Featured – Page 329 – The Daily SPUF

What was up with those Alien Promos?

January 17, 2015 aabicus 0 Comments cosmetics, criticism, halloween, pyro, scout

Valve did a pretty weird thing with the Alien: Isolation promos, what with those stat-changing qualifiers that relied on Halloween-restricted cosmetics. It was certainly a cool idea, I guess, not that I really got the chance to try them out. I didn’t pre-order the game and they didn’t become tradeable until people had long stopped wearing them. I’m honestly not even sure if it was fair of Valve to release them as promos. They were stat-changing promos, and Valve traditionally doesn’t do that since people (like me) who actually want to try the things out would appreciate a realistic chance of… [Continue Reading]

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Why the Gibus died

January 16, 2015 Medic 1 Comment cosmetics, hat, newb, trading

The Ghastly Gibus is the hat of the new player. The newbie. The n00b if you’re feeling cruel. For many people, whether they played before the Uber Update or after, the Ghastly Gibus was often their first hat, or at least one of their early ones. Yet the Ghastly Gibus has become a much rarer sight these days. Odd. Being an achievement hat, you can assume that almost everyone but the newest players has a Gibus, whether it’s the classic first level Gibus or the Ghostly Gibus or the Ghastliest Gibus. The Gibus is unique in being one of the… [Continue Reading]

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The Lost Art of Flagrunning

January 15, 2015 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, comparison, game mode, medic, scout, TFC

This article is going to take the same pensive tone of the similarly-themed “The Art of the Backcap“, except whereas backcapping isn’t completely lost, flagrunning by and large is completely absent from TF2 in the game’s current incarnation. It was largely dead from the getgo. Flagrunning is the act of playing with one objective in mind; reaching the enemy’s flag, grabbing it, and getting it as close as you can to your team’s capture zone before you die. It may sound odd for me to claim such a simplistic act is completely gone from TF2 (after all, matches do end… [Continue Reading]

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A Different Gamechanger

January 14, 2015 Medic 0 Comments analysis, balance, class, comparison, medic

Dedicated healers in games generally get the short end of the stick. Whether it’s having to rely on the skill of your team mates or your inability to keep up, being a healer is generally a thankless job, hence why many games go with the Combat Medic, someone who can heal but can also look after themselves, capable of surviving in a one on one fight just like anyone else. Turning back to the Team Fortress 2 Medic, he seems a tad out of line. A designer at Riot, the company behind League of Legends, once argued that it’s no… [Continue Reading]

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Competitive Demoknights

January 13, 2015 Poptart 0 Comments 6v6, demoknight, demoman, game mode, Highlander

There has been a large deal of discussion regarding Demoknight as of recently, most of which stems from the recent changes to the Tide Turner, overall the Tide Turner got people to take Demoknight seriously as a both a threat and an ally. Now there are multiple competitive formats in TF2. First up, Highlander, which is a 9v9 format where classes are restricted to one of each class per team. Next we have the 6v6 format which supports up to two of a class, (excluding a few people, who are limited to one) and involves dual Scouts, Soldiers and a single… [Continue Reading]

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Randomness you can’t see…

January 12, 2015 Medic 0 Comments balance, crits, mechanics, random, weapon

It’s been a while since we last talked about randomness. Generally this sort of conversation dives to horrible depths, going over the same arguments over and over again until either one side gives in, it starts getting nasty or the thread goes off topic. Either way, the thread dies a horrible death. It keeps on happening. What’s interesting though is that the majority of these arguments are about random critical hits. The other random factors, random bullet spread and random damage spread, often lurk in the shadows, untouched. Why? With random bullet spread, there is rarely an argument for that.… [Continue Reading]

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Soldier is overpowered and we don’t care…

January 11, 2015 Medic 0 Comments analysis, balance, class, criticism, soldier

In any class-based video game, you generally have some form of balance. Agile classes come with a lack of health, while power classes exchange speed for pure power, with other classes scattered between them. So the idea of a mobile, strong ace of all trade class appears to spit in the face of all this. In any other game, people would say that Soldier is overpowered. What few consider is that he may actually be so. If you look at his base stats, Soldier does seem rather mundane. High health, low walking speed, high damage weaponry with average reload times.… [Continue Reading]

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ProKarting

January 10, 2015 aabicus 0 Comments advice, game mode, strategy

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]

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What I do when I’m not playing TF2 – TESV Skyrim

January 9, 2015 Medic 0 Comments dragon, fun, mod, non-tf2, rawr

I don’t play TF2 24/7. That’d be silly. And I’d get very sick of the game after not very long. Yes, the person called Medic does play other games. Most of the time, I play a healing passive role. Throw me into Dota 2 and I’ll find the most passive champion around and play that. Same with League of Legends. Borderlands 2 is slightly different, I basically become a pure healing Siren or a bullet sponge. My Berserker (named Heavy, heh), currently has, what, 10k health? And he’s not even on True Vault Hunter Mode yet. But yeah, normally I’m… [Continue Reading]

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The Eureka Effect’s Wasted Potential

January 8, 2015 Poptart 0 Comments engineer, strategy, weapon

The Eureka Effect is one of the few weapons where a well intentioned buff turned out to be a complete nerf. For those of you who do not know the Eureka Effect is currently a wrench that allows you to teleport to your spawn and to your own teleporter exit. Now that may sound like a ninjaneers wet dream but in exchange for this potential mobility you lose 50% repair rate and 50% build rate, which makes you take over twice as long to build a sentry. Rather than the already slow 8 swings per upgrade, you are making a… [Continue Reading]