How To Play PC Games On A Potato

Have you ever wanted to play pc games on a cheap, crappy, laptop? Is that all you have and a nice gaming desktop is too expensive? Well, look no further adieu, here's my guide for how to play pc games on a potato. 

Keep in mind that your potato has to be at least somewhat decent. I would say spend at least $400 [or more if you can spare, but my laptop is $400] and make sure you have a graphics card. My laptop is an Asus with a Radeon Graphics card. The computer isn't anything special but it boots up fast with Windows 10. 

To start, you must make sure you have your laptop's energy plan set to High Performance. This is a no brainer but you would be surprised that some people only always leave their laptop's energy plan set to save energy or energy planer because they use it periodically throughout the day and can't always have it plugged in. However, for gaming you'll always want this set to High Performance. 

Now for the in game settings. I'm going to give you my options that have me running three different games [Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and Team Fortress 2-my favorite games] with smooth frame rate and relatively low [if any] input lag. The games won't look great, or that good, but it will be smooth. Always make sure to run the games in windowed mode, a smaller window, as fullscreen takes up more processing power on your CPU, making your potato cry more and lag incessantly.

Overwatch 

 

Display Mode: Windowed

Resolution: 1366x768 [60`] [you always want this set to whatever option your overwatch game has the ` key set to, as this is your native resolution, which will give you better fps]

Vsync: OFF

Triple Buffering: ON

Reduce Buffering: OFF

Limit FPS: Custom

Frame Rate Cap: 30

Graphics Quality: Low

Advanced then click Render Scale: Automatic 50% 

And everything else set to low and off. Make sure to run the game in windowed mode, about 70% fullscreen size.

Heroes of the Storm

 

For this one it's more tricky as this game can become super laggy sometimes. A trick I've learned is that whenever you disconnect from a game just repeatedly hit the ESC key [don't know why that works]. You're going to want to go into the game files folder and add your own custom options there. 

 

On my computer you start by clicking This PC then going to Documents then Heroes of the Storm, and there you will see a text document entitled Variables, click that and change as neccessary. Here are my settings. You can tweak these as needed but I have everything set to the lowest possible and low and behold! The game runs fine. 

 

accountCountry=USA
alternateclock=false
alternateLowTextures=true
ambientenvironmentmap=false
aolight=false
architecturePreference=2
autojoinchannel=true
camerafollow=true
camerasmartpan=false
chatpositionx=0.000000
chatpositiony=0.000000
cheapquadselection=true
creepnormalmap=false
creepQuality=0
creepselfshadow=false
creeptrans=false
creepUseGroundNormalTexture=false
cursorconfinemode=1
deff=false
deffspec=false
deffspecpow=false
depthDisp=false
displaymode=0
displayunitstatus=Damaged
dof=false
dragScrollMode=GripWorld
dragscrollspeed=28
extrapostprocessbuffer=false
fogvolume=false
foliagedensity=0.000000
foliagequality=0
frameratecap=60
frameratecapGlue=30
gamma=1.253306
globalhdr=false
glossmaps=false
GraphicsApi=Direct3D11
GraphicsOptionEffectsDetail=0
GraphicsOptionLightingQuality=0
GraphicsOptionModelQuality=0
GraphicsOptionMovies=0
GraphicsOptionOverallQualityVer7[21]=5
GraphicsOptionPhysicsQuality=0
GraphicsOptionPortraits=1
GraphicsOptionPostProcessing=0
GraphicsOptionShaderDetail=0
GraphicsOptionSSAO=0
GraphicsOptionTerrainQuality=0
GraphicsOptionTextureQuality[2]=0
halo=false
height=1080
highqualityframeblur=false
highqualityhaloblur=false
highqualityhaloblurgame=false
hotkeyprofile=0_Default
keyboardscrollspeed=31
lastDeviceId=39028
lastReplaySaveMode=0
lightingLevel=1
lightmap=true
lightmapcastshadows=false
linearDepth=false
localao=false
localeidassets=enUS
localeiddata=enUS
localeidinstall=enUS
localhdr=false
localight=false
localShadows=false
lowqualitymodels=true
lowQualityMovies=true
mastervolume=1.000000
mousescrollspeed=32
MoviesSeen[1]=1
music=true
MusicContinuous=false
MusicHeard=1
musicvolume=1.000000
normalmap=false
normalzieHalfVector=false
OptionRevision=5
OptionRevisionAccount=0
parallax=false
particlelod=0
particleobjects=0.000000
particleterrain=0.000000
physicsClothEnabled=false
physicsdensity=0
physicsMaxComplexRagdolls=0
physicsRagdollsEnabled=false
pixellight=false
portraits3d=false
preBlendedCreep=true
PreferredGameSite=
profanityfilter=true
reverb=false
ribbonlod=0
shadowmapsize=512
shadows=false
simplifiedCloaking=true
simplifiedShaders=true
soft=false
softshadows=false
sound=true
soundambience=true
soundambiencevolume=1.000000
SoundAutoDetectCPUCoreCount=4
soundchannels=32
soundeffects=true
soundeffectsvolume=1.000000
sounderrors=true
soundheadphonemode=false
soundoutput=Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD)
SoundQuality=0
soundready=true
soundreadyvolume=1.000000
SoundResampler=NOINTERP
soundresponses=true
SoundSampleRate=22050
soundui=true
sounduivolume=1.000000
soundvoices=true
soundvoicesvolume=1.000000
spec=false
splatlod=0
ssparticles=false
subtitles=false
targetinfopanelpositionx=0.000000
targetinfopanelpositiony=0.000000
targettexeldensity=0.150000
terrainHeightmapBlend=false
TerrainTextureLowResCacheSize=40
TerrainTextureSize=480
texQualityLevel=0
transparentshadows=false
treadlod=0
useLowqualitymodels=true
voicechatautojointeam=true
vsync=false
watercaustics=false
waterdeptheffects=false
waterflipbook=true
waterrendertargetformat=0
waterrendertargetsize=768
watershadow=false
width=1920
windowheight=697
windowstate=1
windowwidth=991
windowx=185
windowy=0
winkeydisabled=false
 

You can delete your files and copy and paste mine but I don't recommend that. I recommend looking at what your settings are and changing them to mine if you have a potato machine to game on. These settings will automatically change your in game graphics settings [it will say custom when you check it in graphics settings] so you don't need to mess around with the in game settings for HoTs except for the following. It helps to lower the sound quality, turn off headphones mode and reverb, turn off voicelines and subtitles, turn off Vsync, and run in windowed mode, about 60% to 70% fullscreen size.  

