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Deadlock’s Infernus

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This article is dedicated to Spades. I was queueing up for a random Infernus match, still not really knowing the character but ready to do my best. I liked his kit enough and I needed a third character with 15 wins to unlock ranked, which was gonna be a hell of a grind but I had to start somewhere. Spades was an incredibly laid-back dude on my team who offered to queue up together for more games afterward. He watched me play, doctored up a custom build for my playstyle, and then queued into matches with me for over nine… [Continue Reading]

Deadlock’s Druid

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As Deadlock establishes its place in the gaming conscience, more and more of its characters are developing recognizable reputations among various online communities. Ivy has a Know Your Meme page, Silver is making waves in the furry fandom, and Abrams enjoys the star power of being the box-art face of the game. But there’s a good chance most of you haven’t heard of Deadlock’s Druid, probably because he doesn’t technically exist, unless you count unused lines and dummied-out code. Here’s the closest thing he has to an ‘appearance’ in the canon: Mina and Victor have a couple unused voicelines referring to… [Continue Reading]

Deadlock’s McGinnis

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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]

Deadlock’s Seven

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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]

Deadlock’s Ivy

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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]

On Demoman in General

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Things aren't as perky as they used to be...

Some articles sit empty for months or even years, never getting finished. Most of my articles don’t, but this one about Demomen has been ignored. When I wrote the title, I’d played TF2 and played Demoman and my mind was full of thoughts that quickly vanished. Some of those thoughts later appeared as a rant about Demoknights but normal Demomen just sat here. So let’s talk about Demomen! Except… I don’t know what to say. But I do know what I used to say. Demoman was the power house of the game. As much as Medic, if not more than… [Continue Reading]

I JUST WANT TO PLAY MEDIC DAMMIT

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You know what’s making me the most angry right now with TF2? I’ve been unable to play Medic for the longest of times. There’s actually several reasons why. It’s not just the normal stuff. By normal stuff, you all know what I mean. The horrible team compositions consisting of nothing with more than 150 health. If you are lucky, you might find a Pyro scattered in the ruins of your base on defence, but Pyro aren’t the best when it comes to decent pockets for Medics to heal. That’s not to say that Pyros and Scouts aren’t bad pockets. The… [Continue Reading]

The Pros and Cons of Class Limits

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We’ve all seen it before, the four Snipers on a team of twelve, taking up a third of the team, all being useless. People, especially newbies, drift towards Sniper because he is just like the characters you see in other shooters. Cool, collected, headshooters with powerful rifles. It’s familiarity in a world where giant Russians shoot down gas-masked lunatics for killing their friendly German doctors. But anyone with TF2 experience knows how useless Snipers are the more of them you have. They see these stupid team compositions and scream things like “F2PERS MUST BE SEPARATED FROM PREMIUM PLAYERS!” and “WE… [Continue Reading]

The Great Pyro Rework by Someone Who Doesn’t Play Pyro

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The SPUF Conga. Every character in this conga line is a former member of the Steam Powered User Forums.

Yes, that title is stupid, yes, that is what I am about to do. I play Pyro a little, but I can’t say that I am a Pyro main. Then again, neither can the TF Team. But don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything dumb. Overall Changes Pyro’s base speed and health are fine. He’s supposed to be in the middle, and since every other >150hp class runs slower than 100% move speed, I don’t see why Pyro should get any more mobility, running-wise. The main changes here are to how his weaponry should work. Afterburn Pyro keeps his… [Continue Reading]

Why I Play Medic

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With so many of the classes having such firepower and influence on the field, I can understand how Medic can be an easy class to ignore. But the beauty of the Medic is his ability through the wonders of medical science to unlock and maximise the potential of his patient, and by extension, his team. The first time I played Team Fortress 2, Medic was the first class I selected, being drawn to the weird and wonderful concept of being purely supportive to the team. A gun that was only capable of helping others both baffled and fascinated me. I’ve… [Continue Reading]