Happy Halloween

Halloween is here! This is probably the first time I've ever taken Halloween seriously as a holiday or ever really celebrated. Probably because I've been partying with my friends like its the second coming of high school. It's been a blast.

As a kid my mom didn't really allow us to celebrate Halloween. Being a strict Catholic and a bit of an overprotective moma bear she's against most things associated with horror and dark vibes. I'm not necessarily the opposite but Halloween is cool.

The thing that I like the most about Halloween isn't the partying or the candy. It's that evil vibe that really seems to go with it. There's something dark about Halloween that only lasts during this late autumnal period. To go further with this idea it could possibly be related to the change in the weather (winter is coming) but its not just that. It's also the way people think and interact with each other. Halloween ain't so big a holiday that people act totally different but people do seem to be more joyful. That's a great thing. 

I've been celebrating by listening to the band Ghost a lot. I wrote about them in a post that you can check out here. I literally just got into them this week and they're like the perfect Halloween band. They're dark gothic costumes certainly fit Halloween perfectly. I might delve more into more authentic black metal because of Ghost.

But yeah the whole festivities of Halloween have had me not playing games so much. Lately, I've been listening to music (Ghost mostly) and hanging out with friends. I've been working on getting my friends better on guitar and bass for our band that we're starting. So far we have the beginning of a simple song and we're playing the Adventure Time theme song together. The song started off as just a bass line I wrote for my friend to practice and its developed into something more. Not bad but we have so far to go.

I feel like I'm a great teacher but I can only provide so much training with them. They have to go the extra mile and become a better musician on their own. Hell, even though I've had like three great teachers none of them really taught me how to play with original style or creativity. I did that myself over time.

I have many ideas for the band. I kinda wanted a simple rock group with a strong punk, black metal, and pop vibe. By pop I mean have catchy metal riffs and lyrics, not like Taylor Swift or anything. I want our songs to have tasty arrangements that require musical prowess and skill but in the beginning I want things to be more simpler until the guys can learn to hang at my level.

That could be a while. In the meantime I'm still looking around for people to jam with and I'm still working on jazz standards. I'm also in the process of saving up for a cheap drum machine so when we start recording we'll use that because we don't have a drummer as of yet. We're gonna need drums at some point and I also want to get a keyboards player.

I gotta say that I love it when we all play with guitars and bass together. They're a couple of noobs now but they just might be good musicians given the right musical training and if they practice harder.


We're not even sure what the band will be called but knowing my friends it will probably be something that suggests a metalcore sound. They're really into the more modern metalcore bands whereas I'm more old school, more into the 60s and 80s sound of rock and roll.

We'll have to see what happens. Hopefully I can emerge out of this with a gigging band and get somewhere. Let's see what winter brings us. 

Who's that guitar playin' sonuva bitch, a question commonly asked, on his head a bucket of chicken bones, on his face a plastic mask. He was born in a cage, raised on a coop, children fear him, critics rage, he's half alive, he's half dead, folks just call him Buckethead.

Black metal meets Pop and Psychedelia

I've developed a fascination with a newish heavy metal band from Sweden called Ghost. Their lyrics are totally satanic and black metal but their music is more psychedelic and pop rather than a black metal style. They wear robes and stuff. The singer wears a pope-like outfit and he's called Papa Emeritus. The rest of the band wears masks and go under the names Nameless Ghouls. Pretty cool gimmick, eh?

This might seem silly and I assure you it is. But something about this band is amazing. Their lyrics are totally silly but their music is so catchy and infectious. Its almost like if the Beatles were a black metal band in 2016. They've made me realize that not every song or band has to be progressive or technical. All you need is some catchy riffs and lyrics and you've got yourself a song.

It took me a long time to realize that and this band has shown me that. That's why I think they're the best metal band I've heard in a long time. I bought their 2016 ep entitled Popestar. It features one original tune called Square Hammer and four cover songs originally by Echo and the Bunnymen, Simian Mobile Disco, Eurythmics, and Imperiet. Those are all fairly pop so you get the idea of where this band is going. Right to the top in terms of musical popularity. It seems like they've just been getting bigger and bigger in America. I could see them playing big ass festivals and stadiums like Metallica and Slayer sometime soon.

Popestar is a good ep and shows how great their covers are. On their first album they did a brilliant rendition of the Beatles' Here comes the sun. Their cover is pretty darn good. That entire first album is great. It's everything a good rock album should be. Even if this band has a strong black metal vibe in terms of their lyrics, the music is classic rock and roll. That's what I like about them.

Its cool that I got into them just in time for Halloween. They're definitely a Halloween sorta band with their elaborate stage shows and costumes. You should check them out on YouTube. Listen to the first album Opus Eponymous and Popestar if you wanna hear what got them their Grammy this year.

