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ozzdog12 · 4 years ago

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2020 Top 7 (and 1)

2020 am I right? We saw an insane amount of games come out and 2 brand new consoles. What a wild and weird year for gaming, and life in general. In case you are relatively new here, and to be honest that would be completely fair considering I don't post very often on Tumblr anymore, every year going on the last 4 years (on here) I have done a Top 7 (& 1) for my favorite videogames of the year. Check out 2019, 2018, & 2017. What’s wild, as I look back on my list of games that I’ve completed and played, only maybe 10 came out this year. 2020 was a huge backlog year.

Lets get on with the ‘And 1!”

Favorite Game that Didn’t Come out in 2020: Control (PS4)

Control may very well have been my 2019 Game of the Year, had I played it in 2019. I LOVED Control. I wanted to play it in 2019, but initial reports that it was a little rough on base consoles put me off until it was fixed. And Holy smokes what an insanely fun and trippy game once I finally started it. I knew within the first 20 minutes this was going to be the shit when I went down a hall, walked into a room and talked to the “janitor” left out a door behind him and the entire building had shifted. I’ve always liked Remedy games, but from a distance. Max Payne 1&2 and Alan Wake all oozed with weirdness and intrigue, but never enough for me to finish them. I missed out on Quantum Break. The story is Control is just the right amount of mind f*!$ for me and builds a universe I didn’t know I needed. It take some time to piece everything together, then everything just clicks. The game does have a weird difficulty spike when fighting bosses and the checkpoints were too far apart at times, but those were later patched. I spent an insane amount of time within the Federal Bureau of Control building and even more time after that with the Foundation and AWE DLC and it STILL wasn’t enough. I wanted more. Outside of Prey, I can’t think of another game that stuck in my brain more after I’d finished it. Control is absolutely a MUST PLAY title. In a world where everything sort’ve feels similar, Control stands out of the crowd.

Number 7: Astro’s Playroom (PS5)

I never thought in my wildest dreams that a game I had almost zero interest in playing would end up on my list of favorite games this year. Astro’s Playroom is being labeled as a ‘Tech demo�� but that feels like an insult to what it is. It’s a full fledged game and its free! I’ve paid more for less. A charming little platformer that lives and breathes the history of the Playstation. So many cool Easter eggs and references. It certainly centers its gameplay around the DualSense controller and everything it can do, but at its core, its a completely approachable and forgiving 3D platformer. I played it just to see what it was about, next thing i knew I had completed all the levels and wanted to further explore all the nooks and crannies within the game. I wanted to see everything the game had to offer and I had an absolute blast doing so. Makes me kinda wish I’d played the previous game on PSVR (I’d have to have a PSVR too)

Number 6: Spider-Man: Miles Morales (PS5)

Another quality title, albeit a spin-off, from Insomniac to add to their Spider Man universe. Gameplay felt obviously like Spider-Man, but Miles has unique abilities that made the game feel different enough, especially the cloak and stealth. I enjoyed the fact that it was short and concise. The issue with most ‘open-world’ games is that they are entirely too bloated with unnecessary filler content (I’ll get to that in a later game), something I felt the first game suffered from, but I also understand why they are there. However I could’ve use one or two more story missions to help flesh out some characters, but it wasn’t required and didn’t change my opinion one way or the other. My one BIG gripe was with Miles himself. He is an extremely smart young kid, but so incredibly naïve. Peter Parker tells him the one thing he SHOULD NOT do is tell people he is Spider-Man. I get it, that’s part of his growth, but Miles thinks he can just solve his problems by revealing his identity and it almost certainly never works out.

Number 5: The Last of Us: Part 2 (PS4)

The Last of Us Part 2 may be the most polarizing game in the history of the medium, but for the absolute wrong reasons. I’m in the minority that I very much enjoyed my experience with TLOU2, quite a bit actually. Its better in every single way over its predecessor, except the overall story. There are plenty of fair criticisms to be had about the story and various things within the game itself, but I thought the gameplay was so tight and crunchy. There were genuine moments of suspense and terror that I felt that no other game has ever given me. The entire hospital section (2nd time) was so susensful, I had to put my controller down to gther myself. Some of my favorite moments in the series I experienced with a character I wasn’t overly fond of. How many games can do that? The Last of Us Part 2 was meant to invoke emotion, not necessarily joy. I think that's what people lost along the way. Say what you will about the direction Naughty Dog has taken over the years, but you would be hard pressed to find a studio that makes games graphically better than they do. Yes, I know about their crunch culture, but this is not a place for that. I will say, the game was a tad bit too long, which is not something it typically say for a single player, narrative driven game. The pacing and the way the story was told wasn’t my favorite, but I respect what it was trying to do, even if it failed in some aspect of that, I finished the game within the week it was released. Something I RARELY ever do. I’m a father and I related with Joel a lot in TLOU, but I also recognized how wrong he was. There is a lesson to be learned. Your actions always have consequences and while he was doing what he thought was the right thing, it wasn’t his choice to make, and in doing so set up a series of events that were entirely avoidable, but again, that’s the point isn’t it?

Number 4: Grindstone (Switch)

I’m counting this as a 2020 game since it just came to the Switch this year ( less than a month ago) but its not the first time I’ve played it. Grindstone was the only reason I kept my Apple Arcade subscription and when I let it lapse, there was a void I just couldn’t fill. I bought Puzzle Quest on Switch but it just wasn't the same. Its THE perfect game for bite sized play, even though in its addictive nature, you’ll clear a few levels and an hour has passed before you know it. It has the perfect amount of depth that most ‘match’ games don't. You have different weapons, items, and outfits w/perks to use and experiment with to keep it fresh. I went months without playing my Switch and when this was announced in August, I couldn’t wait! Sadly, I had to wait 3 months, but since then I have spent so much time on the Switch. It gave me a reason to play it again. The art style and humour is great. The variety of enemies and challenge is just right. I can’t recommend it enough. Seriously, check this game out!

