aabicus – Page 29 – The Daily SPUF

Tips for Beating Left 4 Dead 2 and Payday the Heist on the Hardest Difficulty

February 6, 2017March 9, 2017 aabicus 0 Comments Filler, Left 4 Dead 2, payday the heist, tips

This article is a combination of two similar posts I made in the Left 4 Dead 2 and Payday subreddits. Both threads were basically the author asking for advice on beating every map in the game and rating them easy to hard. To add some color I also included random screenshots from my Steam folders. Dead Center: Pretty easy. The maps are very controllable and bright and lots of corridors to control the oncoming infected. Solo is a nightmare because bots don’t grab cans for the finale. The Passing : Harder than Dead Center, mostly because each map is really… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Widowmaker Vs. TFClassic Sniper: Who Would Win?

February 2, 2017March 9, 2017 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, comparison, fun, matchup, overwatch, sniper, sniping, TFC, widowmaker

So I was talking with a friend about hypothetical cross-franchise class matchups, in the vein of Scout vs Tracer, Medic vs Sona, Engineer vs Nuparu, Heavy vs Braum, and Pyro vs Toa Vakama. It’s a pretty popular concept on our blog and I realized we hadn’t covered one of the most obvious, that of TF2’s favorite Kiwi versus Overwatch‘s favorite cheesecake. But after ruminating on the idea, I had trouble even starting due to the nature of TF2 Sniper’s unlocks. Do I treat TF2 Sniper as his stock class (which means Widow wins easily) or as an amalgamation of his unlocks, which turns him into a horrifying combination… [Continue Reading]

Featured

The M14

January 30, 2017January 22, 2018 aabicus 0 Comments guns, Guns in Gaming, killing floor, Left 4 Dead 2, payday, weapons

The term ‘battle rifle’ refers to any military-grade rifle that fires a full-power cartridge. They’re heavier than assault rifles, have stronger recoils and often default to semi-automatic, meaning that their usage has died down considerably and they callback to the WWII era of weaponry. That being said, they’re still found in all branches of the American military today, and with the M14 being one of the most famous battle rifles, its lengthy career has made it a standard sight in the arsenals of various first-person shooters. Due to its roots as a battle rifle, it’s a popular choice for filling the “semi-auto… [Continue Reading]

We're still partying here in the Steam Powered User Forums!

Community Announcements Featured

The Daily SPUF Thread Hits 10K Replies!

January 24, 2017February 23, 2017 aabicus 3 Comments announcement, celebration, SPUF

It’s an achievement 3 years, 3 months and 26 days in the making…the Official Daily SPUF thread just received its 10,000th reply! That’s 1213 days in total, which coincidentally is the name of the first indie adventure game I ever played and highly recommend to any fans of the genre. The 10,000th post came on the 667th page (assuming you’re using the archaic ’15-replies per page’ default setting. It’s 2017! Bump that bad boy up to forty!), just passing the Number of the Beast. This makes the Daily SPUF thread the only current thread in the main SPUfspace with a quintuple-digit reply count,… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Why Rotom Is Best Pokemon

January 22, 2017July 12, 2017 aabicus 0 Comments electricity, Filler, pokemon

I already wrote an article on Rattata, my favorite Pokemon, but I also have a favorite ‘useful Pokemon’, ie my favorite who is actually viable in combat and can slot into teams with a goal of helping beat the game. It also happens to be the Pokemon I would pick if I got to keep one in real life. It’s Rotom! Rotom originated in Pokemon Diamond/Pearl, and could only be obtained after beating the Elite Four. The Old Chateau is a haunted mansion with a dark and troubled past, and a single Rotom would attack you if you mess with… [Continue Reading]

Featured

A Farewell to my AlphaSmart

January 21, 2017February 12, 2017 aabicus 0 Comments advice, mourning, tips, writing

A while ago I wrote an article about my most sentimental possession. A word processor that I’ve used to write almost every single article you’ve read on this blog, not to mention dozens of short stories, scripts, NaNoWriMo novels, journal entries, college essays, and other writing easily totaling in the millions of words. I bought my AlphaSmart freshman year of college eight years ago and it’s been with me through some of the most important years of my life. But recently it’s started skipping letters while I type with it, which means it’s time to retire the oldest piece of… [Continue Reading]

Featured The SPUF of Legend

Overwatch – Advanced Lucio Tips

January 19, 2017February 12, 2017 aabicus 1 Comment healing, lucio, overwatch, spuf of legend, strategy, tips

After 300 hours of Lucio and 200GB of recorded footage, I’ve finally finished my compilation of highlights from my Lucio career, and I can’t be more excited it’s finally published and out for everyone to see. I’ve come an extremely long way from when I wrote this article, and I feel prepared to bring you four new tips for improving your Lucio play. These are more advanced than the ones I gave before, and are intended for those who already know Lucio’s fundamentals. 1. Bunnyhopping. Due to Lucio’s skates, Blizzard gave him different acceleration/deceleration values from the other heroes, and… [Continue Reading]

Featured

On Crouching

January 16, 2017March 20, 2026 aabicus 1 Comment accuracy, On Shooters

“Pro tip: Some platforms can only be reached by staying ducked while jumping. That had me stumped for a while at first. You’re welcome.” I’m definitely showing my age, because when I read this sentence in SilverWolf’s recent article on Refunct I thought, “Wait, are there people who didn’t grow up on Source games?” Because years later I’m still struggling to unlearn the muscle memory of crouching during a jump for a free height boost. In modern games that tends to lead to crouch overriding jump and gluing you back to the floor. But that got me thinking about crouching as a… [Continue Reading]

Featured

The Gun That Won the West

January 10, 2017January 22, 2018 aabicus 0 Comments guns, Guns in Gaming, history, killing floor, payday 2, shooting

I wrote a few articles in the past talking about some of my favorite firearms in video games, and after replaying Half Life 2 and seeing Father Grigori using the Winchester rifle I realized I needed to dedicate an article to the Wild West classic that didn’t stay dead. The Winchester rifle is an iconic firearm in western period pieces, designed for horseback riding and utilizing a lever-action reloading system that, while used by many guns at the time, nowadays is almost synonymous with the Winchester name itself. It’s a high-powered single-shot rifle with an iconic appearance, and that’s more than enough… [Continue Reading]

Featured

How to Design Enemies That Are Truly Scary

January 7, 2017January 27, 2017 aabicus 1 Comment comparison, design, enemies, horror, mechanics, On Shooters, scary

There are many, many enemies in video games designed to be scary, and I wanted to take some time to talk about ways to make enemies that fulfill this trope without resorting to “cheap” tactics like jumpscares or making them speedy OHKOs. Note that this article is mostly interested in “normal” enemies, not single boss-like monsters (like Spider from LIMBO) or full-fledged NPCs (like Pyramid Head from Silent Hill). Also I’m not an art major so my focus is on game mechanics and AI behaviors, and less on appearances. One of the scariest monsters I’ve had to fight in any game was… [Continue Reading]