Team Fortress 2

Lastly, my favorite fps game, TF2. This one was a bit more tricky for me to get perfect but I finally nailed it. 

Resolution: 1280x720 [I've had problems with Native Resolution on this game]

Display Mode: Run in a Window

Click Advanced Graphics Settings 

Model Detail: Low

Texture Detail: Low

Shadow Detail: Low 

Shader Detail: Low

Color Correction: Disabled

Antialiasing Mod: None

Filtering Mode: Bilinear

Wait for Vertical Sync: Disabled

Motion Blur: Disabled 

Multicore Rendering: Disabbled 

High Dynamic Range: Full [if available]

Use Bloom effect: not toggled on

That should do it for these three games. What works for me might not be as great for others. Again, this is only options for people with a super low end laptop. Mines only cost $400 so its pretty much a potato. Also, keep in mind that you must run the games in windowed mode with these settings. For Hots I have to play it on a much smaller window for it to work, which caused me to learn how to play it with a smaller interface, which thankfully is easy with the grid movement button via mouse. But its also the same for Overwatch and Team Fortress 2, you must run the games in a smaller window, maybe not a totally small screen like I do for hots, but like 70%-75% of the screen you're used to if you always play games on fullscreen. 

Another important detail is that because you're going to be gaming in windowed mode for all this, you need to go into your Mouse Settings and where it says Roll the Mouse Wheel To Scroll, set it to One Screen At A Time. If you don't do that whenever you accidentally click outside of the window of any of the games, you'll run into problems.

I was really bored today because of the election so I decided to write this. I hope this helps somebody out there who like me, isn't very technical with computers but is willing to learn and test things out. And game on a potato.

Happy gaming!

Grimoire: Manastorm is a fun spellcasting Unreal Tournament

So I was looking around on the free to play game section on Steam and I found this game called Grimoire: Manastorm. This is an fps (first person shooter) game made by Omniconnection where you play as wizards and cast spells to kill your enemies. Pretty great idea already. Replace guns with a bunch of spellcasters and you have a super fun experience. The game is in early access on Steam.

From my initial experience and only having played the game for maybe twenty minutes I can say this is one of the most fun free to plays I've tried out on Steam. I haven't had this much fun on a free to play on Steam since Nosgoth was out.

The game's free version only comes with the fire and earth spellcasters. The fire mage is freakin' amazing. They give you one of the coolest mages ever for free which is pretty awesome. When you burn people as a fire mage it is so satisfying watching their hp drop. It makes me feel like the pyro from Team Fortress. I love it.

The other class you get free is the earth mage. His regular attack speed is super fast but weaker than the fire mage but he can heal himself I noticed. You can cast a spell that creates a tree and when you stand near it your hp recovers at a moderate speed. He's definitely a support mage. This game has supports like in Team Fortress or Overwatch.

The game features abilities like a moba (like Heroes of the Storm) and all the different mages' abilities can be countered so its possible to survive any situation theoretically and given the proper skill and effort. One thing to note is that you can teleport too. This makes the game crazy fast a la Unreal Tournament and Quake, great games to be inspired by. It brings the Skyrim (the first person view of the mage with the fireball or manacrystals in their hands look exactly like Skyrim) style mage into the twitch shooter environment. Its the best idea I've seen in a game in a super long time. The fact that this game puts together ideas and is inspired by so many other games is probably what makes it so fun. Add to that the unique idea of shooting spells instead of guns. How clever and unique.

The one thing that could be better is the graphics. However, you don't need high end graphics in a twitch shooter. As long as the environments are creative enough and fun to play on everything's cool. I'm going to keep playing this game. I'm interested in seeing how big the community becomes for it and how long the player base will keep on it. I think the game has a lot of potential especially if they create more interesting spellcasters.

Doomfist is now live on the ptr

Doomfist is finally out in Overwatch (on the public test realm server, only available on pc) and I gotta say he is one bad ass mother fucker. He's a big, buff, black dude (African, from Numbani I think), with a giant gauntlet weapon. He's been teased since before Overwatch was even officially announced. In Overwatch's first trailer Widowmaker and Reaper were fighting with Winston and Tracer over his gauntlet. Apparently it has the power to level a skyscraper. It sure feels like it does when he hits you. He hits hard and kills fast like how every good dps should.

Doomfist's new real is Akande Ogundimu and he's got some cybernetic enhancements (like Genji). Blizzard writes, “In addition to dealing ranged damage with his Hand Cannon, Doomfist can slam the ground, knock enemies into the air and off balance, or charge into the fray with his Rocket Punch. When facing a tightly packed group, Doomfist leaps out of view, then crashes down to earth with a spectacular Meteor Strike.” (pc gamer)

Overwatch lore says he's the biggest of the baddest villains in the game and that he's in charge of evil characters like Widowmaker and Reaper, who are apart of the organization Talon.

