analysis – The Daily SPUF

Deadlock’s McGinnis

June 5, 2026 aabicus 0 Comments alpha, analysis, class, deadlock, early access, first thoughts, hero, mcginnis, moba, recommendation, sentry, tank

I’ve covered an agile healer and a middling-speed DPS, now let’s complete the roster with a slow tank! Between these three characters, I think there’s something for everyone who is interested in trying Deadlock but struggling to choose a starter class. The final hero in our triumvirate will appeal to players who want a massive healthpool, an easy way to heal and deal damage, and limited mobility so being bad at Deadlock’s movement systems doesn’t kneecap one’s gameplay quite as much as on other heroes. Meet McGinnis! I played McGinnis in my first-ever Deadlock match for all the reasons mentioned… [Continue Reading]

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Deadlock’s Seven

May 24, 2026May 30, 2026 aabicus 0 Comments alpha, analysis, class, deadlock, early access, first thoughts, hero, moba, mobility, recommendation, seven

The first time you boot up Deadlock, you’re going to be prompted to play a tutorial to learn the bare minimum of how things work in the Cursed Apple. And this game is absolutely complicated enough that everyone, myself included, will highly recommend you indulge that offer. You will find yourself playing a cackling electricity-ridden scarecrow with a satellite dish for a head, and the first thing I remember thinking was, “aabicus, under no circumstances are you allowed to main the tutorial guy. Any other character, sure, but there’s nothing lamer than playing the easy class clearly designed for noobs.” I… [Continue Reading]

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Deadlock’s Ivy

March 14, 2026April 11, 2026 aabicus 3 Comments #GargoyleGaming, alpha, analysis, class, deadlock, early access, first thoughts, hero, ivy, moba, mobility, recommendation

When I was invited to join the Deadlock closed playtest in August 2024, I installed it and logged into the main menu with pretty much no idea what I was getting into. After starting up the sandbox to poke around, I was faced with a massive list of random heroes I knew nothing about, and chose the winged gargoyle because I figured flight would be useful for exploring the map. A year and a half later, Ivy is still my favorite hero in the game. She really has a little bit of everything, and I’m mostly just writing this to gush about… [Continue Reading]

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Player Housing: WoW vs. FFXIV

February 3, 2026February 3, 2026 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, comparison, customization, Final Fantasy XIV, house, mmo, rpg, world of warcraft, wow

World of Warcraft has recently made waves in the gaming sphere by finally adding housing! Arguably one of the most requested features since the game first released in 2004, it’s crazy to see it finally come to light 22 years later. And even more exciting, it is (by all accounts) quite good! I’ve heard nothing but glowing reviews from those who got to sample the closed beta or PTR version, though I myself have kept my sub suspended for my own productivity. But Blizzard, perhaps anticipating the recalcitrance of fair-weather gamers such as myself, has cleverly offered a free weekend… [Continue Reading]

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What’s the BEST Commoner You Can Make in D&D 5e?

August 10, 2025November 29, 2025 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, d&d, dnd, Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons and dragons, Filler, gaming, math, roleplaying, rpg, ttrpg

This is the sort of dumbass question I love to wrap my head around instead of interacting with my hobbies in an even remotely normal way. Meet the Commoner. Has to be probably the saddest statblock you ever did see. Zeroes in every ability, no skills or proficiencies, a single weapon and its the worst one in the game… D&D 5e has a pretty sorry opinion on the most basic building block of any medieval setting. While there are plenty of things to say about the developers’ rather reductive attitude towards a group of historically quite hardy individuals (I bet… [Continue Reading]

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D&D 5e: A Guide to Playing Level 0 Characters

October 14, 2022April 23, 2024 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, breakdown, Dungeons & Dragons, dungeons and dragons, guide, level 0, roleplaying, rules

Did you know D&D 5e actually has an official method for generating 0th-level characters? The Adventurer’s League module “What’s Past is Prologue” stars classless characters, and you can view the rules for generating your own in the free preview. I was pretty excited to learn this, as the ‘level 0 session’ is a popular unofficial method for playing underpowered ‘commoner runs.’ Today I wanted to talk about this niche ruleset, its pros and cons, and whether you should use it. Should you use Level 0 characters? My first caveat is that you should not run level 0 characters for beginning… [Continue Reading]

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The Original Doom: Does it Hold Up?

February 7, 2021June 23, 2021 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, doom, doom II, retrospective

Since Team Fortress Classic was my first-ever multiplayer game, I’d actually never played the original Doom. Doom took the entire gaming industry by storm and forever changed the future of shooters. But thanks to the never-ending quarantine, plus getting addicted to speedrunning videos like the ones on Karl Jobst’s YouTube channel, I finally purchased and played through Doom and Doom II. While I know I’m not breaking any new ground with this incredibly-hot take, I think they may be two of the greatest games I’ve ever played. Still Badass It was truly eye-opening to go back and see these two seminal… [Continue Reading]

Now for Something Completely Different

The current state of Destiny 2 – Content Removal Edition

September 19, 2020September 13, 2020 Spectre 2 Comments analysis, destiny 2, dlc, expansion, rant, rework

As you might have heard through multiple news sources, Destiny 2 is getting a massive rework on November. One concerning fact is that 4 locations are becoming inaccessible after Beyond Light. Before we get into why is this happening we got to take a look at the bigger picture regarding how many barriers are set up for new players and how much relevant content you can play currently. A quick recap on the story: To address the elephant in the room, those monolithic Pyramids were part of the main plot on the Shadowkeep expansion. One derelict was found buried under… [Continue Reading]

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Differentiating Maps Through Gameplay, part 2

September 17, 2020September 17, 2020 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, comparison, design, maps, payday, payday the heist

Previously I used Left 4 Dead 2 to showcase “thematic gameplay“, a development philosophy whereby each map in the game gets a subtle tweak to the core gameplay loop to make it feel different from the rest the game has to offer. Payday the Heist is actually another masterclass in this philosophy, so to reinforce my point I thought I’d discuss how a second title used thematic gameplay to create very memorable and distinguishable heists. 1. First World Bank First World Bank doesn’t really have any gimmicks, as it’s setting the baseline for the rest of the game. One after… [Continue Reading]

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Payday 2: On Perk Decks

September 10, 2020September 8, 2020 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, Filler, payday, payday 2, perk decks, skill

I wanted to write a quick article about perk decks in Payday 2, because I find them pretty fascinating as a concept. Not the fact that they exist (they’re identical in function to the level-up trees from Payday the Heist) but that they exist in conjunction to the standard character classes, each of which has a ton of random abilities and playstyles with different weapons, equippables, armors, and concealment levels. As someone who loves game design, I’ve spent way more time than I should trying to figure out what criteria Overkill put into deciding when an ability is worthy of a… [Continue Reading]

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