Classic stuff. The Nameless Ghouls play a mean guitar too. I also love how they have keyboards. Reminds me of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown and my young progressive rock days.

Killer. 

Fairness coming to competitive season three

So Blizzard has announced that Season 3 competitive mode starts December 1st. Season 2 ends November 24th, which means there will be less time in between the break than we had last time. They completely overhauled Competitive mode for Season 2 but its still not perfect, despite completely changing everything about it. A lot of players have cried ELO hell, the idea that once you're surrounded by shit teammates there's no escaping your low rank. This is where I've been at in Overwatch for pretty much all of Season 1 and most of Season 2.

The beginning of Season 2 for me was pretty good. I was almost gold but I just didn't put in enough time because I'm too busy working, hanging out with friends, and teaching them guitar moves. Once they learn the basic more we're gonna start writing songs for our band. Even though I'm a great guitar player its still difficult teaching people from the very beginning. "This is a C chord..." More on that later in another post.

Anyways, for Season 3 they aren't completely changing everything like last time but they are making some major tweaks. In a forum post principal designer Scott Mercer explained that they want to change things in two ways. First, they want players to quickly get into matches with players of equal skill. And second, they want it to feel like a fresh start. Kinda conflicting ideas but we'll have to wait and see what happens. He went on to say:

“Another area of Competitive Play we’re trying to improve for Season 2 is how we distribute everybody into their Skill Tiers (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, etc.) based on their SR. When Season 2 started, we had WAY more players in Gold and Platinum than we initially intended, and way fewer in Bronze and Silver. This was the result of how we calculated your initial SR for Season 2. We tried to partially reset player SR at the start of Season 2, but the results were not as we expected. Instead, below-average players started Season 2 at a higher SR than they should have been given their performance in Season 1. This meant that as they played in Season 2, their SR would often drop to a lower value, which didn’t feel great. It also meant that there was a much wider variation of skill in the Gold and Platinum tiers than we wanted. This is something we want to avoid in Season 3.”

In the end Blizzard has decided to go with fairness over everything else. Skill rating will be lower at the start but we'll have higher than normal skill rating gains.

The new skill rating system is already effect on the ptr, which has a bunch of other changes that I've written about here.

I'll try out all this stuff on my day off tomorrow. Lately, I haven't had as much time for gaming because pesky work gets in the way. If only I didn't need money to buy games, but now I don't have time to play the games I buy. Quite the conundrum I'm in now.

Troll Picks Are Inevitable

According to Overwatch's director Jeff Kaplan troll picks are inevitable. He said "we will absolutely do our best to make sure all of our heroes are viable and that none of them end up left behind as "troll picks."

"A lot of us like pro sports and tend to think of those games (soccer, football, hockey, basketball) as 'timeless'. But if you follow those games closely, the leagues have had to make minor tweaks to the games to keep them fun and balanced over time," Kaplan wrote. "It's a weird analogy, but it is very similar to hero balance in a game like Overwatch. In those pro sports, players and coaches evolved their ways of thinking about the game that required the game itself to change at times."

"Both Torb and Symmetra are being looked at right now. We want to try to improve them in ways that makes them more fun to play, more enjoyable to have on your team and try to make sure they are not infuriating to play against," he continued, addressing a complaint that those two heroes in particular are "flagged as 'useless'" by the community. "We wrestle with the issue that players get very upset at us when they perceive 'the meta is stale' and certain heroes are not viable. Yet it's also very disruptive to the playerbase for us to make changes. It's a bit of a Catch-22 but we do our best to responsibly look at all heroes all the time and make sure nothing is terribly unbalanced or worse, un-fun." (Kotaku)

Some troll picks make games unwinnable. I do think Blizzard needs to do something to address the issue of troll picks because it happens surprisingly a lot in competitive mode. You'd think people would stick to quick play for trolling but nope they go to competitive and derp off there too. Some examples would be someone who keeps going Hanzo or Widowmaker on attack or when nobody plays healer. When nobody plays healer the whole team is just trolling at that point.

I think the best troll characters are Genji, Reaper, Tracer, Widowmaker, and Hanzo. The snipers get picked surprisingly a lot on attack. I find that to be pretty trollish behavior. Then the guy would say something like Hanzo is my best character.

Overwatch definitely has its trolls. Mostly in the voice chat put it does go hand in hand with their character picks as well. Blizzard has done their best to allow everyone freedom within the game but really its beyond their control in many aspects. At this point its community property.

Genderbend Reaper is so edgy XD

Battlefield 1, Should I get it now?

So Battlefield 1 came out the other day and its the talk of the town right now. I'd say we're kinda in a gaming lull right before BlizzCon but I think this game has already captured the zeitgeist.. Here is a brand new first person shooter that is great. We already got a taste in the beta during the summer but now we have the full gaming experience.

