In total, I’ve probably played less than ten hours in Overwatch. That’s a pretty pathetic return for an online shooter that’s been out for five years. In fact, ‘an online shooter’ barely does Overwatch justice. For a while, it was the biggest hero shooter in the world, and despite increasing competition, it arguably still is. I know people who have hundreds, if not thousands of hours in Overwatch, and I’m still in single figures. Yet it’s a game I’m always thinking ab
Edgerunners is a new anime set in the world of Cyberpunk 2077, the highly-anticipated game that had an infamously rocky and controversial launch. It was losing players and support fast. But this new anime has sparked new life into the game, as it now boasts over a million players a day, and the general conversations around Cyberpunk 2077 have shifted in tone — people seem to be swinging back around to enjoy this gem in the rou
Right now I have almost everything I could ever want, and I’m smart enough now to avoid wasting money on currency unless there is something I desperately want. The battle pass is one of the few means of progression right now, with the character levelling system teased in earlier trailers abandoned until PvE rolls around. Seasonal skins that used to justify events are now available whenever we like, or a part of bundles that cycle through the store each and every day.
If I see a skin I really love, I can either grind through the battle pass to earn it or buy things outright. Sure, they’re expensive, but it will run me far less than an infinite amount of boxes trying to pull it. However, my past behaviour means that all of my accounts merging into a single entity with the launch of Overwatch 2 means I already have most of the skins I would ever want. Of course there remain a bunch of cosmetics I’d love to earn and will probably end up treating myself to in the coming months, the repertoire of outfits for each character at my disposal is honestly quite overwhelming. I have 80+ unlocks for D.Va, and that includes over twenty unique skins ranging from Black Cat to Cruiser. She was a real sticking point for me, and every new mech was almost taunting me as I tried my best to earn them whenever a seasonal event rolled around. That struggle remains, but now it’s far more manageable.
I’ll always think of Overwatch 2 competitive guide|https://overwatch2fans.com/ as being one of my favourite games, aware as I am that my lack of playtime means that couldn’t possibly be true. I’m excited to see what comes next, even though I probably won’t play that much either. My favourite thing about Overwatch is hoping that it somehow becomes an open-world, third-person shooter RPG with Zarya in the driving seat — just please Blizzard, never ever make this game. Just let me hope for
Blizzard needed to change its release model to make more money and get with the times, and there wasn’t really a way to do that without throwing a number at the end and making it free-to-play across all platforms. I don’t mind this direction at all, and think it will result in a much better game when all is said and done, but something about it does irk me.
I can buy skins outright, but they used to be earned through chance, so the value of each skin is twisted in a way that the community is going to take a long time to reconcile. In reality is it no different to how things are done in games like Apex Legends or Fortnite , with the very best skins costing around $15-$20, but we were used to earning them in a much easier way, and thus it feels unfair. For someone like me with more skins than sense, I feel like a dragon sitting atop a mountain of gold unaware of how they stumbled across such riches. I’m serious, using the new values assigned to skins I think my account is worth thousands. Yet it’s also worthless.
However, Overwatch has always felt like one of my favourite games even though I so rarely play it. While other hero shooters feel loaded with generic characters, Overwatch’s cast feels full of life and heart. Overwatch 2 — which really might have been a mistake , considering most online shooters use the season model — will apparently include a campaign mode, but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. Obviously, I love single player games and prefer PvE to PvP, but Overwatch won my heart as it is. There’s something about how vibrant the characters are that makes me think I want to see their own journeys, but I’m not sure if I actually trust Overwatch 2 to pull it
Overwatch 2 stumbles into a unique conundrum though, because its cosmetic economy is built on a system so different to what we have now. Skins used to be earned randomly, with each loot box offering a small chance of us rolling a rare or legendary item that would absolutely make our day. It was certainly unhealthy and downright exploitative in how it preyed on vulnerable people like me with no concept of how much money or time they were wasting on such pursuits, but now things are so much more definitive.