I can't help but be a little disappointed (heartbroken maybe?) that Terry Crews didn't get the part as voice actor for Doomfist. However, Sahr Ngaujah does a fantastic job at keeping Doomfist serious without being over the top. It's a fantastic feeling hearing those African tones in one of the most popular first person shooter games ever. It's quite something. Never thought I'd ever see something like this as a black gamer so that means a lot to me. Sure we had Orisa and she has an African accent but its much different coming from a robotic voice. With Doomfist we have an actual black man and he's already one of the coolest and possibly going to be a game changer and he's already on the ptr. Pretty cool.

Here's the full description of Doomfist's abilities: 

• Main fire: Hand Cannon
• Short-range weapon with spread. Reloads Automatically
• Alt fire: Rocket Punch
• Hold to charge then release to launch forward and knock an enemy back. Damage increases if the enemy hits a wall
• Shift: Rising Uppercut
• Knock an enemy into the air.
• E: Seismic Slam 
• Leap forward and smash the ground. 
• Ultimate: Meteor Strike
• Press Q to leap up into the air. Move the targeting circle, then press fire to strike the targeted area. 
• Passive: The Best Defense
• Dealing damage with abilities creates temporary personal shields.

Basically he jumps around, punches, and slams everybody. From what I've played on the ptr he's probably one of the strongest dps characters in the game. Easily one of the strongest. He can kill you so easily and I think that's going to make him a must pick once he launches. His kit is so simplistic its like a kid designed him. However, using that kit and utilizing a melee character in a ranged run and gun game is where the complexity begins. I feel like I am really bad with him at the moment but I think with more time I'll get the timings of his attacks down. Like I said it seems simple but once you realize you're a melee character against gun users you learn how to play differently.

He's live now on the ptr, check him out! 

Overwatch duplicate drop rates drastically reduced (on the ptr)

Ever open a ton of loot boxes excited as all hell only to find that every item is just a duplicate? Welcome to loot box hell. Well, Blizzard has finally addressed the issue and the duplicate drop rates have been drastically reduced. Because duplicates give you credits (which we need for skins and or in game items) Blizzard is increasing the credits we can get from loot boxes. "We'll make sure that your credit intake will be at least the same, if not more," game director Jeff Kaplan said in the latest Developer Update video. (pc gamer)

This is great news! One of my missions for Overwatch is to eventually unlock every item in the game and getting dupes all the time was always a drag. I'm somewhere near level 350 now so I've been there, done that. These are some impressive changes but honestly it should have come a long time ago. This was something that the guys at Blizzard should have thought about and fixed somewhere near the beginning of the launch of the game. But as they say, c'est la vie. 

 There's also a new option that allows for you to permanently save your highlight videos. This all live on the ptr right now.

Doomfist and Summer Games in the next patch?

So apparently there was an error log found on Battle.net forums and reddit from the latest ptr patch that references Doomfist and another Summer Games event. You can click on the picture and see that it references both. The entire Doomfist arg was kind of a blunder to me. Kind of similar to Sombra but with Sombra it was at least interesting for a little while. Doomfist has just been referenced over and over again and then there was that thing where Terry Crews was supposedly seen at Blizzard possibly voicing Doomfist. Yeah, that would be really great but nothing ever came out of all that arg hunting and Terry Crews stuff. Perhaps in the next patch we will find out? Patch 1.13 will probably have Doomfist and a Summer Games event. Check it out in the next couple weeks.

Death of a healer main

So I've been playing a lot of Overwatch and I thought I'd share my experience with you all. I'm at a pretty moderate (but low) level in Overwatch. I'm Silver rank with about 1600 sr (skill rating points) but I've been just 50 points shy of Gold rank (2200 sr) during my first or second seasons. For a couple seasons I didn't even play competitive and now I'm back at it. I've always played competitive as a healer, usually playing Ana, Mercy, Zenyatta, or Lucio with the occasional Symmetra if I feel like I can pull a rabbit out of a hat for a win. But I've come to the realization that in Silver healing is just not worth it. If I wanna win games more I gotta dps (play assassin characters) myself and get those elims for the team. So far it's been working out surprisingly well.

I think I'm gonna give up playing healers in Overwatch for a while. At least until I get to platinum or higher. The main reason for this is because other people that play dps at this level just aren't good enough. They don't play the game enough to really know how the characters work or how to work best and effectively with a team. Sometimes you have a team that likes to spread out, well you gotta act accordingly. Other times you got a team that stays together through it all, and you gotta act accordingly for that too.

So yeah, dps has been really working out for me. Right now my roster includes McCree, Soldier 76, Pharah (been using her a lot, she wrecks hard in low elo), Mei (she also wrecks hard in low elo because she's hardly ever picked), and Reaper (because of the buff and because I hate Winstons). I'm thinking about adding Genji and Sombra to this list too because I feel like with my skills I could really do well with those characters. For a while I was practicing dps a lot in Quick Play to work on my aim with all these characters but now I'm using that training in real competitive matches.

I still get losses but now when I lose I don't feel the same way as when I was healing. Usually I still do great even when I lose, its a different kind of loss, not as bad feeling in a way. I'm thinking Sombra could become like my main because I like how she has so many tools at her disposal and how she's like a poker (just runs in, shoots a bit, and then runs out). I feel like I could excel in that play-style. As for right now though I'm happy being on the frontlines with the team getting elims and paving the way to victory.

I still play the occasional tank here and there but now with competitive my attitude is that you gotta pick your character fast and everyone else fills after that. It was the same with my healers. If I really wanted to play Ana or Mercy I had to pick them super fast after loading game screen. The thing is that most people just fill roles so if you just pick what you want super fast chances are you'll get to play whatever character you want.

The game's become more of a "play what you want" game for me whereas before I was being strict and reducing myself to saying "ok, I gotta play a healer because I'm a super good healer and we won't win without me healing". That's a fair assumption to make because in silver I've seen some of the worst Mercy's and Ana's ever but at the same time even if they're a bad Mercy they're still getting some healing done. And if I'm dpsing there's a higher chance of victory. So it's not a bad trade off.