I decided to write about the game not because I own it but because the game is getting praise from all my friends and coworkers. I feel like I'm missing out because I don't have it. I could be wrong but they all seem to genuinely love the game.

I played the beta during the summer and it was a very hot-cold experience for me. I loved the graphics, movement, guns, and class specific soldier options (I played medic) but when I tried to do battle and fire in gun fights I just got mowed down like a tractor tracking corn. I literally died every time I shot at somebody. Kind of hilarious. But I wasn't really in awe of the fire fights. I was struck by the beauty of the map and fluidity of character movement. Everything just felt right. And this was just beta.

Imagine how the game actually plays. It's probably pretty fun. I'm debating on weather I should shell out the cash to pick up this game sooner rather than later. If I wait there's the possibility of a sale, which I think will happen sooner rather than later because of Black Friday and Christmas.

When I think of World War 1 I don't think of first person shooter games even though the first Call of Duty was based on World War 1. Not too many gaming companies have made shooters that are based on old times. I mean, I wish there was an excellent Western themed first person shooter but that's the topic for another discussion.

But World War 1 is important US History and its cool to see such an era in video gaming. Such a gritty war. But a war that could be argued had to be fought. There are a few wars in American history that had to be fought. But those days are over. The wars we fight now are proxy wars that have no clear ending.

I'll probably pick the game up at some point but not right away. I look forward to trying out some medic syringe kills. I also enjoy the idea of riding in vehicles like planes and tanks and causing a ruckus.

Every Ultimate Nerfed October PTR Patch

It appears that every ultimate in the entire game has been nerfed. The ultimate cost increased by 25%. Let's talk about some of the hero changes.

D.Va's mech health increased to 200 (100 before) but armor remains at 400. She now has a total of 600 health. Her movement speed while firing has increased by 25%. Even though she was buffed before she's still not seen in high level of play. This think this change is gonna make D.Va a must pick.

Soldier 76's bullet damage increased from 17 to 20 and the maximum bullet spread increased from 2.2 to 2.4.  He's better now for sure.

Ana's nano boost no longer increases move speed of the target. That was one of the main reasons why nano boost is so good. I don't really dig this change because it'll make nano boost less effective.

Mei's ultimate Blizzard cost has been increased by 15%. A straight up nerf.

Lucio's Amp It Up healing has been decreased by 10%. Another straight up nerf. To pretty much a must have character.

Zarya's Particle Barrier gained from barriers decreased by 20%. And her Projected Barrier Power gained from barriers decreased by 20%. It's gonna take longer for her to be fully charged. She will still be in tons of games.

Torbjorn saw an incredible buff. The amount of scrap collected from a fallen enemy has been decreased by 40%. Forge Hammer Swing speed increased by 25%, Damage decreased by 27%. Scrap is now automatically gained. This is gonna make him great.

Those are all the hero changes on the PTR.

The biggest change is that ultimates for every character increased by 25%. The game is going be at a slower pace and become more of a shooting game where its more about the gun-play. This is a change in attitude and style from Blizzard. They want us to focus on fire fights rather than just relying on ultimates.

The game will be a lot more like other shooters in the sense that it will be about gunplay. Like Team Fortress 2. Or Call of Duty even. I hope the end result here leans more towards the same game but just slower ultimates, but still have ultimates be a big part of it.

If the game changes to become more gun based I would still be down to play. Its just that it would become almost an entirely different experience. I'd probably switch to dps (damage per second) heroes instead of focusing on healers.

This is a significant change and its going to make a big impact on the game thus far. Overwatch has been great but they sure do change everything and anything whenever they want. Pretty cool that a company continues to work hard on a product. They're definitely showing this game a lot of love.

I'll try out this new Overwatch on the PTR tomorrow. I'll report on how I feel about the changes.  

How to increase fps by 50% in Overwatch

 

The easiest way to get better frames for any game is to just lower your graphics setting. However, you don't have to tweak much for the change. Redditor raydialseeker pointed out that the Dynamic Reflections setting is responsible for bringing down frames. Some PC Gamer guys found that if you switch Dynamic Reflections from High to Off, it increased the framerate from 30% to 50%.

Dynamic Reflections setting is "what causes players and other moving objects to be mirrored in pools of water and other shiny surfaces. Buildings, scenery and other static objects still reflect in all their glory, even with the setting turned off." (PC Gamer)

So yeah apparently this is a setting that can drastically alter your fps. That a single setting can make so much difference boogles the mind. There are of course extensive optimization guides for Overwatch. But this is pretty cool to know.

Pretty sick female Mccree, eh?

Sombra ARG Update: 100%...

On October 18th, (yesterday) the Sombra website hit 100%. And then nothing. People are freakin' upset! The countdown read read, “...Carga finalizada. Unidad Bastion E-54 comprometida...,” which means something happened to Bastion. There's something up with Bastion's victory pose right now and and the Dorado map. People are saying something might happen soon but who knows for sure. This is quite the anticlimax to what was already a huge anticlimax. People have taken to the Blizzard and Overwatch forums about it.







