Author: aabicus

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The One Tool Every Writer Should Have

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The most valuable thing I own (in real life, not TF2) cost only $20. Almost every article of mine that you’ve read on this blog was written on an AlphaSmart, an old device originally designed to be purchased in bulk by primary schools to teach kids to type. It is an amazingly versatile little tool and I highly recommend that every single writer get one. The primary reason is that I am an easily distracted person. When I try to write on the computer, I have a troubling tendency to stop writing and start browsing reddit or playing video games,… [Continue Reading]

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Community Announcements Featured Random Game Announcements 

Upcoming Overwatch and Payday Halloween events!

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Today was a big day for gaming announcements! Over on the Payday subreddit, players were able to discover leaks suggesting that new weapons, DLCs, heisters, maps, and difficulties were coming to Payday 2. Yes, that’s right, new difficulties. ‘Mayhem’ will be between Overkill and Deathwish, and ‘One Down’ is going to be the new hardest difficulty in the game.  While its name suggests that players will only be allotted one incapacitation before going into custody, we don’t know much more than that. Hopefully it comes with some balance tweaks beyond just that. And today the official announcement finally went live: Safehouse… [Continue Reading]

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Featured The SPUF of Legend 

5 Basic Tips Every Payday the Heist Player Should Know

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Payday the Heist remains among my top 3 favorite games of all time, even if I almost never see players in my lobbies with double-digit playtimes. Overkill puts the game on sale constantly, which I’m grateful for because it ensures there are always a few lobbies open for me to jump into, but there are some very important little details that far too many players overlook. If you’re considering playing Payday the Heist, following these four steps will instantly graduate you from a beginning player to an intermediate player who’s far more of a benefit to this team. (Note: This guide… [Continue Reading]

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Payday the Heist: Bugs that Make a Difference

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Every game comes with bugs, and the Payday franchise has some pretty memorable ones. While most of the funniest are in the sequel, the really useful ones survive in the first game because the devs don’t update it anymore, meaning that a number of strats have entered the high-level playbook despite being slightly different from what the developers intended. 1. Reviving people through walls. This is the most famous bug, and even low-level players should know this one. You can interact with objectives, equipment, and players through almost anything, the only requirement is that you’re in range. This lets you take cover in… [Continue Reading]

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Community Announcements Featured Random Game Announcements 

New Humble Clickteam Fusion Bundle is an Amazing Deal

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If you’ve ever wanted to make video games, even a little, then you should get the current Humble Bundle. Even if you’ve never made a game in your life, Clickteam Fusion 2.5 is the industry standard for code-free game makers, and the whole damn thing is available for $15 for the next 11 days. I’ve been making games in Clickteam Fusion ever since it was called Multimedia Fusion and I was in high school. It’s an extremely easy and very versatile game making platform that lets you make any 2D game you can imagine. As mentioned, you do not need to know how to code… [Continue Reading]

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ctf_Hellfire

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Hellfire is a Mannpower map added during the Scream Fortress 2015 event. I may be writing this article on Hellfire, but I refuse to even play it because I find Mannpower stupid. For all I know it could be a great map for Mannpower, but that’s like saying “I bet nail clippers are the least painful way to snap your teeth“. I just genuinely cannot get into Mannpower in any way, shape, or form, and since Hellfire is the only map in the game that’s Mannpower-exclusive (the other maps all being remakes of pre-existing TF2 maps) it’s the one map in… [Continue Reading]

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Overwatch’s DVa

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I’ve mentioned in prior articles that Soldier 76, Junkrat, and Lucio are my three favorite characters to play, and recently I’ve been attempting to find a favorite tank so I can fill any of the four roles on a team. I never thought DVa would be the one who finally clicked with me. TV Tropes has her listed under “mechanically unusual fighter” (not linking, you can thank me later) because she seems to be playing a completely different game from the other characters. While in her meka, she has a very versatile set of abilities; her boosters give her a huge speedboost, her… [Continue Reading]

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Overwatch: Low-Effort Counters to Annoying Team Builds

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Not my snappiest title, but basically I wanted to go over some picks in Overwatch that I’ve discovered after enough times getting frustrated by silly class consistencies. These tips are mostly assuming you’re in Quickplay solo-queueing, as even in a group of two there’s usually enough cooperation on your team that natural selection should weed the silly strats out. 1. Lots of Bastions and Reinhardts. The remaining players are usually Mercy. The bastions sit in front of chokeholds, the Reinhardts stand in front of the Bastions with shields up, and it seems like nothing can even scratch them. In this situation, I switch… [Continue Reading]

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Mortal Online

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I originally heard of Mortal Online while doing research for my upcoming nude mod article because the game comes with full-frontal birthday suits as a toggleable option. However, that wasn’t the only reason I felt like giving it an actual try; I read that the game eschews character classes, instead using Skyrim-style leveling systems for your skills. As in, your abilities increase through actually using said ability, so you organically become the sort of character you want to play. The other selling point is a very unforgiving loot system; if you die or get murdered by another player, you lose everything you’re… [Continue Reading]

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Featured Now for Something Completely Different 

Bang! The Western-Themed Card Game

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Since majer63 broke the ice on talking about card games, I thought I’d take a chance to dedicate an article to one of my first gaming loves, Bang!  Growing up, I had a huge circle of people at my house at any given time.We had the opposite problem of most gaming circles; we couldn’t play games limited to 2-6 players, we needed something up to 11 people could play at the same time. As one of the few games capable of handling that many people, Bang! was a mainstay in our repertoire, though it also works with as few as 3 players. Drawing… [Continue Reading]

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