Number 3: Doom Eternal (Xbox One)

I will be the first to tell you, I did not like Doom (2016). I found it extremely boring and trite. I understood what Doom(2016) was doing and it succeeded, maybe too much. Nostalgia is a helluva thing. So in saying that, I was mildly interested in Doom Eternal. Doom Eternal is nothing like 2016 outside of it being a Doom game that connects to the rest of them (& also being a sequel to 2016). The mechanics are drastically different with more platforming (for better or worse). Eternal is challenging, at times very hard, especially early on. Eternal has no respect for its players, in a weirdly good way. It laughs at how you’ve played FPS before this one and WILL MAKE you play it its way, not your way. Yes, you point and shoot, but ammo is scare and you MUST use everything in your arsenal. No more using just 2 guns for the whole game. The enemies are relentless. Sometimes you have to pause and take a breath after a battle because you go a 100 mph for the whole fight. You have to continuously move or you die. There is an enticing rhythm to it. I categorize Eternal as ‘Blood Ballet’. Its a game where when your feeling it, much like a rhythm game, you get in the zone and there is no stopping demons from getting slayed. Surprisingly, unlike most games in the genre, it seemed to get easier (sans one extremely frustrating platforming section late in the game) the longer you played it. Was that a testament that I ‘learned’ the Eternal way or it truly did get easier? I don’t know, but the final Boss(es) were....easy.. I had more problems and deaths within the first 4 hours than I did the final 8-9 hours. The multiplayer was also surprisingly fun. The older I get, the less interested I am in multiplayer, but I found myself coming back for more for a good month or so.

Number 2: Gears Tactics (Xbox One)

As 2020 comes to a close, I came to a stunning realization. I might be a bigger Gears of War fan than I had previously thought. Don’t get me wrong. I love Gears, but I seem to love Gears more than I thought. I'm way more invested into the lore than I recall. Anyways, Gears Tactics is everything XCOM 2 SHOULD’VE been. Not only does Gears Tactics utilize the Overwatch action, its makes it EXTREMELY important. The story revolves around the father of Kait Diaz, Gabe and a ragtag group of mostly random soldiers to take down Ukkon. Anyone who is remotely interested in the Gears universe will love the story and references. The gameplay is just so damn satisfying. The bosses are very challenging and different. I actually had to change my strategy to finish the final boss. I experimented with a totally different style of class and was rewarded for it. The post game stuff is also aplenty. This game scratched a VERY specific itch for me and I’m itchy to jump back in. I’m glad this came to Xbox One because I’m current computer could not run it.

Number 1: Ghost of Tsushima (PS4)

I have a very odd relationship with massive open world games. I love them, but I get very burnt out on them. They all have a relatively same-y formula and are often populated with bloat. GoT does have some of that but to its advantage, its not very populated, in a good way. One of the things that I really appreciated about GoT and its side quest is most of them felt meaningful. The thing that really stood out to me about GoT is the absolutely satisfying combat. It just feels SO GOOD. It requires timing and patience. There are different fighting styles for different enemies and even the armor you wear is more than just cosmetic. The combat is so fun and satisfying that I was immediately excited when they announced Legends, a multiplayer add on, for free. Its so much fun and is a blast to play with a group of friends. I’m sporadically still playing the Legends mode. I initially wanted to play the game in ‘Kurosawa’ mode but I am glad I didn’t because the game, even on the PS4 is stunning, and on the upgrade on PS5 is jaw-droppingly smooth. I did play the entire game in Japanese with English subtitles. I still don't know what Jin’s English voice sounds like. GoT does a good job a drip feeding you new abilities and things to keep things fresh. I love stealth and once I unlocked it, I spent the majority of every battle taking out as many enemies as I could while in stealth mode. Ghost of Tsushima does a lot of things very well, that the few things it doesn’t can be easily overlooked.

#videogames #control #grindstone #tlou #doom eternal #gears tactics #ghost of tsushima #ps4 #ps5 #xbox one #switch #nintendo switch #playstation4 #GOTY #spiderman #astro playroom

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gronjon44 · 6 years ago

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Ok I need to talk about this. No hating me even though I know people will

Ok. So. I enjoy overwatch. It is, and I feel like it can be an amazing game in the future.

BUT

There is such a problem with it and I think I'm finally becoming depressed by it. Not clinically depressed but I'm just getting tired by it. I still enjoy the game and I love the variety of Characters in the game. But it's just becoming a big pile of shit. I mean everything I say in the nicest way possible. And take it with a grain of salt.

This game has by far the most toxic community that I have ever been a part of. The players in Overwatch just get too competitive, which I got used to. But its hard to get used to the fact that there are so many people who will throw matches for no reason, smurfs who just tend to ruin the game as a whole by sneaking their way into the lower ranks. And that's just the players.

I'm sorry. But Jeff Kaplan is the biggest idiot I've ever seen. He's done a decent job running Overwatch so far. But what isn't doing right is communicating with his player base, the very driving force behind the game.

IDC what you say. He doesn't care what we think, or at the very least doesn't care to listen unless his sales are dropping. He has gone above and beyond to appease the fans i admit that. But thats precisely what is ruining the game itself. He does whatever it takes to make the players happy, be it changing a map in a way it never needed to be changed or by ruining a character into the ground. Look what happened to Mercy and hog at the beginning. Hog went through hell and back because of his gun and Mercy has been ripped inside and out to make players happy. But instead of that, Mercy hsd become the most ruined character alongside Brig and Doomfist, Hog only recently got put into a place where he fits into everything. And that isn't the end.

Look at Reaper. He has always needed to be fixed. Shadow Step is by far the worst ability in the game it holds no combat advantage, and now he is the most deadly hero there is thanks to the change to his passive and to Armor. Hog and Winston, as well as every other tank, is now the ultimate battery for Reaper. And you know what, Jeff won't do anything to fix his permanent Damage boost, or the uselessness of Shadow Step. Because he won't.

Honestly the only person I've seen outside myself be willing to call Jeff out on his bullshit is BTC, or Blame the Controller. He is by far, the most in depth overwatch content creator on YouTube. He should be on the Dev Team doing Jeff's job in my opinion, because he seems more fit to run the game that Jeff. He brings up valid points, as well as alternative replacements for failing mechanics in the game. And guess what happens when he does. Jeff gets mad.

BTC gave so many alternate ideas for Reaper tk have a better setup. And Jeff responded with saying that his ability is meant to get him into the fight quickly and suddenly. It isn't supposed to be stealthy so stop asking.

I guarantee Jeff watched BTC and is getting upset at the idea that there are those who are more communicative with the community than he is, and have more effective ideas than he does.

