aabicus

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

ProKarting

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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]

Team Fortress Classic Should Go Free-to-Play

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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]

Dem Choppas

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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]

Taking the Fight to the Robots

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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]

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

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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]

The Art of the Backcap

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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]

Ways to Play Spy if You Suck at Spy

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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]

Spicing Up Medieval Mode

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Who remembers Medieval Mode? It’s hard to forget it, what with its unique premise, acceptable breaks from its own premise and a game balance that I don’t think anyone truly understands. But I’ve been having trouble finding populated Medieval servers, and this saddens me because for what its got, I enjoy the balance between the classes. But I think there are definitely some things that could improve the game mode. At the core of things, it could really do with some more content. Right now it suffers from a limited version of Territorial Control-syndrome, where the mode concept is fine… [Continue Reading]

Beginner’s Guide to Loadouts in Left 4 Dead 2

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It has come to my attention that very few people on TF2 SPUF play Left 4 Dead 2. This is a real shame because the game is very, very fun and in recent months I’ve found it consuming far more of my allotted game time than TF2 does. So I basically thought I’d just write a quick guide detailing two of my favorite loadouts in the hopes that this info might help you if you ever decide to pick the game up. Left 4 Dead 2 has a wonderful array of weaponry, and the best part is that all of it… [Continue Reading]

Flaring Up

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Poor Pyro can’t seem to catch a break. Ever since his Team Fortress Classic days people have derided him as underpowered, unbalanced, gimmicky, over-reliant on newb opponents…the insults are as varied as the tools Valve has bestowed upon the poor unintelligible merc. Plenty of people have written opinions on why Pyro is underpowered (here’s mine) and even more people have written theories on how to fix that problem. Before I go into that, I want to try and sum up some fundamentals that are often brought up. Firstly, Pyro’s short-range emphasis is seen as one of his major problems since… [Continue Reading]