Brand new video game articles, every day!
Our blog post for September 19, 2013 was certainly a winner, wasn’t it? Probably the best thing I’ve ever written. Not a word of it was anything less than Shakespearicles-quality. Some of you may have thought it was a bit short, clocking out at zero characters (with spaces included), but that’s because we are currently working on migrating the blog over to the SPUF server, hosted graciously by thesupremecmdr, who also hosts the SPUF server for TF2. Like last time, the new site is not perfectly finished yet, so I’ll be updating both with any new posts in the meantime.… [Continue Reading]
Nowadays, a lot of players say the disguise kit is useless, that it exists only for slipping past sentries. Poppycock, I say! These players could use a little class, I think. To use disguises effectively, one shouldn’t pop one on and hope that their foes won’t randomly shoot them, but they must act. Yes, friends, welcome to Acting 101 for spies.
Valve had a small update on September 16th, where some unimportant stuff happened. When I first scrolled through the sparse update notes, seeing ‘bug fixes’ on item descriptions of cosmetic items, I was already thinking, whatever, it’s another one of those updates, nothing to see here. Then I read: “Updated The Sticky Jumper to only allow 2 active stickybombs at a time” Now, needless to say I’m not the only one saddened by this balance move. This innocuous training weapon has sent SPUF into a whirlwind of protest, defense, and general bewilderment. As one user put it, “Why is half… [Continue Reading]
Ho, there, ye wee SPUFers, it is I, Sir Donald Demoman, and I’m postin’ on this here blog aboot a competition ah’m holdin’- a celebration of both the arts and the best hat in the game, the Scotsman’s Stove Pipe. Ye see, the Stove Pipe has defined me world fer as long as I can remember. Me mum says I was born with a band of ribbon in me mouth, hoho!
Anyways, I’m soon to be off on a grand adventure to find the mysterious land of Hydro! The scientists say that it doesn’t exist, that the legends of its past population are simply myth, but what do they know? So, it’s up to ye, the SPUFers, to hang onto my most cherished Stove Pipes until I return, if I do!
Note: This applies less to playing the spy in small-sided competitive games, as there are different mechanics in play all together, this is a piece on the spy in regular format TF2 play.
Battle is not a concrete, straightforward thing. Many people believe that winning games is all about numbers; kills, deaths. Victory is not merely a body count. In TF2 you can fight battles all day long, and slay hundreds of enemy combatants, and unless that’s your explicit goal (such as in arena mode), they will always return to fight that same battle over the same point or the same target in the next wave of attack. Stalemate. Surely you’ve seen it, where one team is holed up in a defensible position, and the same situation repeats itself, übers are pushed away, advances mowed down by sentry fire, and enemies hammered by critical explosives, all to no avail. This is where the game needs to be changed. This is where we find our friend, the Spy. He doesn’t take the most names, he takes the right ones.
This is not strategy guide on the Spy’s gear, or the finite points of aim or twitch reflexes, but rather a series of observations and treatise on the thinking side of the spy, much of which is done subconsciously while you’re playing, and not really thought over save for what makes sense or what seems to be the best idea at the time, regardless of big-picture strategic value. Let’s explore the mind of a cold blooded killer.
The Team Fortress classes are often listed as “Generalists” or “Specialists”. Generalists, as their name would suggest, are useful in almost any situation, are infinitely adaptable, and are cornerstones of team play. Scout is frequently listed as a generalist, along with Soldier, Medic and Demoman. But after thinking about it, I’m not so sure that’s accurate.
Again, a “Generalist” is supposed to be useful in most situations. That includes offense, defense, different game modes, etc. No matter what’s happening on the field, there is usually a role for a generalist class to play. Then why can I think of several extremely common scenarios where a scout is not welcome on the team?
Competitive Team Fortress 2 is an odd beast. On one hand, its goal is to quantify the most skill-based aspects of our beloved game to create an environment where the most skilled teams can prove it to their peers. Unfortunately, in order to do this they have to contend with the incredible amounts of unbalanced stuff that are hallmarks of the game; the unlocks are designed to be swapped out for the right situations, most of the classes are not designed to be played the whole time, and many of the maps give unfair advantages to offense, defense, or whichever team gains an early advantage. 6v6 deals with this by banning a fair amount of weapons and playing mostly 5CP, Highlander deals with this by restricting class switching and playing mainly payload.
Then there’s Ultiduo. One (specialized) map. One Soldier and Medic per team. The absolute core of the entire game. Can your combo beat the other combo when everything else is balanced to laboratory conditions?
Obviously this is not for everyone, but I’ve always had a blast playing Ultiduo. And considering its the third-most popular competitive format, I’m not alone. But since I can’t find anything on the internet giving advice on how to play it, I decided to write up a guide myself.
Spufblog: Hey everybody! Today we’re going to be interviewing Maxillaws, one of SPUF’s most prolific posters and a sniper main. He’s going to be playing Sniper for the SPUF team in the recently announced “SPUF vs. Discussions II: Requiem.” Today’s topic of conversation: The Razorback. Widely derided as a joke secondary and one of the worst weapons Valve ever added to Team Fortress 2. But Maxillaws disagrees. Why is that?
A while ago, I made a blog post about a popular derp map cp_orange_x3. I laid out a specific loadout that makes it quite easy to win.
Well, here’s another one! Balloon race is a popular game mode where teams race to capture points on a circular donut-shaped map with plenty of map obstacles in the way. Every point captured increases your balloon speed, and the balloon is (supposed to be) the only thing allowing you to continue forward on the map due to large pitfalls between checkpoints. It’s a shame there’s no class designed to fly incredible distances without losing all of his health.
Oh, wait, there is one. And its the exact same one that beat cp_orange_x3.