Filler – Page 2 – The Daily SPUF

Red Crucible Reloaded

October 13, 2020October 7, 2020 aabicus 0 Comments criticism, Filler, Red Crucible Reloaded, retrospective, review

Red Crucible Reloaded is, for all intents and purposes, an archetypical modern military shooter, and I don’t mean that in a good way. It has the bare minimum in every category to qualify as a multiplayer FPS, with almost nothing to give it any sort of identity beyond that. I first became aware of the game thanks to my brother, as its predecessor Red Crucible 2 was the first-ever online game he got really addicted to. So for me personally, my main motivation for playing was to spend time with him doing something he enjoys. The main perk for him… [Continue Reading]

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Hunting Yetis in Overwatch

October 7, 2020October 7, 2020 aabicus 0 Comments Filler, overwatch, retrospective, winter

Yeti Hunting was an old Arcade gamemode Overwatch released back in 2017. It’s now a recurring seasonal event that rolls out every Winter, which would also have been a much more appropriate time of year to write this article, but I don’t have the mental patience to wait that long. It was pretty much the closest Overwatch is ever gonna get to a Versus Saxton Hale gamemode, pitting five hapless Meis against a Winston who can temporarily turn into a ravenous killer Yeti by collecting 4 meats scattered throughout the map. I’m usually not a fan of Overwatch‘s seasonal game modes… [Continue Reading]

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On Payday 3

September 20, 2020September 14, 2020 aabicus 0 Comments Filler, payday, payday 2, payday the heist

Starbreeze’s quarterly report has been published in PDF form, showcasing a PowerPoint discussing the future of the company, its IPs, and (most importantly) the upcoming Payday 3 in very limited detail. Users on the Steam Discussions forum and Payday subreddit have been rampantly hypothesizing how the game’s going to be. Since we don’t have any actual gameplay to discuss, the prevailing question is whether Overkill is going to focus on quality (like in Payday the Heist) or quantity (like in Payday 2) when designing the content that will be in-game on release. The prevailing opinion is that they’ll go for… [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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The Making of a Demoman

July 21, 2020July 24, 2020 aabicus 0 Comments aabicus, cosmetics, demoman, Filler, Team Fortress 2

Three years ago I indulged in a full article about my Medic cosmetic loadout, since it had remained remarkably consistent throughout the years and each piece held a lot of sentimental value to me. But only recently did I realize that there’s a fair amount of personal history in my Demoman loadout as well, considering I’ve been offclassing him for almost as long. Much like with Medic, my first few years were spent playing completely cosmetic-free; I was so addicted to stats I couldn’t fathom caring about something that didn’t change the actual gameplay in any way. It also took… [Continue Reading]

Featured Now for Something Completely Different

The Medical Necessity lore nobody asked for

March 15, 2020March 8, 2020 aabicus 0 Comments aabicus, Filler, history, medical necessity, roleplaying, soldiers

Remember Medical Necessity? It was a game development project where I had my first ill-fated experience as a project manager. In the end, we got canceled due to lack of progress during the first quarter of production. The only surviving product is the purchasable sprite sheet on itch.io. The design document and production wiki note that the default names for the player’s allied soldiers are Homer, Berenson, Collins, and Cunningham. And while digging through a lifetime of old boxes preparing for my move to Portland, I found the original action figures those names came from. Their plastic has gone gummy and… [Continue Reading]

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[Pokemon GO] 5 Ways to Catch Pokemon Without Spawns

February 26, 2020February 24, 2020 aabicus 0 Comments Filler, pokemon, pokemon go

Of the many, many things Pokemon GO expects you to do every day to keep your streaks up, the most important is to catch a single Pokemon. Stardust is the most valuable of the non-premium currencies, requiring hundreds of thousands of the stuff to do all the important stuff in the late game, and the first-catch boost (and 7-Day streak bonus) is one of the best ways to keep stocked up with minimum effort. But sometimes that’s easier said than done. Perhaps you’re going on vacation to somewhere without much internet presence. Perhaps (like me) you ended up moving to a… [Continue Reading]

Spinda and Charmander hugging for warmth

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4 Pokemon Who Never Found a Home

February 24, 2020December 27, 2020 aabicus 0 Comments aabicus, charmander, Filler, history, magikarp, pikachu, pokemon

While I only started writing articles about Pokemon when Pokemon GO was released, I’ve been playing the core games since 2009 when my boyfriend gifted his copy of FireRed to me. The single best part of Pokemon is how it eases the player into falling in love with their own personal monsters, and subtly guides you to create a unique team that will wind up completely different to everyone else’s. Pokemon has also gone above-and-beyond at making sure players can always port their beloved teams forward through new generations of the games. Through features like PokeTransfer, Pal Park, and Pokemon… [Continue Reading]

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The Making of a Medic

June 5, 2017July 26, 2018 aabicus 0 Comments aabicus, cosmetics, Filler, medic, Team Fortress 2

As I mentioned in a previous article, I am very particular with the cosmetics I chose for my Medic wardrobe. As a matter of fact, I can walk through my old screenshots and watch my outfit evolve as the various parts came together and at no point have I removed a piece. So I thought I might dedicate an article to each piece of the most beloved outfit I’ve ever owned in a video game. In college I made my first video game purchase ever; I bought The Orange Box and the Half Life Anthology pack in honor of finally getting a desktop.… [Continue Reading]

Featured Now for Something Completely Different The SPUF of Legend

A Theory on Samurai Jack

May 19, 2017June 4, 2017 aabicus 0 Comments Filler, Samurai Jack, something completely different, theory

Been a while since we had a SPUF of Legend video that came with a Daily SPUF article! We were supposed to make these transcripts for every episode, or write a tie-in article that incorporates the latest episode, but we kinda never do so we’re looking for any suggestions on better ways to integrate The SPUF of Legend with the blog proper. Got any suggestions? Let us know in the comments! This week we’re doing something a little different because my recording software has been a finnicky little twit for about two weeks now, and I can’t figure out why so… [Continue Reading]