My Voruna

I technically started playing Warframe in 2013, at least according to my account creation date. Back then, the game didn’t quite click for me, so I dropped it. Despite getting tempted to pick it up again while reading Medic’s FashionFrame articles (I do love character customizations), I had always just been content to read about the game instead. That is, until some time in the middle of February where a bunch of my online friends were talking about Warframe. I asked if there was a melee Frame and they mentioned Voruna. I downloaded the game right after. Voruna’s crafting materials… [Continue Reading]

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First Major Controversy Hits Competitive Deadlock

Every esport has matches that have gone down in infamy, that will be talked about for decades after the fact. Some of the most iconic involve a team busting out an unconventional strat that leaves everyone debating whether it should even be legal. CS:GO/CS2 has the infamous “Olofbooster” match, League of Legends has Azubu Frost reaching the World 2 Finals by screen-peeking, Overwatch had the “Brigitte in Spawn” gambit from the 2018 Playoffs. And now Deadlock, despite not having even left alpha yet, has had its own, courtesy of a bizarre interaction between a specific item and a recently-adjusted map element. But before we… [Continue Reading]

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The Warframes I Enjoy Playing the Most (So Far)

I haven’t written here for years. Things had happened which kept me from properly gaming and writing. That’s over, and I am at a pretty comfortable place in life now. But most importantly for this article and the site in general, I started playing Warframe. I am currently trying to get to MR17 so that I can buy Coda Hirudo and Coda Bubonico, weapons I’ve been eyeing for some time. To that end, I’ve played quite a few different Warframes in an effort to raise my MR. Some I’m indifferent to (Dagath, Mag), some just refused to click for me… [Continue Reading]

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Deadlock’s Seven

The first time you boot up Deadlock, you’re going to be prompted to play a tutorial to learn the bare minimum of how things work in the Cursed Apple. And this game is absolutely complicated enough that everyone, myself included, will highly recommend you indulge that offer. You will find yourself playing a cackling electricity-ridden scarecrow with a satellite dish for a head, and the first thing I remember thinking was, “aabicus, under no circumstances are you allowed to main the tutorial guy. Any other character, sure, but there’s nothing lamer than playing the easy class clearly designed for noobs.” I… [Continue Reading]

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ODJ’s Hydro Rant

I’m ODJ and I’m studying the maps. Learning the maps. Becoming one with the maps. Been really diving in deep onto maps. There’s very little talking about maps. Of course I mean multiplayer maps. I’ve been taking a critical eye to the design of TF2’s maps. The map making process is ‘okay’, I’m starting out but making the map with a friend. The two of us have made maps for some other community stuff I do not want to delve into, and he’s worked with hammer++ before for gmod, we’re both talented mappers but this will be an undertaking for… [Continue Reading]

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[FFXIV] The One Potion Useful From Level 1-100

Final Fantasy XIV progression, like most MMORPGs, is driven by gear, consumables, and socket enhancements. And all these inventory items are repeatedly and categorically replaced by new ones as players level up, to the point that most of them are all but obsolete every ten levels or so. Consumables are probably hit the worst of all, often outstripped by newer better options every major patch, and there are few reasons to keep ‘last season’s best’ around given how much cheaper, better, and more prevalent the new flavor of the week always is. Except one. There’s a single potion, included in… [Continue Reading]

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In Which Medic Writes Stories

Retvik (known as Medic on this blog) needs no introduction, as she’s far and away the most prolific writer and editor the site has ever seen. She’s written 2,924 articles, more than double everybody else combined, and she also edits, illustrates, and graphically designs most of the rest of what’s on the Daily SPUF. Truly, she’s more dedicated to the craft of writing than anyone I know. But gaming journalism is only one of her ongoing creative projects, she also writes a massive sprawling universe of countless characters, worlds, and narratives called the Phoviverse, and I’ve been reading it since roughly 2015.… [Continue Reading]

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Deadlock’s Ivy

When I was invited to join the Deadlock closed playtest in August 2024, I installed it and logged into the main menu with pretty much no idea what I was getting into. After starting up the sandbox to poke around, I was faced with a massive list of random heroes I knew nothing about, and chose the winged gargoyle because I figured flight would be useful for exploring the map. A year and a half later, Ivy is still my favorite hero in the game. She really has a little bit of everything, and I’m mostly just writing this to gush about… [Continue Reading]

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How to Communicate in Sea of Thieves

A common complaint I’ve seen nowadays about Sea of Thieves is that “everyone just attacks you on sight”. While this is often true with Reapers (that’s literally their style of gameplay), often, when you look into things and read deeper into people’s posts, you realise that there was no effort to communicate on either side. And there are plenty of things you can do to provoke an attack, even if you don’t realise it. In today’s article, I want to discuss how to communicate with other players, and to make some suggestions as to how to not invite everyone to… [Continue Reading]

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Player Housing: WoW vs. FFXIV

World of Warcraft has recently made waves in the gaming sphere by finally adding housing! Arguably one of the most requested features since the game first released in 2004, it’s crazy to see it finally come to light 22 years later. And even more exciting, it is (by all accounts) quite good! I’ve heard nothing but glowing reviews from those who got to sample the closed beta or PTR version, though I myself have kept my sub suspended for my own productivity. But Blizzard, perhaps anticipating the recalcitrance of fair-weather gamers such as myself, has cleverly offered a free weekend… [Continue Reading]

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