A Particularly Cake-Filled Story

The smell of sweet, freshly cooked sponge cake was insulting his nostrils. It wasn’t fair. He wanted cake. And he wanted it now. Nuhvok-Kal didn’t understand much these days. It felt like years since he had fought the Toa Nuva and been sucked into a black hole created by his own, out-of-control powers. He had no idea what had happened to his siblings. He didn’t even know if the nest or the Bahrag or anything still existed. He could have been completely alone. Except he wasn’t. The smell was taunting him through the gaps of the old, rusty ‘oven’. Not… [Continue Reading]

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How to write for The Daily SPUF

In most cases I start my articles with an anecdote. Anecdotes are little stories from one’s past experience that they share to reinforce the main point of an article. For instance, if I were writing about heartbreak and food, I’d share the story of the time I was burned by a PopTart. Hot Fudge Sundae variety, if I remember right. This time I’d like to start by saying thank you to a very special person. You know her as Medic, the Almighty Editor of The Daily SPUF. She’s written just over 150 articles for this blog in her time. Lately she’s… [Continue Reading]

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Team Fortress 2 update, 25/09/14

I’ll be honest, I’m really impressed with the constant updates lately. The content of the updates is always hit and miss, no matter how regular they are, but the speed of these TF2 updates compared to what we’ve had most of this year. Big content updates though, we’re skill kinda lacking. But at least we’ve got keys now for the limited summer crates. First things first, here’s the actual update notes: An update to Team Fortress 2 has been released. The update will be applied automatically when you restart Team Fortress 2. The major changes include: Added Limited Late Summer… [Continue Reading]

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Fourth Annual Saxxies and Arena:Respawn

Oh hey, the Saxxies are here again! Let me blow my trumpet of joy, throw my confetti of happiness and drink my bottle of sarcasm! Yeah, the Fourth Annual Saxxies are here, the contest with the worst drama category since, well, anything with a drama category, complete with a bunch of prizes that no one ever sees and a winner for one category that everyone will hate, probably with some winners being the same as last year. Alright, I’m just saying that because I’m in a bad mood, but the Saxxies are no longer about killing people and playing TF2, it’s… [Continue Reading]

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“Don’t forget to pick up the Equalizer, you’ll need that for later…”

“Hey, does anyone know how to get past the Octoheavy Boss on the Teufort level?” the 4-star SPUFer posts innocently on the forums. After a few minutes, people of various star rankings start shuffling in, typing away furiously (or not) at their keyboards, writing up their responses. “Oh yes, I really struggled on that boss!” a 3-star poster sighs. “I tried it so many times then just gave up and switched to my level 20 Soldier.” “What? THERE’S A SINGLE PLAYER MODE?” the newbie screams. “Piece of piss!” the well-known 5-star SPUFer gloats. “It’s so simple. You just do this… [Continue Reading]

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A collection of taunt suggestions

When I look back at the Love and War update, all I see is an awesome video, fat Engineers, a conga taunt, a stupid ‘shield’ and a parachute. That’s pretty much it. Nothing else really sort of stuck in my mind. Yes, we’ve got the Rock Paper Scissors taunt and taunts in which we headbutt each other, and the ability to high five enemy players (which is awesome mind you) but the taunts we got don’t cover what we really want. So I’m going to be lame and list a bunch of ideas of taunts we should have. The Handshake… [Continue Reading]

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Making Strange Filters Work For You

Strange Filters were integrated poorly. I know of nobody who disagrees with this. They should have been like strange parts, adding a prefix and a subcounter showing how many kills you’ve gotten on a single map. Lobotomizing the actual function of the strange weapon on 99% of maps is not the way to get people to buy them. This article by Brokkoli makes a good case for strange filters by pointing out that it makes your weapon truly unique. Indeed, you are unlikely to ever see a Strange Rigid Market Gardener for the rest of your TF2 career, assuming you made… [Continue Reading]

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Guide on… walking out of spawn in TFC

Hello, my name is eugensiman and I’m a passionate newcomer into the world of Team Fortress games (400+ hours overall). I quickly found out that I’m more of a theorist than a practicalist in these shooters. I can acknowledge the importance and strategical advantages of various rocket jumps, however sometimes I can’t even do some of the simplest wall jumps on Badwater. But we’re here not to talk about walls. As I’ve said, I’m a newcomer not only into TF2, but into all the Team Fortress games. That means that I also like to spam some grenades around, make sentries… [Continue Reading]

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On Stealth

Stealth and Shooters have always been strange bedfellows ever since they first met. On one hand the genres don’t appear to mesh well, what with your standard FPS starring a one-man army who plows through hundreds of mooks with an ever-increasing assortment of deadly weapons, and stealth involving slow, laborious sneaking past individual guards and relying on not making sound or setting off alarms. On the other hand, that’s exactly why stealth games have a dedicated niche fanbase, exactly because it goes against the conventions of the genre and uses the core elements of an FPS in a creative new… [Continue Reading]

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Feminism and Team Fortress 2

I can hear you all screaming. I can hear the thundering footsteps of tumblr-based feminists stampeding towards us. We’re all doomed. Or at least you are, since I technically don’t exist. Alright, I’m kidding, you’re safe here (although maybe not for long). But since someone suggested this topic, something that hasn’t really been covered before, I thought, why not? My stance on the whole thing is rather, well, unique… If you just look at Team Fortress 2 at face value, you’d probably deem it as ‘propaganda for the patriarchy’ or something like that. Nine men of various sizes, shapes and… [Continue Reading]

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