To be fair this is all my own opinion. I just feel like Jeff isn't doing his job. I mean look at the lore. They are giving us toenail clippings for lore. It's been three almost four years and FNAF has a more consistent plot than Overwatch does, and FNAF is 80% theories. I've been dying to see something to do with the Swiss Base attack, or more specifically the Los Muertos. I want more lore and I see that some people could argue that the game isn't meant for lore. But you know what,

I DON'T RIGHTFULLY CARE

I am not the only one who enjoys the game for lore. I can get being the gameplay still but I mainly first entered the game for the lore and variety of story. But now it's just a big mess angry fans, ignorant developers, and such lack luster content that it's just getting old. And I think I, as well as many others are getting close to finding an alternative.

I won't be the first to admit it, but Respawn entertainment is doing MUCH better than Blizzard right now. In terms of a quality game, Titanfall 2 is by far the best game of it's year, even compared to Overwatch.

They have so far managed to keep a game as old as Overwatch in better shape with minimal changes, a balanced system with it's fair share of problems (but those problems arent cram fixed like what Overwatch does), and they actually release good games consistently. Case and point, Apex: Legends.

TBH, I was half expecting Overwatch or even EA to jump on the Battle Royale hype train. I was getting on a "Star Wars: Force Royale" or some other cheesey cash grab. But Respawn was a huge surprise honestly. And the shear quality of the game is astounding. I always played Fortnite over Blackout and PUBG, only because it was simpler and the art style appealed to me more. But Apex just hit all the marks. You don't need to have a mic to communicate with the Ping system; there's a decent roster of characters so far, small as it may be; the controls are smooth and there's no need of Building (thank God). And it's just an amazing game already and it's only been out for what a month?

I'll be short and sum this up cause I've made this pretty damn long. The point of all this is to say that there are much better alternatives to Overwatch. I have more fun playing Titanfall 2 in the span of 3 weeks cause I bought it recently finally since I missed out when it released. It is a much better game and it has yet to die and is by far a great step in the right direction. And let's not ignore the fact that they STILL HAVE A SINGLE PLAYER MODE, UNLIKE MOST GAMES NOW WITH ANY MULTIPLAYER.

I just think OverWatch needs to step it's game up or they're gonna start losing players real fast.

This is all my own thoughts so take it how you will. Hate me, agree with me, I don't really care cause I just wanted to vent all this

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segadores-y-soldados · 8 years ago

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Blizzard’s shitshow of a timeline, part 2: The Reapening

Alternate title: Blizzard’s shitshow of a timeline: 2 Reap 2 Furious

De vuelta a segar, pendejos - let’s get this shit DONE.

If you want a hook, HAVE ONE:

"Other than really broad things like the Omnic Crisis and big historical moments, in many ways, we're kind of making this up as we go," said Metzen, explaining that they haven't built out every little detail beforehand. "With this one, I think we're taking our time and not trying to get too far ahead of it."

Alright, so it’s fucking LATE so forgive me if I make a bunch of spelling mistakes or grammatical errors.

Let’s talk a little bit more about design - once again, about game design vs. story design vs. character design.

In the other essay, I brought up the fact that there were a number of inconsistencies with Reaper from the original “Overwatch Cinematic Trailer” (the one from November 7, 2014). I talked mainly about the fact that Reaper used an ability - a pipe bomb launcher - that eventually got reworked into Junkrat’s toolkit and how current Reaper is not the same as the Reaper that appeared in the short, mainly in terms of gameplay...but also even some aspects of character design.

I briefly mentioned the fact that Reaper features very pale skin and not the skintone that made it to the final game (which is like...a weird grey color. *stares into the camera like the Office*)

So I want to be very clear, 100% clear - and please, I’m begging you, please hear me out -

Please keep Metzen’s quote in mind -

This character

Is not Gabriel Reyes.

NOT AS YOU KNOW HIM. NOT AS WHAT HE IS RIGHT NOW.

THIS IS BASICALLY PROTO-GABRIEL REYES.

Please bear with me, it’s gonna be a long ride, I promise, I will try to deliver.

Taking it from the top:

In the Overwatch Cinematic Trailer/Museum Heist video, there are a few main things to consider:

The gameplay was not set in stone - this is shown by Reaper using an ability that would eventually get worked into another character, Junkrat.

The character designs are not set in stone - Reaper has pale skin, McCree has pale skin and blue eyes, and Tracer’s design underwent minor tweaks before release.

The “story” of Overwatch was not set in stone - and that extends to the vast majority of the character arcs.

I’m gonna propose that it basically did not even exist.

http://overwatch.blizzplanet.com/blog/comments/blizzcon-2014-overwatch-unveiled-panel-transcript

Here is a direct transcript of the “Overwatch reveal” from BlizzCon 2014 - originally held on Nov 7, 2014.

I’m not gonna quote the whole thing, but basically a few things are revealed:

[Metzen: The story goes that– [how do I do this? The math is a little weird] If the present day of “Overwatch”, is something like 60 years in the future then, “Whoot”, thirty years back from that point, there was a global crisis. And of course, it was robots, and robots are just bad for everybody.]

(I feel fucking vindicated for all the “math” I did last time)

[Metzen: the nations decided to pool their resources and put together a strike force of the best of-the best of-the best technologies and soldiers from different nations around the world and that was the original Overwatch Strike team.

And this strike team did great. It took out the [not going to spoil it] whatever was causing the OMNIC CRISIS, and they handedly dealt with it, and they saved the world. And the world loved it. And so, for the next thirty years this strike force really becomes an institution.]

Notice the lack of names, or hell, even the lack of “numbers” of these soldiers (that wasn’t meant to be a pun but honhonhon).

Because that DOES lead to the next point:

Soldier: 76 may or may not have existed in November 2014.

There are certainly artworks of “Jack Morrison” all throughout the Cinematic Trailer - there’s the art of him leading some small child out of the rubble, there’s his statue in the background of the museum, so yeah - some sort of “Captain America-knock off” character was implied all over the place in the Trailer.

But here’s the thing:

Soldier: 76 was not shown at Blizzcon 2014. And the entire concept of the character of “Jack Morrison” wasn’t even mentioned.

Only twelve characters were showcased at Blizzcon 2014:

[Metzen: So that is the twelve we came with this weekend. Like we said, there are many-many more to come. It’s one of the funniest parts of Overwatch– is getting kinda to work with the team to get these characters, how they interrelate and who goes back with who, and who went to college with who, and who has (???) in a longstanding. It’s super-super fun stuff. I hope you have enjoyed at least a quick look of our growing pantheon of characters.]

I would like to point out that there are two characters here who don’t even have ��real faces” - Reaper and Reinhardt.