So yeah, there it is everyone. The death of a healer main. Rip. It was fun. I'll be back to Ana and Mercy when I'm higher up the ranks. Until then I'll be tearing it up in low elo.

Overwatch anniversary! (soon)

Hello ladies and gents of the Internet world who read my blog. Its been a good minute since I wrote about Overwatch but now is definitely the time to get back into talking about it. In three days there will be an anniversary event for the game. It's hard to believe the game's been out a year already but time flies when you're having fun so in that sense its understandable.

For a few months I thought that if I wanted to get farther in music I had to put down the mouse and keyboard (gaming in general, even stopped playing smash competitively) but recently I realized that I shouldn't just go cold turkey and stop playing for too long. Gaming provides me fun, excitement, confidence, and stress relief that is different from playing music. Its kind of funny to say this but I need gaming in order to be happier. I'm glad I figured this out sooner rather than later because without gaming I'm a much different person. I take things too seriously sometimes. Get stressed more easily. Things like that. Anyways that's only a portion of what I wanted to talk about here.

Let's talk Overwatch. Last time I posted about it I wrote a piece about the newest hero to the roster, Orisa. Since her release I haven't exactly been able to figure out if she's even a part of the competitive meta. I see her a lot but I also don't see her a lot. She's a great hero for sure but she isn't exactly new or groundbreaking. Needless to say she's still a great tank character. The fact that she can shoot and put up barriers makes her like a D.Va/Rein combination with Zarya's gravaton projectile, the one where she can push you into the gravitational force of the projectile attack.

My actual gameplay experience this competitive season has been pretty hit or miss. Mostly miss. In one day my sr dropped by like 300 points and there's probably noway for me to climb back up for the remainder of this season. However, I've gained something in the time that I was away from gaming. When I returned (the prodigal son has returned!) I realized that sr and rank doesn't matter.

The only thing that matters is playing your best and getting better at the game, thus honing your skills and having fun. And in that aspect I've succeeded beyond my wildest imaginations. I'm super good at the game now despite not playing for a while. Something just clicked. Playing other games maybe? I've been playing Quake Champions beta...

I'm at an all time high skill cap for Overwatch and this makes me really happy. Being good is different for various gamers but being good for me (as a healers main) means not dying very often, escaping death traps easily and often, healing the majority of the time, and securing kills, sometimes a lot of them. I've been able to do these things pretty well for my skill level (silver-gold rank). I do plan on getting better and trying to reach platinum eventually.

Last thing I want to discuss is that they teased some new skins for the anniversary event. Check them out on the top of the page. These skins look pretty wacky to me but they are much different from whats already in the game so we gotta give Blizzard credit where is due. Nice job...(slow clap)

So yeah...Overwatch is a year old and there's a lot of stuff planned for next year. There's going to be three more arena (3v3 mode). Poppa Jeff (Jeff Kaplan, Director of Overwatch) has spoken out and said that the first year was all about adding new stuff. Year two will be about supplementing and improving upon what's already there.

Orlando's advice to Blizzard for Overwatch-Just make a summoner hero already!

New hero Orisa is live on the ptr

So Overwatch's 24th hero is now live on the ptr and you can try her out right now. She's a female omnic hero named Orisa that has a lot of utility. Here I'll explain her abilities.

Her basic weapon is the fusion driver. It's an automatic projectile cannon that delivers sustained damage. She is slowed while she fires it (like D.Va). There are 200 rounds in the magazine and it takes 17 bodyshots to take out a 200 health hero and 9 head shots to take them out. The farther away she is the more she will miss when firing. If enemies are close to you the gun will kill them pretty quickly. It is a projectile after all.

Her first skill is hault, which is her alternate fire ability. She launches out a graviton charge that can be detonated and then it will slow enemies and grab targets within line of sight (that are 7 meters away from location). It pulls targets towards the epicenter of the explosion. It's a crazy good ability from what I've seen in matches so far. That fact that it pulls people towards it is like Zarya's gravaton surge ultimate. Very nice.

Her second skill is protective barrier. Its a stationary barrier than can block enemy fire. It has about 900 health and its got a 12 second cooldown. It lasts for 20 seconds unless its destroyed. This is such an amazing ability. Its basically like a smaller weaker mini Reinhardt shield. So good!

Her third skill is fortify. She reduces damage she takes and she can't be affected by action impairing effects. It looks like it might reduce damage up to 50%. It makes her immune to things like Pharah's knockback and Mei's slow.

Her ultimate is supercharger. It releases a device that increases damage for allies by up to 50%. The enemies can destroy it and it only has 200 health points. You must protect it at all costs to get that full 15 seconds of damage boost.

I really like this new tank hero. I'm not a fan of tanks in Overwatch and I only play Reinhardt and Zarya when my team needs a tank. Now I'll be adding Orisa to that list as well. She has so much utility and she can do so many things. She reminds me of a mix between Zarya and Reinhardt but with a D.Va-esque weapon. They didn't really reinvent the wheel when it came to the creation of this character but I can see how they came up with something unique.

I am a little surprised at the actual look and style of Orisa. She has four legs and looks well....African. She looks African because she was created by Efi, an African child prodigy from Nimbani. But I think they could've done a much cooler stylistic and artistic design than what they came up with. I'm not a great artist or anything but Orisa looks a bit strange. I don't know, maybe its just me?

But her look doesn't matter. What does matter is that she has a cool kit and playing her feels fun and different from the other characters. In this aspect Blizzard has delivered once again another great hero.

You are advised to cease your resistance. 

Overwatch Competitve Season 3 ending tomorrow

So the current Overwatch competitive season ends tomorrow. For everyone that doesn't know Overwatch has a competitive ranking system that begins and ends within a certain period. Then there's a break, and it resumes once again in about a 3-4 month cycle. I don't know how long the off season break will be but I believe Jeff Kaplan (director of Overwatch) said in a video that this time it would only be about a week long.