Blizzard should do something to address this. Clue hunters are coming up empty and the players are sick of not getting any news. They gotta do something soon to keep the players interested in the game. The Halloween event has our attention right now but its only a temporary gaming experience. Junkenstein's Revenge probably won't be available the week after this update ends. They gotta do something to keep our attention. 

If there's not continued information about the lore, characters, and other arg related stuff then we might lose interest in the game. Because Overwatch is a multiplayer gaming experience it has no story mode or anything that keeps us interested in the world of the game. If Blizzard loses their ability to do great arg's they might have to find other ways to introduce characters.

I can't say I blame them but I can say that they've done a shoddy job introducing Sombra and keeping the players interested in her. I don't think this was part of their plan but I do think they were trying something and they failed in that.

They can still bring us back into this arg and interested in Sombra. By just putting her on the ptr and putting her in the base game sometime soon.

One thing I just thought of is the fact that maybe they haven't exactly finalized everything about Sombra. Maybe it takes them a long time to create characters and we just have to patiently wait? 

I got the Frankenstein's monster Roadhog skin! I now have the Roadhog, Pharah, Reinhardt, Hanzo, Ana, and Reaper skins for this Halloween event. I haven't played too much and I still already made a good haul. Nice.

This Halloween event is sick

I must say that this Halloween event for Overwatch is pretty freakin' stellar. It's a lot better than the Olympic Games was and has much better skins and emotes and stuff. After getting to play Junkenstein's Revenge I see how ridiculously fun a pve mode would be for Overwatch.

The fact that you're clearing hordes of zomnics and bosses means the game is just like Left for Dead, but Overwatch style. It's a great feeling and its super fun. It's challenging but in a different way than playing competitive. Not only that but its great target practice in between rounds of competitive.

I tried a couple times today to complete it and I got close several times and my teams always lost. Nobody used their mic and this was only on medium difficulty. Funny. The biggest problem is that most people don't talk or communicate. But there is an extended ui interface that shows your team's health and ultimate statuses. Its a super fun mode and is basically a game changer for Overwatch.

Now the mode itself isn't anything new or exciting but just the fact that a pve mode exists for Overwatch now (even if its only for Halloween) is fantastic. I sense other possible game modes to come out in the future.

I ended up shelling 25 bucks for 30 loot crates. I got the undead looking Hanzo skin, the new German Reinhardt map, the pumpkinhead Reaper, and a bunch of basic colored skins of various heroes. Nothing great. Not a great way to spend 25 smeckles. But I'm definitely gonna buy more at least once more before the Halloween event ends. I have about 2500 credits right now and I only need 500 more to buy the Frankenstein Junkrat skin. The witch Mercy would probably be a better choice though because I'm a Mercy main. We'll have to wait and see what happens. Hopefully I can earn some crates and get something good.

Remember all these cool skins won't be available by November 1st. A long time away but sometimes people don't get to game for days at a time. This is the time to play and earn loot crates. Not all of the skins are super cool or anything but they do look nice. Gives them all that horror touch. Nice.

I gotta say though that competitive still has its problems where you'll just get crushed in solo queue. I play keeping that in mind every match just so I don't rage because some players are potatoes. It's hard to move up the ladder when you get team mates who are terrible. Usually I'm forced to be the tank but sometimes I'll go dps if we have a rapid fire healer pick.

Today I played Reaper a lot and I played surprisingly well with him in competitive. Despite the fact that I've hardly played him. I see a lot of dps potential in Reaper. I was shredding through tanks and 200 health heroes like butter. It was glorious.

My goal is to play a ton this weekend and earn a bunch of loot crates. Also, I'm going to beat the Junkenstein's Revenge game mode. Eventually I'll find a coordinated team and we'll make it work.

Play this update, the game is hot right now

Junkenstein's Revenge

The new Brawl is a co-op mode where players fight against hordes of zombie robots. Sounds pretty great right? It has a similar vibe to Team Fortess 2's Mann vs Machine mode. The Junkrat Frankenstein skin has a pretty strong Tf2 vibe too. 

Players are limited to just four characters-McCree, Ana, Hanzo, or Soldier 76. This is a great combination of characters for fighting off hordes. McCree can use Deadeyes to take out hordes of "zomnics" and Hanzo can take care of the heavy dps "zombardiers".

You have to last seven minutes against a sea of enemies and you can't let them get through doorway defense points. The key is communication. They added an extended interface that helps keep track of ultimates and allies' health and stuff. Pretty neat of Blizzard to do that. You're gonna want a mic for this one.

