Overwatch's latest PTR patch notes (they changed everything)

(Straight from Blizzard's forums)

Competitive Play Season 2
We've made some big changes to Competitive Play in anticipation of the launch of Season 2 on September 6. The most noticeable change is the introduction of skill tiers, which we hope will better communicate players' relative skill levels. Competitive Play will put a greater emphasis on skill tiers over specific ratings, and as such, a player's tier will be more prominently displayed throughout the game. We've also switched the skill rating system to a 1-5000 scale to give players more detailed information about how each match affects their specific rating.
Sudden Death is also going away in Season 2. Instead, matches that are tied when the clock runs out end in a draw—though, it should be a rare occurrence. Because of this, we've made some changes to our game modes in Competitive Play to help reduce the chance that a draw will occur.
We've also made a few minor adjustments to leaver penalties, the top 500 system, and the competitive point system. Read on below to learn more!

New Assault/Escort Map: Eichenwalde
The forest has slowly begun overtaking the abandoned village of Eichenwalde, but the scars will never completely fade. During the Omnic Crisis, Eichenwalde was the site of a key battle. General Balderich von Adler took a handful of crusaders to the village in an effort to outflank the omnic army. Balderich's soldiers were able to break down the enemy forces, giving the German military an opportunity to push back, but the Crusaders didn't make it out of the battle. General Balderich finally collapsed in the castle's great hall.

New Legendary Skins
Balderich - The armor of General Balderich von Adler, Reinhardt's commanding officer during the Omnic Crisis.Greifhardt - After General Balderich collapsed in Eichenwalde's great hall, his armor slowly became overgrown by vegetation.

General

• When activating the "Ultimate Status" communication, Symmetra now reports the number of charges left on her teleporter
• When activating the "Needs healing" communication while targeting a teammate, Ana, Lúcio, Mercy, and Zenyatta will now tell allies to group up to receive healing. A marker will appear above the player's head, allowing teammates to locate the healer more quickly
• Added Torbjörn as an AI-controlled hero in Practice vs. AI, Play vs. AI, and Custom Game modes
• Sit and laugh emotes are now unlockable for all heroes

Competitive Play

• Skill rating is now measured on a 1-5000 scale instead of the former 1-100 scale
• Skill Rating Tiers
  • Players will now be assigned to a tier, depending on their skill rating
    • Bronze  - 1-1499
    • Silver - 1500-1999
    • Gold - 2000-2499
    • Platinum - 2500-2999
    • Diamond - 3000-3499
    • Master - 3500-3999
    • Grandmaster - 4000-5000
  • In Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond tiers, a player will not drop out of their tier even if their skill rating falls below the cutoff
  • In Master and Grandmaster tiers, a player whose skill rating falls below the tier's minimum will be moved to a lower tier
  • Players of drastically different skill ratings (more than 500) will no longer be able to group together in competitive matches
  • Players that have reached the Master and Grandmaster tiers must be within 500 Skill Rating of their groupmates
  • Players that are Diamond-tier and below must be within 1000 Skill Rating of their groupmates
• Skill Rating Decay
  • Players in Diamond, Master, and Grandmaster tiers that haven't participated in a competitive match for 7 days will lose skill rating
  • Players with a skill rating above 3000 (Diamond tier or higher) will lose 50 rating points every 24 hours, but their rating will not fall below 3000
  • Competing in a single match will halt skill rating decay
  • Players that haven't participated in a competitive match for 7 days will immediately drop out of the top 500
• Map Changes
  • Several refinements have been made to the time bank system for Hanamura, Temple of Anubis, and Volskaya Industries
  • The time bank system has been added to Dorado, Hollywood, King's Row, Numbani, Route 66, and Watchpoint: Gibraltar
  • Time granted for taking objectives on Dorado, Hanamura, Hollywood, King's Row, Numbani, Route 66, Temple of Anubis, Volskaya Industries, and Watchpoint: Gibraltar has been reduced from 5 minutes to 4
• Competitive Points
  • Existing competitive points saved from Season 1 will be multiplied by 10
  • After winning a competitive match, players will now receive 10 competitive points (instead of 1)
  • Players will now receive 3 competitive points for a draw
  • The cost of golden weapons has also been multipled by 10 from 300 to 3000
  • A soft cap is being placed on the number of competitive points that can be saved
    • Players with more than 6000 points at the start of season 2 will no longer accrue points by playing competitive matches
    • End-of-season rewards will still be granted to players at the soft cap
• Instead of going into sudden death, tied competitive matches will now result in a draw (click here to learn more)
• Players must now win at least 50 competitive matches to be eligible for a spot in the top 500
• Players must now complete more matches to clear their penalty status for leaving a competitive match early

HERO BALANCE UPDATES
General

• Ultimates that consume the ultimate meter when activated will now drain the meter more quickly (.25 second instead of 1 second)
• Reverted a recent change to reduce size of heroes' projectiles
• Most hero abilities will no longer interrupt quick melee attacks
• Ultimate abilities will now interrupt quick melee attacks

 
Developer Comments: Altering the size of projectiles in flight had too many unintended side effects to keep in the game, at least in its current form. We will continue watching this and make additional changes if necessary. We’re also making quick melee more consistent when interacting with enemy abilities.
D.Va

• Defense Matrix
  • After being activated, Defense Matrix will begin regenerating following a 1-second delay (formerly .5 seconds)

Developer Comments: Defense Matrix was too efficient when tapped repeatedly, instead of being held. Now, the recovery delay matches the ability cooldown.
Hanzo

• Hanzo will now experience a 30% decrease in speed while aiming (formerly 40%)
• Maximum projectile speed has been increased by 30%
• Arrow size has been reduced by 33%

Developer Comments: Hanzo has the potential to deal a lot of damage, but he can feel really inconsistent, even at a medium distance. By increasing the projectile speed, we’re extending his reliable range, making it easier to land shots without having to perfectly predict enemy movement. To compensate for the increased projectile speed, we’ve decreased the size of his arrows, meaning his shots now require a bit more accuracy.
Mei

• Blizzard
  • The Blizzard projectile now pierces barriers
  • Radius has been increased from 8 meters to 10 meters

Developer Comments: Mei has an interesting toolkit, but her ultimate often felt like it was too difficult to use effectively. Consequently, it felt weak compared to many other ultimate abilities. The freeze effect has been piercing barriers for some time now, but the projectile would still be blocked. Now, you can throw it down exactly where you want it, so it’s much easier to utilize the full radius effectively.
McCree

• Deadeye
  • Now drains over a .25-second period (instead of displaying a 50% reduction on the ultimate meter when activated and 0% when confirmed)

Developer Comments: If players managed to counter or avoid McCree's ultimate, it would often regenerate very quickly since only half of the ultimate charge was spent. Now, this ultimate works like every other ultimate that has a duration.
Mercy

