Johnny Christ, failspy extraordinaire, recently contacted me with his take on recording his own Failspy Adventures. I think the general video style definitely shows some creative influence from yours truly.

WiNGSPANTT returns from his year-long video hiatus with an exploration of the Golden Wrench, and the evil it inspires.

It was awfully nice of Valve to institute a totally random system for distributing the Golden Wrench. It seemed so ingenious and fair… after all, I got one. But I had always wondered to myself, how can a system be both random, and fair to all time zones? How can a system with no daily drop caps be fair to all time zones, or sync with Valve’s planned day-by-day reveal of the Engineer update? Up until this point, I had assumed they were either geniuses or sorcerers. Or both. Of course, that was before the Steam Team Fortress 2 forums imploded with allegations that the system wasn’t random at all.

Somewhere, high above the Kalihari Desert, a rusty, single-engine plane completes its daily route from Mbasa to one of several nearby destinations. The plane chugs along steadily, with just the amount of hesitance one might expect of a 10-year old aircraft. The pilot, a nondescript fellow of Australian heritage (colonial, not Aboriginal) sweats profusely as the glaring heat of the African sun bears down on his little Daedelan contraption. The pulsing orange god bears its defiance begrudgingly, but continues to spare its existence.

I got the Golden Wrench. WAHOOOOO!!!

WiNG resumes his discussion on how to fix Team Fortress 2′s muted, misunderstood maniac.

The poor, poor Pyro. Long-relegated by the mainstream as the noob “W+M1″ class, the Pyro hasn’t seen the spotlight since, well… ever. While he/she/it has certainly captured the imaginations and hearts of the Team Fortress 2 community, the Pyro suffers from a number of problems that have kept our favorite little arsonist from claiming the Close Quarters Combat throne.

Whether you’re playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Team Fortress 2, or IRL tennis, there comes a time when your victory is so assured that there stands before you no reasonable option other than to taunt your opponent. After all, if you don’t perform a taunt, how will your adversary ever know that he or she is too slow, too dumb, or too poor and Irish to ever stand a chance at defeating you?

For my Battlefield Bad Company 2 guide, I’d like to make a special mention for the many, many tactical implementations of the oft-neglected smoke grenades. These babies don’t net many direct kills (though they can kill on impact), but gee-whiz do they cause enough of a clusterfuck to let you pretty much open a can of mass distraction on anyone dumb enough to wander into the haze of doom.

Just a quick note: I’ve updated the site with a couple bells and whistles. And videos. First, I’ve made a space on the site for Guides, the first feature being my world-renowned somewhat popular Team Fortress 2 Spy Lessons. Check them out here! Second, I’ve added a page with contact information. You know, in case [...]

I don’t think the value of a good set of surround sound headphones can be overstated for any game in which you need to kill people before they can do the same to you. Almost every FPS game made in the past 10 years features footsteps, or equipment rattle, and being able to hear that and guess the opponent’s position before line of sight means you’ve got the jump on him every time. Being able to stop for a second, concentrate on what you hear, then chuck a nade “somewhere over there” and watching the points stack up is immensely satisfying.