analysis – Page 4 – The Daily SPUF

Why the Back Scatter may be best Scout weapon

August 9, 2016August 26, 2016 Tryhard 0 Comments analysis, guide, scout, weapon

Something has intrigued me. Simple put no one on the Daily SPUF has written a single article on The Back Scatter and the only time it is mentioned at all is as a passing reference in the article Stop saying I’m a good medic! Of course one may be inclined to say that “the Daily SPUF hasn’t posted content about many things” and “what makes the Back Scatter so special”. I will tell you what makes the Back Scatter so special and article-worthy. The Back Scatter sucks… like really sucks and The Daily SPUF has a penchant for writing about sucky things,… [Continue Reading]

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Why Is Symmetra in Support? – Overwatch

August 7, 2016June 26, 2018 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, overwatch, symmetra

Update June 26 2018: This article is outdated due to today’s update While the TF2 community has come to accept that the official class role system has almost no basis in reality, Overwatch rolled out a very well-defined classification system that mostly makes sense. Tanky characters are tanks, healing characters are in support, ranged DPS are in offense, and area denial are in Defense. Except So many people can’t fathom why Symmetra is in Support. She’s the only support character who doesn’t heal, and her turrets are very obvious area denial. She seems like a slam dunk for the Defense category, and… [Continue Reading]

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MeeMs Thoughts On The Balance Of Power

July 27, 2016 MysticTheMeeM 0 Comments analysis, balance, weapon

After the recent update (Or if you’re reading this in the future the MyM update) many of us are left questioning two things. Firstly, what the hell are the TF team doing and secondly, do they actually play this game? Well from recent discussions it seems pretty clear that Valve would likely try to break down weapon stats into more logical data. So to begin with we must query what actually makes a weapon. For most weapons in TF2 we can split it up into it’s effective range and its DPS. If we look at a simple example say… the… [Continue Reading]

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Mirror’s Edge and Me

July 23, 2016 SilverWolf 0 Comments analysis, criticism, non-tf2

When I first saw Mirror’s Edge I thought it looked incredible. I downloaded and played the demo on the 360 repeatedly and it was mind-blowing to me to see and play something so fresh. Then eventually through the sweet, sweet nectar to a high school student that is birthday money, I bought the full game. And I loved every moment of it… Except for some bits, BUT FOR THE MOST PART I loved it! The clean and stylish aesthetics, the focus on momentum and flow, no HUD, no screen clutter. Just you, your ability as a Runner and the world… [Continue Reading]

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New PASS Time updates!

July 19, 2016 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, pass time, scout, update

The recent update is finally live, and there are so many new changes I don’t even know where to start! So for lack of better ideas, I decided to begin with PASS Time, in part because I know it’s not super popular, and I want to encourage people again to try it out. It’s really really not a bad mode, certainly it’s better than capture-the-flag, and the new update pushed a lot of very cool changes I can totally get behind. One of the major problems affecting PASS Time was the extreme emphasis it placed on a single player. Whoever… [Continue Reading]

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Meet Your Match Weapon Rebalances!

July 17, 2016 aabicus 1 Comment analysis, balance, update, weapons

There are so many new weapon changes that came out with Meet Your Match, and for the most part I’d say the changes are a net positive. I’m not even sure where to begin, so I’m just going to go through the list and highlight the weapons I care about, and say my piece. First of all, the Sydney Sleeper is awesome! Two huge changes that buffed this weapon while raising its skill ceiling and its support capabilities, now it can extinguish teammates with scoped friendly-fire and deal area-of-effect jarate splash on scoped headshots. The former ties in with the… [Continue Reading]

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Concepts

June 29, 2016 General_B 0 Comments analysis, balance, melee, suggestion, Team Fortress 2, theory, update, weapon

Valve doesn’t like adding new concepts to the game, which is why there are so many +/- weapons, even the ones that don’t look like they are. The Airstrike for instance, is entirely +/- but the description doesn’t show it as such. Anyways Valve occasionally figures out they can change around a concept for new weapons and balancing, and then do it to a bunch of weapons (cough, switch speeds in tough break getting added to like 30% of melee weapons, cough). This seems like a new thing but switch speed has been around for ages in the Degreaser and… [Continue Reading]

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Organ Trail and Me

June 13, 2016 SilverWolf 1 Comment analysis, criticism, non-tf2

I remember picking up the original version of this game. I thought it looked like a laugh and had some interesting (and unforgiving) mechanics. I’d installed it nearing midnight and had work at 8 in the morning. “Screw it,” I thought “five minutes.” The next time I looked at a clock it was 3, nearing 4am. my heart pounding against its cage as I dragged my final survivor into the safe zone alongside his wounded leader who’d become incapacitated at the final hurdle. Everyone else was dead. I felt an elation like nothing I’d felt before in a game, after… [Continue Reading]

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Little-Known TF2 Mechanics

May 30, 2016December 5, 2016 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, chat, glitches, mechanics, pyro, sniper, spy

In order to make this list, said TF2 mechanic needs to (1) heavily affect some aspect of playing the game normally, (2) be completely unexplained or hidden, and (3) be something I somehow only learned in 2016 despite my pathological addiction to analyzing every facet of this game. I’ve divided the list into three “major” and three “minor” mechanics. Major 1: Projectile Models on some weapons affect aerodynamics. Several of the projectiles in TF2 actually care about the drag on the fired projectile, which means that, for example, most of the grenade launchers fire even more differently than their stats… [Continue Reading]

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TF2’s Shorts are Better Written Than Overwatch’s

May 27, 2016 OrangeyBlueInk 0 Comments analysis, comparison, criticism, overwatch, writing

Uh, hi. Aabicus and I were discussing elements of writing in both Overwatch and TF2, specifically in terms of the two Overwatch shorts focusing on Winston and on Widowmaker in comparison to Expiration Date. I suggest you watch them and take a look at how the action interacts with their respective narratives, which is what I will focus on here. These are pulled directly from a Skype discussion, so no examples are currently cited. In Expiration Date, the action is tied in with the character’s deep insecurities, their impending mortality, their desire for human connection, and their hopes for better… [Continue Reading]