Review: The Cavalry Has Arrived

Overwatch

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc
Published: 24.5.2016
Review: PC

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It was supposed to be Titan. A game no one really knew nothing about apart from saved website addresses and hushed talking until it was ditched. Perhaps they saw that there was a need for something completely different and it was good that they did. There wouldn’t be Overwatch otherwise.

On a scale of 1-10, how is your pain?

Overwatch is a first person shooter (FPS for short) where you control one of several heroes in six people teams versus each other competing over different objectives. These objectives are found on different maps, each subjected with one of the four game modes available. These are assault, where assaulting team must capture two different points while defending team must hold them until time runs out, escort, where attacking team must escort a payload to win while defending team must keep it from reaching the destination before time is out, control, where both teams go after same objective and try to hold it for two rounds to win and a hybrid that combines both assault and escort, where attacking team must first capture the payload before escorting it and defending team must hold them until time runs out.

There are no similar maps and each map has their own advantages and disadvantages. It depends a lot on the map and the objective itself which hero to pick. For instance, Widowmaker, who is one of the snipers, Hanzo being the other, is useful for maps with long lines of sight and good spots for sniping. Route 66 is one of these maps where a sniper is useful while on maps like Ilios it is far more difficult to get a good view of the enemy. On maps like Ilios, where the objective is to capture a point and hold it, some offensive characters are needed. Lúcio is quite useful on control maps due to his speed buff and ability heal clustered characters while also providing shields to nearby allies with his ultimate.

Tracer here.

If it lives, I can kill it.

Each character has their own story but the game doesn’t have a story mode to play. It is FPS after all and the whole point is to join games and compete against other team. Characters are diverse and different that each work better than others on different maps. That is why there is always the option to change your hero at the spawning point if it feels like the current character you are playing isn’t optimal for the objective. Another option is to join the weekly brawl where the rules change as often as the name suggests. So far we have had a brawl with only Hanzo and Genji available, their ultimates charging at 50% speed and ability cooldown was 75% faster. Another brawl had a rule that each player would spawn with a random hero and there would be no hero swapping available.

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We Require More Vespene Gas

StarCraft II.

At first I wasn’t that intrigued by it, and yet, the moment the first two parts were on sale I bought them. Ten Euro’s per game wasn’t that much, and that was only for Wings of Liberty and the Heart of the Swarm games, digital as well. Later, not long after Legacy of the Void was published, I found it on sale at local store, which was rearranging its shelves due to customer feedback.

So, I bought them, I played through all three campaigns. I have not touched the multi-player part of the game at all so I won’t be talking or giving any opinion about that, and now I want to get my hands on the Collector’s Editions (CE from now on) of all three. Just like I have all but one CE of World of Warcraft (I am missing only the very first one) and both Diablo III CE’s. That probably makes me a Blizzard Collector, now does it? Too bad I am just a student.

Story of StarCraft is very interesting and I am highly considering about buying the first incarnation as well. Mind that I have not read any lore books regarding any of Blizzard games, so if you have any recommendations for reading, please give them. However, I do not guarantee that I will read them all to the end. I might try but the writing has to be good for me to read the full book from page one to the very last.

Each faction had their good sides, and bad, and their playability was quite different from one another. After playing through all three campaigns I have to say that my favourite one was Legacy of the Void, after that it was Wings of Liberty and I would put Heart of the Swarm last. When it comes to the story and the campaign, Swarm was the least inspiring and surprising as the other two. In fact, it was more predictable compared to the other two, which made it feel weak. Yet, if I had to choose a faction for multi-player, it would be either Zerg or Protoss.

One more thing. I know that I have been hardly active here but I have had my reasons. I will attempt to write more eventually and most likely the post will have different set up then. The blog will evolve as time goes on. So, thank you all for following me and I hope you will stay with me even through the periods of inactivity!

Brainfart

This has been one of those months when I don’t really have ideas for a blog post, or that I have some but can’t really word them out. So next month I will write a bit about StarCraft II. Until then, have a zergling, and watch Carbot Animations.

 

Gif from: http://carbotstarcrafts.tumblr.com/

Star Wars: In a Galaxy Far, Far Away…

The garbage’ll do.

Said Rey, and what garbage it was! At that moment we were given the insight of the old; renewed the fantasy what the old fans had, and that, in turn, delivered. It has taken me a while to consume the idea of the new film, while also seeing the old ones, trying to form the full picture.

I must say that it is difficult to compare The Force Awakens to the old when the trilogy is not complete yet. To me, it was a revival. It was a well needed push, and a shock treatment, for all fans, old and new, out there.

Yet, why? My only critique goes to those who attempt to compare The New Hope with The Force Awakens to the POINT, when there is none. Watching both films I can count with one hand how many similar actions happened in both movies. Saying that The Force Awakens was only a fan-service is bollocks. It certainly had a lot of new things added to it, along with the few old stuff that can actually be compared to the old first.

I enjoyed the film, and for once I am glad to see a strong female character in them. Leia was a good one, sure, but eventually she was a weakling. Rey, on the other hand, has potential, as does Captain Phasma. I am excited to see how they portray them in following episodes. Finn has potential too, and I hope he grows from the the first movie. Kylo Ren did not impress me that much with his multiple teenage tantrums he had in the film.

To tell the truth, I am one to give a chance to films and games that others quite often undervalue. Compared to most, I am more open-minded to new things, and that was the case with the new film as well. I will not say if the trilogy is better or worse compared to the other two until the whole trilogy has come out. Until then, may the Force be with you.

Happy New Year 2016!

I wish you all happy new year! May it be as eventful and as exciting as this year has been. Without looking further what happened back in the year, let’s see what year 2016 has in store for us.

Rise of the Tomb Raider comes to PC early in 2016, and later to PS4. It was first published exclusively for Xbox , and finally the wait will be over for those who wants it for other consoles and systems (like me). XCOM 2 will be out in February. I wrote a bit about it earlier this year. There is also a sequel coming for Dishonored at some point of Q1 or Q2, and World of Warcraft: Legion comes out as well (Q2/Q3). You can read about my thoughts on that game here.

Movie wise, there is Deadpool, coming out in February. There was a new trailer out not long ago. The Jungle Book looks nice, so I might see it. New Captain America comes out too. Alice Through the Looking Glass continues the tale of Alice. X-Men: Apocalypse comes out in May. Warcraft is something many have been waiting for, and I’m excited to see how they pulled it out. The Secret Life of Pets looks hilarious, so I am going to see it as well. I wasn’t aware that there will be a movie about Gambit (X-Men spin-off), and there is no trailer yet, but it does sound interesting. Doctor Strange, November, interests me as well. There is also a new Star Trek movie, but trailer didn’t spark my interest that much as to make me see it in cinemas when it comes out.

That looks like a nice year from gaming and movie point of view. I will keep up with the promise I did last year and will continue posting articles once a month. I will also attempt to finish some games each month and write about them as well. Until then,

Peculiar Gamer wishes all of you a nice and eventful year 2016!