• Caduceus Staff
  • Healing Beam
  • Healing-per-second has been increased by 20%
• Resurrect
  • Resurrected allies will be able to maneuver after 2.25 seconds (reduced from 3 seconds)

Developer Comments: Resurrection now allows teammates to jump back into the fight more quickly, which should help Mercy survive after activating her ultimate. Mercy's healing is also getting a boost to solidify her role as a strong, single-target healer.
Genji

• Double jump no longer resets when wall climbing
• Dash
  • No longer deals damage to traps like Widowmaker's Venom Mine or Junkrat's Steel Trap
  • No longer bypasses Junkrat's Steel Trap
• Swift Strike
  • No longer interrupts quick melee attacks
• Dragonblade
  • Duration of Genji's ultimate has been reduced from 8 seconds to 6 seconds

Developer Comments: Genji was a little too difficult to pin down, and these changes will balance his speed. Swift Strike no longer cancels the recovery time from a quick melee attack, so players will no longer be able to get a free melee attack before using Swift Strike. Lastly, Dragonblade's duration was long enough that it often felt too difficult to reasonably counter.
Lúcio

• Amp It Up
  • The boosting of movement speed has been decreased by 30% (from a 100% increase to a 70% increase)

Developer Comments: Thanks to Lúcio's speed increase, he was almost a must pick in every lineup.
Roadhog

• Chain Hook
  • If the hooked target isn't in Roadhog's line of sight when retracting the hook, they will be moved back to the position where they were originally hooked

Developer Comments: This change means that hooked targets will be less likely to slide along walls, potentially ending up in an odd place after they've been reeled in.
Soldier: 76

• Heavy Pulse Rifle
  • Adjusted weapon spread curve
  • Increased spread recovery speed

Developer Comments: These changes will make burst-firing feel more reliable and increase his effectiveness at longer ranges.
Zenyatta

• Orb of Discord
  • The amount of damage amplified by a target with Orb of Discord has been decreased from 50% to 30%
• Orb of Destruction
  • Damage has been increased from 40 to 46

Developer Comments: Zenyatta is in a far better place since the last update, but the strength of Orb of Discord has turned him into an almost mandatory pick. These changes reduce Orb of Discord's effectiveness, but his damage-dealing potential has been increased. The amount of damage that he delivers should feel largely unaffected by the change.
MAP BALANCE CHANGES
Watchpoint: Gibraltar

• Watchpoint: Gibraltar’s first checkpoint has been removed

Developer Comments: The balance changes that were implemented in previous patches have eliminated the need for Watchpoint: Gibraltar to have an extra checkpoint.
USER INTERFACE UPDATES
General

• A new "Allied Health Bars" option has been added (Options > Controls)
• Contextual menus have been added on the hero selection screen, giving players the ability to report or group up with other players
• Matchmaking UI is now purple in the Competitive Play queue
• Made several minor adjustments to typography in the Spectator UI

BUG FIXES
General

• Fixed a bug that allowed the kill participation metric to go above 100 percent
• Fixed a bug in the Custom Game settings preventing the Ability Cooldown modifier from affecting Ana
• Fixed a bug that caused heroes to die when first spawned in a custom game if Health and Damage modifiers were used simultaneously
• Fixed a bug preventing the hero list in Custom Game settings from being organized alphabetically
• The spectate option now becomes unavailable (the button will be greyed out) when all spectator slots have been filled in a Custom Game lobby
• Fixed an issue causing in-game statistics to run off the edge of the screen in 16:10 aspect ratio

AI

• Fixed a bug that caused Bastion to become stuck, continuously healing himself in the spawn area

Heroes

• Appropriate sound effects now play when Ana shoots barriers, shields, and armor
• D.Va no longer communicates her ultimate status for Self-Destruct while charging her Call Mech ultimate
• Hanzo's “Spirit Dragon” unlockable voice line now correctly plays when using his Okami and Lone Wolf skins
• Fixed various issues with Junkrat's emote and highlight animations
• Fixed an issue causing Mei's Ice Wall to push herself to the side when cast at her feet
• Fixed a bug preventing Mei's Ice Wall from being destroyed by a moving payload
• Fixed a bug that prevented Mei's Ice Wall from appearing at the target location when cast
• Fixed a bug allowing Reaper to reach unintended map locations using Shadow Step
• Fixed a bug causing Reinhardt's shield to jitter when turning in third person
• Fixed an issue that prevented Roadhog's chain from displaying correctly in some situations
• Fixed several issues with Symmetra's emotes and highlight intros
• The scarf on Tracer's Slipstream skin is no longer stiff in the Hurdle highlight intro
• Fixed a bug preventing overtime from being triggered while Zenyatta is using Transcendence
• The names of Tracer's Sprinter and Track and Field skins now display correctly

Maps

• Fixed an issue preventing Genji and Hanzo from reliably climbing a specific crate on Watchpoint: Gibraltar

Well, gosh darn it Blizzard. What haven't you changed in your game? Basically everything in the game was changed. Most of the dominant and most pick heroes were all changed with the exception of Mei and Hanzo. Hanzo feels like he's going to be dominating during Season 2. As a support player its going to be tough not getting instantly headshot by those random Hanzo arrows that he's spamming and somehow I just randomly walk by and get hit. It sucks being on the receiving end of that but when the game first came out I played a lot of Hanzo on my stream (I don't stream often anymore) and those instant headshot kills are very fun and satisfying.

I also like how they buffed Mei's ultimate. I felt like she wasn't getting picked often enough especially for competitive. I played her a lot on competitive Season 1 and did great with her in my games but most of the time at my level I was the only one playing her.

The new German castle map Eichenwalde is a blast to play. It's a medium-sized map but all the twists and corners make it appear to seem bigger than it actually is. It's super fun to play on and sometimes I'll play ptr just to play on the map continuously over and over again. I like to play Mercy on that map the most because it seems like resurrections are super effective, allowing your teammates to get second chances in those tight corridors and wipe out the enemy team. 

The most important thing is the change to competitive. I'm not sure if this will totally fix all the problems that Season 1 had but its a definite step in the right direction. My competitive games on the ptr have been pretty good. I seem to get placed with people at or around my skill level and games are engaging and teamwork is brought to the forefront. Quick Play on the base game has gotten so bad to the point where I won't even play it anymore. It's such a joke now. Competitive (on the ptr as of now, b/c Season 1 is over on the base game), on the other hand still has my vote.

I'm looking forward to how Season 2 plays out. I'm going to get a golden gun skin for either Ana or Mercy. Possibly McCree? Not sure but I'm definitely gonna farm competitive point wins and get me that golden gun! I'm planning on making a return to streaming soon too. You can check out my stream at www.twitch.tv/megaman1597. I was always only streaming for myself so it doesn't make a difference to me if I don't have too many people watching. That'll do it for now. Keep reading and keep gaming! 

