#sorry this is gonna get kinda graphic so just scroll by if you're bothered by blood

[houseofwolvess]

nearly just had a fucking heart attack

[chibigaia-art]

Hi, can I ask you something? How can I get into the Team Fortress 2 and Overwatch fandoms without playing the games? Because I saw your art and I want to get into those fandoms, but I'm not really good at online games and they give me anxiety. What am I supposed to do? Sorry for the bother and I hope you're having a nice day/night!

HI HI THANKS FOR ASKING ME THIS 😳😳😳 I got into overwatch the moment it was released and I couldn’t play the game for over a year, so I know how it feels,, the fun thing about both games is that you can really just ignore the game itself and enjoy the characters and story!

I’m gonna put everything under the cut because the post became longer than what I expected,,

OVERWATCH

one of the sad things about ow is that they retconned some stuff and some lore bits are really blurry and confused (for example they had D.va be a Starcraft pro-gamer or smth and then they just removed the info idk why) ; I was really into the ow lore since I couldn’t play the game at first, but as time went on I just kinda stopped bothering with it? reading the characters’ profiles gives you an idea of who they are and what they do tho so that’s nice

- so, first, you have the animated shorts, (AND FOR SOME REASON THE BEST ONE ISN’T INCLUDED IN THIS PLAYLIST) which are what really pulled me into it! After them you can read the comics, some of which are tied to seasonal events, like ‘Uprising’; they’re listed in reverse chronological order, so the first you should read is Train Hopper (tho most of them aren’t related to each other anyway) - side note, in the same page as the comics there’s also the short stories! But I only read Ana’s so I dunno much about what happens in the others :’)

-  speaking of seasonal events, every year around april there’s the Archives event, which recount the events of specific moment in overwatch/blackwatch history - you can watch the gameplay and cinematics for those here!

- the thing about OW is that there was a constant adding of new heroes, and with those there were origin stories released - there isn’t an official playlist for these ones, and the best way to watch them in one place is here ( you need to scroll down a bit); for some reason Blizzard never uploaded a good quality of Tracer’s origin story, so here it is

if you expect to see something related to lucio or zenyatta, i regret to inform you we’re still waiting for that stuff :°°]

TF2

Okay so tf2 didn’t really have a story at first, aside the set up of two brothers hiring mercenaries to fight each other, but as time went on they expanded on it with the comics; it’s a lot more graphic than OW so warning for tons of blood and gore in 90% of this stuff

- first thing, watch the ‘Meet the Team’ videos; they’re focused on each merc so you get a LOT of characterization for the most part and tbh I love them for that; there’s also a playlist with outtakes from Meet the Medic

- NOW the comics! Where the lore starts! They’re split into TF comics and Update comics; the TF ones are where the story happens while the update comics are more related to, well,, game updates, though there are still some bits of important stuff that you need to know to get into the main story; if you want to skip the update ones and go directly to the TF comics tho, read the catch up comic so you know the set up! Even if you read the update ones first, the catch up comic is super helpful;

- other animated shorts! Expiration Date (my beloved) was released along an in game update and is also the only relic of a time where TF2 could’ve been an animated series for adult swim; End of the Line is a community made video, for a community made update, so it’s not canon material but it’s still really nice; Jungle Inferno was released with the homonym update and it’s also been the last official animated short,, for now,,, hopefully,,

- the Mann vs Machine and The Sound of Medicine are TECHNICALLY tied to the main turning point of the story, though the shorts are more focused on the characters/gameplay once again, so you can watch them even if you have no idea of what’s going on in the comics - they’re fighting robots! Medic is cool!

aside the official stuff, Valve used to host the Saxxy Awards, which were basically contest for animated shorts - all the entries aren’t canon obviously, but some of those + a lot of other SFM/GMOD videos on youtube are REALLY good and fun; I’m not gonna list my faves here since it’s already a pretty long post but uuuh if you ever want a quick list, just send another ask anon, i’ll happily oblige 😳👌

_________________________

For both ow and tf2, you can also look up the wikia pages of the characters and listen to their voicelines/interactions with other characters, those are always fun!

[earthnashes]

Heya Songie, hope you're doing well! I'm going to buy a game on steam but not sure what should i buy. I tried to play Outlast but it scare the shit out of me. I'm thinking to buy The Witcher trio, but i wanted to ask you. I want to buy a game that has a great story, the gameplay and graphics don't bother me at all. What is your advice? Other than horror i can play any games!

Oh I don’t play PC much: I only have the Fallout series and Skyrim in my Steam archive. All of the other games I’ve played are always on PS4.

