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The main category of the Daily SPUF, containing all sorts of articles from games like Team Fortress 2, Warframe, PAYDAY 2, Left 4 Dead, League of Legends and more!

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TF2’s Shorts are Better Written Than Overwatch’s

OrangeyBlueInk 0 Comments , , , ,

Uh, hi. Aabicus and I were discussing elements of writing in both Overwatch and TF2, specifically in terms of the two Overwatch shorts focusing on Winston and on Widowmaker in comparison to Expiration Date. I suggest you watch them and take a look at how the action interacts with their respective narratives, which is what I will focus on here. These are pulled directly from a Skype discussion, so no examples are currently cited. In Expiration Date, the action is tied in with the character’s deep insecurities, their impending mortality, their desire for human connection, and their hopes for better… [Continue Reading]

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Why Killing Floor 2 Isn’t Actually a Beta

aabicus 0 Comments , ,

I’ve been avoiding writing this article on Killing Floor 2, because I’ve already made it quite clear that I’m disappointed in the game and its developers. There’s not much to be gained from just ragging on something over and over, and I’m only giving them further undeserved attention. But since I made a video on their Versus mode, I needed a tie-in article, and I figured I’d cover probably my biggest gripe with the game: Tripwire marketing it as an “open beta.” A beta is an unfinished version of a product that the developers are working on completing, and I’ll grant that… [Continue Reading]

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Featured Now for Something Completely Different 

Lessons TF2 could learn from Dota 2

Taxicab1729 0 Comments ,

That’s right, I think it’s time we take a break from off-topic threads about Overwatch to talk about Dota for a second. You know, the game that Valve actually spends development time on. As Dota 2 is the most played game on Steam by an enormous margin, one has to wonder what it’s doing (besides, you know…being updated) that TF2 isn’t. While some lessons don’t apply as well since we’re talking about two completely different genres, I’ve compiled a list of things about Dota that TF2 could benefit from. 1. Optimization: Let’s start with the obvious one. Valve has always… [Continue Reading]

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Featured The Competitive Corner 

Butting Heads in the Apocalypse

aabicus 0 Comments , ,

I’ve always loved watching competitive eSports. There’s nothing more electrifying than watching the absolute top players of a community murdering each other with insane reflexes, top-tier strats and telepathic teamwork, all with a pair of announcers following you along for the ride. But for the first time, I’ve found a competitive mode that really bears serious analysis just because of how creative the community had to get to even translate the base game into something eSport-worthy. I’m talking about Valve’s greatest asymmetrical shooter, Left 4 Dead 2. (A short crash course for people unfamiliar with L4D2 versus: Each map on a campaign, one… [Continue Reading]

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Your Mileage Mei Vary

aabicus 0 Comments ,

After the 500th time getting frozen and dispatched like freezer-burnt meat, I finally went to play Mei myself, convinced that I could just channel my W+M1 skills and start wrecking the enemy team as easily as the Meis seem to always do in the closed beta. Long story short, that didn’t work out. Mei is not nearly as easy to play as she acts. Her liquid nitrogen gun seems to behave somehow like the flamethrower in TF2 when it comes to particles, meaning there’s an invisible sweet spot you need to keep trained on your target if you want to freeze… [Continue Reading]

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Somewhat basic heavy guide

McPatsy 0 Comments , , , ,

We all know the general image of TF2’s heavy: He is fat, slow, easy to kill, requires no skill, loves his sandvich and above all, loves to say “pootis” while at the same time feeding the enemies you’re trying to kill. It’s no big suprise Heavy has this image because most people don’t know how to play him. But behold, for I am going to teach you the very basics of playing Heavy! And maybe one day, you will start loving that Russian guy, just as happened to me.   The skill in Heavy Before I say anything else, it… [Continue Reading]

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Turning the Beat Up with Overwatch’s Lucio

aabicus 0 Comments , , , ,

The previous four classes I’ve described are all derivative of tried-and-true playstyles from other games. Mercy is a Medic, Junkrat is a grenadier, Widowmaker is a sniper, and Soldier 76 is every rifleman ever. But while he’s not nearly as easy to pin down, Lúcio quickly became one of my favorite classes to play because I can’t think of a single shooter with somebody like him. He feels like a support unit out of a real-time strategy, to be perfectly honest. With his boombox loudspeaker thing, he can either passively heal all the teammates around him (including himself, completely subverting No Self… [Continue Reading]

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Overwatch: Writing on Writing

aabicus 0 Comments , ,

Jigglypuff requested that I backup my claim that the writing in Overwatch is bad. “Also you say noone in Overwatch is well written, could you provide any examples of why? Because a character being a trope or common archetype does not automatically = poorly done.” He’s right about archetypes as a concept. Committing to a baseline that’s familiar to the audience is a tried-and-true method that every writer uses, and when establishing brand new fictional worlds without pre-existing lore (such as Overwatch) they’re the best way to give the players something to initially latch onto. If they can understand part of… [Continue Reading]

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MeeM’s random SPUF article

MysticTheMeeM 1 Comment , , ,

Now, I get that as a medic main I meet a bunch of friends (perhaps more than any other class main) just from playing the game. Indeed, many of them I become really good friends with and we get along great. But, as with most friendships, eventually people drift apart. (And yes, mopey post ahead.) Now my steam friends list is full of people I’ve met from a bunch of different games. From guys I spent hundreds of hours to guys who randomly decided to help me through the first part of that game I got yesterday and spent a… [Continue Reading]

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Overwatch’s Soldier 76

aabicus 0 Comments

Blizzard knows exactly what they’re doing by making Soldier 76 the tutorial character. Much like Striker from Final Combat, he’s unashamedly added to appeal to fans of traditional military shooters, what with his gun being a hybrid assault rifle/rocket launcher and his unique mobility trick being the bog-standard sprint. But personally I’m completely okay with that because he was the first non-Mercy class I played simply because I understood him within seconds of controlling the character. He’s probably the best starter character possible for new players of any FPS skill level, and once you get the hang of him you’ll… [Continue Reading]

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