In fact, I’d argue that they probably did not have real character designs for another few months, along with two other “major Omnic Crisis characters” - Soldier: 76 and Ana Amari.

There are no pictures of Reinhardt without his helmet, Ana Amari, or - and this is the point - Gabriel Reyes at all during the Cinematic Trailer/Museum Heist. And while the character who eventually became “Jack Morrison” existed, he had no name, and was largely just...window dressing to stamp on the lore.

And maybe this is pushing it -

But I suspect that Reaper didn’t even have a real background at this point in time:

[Metzen: We have the enigmatic Reaper. Reaper is just a bad man. No one knows too much about Reaper, but his hellfire shotguns. They are kind of feared throughout the world, and hotspots and divine places around the world. This guy shows up and makes things worse always.]

There’s a word here - it starts with “d” and ends with “-ecades” that is distinctly missing from this character description. In contrast, Reinhardt does have the barest sketch of a character backstory - he’s noted as being “one of the of original Overwatch strike force” - and Ana is very briefly hinted at in Pharah’s description (“[Fareeha’s] mother was a part of Overwatch, and she always really wanted to be a part of it but by the time she graduated from the academy Overwatch was gone.”)

In fact, it’s directly stated that Reaper was developed almost 100% from a gameplay standpoint before anything else.

[“We built the four core combat heroes, which were Tracer, Reaper, Widowmaker, and… well it was supposed to be Mercy or Reinhardt. Then everyone was falling in love with Pharah…” - Michael Heiberg]

[“Reaper and Widowmaker and Tracer, we knew what they looked like from the get-go. They were very concept driven. Pharah was different.” - Tim Ford]

[“That was actually a really solid foundation. Widowmaker, Pharah, Reaper, Tracer… a really great core set of characters that helped a lot on the level design, to be able to understand what these characters were able to do.” - Dave Adams]

All of the above quotes come from the Special Edition artbook.

Of the four “core combat characters,” Tracer’s story was the most extensive at the time of the panel, with possibly Pharah’s next and then arguably Widowmaker before Reaper.

Now, those of you who know Blizzard better than me already know that a lot of this is pretty much speculation - Soldier: 76 has basically been Metzen’s “original character” for years (... “decades” - seriously, go look him up if you need a laugh). If anything, just as how Reaper was created “purely from a gameplay standpoint,” Soldier: 76 was created from “only a story standpoint” - his gameplay mechanics had to be filled in later, after the core combat characters proved they could work. It’s likely that the “Overwatch Soldier: 76” existed - as in, name, biography, story, etc, - but mainly in concept form. The Overwatch version of Soldier: 76 would not be fully revealed until July 2015 - at that point he had a name, a face, a personal history, and “a vendetta.”

But that was also when three other characters had their art revealed as well:

If someone wants to correct me on this, feel free, but essentially the entire “story” of the original Overwatch team was publically revealed in a span of like...two days, July 6-7, 2015. This is the first time that “Gabriel Reyes” is even mentioned as a name.

And that brings me back to the main point:

["Other than really broad things like the Omnic Crisis and big historical moments, in many ways, we're kind of making this up as we go," said Metzen, explaining that they haven't built out every little detail beforehand. "With this one, I think we're taking our time and not trying to get too far ahead of it."]

http://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-story-chris-metzen-interview/

This comes from an interview with both Christ Metzen and Michael Chu where they essentially confirm that the details of Overwatch and its characters are created in an “off the cuff” fashion. The article was posted in December 2015, a few months after the “story” of the Fall of Overwatch had been revealed to the public.

It’s also the first time that the story developers imply that Reaper is Reyes.

[Metzen: But yeah, I think if the characters call for it, we have certain kind of relationship dynamics that could bubble up. There's a lot of history between 76 and Reaper, it's a little more foreground than the two ninjas. But I think we want to chase those when we see them—points of connection that birth a lot of cool story. Whether it feels like it's foreground or not, the story's the story, and I think we always want to stay open to those types of things.]

So I mean this in a very cut-and-dry way:

It’s extremely likely that the story of Gabriel Reyes was “given” to Reaper to fill out the “core combat character” and give him a place in the world of Overwatch.

We know that Reaper underwent further gameplay and stylistic designs - most notably, his “early concept” pale skintone was changed to some weird grey color (??). And while other aspects of his Reaper design did not change much, nothing points to him having an “unmasked face” until the first picture of the Overwatch First Strike team shows up. Soldier: 76 has a true “face model” underneath his tactical visor, and Reinhardt was eventually given a number of skins without his helmet on. Reaper, meanwhile, only has the “Blackwatch Reyes” still as his “unmasked” skin and - as far as I can find - no one has been able to take the Reaper mask off the character model itself.

To add to this point - that Reaper was pretty much a “blank slate” in both unmasked design and story:

[“There were two ways heroes came about. One was basically that Arnold Tsang would draw a cool picture of a hero we’d want to play, and design would figure out how to make that a reality. And then there was the opposite, where design had the desire to fill out a gameplay niche first, and the art would come later. The that we had that push in both directions at once, that creative mind-meld, it was really neat to see.” - Lee Sparks]

http://overwatch.blizzplanet.com/blog/comments/blizzcon-2014-overwatch-origins-panel-transcript

Another Blizzcon 2014 panel, featuring Chris Metzen (SVP Story and Franchise Development), Jeff Chamberlain (VFX Supervisor), Jeff Kaplan (game director), Bill Petras (art director) and Arnold Tsang (Lead Character Concept Artist).

[Metzen: You guys have seen the art at the beginning of the trailer, that’s kind of Arn’s house style so we’ve really just been trying to keep pace with Arn and we’ve really been enjoying this new art style, this fresh new take; I mean how many of you saw that trailer yesterday?]

Tsang drew the art for the Cinematic Trailer.

[Metzen: As we were kinda getting the art style together, as we were defining the game at a more distilled level we started working on these universe ideas and this intro cinematic really, really early, like way earlier than we normally would engage on a normal project like that at that point in development and Jeff and his team were instrumental in helping us find the style that translates between the reality of the game world and the reality of the cinematic expression.]

Oh.

Hang on.

[Metzen: this intro cinematic really, really early, like way earlier than we normally would engage on a normal project like that at that point in development]

[Metzen: really, really early, like way earlier than we normally would]

Hmm.

Like so early that a few of the characters didn’t have designs for faces?

