Move Those Weapons… Up… I Guess…

So. It’s been a long time since July 10th, when this update arrived. With it, Valve sought to rebalance some common staples of TF2 play, and bring some new weapons to the forefront. In those five months… what’s changed? Has Valve done what it set out to do? Did they change the face of public servers forever with their weapon balance? Well… No.

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Observations on Killstreak Weapons

On the 21st of November, the Two Cities update shipped. With it came two new Mann Versus Machine maps, Mannhattan and Rottenburg, much-needed class buffs for the mode, and some fancy-schmancy new cosmetic gimmicks. Completing the Two Cities tour nets you a “Killstreak Kit” for a random weapon, and according to what I’ve heard (unfortunately I have yet to actually beat a single mission), a couple random “Specialized/Professional Killstreak Fabricators”, which can be completed using the pieces of robot scraps found by completing missions. Being the owner of two of these, I would like to make known some truths about… [Continue Reading]

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“The Hatless Update”

Oh, you thought I meant this Hatless Update? Haha, no, that is so 2011. I’m talking about the November 21, 2013 update, known as the Two Cities Update, though I believe the main feature of this update is the fact that it contains no new hats. If I’m not wrong, this is the only content update this year to not add any hats to the game. Isn’t that interesting? In all seriousness, I’m loving this update. It added so many new amazing things, adding a whole new role for the Medic in MvM, two new maps and added our much-loved Snakewater to… [Continue Reading]

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RIP Permanent Color-Shifting Spell Paint (2012-2013)

Today, we mourn the loss of our beloved hue-changing beauties, as the TF2 community is forced to return to the world of monochromatic monotony that is normal paint. Spell enthusiasts new and old have had their favorite cosmetic toy taken from them in what could be considered the worst possible way to handle the entire situation (explained further below). My losses include my once painstakingly-perfected Goldier, pictured below, as well as his Festive and Haunted variants meant for such illustrious occasions as the Christmas season (or infrequent snow map), Halloween, and Full Moons.

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Scream Fortress 2013 is LIVE!

Well, the update is up. PLR_Helltower, based off Hightower. It’s the most horrific, nonsensical, spammy Halloween update ever. But at least Medics got something cool: Medic’s Crusader Crossbow now silently reloads when unholstered, similar to Pyro flaregun. In PvP Medics can now see the clip status of a patient’s active weapon Here’s the rest of the update info. About time, don’t you think? Anyway, there’s spell books, a haunted island, all sorts. Explosions everywhere. Fire everywhere. Spells everywhere. Skeletons everywhere… Everything everywhere!

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A New Comic!

Valve has released Grave Matters! It’s not the sequel to the bi-monthy comic (even though its been exactly two months since the last one), but a Halloween teaser for the upcoming Scream Fortress. Read the Comic here! SPUF is abuzz with excitement and speculation over the contents of the update, but all we know is that it’ll involve community-contributed cosmetics and they’ll all be Halloween/Full moon-restricted. There are so many unanswered questions. What TF2 map will be spookified this year? (Something payload race would be a safe bet, while others are suggesting Teufort!) Will Halloween Spells be released, allowing enterprising… [Continue Reading]

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An Interview with the Person Behind Everything

In this article, we’ll be chatting with the mastermind behind the SPUFserver and the person who makes the Daily SPUF work! And he does lots of other cool things too. We’ll be discussing the stresses of running a server and how you shouldn’t bash server owners. Unless they’re servers running Pinion for the sake of making money. No, this wonderful person puts his own blood, sweat and tears into making us happy…

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The Sticky Jumper has been nerfed

Valve had a small update on September 16th, where some unimportant stuff happened. When I first scrolled through the sparse update notes, seeing ‘bug fixes’ on item descriptions of cosmetic items, I was already thinking, whatever, it’s another one of those updates, nothing to see here. Then I read: “Updated The Sticky Jumper to only allow 2 active stickybombs at a time” Now, needless to say I’m not the only one saddened by this balance move. This innocuous training weapon has sent SPUF into a whirlwind of protest, defense, and general bewilderment. As one user put it, “Why is half… [Continue Reading]

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