"The brawl demands a lot of coordination and constantly tosses new challenges in your direction. Things go from bad to worse any time a boss shows up. Deadlier opponents drop into the map including “Junkenstein’s Monsters” (a reskinned Roadhog) or the dangerous “Reaper” (Reaper reskin, if you couldn’t guess) and they will do their best to kick your ass. High health pools and dangerous ultimate abilities make these foes more than mere AI bots; when left unchecked, they can really bring the pain." (Kotaku)

The mode is basic and doesn't bring anything new to the table but its still pretty damn cool. Ideas like this makes me wonder if they are ever going to add a co-op gamemode for Overwatch. How about an Overwatch moba mode like Battleborn? Or Overwatch with a League of Legends style. Something like that would be cool.

Halloween in my video games, nice. 

Overwatch Halloween skins are here

So they finally decided to drop that Halloween holiday celebration with new in game cosmetics, most important of which are new character skins. They will available for three weeks. Which seems like a long time so I'm definitely gonna grind some loot crates and try to get some of these cool skins.

"The new “Overwatch Halloween Terror” seasonal event offers the gorgeous skins, along with some themed profile icons, victory poses, sprays emotes and highlight intros, inside glowing jack-o’-lantern loot boxes. Over 100 seasonal items are now available." (Kotaku) 








 






The witch mercy, Frankenstein Junkrat, and Frankenstein's monster Roadhog are incredible skins. The rest are just like meh. Like they could've done much better on any of the other skins but these three are so well done that I'm down to grind and possibly throw down on loot crates to make sure I get them. I was only able to get a few of the Olympic Games skins. I'm gonna play a lot more this holiday season and make sure to get a lot of these Halloween skins.

I love the holidays. Halloween is so awesome. I'm going as Buckethead to this anime convention (Aklibafest) this weekend. Got my plain white mask, just gotta go to Kfc and get a bucket. It's gonna be tight. The voice actor for Winston is going to be there.

Stoked.

Overwatch fans hack people to find Sombra

The Sombra arg hunt has attracted over 7,000 fans and brought a lot of attention to Blizzard's hero shooter. Some players that have been tired of waiting for Sombra and have decided to do some hacking, just like how Sombra is a hacker.

We've all heard about all the Somba args. If you aren't up to speed I suggest you check out these older posts of mine:
Sugar skull
Quien es Sombra?
ARG continues

Last August a group of fans hacked into an Overwatch account that's name was Sombra. Using Blizzard's support desk they were able to change the password by telling them it was their account. Game Detective admins said they were able look around for clues. Pretty easy to get into Blizzard's accounts and/or other people's Battlenet accounts. People have been doing this a lot it seems and even Jeff Kaplan has told people to stop trying to get into accounts because they don't have any Sombra hints. What kind of game would support hacking just to find out more information about the game? Knowing that people can just access your accounts so easily is terrible. But sometimes the love for the game shines through and people become so upsessed that they'll do whatever to get what they want. 

The whole Sombra arg (alternate reality games) thing was in a complete lull until a few days ago when this picture appeared, Sombra!

So yeah everybody's saying this is Sombra and Redditers have claimed that its from a real Blizzard employee. There's a url in the image and its for the Blizzard employee network. But you need credentials to go further.

This certainly puts the Sombra arg in a way different place. We have an actual image with a weapon, an uzi I reckon. She has a punk rock haircut with the shaved head on one side and long hair on the other. That purple science fiction looking outfit looks great. We don't really know the authenticity of this photo and if it really was hacked from a Blizzard account but it is pretty darn exciting to get something interesting.

The Sombra arg has been something I've been following for a while now, maybe going on a month or something. I have a feeling she's going to a game changer in Overwatch and bring a whole new style of play. I'm hoping for hacker stealth with an uzi. Almost like you're playing the Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex fps game made by Nexon. Something like that. That would be cool.

Perhaps we'll hear about Sombra at Blizzcon in November. Or sooner.

Found that fanart pic on an Overwatch meme page on facebook, reminds me of Marvel's art style

Smash 4 player Abadango signed to Luminosity Gaming

Pro Smash 4 player Yuta "Abadango" Kawamura has signed to Luminosity Games. This was heard from an esports organization the other night. This news comes in the middle of the Big House 6 tournament that was went on in Michigan. It appears that Super Smash Bros players are getting signed by pro gaming teams left and right.

Is this the hype of Smash 4 finally hitting the masses and people love the game and want to see it bigger as an esport? I think so. It's pretty much the best fighting game I've ever played. I've played all iterations growing up but I think Smash 4 is just far out. I used to go to a lot of Smash 4 tournaments but I haven't been to a tourney in a super long time. I plan on changing that soon. But that's another story...

These pro Smash players are getting signed everywhere now.

