First impressions of the Smissmass 2017 Cosmetics

The Smissmass 2017 update dropped recently, and if any of you actually believed that there aren’t any cosmetics with this updates you must be from 2007. There are also some new taunts released with the update, but that isn’t my business to care. I am only here to look at the new hats. And as per usual, I’ll just wait a few days for the prices to drop, then get the ones I like on the SCM. It’s a lot more convenient than using the trading system. Sledder’s Sidekick AHHH IT’S A PUPPY LOOK AT IT IT’S SO FLUFFY AND… [Continue Reading]

Read more

A Series of Unlikely Gaming Stories 7 – The Smissmas Soldier

They’d been at this custom Mann VS Machine mission for an hour now. A Heavy, a Scout, a Medic, a Demoman and an Engineer. A pretty standard team, to be honest. The problem was, they were missing a sixth player, and the lack of that extra damage output was really screwing things over. There just weren’t enough of them to defeat all those giant Soldiers and their Uber Medics, while also staying alive. The more they tried and failed, the more frustrated the team got. Now they were all an inch away from arguing properly and turning their weapons on… [Continue Reading]

Read more

A Series of Unlikely Gaming Stories 1 – The Lost Heavy

So I started playing Team Fortress 2 when the Free to Play update came out. I was never someone to just jump in to whatever everyone else was doing, I was always the guy who goes to random servers and messes around in their own way. I’d played a handful of maps already, a CP map and an obvious CTF map. And I played 2fort as well. There were tons of other, different server types, from ‘achievement’ servers to ‘vsh’ maps that I later found out stood for “Versus Saxton Hale”. One map type stood out. It was called surf_something… [Continue Reading]

Read more

Medic’s Favourite Video Game Songs

I have weird tastes in music. Although I generally dislike things like pop and jazz, I’ll happily listen to a lot of different types of rock and metal music. I am a fan of Radiohead, Queens of the Stone Age, Crowded House, Linkin Park and Disturbed all at the same time. I actually saw Radiohead live when I was 11, and I reviewed their last album here. When it comes to video game music, it’s not as bad, a lot of the things I like have common themes about them. Unfortunately, I have zero musical talent nor do I have… [Continue Reading]

Read more

Ode to the Second Banana

Boy howdy, haven’t made an article in a long while. In fact, this is the first article I’ve ever made on the new domain here. And who would’ve guessed that what drove me to it would be a simple yellow tropical fruit? Yes. I’m talking about the Second Banana. The banana is by far my second favorite new weapon of the Jungle Inferno update; right behind the Thermal Thruster. It’s so simple, yet so fucking good. In the dark, banana-less age of when the banana had not yet been brought into existence, the Sandvich was the undisputed champion of Heavy secondaries,… [Continue Reading]

Read more

The other Pyro weapons from Jungle Inferno

I talked at length about the Gas Passer, giving my thoughts on how it is as a weapon and as part of a loadout, as well as some of my proposed changes for it. Personally, I like the idea of it, but the Gas Passer is rather underwhelming right now. As for the other Pyro weapons introduced in this update, I’m rather happy with them. So for today, I’ll go through them and give my thoughts on the new additions to Pyro’s arsenal. Before I continue, please read this Reddit thread on the Dragon’s Fury for a brief rundown on… [Continue Reading]

Read more

Tea Talk: “Lootboxes are OK because they’re only cosmetic!”

The recent Star Wars Battlefront II fiasco that was being reported and discussed both within and without the gaming community increases people’s scrutiny towards lootboxes. And during this time, a particular group of players started coming out and claiming they have a game which implements lootboxes the right way. The Overwatch community have been vocal about how well OW’s lootboxes are implemented as compared to SWBF2. The common sentiment among those cheering for OW’s lootboxes is that OW does it right since it’s cosmetics only, so you can’t gain a gameplay advantage from the loot. Some among them also think that the microtransactions… [Continue Reading]

Read more

An Appreciation for Pyro’s Other Secondary Firearms

The introduction of the Gas Passer and the Thermal Thruster is rather revolutionary. Before the Jungle Inferno update, the Pyro’s secondaries are either shotguns or flare guns, mid-range weapons to help cover the flamethrowers’ lack of range. Some pack burst damage, some of them are pretty good utility tools, but they are all here to help extend Pyro’s rather mediocre reach. The Gas Passer and the Thermal Thruster are the first Pyro secondaries to not do so. Rather, they are pure utility tools, like the Jarate or the Banners. Sure, the Thruster can deal damage, but charging into enemies without… [Continue Reading]

Read more

Four-Way Food Fight

The Jungle Inferno update brought Heavy a new lunchbox item, stealth buffed an existing one, and changed some other weapons, leading to changes in loadouts to work with their new stats. Once again, the viability and usage of each lunchbox item shifts again. Today, we’ll take a look at the four lunchbox items for the Heavy in TF2 post Jungle Inferno and see where they stand compared to each other. The Sandvich is similar to the Buff Banner, the Flare Gun and the Chargin’ Targe in one way. They serve as the first example of their weapon subcategory (lunchboxes, banners, flare… [Continue Reading]

Read more

The Vita-Saw after its first rework

Seven years after it was first introduced, the Vita-Saw received its first change in the Jungle Inferno update. The old Vita-Saw’s stats are rather easy to understand. In exchange for a 10 Hp reduction to the Medic’s maximum health (150 Hp → 140 Hp), the Medic gets to keep up to 20% of his Übercharge meter upon death. This means that the Medic gets to respawn with the amount of Über he had before he died, capped at 20%. Sure, it’s a bummer to die at 100% Übercharge and respawning with only 20% of your hard-earned Über, but it’s better than respawning with… [Continue Reading]

Read more