Just Give Us Sombra Already

Blizzard has been giving us clues for the next Overwatch hero Sombra for quite a while now. At first it was just little hints and clues on maps and stuff but it expanded and turned into a great ARG (alternate reality games: the idea that devs could leave clues and hints about the game, its characters, and its history in and outside of the game through comics, articles, in-game easter eggs). I spent a lot of time in other posts writing about some of the main developments in the Sombra ARG. But right now a lot of people are sick of the whole thing.

The most recent clue came from a glitchy post on Overwatch's official forums that appeared to come from Sombra herself. It led players to a site that seemed to be counting down to an impending reveal. I just tried it right now and it leads you to a page that shows this with black background like some kind of computer coding program:

...Estableciendo conexión...
...Protocolo Sombra v1.9 iniciado...

...Transmitiendo información a ómnicos activos... 5%

...Terminando conexión... 

And then it never reveals anything. It's been stalled at 5% for a while and nobody can figure out what they need to do to get it moving. Right now people are working to figure out how the Sombra site works. But clearly all the hype and enthusiasm for this new character is on the decline. 

I felt like the Sombra ARG was super fun to read about. But now Blizzard has taken the hype too far-to the point of no return. I'm not excited for the reveal because we've been teased with all these clues and none of it has really led anywhere-yet. At the same time some random dudes could figure this out and might be able to tell us when Sombra's going to be revealed and/or anything about her. 

It's definitely a new way of giving players new content, that's for sure. All this ARG stuff and easter eggs in modern gaming is definitely fun. But at the same time you can't just give us all these clues, have nothing happen, and expect the players to still be hyped. I understand devs want to keep the players excited but they could've done it a lot better. Anyways, I hope Sombra is a stealth melee character. That would be awesome! 

Auriel, the Arch Angel of Hope arrives to the Nexus

"Auriel, The Archangel of Hope, is a member of the Angiris Council. She first appears in The Veiled Prophet, where she votes in favor of saving Sanctuary and humanity. She resides in the Gardens of Hope in the High Heavens. When Sanctuary was discovered, she was its most ardent defender and opposed Imperius who wanted to destroy it. She wanted to uphold the inhabitants' right to life and wanted to see them grow and mature. She seems compassionate towards others and respects life."(Wiki)

Auriel arrived to the Nexus August 9 but all the Overwatch hype had my attention so I'm giving Heroes some love right now. Let's go over her abilities and ultimates. I won't go over the talents because I want to keep this post short and straight to the point. Take note that Auriel doesn't use mana whatsoever and instead uses energy gained from bestow hope (passive) and allies damage.

Bestow Hope (D)
Cooldown: 1.5 seconds

Passive: 40% of the damage you deal to Heroes and 8% dealt to non-Heroes is stored as energy. Bestow an allied Hero with Hope. While they remain near you, damage they deal causes you to gain energy. You can only have Bestow Hope to 1 ally at time. You can store up to 1107 (526 + 4% per level) energy.

 

This is her passive. You put this onto a hero near you and the damage they deal gives you energy that you can use to heal people with your W ability-Ray of Heaven. I find that putting this onto dps heroes is the best. But sometimes dps aren't near you so you have to put it onto tanks or other supports. This ability makes Auriel unique from all the other healers because basically the more damage she and her allies do the more healing will be done. No mana needed for this hero. 

Sacred Sweep (Q)

Cooldown: 8 seconds

Sweep the area with sacred power, dealing 176 (84 + 4% per level) damage to enemies and an additional 351 (167 + 4% per level) damage to enemies caught in the center.

 

This is her bread and butter attack. Although I'm level 6 with her now I still have a hard time getting each sacred sweep cast to hit enemies in the center for that bonus damage. You're going to be using this ability a lot to finish off enemies after you've used detainment strike to stun them into terrain or a wall. It's a great killing move as well as poking ability. 

 

Ray of Heaven (W)

Cooldown: 4 seconds

Consume your stored energy and heal allied Heroes in the area for the amount of energy consumed.

 

This is her only healing ability. The thing is that it has a 4 second cooldown so you have to choose and use it at the right moments. Its an aoe (area of effect) heal so you can heal multiple allies at once. Really great ability!

 

Detainment Strike (E)

Cooldown: 14 seconds

Deal 220 (104 + 4% per level) damage to the first enemy Hero hit and knock them back. If they collide with terrain, they are also stunned for 1.25 seconds and take an additional 220 (104 + 4% per level) damage.

 

This is part of her best combo. You use detainment strike on someone as they're running away and stun them into a wall or terrain, then you use sacred sweep, and your teammates pile on them to kill them. I've gotten countless kills doing this simple combo and it never fails as long as you're team is targeting what you're targeting. Not only is it good for getting frags (kills) but its also useful when you're trying to make a run for it. Just slap them away and run to safety. Always works unless they have a projectile with Chromie or something. 

 

Crystal Aegis (R)

Cooldown: 60 seconds

Place an allied Hero into Stasis for 2 seconds. Upon expiration, Crystal Aegis deals 592 (281 + 4% per level) damage to all nearby enemies.

 

Out of these two ultimates I see crystal aegis being used more so than resurrect from other players. It's a more offensive ultimate, gives your ally a chance to live, and it deals a bit of aoe damage to all nearby enemies. My only problem with it is that the aoe damage is very weak and usually when you use it on an ally they often die when they come out of it because the enemy team crowds around the crystal waiting in anticipation. I've used it a lot and I've come to the conclusion that I don't like it. Most of the time I go for resurrect. However, I will go crystal if there's another support and the team isn't dying often.

 

Resurrect (R)

Cooldown: 90 seconds

Channel on the spirit of a dead ally for 3 seconds, bringing them back to life with 50% of their maximum health at the location where they died.

 

This is my favorite ability of her and the main reason I bought her for the 16,000 gold. It only brings them back to life with half health and you have to be near their dead body to cast it. This ability will save your team a lot of time and get you a lot more pushes and chances to take objectives. Its basically saving time, one of the most important tools in a moba. I would say this is one of my favorite abilities in the game and a game changer. I do think that the cast range could be better so you didn't have to be so close to your teammates to cast it but other than that its a fantastic tool for your team. 

 

To conclude, what we have here is basically a dps healer than can rez allies and doesn't use mana. Her kit is simple and straight to the point-unlike Heroes' last two heroes Gul'Dan and Medivh who are much more complicated characters. Anyone can pick up Auriel and play her right out of the box. But only great support players will learn the intricacies of her kit (like always hitting people in the center) and maximizing their energy usage to get the most out of ray of heaven. I usually like the more complex characters in Heroes of the Storm but Auriel is just so damn fun. Although her abilities seem simple I think it takes a good player to use her well. A lot of Auriels I've seen in pubs play her more as a support character but I feel she's more of a dps support character-akin to Tyrande and Rehgar. 

 

Its good to see that Blizzard is still caring a lot about Heroes. They announced at Gamescom that they're going to be adding two new Starcraft themed maps as well as Alarak (from Starcraft 2) and Zarya (from Overwatch). This is just a sample of more fun to come. 

