Magic and Malpractice – Medic in Skyrim part 7

We’re off to trap a dragon! Somehow. Dragonsreach in Whiterun is now ours to use, after our somewhat successful negotiations from last time. I accidentally wake up the Jarl and tell him I’m ready. But before I set off, I dump my piles of bones and crap from the previous two adventures in my chest in Breezehome. I climb onto the giant balcony and shout Odahviing’s name. After a few seconds of silence, I hear dragon roars. The guard standing right on the edge of the balcony shouts “did you hear that?” before being grabbed by Odahviing and thrown into… [Continue Reading]

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Reworking the Domination System

No one likes being dominated. Well, unless they’re into kinky stuff. But that’s not what I’m talking about. Everyone dislikes it. Even people who are dominating others can get annoyed by it. In its current form, the only good thing dominations are good for are the amusing lines that come with them, and even then, you often only hear part of them or the class you’re playing as lacks them. Maybe now, as we’re moving towards a new, more competitive TF2, we can have a look at a new domination system. Before we begin though, we need to look at… [Continue Reading]

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A Comprehensive 100 Tour Review of Mann vs Machine

$429.84 Over the past 3 months, I’ve spent over $400 on Team Fortress 2: Mann vs. Machine. I want to provide an honest and accurate reflection of Mann vs. Machine, in addition to clearing up some of the misconceptions about the game mode that many of the newer players have. For those of you that are looking to continue or start playing MvM, this guide will lay out the basic details that you’ll need to determine whether or not MvM is right for you. You will not profit A lot of players start playing MvM in hopes of turning a… [Continue Reading]

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Pass Time and other update and community stuff

I’m supposed to be working right now, even though I’m supposed to be on holiday too, but oh well. I want to write articles. Work can go fuck itself. Anyway, there’s a TF2 update that’s appeared out of nowhere. Apparently, Valve have been hanging out with with Bad Robot, who do films and stuff, and working with Escalation Studios (some other gaming company), and they’ve basically made TF2 Rugby. I’d call it Football or Soccer, but they are both lame sports. Rugby is what Saxton Hale would play, after ultimate fighting and hockey. This new Pass Time game mode (who… [Continue Reading]

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Sharks and Minnows (aka You)

Unless you play on tc_meridian, TF2 has a depressing absence of sharks. This holds true for the rest of my Steam library as well. Luckily, Depth recently had a free weekend, and I got to fill this void, just like the sharks in that game got to fill themselves up with me. I’ve always had an intense fascination with underwater combat in video games, partly because I’m mildly terrified of water in real life. I dedicated a whole article to what little of it exists in TF2, I can’t resist leaping into bodies of water whenever my gameplay crosses them, and… [Continue Reading]

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MvM at Odoroki’s place

“Hey, Medic? Wanna play MvM?” Every Sunday, I get sent this message. It’s generally from Odoroki. If I don’t reply, there’s often a follow up message from Reima. They send me a request to join their game. Clicking on that request is a scary thing to do. Very scary. You never know what’s going to happen. All you know is that the game mode will be MvM. Somewhat. You see, Odoroki has his own little server. On it, he does a lot of strange things. Then he invites poor saps like me to test them. And Reima tries to record… [Continue Reading]

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On Accuracy

Hitscan guns in shooters often have two major qualities that people care about; how much damage they do and how accurate they are. (How quickly they fire is also relevant but in this article I’m focusing on the first two.) Which seems simple enough, because at the end of the day you want to know how fast your guns can kill things. But lots of shooters have been making the question a bit more difficult by introducing accuracy-affecting mechanics. Ways for a player to use positioning, modifications, skills, or game mechanics to manipulate the likelihood of a fired bullet hitting the… [Continue Reading]

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Can we update the bots now please?

Your internet connection is broken. You’re bored. You don’t know what to do with yourself. You open up TF2 in the vague hope that it’ll somehow fix your internet connection. You’re wrong. So you play a bot game. And you realise how ooooold and tired they are. The first problem that’s immediately obvious is that bots don’t work on every single map. Actually, most of the new maps don’t seem to work with bots at all. Why is this? TF2’s bots work because they’re told where they can and can’t go by a navigation mesh. The game can automatically create… [Continue Reading]

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The Best Battle Medic Set

I’m sure you’ve been in my boots before. You’re playing with a team of complete morons. They’re not listening. You’ve tried everything. They just shoot walls and ignore both you and the objective. You’re sick and tired and you want to kill someone in the most humiliating and painful way possible. You want to go Battle Medicing. Yes, I use the term Battle Medic as a verb sometimes. It amuses me. Big problem though, Battle Medics are pretty much useless. We’re looking at a class completely not designed for fighting, picking him up by the scruff of his fancy lab… [Continue Reading]

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I’m sick of all you Crossbow overlords…

I’m tired of it. “Medic, use the Crusader’s Crossbow! It’s better!” everyone says to me. Yes, I know it’s better. But it’s only better if you can actually hot anything with the damn thing. Friend or ally. There’s no point equipping it if you’re going to miss almost every shot, and the ones you do land happen to be on enemies that your team mates would have killed anyway. You can’t avoid it. Every newbie Medic who comes along to SPUF always ends up asking what the best primary weapon is, and all everyone says is the Crossbow. There’s no… [Continue Reading]

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