December 2014 – Page 3 – The Daily SPUF

I Understand, I Really Do…

December 11, 2014 Medic 0 Comments complaint, criticism, end of the line, eotl, SFM, update

Right now, people are angry. For the first time in, well, ever, the majority of players in the Team Fortress 2 community, at least the ones with access to any sort of tool of discussion, are united with the same thought in mind. That thought is “Man, EotL was a rather lame update.” For now, I am going to ignore the various promises and stuff that were thrown up. Let’s just leave that. Now, normally I am a optimistic, middle-of-the-road person. My complaints are generally justified, as is whatever it is I am agreeing with. I’m not normally someone who… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Unusuals – a Thought, Part 3…

December 10, 2014 Medic 0 Comments cosmetics, trading, unusual

I’ve discussed this before. Not once, but twice actually, which is why this is part 3. Last time round, I was discussing how I quite liked unusuals but felt they weren’t worth the effort and my main point was that unusuals were a small step on the wealth ladder. Have my opinions changed? Um, I’m not sure. Let’s get this out of the way, I still haven’t unboxed an unusual. I probably never will. I do one or two crates whenever there’s a TF2 event thingy going on and that’s about it. I struck lucky this Halloween, buying one crate… [Continue Reading]

Community Announcements Featured

The End of the Line Is Here

December 9, 2014 Medic 0 Comments end of the line, maps, movie, SFM, update

So, after three weeks of crates and a year of hype, the End of the Line, the second Community Update after Robotic Boogaloo, has finally, FINALLY arrived. Finally. What’s in this fancy update, you ask? Let’s count. The fancy, voiceless 14 minute video, the End of the Line, featuring a train with a bomb on it and Scout as always. 21 cosmetics, as seen in the End of the Line video. A variant of the sitting Pyro taunt. Something to do with ducks. Four new unusual effects. One multi-class weapon. Keys for those crates we’ve been deleting over the last 3… [Continue Reading]

Featured

A Shotgun Update

December 8, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments balance, economy, heavy, MvM, request, shotgun, update

I adore the Team Fortress 2 shotgun. Sturdy, reliable, and intuitive, it’s the only weapon shared by four different classes and until the BASE Jumper was added, the only weapon to occupy different slots on different classes. I consider the shotgun TF2’s tenth signature weapon due to its ubiquity and recognizability. There is a sort of elegance in the fact that Valve has never added any sort of reskin or retexture for the shotgun. Every player since 2007 who’s wanted to make use of its six-clip buckshot backup has used the same simple gun; no golden, festive or botkiller variants… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Tardy

December 7, 2014 Medic 1 Comment complaint, late, update

For once, on December 3rd, Valve was somewhat on time. They actually announced the winners of the Tomb Raider promo item contest within a week of the end date that they promised. But that was just once. They’ve been constantly late and really, it’s getting silly now. Alright, we get it, Valve time and all that, but we can’t have Valve time forever, can we? Valve time is a very common thing, but recently I feel it’s being way more oppressive than always. The biggest upset as of late was with the TF Comics series, which was incredibly late and… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Lara Croft is Disappointed

December 6, 2014 Medic 1 Comment contest, cosmetics, heavy

A while back, the TF2 team announced a contest in which we were told to make promo items for the new Lara Croft game. The only stipulations were that it had to fit inside TF2, it had to be related to a Lara Croft game and it could not be Heavy in short shorts. On December 3rd, they announced the winners, and as good as they are, it’s left a bad taste in everyone’s mouths. Three items made it as promos and a few more were accepted, to be added to the Mann Co. store at a later date. The… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Popularity, Lore and Intrestingness

December 5, 2014 Medic 0 Comments comics, heavy, opinion, story

When you have a game with multiple characters, it’s hard to make sure that they all get equal amounts of usage, story and fun. Often one character will stand out ahead of the others, either because the developers like that character the best or simply because that character is the most popular or pliable. Or both. Team Fortress 2 is no exception to this. No franchise is. People need to sell this stuff to make money you know. The main character of Team Fortress 2 was always the Heavy Weapons Guy. Big powerful man with a silly Russian accent and… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Gunslingers vs. Highlanders: an analysis

December 4, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, demoknight, engineer, event, Highlander, medic, scout, theory

There was recently something of an upset when the Highlander team swept the Gunslingers in the recent tournament, and it rightly seems to have attracted something of an interest in the SPUF community. (I notice there hasn’t been a single thread arguing the Gunslinger is OP since the event…) Since I’ve participated in two of these events, playing Medic for Season 2 (the first time the Gunslingers won) and the most recent Season 5, I’ve got a pretty good perspective from which to analyze the two teams. On a fundamental level, the first major reason that Highlanders performed so much better… [Continue Reading]

Featured The Competitive Corner

My first look into competitive Team Fortress 2

December 3, 2014 Medic 1 Comment 4v4, competitive, event, medic

A while back (actually, the day before the Demoknights VS Highlander event), I was asked by Confusion to play Medic for a 4v4 match. After informing him that 1. I was not actually a very good player, 2. I was a mediocre Medic at best and 3. I’d never played an ounce of competitive TF2 before, outside SPUF events, I decided “what the hell” and agreed to play. Honestly, I didn’t even know that the SPUF-based EU 4v4 team was still alive, let alone still competing. It would have been a missed opportunity if I’d declined, and I’d have let… [Continue Reading]

Featured

The Spoils of WAR!

December 2, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments comparison, demoman, soldier, weapon

Ever since Demoman lost the WAR! under some pretty spotty rationale regarding a propaganda contest, many people have asked that Valve migrate the Gunboats over to the Demoman, either through a wholesale migration, release of a Demoman-only reskin (the ginboats?) or a reworking of the Wee Booties. Sometimes this wish extends also to the other weapon tailored to explosive-jumping, the Market Gardener. After all, Soldier and Demoman already share the BASE Jumper and orange-painted Jumper weapons, why not go all the way? As a Demoman main, I’d adore them on a basic level. A Dapper Apple found the concept super powerful when… [Continue Reading]