"Just over a week ago, the recently formed BOXR, founded by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive commentator Mohan “launders” Govindasamy, signed Super Smash Bros. Melee player Julian “Zhu” Zhuand. Prior to that, James ‘Duck’ Ma was picked up by Denial eSports last August, and Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman joined Echo Fox, NBA player Rick Fox’s esports organization, back in May. Not to be outdone, G2 eSports went on to sign their own Melee pro with Weston “Westballz” Dennis being added to the organization in July." (Kotaku)

Abadango is an Smash veteran who came up in the Brawl era. He started off as a Wario main but then switched to Pac-Man, Metaknight, and Megaman in Smash 4. After patches 1.1.3 and 1.1.5 he found an epic Mewtwo style. Mewtwo's buffs weren't understand before he came along.

He won a big tournament earlier this year at Pound 2016. He's currently the 5th best Smash 4 player according to the ratings.

Luminosity Gaming’s founder, Steve Maida, said:

“We have always had our eye on the FGC community, and have been actively looking at players and possibilities in the scene. After meeting with Abadango, getting to know him and his history within the competitive scene, it was clear that he was someone we wanted on Luminosity. This is just the beginning of our journey into FGC and there is surely more to come. The community is unlike any other in gaming and one we hope to be a welcomed, contributing member of for years to come!” (Kotaku)

This North American esports organization also has Overwatch, League of Legends, and Hearthstone teams. Their CS GO team won the ESL ESEA Pro League Season Three finals-earning $200,000.

Smash 4 is finally getting professionalized. We knew that you could win tournaments and make money by defeating everybody. But to actually make a full time career of it is hard to do. I have many friends who all play Smash and a lot of them try to do something in the gaming industry. Some are great players who are trying to go pro or semi-pro, artists, casters, technicians, TO's (tournament organizers), and then some of them are like me-people who play for the love of the game but wants to keep getting better and experiencing more of the tournament environment.

Everybody wants to do something based around competitive smash. It's one of the most beloved games in SoCal and around the world. I think because of all these signings and esports associations the game will development into a more interesting meta as well as make the game more respectable in the fighting game community.

I'm pretty glad to hear this. I still love playing Smash 4 with my friends. We just played today. I rapid fire picked Cloud and my friend was all like,"Everybody has a pocket cloud..." And I was like,"Heh. Yep."

Funny

A New Hero Sooner Rather Than Later

Jeff Kaplan, Director for Overwatch posted a lengthy update about some changes coming to our favorite hero shooter. In addition to some balance changes to Junkrat and Widowmaker, he also said there are two new characters in development-one of which is going to arrive "sooner rather than later". This is awesome! I really hope its Sombra because we've been waiting for a while on that one and the whole arg (alternate reality games) about it has gotten quite stale.

Kaplan also mentioned some of the changes are currently on the PTR-public test realm servers. These changes include an increase to Widowmaker's scope speed, changes to Junkrat's trap (which don't allow Genji to dash out of it), and Junkrat's ultimate charges faster too. Pretty nifty changes. I definitely see Junkrat and Widowmaker being more high priority picks with these changes.

A lot of people have been talking about Symmetra lately and Kaplan addressed the issue.

Kaplan says "the type of changes we want to look at with Symmetra might take a bit longer than the Widowmaker change. "People ask what she's going to be on the other side of her design iteration," he continued. "It could be changes to some of her mechanics, and just changing her overall feel through numbers and cooldowns, but we're going to look at some other changes and explore some other things as well, that might be more dramatic in terms of design vision for her."    

The community wants her to have healing qualities-healing turrets, teleporters, and weapon but the community definitely ain't gonna get what they want in that regard. Kaplan said they have no interest in turning her into a healer.

"We know she has been categorised as a support player, but that doesn't necessarily mean, to us, that she needs to be a healer," he said. "If that means we have to move her out of the support category, we'd rather do that than completely shift the character's design to something she was never intended to be."

Kaplan also mentioned that four maps in design stages and that some may be applied to new game modes.

The update video can be viewed here.

This is quite a lot of good news. It's great to see the game getting so much love and attention. It's only been a few months but Overwatch has given the player base so much in terms of gaming, entertainment, and dare I say it-love. People love Overwatch. Its a beautiful thing. Jeff Kaplan is a gaming visionary to me. I see him the same way I see Gabe Newell and Valve. The fact that he's constantly changing and updating the game means a lot to me and the players. They're building much more than just a great product, they're building a family so to speak. A video game family.

Anyways, this is all great news. I'm mostly excited about the new hero and who it could possibly be. It might not be Sombra even though we've been getting all this arg stuff for ages. It could be some other lesser known hero in the lore that brings something new to the table. 

Sick.

