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Blog entry by Carri Coats

Satire is Just as Important as Pride within the Games Industry

Satire is Just as Important as Pride within the Games Industry

Winston's second ability, Barrier Projector, creates a bubble shield that absorbs a small amount of damage before cracking and breaking. This is best used as a way to temporarily slow down or distract enemies, rather than as a pure defensive ability like, say, Reinhardt's shield. Finally, Winston's ultimate, Primal Rage, not only fills his health bar up to 1000 hitpoints, but it allows him to punch enemies for massive damage and use his jump pack every three seconds. Simply put, Winston should be used as a distraction whenever possible, and then as a tool of destruction once his ultimate meter is totally full.

[Hardcore Gamer] Out of curiosity, how many people are working on Overwatch? I'm often shocked when games developed by larger teams manage to maintain any semblance of personality or flair as a result of the sheer number of voices piping it at once.

Much has been made of the rivalry between Blizzard and Gearbox Software, with the former seemingly attempting to hinder the success of the latter at every turn. Overwatch's Open Beta's Early Access period launched at the same time as the full release of Battleborn , making this the second time that version of the two titles have gone head to head with playable builds. There are a ton of similarities between the two titles, as both have over twenty playable heroes that each have a distinct personality and set of skills, but Overwatch and Battleborn are less similar than one might initially imagine. Whereas Battleborn is essentially a MOBA with a campaign (despite Gearbox's complete avoidance of that four letter acronym over the years), Overwatch is an arena shooter in the vein of Team Fortress 2.

My single biggest complaint when it comes to Battleborn is how annoying all of its characters are to me. Now, this is about as subjective as it gets, and I've had discussions with players that find every inch of its universe charming as can be. To me, it often feels like Gearbox is trying way too hard to be funny, which results in Battleborn's characters all seeming like that annoying guy at your office who thinks he's a stand-up comedian. The fact that the While Overwatch doesn't have a core campaign, there is definitely a fair amount of lore to be discovered by sheer observation, and every character manages to nail that ever so important balance between charm and obnoxiousness. It says something that there is a dedicated way to turn off Battleborn's dialogue; after all, in a game whose dialogue is exceptionally well done, shouldn't including this option not be a possibility?

We really had to analyze what made a hero balanced for the entire population rather than just one part of it. When the really good players started getting in, we actually had to start making changes to some of the heroes. We made changes to Zenyatta and Symmetra, which were both spurred on by really high-level gameplay.

Overwatch is currently set to launch on May 24 on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Be sure to stay tuned over the coming weeks for more impressions of the Open Beta, as well as our final review towards the latter part of the month.

Battleborn, for all of the chaos on screen at any given moment, suffers from some notable framerate issues on PC, even on my high-end machine. This is something that has been reported on in mass across the Steam discussion boards, and while it certainly isn't game-breaking, these dips in framerate are extremely noticable after a buttery smooth Overwatch session. Add this to the fact that the weaponry in Battleborn lacks the tactile punch of that in Overwatch, and the former starts to feel like the less polished product. Shooting in Overwatch feels tighter and more responsive than it does in Battleborn, which is kind of a shame considering that you end up firing way more bullets and projectiles in Gearbox's shooter. On top of all of this, Overwatch 2 Stadium Builds is the better looking game, with Battleborn sporting noticable aliasing and texture blurriness, even on completely maxed out settings.

Winston's first ability, his Jump Pack, functions both as a way deal massive damage and a method for increasing mobility. This ability allows him to launch a large distance based on whichever direction the reticle is facing. Not only does this allow Winston to escape battle or get to an objective quickly, but it also gives him the power to harm any enemies in the immediate vicinity of his landing spot. While new players will often just launch forward, more experienced players know that vertical boosts will allow for localized damage.

If you're looking to dive into the world of being a tank but don't necessarily want to just absorb damage or worry about only fighting at close range, then D.Va is the character for you. What makes this particular hero unique is that she's an absolute beast when inside of her mech, but once its health reaches zero, D.Va essentially gets a second life as a light glass cannon. While D.Va is inside of her mech, her main weapons are her Fusion Cannons, which allow her to fire unlimited ammo at short range. Despite the fact that these weapons function like machine guns, they shouldn't be thought of in the same manner as, say, Bastion's Recon weapon, as their range is considerably shorter than one would expect. Still, if you're looking to cause more damage than anyone else on your team, then you could do a lot worse than peppering your foes with D.Va's Fusion Cannons. A small note, D.Va loses a great deal of her movement speed when using these weapons, so you're not going to want to just permanently hold down the fire button.

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