Mod Showcase: The Hidden

Welcome to another episode of Mod Showcase! Brickinator’s back and this time we’ll be taking a look at The Hidden, a custom game mode that makes stalking people socially acceptable. The Hidden is inspired by a Source mod of the same name. It uses arena mode as a base and can be played on the usual arena maps. One team has one player who gets to be the titillating titular character and the other have to kill him. And wear his skin. The Hidden is forced to play as the Spy, but he has some very exciting abilities. Not only… [Continue Reading]

Skeletons, Vampires and TF_Zombies, oh my!

Spooky scary skeletons!
Spooky scary skeletons!

“Medic, it’s not Halloween.”

I know, but since it’s January and everyone’s depressed, I thought I’d write something about one of the lesser known TF2 commands. The TF_Zombie is a sight to admire, and there’s some rather cool stuff about them that you might like to learn about! Plus, you liked the skeletons on Helltower, right? Yeah, I thought so.

Read more

Medieval Highlander results!

Everyone had a blast during the Medieval Highlander tournament this Saturday! Ultimately, team BLU sweeped the scoreboard, only losing a single round of Helltower when RED scout Davjo drank a Bonk! and jumped his way into the Bombinomicon surrounded by enemies. I’m waiting on several people to send me their demos, and when that happens I’ll have a compilation of the tournament from several points of view, but until then you can watch the event from the eyes of the worst spy in Team Fortress 2: This tournament kicked off our initiative as SPUF community organizers to have a new… [Continue Reading]

Some strategies for Jailbreak mode

For those of you who don’t know this game mode, Jailbreak is a psychological experiment disguised as a TF2 game. There are no respawns, and it requires custom specialized maps designed for the mode. Most of the server plays as RED, and begins the round drained of all ammo and clip. The BLU team consists of a few guards and a Warden, who have allcrits. The Warden must order the prisoners around, using his guards’ superior firepower to enforce control, and get them to participate in mini-games, where the players who lose the mini-games often die. When a single RED player is left, they are considered to have won the round, and are granted a “last request”, which carries over to the next round (for example, “next round we play the Soccer mini-game,” “next round I want the freedom to run around and ignore this song and dance,” or “right now I want all the guards to play Nine Square until they’re dead.” That’s it, there’s not much to the game.

UNLESS the prisoners decide to rebel. If anyone can survive long enough to reach the armory, they can refill their ammunition and get working weapons again. If the rebelling RED players can kill all the BLU players, they win in a much more satisfying way.

After a decent amount of playing this mode a few months ago, I’ve found some strategies that work pretty well.

Read more

Some Quick Fixes To Make The MvM Experience More Fun

Ever since the Two Cities Update, the face of Mann Versus Machine has been invariably altered. With the obscene buffs the Medic and Soldier received from this update (I’ll complain less about the Medic, because he really needed some love, and now he’s basically indispensable), MvM, for some, has come to an irritating middle-ground, where the older missions, namely Operation Steel Trap (and, to some extent, Gear Grinder. Yeah, remember them? Me neither) have become laughably easy, or something you run through with your friends as six Demoknights for a chuckle, and the newest missions are hair-pullingly difficult. To me, and hopefully at least one of you, this is bogus.

 

"Ahaha! He thinks he can plant the bomb!" "Dude, that's enough. He's only Intermediate, after all."
“Ahaha! He thinks he can plant the bomb!” “Dude, that’s enough. He’s only Intermediate, after all.” Picture by Noble Atomic.

As someone who has sunk a considerable part of their TF2 experience into MvM, I remember the soul-crushing agony of trying to find a match on the night the update dropped, those encounters with blokes who had been on the same Expert Mission server for three hours trying to find a winning team, being a bloke who has been on the same Expert Mission server for three hours, and screaming in unison with the Announcer when an Engineer bot showed up (more on them later). And now, after slaving away at Empire Escalation for as many hours as I once had at Mannslaughter, I realized that, with all these updates to the Medic and Soldier, going back to those missions and still expecting a challenge would be impossible.

That being said, there are things that are positively infuriating about the way MvM currently works that could also make the experience more enjoyable. So, I’m going to propose some changes Valve could make to the way MvM works in order to keep MvM (all MvM) exciting for players at all levels, as well as improve the experience over all.

Read more

Sniper Versus Machine: The Post Dualcity

"Help?"
“Help?”

Valve have recently rolled out an awesome MvM update – Two Cities. For most part it’s great – Medic and Soldier buffs, killstreak weapons (that don’t look too good in most occasions but some are really awesome), Rottenburg. On the downside there is Empire Escalation Wave 4. But that’s later.

Since it’s a blog, it’s kinda logical for someone to get their opinion here, or maybe a story, if they have anything to share, so I’ll do exactly this thing.

Read more

Mod Showcase: PropHunt

I hope they don't see me here...
I hope they don’t see me here…

 

Salutations, SPUFers, TF2 players and old people who are lost on the internet. Let me guess what you’re thinking: it’s either “Why do the nurses keep stealing from me?” or “I’m sick of the default TF2 gamemodes!” CTF, filled with Snipers. Payload, filled with Engineers. Arena, filled with… uh… nobody.

Well, you’re in luck today Gramps, because Team Fortress fan and sex panther Brickinator is here to tell you all about some mod gamemodes to preoccupy your feeble brain. Take your pills now lest you forget it all by the end.

Read more

Two New Helltower Playstyles!

Sick of the same old, boring stuff? Then this is for you!
Sick of the same old, boring stuff? Then this is for you! All pictures by Medic.

Have you gotten bored with playing the same old classes with the same old playstyles?
Tired of playing the trolldier, the axdegreaser pyro, the gunslinger engy, and the scout?
Want to spice up the rest of the Halloween update?

LOOK NO FURTHER!

Here there be dragons…just kidding, but it would be cool for next year… *hint hint hint*

I have not one, but TWO, I repeat, TWO new fun playstyles just for you!

Read more

Why the CnD deserves some love

They see me stabbin’, they ragin’ (pic by Gen. DeGroot)

Howdy! First post on the SPUF blog here, and since I noticed a certain lack of Spy posts, here’s one about possibly the most unloved (and probably least mentioned!) weapon in TF2:

The Cloak ‘n’ Dagger.

At first, it seems like a straight upgrade, but when moving it actually drains cloak faster than you’d think, certainly faster than the Invis Watch, and it refuses to collect ammo. Most people just craft it off or let it be as a keepsake or a Spy weapon to collect, but it’s actually damn useful at times. Here’s why.

Read more