[Kaplan: I remember other moments where other heroes came to be and Reaper is a good example where– Reaper we had no idea what… [...] But anyway… Reaper was particularly cool because that was a hero that was entirely inspired by the art; we just saw that character and we were like “oh man that’s cool; like he has to be in the game,” and that’s one where you just see the art and you go ok we are going to need to sit down and figure out what this guy does.]

From the sound of it, Tsang designed Reaper, which led to him being given gameplay mechanics. But not necessarily story?

Or even real character?

It’s intriguing, and interestingly, there’s a question from someone in the audience:

[Question: Hello, I’ve been going to BlizzCon for like six years now and I’ve heard on panel after panel in previous years people going please we want more diversity and honestly it was so exciting to see Overwatch because there’s like five female characters; I’m super excited, I was just wondering can we expect more female characters, more POC’s, more cultural diversity, more body diversity in future heroes that we are going to see in Overwatch?]

[Metzen: Yes. All of that, all. Often. I got to say honestly, just to follow up on that guys… it comes up every year especially in the World of Warcraft and we recognize that there are lot of people who want to feel represented and that is part of how we look at this product; we want to have these international cast of characters, we want everyone to come in play and we want people to feel represented and feel that there are characters that speak to them so we are putting a lot of thought and passion into that.

We came here with twelve characters this weekend, we have many, many more that we are already developing and there’s many more that we have concepts for but we are still working through the ideas so there’s a lot about this game that is seeking that as a very high ideal, to have people feel like they can be represented and feel like they can be part of this fictional event and that’s very important to us.]

And there’s more:

[Question: My big issue with the cinematic is that you have all these hero characters and they are fighting against each other and the same thing with the objectives; they are heroes but they are fighting against each other and there’s no real big villain, there’s no antagonist except for the other heroes. So when does the line get drawn to say these are heroes, these are villains and this is the objective everybody is chasing?]

[Metzen: So I guess the next point is (well) where is the story? Where does the narrative occur?

We feel these spaces and it’s kind of cool, you tell me that this character comes from this city but where does it play out, where will we be seeing the context of these characters? We don’t have anything to announce yet, we have a lot of plans that way, obviously you guys saw the cinematic yesterday which is something we just absolutely love; well we want to do more of that, we want to have deep rich stories that are fun and tug on your heart strings and just literally kick butt and show you the bigger tapestry of this world and how some of these kooky characters relate; what they think about each other, are there enmities, how do the villains play into this whole thing?]

[Kaplan: What’s cool about this, by kinda letting the gameplay breathe on its own and letting the story breathe on its own, we didn’t put any constraints on Jeff when it came to making this movie. We just said make a cool story in the Overwatch universe and we’ll make a cool game in your movie story and that’s how we’ve been sort of approaching it.]

There are several other questions along this line, but all of them result in the team saying, “These ideas are awesome!” in some way.

But here’s one that’s interesting and worth noting:

[Question: I’m not going to ask about packs but are you going to have alternate skins maybe?]

[Kaplan: That sounds awesome too, all I need to answer is yeah that sounds amazing; these characters look at them, they are beautiful and they are from the mind of Arnold and I can only imagine what Arnold would do if he started skinning these characters and how awesome they would look so hopefully something like that.]

So we glean a few things from this series of panel discussions and responses:

Reaper was designed as art first, then gameplay, with his “story” being third and probably last, perhaps several months after the Cinematic Trailer was completed.

The Overwatch team was committed to creating characters of diversity, and at the time of the panel, they had a lot of “concepts” for the heroes.

It was implied that Arnold Tsang would be the one given the majority of control over designing “alternate skins.”

Now, how much of the last part panned out is unknown, but considering that Arnold probably drew this guy (or had an assistant draw him):

And then to reveal six months later:

To be followed up with this skin upon the game’s release:

Well.

There are better artists than myself out there who will probably tell you that art is a process - some things come to your mind in a moment of inspiration and pure imagination. Some things are born with aesthetic design - location, buildings, settings, environments, or even characters - first and their story is filled in later, and others are basically hammered out slowly and painfully over time.

Please.

Please know that I am not defending Chu or Blizzard or whatever process they do use to develop characters.

And before people suggest that I’m making leaps in logic (which is entirely possible, it’s like 2 am here), consider the fact that:

The in-game article on Sombra - and this image is taken from July 2016 ( http://imgur.com/gallery/Rvv8y ) - features a design from her concept art that was not used at all - not even as a skin.

Should point to the fact that this process is still happening even with the current game.

So what’s the fucking point of all this?

My point remains the fucking same from the last post.

Chu: stop fucking vague-answering shit on your twitter. Like, technically, you’re correct - that dude from the Cinematic Trailer was NOT Reyes, and technically, he still isn’t. But seriously, man, when you put the pieces together - from the pale skin to the pipe bomb launcher to the 2014 Blizzcon panels to the bloody timeline of Tsang’s art - it looks real obvious that NO ONE was Reyes in the Cinematic Trailer -

Because the full story, concept, and background of the character of Gabriel Reyes probably didn’t really exist yet - not in full, not in any real presentable way.

You had a demonstration of half a character called Reaper - who was missing Shadowstep in the animation, who had “the wrong skintone,” who used the “wrong ability.”

And who probably did not have a real name or face.

Who probably did not have a real story.

Your boss literally called him “a bad man” as his only descriptor.

It’s okay to admit that you may not fully know Tsang’s art process. Maybe Chu does and maybe he doesn’t - he certainly probably knows more than me on this issue, right?

[Metzen: Ultimately, as the characters kind of come into view—some of them start with a fictional idea, some of them start with a drawing, many of them start with a gameplay paradigm that we want to achieve. Widowmaker ultimately starts with, “Hey, let's have a ranged sniper.” And I think some of them just lend themselves towards one vibe or another and we didn't want to say, “Well, there's no bad guys at all,” because certainly there would be in a world like this. We want to let each character just take the shape it feels like they're taking. But we didn't necessarily want to come flat out and pose the franchise as one of those binary things.]

[Chu: And what Chris was saying about some of the characters, we've talked about it in interviews. But I think for some of these characters there is actually a little more going on. They're not exactly bad guys. I think there's a lot of room to talk about what is a guy like Soldier: 76? I mean, good guy, bad guy? Like there's a lot of room to kind of analyze what's going on. Someone like Symmetra, too. And we're really pushing for that, too, with a lot of our characters. I mean, obviously, we have some characters like the Junkers who are pretty much bad dudes who are out having fun, causing mayhem. But I think in the middle, a lot of characters exist and are interesting for that reason.]