 

"Evil will triumph over those who give into despair. But despair cannot defeat the power of hope. Hope is the voice that will never be silent. Hope is the stream that fills the wells of courage. Hope is the light in the darkness. And in the darkness, I will be that light." 

-Auriel

Most Sweeping Update to Overwatch (on the ptr)

This is the most changes that has ever happened in Overwatch thus far. Take note that all these changes are only the ptr (public test region servers) and not the regular base game.

Mei
Blizzard
-The Blizzard projectile now pierces barriers
-Radius has been increased from 8 meters to 10 meters
Developer Comments: Mei has an interesting toolkit, but her ultimate often felt like it was too difficult to use effectively. Consequently, it felt weak compared to many other ultimate abilities. The freeze effect has been piercing barriers for some time now, but the projectile would still be blocked. Now, you can throw it down exactly where you want it, so it’s much easier to utilize the full radius effectively.
Mercy
Caduceus Staff
-Healing Beam
-Healing-per-second has been increased by 20%
Resurrect
-Resurrected allies will be able to maneuver after 2.25 seconds (reduced from 3 seconds)
Developer Comments: Resurrection now allows teammates to jump back into the fight more quickly, which should help Mercy survive after activating her ultimate. Mercy’s healing is also getting a boost to solidify her role as a strong, single-target healer.
Genji
Double jump no longer resets when wall climbing
Dash
-No longer deals damage to traps like Widowmaker’s Venom Mine or Junkrat’s Steel Trap
-No longer bypasses Junkrat’s Steel Trap
Swift Strike
-No longer interrupts quick melee attacks
Dragonblade
-Duration of Genji’s ultimate has been reduced from 8 seconds to 6 seconds
Developer Comments: Genji was a little too difficult to pin down, and these changes will balance his speed. Swift Strike no longer cancels the recovery time from a quick melee attack, so players will no longer be able to get a free melee attack before using Swift Strike. Lastly, Dragonblade’s duration was long enough that it often felt too difficult to reasonably counter.
Zenyatta
Orb of Discord
-The amount of damage amplified by a target with Orb of Discord has been decreased from 50% to 30%
Orb of Destruction
-Damage has been increased from 40 to 46
Developer Comments: Zenyatta is in a far better place since the last update, but the strength of Orb of Discord has turned him into an almost mandatory pick. These changes reduce Orb of Discord’s effectiveness, but his damage-dealing potential has been increased. The amount of damage that he delivers should feel largely unaffected by the change.

D.Va, Hanzo, McCree, Lucio, and Roadhog also received tweaks, albeit less massive ones.

• There’s now an option for all characters to see allies’ health bars.
• Blizzard says they “reverted a recent change to reduce size of heroes’ projectiles,” which might mean hitboxes are uncomfortably large again. Blizzard explained, “Altering the size of projectiles in flight had too many unintended side effects to keep in the game, at least in its current form. We will continue watching this and make additional changes if necessary.”
• Watchpoint: Gibraltar’s first checkpoint has been removed. Guess it’s not necessary after some other balance passes.
• Lucio goes less fast now. 

Okay so where to start! First of all Mercy is a must pick S-tier hero again with the strongest single target healing in the game. Ana still has higher healing but you have to never miss a shot for that work. I can probably pull it off though XD. I think that Mercy is so strong right now that she probably will get nerfed a bit before these changes hit the base game. I'm a huge Mercy fan because I love healing teams and resurrecting allies so this makes me very happy! This is the best thing Blizzard could've done for Mercy.

Next, the nerf to Zenyatta's discord orb makes me a little sad. But 'cmon it was too strong! The fact that it gave your entire team 50% increased damage to a target was just insane. Honestly I'm surprised Blizzard let Zenyatta stay that strong for that long. He was super strong in the Season one Lucio Zenyatta meta. Even though he got nerfed I still think he's a healing murder machine.

The nerf to Genji makes me sad. Although I can't play him too well I always love playing him in casual Quick Match (when I got tired of competitive). The fact that his double jump doesn't reset when he climbs up walls is just dumb. What I can understand is that his Dragonblade ultimate only lasts 6 seconds instead of 8. Now, you can counter Genji's ultimate with Zenyatta's invulnerable ultimate because they both last 6 seconds. Before Genji would have an extra 2 seconds to mess you up. So that's good. As a supports player I get tired of getting swiped to death by Genjis.

I'm also glad to see Mei get some love. The fact that her Blizzard ultimate now pierces through shields (Reinhardt's shield too) and has a bigger radius means that we might start to see more Mei's in competitive. I used to play her a lot in competitive when other people picked supports before me but honestly not too many people ever play Mei. I think she's super rare even at the highest levels of gameplay as well. Hopefully these buffs bring a resurgence of Mei players to the forefront.

Lastly, Lucio goes less fast. His speed boost was nerfed. However, I don't think this will change how often he gets picked. He's been a must pick for the entire first period of the game (Season one competitive). Mercy has a chance of replacing him but perhaps we can enter the old meta (at least from the pro scene) where we have teams with both Lucio and Mercy? That would be the perfect support team for me. I'd even be down for Ana Mercy comps too.

All these changes aren't final and are subject to change. The future of Overwatch looks bright with these changes. Blizzard is really taking the players' opinions and feedback to heart. I don't think all these sweeping changes will make it to the base game but I do hope that Mercy stays buff.

Keep reading, keep gaming.

Zarya and two new maps revealed for Heroes of the Storm

Good news everyone! Today at Gamescom Blizzard revealed that Zarya (from Overwatch) and Alarak (from Starcraft 2) are going to be added as heroes in Heroes of the Storm. But that's not all.

There's also going to be two Starcraft stages added as battle maps. Check out this rockin' cinematic scene about it here.

I'm excited about the Starcraft stages because I love Starcraft with a passion. I'm going to have to grind gold and make sure I have the 16,000 ready when Zarya and Alarak launch. I'll probably want to get Zarya first. I'm excited by the prospect of more Overwatch characters being added to the game. At this point the hero list will be limitless and unending. Looks to be in good form to keep the game going for years to come.

New Overwatch Map Revealed, Eichenwalde

Overwatch is about to get its first post-launch map. Its called Eichenwalde and its a castle village in Germany with a medieval vibe. Blizzard revealed the map at Gamescom in...wait for it....Germany! Good call Blizz!

It’s an Assault/Escort hybrid map, and it’s got an Omnic Crisis (read: robot apocalypse) related story attached:

“The site of one of the most famous battles during the Omnic Crisis, it was here that the leader of the Crusaders, Balderich von Alder, and a handful of his best soldiers made a last stand against an advancing automaton army. Outnumbered and outgunned, they were ultimately slain during the resulting combat. However, thanks to their valiant efforts, the German military was able to push back the omnic offensive and win the fight.”