There's so much to say about this last competitive season. I'm super disappointed that I couldn't rise above and break out of my low rank (silver) into higher (was hoping for platinum, would've even settled for gold) ranks. In the beginning of the season I met some cool people and there was a time when I was only about 200 points away from gold-but then gold got snatched away from me. The trolls, the leavers, and the generally just bad players kept me from winning many games but honestly I can't blame it all on them. I played poorly myself. And for that I only have myself to blame.

One thing I'm planning for the next competitive season is only playing with certain people for competitive. I'm not going to play with my friends that barely play Overwatch (therefore aren't good enough in my opinion, too risky to risk losing ranking points), and I'm going to stick to small groups (think 2-3 man parties instead of full 6 stacks). When I stuck to 2-3 man parties I was able to win a lot and rank up fast. I want to continue that strategy.

I have a goal for the next season to hit gold super fast if I don't get it within my placements. My long term (and more extreme) goal is to be able to win most of my games in solo queue playing healers (Mercy, Ana mainly). This is a super difficult goal and it might take me over a year but I want to be able to do it. I don't consider people good at Overwatch unless they can win most of their games in competitive in solo queue in their most picked role (damage, tank, healer).

Competitive has given Overwatch the competitive edge that other games don't have. I adore Team Fortress 2 but competitive in that game is just bad. It's breathed new life into competitive gaming for me and it's given me more confidence when it comes to one-upping people and just general rivalry. I'm a super cocky son of a bitch now. Haha, just kidding. But the game will give you a stronger backbone once you're done dealing with the trolls and the testosterone filled cockiness. I'll be spending the off season time practicing my Zenyatta in Quick Play.

Good luck and see you next season!

Bastion Has Changed Significantly (on the ptr)

Bastion has received some significant changes, most of which are buffs. Lets break it down!

• Configuration: Sentry
  • Deploy time decreased from 1.5 seconds to 1.0 second
  • Bullet spread increased by 50 percent
  • Bullet spread is always at maximum (it no longer increases as the weapon is fired)
  • Magazine size increased from 200 to 300
  • Headshot damage multiplier has been removed
  • No longer deals critical damage
• Configuration: Recon
  • Bullet spread decreased by 25 percent
  • Magazine size increased from 20 to 25
• Self-Repair
  • Can now be used while moving
  • Now bound to secondary fire (formerly Ability 2)
  • No longer interrupted by taking damage
  • A new resource meter has been added that deplete while Self-Repair is active and recharges when not in use
• Configuration: Tank
  • No longer grants bonus armor
• Bastion has a new passive: Ironclad
  • Bastion takes 35% less damage while in Sentry or Tank configuration

Developer Comments: The goal of these changes is to move some of Bastion's power from Configuration: Sentry to Recon, while keeping its sentry mode a strong option, especially versus tanks and barriers. Overall, Bastion should feel stronger and more flexible with these changes.


So as you can see Bastion will be doing much, much better in ranked play if these changes go through next week. He will basically be a tank busting robot version of Soldier 76 maybe? That might be going too far but these buffs are very significant.

Usually when people play Bastion he's easily countered and killed, leaving tiny robotic bits scattered. Usually he dies super fast as he's healing himself or getting healed by a healer. Sometimes when I play him I feel like going into turret mode is suicide. Now he can do self-repair while moving! His new passive Ironclad grants armor while in Sentry or Tank mode, very significant and will make him stay alive much longer. His Recon and Sentry mode have received significant buffs. The only thing I can really see as a big nerf for this ptr patch is that Headshot multiplier has been removed and no more critical hit damage in Sentry mode. All in all that's not a bad trade for a longer surviving Bastion that shoots better, gets passive armor, and can heal while moving.

As Widowmaker says,"Magnifique".

Overwatch Getting Server Browser

Jeff Kaplan, Director of Overwatch put out a new video recently that outlined the new server browser that Overwatch is getting. It's currently being tested out on the ptr and I can't wait to try it out. For most fps veterans on the pc a server browser is something that should always be there. The fact that Overwatch launched and didn't have one until now is a bit baffling. Even for me despite the fact that I've only been playing first person shooters seriously (competitively) for almost a year.

Some things you can do on the server browser:

• Turn on/off individual hero abilities
• More customization on hero ability cooldown times
• Change payload speed
• Change capture speed on control points
• Allow/disallow individual heroes
• Enable/disable flag pick-up time
• Change CTF so a team’s flag has to be back at their base in order to cap the enemy flag
• Increase Pharah’s missile speed

Sounds pretty sick, right? Also, I should mention that Capture the Flag will become a permanent custom game mode. This is a huge step into the right direction for Overwatch. The game has become very stale and I think I speak for us all when I say that Sombra was a bit disappointing. I hope they can buff her up some and make her more viable in ranked play as well as release some new heroes and maps. I know they give us a lot of stuff for free but they should create more stuff at a faster speed. Perhaps the same speed they put into creating new Heroes of the Storm characters? They release new Heroes content super fast. Feels like its every eight weeks.

Anyways, this server browser will keep Overwatch alive probably forever. It'll become like Team Fortress where the server browser has kept it alive since 2007, astounding! It's going to be fun playing custom matches with friends and randoms alike. I would really love to have all Mercy pistol battles. 

'Bout time Blizzard

Overwatch competitive guide (updated)

So I decided to write an updated guide for Overwatch competitive ranked mode. Here we go.

