Yesterday evening (December 1st, at the time of writing this) was the night of the annual Game Awards show, a lavish live-streamed spectacle where the best and brightest of the video games industry gathered in Los Angeles - in order to receive awards voted on by industry peers and journalists, celebrating the year in gaming. It was a good night for big-name hits like Uncharted 4: A Thief's End , the reboot of DOOM and Blizzard's mega-selling team shooter **Overwatch ** , as well as respected independent titles like That Dragon Cancer - and it was a chance for those in attendance to show off all-new trailers for upcoming tit

Symmetra's first ability, her Sentry Turrets, allow her to place up to six turrets around the map. Once an enemy steps within range, these turrets will fire a continuous beam of medium-damage energy until that foe either dies or steps out of range. While these turrets are exceptionally easy for enemies to kill, they can be hidden in creative locations and grouped together to maximize effectiveness. Her second ability, Photon Shield, allows her to grant extra hitpoints to teammates within range. While shields will not heal those who are critically injured, equipping an entire team with them before a big push can certainly give you an edge. Finally, her ultimate, Teleporter, is one of the biggest game-changing abilities in all of Overwatch. By placing the Teleporter somewhere on the map, a second portal is opened up at the spawn point, allowing teammates to bypass that potentially long journey back to the objective. Not only can this assist your team in reaching an capture point quicker, but it makes escorting a payload a relative breeze considering it's possible to always have one person moving it forward.

While I don't have all the details of the underpinnings of the matchmaking system, because it's incredibly complex, we have a really talented engineer on it. He did all the matchmaking systems for all of the other Blizzard games, so he's really good at doing what he does. However, our values as a team are to avoid that as much as possible. We want the game to be as balanced and as fun for everyone as we can possibly make it.

McCree's main ability, Combat Roll, is exactly what it sounds like: a forward tumble in whichever direction he's facing. Aside from the fact that this can get McCree out of the way of a great deal of enemy fire, it also automatically reloads the Peacekeeper, which allows for a particularly devastating secondary fire-Combat Roll-secondary fire combo. His other ability, Flashbang, is a throwable stun grenade that locks foes in place. Not only is this wonderful at stopping quick characters like Tracer in their tracks, but they also make for particularly easy kills with McCree's clip-emptying secondary fire. Finally, McCree's ultimate, Deadeye, allows him to slowly lock onto the heads of enemies in the area, guaranteeing a kill during a full lock-on (basically, it's a straight up mark-and-execute maneuver). This is best utilized from behind a skirmish when there are multiple enemies on the screen. It's worth noting that McCree is one of the hardest characters to use effectively, so don't be alarmed if it takes you a bit of practice before you become a cowboy master.

In an era where games are released unfinished to make a profit later and fighting games suffer from player bases where character access is gated off behind DLC, Blizzard’s decision to patch in new matches, modes, and characters for free rather than asking players to pay for the privilege is nothing short of incredible. If Overwatch’s community begins to dwindle, it won’t be because they’re divided between base game players and those with the money to buy extras, because Blizzard’s decision means that anyone who picks up the game will have the same access to modes, maps, and heroes as everyone else. Speaking of heroe

Winston Jump Pack Tips'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.

Zenyatta's two core abilities are remarkably similar to one another, though they have completely opposite effects. The Orb of Harmony can be thrown onto any ally in the area, and so long as they remain in sight of Zenyatta, they will become the recipients of non-stop healing. However, there can only be one player sporting an Orb of Harmony at any given time, so if you decide to heal another player, this will result in the first orb disappearing. This ability is fantastic for when you need to keep your tank healthy, maintain an ally's health during their ultimate or when a big push is on the horizon. Conversely, the Orb of Discord can be passed onto a single enemy, and while they are in Zenyatta's line of sight, they will receive extra damage from all incoming attacks. If you ever encounter a foe who is wrecking your entire team, or if you simply are looking to take out a tank or pesky sniper, this might just be the best ability for the job. Finally, Zenyatta's ultimate, Transcendence, only lasts for a couple of seconds, but can make the difference between a successful push to victory and a blind bum-rush. For a few seconds, Transcendence makes Zenyatta completely invulnerable and heals all of the enemies in the surrounding area. If you're looking to win an overtime period, this is one of the strongest tools at your disposal, despite the fact that it doesn't do any direct damage.