Of Ponies and Mercs: The Magical Mercenary

The Magical Mercenary. It seems a shame that I’m adopting this article after so damn long after the hat’s effectiveness has worn off, but it’s something worth discussing. Something different that doesn’t match with the game at all, while at the same time somehow fitting in no problem and being regarded as pointless for most of the year. But that’s what Full Moon restricted hats are for, right? The Magical Mercenary is clearly a parody of everyone’s favourite cartoon horse show. A pink pony hat. That’s paintable, so you can pretend to be the human mass murderer version of your… [Continue Reading]

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On Tentacles and Lasers

I am shit at RTS MOBA games. There’s simply too much to learn. Too much effort for too little gain. That hasn’t stopped me attempting to play Dota 2 and dicking around in League of Legends though. Weirdly though, I understand a lot of the mechanics, but my dumb fingers can’t react in time. Hence I end up playing support. I’ve always been a supporting person. In League of Legends (or League of Leg-Ends, as it says on my desktop), there’s three types of support: Healing helping people like Sona, Tank-All-The-Damage-And-Start-Fights people like Leona and Initiate-With-Some-Sort-Of-Assistance people like Thresh and… [Continue Reading]

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The Classic: Underpowered or Misunderstood?

Not too long ago an update hit, an update that some think of as the bane of TF2’s existence thanks to the addition of these then new taunts, mainly the conga, however there was a shining light to the update: we got 4 new weapons! That’s right, four whole new weapons, one being the Classic, which is suppose to be a homage to TFC’s Sniper Rifle. The Classic received a graphical update that’s very faithful to the original model, and honestly the gun looks amazing. Despite being ecstatic about this homage, I found myself a bit dumbfounded at the stats,… [Continue Reading]

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On Snipers and Engineers

Name your three most hated classes in TF2. I wouldn’t be surprised if Engineer and Sniper were included in that list. People complain about both classes, one which seems lacking in a skill ceiling, the other having an infinite one, but perhaps Sniper and Engineer have more in common than we think? When you look at an Engineer, you see someone locking down an area with their sentry gun. Their sentry makes sure that you’re not getting past without some heavy hitters, preferably a Demoman, occasionally an Ubercharge. Everyone calls the Engineer stupid and skill-less, because the sentry does a… [Continue Reading]

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Saxton Hale – The Tenth Class

Preface You know, after all this time, I would have thought someone would have been able to come up with a legitimate class description for the one and only Saxton Hale.  I’ve searched the SPUF archives,  and while there are some interesting ideas for non–core TF2, as far as I know, there is no actual proposal for Saxton Hale to join the Nine on the battlefield! This cannot continue.  Every day I ask myself: “What Would Saxton Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-(breath)-Aaaaaaaaaale Do? (WWSHaaaaaD?)” and while the answer is usually “Grow a Moustache, you hippy!” today the answer to that question is “Try to Make Saxton Hale a Balanced Class in Team Fortress… [Continue Reading]

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Cosmetics we should have had by now

There are a lot of hats in Team Fortress 2. A lot. That’s an understatement. There are so many hats that the Mann Co. catalogue is buckling underneath the weight of all the pages in it, describing every hat. Crafting your three refined can get you pretty much anything from a baseball cap to a mask to a rose on your chest to a cat in your pocket to, amazingly, nothing at all. Never really made sense that you can craft the hatless Scout, Sniper and Engineer hats. That being said, there’s always room for more hats. Well, I say… [Continue Reading]

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March 17th – March 24th

Sometimes it’s hard to remember, but Valve really does love their community. Really, they do. They’ve given us all sorts of things completely for free that most other companies would never consider even developing without selling it; Source Filmmaker, Alien Swarm and the Steam Workshop being particularly large examples. When we get mad at Valve for seemingly ‘forgetting’ about us, we have to remember that they’ve already gone way above and beyond the call of duty for the gadzillions of free updates they’ve pumped out for so many of their games. All right, Jeeves, I’m done with the soapbox. You… [Continue Reading]

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Dota 2 and Cosmetics

Ah, hats. What’s not to love about them? They rest on your head, make you look better, and can be traded away for even more hats. They’re also one of the most prominent features of TF2, being a staple of the game and one of the things most associated with it. Ever since the Sniper vs Spy update, more and more hats have been added to this game, along with other customization options. With over two hundred cosmetic items in the game, one would think that Team Fortress would be Valve’s best game for anyone who wishes to have the perfect… [Continue Reading]

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I want to like the Cow Mangler 5000

Hi there, I’m an Engineer, and I solve practical problems. Actually, no, I’m the Medic and I’m commandeering this article because it’s been sitting, unchanged, since 2013. But I’m going to put on my roleplaying shoes and finish this. So, the Cow Mangler. Fun. Laser-y. Confusing. Pointless? The Soldier has a lot of weapons, particularly rocket launchers. It’s expected of the jack of all trades class. The Cow Mangler 5000 is probably one of Soldier’s weakest weapons. Engineers hate it. Kritzkrieg Medics hate it. Pyros love it. Actually I think Pyros kinda dislike it too, unless they’re reflecting those spangly… [Continue Reading]

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Medic’s Fifth Ever Competitive Match – 404 Medic not Found

No, seriously. What just happened? I have no idea. Week 6’s match was absolutely all over the place. I’ve decided, I’m not actually going to attempt to describe it. I don’t think I can. It was mental. Insane. Crazy. I don’t know any more! So instead of trying to make something coherent from that match, I’m just going to go over all the good bits. But first off, self-loathing! Turns out, I suck at every class but Medic, and I really need to play more Demoman, because sticky bombs and the Pain Train are the best weapons ever. Maybe try… [Continue Reading]

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