First of all, figure out your role before you even begin to play ranked. And stick to that role until you're really good at it. I started playing first person shooters seriously with Team Fortress 2 (with a friend) right before Overwatch came out (I couldn't get into the beta, damn you Blizzard). I mained Medic in tf2 (Team Fortress) until I got super good as a healer. Then when Overwatch came out I mained healers. I played all of them decently but noticed I was especially good with Mercy because the skills from tf's medic shined through in the transition. Mercy and Medic play similar, although I do think Mercy's pistol is better than the Medic's syringe gun. So the first and most important thing you need to do is find your role (mine was healer), learn it well, and stick to it.

Okay, so you've figured out what you like to do (dps, tank, or heals) and you're decent with some heroes. Now if you want to win consistently you need to play the same couple heroes you're decent with until you're super good with maybe two or three of them. For me I've become super good as Ana and Mercy. Once I realized that I shouldn't be playing Zenyatta and Lucio as much I found out that I can win a ton more games consecutively and consistently. Nothing wrong with Zen and Lucio but if I really want to win I should play Ana or Mercy. So if you want to increase your chances of winning every game stick to your absolute best characters every game. However, there are times when you should stray from this idea. For example, I know that if an enemy team has a Pharah and they're rocketing away at me when I'm Ana I should probably switch to Mercy (better maneuverability), Lucio (I can guesstimate her spacing prediction and shoot her out of the sky w/ sound gun), or Zen (if I'm feeling ballsy I can discord her and rely on my team to kill her). That's just one example. Other times you should play characters you don't play as often if your team would be a better composition. However, if your will to win is strong I recommend sticking to your absolute two-three best characters every match.

Next, we have the eliminations talk. No matter what you're doing (even being a healing main like myself) you're going to have to get some elims. Most of the time you take points or objectives by getting a pick (a kill), moving your entire team in, getting another pick, and repeating until you take the point or objective. That's what happens in most games. As a healer you can deal a lot of damage to enemy players when your team doesn't need healing. I've found that Mercy's pistol can kill fast in the heat of battle when the enemy team won't suspect it. In addition, you can get so many kills sniping as Ana from a safe distance. If you're dpsing eliminations is your main objective. You need to get elims often enough that your team can move in closer and closer to the point/objective without dying or getting pushed back. As a tank you need to get a lot of elims as well. It's super important! However, don't forget to stop dpsing when you need to and keep healing if you're the healer. So many healers forget there's a balance between healing, shooting, and repeating. Also, if you're Mercy remember to damage boost often. So many Mercys focus on just healing they forget that the damage boost gets you a lot of assists.

Lastly, you must think about your attitude and general outlook of the game, match, whatever. You need to know outright that you're not going to win every game and that your friends will definitely make you lose games. You will make your friends lose games. You have to remember that this is a competitive gaming experience and that if you can't handle losing then maybe you should play Quick Play or some other game. You're never going to become better than Koreans until you get massacred by them at five in the morning (California time) when they're playing at night in Korea. There are times when players get super upset, talk shit, throw games, etc because they can't handle the competitive aspect of this game mode. It's not for kids and its not for adults that act like kids. If you take any advice from this listen up to this next statement. You will have a much better competitive gaming experience if you remember that each match is a learning experience. And if you use that knowledge to your benefit you will continue to keep becoming a better player.

Also, remember to lighten up! It's a freakin' game after all!

So you want to form your own esports team

So I've had this idea of going to this nearby pc cafe to play games with friends. Well, I've finally made the plans and I'm having a small meetup with friends (just three confirmed at the moment) at Planet Cyber in Woodland Hills. The initial goal of this was to hang out with my best friends, play pc games, and enjoy each others' company. But this idea has since grown into a bigger idea-what if I could create my own amateur esports and/or competitive team?

This seems super difficult but it is feasible. At the time currently I have two friends who would definitely be down for sure. Four more and we have a competitive Overwatch team to work with. I'm also interested in playing Team Fortress competitively as well, although that game is pretty dead in that aspect. There's other games to think about too, like Heroes of the Storm. I'm pretty good at all these games but we'd probably end up focusing on Overwatch and playing Team Fortress for fun. So the focus would be on those two games.

For the Overwatch team I would main Ana, Mercy, Lucio, and Zenyatta. For Team Fortress I'd play medic but have secondary scout, pyro, and soldier. One of my friends plays a mean Soldier 76. And the other one is a great Winston and Roadhog. These three confirmed friends are all pretty good Team Fortress players. One of them even has like 8000 hours on the game. Wowza!

This is an idea I'll talk about to the guys and see if they would be interested. If not, I can always place an ad on Meetup and find some serious gamers who would be down for this. I think in the long run I will have to end up doing this but because this idea is just in the blueprint stage I will ask the people I know first.

Sounds super fun but it won't be easy finding the right people with the skills and synchronicity for frags and team based fps's. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

See ya later space cowboys

China passes loot box law

Loot boxes are a thing in many video games. You level up and you earn boxes or you can buy them for a set fee. Inside you can find many a in-game items. For example, in Overwatch you can get character skins, emotes, sprays, etc. Right now we have no idea what our odds are of getting items we want as its usually always random.

Well, China passed a law that's going to be a game changer. Starting May 2017, developers will have to start disclosing the probabilities of what could be inside the boxes in games like Overwatch, Counter Strike, and Hearthstone. 

Here are the stipulations (as translated by NeoGAF user chillybright):

2.6 ...Online game publishers shall promptly publicly announce information about the name, property, content, quantity, and draw/forge probability of all virtual items and services that can be drawn/forge on the official website or a dedicated draw probability webpage of the game. The information on draw probability shall be true and effective.
2.7 Online game publishers shall publicly announce the random draw results by customers on notable places of official website or in game, and keep record for government inquiry. The record must be kept for more than 90 days. When publishing the random draw results, some measures should be taken place to protect user privacy.

This doesn't mean that we will be able to choose what we get in our loot boxes or see the probabilities because this law is only going to apply in China. However, that doesn't mean that it couldn't reach the Western hemisphere. This could be huge for developers and us gamers who feel like loot boxes are kind of a crap shoot gambler's audition. It is kind of messed up when we put in time into a game and we don't get the items we want out of these loot boxes.

