aabicus

I write articles! I also make games, release videos, voice act and lots of other cool things.

Why TF2 Wouldn’t Make a Very Good eSport

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I have over 3300 hours in TF2, and it’s been my favorite game for years ever since I started playing it. I’ve written hundreds of articles about it, recorded videos, organized community events and have watched numerous competitive tournaments on Twitch and Source TV. In contrast, I’ve barely started playing Counter-Strike Global Offensive in 2016 and I only passably enjoy my time playing it. I doubt I’ll ever be getting serious about it to the same extent I love everything about TF2. I’m saying all this to qualify the stance I’m about to take, because I have a confession. I watched… [Continue Reading]

Differentiating Maps Through Gameplay

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Previously I used Left 4 Dead 2 to show an example of well-distinguished enemy units in a video game. I thought I could also take the chance to look at a little-known element of map design called “thematic gameplay”, and this time compare it to the original game, Left 4 Dead. While the first game’s initial four campaigns have a unifying vision of atmosphere and incredibly strong visual themes separating their design, they are almost completely lacking in gameplay alterations. They all involve forward progression through linear zombie-infested environments, eventually surviving a holdout finale and rushing the escape vehicle as soon as… [Continue Reading]

Dem Choppas continued

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It’s been a long time since I wrote about my favorite custom model in TF2, the choppa. I’ve changed a lot as a person and my tastes have grown more refined, but nowadays if I again had to pick a favorite custom model, I’d still have to go with the choppa. It’s just the best. Hell, it’s even better than it was before! In late 2013 creator Bl8demast3r made some tweaks that included working killstreak sheens and a new golden model for owners of the Australium SMG: And while he didn’t add anything for weapon skins (how the hell would he?), that turned… [Continue Reading]

An English Major’s Guide to Computer Care

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Get a load of that amazing video. I just got off the phone with Steven Spielberg and have been informed my Oscar is in the mail. I really don’t have anyone to blame but myself for the state of my poor desktop, though. When the thunderstorm-induced powerout caused unknown damage to my video driver, my surge-protected power strip proved insufficient protection. But even in less hostile environments, my adventures turning my old Windows 7 laptop into a usable piece of hardware again have taught me a lot of things about how to care for your equipment from a position of relative ignorance… [Continue Reading]

Decorating ourselves in other ways, a followup

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Medic recently published an article discussing the myriad of ways Valve has allowed players to decorate themselves, and it got me thinking about a lot of the different points she brought up. It’s definitely true that Valve’s gotten more and more bold with every new cosmetic addition. We’ve come a long way since the simple character model toggles from Team Fortress Classic. But of course we can go further. As Medic mentioned, stickers are the most obvious cosmetic advancement we’re currently missing, since it’s mind-bogglingly easy to implement (just add it to the texture square the game is drawing the skin… [Continue Reading]

How to be “invisible” on Steam

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I know Steam likes to market itself as a social media network, and we’ve all got online friends who we like to chat to, but there are plenty of times that I really wish Steam had an invisible setting. Steam does not have a traditional “hidden” option, where you can still receive chats but nobody knows if you’re at the computer. You’re either various time-sensitive flavors of online, in-game, or offline where you’re prevented from chatting with your friends. You can set yourself to “Away”, but if you do start up a game, there’s no way to keep that fact hidden… [Continue Reading]

How to Get Your Friends to Play Undertale

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“I’m sorry, why have ALL my friends begged me to play Undertale? I’ve played up to the Comic Sans jokes and I cannot stand all the false choice so far. NPC: Don’t progress further! I’m protecting you from the world for your own good! Go back to bed! “Do you wanna fight, talk, or flee from the friendly cow?” aabicus: Uhh, talk “You cant think of anything to talk about” aabicus: okay, flee? “you flee. it’s still in the way of the rest of the game” aabicus: I guess turn around and go back to bed “The narrator shouts at… [Continue Reading]

The Righteous Pomson

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I’d been meaning to talk about this for a while, but back when Tough Break came out, there was an unintended side effect caused by the Flamethrower tweaks, and it doesn’t even refer to the Pyro. Tough Break’s patch notes mentioned that “The base Flamethrower’s damage fall off over distance has been decreased, resulting in higher damage output at range” and I could write a whole article about how all of these stock flamethrower buffs have elevated the weapon back to a surprising level of viability. But this affected more than just the flamethrowers; the Righteous Bison and Pomson 6000 mimic ‘lasers’… [Continue Reading]

Regenerating Health – The Concheror, Cozy Camper, and Amputator

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Today I want to go over a trio of related weapons that were all affected by a change made to the Medic’s base regen during the Tough Break Update. As you can see, the description to the Concheror claims “+4 hp regenerated per second” but what actually happens is that you start regenerating at 1 hp and that number gradually increases to 4 the longer you go without taking damage. The Cozy Camper and the Amputator are identical, except that the Amputator stops at 3. I thought I’d talk about what this means for each weapon, because it’s interesting to… [Continue Reading]

The Black Box

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So the other day I tried out the Black Box for the first time in ages. Never thought I’d use that gun again. It used to be my go-to; an everpresent mainstay in my Soldier arsenal that I adapted each and every loadout around. I’d use it with Gunboats to dominate close-range combat, I’d use it with shotgun for all-purpose versatility, I’d use it in all-crit servers with the Battalion’s Backup to negate crits while firing healing crockets, heck I’d even use it in the early waves of MvM to regenerate health until I had the credits to deck out… [Continue Reading]