Would Highlander really work in Matchmaking?

In our beloved little competitive matchmaking beta, we currently only have access to 6v6 matchmaking. While it doesn’t really look like the much stricter, more organized community competitive leagues, it feels similar. 5CP maps, the odd King of the Hill map, optimal teams including Medics, Demomen, Scouts and Soldiers, 6 players per team (obviously)… You get the point. There’s also plans to have a Highlander matchmaking thingy, but it’s been greyed out since the beginning. But I’m wondering, will Highlander really work? In terms of getting people to play classes, it can happen. Highlander has been the other staple of… [Continue Reading]

Streaming movies on Steam

Well it turns out Steam wants to be the new Netflix. I wouldn’t have known, looking at my Steam Store page, but other countries appear to have a banner saying that a bunch of movies by Lionsgate are available for streaming. I wouldn’t have actually known about this had General_B not told me about it, but there’s literally no trace of this existing at all. Also Cyprus is a country, dammit. This isn’t the first time Steam has tried stuff like this. We’ve had movies on Steam before, the Meet the Team videos are all available for download, as is… [Continue Reading]

Jumping through hoops with League of Legends

I know I’ve done a thing recently about League of Legends, but that was mostly about the lore and backstory of the game. The footage used in the video is made from a chopped up recording of aabicus’s first non-tutorial game, playing against intro bots. Except it’s from my perspective – he was the Jinx in the game, and I was obviously the Terror of the Void. But when aabicus and I sat down to do a few more games and discuss how things worked, I realised how convoluted everything sounded. The first thing we did was look for champions… [Continue Reading]

On the molasses-like progress of League of Legends lore

Hi everyone! Today, I’ll be talking about the lore of League of Legends. Around the time of the Shurima update, the League of Legends was abruptly removed from the lore of League of Legends. At the time, Riot’s Lore team said that the League and the Institute of War were holding them back creatively, as they had to give each champion reasons to be there. They promised that, with the League gone, they’d be able to expand into new territories, improve their writing and be able to come out with more content. At the same time, the Lore team removed… [Continue Reading]

On Community Updates

Community updates have always had some sort of sparkle to them. You get a ton of great content-creators gathering and making something as a team. Right now, we have two communities working together on two very different but rather complimentary updates – the Iron Gauntlet, which features Mann VS Machine maps and robotic cosmetics, and the Mayann Project, which is more of an Indiana Jones themed update. Both look very promising and some cool themes behind them. And of course, more Mann VS Machine stuff is always good for me. Thing is though, despite the fact that community updates bring… [Continue Reading]

On Medics and Machines

Hi everyone, Phovos here. Today, I’d like to discuss Mann VS Machine. If you ever played Mann VS Machine before the Two Cities update, you might remember how bad playing Medic was. Medics were essentially useless, which was a stark opposite to normal gameplay. The only vaguely effective loadout relied on getting Kritzkrieg Ubers as fast as possible, but even then, people would prefer another Heavy or Demoman instead. Thankfully, the Two Cities update made it so Medics were actually useful again. The ability to reanimate people and bring them back to life speeds up otherwise quite slow gameplay, and… [Continue Reading]

Daedra and Artifacts – Medic in Skyrim Bonus Time Part 2

Oh? Sorry, were you talking to me? I was busy talking to a statue. Last time you were here, I had started a quest to gather a bunch of Deitic artifacts, because secretly I am a very evil person. I’m being accompanied by Cicero, the guy whose cart breaks down outside some guy’s farm outside Whiterun. Just an FYI before we start, there ARE Skyrim spoilers ahead. Of course. Although the game is like 4 years old now, so eh, you should probably play it. Anyway, back to adventuring. A statue of an angel just spoke to me. I think… [Continue Reading]

Daedra and Artifacts – Medic in Skyrim Bonus Time Part 1

Don’t tell Sniper, but while he’s been busy killing vampires, I’ve been sneaking around Skyrim collecting things, which makes a nice change from saving the place. You see, I’ve recently found two things: the first being UESP.net, which has so much really good information on all the Elder Scrolls games. The second thing I found was some guy drinking in the Bannered Mare in Whiterun. This guy, turns out, is the start of a so-called daedric quest. So here I am, on a bonus little two-part adventure. A quick note before we start. I WAS going to do the Dark… [Continue Reading]

Tiny Little Arena_Byre

Byre. It’s a little map. A forgotten map. A lonely map. An Arena map. It’s actually a map I had completely and utterly forgotten about for a loooooong time. Unfortunately for the people behind the Invasion update, the whole thing was forgotten about since it was released just before Halloween, had very little going for it and had most of its items left unadded. There was also controversy in various payments and stuff but that was sorted out apparently. But yes, for some insane reason, an Arena map was made and added to the game officially, in a time where… [Continue Reading]

So what happened to the other SPUF mercs?

It’s weird how we don’t actually have that many SPUFers named after their mains over in the TF2 forums. Unlike SCUD, you can’t change your name on SPUF at all, and using a bad name will just get you banned. Which begs the question, where are all these other SPUFers? For now, I won’t be including people like The Pyro! or The Heavy. who cheat the system by using punctuation. There’s a few of these, but they all have small post counts anyway. The sad news is that they’re not really anywhere. Every The ____ account apart from The Medic,… [Continue Reading]