This looks like a good step in the right direction for gamers and loot boxes. Hope it comes to the West.

Enter the second circle of elo hell

After two days of continuous play and farming wins I made it out of the first circle of elo hell and got promoted to silver. I've got my old rank back. It's a great feeling when you're playing well and winning games consistently in solo queue. I've finally got it figured out and now people always want to play with me because they say I'm a great healer. I usually add these randos (randoms) I meet through these pubs (public games) and grind games with them. Some of them talk a lot but we communicate well as a team and win mostly every time.

So you've made it out of the first wave of elo hell but you can't rest easy on your laurels just yet. This is just the beginning. The players will get better and games will become harder to win depending on your team, comps, maps, and situational awareness.

I've learned a few tricks that help me win games most of the time. For one thing if you get a team of idiots that only want one healer, one tank, and the rest dps I always go Lucio in that situation. When we get into fights I minimize my deaths at all costs-basically stay alive most of the time to just keep healing. That's the best thing Lucio can do in this situation. Lucio is the best for this because his healing is pretty good and speed boost is just too good to pass up. During the off season I played tons of games (Quick play) where I was the only healer playing Zenyatta. That wouldn't work so well in competitive.

In other situations where there's another healer I do things differently. If somebody else rapid fire picks Lucio right away (this hardly ever happens) I will mostly always (sometimes Mercy) go Ana for the nanoboost as well as for her super amazing single target healing. If you call out your nanoboost on the mic and ping it people will get the idea and time it with their ultimates. If you position everything right you will get teamwipes and/or three or more frags (kills, eliminations) everytime. Ana's nanoboost got nerfed hard (lost the speed boost) but its still super effective in the right hands.

In those situations where somehow two people rapid fire pick healers (this hardly ever happens) I will go dps (damage per second) heroes. Lately, I've been playing a lot of Soldier 76 and Pharah. I think I'm going to focus on playing those two for this season. I think because I'm at a pretty low level Pharah can run amok on these low level teams. You just gotta find the right positioning and just rocket the hell out of them. Soldier is just a great hero in general. But generally I've hardly been playing dps in competitive.

I plan on continuing to climb the ladder and reach gold soon. If I play enough I might be able to hit plat. If not this season, there's always a season 4 to look forward to. I'm also looking forward to the Christmas patch update that will probably hit the servers sometime soon.

I'm still in elo hell, just a slightly less casual pleb version of it.

Season 3-Elo Hell or just the right spot?

Tonight I'd like to discuss Season 3 of Overwatch and the fact that a lot of people feel like they've been gypped when it comes to their Season 3 ranking.

First, I'd like to talk about my own personal experience. I played all my placement games yesterday and I won eight out of ten games. I somehow got placed into bronze league (scrub league) despite the fact that I was gold last season and silver in season 1. Now, I've seen plenty of videos that try to explain that Blizzard is purposely placing people lower than usual because last season too many players placed too high and into gold and platinum. But even after playing ten of some of my best competitive games ever I get bronze? You can bet I felt gypped.

But all is not lost. Earlier today I did a marathon session and went from 1250 to 1450 in a mere two-three hours. Forty-nine more points and I'll break into silver. I plan on doing that tomorrow morning but here's the kicker, I'm possibly stuck in elo hell.

What is elo hell you ask? "What it actually seems to mean is the level at which people feel they can't at all rely on their teammates. What they use it to mean is the level that they're better than but can't get out of "'cause of those baddies"." (Shinnyshin, League of Legends forums)

Basically I'm placed at a level where the players are so bad its very difficult to climb the ladder in solo queue. I've been playing solo queue since the launch of the game because I don't have many friends that play as often as I do. Thankfully, I was able to go up by some 200 points today because I'm a fantastic Lucio and Ana player. I had a lot of people friend me because I'm great at healing and they wanted me to play with them to ensure wins. This ended up helping me a lot because I found that its a lot easier to win games when you're working with people you know who have communication skills (always using a mic).

For example, part of the reason I won most of my games today was because I played Ana a lot and whenever I had my nanoboost I called it out on my mic and asked if anybody had their ultimates. I timed my nanoboost with dps and tank's ultimates and it resulted in teamwipes most of the time. Although Ana's nanoboost has gotten more difficult to setup it is still an effective teamwiping tool in the right hands.

The fact that I've been annihilating pretty easily seems to show that I'm a lot better than bronze. But because I'm in bronze I will probably lose more games because of elo hell. Part of me thinks this is what Blizzard wants in a way. They want us to think we're better than the rank they gave us as an incentive to keep playing more and climb the ladder to the highest spot you can. That's the point of having seasons, to challenge ourselves in this way during a specified period of time.

So is it really elo hell or is it just the right spot? 

Overwatch Wins Game of the Year

Overwatch took the high honor of becoming Game of the Year at this year's The Game Awards. It beat Doom, Inside, Titanfall 2, and Uncharted 4.

When he accepted the award, Blizzard’s Ray Gresko said, “While we’ve been very happy with how the game has been received, we’re also extremely proud that this game and the world that we’re building has a message and it’s a message about heroism. It’s a message about diversity. It’s a message about a bright and positive and hopeful future. And these are all things that we really believe everyone needs a little bit of right now.”

Overwatch to me is one of the best games of our modern gaming era. I, myself enjoy the game as much as I enjoyed Starcraft II, Diablo II, Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft, Smash 4, Project M, Melee, numerous Final Fantasies, and Marvel Vs Capcom 2.  All those games are top notch.

What makes the game so great is that this is about heroes (and villains to a lesser extent), a more hopeful future, it brings more diversity to gaming, and it brings people together through the interactive multiplayer. They've created a masterpiece at Blizzard and the fact that they can bring joy to many people in what is seen as a dark period of history is downright amazing. Kudos to them.