[Metzen: Because their character has somewhere to go.]

And something worth noting, since there seem to be lots of...pressure to move in this direction:

[PCG: At the time you guys released that cinematic, had you already made the Numbani map? Had you decided that you were going to go further with Doomfist? Or at that point was it literally just a gauntlet?]

[Metzen: At that point, when we made the cinematic, it was just a gauntlet. I remember we kind of had a writing team at the time as we were scripting that cinematic and Jeff Chamberlain, the director [of the announcement cinematic], really laid a lot of that out. But I'm like, I want to just have almost like a shotgun blast of flavor. So I had riffed Sound Quake and Doomfist, and I just personally enjoy riffing compound noun names if World of Warcraft is any indicator. So I just threw a bunch of shit out to make it sound like there's all this texture. I guess we're letting air out of the balloon and looking much less cool, but that was the intent of the flick—to create a sense of a far larger tapestry that we would actually weave together over time.]

[Metzen:So with Overwatch, we didn't over-design or over-world-build at all. We've tried to keep pace with the number of characters in development at any given time and make sure that the calories we're burning are specifically useful in rounding out each character in turn and then making connection points. Other than really broad things like the Omnic Crisis and big historical moments, in many ways, we're kind of making this up as we go and taking advantage of all these little details that filter out and tying up these ends and drawing touch points between them. In a way, it's a much more organic way to build a world and to broaden its tapestry. For instance, as opposed to on Warcraft and StarCraft—I went crazy on those first games, like building out this big world history. With this one, I think we're taking our time and not trying to get too far ahead of it so that, again, we and the developers have maximum freedom to chase new ideas and not be overly bogged down by the weight of a franchise that can occur over time. Which, in many ways, is like the anti-WoW.]

And maybe this is pretty fucking arrogant of me, but I’m just gonna quote myself:

[I’m tired of seeing funny, interesting, unique, creative characters get reworked by their creators into something more “typical” so that they don’t have to deal with the heavy lifting of the problems that come with defying expectations.]

Because the point remains the fucking same.

Blizzard, Overwatch team - I don’t know what sort of weirdass trauma WoW gave you, but contrary to your beliefs - there is literally no such thing as too much story. People will consume fucking anything as a story. People read fucking Finnegans Wake. People actually know Marvel timelines and universes. People were willing to watch four dumbasses with Halo and xboxes and way too much time on their hands make a fucking 14-season saga out of pure BOREDOM.

And maybe I’m just losing my mind, but it’s pretty fucking thoughtless and tactless of you to let your fans do all the hard work of filling in the gaps and building up your world -

http://m.ign.com/articles/2016/09/17/overwatch-a-world-fans-built

- Just so you can reap the benefits, and then drop little pieces of lore on a whim because some guy would rather tweet his ideas of a story than actually work on a full story.

So please, Blizzard and Overwatch’s development team:

You’ve made a fucking fun, amazing game. You’ve made a bunch of funny, interesting, unique, creative characters. You have defied my every expectation on what it means to play a team-based first-person shooter.

Please,

Do it again with Gabriel.

My bar is set low. I am daring you to raise it higher. Show me that - even if this character was whipped together halfassed over the course of a year, that his “grimdark” edge came first, and then his fun gameplay, and then his witty one-liners, and then his story - show me that you are committed to doing right by him and what he represents to untold numbers of people who need a character that speaks to them.

I would love nothing more than to see y’all match or surpass the complicated, complex versions of Gabriel Reyes the fans have developed.

And to everyone who stuck with me through this trainwreck of a post:

First off, thank you. Your patience and support and your willingness to read this rambling shitshow is amazing.

I will remind you again:

They can make him “a bad man.” They can halfass his story. They can string together designs and make them all masked because he still doesn’t have a real face on that character model.

But you’re probably here because you saw something in his character that speaks to you.

And I don’t give a fuck if that line was “This is my curse” or “You look ridiculous” or “Dead man walking” or even something as recent as “Now those are some fireworks.”

You hold your Gabriel Reyes tight and warm.

Lord knows the poor man needs a fucking hug.

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jackcarson-foxfutureworks · 7 years ago

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I HAVE AN ISSUE WITH | OVERWATCH (Critical Analysis)

A POOR COMMUNITY THAT DISINTEGRATES INTEGRAL COOPERATION AND A FLAWED SYSTEM THAT FAILS TO REWARD AND PUNISH ACCORDINGLY

There are many fantastic games out there that are near flawless, with little issues here and there, and many games that would be fantastic if not for some major issues, so what happens when there is a fantastic game but it also has one major issue?

I’ve had this experience quite often lately, not just with the game I will be talking about in this post, but during the last couple of years, where I game I believed to be of fantastic quality is impacted by one huge problem I just can’t shake. Now, don’t be taking my valuation of levels in “quality” as gospel. To understand my opinions on this matter I need to explain to you that although the major issue impacts the game, it does not affect my valuation nor the time and effort I invest in the game, because at the end of the day I want these games to be of the best quality they can possibly be and I feel that my ongoing support and constructive criticism will allow them to reach such heights.

And so welcome to “I Have An Issue With…”, and the first offering on the table is Overwatch on PC, more specifically, the competitive side of the game. Before we dive (comp) in, I must warn you, if you haven’t played Overwatch or don’t know much about it then I suggest avoiding this post since I will be condensing many things that might make more sense to a fan but is simply gibberish to an outsider.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say Overwatch is a fantastic game and one of my personal top ten games of the past year. The gameplay (when not impacted by the following issues) is incredibly fun and the world is full of interesting places and characters, add to that a bunch of intriguing in-game and outside lore that breathes new life during every new content drop and you’ve got a cracker of a hero based and team orientated shooter. However, this major issue I have with Overwatch isn’t the mechanics or characters (although I do have some concerns with them), but the community surrounding the game.

Now, it’s important to clarify that I am referring to the in-game community explicitly and that you differentiate between them and the fun, creative and amazing community you see outside the game creating brilliant content online, participating at conventions and being generally supportive of the game and its future. On the other hand, the in-game community is crawling with increasing numbers of negative players, and I don’t just mean these people claim to have had sexual intercourse with my mother, but their participation, in some way or another, is actively trying to hinder their team’s chances of winning.

