Overwatch hype and other gaming news

     Hey, its been a long while since I've last written. I've been busy w/ the daily life grind-making money, resting, and repeating. It's been good working hard but I've also been having fun too. Work has become somewhat of a fun place with great people and attitudes. I've been gaming and playing a lot of guitar. This simple ritual I do everyday makes up most of my life at the moment. I wanted to talk a little bit about some of the hype gaming news that has been percolating the media recently.
     Overwatch has been getting all the hype recently. Its the main and probably most popular game to come out of the brand new "heroes moba first person shooter genre", even though the game hasn't even come out yet. It launches May 24 but it already has such a big business model (pre-order anyone?) going for it and its super popular because Blizzard has released all these animated shorts (which thankfully are free) and people are all goo goo about the game's lore and heroes. I played in the closed and open beta and I can say that the game is interesting enough for me to buy it and keep playing it, at least for a while. We will have to see how good the game is on the long term but usually when these brand new fps (first person shooter) games come out they are fun in the beginning but they don't usually last. Hopefully that's the case with Overwatch.
     I only played a bit but from what I remember Payload is the main game mode. Its pretty much the exact same idea as Payload from Team Fortress 2 but Overwatch stands out from Tf2-it is by no means a Tf2 clone. Overwatch is visually more busy than Tf2, has more variety and more heroes, and costs $40 for the basic build, or $60 for a bonus edition w/ cool character skins and stuff. The only similarity (which is good btw) between Overwatch and Tf2 is the graphics (which are cell shady and cartoony), the idea of character hero classes which are all different, and some of the play style is similar. However, in Overwatch its only 6v6 pvp battles. Tf2 usually has more players.
     Anyways, Payload doesn't stand out in Overwatch by any means but the game is fun. Don't trust my judgement? Just buy the game when it launches on the 24th, you will see how good this game is. The game doesn't push the envelop in terms of play style or anything new but it keeps the player engaged on a purely fun level. In addition, the game has a steep learning curve. It's easy to get into but hard to master. I can see this game going places in terms of esports as well. Players were already great players in the beta but once the game is released and fully polished w/ more maps and heroes it will turn in a competitive fps gamer's paradise. I might be pushing it saying that but I do believe its true. This game is literally a game changer.
     I wasn't really that good when I played the beta but I still had fun because Overwatch focuses more on team based objective game-play, rather than picking an assassin and seeing how many rambo kill shots you can get. Don't get me wrong. When the game comes out there will probably be tons of people playing it like Call of Duty rambos but once the game gets going long enough it will be great. Anyways, enough about Overwatch, its already been hyped enough since like BlizzCon 2015.
     In other news there's supposedly another Smash 4 patch coming out soon-1.1.6. I think its going to come out overnight. I don't know the details but I heard about it from the SoCal Smash Group I'm in on Facebook. They usually know whats up. However, I don't know when the patch goes live or how long the servers will be down. I think the game needs another patch because some of the low tier characters could be better and of course some of the high tiers should be nerfed a bit. It's always hard to balance a fighting game because just changing one thing causes a chain reaction that changes everything. But its a necessary act because it keeps the game evolving-something Smash desperately needs. I haven't played Smash at my house in so long but I still play a lot with my friends. It's the main game we play competitively and although I haven't been practicing or going to tournaments (b/c of work) I feel like my playstyle has changed for the better, especially with Bayonetta. I've also improved by leaps and bounds with Fox, who used to be my original main before I played Zero Suit and Bayonetta. Even before Fox I used to main Shulk. Good times :D
      Lastly, a new hero came out for Heroes of the Storm today. I was off today so I got to check out this new hero in-game. She's a time manipulator (named Chromie) sorta hero from World of Warcraft, she's a gnome. I feel like the whole time thing is played out because Tracer is in Heroes too but its cool. She's not the coolest hero but I do think some of her abilities are flashy and she has some cool aoe's (area of effect: like slowing people down). I've become a high level player at heroes and I try to focus on playing ranked matches when I do play. I still focus on mastering support healing characters but I'm also great with dps and tanks too. It's a free to play moba game by Blizzard and if you haven't already been playing this gem you should definitely go install it on your computer right now. Right now, this game is that good. It has that League of Legends moba vibe but its such a better game. I can see it becoming just as popular if not bigger than League and Dota.
     There's still some other cool gaming news. Battleborn was released recently, its another one of those moba fps games. I'm in the beta for another game like that called Paladins (developed by Hi-Rez Studios, which brought us Smite), its okay but its no Overwatch. There's also the reveal for the Pokemon Sun/Moon starter Pokemon, which all looked hella lame to me. Dark Souls 3 came out recently too. And finally, the new Doom game will be released soon. That's a lot of new gaming content that's already out/will be coming out. As I said I'm really excited and focused on Overwatch. I just hope that it lives up to the hype that it's had. First person shooter games seem to be a big let down sometimes, especially when there's not enough maps or engaging player modes. We'll just have to wait and see.