A New Comic!

Valve has released Grave Matters! It’s not the sequel to the bi-monthy comic (even though its been exactly two months since the last one), but a Halloween teaser for the upcoming Scream Fortress. Read the Comic here! SPUF is abuzz with excitement and speculation over the contents of the update, but all we know is that it’ll involve community-contributed cosmetics and they’ll all be Halloween/Full moon-restricted. There are so many unanswered questions. What TF2 map will be spookified this year? (Something payload race would be a safe bet, while others are suggesting Teufort!) Will Halloween Spells be released, allowing enterprising… [Continue Reading]

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Mangling Cows with Lasers

Everyone and their dog seems to hate the Dr Grordbort weapons, what with their fancy, overly sci-fi look, their overly bright lasers and their overly broken stats and abilities. The Pomson is hated by all but the most stubborn of Engineers. The Phlogistinator is only ever truly considered useful for destroying tanks in Mann VS Machine. The Eureka Effect breaks Arena Mode. And the Third Degree is a direct upgrade. But only one of these weapons has given its name to an illness. Yes, the Cow Mangler 5000. But since it was changed, it’s recovered from its debilitating disease. Almost.

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Sniper Taunts vs. Spy Taunts?

Here’s an observation I’ve made just recently. Based on what I’ve heard from other people and what I’ve noticed myself, taunting as sniper is such a common occurrence that it’s become cliche. On the other hand, taunting as spy puts the player at such an inconvenience that it’s rarely considered. A number of factors make it appear that this is actually completely intentional in gameplay. For whatever reason, sniper very much encourages taunting while spy highly discourages it.

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Why the CnD deserves some love

Howdy! First post on the SPUF blog here, and since I noticed a certain lack of Spy posts, here’s one about possibly the most unloved (and probably least mentioned!) weapon in TF2: The Cloak ‘n’ Dagger. At first, it seems like a straight upgrade, but when moving it actually drains cloak faster than you’d think, certainly faster than the Invis Watch, and it refuses to collect ammo. Most people just craft it off or let it be as a keepsake or a Spy weapon to collect, but it’s actually damn useful at times. Here’s why.

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An Odd Relationship…

The Heavy Weapons Guy. Often considered the best pocket for newbie Medics. It’s a very strange relationship. Hand the Heavy-Medic connection to strange fans and they’ll do wonders or, more often,  horrific stuff with it. It’s  funny, sometimes, I can’t make a decision on what to write, but most of the time, I find I’m writing stuff because someone’s mentioned it. Or they just want to see me write something from the view of, um, me. Because I’m clearly really that mercenary who goes around healing people, and I’m quite obviously canon. This leads to an odd scenario. People start… [Continue Reading]

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Unusuals – A Thought

A while ago, when the Robocrates first came out, I was playing Team Fortress with my sibling, and he unboxed an unusual. A Disco Beat Down Whoopee Cap. A pretty effect on an average Scout hat. I’d seen quite a few people unboxing unusuals that day, and a lot more people trying their luck, unboxing a million Strange Bottles and Fireaxes.  I was among the people who didn’t unbox an unusual, although I managed to get a white paint from a #4 crate.

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Heavy Picnics and Other Amusing Mini-Games

Most people seem to hate friendly Heavies. You know, those Heavies who wander around maps, Sandvich in hand, not actually doing any killing. Free points if they’re on the enemy team, a waste of a slot if they’re on yours. But when everyone on a server is being a friendly Heavy, that means they can be easily swayed by your will. And your voice, particularly if you have one of those deep, gentlemannly, British voices or happen to be obviously female. But now we have a server full of willing players under our command, what can we do with them?… [Continue Reading]

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An Interview with the Person Behind Everything

In this article, we’ll be chatting with the mastermind behind the SPUFserver and the person who makes the Daily SPUF work! And he does lots of other cool things too. We’ll be discussing the stresses of running a server and how you shouldn’t bash server owners. Unless they’re servers running Pinion for the sake of making money. No, this wonderful person puts his own blood, sweat and tears into making us happy…

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Six Shots

Ah, the Shotgun, everyone’s favourite stock weapon. Last time we covered it, we were talking about Fat Scouts (i.e. Heavies) but this time, we’re talking about Soldiers. Before we start, a little-known fact about me, Soldier is my second most played class, a fact that has been firmly reinforced since I faced a horde of beeping monstrosities. Being the all-rounder that Soldier is, the Shotgun is, in his hands, one of the most powerful tools around, despite the fact that he also has a bloody rocket launcher. But why?

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