The Game Awards’ other winners were:

• Best Mobile and Handheld Game: Pokemon GO
• Best Family Game: Pokemon GO
• Games For Impact Award: That Dragon Cancer
• Best Independent Game: Inside
• Best Multiplayer Game: Overwatch
• Best Esports Game: Overwatch
• Best Action-Adventure Game: Dishonored 2
• Best Action Game: Doom
• Best VR Game: Rez Infinite
• Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter V
• Best RPG: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood & Wine
• Best Strategy Game: Civilization VI
• Best Sports/Racing Game: Forza Horizon 3
• Best Game Direction: Overwatch
• Best Art Direction: Inside
• Best Narrative: Uncharted 4
• Best Esports Team: Cloud9
• Best Esports player: Marcelo “Coldzera” David (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive)
• Best Performance: Nolan North, Uncharted 4
• Trending Gamer: Boogie2988
• Most Anticipated Game: The Legend Of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Play Titanfall 2 Free This Weekend

EA is hosting a free multiplayer trial of Titanfall 2 this weekend, beginning on November 30th for Origin Access members and December 2nd for everybody else. From then on until December 4th all maps, modes, and weapons will available to everyone. This includes the Angel City's Most Wanted DLC that comes out December 3rd.

The fact that EA is doing this shows that despite the nearly cut in half sale price that went on until Cyber Monday that the game is not selling well. It came out at a bad time. Season 3 in Overwatch just started and everybody is still playing tons of Battlefield 1. Although I do think Titanfall 2 is a better game than Battlefield 1 I think Battlefield 1 has a cooler atmosphere being World War 1 and all. However, I will probably get both games at some point. I'm obligated to as a pc gamer. :D

If you choose to play the trial version and pick up the game your saved profile will carry onto your Origin account when you buy the game. The fact that a triple A title game like this has to rely on a free trial to get more people to buy it shows that big company games can sometimes get out shined (mishun compree!) by cheaper indie game companies. I can tell you right now that I've been watching my brother play Titanfall 2 on Xbox 1 and the game is terrific. In fact, I think its so good that I'm surprised they're doing a free trial for the weekend to get more people to buy.

I'm definitely going to try this out this weekend. Playing it on pc might be more fun than on console because I prefer shooting in fps's (first person shooters) using a mouse and keyboard. I was born and molded by the keyboard as a wee little middle schooler playing Diablo 2 and Starcraft Brood War. Good times. 

Play it this weekend!

Overwatch Christmas event coming soon

So some stuff on the ptr suggests a Christmas event is coming soon. There's Christmas music files as well as new hero voice interactions. There's possibilities of a a bunch of great Christmasy skins like a Ana Ms. Claus, sexy Christmas Mercy skin, Reinhardt Santa, elf Torbjorn, Soldier 75 Dad Jumper, etc. This update will probably show up within the first week of December.

In this video here he explains that there's probably going to be some sort of a new arena mode based on some Athena voice-lines. Hopefully it will be a pve mode, something that replaces Junkenstein's Revenge. If it's an arena it seems like its going to be a pvp mode but we already have enough pvp modes in the game. I'm hoping that it's some sort of pve mode where you fight raid bosses and perhaps there will be like World of Warcraft mechanics like don't stand in the fire and stuff like that. But it would have to be based around Christmas. A Christmas raid type of thing would be sick!

I got most of the Halloween skins (except for Mercy's sexy witch skin and "my servants never die!" voiceline) and I plan on getting most of the Christmas skins as well. I really hope they have some great Zenyatta Christmas skin as well as Mercy and Ana as those have become my mains. I used to play Lucio a lot but now I just leave him to other players. 

Christmas is just around the corner!

Welcome the new Symmetra, Nummetra

So a new patch hit the ptr today and it completely changed the way Symmetra works. She has an ultimate change, she now has two ultimates! Once her ultimate is full she can use either the teleporter or the shield generator. This puts a strong shield on all teammates in a substantial radius. As long as everyone's within the radius everyone will get it. Her regular shield ability has been removed. She has a new shield ability called photon barrier. It moves on a projected path. It's a shield projectile! It's been compared to Reinhardt's barrier so you know its pretty strong. Very cool new abilities. An ultimate alternate and this photon barrier.

The turrets have been completely reworked. The max holding charge for six. She can place all turrets before the match starts and also she can quickly replace them if they're destroyed. Her primary fire distance has been slightly increased. Barely.

These are some major big changes to Symmetra. She can become a character that is needed in every comp.

Symmetra is definitely a lot better now. The community was crying out for Symmetra changes and for a while we didn't get them. But today it finally happened.

I hopped on the ptr today and sure enough everybody is playing Nummetra. Every match I played (this was Quick Play) Symmetra got play of the game doing some insane killing spree with turrets and her laser. Her projectile shield (photon barrier) is so strong and cool looking. It looks like a bubble shield projectile. It can absorb a ton of damage. In fact, when I tried continuously shooting at it I couldn't tear it apart. It seems very powerful indeed.

I feel like Nummetra could become a thing. Comps could be running Ana/Symmetra as supports, Mercy/Symmetra, or Lucio/Symmetra. With Sombra in the mix the game has certainly become very exciting within the last week. By now we can all say that Overwatch is a game that is constantly evolving and changing. Nothing stays the same for a long period of time.

Side notes to mention is that there is now a stay as party system after a match. This is perfect for solo queue players like myself. Now when I win a match with a team I like I can choose to stay as party and we can group up to play more. Great tool! In addition, there's an unlockable "boop" voiceline for Sombra. Lastly, players can play custom games for 3v3 elimination and 1v1 mystery duel.

Welcome to Symmetra hell.