Overwatch getting Halloween theme soon

Word on the street is that Overwatch is getting Halloween themed loot boxes! Pretty sick eh? Our first real holiday with Overwatch and cool things are already happening. Imagine what they'll do for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

People on Reddit found some sort of leak that suggests Overwatch is getting Halloween themed loot crates. Each loot crate will have up to four cosmetic items including at least one Halloween skin, highlight intro, emote, victory pose, player icon, voice line, or credits that you can use to unlock other items.

The post says that more than 100 themed items are available and if you get repeat items you'll get coins. Nothing on when this goes live but it will end at 4 pm ET on Noember 1st. People are thinking this will all hit the live servers sometime next week.

People on Reddit aren't happy with the fact that if you get repeated items you just get coins. People are hoping that the coins will be special Halloween themed coins that you can use to buy Halloween loot but I think that's all wishful thinking.

Its good to have in game parties and themes like this. It really brings the community together and brings out the better in them. The Olympic Games theme was so great and there were so many people playing the game all the time. That was like the golden age of Overwatch. Summer Games and Season one Competitive. Great times! I hope this brings some new players to the table and keeps the existing ones active on a daily level.

Also, I love Halloween. I'm going to Akiba Fest (anime convention) and Halloween parties this year as Buckethead, the shred metal guitarist from right here in California.

Pretty cool.

Heroes of the Storm is getting a Brawl Mode

Blizzard came out today and said that they're replacing Heroes of the Storm's Arena mode with a "Heroes Brawl" mode on October 17. Arena mode was released back at Blizzcon 2015.

This new Brawl mode will change every week, just like Overwatch and Hearthstone Brawl modes.

"It promises to deliver “surreal twists” and “custom rulesets” with weekly rewards.One “Brawl” variation will be “Hammer Time,” which makes all players Sgt. Hammers “with thrusters are permanently engaged,” a Blizzard representative explained. In the mode’s new “Lost Cavern” arena, players will only have access to one lane. Total, three new arenas will accompany the update, as well as gameplay modifiers that Blizzard says they don’t want to spoil." (Kotaku)

Watch the trailer here.

I can tell you right now that that trailer is the most exciting thing I've seen for Heroes in a super long time. The game needs a face lift to bring in more players as well as keep their main player base active. This is one way to do it. New content is always a good thing and I'm looking forward to this update-which will be ready in a week or so.

Blizzard told Gamespot that they're ditching Arena because of design constraints. They also said that instead of being objective based and pushing cores, its more about absolute slaughter.

The PTR launches October 10th and on October 17th the update will available for everyone.

Jimmy Fallon makes fun of pro gamer's handshake on the Tonight Show

Its not often that esports makes it into real life everyday media, especially the Tonight Show hosted by Jimmy Fallon. Handshakes can be awkward. If you don't have the perfect handshake at a job interview it could hurt your chances of getting the job. Sometimes you go for a handshake and the other person on the receiving end isn't with you. How do you follow sports fan? Sometimes its better to just go for a high five rather than full on respectable handshake. I've learned this too well in my job.

I used to give everyone at work a handshake and kept things professional. Until I realized not everybody wants to be super professional all the time. With these people I go for a hand slap to fist bump. Other times its easier to just go for the high five. But this isn't about me.

This is about Seagull. We all know him in the Overwatch community as the master dps (damage per second) monster that plays for the team NRG. He's insanely good with dps characters but I enjoy watching him destroy people as Genji on his Twitch stream.

Anyways, Seagull caressed Malik Forte's (an esports reporter) in an attempt at a handshake. Seagull and his team NRG had lost to fnantic earlier this week in the North American Qualifiers. (Which I meant to watch but I kept falling asleep). Malik missed Seagull's hand and it was super funny and awkward. They ended up just settling for a high five. 

Here's Jimmy Fallon's clip here.

Pretty funny watching them yuck it up and laugh about it. Malik made a response video showing all the fail handshakes Jimmy Fallon's done on  his show. That was equally as funny. A lot of people came to Seagull's defense saying it was Malik's fault but in reality its just great to see esports in the mainstream social media even if it is jokingly.

Overwatch making it to the mainstream is always cool. Good to see our boy Seagull there too.

Cool. 

Apparently I Have Twitch Prime

Twitch came out with a new service called Twitch Prime that offers a "premium experience" that's included with Amazon Prime. So apparently I have Twitch Prime. I can't wait to check it out sometime soon, most likely tomorrow. This sounds great because Twitch Prime members get free gaming loot every month, discounts on new boxed games from Amazon, a chat badge, and one free channel subscription every month.

This sounds incredible! I hope it turns out as good as it seems.

“Twitch Prime is one of those unique cases where we have an opportunity to build a product that is equally great for all of our customers—streamers, viewers, and game developers,” Twitch CEO Emmett Shear said. “Offering subscriptions free through Prime saves money for viewers, while supporting streamers to build their community. Free games and in-game content are always a hit with gamers, but they also let developers reach millions of new potential players. When Amazon acquired Twitch, the first thing the community asked was, ‘When will Twitch be bundled in with Amazon Prime?’ Twitch Prime answers that question in a way that speaks to our community.” (PC Gamer)

Twitch Prime is only available in the US and some European countries. The only way to get Twitch Prime is to have an Amazon Prime account which is $10.99/month or $99/year.