The goal of the attacking team is to reclaim Balderich's remains-which seems a bit odd but funny especially considering that you'll be doing it over and over again. Why would heroes want his body anyway? Maybe there's some secret hidden technology in his Reinhardt-esque armor. Check out the map video here. This is gonna be tight yall! 

High bandwidth support for Overwatch coming right now

There's a new update on the way that's going to set Overwatch's default tick rate to 63Hz. Tick rate is the frequency at which the game updates and receives updates from the server. This has been a very troubling issue in the Overwatch community. The game's normal rate is 21Hz-that's 21 updates per second, which some people believe is too slow for a competitive shooter. In June, Blizzard added a high bandwidth option to custom games that enabled play at 60Hz instead, and it went over so well that they're now going to add it to all games in both Quick Play and Competitive modes.

The high bandwidth option in Overwatch increases the tick rate from 21Hz to 63Hz. Since there are players with potato internet there's tech that will automatically scale down your update rate if your connection can't keep up. Because high bandwidth servers will increase bandwidth consumption, they're working on an option to self-limit your update rate in a future patch. This is what Manager Liyrra explained on Battle.net.

This isn't going to change your life and even necessarily Overwatch. Most complaints about the tick rate are rooted in latency problems. What was referred to as lag when gamers were shooting each other over phone lines. For me it was more about pvping people in Diablo 2 with my elemental druid over phone lines. Ah, those were the days.

“I think players have latched onto server tick rate as being the reason that certain things happen. One of the things that players are upset about is that if they get shot, where they perceive they were behind a wall, that this is a problem with server tick rate,” he said. “Certainly there are contributions that could happen with both the server and the client update rates that could cause something like that to happen, but usually, in most cases, you're talking about latency.” (Jeff Kaplan, Lead Game Designer at Blizzard)

The increased rate will help the game feel more responsive. High bandwidth support is already being put out now but the process might take a while to be completed in all regions.

Sombra investigation Reaps A Skull Code

The hunt for more clues about Sombra has reaped something-literally a reaper (and not the hero Reaper). 5,000 Overwatch fans struggling to figure out Blizzard's puzzles has been working at it for two weeks and they finally made some progress: An ASCII skull hidden a screenshot's scrambled code.

The skull is, the Game Detectives (group of Overwatch ARG hunters) think is a sugar skull, a popular Mexican treat for the Day of the Dead celebration. Fitting for Sombra who is connected to Reaper and the Mexico-themed Dorado map. If it were a normal skull there wouldn't be spaces or dots next to its eyes. Dia de los Muertos is on November 1st and 2nd. What does all this mean? Could it possibly be that Sombra will be released in November? I hope not because that's a far ways away. On the other hand it would make sense for Blizzard not to release too much new content too fast.

With this hot new clue people are fired up and working in full force to discover even more clues. This is one of the best ARGS ever! Can't wait to read and see what people come up with. This is all pretty wacky but super fun!

Overwatch ARG-The Search for Sombra continues

ARG-alternate reality games (stories, hints, and ideas about the game within the game) are really awesome and help bring the community together. But when everybody puts their heads together and find out that clues and hints are indeed meaningless, things tend to not hold up for very long. There was a Starcraft 2 ARG earlier this year that players figured out in 2 days. Yet the Sombra arg search continues as of this post. The Summer Games update had a little hint to help bring people back to the arg party.

Players were staring in the sky from a control point on Dorado with the belief that a pattern in the blue held the piece to the puzzle. It turned out they were mistaken but they translated it into a song. Although they were off the mark that is pretty astounding. Blizzard played along for a while and then uploaded a new screen from the Dorado map to the Overwatch website-which stood out from the rest because it was corrupted.

However, the corruption is datamoshing, a process used to hide data within images, and when decoded it produced this:

“Por que estan mirando al cielo? La respuesta no esta sobre sus cabezas, esta detras de ustedes. A veces, necesitan analizar sus logros previos.” 

Which translates to "Why do you look to the sky? The answer is not above your heads, it's behind you. Sometimes, you need to analyze your previous achievements"   

No one player would've figured this out for themselves. It took the community to figure out complicated args like this. Well, technically in this case Blizzard came out with the hint themselves. The Sombra details are still a mystery and Blizzard thinks we're making a mess of it. Its cool to look up all the fan theories on the web and envision if there's any truth to any of it. Either way I will be happy to look up more arg's and post about the details behind them. Part of the fun of the Summer Games is the fact that this has been revealed and there's the possibility of Sombra coming out in the near future. I like the Summer Games and Lucioball but I'm more interested in more engaging content. Until then the mystery continues on the Overwatch subreddit. 

30 Year Anniversary of Metroid

Metroid launched back in August 1987. Metroid mixed the platforming of Super Mario Bros. and the exploration of the Legend of Zelda into a science fiction adventure featuring a chick in a suit of power armor. It first launched on Famicon on August 6, 1987 and created a new adventure subgenre. You had to gather items and equipment to unlock new areas. Games like that today are called Metroidvania games, due to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. However, I prefer it when gamers say Metroid-like.

Metroid is famous for its female protagonist, Samus Aran. The instructions referred to her as he though so it took a while for everyone to realize that she was a girl. She's one of the coolest female characters in gaming. I like her so much that I used to main Zero Suit Samus for Smash 4 tournaments. I even have a Zero Suit Samus shirt. For those that don't know Zero Suit is Samus out of her red power armor where she wears this light blue skin-tight spandex.

1991's Metroid II: The Return of Samus for Game Boy upgraded the power suit and introduced the first game with the iconic Varia Suit (red power armor), the default look for Samus when she isn't running around in blue space spandex.

Metroid went through an amazing transition from 2D platformer to 3D first person shooter with Metroid Prime and Echoes on the Gamecube. The latest title Other M, released in 2010 was good but certainly had its issues. Right now the Metroid series is in a sort of stasis.

Later this month Metroid Prime: Federation Force is coming out but its not gonna feature our favorite female character. It features a sports game mode set in the game's universe. Needless to say, fans aren't thrilled about this idea. But there's still time for future Metroid releases. I'm hoping there's going to be something Metroid related on the Nintendo NX when it comes out. That would be sweet.

Suicide Squad

So I finally got around to seeing Suicide Squad with my friends. Because my friend works at Amc Theaters I got to see it for free. I've been seeing all the summer blockbusters for free. Special shoutout thank you to my friend!

The movie got a lot of bad press in the gaming community and a lot of people told me personally that they didn't like it as well. I thought it was great fun! Nothing too serious-I could compare it to Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy in the sense that both are fun action movies with comedic undertones. Let me tell you about my favorite scenes and what I liked about this film.

When the super villains are being introduced by Amanda Waller we see glimpses into their past and what makes them tick. This was especially great because I didn't know who Deadshot or Captain Boomerang were. For Deadshot we see a scene where Batman comes to take him in-in the presence of his daughter. Deadshot decides to go peacefully instead of shooting Batman, because of the love for his daughter.

