analysis

Cops & Zombies 1: Sniping

by

Assault rifles felt like an obvious place to start this series, what with assault rifles being the generic all-purpose middle ground of the gun spectrum, but personally I’ve always found sniping a more interesting balance challenge for a co-op horde game. You’re being flooded with a bottomless wave of bad guys, why on earth would you want a semi-automatic long-range weapon when an assault rifle can clean an entire courtyard faster? Because you’re on a team, that’s why. If your three allies can keep the bulk of the enemy down, you become something of a specialist who excels in picking specific targets,… [Continue Reading]

How an FPS Should (and Shouldn’t) Reward Experience

by

While I’m not the Valve-only gamer I was a few years ago, I do seem to always find myself coming back to Valve’s pre-eminent titles. No matter how many times I grow tired of their old games and branch out in the hopes of finding similar but fresh content, I always eventually come crawling back for more Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress or Counter-Strike. Recently I took a bit of time to try and puzzle out just what exactly Valve had done to continually attract me so. And I think I’ve figured it out. The single best thing about Valve games in… [Continue Reading]

Thoughts on my first season of competitive TF2

by

Season 4 of 4v4 was my first ever step into competitive TF2, after months of people telling me I’d do really well, that I’d be perfectly alright, that I was plenty good enough, even though I can only play Medic. They may have been right, but I’m still not sure and I’m not sure whether I want to continue or not. At least in 4v4. The first thing I noticed is organization. For 4v4, matches are on Friday, to be completed and scores updated by Monday. But it’s really hard just trying to get a date from the other team.… [Continue Reading]

TF2 is in palliative care, and the signs are all there…

by

Original article by Sud, as seen here. As much of a downer subject that it may be, I get the feeling reading through threads around here that people are a bit in denial as far as hope for TF2 to receive significant future support, and I just wanted to sound out a bit about the topic. TL;DR is at the bottom if you don’t like words. Unfortunately, Valve is no longer the happy little company that it was when it was developing Half-Life, and Steam was a twinkle (or the beginning of a cataract) in Gabe Newell’s eye. Valve has… [Continue Reading]

The Classic: Underpowered or Misunderstood?

by

Not too long ago an update hit, an update that some think of as the bane of TF2’s existence thanks to the addition of these then new taunts, mainly the conga, however there was a shining light to the update: we got 4 new weapons! That’s right, four whole new weapons, one being the Classic, which is suppose to be a homage to TFC’s Sniper Rifle. The Classic received a graphical update that’s very faithful to the original model, and honestly the gun looks amazing. Despite being ecstatic about this homage, I found myself a bit dumbfounded at the stats,… [Continue Reading]

Saxton Hale – The Tenth Class

by

Preface You know, after all this time, I would have thought someone would have been able to come up with a legitimate class description for the one and only Saxton Hale.  I’ve searched the SPUF archives,  and while there are some interesting ideas for non–core TF2, as far as I know, there is no actual proposal for Saxton Hale to join the Nine on the battlefield! This cannot continue.  Every day I ask myself: “What Would Saxton Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-(breath)-Aaaaaaaaaale Do? (WWSHaaaaaD?)” and while the answer is usually “Grow a Moustache, you hippy!” today the answer to that question is “Try to Make Saxton Hale a Balanced Class in Team Fortress… [Continue Reading]

I want to like the Cow Mangler 5000

by

Hi there, I’m an Engineer, and I solve practical problems. Actually, no, I’m the Medic and I’m commandeering this article because it’s been sitting, unchanged, since 2013. But I’m going to put on my roleplaying shoes and finish this. So, the Cow Mangler. Fun. Laser-y. Confusing. Pointless? The Soldier has a lot of weapons, particularly rocket launchers. It’s expected of the jack of all trades class. The Cow Mangler 5000 is probably one of Soldier’s weakest weapons. Engineers hate it. Kritzkrieg Medics hate it. Pyros love it. Actually I think Pyros kinda dislike it too, unless they’re reflecting those spangly… [Continue Reading]

Less and Less Sure about 4v4

by

So, the more I play 4v4, the less and less sure I feel about it. This isn’t because of my two recent losses, no. I played a random 4v4 lobby and did really well. It’s the game mode. It really is. There is something off about 4v4 that 6v6 and Highlander both seem to have. And the pressure… The pressure… 4v4 has always been a much more deathmatch-centric game mode. It’s all about keeping yourself alive and the enemy dead for as long as possible. But you have to keep everyone alive. Losing one person, even just a Scout, is… [Continue Reading]

Respawn Theories

by

In Team Fortress 2, unless you’re playing Arena mode, you respawn when you die. Respawning is a common thing in video games. Often it’s hand-waved as part of the game, you just do. It’s either that or having a limited number of lives, showing a Game Over screen when you lose them all. Some games manage to explain respawning after death pretty well – the first and second Bioshock games have vita-chambers from which you can respawn and can be turned off for Super Hard Mode; and Borderlands basically charges you money, the whole thing being a paid service to… [Continue Reading]

The Dominationing

by

There’s been a couple of posts on SPUF recently about Dominations and I think now is a good time to make a post about them, both as a recently dominated Medic and a Medic who got a bunch of dominations, but also as an average TF2 player and someone who sees other people getting dominated or dominating. Let’s start with a recap on how dominations work. Simply put, you get 4 kills or assists on someone without them killing or assisting in killing you, you dominate them. A notification appears on the scoreboard, showing that you have a domination and/or… [Continue Reading]