analysis – Page 5 – The Daily SPUF

Which classes in TF2 are Specialists and which are Generalists?

April 29, 2016 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, Classes, comparison, roles, unlock

SPUF goes through phases when it comes to things to argue about. Some debates are seasonal like holiday updates, some are deceased like the Gunslinger, and others are eternal like random crits and autobalance. But one that crops up every now and then is the question of Specialists v. Generalists. It’s generally agreed that some classes in TF2 are more specialized than others. Engineer can do a number of things well, but he’s rather pigeon-holed into those categories especially when compared to Scout and Demoman. Where to draw the actual line regarding which classes are “Generalist” engenders much debate, with Soldier being the only one… [Continue Reading]

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On Community Updates

April 22, 2016 Medic 0 Comments analysis, community, cosmetics, crates, criticism, end of the line, invasion, update

Community updates have always had some sort of sparkle to them. You get a ton of great content-creators gathering and making something as a team. Right now, we have two communities working together on two very different but rather complimentary updates – the Iron Gauntlet, which features Mann VS Machine maps and robotic cosmetics, and the Mayann Project, which is more of an Indiana Jones themed update. Both look very promising and some cool themes behind them. And of course, more Mann VS Machine stuff is always good for me. Thing is though, despite the fact that community updates bring… [Continue Reading]

Featured The SPUF of Legend

Rawr! – Dragonflight Review

April 5, 2016 Medic 0 Comments analysis, criticism, dragon, rawr, review, simulator

Aabicus, being the awesome person he is, got me Dragonflight for my birthday. It’s a game that’s been sitting on my wishlist for a while, and, like the other dragon game on my wishlist, has been in Early Access for a while. Being the grateful content creator that I am, I decided to review the game. Dragonflight is a game in which you fly a wyvern (a two-wings, two-legs dragon) around and destroy things. The story is your standard stop-the-bad-guy-from-being-freed nonsense, where you steal the bones of an evil dragon before the enemy does. A bit like National Treasure but… [Continue Reading]

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On Becoming a Parody of Your Former Self

March 31, 2016 Medic 0 Comments analysis, comics, criticism, heavy, lore, medic, miss pauling, soldier, story

I’ve been re-reading and re-watching a lot of TF2 stuff lately. While my desire to actually play the game has fizzled out lately, I’ve always been a fan of the crazy TF2 back story. Always will. But my recent reviewing of it all has made me notice a few things. Things are changing. In ways I’m not sure I like. It hit me when I read Gargoyles and Gravel Pits, the Scream Fortress 2015 comic. In it, Medic is depicted as a complete lunatic, while Engineer is pretty chill about everything. And I realised that Medic has gone more and… [Continue Reading]

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The Black Box

March 19, 2016 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, soldier, weapon

So the other day I tried out the Black Box for the first time in ages. Never thought I’d use that gun again. It used to be my go-to; an everpresent mainstay in my Soldier arsenal that I adapted each and every loadout around. I’d use it with Gunboats to dominate close-range combat, I’d use it with shotgun for all-purpose versatility, I’d use it in all-crit servers with the Battalion’s Backup to negate crits while firing healing crockets, heck I’d even use it in the early waves of MvM to regenerate health until I had the credits to deck out… [Continue Reading]

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MeeM’s thoughts on difficulty and continuity

March 12, 2016 MysticTheMeeM 1 Comment a week of Love and Hate, analysis, balance, love, Team Fortress 2, theory

Often, I find myself asking: “why are you still doing this” or “your team isn’t trying, why should you”. And nearly every time I fail to answer, and then consequently die for not paying attention. But that’s the thing. Why did I die? I died because I made myself die. Not directly, rather I made the decision that I should die a couple of hours before playing. Now, I’m fairly certain most people, at some point in any game, get to a point where they no longer feel challenged and quickly after they become bored. At least this was true… [Continue Reading]

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Followers in various video games

February 11, 2016 Medic 0 Comments advice, analysis, criticism, followers, non-tf2, rpg

Most games with a story, whether they are single player or multiplayer, have a habit of dragging someone with you for a while. How games do this, well it varies greatly, so I’m going to talk about the few games I’ve placed recently. Sometimes, followers, companions, whatever you want to call them, are bloody awful. Sometimes you forget they’re there. Often the game developers want you to have some sort of attachment to the morons you generally have following you around. One of my favourite examples of a follower done right is that of the security guards and scientists in… [Continue Reading]

Featured Now for Something Completely Different

A Quick Glance at the Borderlands

February 9, 2016 Medic 0 Comments analysis, borderlands 2, non-tf2, review

Recently, I’ve started replaying Borderlands 2. I played the original a looong time ago, liked it a lot, but found it incredibly hard. I was also kinda screwed by a weak computer that ended with me never actually being able to leave the Arid Badlands and enter the next area – every time I did, the game would freeze then crash. Still, I liked the darker humor and Skags are pretty cool creatures. Before I continue, there’s spoilers ahead. Just so you know. Borderlands 2 is supposed to be a sequel but there’s something off about it. On the plus… [Continue Reading]

Featured The Competitive Corner

Sniper and The Stealth Buff Nobody Spoke Of

January 30, 2016 ___ 0 Comments analysis, criticism, maps, sniper, watchtower

Recently-ish on SPUF, having no more need to complain about the now bus-sized mini sentry, and arguing random crits to the death, we’ve come back to one of the classes that has been complained about throughout the ages, from the earliest days of first person shooting, all the way through the rail pad on q3dm17 (also known as the longest yard) to these modern days, where one will instant kill you with a quickscope, often through 8 walls: The marmite-like sniper. You either play sniper, or you hate them, and even if you’re in the first category, they’re still annoying.… [Continue Reading]

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Juggling weapons: the new TF2 meta?

January 29, 2016 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, glitches, weapon balance

Red Robot sparked some interesting conversations in various social medias including SPUF when he released this video, commenting on a new ‘playstyle’ he’d discovered: Using the new weapon-dropping mechanic, he had the very Counter Strike-esque idea to juggle multiple weapons of the same loadout slot and carry them through the battlefield. His first idea was to pair the Crit-a-cola with the pistol, and I can definitely see the appeal in that combo. The pistol’s a half-decent jack-of-all-trades with middling accuracy, firepower, and firing speed, so giving it a damage boost and falloff-immunity could be godly in the hands of a pro scout.… [Continue Reading]