6 Things I Learned After 500 Hours of TF2

Team Fortress 2 is my latest obsession nowadays. Yes, this first-person shooter with cartoonish graphics may have been released in 2007, but this game still gives me fresh laughs and plenty of enjoyment today. I love the wacky lines, the teamwork you can foster, the griefers, the hats, the taunts, and all the other lovely (and not-so-lovely) chaps you can play with in order to win a round. In truth, I’ve spent the last 6 months or so accumulating around 500 hours of playtime in this game (in public servers alone). 500 hours may sound like a lot of time… [Continue Reading]

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Five Things Valve Didn’t Intend for the Sandman to Do

When the Sandman debuted during the Scout Update, Valve broke new ground regarding ranged melee weapons. Not since the Direct Hit has Team Fortress 2 been given a more spammable immediate-range weapon that crits like crazy, since the Sandman’s baseball shares the bat’s increased melee crit chance. However, perhaps because of its unusual design, there have been a number of bizarre exploits associated with this weapon over the years and a few of these are still in the game today. 5. Hitting the ball through thin walls. Setup gates, windows, just random walls that happen to be narrow enough; the scout… [Continue Reading]

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My Favorite Moments in TF2 History

TF2 was the first game I really immersed myself into, meaning that a lot of my earliest internet memories come from this game. And through all the years, all the updates, all the thousands of hours of playing this game, there are a few memories that stand out to me the most. In the spirit of Love and War Part 2, I thought I’d take an article to recall my fondest memories as a TF2 fan. Especially since my more traditional “what I love most” article already exists. In no particular order: 5. STAR_ wins Mixup 2013. It was possible for you to… [Continue Reading]

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By the Light, I hate this game sometimes…

There are lots of things I dislike about Team Fortress 2. Everyone else will have already covered them. Random critical hits. Autobalance screwing you over at the wrong moment. Incompetent team mates. The 4th Sniper. That UGC Steel duo with matching unusuals who think they are brilliant when they are stomping a server full of Gibuses. The Gunslinger. The Scout. Lots of things. But none of them single-handedly make me want to uninstall the game. In fact, I haven’t played TF2 properly since the Festive SPUF event, and in my opinion that was a disaster because I fucked up the… [Continue Reading]

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I Love My Weapons

Now, this may come as a surprise to you, but TF2 has quite a lot of weapons! I know! Gobsmacking, isn’t it? But TF2 isn’t simply a mere game of murdering the other team with things that kill stuff. It’s a game of murdering the other team with things that kill stuff that you named and fell in love with! TF2 has always been a weird and wonderful game, full of zany characters with more weapons than you could shake a stick at. But it’s one of the few games I’ve ever played where weapons used by thousands upon thousands… [Continue Reading]

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A Week of Love and Hate 2 – Why I love it when others write for the Daily SPUF

Well, a Week of Love and Hate 2 is concluding, and the winner will be announced in a bit. But before we do all that, I’d like to write a little thing on the love side of this little event. When aabicus started writing for the Daily SPUF, I didn’t have much to do with it. I didn’t really write that much, it was just an occasional thing (even though both my first articles were published one after the other). Back then, back in late 2013, SPUF was a much busier forum. SCUD was a new thing and we were… [Continue Reading]

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MeeM’s thoughts on difficulty and continuity

Often, I find myself asking: “why are you still doing this” or “your team isn’t trying, why should you”. And nearly every time I fail to answer, and then consequently die for not paying attention. But that’s the thing. Why did I die? I died because I made myself die. Not directly, rather I made the decision that I should die a couple of hours before playing. Now, I’m fairly certain most people, at some point in any game, get to a point where they no longer feel challenged and quickly after they become bored. At least this was true… [Continue Reading]

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I Hate Sniper

“Hang on there, Mr. Wolf!” You spurt, your glorious moustache twizzling in anticipation of a preconceived ramble “You said you LOVE the Sniper!” Thanks to your eagle-eyed vigilance, I can not deny this, however, our friend doesn’t have his downsides! You see, playing Sniper relies on more than simple aim and reflex. (Blasphemy! I know!) A Sniper should always have a heightened sense of situational awareness. Knowledge of the battlefield (sight lines, elevation) and the progression of said battle, where people are moving, and, more importantly, where they will be. Unfortunately, a certain Mr. Hale was unaware of these facts… [Continue Reading]

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I Love Sniper

The challenge, the discipline, remaining calm enough to land that crucial shot when there’s an uncountable number of projectiles flying at you. Flickshots, quickscopes and, of course, headshots on airborne targets. Simply put, Sniper is a class only restricted by your own dedication and patience. It’s a nice change of pace from, quite frankly, the spammy nature of most TF2 classes. When you single-handedly drop a team, save the point or take out the enemy’s MVP and his pockets with efficient shooting, you know it was down to you, and you alone. Things don’t fall into place as Sniper. There’s… [Continue Reading]

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A Love of Laughter

No matter how we look at it, Team Fortress 2 is an awesome game. There’s bits we whinge about and bits we complain about, as well as stuff that really shouldn’t be in it *cough*random crits and current autobalance*cough*, and a lot of us have gone and written about the things we all dislike, for our Week of Love and Hate. We’ve also written about a lot of things that we love too. Despite how simple that sounds, it’s actually a very hard subject to write about. I spent ages trying to pick a subject. At first I was going… [Continue Reading]

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