Why is this still a thing? – Mannpower

Hands up if you play Mannpower. Come on! Don’t be shy! Hm. Not a lot of you. But I’m sure if we check the server browser, we’ll fine loads of people playing Mannpower! Huh. Lots of people playing cp_orange, that’s a bit like Mannpower, what with its homing rockets and perma-crits, right? Um. No, apparently not. According to my server browser right now, there are only 10 not-empty Mannpower servers. Compared to the twenty five or so 2fort servers. Not looking good. The previous beta game modes, pl_cactuscanyon and rd_asteroid may have had similar numbers. But Asteroid genuinely brought something… [Continue Reading]

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Syringes and Skeletons – Medic in Skyrim Part 1

So, I’m finally doing it. I’m playing through Skyrim as the Medic. Literally. Thanks to a bunch of mods that put a bunch of TF2 weapons into Skyrim, all held incredibly awkwardly, as well as an actually rather terrifying piece of armor that makes me look like various mercenaries, I can finally start a new game and not get bored. Of course, being the Medic, I’ve set up a few rules for myself: I have to wear my Medic armor for the entirety of the game. Because this armor doesn’t scale though (it’s basically iron armor for ever), I will… [Continue Reading]

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On Tentacles and Lasers

I am shit at RTS MOBA games. There’s simply too much to learn. Too much effort for too little gain. That hasn’t stopped me attempting to play Dota 2 and dicking around in League of Legends though. Weirdly though, I understand a lot of the mechanics, but my dumb fingers can’t react in time. Hence I end up playing support. I’ve always been a supporting person. In League of Legends (or League of Leg-Ends, as it says on my desktop), there’s three types of support: Healing helping people like Sona, Tank-All-The-Damage-And-Start-Fights people like Leona and Initiate-With-Some-Sort-Of-Assistance people like Thresh and… [Continue Reading]

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On Snipers and Engineers

Name your three most hated classes in TF2. I wouldn’t be surprised if Engineer and Sniper were included in that list. People complain about both classes, one which seems lacking in a skill ceiling, the other having an infinite one, but perhaps Sniper and Engineer have more in common than we think? When you look at an Engineer, you see someone locking down an area with their sentry gun. Their sentry makes sure that you’re not getting past without some heavy hitters, preferably a Demoman, occasionally an Ubercharge. Everyone calls the Engineer stupid and skill-less, because the sentry does a… [Continue Reading]

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Cosmetics we should have had by now

There are a lot of hats in Team Fortress 2. A lot. That’s an understatement. There are so many hats that the Mann Co. catalogue is buckling underneath the weight of all the pages in it, describing every hat. Crafting your three refined can get you pretty much anything from a baseball cap to a mask to a rose on your chest to a cat in your pocket to, amazingly, nothing at all. Never really made sense that you can craft the hatless Scout, Sniper and Engineer hats. That being said, there’s always room for more hats. Well, I say… [Continue Reading]

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Medic’s Fifth Ever Competitive Match – 404 Medic not Found

No, seriously. What just happened? I have no idea. Week 6’s match was absolutely all over the place. I’ve decided, I’m not actually going to attempt to describe it. I don’t think I can. It was mental. Insane. Crazy. I don’t know any more! So instead of trying to make something coherent from that match, I’m just going to go over all the good bits. But first off, self-loathing! Turns out, I suck at every class but Medic, and I really need to play more Demoman, because sticky bombs and the Pain Train are the best weapons ever. Maybe try… [Continue Reading]

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Less and Less Sure about 4v4

So, the more I play 4v4, the less and less sure I feel about it. This isn’t because of my two recent losses, no. I played a random 4v4 lobby and did really well. It’s the game mode. It really is. There is something off about 4v4 that 6v6 and Highlander both seem to have. And the pressure… The pressure… 4v4 has always been a much more deathmatch-centric game mode. It’s all about keeping yourself alive and the enemy dead for as long as possible. But you have to keep everyone alive. Losing one person, even just a Scout, is… [Continue Reading]

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TF2 update, 12/03/15

So, we’ve actually had a TF2 update. First off… THE CRIT GUNSLINGER BUG HAS BEEN PATCHED. Yeah. Only took them since the Gunslinger was made to fix that. In other news, the Strange Kritzkrieg was re-released, but the chance of unboxing one is the same as the chance of unboxing an unusual. We also got a Strange Buff Banner, Strange Cloak and Dagger and Strange Bison. Interesting. A couple of bug fixes here and there too. This update announces the start of the Taunt Workshop, so people can finally submit all their taunts, the same way they do hats. Three… [Continue Reading]

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Pretending to be someone else…

Human beings like to copy each other. It’s a herd mentality sort of thing, we crave to be like others and to be accepted by them. So many people turn to adopting fashions and trends, in order to be more like everyone else. Then you have roleplaying, where you assume the role of someone or something else. Occasionally, this is taken to extreme levels. Other times it’s just a bit of fun. But it’s a thing. As I’ve mentioned before, the reason I’m called the Medic is because I was in a phase at the time, having just picked up… [Continue Reading]

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Respawn Theories

In Team Fortress 2, unless you’re playing Arena mode, you respawn when you die. Respawning is a common thing in video games. Often it’s hand-waved as part of the game, you just do. It’s either that or having a limited number of lives, showing a Game Over screen when you lose them all. Some games manage to explain respawning after death pretty well – the first and second Bioshock games have vita-chambers from which you can respawn and can be turned off for Super Hard Mode; and Borderlands basically charges you money, the whole thing being a paid service to… [Continue Reading]

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