"The first round of "game loot" includes instant access to the new Hearthstone hero Tyrande Whisperwind, and Streamline, "a new indie game built from the ground up for broadcasters on Twitch to play with their viewers." TwitchCon attendees will also be given an exclusive "Boss Ymir" skin for Smite, and a Bomb King weapon for Paladins." (PC Gamer) 

This all sounds great and dandy. I fell off the Twitch bandwagon a while ago because I was having more fun just playing games with my friends-mostly Overwatch. I didn't feel like streaming or watching streams because why would I do that when I can just play. I'm still interested in getting back to streaming, it's just a matter of when.

Because I have this service I'm definitely going to start trying to watch more Twitch streams. Who knows I might find a great streamer that I enjoy watching at night. Sometimes it gets boring watching Netflix or Crunchyroll, even though I love anime.

Amazon really has their stuff together right now. They're doing interesting things as a company moving into the gaming market.

Cool beans. Also, the picture is another one of those One Piece Overwatch crossovers. I'm such a big fan of westerns.

Gearbox Denies F2P Rumor About Battleborn

So the Kotaku rumor about Battleborn going free to play may have been too soon or just wrong. These are just rumors after all and us writers are just reporting the facts that we read about. Gearbox has come out and said that they're planning a "trial version" rather than flat out saying its going free to play.

Gearbox president Randy Pitchford has denied the rumor on Twitter, calling it "false." Pitchford adds that Gearbox has plans to release a free version of Battleborn that can be upgraded. Its unclear how this model will play out but it might be like Paladins where you can play for free but you can choose to purchase all of the current/future heroes.

Battleborn is a failure in terms of sales and I don't really think its too popular compared to Overwatch or even Paladins for that matter. Gearbox was originally going to go f2p on launch but chose to go with a full $60 price for some reason at the last minute.

"The price has since dropped precipitously: Amazon is currently listing it, on all platforms, at $20, compared to the $60 launch price. (Steam, oddly enough, is still selling it for full pop.) Its peak concurrent PC player count has taken a similar swan dive, from a peak of 12,101 in May to, at this moment, 304." (PC Gamer)

Seems like Battleborn might be a good game but its not a success by any means. I do think the game looks cool and that the characters look interesting but the price tag is annoying considering how few people play the game and how its been out for a while now. Going free to play for this game seems inevitable. However, we'll just have to wait and see in November. Unless we get the scoop sooner.

Amazon Has a Gaming Studio

I was searching for things to write about and tonight was kind of a dry night when it comes to PC gaming. However, I thought this was interesting. Apparently Amazon has a gaming studio called Amazon Game Studios, and they just announced three games at Twitchcon 2016. They announced three games, one of which is a first person shooter that was talked about back in June last year.

Amazon purchased Twitch in 2014 for $970 million and they plan to make the most of it. Amazon Game Studios VP Mike Frazzini said he wanted to know what it would mean to build games for Twitch. Basically they're creating games with the Twitch viewer aspect in mind. Interesting idea. But will it actually be fun to play?

"The most obvious bid for the esports market is Breakaway, a 4v4 "mythological sports brawler" hybrid. It's not quite Rocket League: the game is a class-based, hero-centric combat game first and foremost. You can see a match in action here, and registrations for the alpha are currently open." (PC GAMER)

"Meanwhile, Crucible is a third-person shooter where 12 players fight (or shoot) for survival on an alien planet, with cooperation seemingly mandatory for survival. The game will also feature a 13th player who can influence the game – or grief the participants – in a role resembling a game master." (PC GAMER)

Then there's New World, a massive multiplayer open world sandbox game set in 17th century colonial America. The era's supernatural beliefs will be real in the game so its not entirely realistic. "The full presentation is here, or if you want to watch the entire Amazon Game Studios event, here you go." (PC GAMER)

I'm a huge Amazon consumer and love their streaming as well as mailing services for products. I don't even buy shoes, socks, or underwear from real stores anymore. I just go through Amazon. The fact that they're entering the gaming market is no surprise. It will be interesting to see if any of these games see some great intense esports fame. They certainly sound like fun games but it takes more than just building a game for Twitch to create a great game. Quite frankly most of the games people stream on Twitch aren't that fun for me to watch, which makes me not want to play them-even if they are great games.

I will probably check out some of these games and find out for myself if they are fun. Until then I'll be using Amazon to order my next pair of boxer briefs.

Side note-enjoy the One Piece Overwatch crossover fan art I saw on Kotaku, it's hella cool!