Trash talking is the basic symptom of a negative player but it’s much deeper than that. Many of the issues I will be addressing aren’t even something new to the game, they’ve always been there, mostly infecting Quick Play but in recent seasons has managed to spread into the Competitive mode at an alarming and ever-increasing rate.

Firstly, I’m going to address the average “thrower”, a player who sabotages a team on purpose based on their actions. The average thrower that I’ve experienced is someone who will pick a hero, who might not be ideal for the situation the team is in and not only be completely useless to team while the rest of us do our share of the effort but they won’t change under any circumstance. It’s all well and good if you’re playing well as that hero, but these people need to understand that no matter how many wins you have with that hero or if you have their golden guns that sometimes a change of hero is necessary to aid the team progressing. They tend to solo queue and remain silent throughout the game and although this isn’t necessarily an immediate bad sign, as I don’t engage in the voice chat myself unless with a friend (because I believe it isn’t imperative to successful teamwork), but they won’t even use the text chat which I use with ease when not lending my voice. This creates an obvious barrier between the team and themselves, indicating to us that they clearly don’t care for teamwork.

Moving on up, it may evolve into a combination of not listening to team suggestions and trash-talking those who give the slightest critical feedback, and in some cases, they’ll even outright admit they are throwing. The biggest problem these players create is disruption within the team, leading to rare occurrences where another player may begin to throw the game because they don’t see any chance of winning with the original thrower so what’s the point they often ask. The situation worsens as the number of throwing players increases, and although a number higher than two is an incredibly rare problem at the moment I’m not quite sure how long that shall last.

It’s clear to me that “toxicity” in Overwatch is now at an all-time high and it seems to only get higher, but that’s just one part of the problem. Negative players can be found in every multiplayer game but never have I seen a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than Overwatch, especially when it affects someone’s enjoyment and/or Competitive rank.

So how does Blizzard combat negative players? Well, by having a report function of course…except that’s where things tend to go downhill again. It may be simple to just pull up the report screen, type in your issue and click send, feeling smug that you’ve exterminated one of the vermins but don’t be getting too ahead of yourself. As of Overwatch’s current game state, the report system does not give feedback, so there is no indication that any action was taken against the reported player nor does it seem like it has done anything to solve the amount of negativity. I do understand that Blizzard has recently announced upcoming changes that will attempt to fix the report system with more outcomes of increasing punishment for consistent negative players with valid reports against them, however, I don’t feel that will solve the frequency of them in the game overall, just for the Competitive scene. It’s (hopefully) a step in the right direction but I’d love to see the Overwatch of the early days which was far more friendly and had way more positive vibes upon loading the game up than whatever this cesspool of fun sucking vampires is where I’m praying to the Overwatch gods each night to be blessed with competent team members.

This might sound to some as being “salty” or being a crybaby but I’m sure those people might find similarities between the issues I’ve addressed and themselves. I’m also not the only one to voice my concern, otherwise, Blizzard wouldn’t be in the process of repairing the ongoing and potentially permanent damage that is being caused to their extremely popular game.

One last problem I would like to talk about before I wrap this up is the inclusion of what is known as a “meta” in Overwatch Competitive. Due to the ever-changing nature of the broad selection of heroes thanks to various buffs and nerfs there is a particular pocket of heroes every season who are seen as the “must pick”, or a meta in Overwatch terms. To sum it up, your chances of winning are undoubtedly increased if the heroes in the current season meta are picked. Is this sounding wrong to you? A game all about the freedom of picking a hero from over twenty drastically different heroes resorts to having a small pool of ideal picks that will have a substantial effect on your success rate in its most important mode. Now, it may seem contradictory for me to criticise the picking of heroes freely when I’m criticising the game for having a system in place that rewards precise selection but it actually adds more holes to the already gushing pipe of sewage. It’s starting to feel like you’re forced into a corner with several dilemmas in front of you. Do you stick to the meta, which will satisfy your team but you may not be comfortable with the hero required, or do you pick what you’re comfortable with, but at the potential cost of negativity towards you from your team? It should be pointed out that there’s every chance neither choice will be a positive one but it is beside the point. Your decision should not be affected by the changes Blizzard makes to their heroes and it should not affect the potential outcome of the game. Yes, you have the right to play whoever you want, you bought the damn game, but it is appreciated when you occasionally pick a hero who suits your team’s composition, counters the opposing team’s composition, or just fits the situation at hand.

I would continue to rant about the issue with season ranks and the confusion surrounding the lackluster rewards and brutal punishments obtained depending on the role you play, or the result of the match without considering your individual performance, but I believe that if the issues explained above are solved just the tiniest bit, then my concerns here would no longer be of note.

And with that, I want to thank you all for taking the time to read this, quite frankly, unimportant drivel when compared to the real world (IT MATTERS TO ME!), and hopefully, most of it made sense to you and didn’t sound like some spontaneous ramble in the middle of the night because that is exactly what this is. Feel free to leave your thoughts down below or anywhere you might find this post. I’m always interested to see what others think, but beware that I will be more accepting of you if you agree with me, because I won’t associate with any of you disgusting Hanzo mains.

Don’t worry about the score too much, it may seem silly when I’m not actually reviewing anything, but it’s just to give you an idea on a scale of one to five Xs (with five being the worst) on how much the major issue is negatively affecting the game in my opinion.

MY VERDICT

Overwatch is in dire need for an intervention as the negativity amongst the community grows larger and larger by the day like a virus without an immediate cure, because the reporting system feels about as effective as a bike with square wheels. That is without mentioning the consistently changing pool of ideal heroes for Competitive that amplifies every other issue. Luckily, a solution doesn’t seem too far on the horizon with Blizzard looking to address the reporting system in order to efficiently punish players who’ve had it a long time coming. There is hope for this special game.

Reviewed on PC

Until next time.

Stay inside. Play video games.

The optimal way to deal with negative players

#Games #overwatch #analysis #review #critical #video game #gaming #pc

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mookjoones · 8 years ago

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Mook’s Top 10 Games of 2016

Hi, i’m back! Sorry for the delay, I promise i’ll write more. Boom, ok. Done. Let’s talk about 2016:

Shit got weird in 2016. I probably don’t need to reiterate here, but I just wanted to put that out there. Let’s just try to remember that we have one planet, so let’s not wreck it too bad, ok?

