Five Things I Miss From Team Fortress Classic

I loved Team Fortress Classic. While I won’t argue it was more balanced than TF2, or even better then TF2, since I consider the two so different as to be incomparable, I loved it for what it was. It was Team Fortress boiled down to its core: Two teams of dudes shooting each other and working together to fill their teammate’s inherent weaknesses. No cartoony graphics, no multinational band of misfits, just nails and bullets and grenades. And there are some things I really miss from it, things that make me turn the game on and play on bot-choked 2fort/dustbowl… [Continue Reading]

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Scream Fortress 2013 is LIVE!

Well, the update is up. PLR_Helltower, based off Hightower. It’s the most horrific, nonsensical, spammy Halloween update ever. But at least Medics got something cool: Medic’s Crusader Crossbow now silently reloads when unholstered, similar to Pyro flaregun. In PvP Medics can now see the clip status of a patient’s active weapon Here’s the rest of the update info. About time, don’t you think? Anyway, there’s spell books, a haunted island, all sorts. Explosions everywhere. Fire everywhere. Spells everywhere. Skeletons everywhere… Everything everywhere!

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Best Loadouts for Allcrit Servers

Readers, you love allcrit servers too, right? Shortstop scouts, Pomson engineers, Liberty Launcher soldiers…the actual loadouts people rock seem surprisingly limited, but in a weird way this can become refreshing. I know I love allcrit servers, but there are very specific ways I usually play them. In general, I try to be the most annoying mother♥♥♥♥er that these servers have ever seen. How? With these loadouts:

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A New Comic!

Valve has released Grave Matters! It’s not the sequel to the bi-monthy comic (even though its been exactly two months since the last one), but a Halloween teaser for the upcoming Scream Fortress. Read the Comic here! SPUF is abuzz with excitement and speculation over the contents of the update, but all we know is that it’ll involve community-contributed cosmetics and they’ll all be Halloween/Full moon-restricted. There are so many unanswered questions. What TF2 map will be spookified this year? (Something payload race would be a safe bet, while others are suggesting Teufort!) Will Halloween Spells be released, allowing enterprising… [Continue Reading]

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Mangling Cows with Lasers

Everyone and their dog seems to hate the Dr Grordbort weapons, what with their fancy, overly sci-fi look, their overly bright lasers and their overly broken stats and abilities. The Pomson is hated by all but the most stubborn of Engineers. The Phlogistinator is only ever truly considered useful for destroying tanks in Mann VS Machine. The Eureka Effect breaks Arena Mode. And the Third Degree is a direct upgrade. But only one of these weapons has given its name to an illness. Yes, the Cow Mangler 5000. But since it was changed, it’s recovered from its debilitating disease. Almost.

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Sniper Taunts vs. Spy Taunts?

Here’s an observation I’ve made just recently. Based on what I’ve heard from other people and what I’ve noticed myself, taunting as sniper is such a common occurrence that it’s become cliche. On the other hand, taunting as spy puts the player at such an inconvenience that it’s rarely considered. A number of factors make it appear that this is actually completely intentional in gameplay. For whatever reason, sniper very much encourages taunting while spy highly discourages it.

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Why the CnD deserves some love

Howdy! First post on the SPUF blog here, and since I noticed a certain lack of Spy posts, here’s one about possibly the most unloved (and probably least mentioned!) weapon in TF2: The Cloak ‘n’ Dagger. At first, it seems like a straight upgrade, but when moving it actually drains cloak faster than you’d think, certainly faster than the Invis Watch, and it refuses to collect ammo. Most people just craft it off or let it be as a keepsake or a Spy weapon to collect, but it’s actually damn useful at times. Here’s why.

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An Odd Relationship…

The Heavy Weapons Guy. Often considered the best pocket for newbie Medics. It’s a very strange relationship. Hand the Heavy-Medic connection to strange fans and they’ll do wonders or, more often,  horrific stuff with it. It’s  funny, sometimes, I can’t make a decision on what to write, but most of the time, I find I’m writing stuff because someone’s mentioned it. Or they just want to see me write something from the view of, um, me. Because I’m clearly really that mercenary who goes around healing people, and I’m quite obviously canon. This leads to an odd scenario. People start… [Continue Reading]

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Unusuals – A Thought

A while ago, when the Robocrates first came out, I was playing Team Fortress with my sibling, and he unboxed an unusual. A Disco Beat Down Whoopee Cap. A pretty effect on an average Scout hat. I’d seen quite a few people unboxing unusuals that day, and a lot more people trying their luck, unboxing a million Strange Bottles and Fireaxes.  I was among the people who didn’t unbox an unusual, although I managed to get a white paint from a #4 crate.

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