If you’ve been on the internet this past week, you’ve probably been inundated with story after story about Overwatch , a team-based shooter from Activision-Blizzard that’s blowing away fans and critics. Based on the overwhelming acclaim and massive sales numbers (it actually sold out on Amazon ), the game is well on its way to becoming a fixture in the multiplayer FPS scene. With that in mind, here are **12 Things You Need To Know About Overwatch

Despite what my love of recent independent titles like Hyper Light Drifter , Firewatch and The Banner Saga 2 might suggest, I have a strong history with games of a more bombastic persuasion. My most played game of all time, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, found a way to capitalize on the combination of my love for multiplayer chaos and my susceptibility to addictive feedback loops. Granted, I would never claim that Modern Warfare 2 is some sort of godlike game, but there was something about its complete lack of balance and downright brilliant map design that tapped into a very specific portion of my mind.

By offering players something that goes against the grain or, taking it one step further, warps the entire establishment prior into nothing short of practical tomfoolery, you help keep the notion that for all this medium's praise, PR, pretentiousness and pointless gratification at its own numeric sales figures...video games are still just video games. That you yourself are more than happy to let either yourself or your own creation be the punchline, rather than the one delivering it. The kind of punchline that takes the appearance of a cute-and-cuddly, child-friendly platformer yet winds up dishing up a brilliant bait-and-switch, as much a cleverly-written pot-shot at what games represent (with quite the ending while I'm at it). It's up to developers and publishers from hereon as to how far they're willing to go, if at all. And for those willing to swallow their pride, they'll realize that, albeit a short-term distraction, satirizing and giving joke to this medium, culture or indeed industry is what's needed (among many more pressing issues) at this present time.

Widely publicized, truly open betas for games this high-profile are still relatively new to the video gaming world, but that doesn’t in any way diminish what Overwatch accomplished when it compelled 9.7 million participants to try the game. To put that in perspective, The Division’s record-setting beta had 6.4 million players, and Destiny’s had 4.6 million. Overwatch’s world, characters, and polished gameplay have clearly attracted people that normally ignore other multiplayer-heavy shooters, which is especially interesting becaus

There are certain developers out there that make games that are far more polished than everything else out on the market. Blizzard pretty much leads the charge here, and Overwatch is absolutely no exception. In my over one-hundred matches played during the Overwatch beta, I haven't experienced a single dropped frame or moment of lag. Think about that for a second. We live in an age where AAA games routinely launch broken, so for a beta (though this beta is essentially a final best winston stadium build) to be more polished than the final release of its closest competitor, that really says something.

At the time that I'm writing this, I've completed 101 matches in Overwatch's current beta. It's affected my normally rigorous workout schedule, my level of contact with friends and family and the number of hours of sleep that I've gotten. When I booted up Overwatch to pull that statistic from my Career Profile, I had to consciously force myself to exit the application in order to finish this article. Yes, I have a genuine Overwatch problem, and it's kind of the greatest thing ever.

Blizzard has perfected the RTS and now they’ve laid a fantastic foundation for the FPS. Though simple on the surface, Overwatch manages to create depth thanks to its 21 character roster and 12 intricately designed maps, consistently rewarding players that master their characters, learn the maps and work as a team. Putting a competent team together and snatching victory from the jaws of defeat is one of the most satisfying experiences a multiplayer game has offered in years. It could use a campaign, a few more game modes and refinement of its RNG system, but none of that distracts from the fact that Overwatch is an superb effort that will entertain players for an ungodly amount of time.

There have been recent attempts by some studios to permeate some raw idea of 'satire' to be the glue that binds a game together. But the problem with this strict reliance, is the fact this is simply a ham-fisted and superficial perception of satire for the pure sake of it . That something is satirical, if it merely says it is; that the main objective in promoting your game in a trailer, is to simply shove humour in one's face -- to paint it in a kind of overly-confident, overly-exuberant fashion. Doing so will only bring about one of the most unrequested anecdotes of feedback from your typical viewer: try-hard. Could this be why so many of Microsoft's past E3's have been "funny" when (and only when) they weren't intending to be? To avoid going off-topic, the point is, satire stems from understanding the rules and laws of an established concept...and then looking at it from a sarcastic, ironic or equally-critical viewpoint that's not so much about exploiting possible flaws, but drawing on the potential disbelief. Because after all...games aren't real (least not with VR in its current infancy) and while you may want to rely on realism or emotion or established formulae for certain genres - fantasy, for example - everything...and I mean everything...is a target for ridicule and intimidation. Why? Because comedy and laughter are both fundamental states of mood.