What’s that? New maps?

Just popping by to announce that we now have some sort of official map testing system! Named Mann Co. Beta Maps, this gives us the chance to play new maps that Valve want us to test, while they work out all the bits and pieces. I’ll just point you over here briefly while I ramble on. Anyway, yes, this is something that we should have had years ago. Like, really, years ago. The one thing after unique classes, hats and the Meet the Team videos that makes TF2 stand out is the quality of Team Fortress 2 maps, both official… [Continue Reading]

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Birthday/500th Post/3-Star SPUF Event: Stupid Class, Stupid map, 6v6 Tournament!

Well hello, fine ladies and gentlemen of SPUF! My name is danthefinn (DiabetoDan on Steam) and I’ve been lurking around these parts since 2012. To celebrate my upcoming 18th birthday, as well as my 500th post and 3-star status, I’m hosting a little event on my very own TF2 server at 1 PM EST on June 16th. This will be a 6v6 tournament- but nothing like the 6v6 you all know and (at least some of you) love. This tournament will played over a series of 5 maps, with a best of 3 win rule. These maps will be the… [Continue Reading]

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Nucleus is a great map and I don’t care what you say about it.

I remember saying once that I disliked Nucleus. I can’t remember why, but it was something along the lines of it being a Sniper friendly map. But after having played on it a bit more, and having played on REAL Sniper friendly maps, I feel I should retract that statement. And maybe add a few more positive statements too. My original thoughts were about Snipers being way too powerful on Nucleus, especially on Arena Mode since you die and that’s it. I decided though to try and play Sniper myself. We all know I’m a useless Sniper, but to be… [Continue Reading]

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Arena_Granary and why I hate it despite liking its counterparts

Everyone loves Granary, right? No? Oh. Some people love Granary, right? Either way, it’s a favourite for the competitive players out there, as it’s got lots of high and low ground, it’s not too hard to defend and other stuff which I don’t really get. But back in the day, there was also Arena_Granary. Like a couple of other maps, particularly Badlands, Granary was converted into an arena map for the release, of, well, Arena mode. Of course, Arena mode never really got going. People got frustrated with waiting forever to respawn, especially if there was a Spy hiding with… [Continue Reading]

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5 Things you Might Not Know were from Team Fortress Classic

TFC is a simple game, especially compared to its predecessor. Two teams of nine mercenaries grab flags and kill each other, and that’s pretty much it. Contrast that to Team Fortress 2, where I’m hard-pressed to think of anything that hasn’t made it into the game in some fashion. But dig under the surface and there are a couple of things that actually debuted in TFC which you might not know about. Things like: 1) A bunch of popular TF2 maps. This one’s pretty common knowledge, but if you have no experience with TFC you may not know that a… [Continue Reading]

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OhGodPleaseNotBadwaterAgainPleaseNooooo!

Yes, that title is like that on purpose, because that is how I feel when I see Badwater pop up as the next map. I still think that when I see Badwater_Rainy pop up, but not quite as much, as I need to take a few seconds to rebind my swim up and swim down keys. Where does this hatred, where does this fear come from? Well, read on, I’m about to tell you. In my early days of Team Fortress 2, I quickly realized that Teufort is a bad map. I wasn’t so quick to work out that Junction… [Continue Reading]

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The Badlands aren’t that bad…

In previous articles, I’ve whinged and moaned about how I don’t like particular maps, while aabicus has gone on about how much he loves Doomsday and others still have tried to talk about other maps still. Today is about a map, yes, but this time, I’m not whinging. Well, not completely. Badlands is considered one of the best maps around. It is by far one of the most loved maps for competitive play, as each area has its own weaknesses and strengths, much like our favourite mercenaries. The map comes in three lovely flavours, although two of them are very… [Continue Reading]

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Getting Lost in Steel

Steel is one of those maps that has a hit and miss effect on the community. A lot of people really like Steel and wish it could be played on more servers. Others utterly hate the map and refuse to play on it. Personally, I’m not sure, but I find myself veering towards disliking it. Let’s start with the good stuff. Steel is a very nice-looking map, set in that Dustbowl-like environment, dry with a hint of vegetation, some grass, but with lots of indoor areas and quite a few tight corners, more like Turbine. Both types of environment look… [Continue Reading]

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“Oh god, not Gullywash…”

I don’t know why, but I hate Gullywash. Every time I see it pop up in the map rotation, I roll my eyes. I roll my eyes even more if there’s more than 7 players per team and this map comes up. Actually, I do know why and I’m about to tell you in a moment. Let’s clarify something first. I like 5cp, or symmetrical control points or whatever you want to call it. It’s a lovely back and forth game mode, and most 5cp maps are nicely balanced to make sure you can’t camp on the last point forever,… [Continue Reading]

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Why you should buy a Strange Filter

So I just added some money to my Steam wallet. And, like every Hat Fortress player, I couldn’t resist buying a key or two to uncrate some of these new crates that just came out. I also bought a game, and a few other things from the Steam Market to calm my natural item addiction. A few minutes later (that’s how long it takes  me to chew through ten Euros) I had a bit over a Euro left, enough for a Nametag or some other Tool Item That I Would Regret Buying. Somehow, I stumbled upon the “Maps” section of… [Continue Reading]

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