Landfall: The Newest CTF Map

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The new maps in Tough Break feel super generic, but they’re at least very well made. And after the oddity of themes like aliens, halloween and PASS Time, maybe its good for TF2 to take a step back and support some tried-and-true game modes with new gimmick-free maps. Nevertheless I’m surprised to find myself liking ctf_landfall as much as I do. It’s Capture the Flag after all, a legendarily poorly-designed game mode. But somehow, Landfall does a really good job of balancing the concept and avoiding perpetual stalemates. The map has a wonderful three-dimensional design with two designated layers of… [Continue Reading]

On Assortedness and AIs

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Having nigh non-existent internet makes you ponder about things. It also infuriates you by teasing you with a possible internet connection, only to laugh in your face as it takes five minutes to load DuckDuckGo, and seven minutes to load Google. Loading the Daily SPUF to schedule and write articles has been a painful series of events. Seriously, this is what I have to contend with. A note to all future torturers out there. If you really want to get information from someone, lock them in a room with my bad internet connection. They’ll be begging for release within half… [Continue Reading]

Weapons that are deemed underpowered

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In this game there are several weapons which people view as garbage, now most of them are actually complete shit but a few of them are just being utilized the wrong way. Listing time! The Overdose: “OH MY GOD!”you say, “That 10% movement speed is amazing for decent medics and the penalty doesn’t mean anything.” say the good Medics. whereas newer players soon realize that it has to be active and don’t see a point so scrap it immediately. The real use of the Overdose has nothing to do with 10% and so much more to do with 3%. Let’s… [Continue Reading]

The state of public TF2 isn’t as bad as I thought

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It’s far, far worse. I was messing around with some of the new options Valve has put into the game, and happened upon the option to enable mouse cursor on the scoreboard. I then by chance clicked on a name on the score screen, and realized, as late to the party as I might be, that you can actually see all the statistics of the player you clicked on – kills, deaths, assists, healing, damage, everything. The ability to have access to this information is huge for me, as when the team is doing poorly, I’m in the habit of… [Continue Reading]

Why TF2 is Hard

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There’s a lot of talk about the states of publics nowadays, but one of the things that’s really hard to remember once you’ve got good at TF2 is how it is to be a new player. Most players worth their salt have played for a couple of hundred hours. To these people, TF2 is a fairly easy game. And why wouldn’t it be? TF2 is a game where most of the characters are extremely accessible. Soldier rockets splash. Grenades splash. Stickies splash. Flamethrower requires low aim. So does the minigun. So does Engineer. And especially Medic. But what if I told… [Continue Reading]

My Favorite Gun in Various Horde Games (That Nobody Uses)

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Maybe it’s just due to my desire to step outside of my comfort zone, but for some reason I often find myself gravitating toward guns that don’t fit the established meta of multiplayer games. Games like the ones on this list aren’t exactly well-known for their weapon customization and yet in each case my favorite gun turns out to be something customized in a way that makes it completely unused by the majority of players. So I thought I’d take a moment to argue a case for my favorite guns in some popular horde mode games on Steam. 1. The laser-sighted silenced… [Continue Reading]

Why the “stats” discussion on any weapon forum doesn’t do anything

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As I’ve just now gone through the Iron Gauntlet new stuff, I’ve come to realize that some of the biggest discussions about the update were about what statistics the new weapons should have. Let me tell you why no “STATS!” discussion will ever actually be useful. #1. There are certain things Valve will never add to the game. These include: weapons that increase a Heavy’s, Scout’s, or Medic’s maximum HP. The Dalokohs is an exception but is only a temporary buff. This is mainly based off the facts that: the Pretty Boy’s Pocket Pistol was changed, Medics are a keystone… [Continue Reading]

We’ve been getting new weapons all along!

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The other day, aabicus mentioned that a weapon (the Persian Persuader to be precise) had essentially been removed from the game. While it hadn’t really been removed, the stats that make the Persian Persuader the Persian Persuader had been changed completely, making it a pretty mediocre weapon in the process. But as everyone screamed in realization as one of Demoman’s more interesting and niche melees had disappeared, something else occurred to me. We’ve been getting new weapons all along! The Persian Persuader is one of many of these new weapons. Alright, it doesn’t have the excitement of getting a new… [Continue Reading]

On Hype

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Gamers have a love/hate relationship with hype. It fuels our soul, keeps us looking to the future and fills our minds with the tantalizing possibilities foreshadowed by either a PR Department or just the words of our online comrades. Sometimes the final product fizzles in the sun, sometimes it handles itself well enough but doesn’t meet hype, and on rare occasion it can exceed everyone’s expectations. But is too much hype a good thing? From a developer’s perspective, it makes sense to try and drum up as much excitement over a product as possible. Your goal is to get people… [Continue Reading]

On Pre-Match Paralysis

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The Pre-Match freeze is something that every TF2 player has experienced, something that you encounter every single match you play, and something that’s been in the game from the very beginning. And yet I think it may be one of the least-discussed facets of the game. I know I thought about making an article on it twice in the past two years and both times abandoned the notion due to lack of content. Why does it happen? When I first wondered about it, I wasn’t even sure if it was intentional. Maybe the map’s loading, or something in the background has… [Continue Reading]