Beloved Daily SPUF Redirect URL Shutting Down, Millions in Mourning

If our fair blog were a TF2 playstyle, he’d be a roamer. A while back we switched from spufblog.com to blog.spuf.info, and left the old URL as a redirect that aabicus was paying 18 dollars a year to keep running. Well, it didn’t seem that useful so we’re closing it down. If you don’t interact with the “spufblog.com” URL, this won’t affect you, and really this won’t affect the visible blog in any way. So if you need to, check and update your bookmarks; the old URL was on the first page of the SPUF megathread for some time.

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A Love Letter to TFC’s Escape Mode

Author’s note June 2020: I’ve updated the server addresses at the bottom of the article. Both servers are still active, go play on them! As far as I know, “Escape” mode never made it to TF2 in any fashion, so whenever I get the urge for it, I crank up Team Fortress Classic and play with its healthy repertoire of Escape maps available. Also (unlike the TFC proper servers in my area) it still has a healthy playerbase today, which I link to at the end of this article and anyone who wants can go play with. At its core,… [Continue Reading]

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Stranges: Dota 2 and Us

A lot of games show you your killing stats by default. Originally Team Fortress 2 wasn’t one of them. Then Valve decided they’d like to try making some money and in the Uber Update placed a single key between you and the stat-tracking weapon of your dreams. Like it or not, this was amazingly successful. They followed up on this by adding stranges (and most of the other item qualities) into Dota 2 when that totally-not-a-sequel-to-anything-owned-by-Blizzard became a thing. However, while I don’t play Dota 2 myself (I tried it once but I didn’t inhale) I’ve heard from my friends that… [Continue Reading]

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Hugging the Ground

One of the many, many reasons I have never gotten into Competitive TF2 is because I’ve always been the sort of person who can’t really get the hang of explosive jumping. I just overall suck at moving in a three dimensional space which is controlled by two dimensional movements. That sounds complicated, but it’s just a fancy way of saying that I’m crap. That’s me being harsh on myself. I’m an okay Medic. My dodging skills are quite good. My awareness is about average. My general skill level is about average. The one thing I cannot get a hang of,… [Continue Reading]

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Dancing Hazardously around a Das Hazmattenhatten!

Fun fact: Das Hazmattenhatten is a really annoying word to type, even worse than Otolaryngologist’s Mirror. But since it’s a nice hat and it’s got a stupidly long name, not to mention that it’s got some unique properties, I feel it’s worth an article. So here we go! The Das Hazmattenhatten was added in the July 10th patch in 2013, also known as the Move That Gear Up! update. This was the same update that gave the Quick Fix overheal, made the Vaccinator the best choice for cp_orange and nothing else and changed the Crossbow’s projectile to a giant syringe.… [Continue Reading]

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A Model Modeler

Chemical Alia has a long history with Team Fortress 2; one of the original winners of the Polycount Contest with her Saharan Spy set, she’s also well-known for her female TF2 models and Dota 2 item submissions. She took some time out of her busy schedule to talk to us! 1. How did you first get into 3D modeling? Have you considered modeling professionally? I come from a fine art background, and I didn’t learn to model until after I graduated from college.  After that, I went to grad school to learn how to model art for video games. I’ve… [Continue Reading]

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The Secret Way Scout Can Still Fire Nails

All glory to Trebel for this awesome visual bug he found. This glitch could be very old. I wouldn’t be surprised if this existed since the first release of TF2 in 2007. The conditions are simple, but rather unlikely in normal play. 1. Spawn as scout on a map with Resupply Cabinets. Equip the Scattergun. 2. Jump on top of the Resupply Cabinet and reload your scattergun so it ejects a shell onto the top of the cabinet. 3. It’s not a scattergun shell, it’s a nail! What? This is almost certainly a holdover from TF2’s Development, when Scout’s primary… [Continue Reading]

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Mod Showcase: Mario Kart

Hello. I’m Brickinator. This is Mod Showcase. The end is coming. Today we’ll be having a look at Mario Kart, the worst custom Team Fortress 2 map ever made. There are no objectives and the level is a horrific, blocky landscape covered in rainbows. It basically looks like a Lego set covered in pixie jizz. Be afraid. Be very afraid. At first glance, Mario Kart appears to be a sugary bit of children’s drizzle where you can piss around, but the more you play it the more you realise it’s actually a stonehearted exposé of everything that’s wrong with our faltering so-called… [Continue Reading]

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Real Teammates of Genius

Red Shed Brewers presents Real Teammates of Genius. Today, we salute you, Mister Determined Last Point Engineer. Only a man of your caliber would even attempt as daring a feat as building on your own last control point as soon as the game started. The other Engineers on your team lack the foresight to prepare for the worst. But fret not, RED Team, for you have Determined Last Point Engineer, and no one is taking his point, except the Spy that just sapped all of his buildings. Even in the face of your entire team asking you to move that gear up,… [Continue Reading]

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February 23 – March 1st

Bye February! Nice knowing you! The last week of February has always been a popular time for TF2 updates, possibly because of the natural progression from Winter to Spring leaving Valve feeling optimistic and energized. Or random chance. Who knows. February 28, 2008 saw a reduction in the comically oversized reserve ammunition carried by the Soldier and Demoman. Before this update, Soldier had 36 reserve rockets, and Demoman had a whopping 30 Stickybombs and 40 Grenades. If only the Persian Persuader had existed back then… Tournament mode also became a thing, which disables autobalance and map objectives like flags and… [Continue Reading]

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