Overwatch, I’ve mentioned in the past, is the first first-person competitive/multiplayer game I’ve truly loved. Between cool characters, awesome mechanics, a fun universe and just being downright addictive, I always come back for a few matches.
But in the past few months, as I was preparing to get a new computer and struggling to do anything about recording and/or streaming, I stopped playing Overwatch altogether, ignoring the second competitive season—not just for this but because at its worst the competitive community is composed of monumental bastards—and even the PTR.
So imagine my massive surprise when I came back last week and saw not only the new hero, Sombra, which I’ve grown to hate for the seemingly endless range of that stupid hack once it’s on you—I mean, seriously, I’ve dashed away and still the hack went through—but also a host of new features, the Arcade mode being the most fun thing of all.
You have the brawls, which we’re already familiar with and I even did a few videos on them, now collected to play through as a playlist. I’m not sure if Blizzard’s Overwatch team will release new such brawls though I hope they do, even more if they’ll be as fun and game changing as a Lucio Ball was.
But now you also have an unlimited hero selection version of 6v6, since Quick Play now has the single hero restriction of its competitive counterpart. There are also Death Matches and my favourite new mode: Duels, where I continually lose in horrible fashion against other players, with just a single win to my name…which I of course recorded so I can convince myself that I’m not a completely worthless player.
Since returning to the game, I’ve been playing with my two favourite characters, Genji and Reinhardt and it was easy to get back into things with the German man with the massive hammer but I have had a very hard time getting used to Genji again, between the loss of the triple jump and the reduction to the Ultimate. Also, player skill level is generally higher and so most of my attempts to dash in, get a few kills and dash out meet with horrible disappointment…meaning they kill my ass in 2 seconds flat, even the healers.
So my Genji skills are now a work in progress, something I’ll get on while broadcasting in the coming weeks. But I have my moments! I will say though that most Sombras now target me almost exclusively, which I get, since Genji is famous for being a team killer, but in my hands he barely caresses a tender kitten.
I will say, I’m still as good with the Egyptian Gundam Pilot, Pharah, and so far, I’ve won all duels using the characters, with Perfect scores too!
As much as I dislike the snake pit that is Overwatch competitive, I am excited for Season 3 since they’ve said they will change things up yet again—though the constant change of mechanics gives me Boomkin flashbacks from WoW, where I’ve had to relearn my class every damn expansion—and I’d like to test just how far I get.
Having said so, I’d love to have a team to play with, so that I don’t have to deal with the snake-pit factor and leave all moaning between my friends and me. And that way, if we lose or will lose in a short few seconds, then we can at least have a few laughs at our own expense, which is something I think all players should learn to do.
Think about it this way, you have three options: crying, laughing or being a complete bastard to other people. I choose laughing every single time. It’s better, trust me, and being able to laugh at yourself is a wonderful skill to have in life!
You’ll probably see me play Overwatch a bit during the Twitch streams, I always enjoy a couple of games, and hell, if we can play together then it’ll be even more fun, though I must tell you that even at my best, I might still suck!
You have been warned!
