• Make sure to configure Wine (look at STEAM + WINE CONFIGURATION section)
  How to use Winetricks:
  • Select the default wineprefix OK
  • Install a Windows DLL or component OK
  • It is important to mark d3dx9 here. Optional packages that may be needed for some games: d3dx10, vb6run, vcrun2005, vcrun2008, vcrun2010, physx. OK
  • Install a font OK
  • Mark corefonts and tahoma. OK
• Next, download Steam and go through the installer.
• When you create an account or just log in, you should have no trouble downloading Team Fortress 2 through Steam and playing it.
• Make sure to change video settings in the game to lowest ASAP (don't miss the "advanced" video settings). Windowed mode is mostly better. It is good to restart the game after this.

Overview

The installation of Team Fortress 2 involves installing Steam and then installing Team Fortress itself. Team Fortress on Wine needs a fairly decent graphics card - NVidia preferably - capable of running DirectX 9/10 etc. I've tried these instructions on my laptop running Intel HD integrated graphics - it does run but the framerate is not brilliant.

Installing Steam

One of the simplest ways to install Steam is to use PlayOnLinux available as a deb which you can download and install from here.

Run PlayOnLinux from menu option Games - PlayOnLinux (or if from Natty, just search for playonlinux from the dash)

Click on the Install button and search for Steam. Follow the instructions on screen to install Steam. When prompted create a desktop icon for Steam

Installing Team Fortress 2

Double click the Steam Icon on the desktop.

Sign in (or create an account).

Click "Add a Game" on the lower left of the Steam Application. Select Team Fortress 2.

Follow on the instructions for the install - create a desktop icon for Team Fortress 2

Sit back and wait for the download

Run the application from Steam and select Team Fortress 2.

Wait until the application has started. Then quit the game.

Final Configuration Re-run PlayOnLinux - Click on the Install Button and this time search for Team Fortress 2. When asked, choose the option "Already Installed".

Follow the wizard and select options most appropriate to you.

Now have fun That's it - launch Steam from your desktop and run Team Fortress 2 from there.

According to this test result it should work fine with Wine on Natty. And here's a tutorial to install Steam in Wine. Haven't tried it myself though...