Stupidly Simple Fixes

There’s a lot of stuff wrong with Team Fortress 2 currently. People are having huge problems with performance. Cheat-users are making new accounts the second they are banned. Everyone still hates Sniper and Engineer. There’s bugs that need fixing. The Betas that Valve made have been ignored and are really just giant failures. Quickplay still hasn’t been removed. These are all complicated things that I can’t fix. Apart from Quickplay being removed. But then there’s weapon balance. Now that’s easy. There’s a few quality of life things we can do just to make people happy. So this article is going… [Continue Reading]

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The Crusader’s Crossbow is overpowered

Not so serious title there. It’s one of those attention-grabbing things that would automatically get you a huge pile of downvotes on any site that uses an upvote / downvote system. But there is some truth to that attention-grabbing title. There is something wrong with the Crusader’s Crossbow. Firstly, a historical thing. Crusaders were bastards. All they did was incite holy war against people with different beliefs. Bastards, the lot of them. Anyway, back to our version of this medieval beauty. The Crusader’s Crossbow is the only non-Syringe Gun Medic primary. The only one. Probably forever, since Medic primaries are… [Continue Reading]

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Unique Loadouts 1 – Direct hit + Buff Banner

This week’s loadout is brought to you by RabidKarim. “If I might make a suggestion have you tried Direct Hit and Buff Banner? It is really fun because mini crits have no fall off coupled with the direct hits extra damage and rocket speed you can hit 150 damage rockets from across the map.” When using this loadout I at first was incredibly frustrated, most of this stemming from me just being terrible with the Direct Hit. But after about 8 round of using this on mainly payload and KOTH, I found it is most effective on payload offense, especially… [Continue Reading]

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The Huntsman isn’t too bad.

Everyone whinges on, day in and day out about how shitty the Huntsman is. The Lucksman. The Fucksman. The C*ntsman. All abusive names. People hate this Sniper weapon with a passion, even more so than the fuck-up that is the Machina. People hate the Huntsman more than the new, Sniper-screwing Darwin’s Danger Shield. But the Huntsman isn’t that bad. In fact, with a few tweaks, I believe it could be the most balanced Sniper weapon ever. I know why everyone hates the Huntsman. It’s somewhat spammy. When you’re using a weapon that can headshot people for 150 damage, then maybe… [Continue Reading]

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Why can’t I not use the SMG?

I hate playing Sniper, so thankfully I rarely get the chance to, leaving it up to people who can aim to fill that role. But every so often, once in a blue moon, I’ll pick up Sniper, only to throw him back again. Every time I do play Sniper though, I’m stuck with the same old question. “Why the hell am I still using the SMG?” Well, what are the other options? Everyone’s favourite jar-based karate has been around for a long time. Then there’s Sniper’s various backpack items – the Danger Shield, the Razorback and the Cozy Camper. Oh… [Continue Reading]

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Could a “Flare Jumper” work?

Based on the Detonator of course, not the Flare Gun, though I prefer this name as “Detonator Jumper” is clunky and “Det Jumper” is unclear. This is almost certainly the most commonly-requested reincarnation of the orange-colored -100% damage concept, with the runner up probably being the Boston Jumper. (But seriously, why would you want to give up the best way to give your Medic Uber?) A lot of other people are understandably opposed to the idea, especially those who think the Jumpers we already have are useless enough. But I think it could work, especially if Valve drops the training… [Continue Reading]

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Why I love the pistol so much?

So yeah, it is me writing an article for once. Well, now I am going to tell you why the pistol in TF2 is one of my favorite weapons in the whole game. 1. It is reliable One of the first things that can be noticed off of this thing is that it is very reliable. No matter if you are Scout or Engineer, you can get a lot of mileage out of this thing (the only problem regarding pistol for Engineer is not that it is bad but that it it overshadowed by many non-pistol side-grades such as the… [Continue Reading]

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April 24th – May 1st

Well, ever since tax season ground me through the wringer and spat me out (I work in a tax place these days), I took a weeklong break from “This Week in TF2 History”, and now that it’s almost June I should probably dial myself back in. That’s right, this week is: And what a week to start with. April 29, 2008 brought the first major TF2 update ever: the Gold Rush Update! Payload immediately sky-rocketed to becoming one of the most-played game modes ever, the Medic class experienced a renaissance when he suddenly became fun, and future TF2 traders felt the… [Continue Reading]

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Coming out of obscurity

Sometimes things are forgotten. They’re used on the quiet, often only really toted by the pros who know the ins and outs or something. And then something will happen and suddenly said item becomes a popular murdering tool. Then people start complaining about said object. Suddenly, said weapon or whatever is suddenly hideously overpowered. Apparently. Today I’m going to whinge on about two things – the Black Box and, because I wanted a reason to write about my second favourite League of Legends champion and thought this was somewhat related, Cho’Gath. The Black Box has always been that ‘other’ rocket… [Continue Reading]

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Ways TF2 Could Have Been Designed Better

TF2 was the first online game I really played full-time hardcore srs-bzns style. Before TF2 entered my life, I’d occasionally get to try games on my friend’s N64s and I had vague memories of Oregon Trail and Humongous Entertainment games growing up, but I’d been largely sheltered from the gaming world due to my parents thinking that games rotted your brain. So once I left for college and experienced newfound freedom, The Orange Box seemed a logical first purchase, since I’d also played Portal when it came out for free in 2007 and (somehow) passed my parent’s “nonviolent and educational” criteria.… [Continue Reading]

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