I remember a few cool PC games (and a few games that aren’t exclusive), though, so I’d recommend:

Fallout 3, 4, and New Vegas: Legit if you haven’t played any of them I urge you to. Don’t care what anyone says, the games’ stories are always what drag me in and despite FO4′s shortcomings, specifically when it came to story DLC (they only had 2, Far Harbor was fantastic but Nuka World needed more to it), all of them delivers. Not just that, the mods. You want a game that can tell new stories over and over and over? Fallout provides that just fine alone, like you always discover something new even if it’s like your 20th playthrough, but it’s the mods that helps the game shine. I’m talkin’ the quest mods and complete overhauls into a new game. For example? Fallout The Frontier: I’m super excited for that one to drop. I’m keeping my eye on another, Fallout: Miami. Or Fallout 4: New Vegas, in which it’s basically building Fallout New Vegas from the ground up using Fallout 4 as a base. The remake we deserve but probably will never get. What is essentially a full remake, another a completely new game... All for the stunning price of... nothing. You get it for free thanks to these amazing people putting their worth into this shit. If you can, support your modders. They do some good work, dare I say better work putting so much care into their creations of the game.

Elder Scrolls Skyrim: Bro it’s basically the same deal here as it is with Fallout: get it for the game itself and it’s fun base-game stories, stay for the fantastic mods. They also feature DLC-sized mods, mods that are essentially brand new games, and once more the modding community continue to amaze me with their dedication.

Ori and the Blind Forest: I watched this game since I didn’t buy it myself and it is gorgeous.

Cuphead: if ya don’t mind being angry, I hear it’s hard but great. I admire it deeply for its animation style.

Stardew Valley: I actually played this one but on the PS4. It doesn’t have like a full and deep story but what’s great about this game is that it’s very relaxing, aesthetically pleasing, and it’s the characters that are surprisingly well written and have complex personalities you get to discover through tiny cutscenes.

The Walking Dead (telltale): Fucking fantastic game, specifically the first two series. 3 was aight, with Clementine stealing the show (but I personally wasn’t interested in playing it because you didn’t get to play as Clementine exclusively like no thx I wanna see Sweetpea.)

The Witcher 3: It looks like a truly beautiful game with a deep and engaging story, so much so that I’m considering playing it myself.

ARK Survival: Okay so, in my opinion ARK isn’t actually worth it’s price tag, primarily because of the toxicity of PVP (like it’s moreso than usual) and the plethura of bugs it has and the admittedly shady practices of its developer. Now, that said? I love the game. For all of it’s faults, it’s honestly really fun: I prefer solo play but if you get a good band of buds to play with on PVP or PVE it’s even more fun. It has like.. some sort of semblance of a story, but it’s mostly just background noise, but this game is absolutely fantastic if you like a game that gives you the tools to essentially create your own story and essentially roleplay it out. That’s what me and my friends kinda did and we used to play the game for hours and days at a time because of it. I’ll tell ya’ll some of the shit we got up to later, I fondly remember them.

7 Days to Die: It’s a lot like ARK in that it doesn’t actually have much of a story to tell (in this case. barely at all) so it’s up to you and your friends (or just you if solo) to make one up and roleplay it. Unlike ARK, this game is sinfully cheap for the amount of fun it provides and don’t let it’s dated-like graphics fool you. It is a very solidly built game and some of the most fun I’ve had with a zombie game in years. It’s also on sale right now I think?

MASS EFFECT SERIES: YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  SORRY BUT THIS IS LEGIT MY FAVORITE GAME OF ALL TIME???? FUCK. I love this game! The characters, all of them are so well written and compelling and arguably the best part of the game. The atmosphere is breathtaking, especially the places you get to visit while playing the game (especially Andromeda like wow the game’s gorgeous), the gameplay is fantastic (it has it’s flaws but it works for the game for sure), the dialogue is some of the best I’ve experienced, and the story honestly makes you feel like every little thing you do in the game actually matters. Like everything has it’s rewards and everything has a small story to tell in this game: it’s why when I replay the entirety of it I play all of the games from the very first one to Andromeda. Now, I will say if you’ve never played this game I highly recommend playing the first one first. Not only because of the story but because, as much as I adore the game, the gameplay is.... well. It’s kinda bad. Like it’s legit my least favorite to play because it can be kinda taxing in the gameplay aspect, specifically combat and that goddamned Mako. Also don’t just listen to all of the naysayers about Andromeda if you decide to play it because honestly, it is not that bad. And in comparison to the first? It does a much better job with setting up the series (if we ever get more of it, fuckin’ EA) than the first does, especially the characters. But like all games, I just recommend that you play them and make that judgement for yourself whether or not you think it’s worth your time.

Dragon Age series: I’ve never played the first, I will be playing the second soon, but I have played the third and I’m honestly surprised by how much it impressed me? This game seems to get a bad rep for a lot of stuff but from my perspective as a newcomer, it was a lot of fun to play and the story was fun and the cutscenes, when they mattered, were goosebumps inducing. That scene, the scene where they show their faith in you? I’m not gonna spoil it but jesus. The combat takes some getting used to but overall a fun game with a fun story and, once again, it’s the characters that draw me in.

Far Cry Series: From what I hear the stories are good enough as well as the gameplay and, from my experience playing the 5th one, that’s all true. I dunno about the rest of them but the 5th’s ending though? It’s total shit. I’d recommend playing it because, despite the bugs and some bullshit physics it honestly was really fun and the story did keep me interested to the bitter end. I’m just angry at how they ended it. Yeesh.