For Harley Quinn we see that she was an Arkam Asylum psychiatrist designated to the Joker, played by Jared Leto. She finds herself falling in love and becoming obsessed with the Joker. Their relationship was a strong one. Joker tried to get Harley to kill herself in one scene (by having her jump in a pool of chemicals) but instead we see Joker jump into the chemicals and save her. Although he was crazy enough to give her electric shock therapy he truly loved her.

Jared Leto was great in this movie. He portrays the Joker less as a psychopath and more as a crime boss. There's this scene where he's sitting in his room and all around him are all these knives placed carefully in position. He showed a wide variety of emotion for the Joker. It was hard to know to expect because I think of the Joker in the movies as Heath Ledger Joker and its to compare to that. But in a sense I think he did a great job.

My favorite character in the movie was Katana. She's this Japanese woman with a sword that contains souls of all the people the sword has slain. She wears a mask and had on this cool leather jac ket and outfit. She even only spoke in Japanese, a nice touch. She's pretty unknown in the DC movie universe so it was cool to see that they featured her. She was an ally to Waller that worked for the government and was there to make sure none of the super villains got out of line.

The story was fun but probably not the most engaging. Basically Enchantress (this witch) gets loose and creates this megaweapon designed to wreck havoc on the Earth-and it does! The Enchantress creates this army of like black goop head-men that the Suicide Squad have to kill in order to get to her. Once there, they have to deal with her brother-this demonic entity thing. Thankfully, they had Diablo ( ese, villain, shoots fire) turn into his true form and he was able to push it into a corner where they used explosives to take it down. His improved form was this giant fire monster. It was pretty cool.

I liked how they portrayed Harley Quinn as super crazy but also sexy. It was like a peep show with her. In addition, I think Katana was pretty cute too. The movie at least had a few cute girls. The movie is light-hearted enough for families with kids to enjoy and has enough action to keep the super hero fanboys watching. For me the movie was a solid 8 out of 10. Not amazing or a must see. But a fun addition to the DC catalog. They finally know what they're doing with their movies. Can't wait to see more from the franchise. I would be totally down for a Katana movie about her origins story. 

Starcraft HD possibly in the works

Word from the gaming community is that Blizzard is working on an original Starcraft HD edition. A story published in Korea and translated by Kotaku says that Blizzard will reveal an update of the great science fiction rts in September. Just in time for my birthday!

The HD remake will offer the same gameplay as original release, but will have updated graphics and an improved user interface. According to the report, details will be revealed in November at BlizCon but the initial announcement would be better for next month because it will coincide with the final Starcraft 2 World Championships series Circuit Event for 2016. 

These are just rumors as of now but it does make sense because last year Blizzard was looking for a senior software engineer to work on its classic games. Starcraft is 18 years old and Starcraft 2 ain't no spring chicken either yet its still super popular both casually and as an esport. An HD remake makes a lot of sense now that esports are more popular now than when Starcraft was initially released.

Blizzard is keeping quiet for now. I'm looking forward to this remake because I loved Starcraft and Brood War with an intense gaming passion as a kid. Even though I wasn't that good (Zerg rusher) and only played Big Game Hunters and money maps the game had a strong impact on me as a youth. It was an awesome gaming experience and one of my first pc games. They should totally do a Warcraft 3 HD edition too. That would be awesome!

James Raynor: This should be good.

Overwatch's Competitive Season Ends Soon

People have been divisive about the competitive mode in Overwatch. Thankfully, Blizzard has promised change and Season two will be coming soon.

Blizzard announced that Season one will end on August 17 at 5 PM PT. Season two is scheduled to start on September 6, but that could change depending on how long it takes Blizzard to make improvements. This would include alterations to the skill rating system so it doesn't make players feel like baddies. Also, no more sudden death! Sounds great.

If you played Season one you'll get a special spray and player icon-even if all you did was complete your placement matches. If you made top 500 in your region, you'll get an additional player icon and an animated spray.

Now for the golden guns. Which is why we're here. With the Season's end comes competitive point distribution. You can use competitive points to buy golden weapon skins. Competitive points will be distributed based on your skill rating:

• SR 0-39: 10 CPs
• SR 40-45: 20 CPs
• SR 46-49: 40 CPs
• SR 50-52: 60 CPs
• SR 53-55: 80 CPs
• SR 56-59: 120 CPs
• SR 60-64: 200 CPs
• SR 65+: 300 CPs

I myself got ranked at 40 in placement matches but currently I'm sitting at a low rank 30. Kind of disheartening but you gotta keep in mind that I've been only playing competitive mode solo. If I had a group of friends that played competitive I'm sure my rank wouldn't have dropped so drastically.

If I play Mercy in pubs on every map and game mode I will most likely win. A Mercy player can carry a team if he's good enough. I've learned that from personal first-hand experience. The thing is that sometimes I don't want to play Mercy. Lately, I've been feeling more Zenyatta because of his buffs. I enjoy sniping people at long distance while throwing healing orbs on my allies simultaneously.

Overwatch is slowly becoming more and more competitive and hopefully it will become as strong a competitive esport as Counter Strike and Call of Duty. The game is loved by the players and Blizzard is doing a great job keeping the game going with updates and new free content. I'll be the Mercy in competitive mode pubs in Season two. Can't wait to have my golden staff and pistol. Heroes never die!

Overwatch fans butthurt over skins

So there's 90 new collectibles all for free in Overwatch. This includes emotes, sprays, and skins. This is all free. So everybody's happy right? Not quite. People are actually pretty upset at the moment. The Overwatch summer games runs from now until August 22nd. Any lootboxes acquired will have one of these 90 collectibles. You can't purchase any of them individually with credits. Yes....let the butthurt commence.

Players have two choices. You can play a lot and level up to gain levels and get the items that way. Or you can buy lootcrates and hope for the best. Lootcrates are the only way to get these new skins. The fact that its randomized means you can get duplicated items-which gives you credits that you can't even use to buy the new skins you want. You can't use credits to buy the skins. What's all that about? So the best way to get these new skins quickly seems to be to spend a lot of money. Also, there's a chance you won't get the skins you want because its all random. 

Jeff Kaplan responded to the uproar by saying that its a fun little event for free and a chance for people to get unique items. He said he appreciates the feedback but nothing is going to change. He's missing the main reason why people are complaining.

The items don't feel unique as much as they feel locked behind randomness that forces out cash spending. Its pushing people towards spending money on a game they already purchased. The fact that Blizzard doesn't give us the chance to use credits to buy skins ain't right. Blizzard didn't have to do things this way. They could have made the skins available for purchase with credits. They still would've gotten plenty of money from people buying lootcrates. Have the best of both worlds ya know.

The fact of the matter is that this is about skins in a first person shooter. A lot of people really care about cosmetics. Team Fortress 2's success with skins and hats has proven that. Hopefully Blizzard takes the players' feedback and changes things for future events.

