The Lost Art of Flagrunning

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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]

A Different Gamechanger

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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]

Competitive Demoknights

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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]

Randomness you can’t see…

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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]

Soldier is overpowered and we don’t care…

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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]

ProKarting

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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]

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

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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]

The Eureka Effect’s Wasted Potential

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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]

A Run Down on This Year’s Festive Weapons

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For the last few years, we’ve received Festive Weapons, weapons made pretty and Christmassy for the winter holidays. The first year, we got 9 stock weapons, the second year,we got 9 mostly unique weapons like the Huntsman and the Flare Gun, the third year we got 9 more unique popular weapons and this year, we got, um, 7 weapons. Yeah, some people missed out. The weapons this year were the following: Bonk! Atomic Punch, Shotgun, Backburner, Chargin’ Targe, Bonesaw, SMG and Revolver. A larger collection of stock weapons, at the expense of some classes not getting their own weapons and… [Continue Reading]

Team Fortress Classic Should Go Free-to-Play

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Team Fortress Classic, the predecessor to Valve’s most successful multiplayer FPS, has had a pretty decorated history itself. Released in 1999 as a Goldsrc port of the hugely popular Quake mod Team Fortress, it came bundled for free with Half-Life which granted it a large and prospering player base for years, a player base which stayed strong until 2007, when TF2 came out. At around the same time it received a $5 price tag, and as a result the community for this game has dwindled to near nonexistence. Whenever I try to play I can only find two servers that are reliably… [Continue Reading]