A Tribute to Half Life 2’s Male07 Civilian

Gordon Freeman encounters a lot of different people when he emerges from his mysterious sleep to find himself in an alien-occupied Earth in Half-Life 2. Assetwise, Valve used a handful of models to represent these civilians and Resistance members. But why is male07 far and away the most popular civilian among the Half-Life community? With his thin beard, widow’s peak, bald spot, and a dash of the real-life poser’s handsomeness, male07 is in all respects and purposes an average character model. The first fan project to give male07 special treatment was the fancomic Concerned: The Half-Life and Death of Gordon Frohman. Author Christopher C.… [Continue Reading]

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Best Civilians to Tie Down in Payday The Heist

This guide assumes you’re playing solo and only have two cable ties. It gives the best and (if applicable) second-best civilian I’d generally recommend using those ties on. Sometimes you shouldn’t take hostages right away. Shout them to the ground but keep the cable ties off because Hostage Rescue teams will prioritize cable-tied hostages, and sometimes it’s best to wait until the objectives move you in the right direction anyway. I generally don’t think Extra Cable Ties are needed on any heist except certain achievement runs like ‘Crowd Control’ and ‘Blood in, Blood out.’ 1. First World Bank Your first… [Continue Reading]

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TF2 vs. TFC: Who would win?

A long time ago I made a thread just for funsies, Who would win in a fight; the TF2 team or the TFC (Team Fortress Classic) team? After fifteen pages and several necros, the consensus appears to be: probably TFC, but both teams have a lot of pros and cons on their side of the table. So, without further ado, I’m going to look at each of the nine classes from TFC and TF2 and compare which outclasses his counterpart. There are obviously a myriad of other factors like grenades, random crits, unlocks, and bunnyhopping that would have to be… [Continue Reading]

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The Civilian:That Which Doesn’t Kill You Probably Missed

The life of a Civilian is short and terrified. With half as many health points as a Scout (only 50), no armor and the entire enemy team composed entirely of Sniper rifles, the Civilian must be handled with a completely different mindset from any other class. Be paranoid, be timid, and don’t move forward until its very clear that your bodyguards have cleared the next stage of the map out for you. Let me back up a bit, in case you haven’t tried or heard of TFC’s Escort game mode before. Unique in Team Fortress history (at least until MvM… [Continue Reading]

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A Love Letter to TFC’s Escape Mode

Author’s note June 2020: I’ve updated the server addresses at the bottom of the article. Both servers are still active, go play on them! As far as I know, “Escape” mode never made it to TF2 in any fashion, so whenever I get the urge for it, I crank up Team Fortress Classic and play with its healthy repertoire of Escape maps available. Also (unlike the TFC proper servers in my area) it still has a healthy playerbase today, which I link to at the end of this article and anyone who wants can go play with. At its core,… [Continue Reading]

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January 15th – January 22nd

This week is a week late, but that’s not a bad thing because this week in TF2 history was actually rather dull. The earliest patch is in 2008, on Jan 15th, which fixed two bugs where the Medi Gun would continue to appear on switching class, and people zooming in too quickly as Sniper. 2009 had no updates at all in this period, neither did 2010, but on the 19th of Jan 2011, we saw a small bug fix update and the addition of a plate when one throws the Buffalo Steak Sandvich. 2012 was equally dull, only adding the… [Continue Reading]

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December 15th-December 22nd

If you want to pick a single week to play TF2 every year, this is the week. Huge updates almost every year. Our oldest landmark patch yet sneaks in this timeframe; the last patch of the original Quake Team Fortress (which had moved over to QuakeWorld at this point) was released in December 22, 1996. Have you wondered why some friendly soldiers and demomen will start shooting themselves while you heal them during setup time? Obviously in regular play this can help you build Uber, but the Uber rate cut at >142.5% doesn’t apply to setup times, right? Well, it… [Continue Reading]

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