Side note: I've gotten one summer games skin so far (and a Soldier 76 emote)-a Japan Dva skin that is hella sick. Hopefully I can level up more and somehow get some of the other skins. Personally, I'm a little upset that I probably won't have the time to get all the new skins I want. There's also the possibility that we may never be able to unlock any of this stuff in the future. But just the fact that I got the unique Dva skin makes me happy. The best part about this event is that if you log on anytime during the summer games you get a free lootcrate which might possibly have a skin. So log on and check out what all the fuss is about.

A day in the life at Guitar Center

Today I went into Guitar Center after having not been for some six months. That's a super long time to not have any guitar strings changed or any maintenance-especially on my electrics. I went in to get my strings changed on my Hagstrom Super Swede Les Paul. I'm too lazy to change them myself and I like going to the store because that means I can loiter and play all the cool gear that I probably won't buy.

When I got there they were filming for some reason. So I had to move out of their shots. They said they weren't filming audio and all the film crew's women and even some of the guys were going gaga over my playing. This hot black woman kept smiling at me and this one dude said I was amazing. Talk about high praise! I felt really good about myself. Not to mention the fact that girls with their boyfriends kept looking my way. When you're a good guitar player people sure notice you. But you wanted to know about the gear right?

I played three guitars. I plugged in a Steve Vai Ibanez Jem model into a Fender Deluxe amp and fired it up. A little out of tune but nothing a few tweaks of the knob couldn't fix. I played a bit of Four on Six by Wes Montgomery and went into some extended jazz soloing. My bebop licks have definitely improved through the last two years studying jazz on my own. Because I couldn't figure out how to get a heavy metal sounding gain through the Fender amp I only played clean stuff on the Jem. It works great as a jazz guitar surprisingly. I asked a guitar staffer about how to get a rockish sound out of a Fender amp and he couldn't figure it out for the life of him. They really don't know their stuff at Guitar Center when it comes to gear. Eventually he gave up and told me to try out a Peavy or Line 6 Spider-amps that I'm not fond of.

The second guitar I played was an Ibanez 7-string with a slanted neck. It was weird trying to get used to the slanted neck but I managed to blast out a few interesting djent riffs, chugging on the bottom strings. The Peavy amp did sound great for this guitar so the staff did have a good recommendation there. I'm a lot better at metal stuff on the 'ol six-string twanger. But I'm definitely down to play more seven-string in the future.

The last guitar I played was a Grestch hollow-body with a bigsby bridge and whammy bar (wang bar). This was by far the best guitar I played and sounded the best for my style-which lately has been straight ahead jazz and bebop with some strong neoclassical influence. This guitar just sounded amazing even using the Peavy-on a clean setting of course. The high light was playing Fly Me to the Moon, Mr. Sandman, and improvising some solos. The tone sung sweetly like an angel. It was beautiful. I liked it so much that I'm thinking of going back and picking it up next month for my birthday.

By this time I had played well over an hour and I was moderately loud. None of the staffers ever said anything even though the place was hella busy with all kinds of people shopping and getting helped by salesmen. I guess when you're good nobody ever has a need to tell you to turn down.

They restrung my Hagstrom and did a good job. They cleaned it up for me too so now its all sparkly. As good as I am at guitar and all the compliments and good vibes I got I realize as a musician that I still have a long way to go. We're always striving to become better musicians. You never stop growing or evolving. My plan is to keep working on jazz standards and memorize at least twenty or thirty tunes from memory and be able to play them in public. I could play outside on an acoustic in public places and have a case laid out for cash. This would be a lot easier than forming a band and having to find a venue to play and practice-all that rigmarole. I just want to keep getting better and loving what I do. I'll let you know when I'm playing live somewhere. Until then I'll be woodshedding standards. 

Overwatch Patch Notes – Aug 2, 2016

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Seasonal Event: Summer Games
Crack your knuckles, stretch those hamstrings, and turn up the volume—the Summer Games are here! From now through August 22, players can earn Summer Games Loot Boxes, collect over 100 seasonal items, and challenge their friends to a futuristic soccer match in our new brawl: Lúcioball!

GENERAL UPDATES

Competitive Play

    Players who leave a competitive match before its conclusion will now have to wait for at least 10 minutes before joining another competitive match
    During subsequent rounds on Assault maps (Hanamura, Temple of Anubis, and Volskaya Industries), the amount of time provided for team assembly has been reduced

Miscellaneous

    Added Lúcio as an AI hero in Practice vs. AI, Play vs. AI, and Custom Game modes
    Several minor, behind-the-scenes improvements have been made to the in-game matchmaker

MAP BALANCE UPDATES

    Made several minor adjustments across Watchpoint: Gibraltar to ensure better balance for defending and attacking teams

USER INTERFACE

    Made several minor improvements to the way hero selection tips work:
        The "No Builder" and "No Sniper Hero" warnings have been removed
        "No Support Hero" now reads as "No Healer" (does not apply to Symmetra)
        Hero selection tips are no longer displayed during team assembly in a Brawl
    Zenyatta's Transcendence speed increase is now noted on the Hero Details screen
    Players can now select which type of Loot Box (standard or seasonal) they'd like to open next
    [PC Only] Players can now set an FPS cap by selecting "Custom" from the “Limit FPS” dropdown

BUG FIXES

General

    Fixed a bug where Widowmaker’s “Noire” skin and the Origins Edition skins would not count towards unlock progress of the “Decked Out” Achievement
    Fixed a bug where “The Path Is Closed” Achievement could not be obtained by D.Va while in her mech
    [PC Only] Fixed a bug where players were unable to use the “Join Game” option from the social menu on their friends
    Fixed a bug that caused Custom Games to ignore the “Return to Lobby” setting when the game mode was set to Competitive
    Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the Tutorial to become unplayable after players switched heroes
    [PC Only] Fixed a display bug with the mouse cursor for Windows systems using a 16-bit desktop
    [PC Only] Removed developer option to disable all shadows via the settings file

Maps

    Fixed a bug causing the “old timey” end-of-round music filter on Hollywood to remain active after leaving a match
    Fixed a bug that kept the 30-seconds-remaining music from activating correctly on Payload maps.

Heroes

    Fixed a bug that was affecting the majority of Ana’s “Most in Game” career statistics
    Fixed a bug that caused Ana’s Biotic Grenade to miss an allied Reaper while in Wraith Form
    Fixed a bug with that caused Junkrat’s “Jester” and “Fool” skins to incorrectly display during a Highlight Intro
    Fixed a bug that kept Soldier: 76’s Ultimate charge meter from displaying progress gained for the Tactical Visor ability in the Tutorial
    Fixed a bug that caused the visuals and sound effects on Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer to malfunction when hitting an enemy
    Fixed a bug that caused Widowmaker’s “Widow’s Kiss” spray to be replaced by the “Je Te Vois” spray


Competitive Play

    Fixed a bug that kept grouped players from being able to rejoin a match when disconnected
    Fixed a bug that caused a player’s Skill Rating to be displayed incorrectly when rejoining a match in progress

A.I.

