aabicus – Page 51 – The Daily SPUF

In Memory of XYTWO

January 25, 2015 aabicus 1 Comment mourning, SPUF

XYTWO was one of the most recognizable SPUF regulars in the TF2 forums. He participated in conversations serious or silly, long or short, and far as I know he got along well with everyone. He had a fondness for Asian cartoons and he mained Pyro. He was among the top posters in all of the various itsurblogs and he even wrote one of our first guest articles. The two of us had a running gag hailing from the 1st Itsurblog’s D&D session where we’d pretend to have UST for each other. Spycicle has recently informed the forum that XYTWO died… [Continue Reading]

Featured

What was up with those Alien Promos?

January 17, 2015 aabicus 0 Comments cosmetics, criticism, halloween, pyro, scout

Valve did a pretty weird thing with the Alien: Isolation promos, what with those stat-changing qualifiers that relied on Halloween-restricted cosmetics. It was certainly a cool idea, I guess, not that I really got the chance to try them out. I didn’t pre-order the game and they didn’t become tradeable until people had long stopped wearing them. I’m honestly not even sure if it was fair of Valve to release them as promos. They were stat-changing promos, and Valve traditionally doesn’t do that since people (like me) who actually want to try the things out would appreciate a realistic chance of… [Continue Reading]

Featured

The Lost Art of Flagrunning

January 15, 2015 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, comparison, game mode, medic, scout, TFC

This article is going to take the same pensive tone of the similarly-themed “The Art of the Backcap“, except whereas backcapping isn’t completely lost, flagrunning by and large is completely absent from TF2 in the game’s current incarnation. It was largely dead from the getgo. Flagrunning is the act of playing with one objective in mind; reaching the enemy’s flag, grabbing it, and getting it as close as you can to your team’s capture zone before you die. It may sound odd for me to claim such a simplistic act is completely gone from TF2 (after all, matches do end… [Continue Reading]

Featured

ProKarting

January 10, 2015 aabicus 0 Comments advice, game mode, strategy

Everyone needs to play more TF2Kart; the devs have added additional maps, powerups, and other cool things since it came out, and I personally can’t stop playing it. On the whole it’s a super simple pick-up game that needs no explanation, but I’ve learned a couple tricks to augment my playing. If you’re ready to take your karting skills to the next level, read on. Tip 1: Jump at the end of boost strips. Air velocity is maintained until you hit the ground again, meaning that you can get the most out of your boosts by being airborne when they… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Team Fortress Classic Should Go Free-to-Play

January 6, 2015 aabicus 0 Comments comparison, request, TFC

Team Fortress Classic, the predecessor to Valve’s most successful multiplayer FPS, has had a pretty decorated history itself. Released in 1999 as a Goldsrc port of the hugely popular Quake mod Team Fortress, it came bundled for free with Half-Life which granted it a large and prospering player base for years, a player base which stayed strong until 2007, when TF2 came out. At around the same time it received a $5 price tag, and as a result the community for this game has dwindled to near nonexistence. Whenever I try to play I can only find two servers that are reliably… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Dem Choppas

January 5, 2015February 1, 2022 aabicus 0 Comments dem choppas, Filler, Guns in Gaming, history, sniper, weapon

This article is a shoutout to my favorite TF2 Mod; dem choppas. Who wants a plinky submachinegun when they can have the most famous assault rifle in world history? There are all sorts of reasons to use dem choppas. Reason 1: They’re dem choppas. There’s no other real reason. I mean, they’re choppas. I’ve wanted to write an article about dem choppas for a while now but I couldn’t think of anything meaningful to say. But now, we’re like three days behind on articles and I need something to write for yesterday but I don’t want to publish a real… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Taking the Fight to the Robots

January 4, 2015 aabicus 0 Comments MvM, request

When is Valve going to add offensive MvM missions? Ever since the amazing opening trailer showed BLU and RED uniting against a common foe, I’ve been wanting to see the other half of Mann Co’s defenses getting in on the action. And I know I’m not the only one. It’s not even particularly difficult to come up with the method of gameplay. One way or another, it’ll probably involve BLU team delivering a bomb to robot factories or other tactically-beneficial targets that are guarded by robots with a slightly redder hue. Most people seem to think the bomb should be… [Continue Reading]

Featured

What if TF2 melee behaved mechanically like Left 4 Dead 2 melee?

January 1, 2015 aabicus 0 Comments balance, melee, request, scout

I had a blast recently playing ctf_turbine with Medieval mode enabled, but my internet connection quickly decided that it wasn’t pleased with the current TF2 melee mechanics. So it got me thinking about a different Source game where the melee weapons are among my favorite in the entire game. TF2 melee basically behaves like a hitscan “bullet” that flies a few inches in front of the player and stops (the swords fire this “bullet” a bit further, mimicking a range bonus.) Only if this “bullet” hits an enemy is your melee swing successful. This is where all the notorious hitreg… [Continue Reading]

Featured

The Art of the Backcap

December 30, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments demoman, engineer, game mode, scout, soldier, spy, strategy

The backcap is an under-appreciated skill these days. It seems like nobody ever sends a brave lone gunman to scout ahead and take the next point milliseconds after you finish capping this one. And while this loss of a fundamental strategy is sad for the state of TF2’s metagame, it can be quite fun if you’re willing to be the team’s backcapper. Backcapping, as the name implies, involves racing ahead to the next control point once determining (or just hoping to God) that your team can take this one alone. The two most popular classes to backcap are scout and… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Ways to Play Spy if You Suck at Spy

December 28, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments advice, game mode, spy, strategy

Isn’t spy awesome? I can’t help but give mad props to the character for what he willingly puts himself through in the line of duty. More than any class he relies on wits and positioning to outsmart the enemy, and all of his weapons put him dangerously close to an entire arsenal of retaliation the millisecond after he stabs, saps, or shoots. Boy, I wish I could do that. But I can’t. I really really can’t. No matter how much I try to play spy, whether I’ve equipped the most overpowered loadouts on the best spy maps against the worst… [Continue Reading]