That sounds like enough Debbie Downer talk for today, so how about we talk about some games? 2016 had some pretty badass ones, so im’a run them down here right quick. BUCKLE UP! HONORABLE MENTIONS

Devil Daggers

Overcooked

Furi

Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight

Surprise! It’s a Top 14! I really enjoyed these titles, but 2016 is a cruel mistress and some awesome games must be left off of the top 10. Frantic symphony of Overcooked is some of the best couch co-op you can find theses days. Furi’s style and speed is a joy to experience, and it has pretty badass soundtrack to boot. Momodora was a short, but sweet tribute to castlevania/souls with great sprite work.

And then Devil Daggers....

Actually, I liked this game too much to cut it. Fuck it. TOP 11

11. Devil Daggers

This game is so damn cool. It doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel (It’s a 1st person Geometry Wars), but i’m a sucker for style and this game has loads. The almost PS1 era graphics give some extra oomph to the experience as you furiously dodge the spoopiest-skeley dudes. To me, this game really felt like some crazy gem you would dig up in the bargain bin of your ma and pa game store (not to sell the game short by any means).

The action is only enhanced with the leaderboards (I have a higher record than my co-host Josh, if anyone was wondering) and the accompanying replays that gave me a few ideas on how to survive just a few more seconds. It’s not the deepest game I’ve played, but this game is one that you can find yourself pouring a surprising amount of time into. 10. Dishonored 2 9. Dark Souls III

I put these two games together as my blurbs about them ended up being pretty similar. Both of games expanded on elements that I enjoyed in previous entries in the series (the combat/LORE!). Additionally, parts that I found clunky were streamlined in these entries (weapon repair/bone charm hunting). While these game were definitely improvements on their predecessors,it was hard not to feel like parts of these games were a little too familiar. Ultimately, Dishonored 2 and Dark Souls III were more of what I know I enjoy. Comfort video gaming at its best. 8. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

While it is the final entry in a series that has gotten a little long in the tooth, Uncharted 4 finally lives up the lofty goals set by Naughty Dog; something that it’s predecessors could never quite achieve. The storytelling and characters finally take precedence over the latest McGuffin hunt, without sacrificing the jaw dropping set pieces, gorgeous scenery, and swashbuckling we’ve come to expect from the Uncharted series.This game is a wonderful coda to a great series of which Naughty Dog should be very proud.

7. Titanfall 2

This game finally made the COD style shooter click for me. All the modern shooter needed was an incredible traversal system with giant robots. Who knew? The multiplayer is incredibly cinematic, and sets up great opportunities to do the coolest looking shit ever. Like, throwing ninja stars while jet boosting from building to building cool.

As for the campaign, Respawn delivers a well crafted story that feels like an action movie crossed with The Iron Giant. It’s not afraid to introduce unique mechanics and ideas that don’t stick around too long; it’s a move that keeps the game fresh and something I wish more games would try. A very well rounded game that is just a blast to play, and I’ll keep coming back to for a long time. 6. SUPERHOT IT’S ONE OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE SHOOTERS IN YEARS.

SUPER

HOT

SUPER

HOT

5. Hitman:2016

I always appreciated earlier entries in this series from afar. The intricate level design seemed fun, but it wasn’t enough to draw me with sluggish control and muddy graphics. I’ve only really scratched the surface of this year’s Hitman, but it forced me to readjust my ordering of the list as I dive deeper.

First all, the environments look great are brimming with detail. However, the real beauty of this game is hidden in the intricate design. The clockwork constructions IO has put together are incredible to explore and dissect. I barely made it through my first missions, but as I learned more and more about each map, the game opened up for me in ways I never imagined. The ability to masterfully manipulate the mechanics and unique quirks of each level to pull off the perfect hit is gripping.

To be honest, I’ve really only spent major time in one of the games beyond the tutorial levels. There is always a new trick or zany disguise to pull off that keeps you replaying the same mission over and over in a way that is surprisingly engaging. The core mechanics in Hitman are excellent foundation to a game that has a ton of personality too. They play it straight on the surface, but you’re only a few cans of spaghetti sauce and a crowbar away from a really good time.

4. The Witness

This game shatters the previous standards for art direction in games. On a basic level, the game is gorgeous and is a joy to simply “take in” all the varied and colorful environments. However, this “puzzle” game shines when you begin to understand how much damn thought went into crafting this world. The game asks the player to constantly rethink the nature of the surrounding environments. The art is interwoven into the gameplay with stunning intellect.

Like the art, the gameplay in The Witness is constantly challenging your preconceptions. What starts out as simple mazes become dastardly puzzles, trusting the player to build a mastery that equal parts frustrating and brilliant. This game has found a way to trigger that Eureka moment for me that is thrilling. The Witness is a game that demands your attention and thought as a player, and the payoff for that investment is incredibly rewarding. 3. Hyper Light Drifter

The complete package offered by Hyper Light Drifter made it one of my absolute favorites this year. The haunting a mysterious art; the moody and evocative score; the subtle, yet powerful storytelling. These elements combined with snappy and stylish combat (especially after the 60fps patch) create a game that I just adored. The execution on everything, top to bottom, in this game is so cohesive. Everything comes together so perfectly, it transported me into a completely different world with ease.

Not bad for a Kickstarter game, huh Ray?

2. DOOM

For a guy who’s only experience with old DOOM is Chex Master Quest, I wasn’t sure of what to make of the first reports on DOOM. Was there going to be anything for someone who didn’t have any long lost childhood memories buried in a sarcophagus with Doom Guy? I feel foolish for ever thinking this.

DOOM is just fucking incredible. The combat has a thrilling speed that is so refreshing compared to the run-of-the-mill shooter these days. The design of the environments is masterful. The soundtrack is so damn metal, only serving to make the action feel that much more intense. The story is whip smart and is incredibly effective at delivering what the game needs to move the story while being endearingly cheeky just beneath the surface. What DOOM’s story lacks in quantity, it makes up for with the hilariously one-note Doom Guy and his 0 tolerance policy any and all demonic forces, no matter the cost to humanity’s efforts to use Hell Energy as clean/renewable energy (no, seriously). This game is just a nonstop thrill ride from beginning to end in a way that is almost peerless.

Rock on Doom Guy. Rock on. 1. Overwatch

I covered my thoughts on this game pretty well in my review last year, and not much has changed. This was my most played game this year, and it’s still a blast to play every night. New characters, maps and modes have only made the package better. This more I play this wonderful game, the better it gets. There simply isn’t a better choice for my personal Game of The Year.

Thanks for checking out my list fam. Time to start working on that 2017 list!

-Mook

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