    Fixed an issue hindering Ana from restoring allies to full health
    Fixed an issue allowing Reaper to use Wraith Form to escape in situations where he should be stunned

Now that you know all the details the best part about this Olympic games themed update is the skins! There will be a tennis Junkrat, volleyball Winston, badminton Mercy, track and field Tracer, weightlifting Zarya, wrestling Reinhardt, fencing Genji, bmx Reaper, and golfing Soldier 76. These are fun little additions. Also, now you can choose if you want the Summer Games lootbox or the standard.

The other cool thing about this update is the addition of Lucioball. I'm not sure if this is a temporary game mode just for the Olympics or if its here to stay. Basically its football (soccer) where you play as all Lucios. You can use speedboost and melee to push the ball around into the goals. It's basically Overwatch Rocket League. Neat idea. It might be fun to try out when I'm done playing competitive and need some downtime.

I'm happy about the increased leaver penalty for competitive where they now have to wait 10 minutes before they can queue up for another game. I've been tired of people rage quiting and leaving games when we start to lose. Also, its annoying when you get into a match and then someone leaves right away-thus canceling the game. Hopefully this will weed-out the rage quiters as well as the casuals who like to leave competitive games. 

The balance changes to Watchpoint Gibraltar seem interesting. I don't know what they are but I will find out soon enough when I get the chance to play. I feel like other maps need balance changes too but I think that will happen in due time.

Interesting update. Doesn't change anything drastic or anything but a nice, safe, fun little update. I really want those new skins-mainly the fencer Genji and the golfer Soldier 76. Maybe now I'll actually care about the Olympics and watch? Who am I kidding. I'm just going to be playing Overwatch. See you on the battlefield, internet legion. 

Laguna Beach vacation

This past weekend I got to go on a mini-vacation to Laguna Beach. We stayed at this five room house but the owner and her two roommates were there too. The drive there was super long. It took two hours just to get out of LA and something like an hour and half to get there! The drive was super annoying but playing Fire Emblem made it more fun. The purpose of the trip was to meet up with my dad's friends, my brother's friend, and to have a fantastic time. Mission accomplished!

The first night we got there we ended up meeting with my dad's friends. They were nice folks from New York-a place I've been trying to visit to check out their jazz scene. We had this restaurant in mind but it was an hour wait and it was already ten at night. So we ended up eating at GG's Mediterranean restaurant. I can remember it because there was this cute Asian girl that was serving people outside. Anyways, I ordered a Seafood Spaghetti plate that came with mussels, calamari, and shrimp. It was great! The sauce wasn't too acidic which is a big factor for me when it comes to spaghetti. We had a great time telling jokes and sharing stories.

In the morning the next day I ended up playing a lot of Fire Emblem Fates Conquest. By the time it was eleven am I had completed the game. It took me a long time and I was playing on normal but I felt a great sense of accomplishment. I don't play too many single player games so it was a big deal for me. I plan on starting Birthright soon. I'm going to play it on hard mode to put my strategic skills to the test.

The next day was a busy one. We left around noon and went to San Juan Capistrano's Mission Basicila. For me it was the highlight of the trip. The church was beautiful with all this painted glass for the stations of the cross. I was moved by how the guitar player was leading everyone in prayer through song. I walked up to the front to join everyone without thinking. You could say that I felt the power of the Holy Spirit, if you believe in that sort of thing. I'm not really a religious person but I do have a Zen-like attitude towards pretty much everything I do. This guides me through stressful as well as peaceful situations in life. Also, the acoustic guitar was pretty sweet!

After that we had lunch inside this stationary fancy train at this place called the Vintage. In the old days fancy rich people would have lunch in moving trains as they travel around the country. Sounds like a good time don't it? The funny thing is that as fancy as that place was I had wings and they were playing smooth jazz. Pretty funny.

After that we went to the beach. There were so many beautiful women in bikinis and in general just sexy women all over this trip. We saw a lot of surfers riding medium-large sized waves. Parking was a nightmare but once we got settled and walked around I enjoyed it. I didn't swim or anything because by the time we were there (five pm) high tide set in and the waves were super strong. After walking around a while we sat down and chilled. I sat next to this young woman who never looked up from her cellphone for the entire time we were sitting down. People and their cellphones man...

That night my brother helped me out with a problem I was having on my laptop where Heroes of the Storm was lagging so hard to the point that it became unplayable. The solution was to update all my Blizzard games not just Heroes and that fixed it. Sometimes updating is all you need to fix things. Unless it tells you to upgrade to Windows 10. In that case upgrading isn't the fix. So that night I played a bit of Heroes. In addition, my brother brought his Xbox360 so I played a bit of Call of Duty Black Ops 2-my favorite CoD game. I went all sniper (svu-as) and the best game I had I went 20-10. Not bad for an amateur sniper who doesn't play the series.

The last day I woke up drenched in sweat. Should've left the door leading outside open. Oops. The thing that kind of sucked about the whole trip was that it was super hot. A moist humid kind of heat. The opposite of the Valley where its more of a dry heat. The owner of the house made breakfast for us. What a nice woman. I talked to her about music and stuff. She was surprised that I knew all the stuff from the 60s and 70s.

We packed up all our stuff then went to lunch at Sam Woo's (Chinese restaurant) in Rowland Heights-about thirty minutes away from the vacation house. My brother's friend was chill and his wife was really nice. He did say that Overwatch was for casuals. Although he said no offense I don't think Overwatch is a casual game. He was making the case that Battleborn takes more skill and has a higher skill cap than Overwatch. Even if that's the case I think Overwatch is the more interesting and fun game. He's been playing Battleborn with my bro lately.

In terms of food we had duck, honey walnut shrimp, and all these other goodies! We still have leftovers. I just ate some earlier. We talked for a super long time. About anything and everything. I liked how my bro's friends' wife was a geek too. She was telling me all about the new Killing Joke movie and how they were going to see the new Star Trek later that evening. We also talked about some Ryan Reynolds movies because someone brought up Dead Pool. She was also excited for Suicide Squad-which comes out soon.

All in all the trip was great. I didn't want to go because I thought I wouldn't have time to hang out with my friends. One of whom was only in town for a few days because he's a trucker and had to get back on the road. It was his birthday and I got to see him the night I got back. We gave him some birthday gifts. He got some Xbox1 games-Sunset Overdrive, Fallout 4, as well as a Deadpool shirt. Our other friend threw down to buy us all pizza. It was a great night hanging out with our original core friendship circle. 

To put it in funny terms I was living high on the hog. And this all happened in only three days ( this past Friday-Sunday). Life is damn good. Sometimes you gotta take a look back and be happy about how blessed you are. Now is one of those times.