Rhea Jeffrey asked 2 weeks ago
By offering players something that goes against the grain or, taking it one step further, warps the entire establishment prior into nothing short of practical tomfoolery, you help keep the notion that for all this medium’s praise, PR, pretentiousness and pointless gratification at its own numeric sales figures…video games are still just video games. That you yourself are more than happy to let either yourself or your own creation be the punchline, rather than the one delivering it. The kind of punchline that takes the appearance of a cute-and-cuddly, child-friendly platformer yet winds up dishing up a brilliant bait-and-switch, as much a cleverly-written pot-shot at what games represent (with quite the ending while I’m at it). It’s up to developers and publishers from hereon as to how far they’re willing to go, if at all. And for those willing to swallow their pride, they’ll realize that, albeit a short-term distraction, satirizing and giving joke to this medium, culture or indeed industry is what’s needed (among many more pressing issues) at this present time.What are some of the biggest things that you’ve learned from the Closed Beta? Are there any things that made you think, “Wow, we’re in such a vacuum designing this game and I never would have thought that this could happen?” I’d imagine there’d have to be something, since there’d be no point in having a Beta otherwise.When we started on the project, we actually sent out a team-wide brainstorming email where we just asked people to send hero ideas. We maybe got one-hundred or two-hundred of them from across the team, and some of the heroes in [Overwatch Short Story] now are based upon the original ideas that people sent in.If you can go out of your way to make something (that could be deduced as) rather bonkers — knowing full well when and where to walk that perilous line between genuine and forced humour — you can at least walk away knowing players will credit you with falling into the “they made it even though they didn’t have to” sub-section. And believe me, alongside “surprisingly addictive” mini-games, 2D backgrounds and actual reflective mirrors, humour is another opportune asset that can go a long, long way to appreciating what said game actually stood for at the given time. Away from the regular check-list on what specifically to critique. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with having a game that’s entirely, unapologetically dry, perhaps perceived initially as far from comedy as one can get — narratively or otherwise. But, ironically, this is why a “one last thing”-type of satire or bit on the side, works far better than when it’s already wrestling for attention amidst a game that not for one second takes itself seriously and is instead its own fuel for fun and folly. Even if it is for the intent to promote something else entirely (video game-related or not) I will commend any developer who’s willing, for example, to throw together the good guys, the bad guys and the in-between guys into some surreal comedy skit-meets-daily life send-off to a game’s campaign .Overwatch was released earlier this week to critical acclaim and it’s not hard to see why. Blizzard’s newest title is a slick online shooter that manages to be both incredibly deep on the strategic side, but widely accessible for newcomers who don’t have a lot of experience when playing shooters or MOBA-style games. Like most games from Blizzard, it’s also incredibly polished and runs well on both consoles and low-end PC systems.When developer Pixel Titans released a new trailer for upcoming nostalgia-bleeding, fast-paced shooter STRAFE, safe to say what they unveiled could be regarded as material that goes against the tide of contemporary “gameplay” promotion, trailers and all. The decision to take its blocky, pixelated aim at this thematic and quote-unquote cinematic direction modern games have often approached and blindly lavished over worked wonders for two completely opposing and quite ironically-positioned reasons. One: the developers are clearly confident enough to add a an extra flair of presentation and direction to their still ongoing project. And two: they’re more than willing to be the butt to their own joke — opening up the flood-gates guarding not just the industry they’re a part of, but more prudently, of themselves as but one more studio in a grand sum of thousands.Imagine my surprise when I was looking through the cast of characters and stumbled upon Symmetra, a support character who has the ability to bend and reshape light into mechanical constructs. While there are a growing number of characters of Indian descent in video games ( The Order: 1886 and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate feature a few), it’s very rare that they are featured as playable characters. I immediately took her for a spin, and after I decided to check out the complete roster of playable characters.
Mercy also boasts a slightly passive perk known as Angelic Decent, which allows her to fall slowly when in the air by holding the jump prompt. This not only allows her to hide in plain sight, but it will also allow for moments of healing without being right in the thick of the action (survival is the name of the game with Mercy). Finally, Mercy’s ultimate seems simple to use, but it’s a wonderful way to frustrate your team if you’re careless. Resurrect gives Mercy the power to revive fallen teammates, which is exceptionally useful when trying to take over an objective or win in overtime. However, simply spamming the ultimate button whenever a teammate dies isn’t the most effective use of this ability, as it can often mean causing a swift second death. We recommend waiting for either multiple teammates to be down, or timing it for a massive push on an objective. As always, remember that Mercy is there to help, so in order to play this character effectively, you need to be committed to the success of others, which might not be your style if you’re always seeking your next triple kill.
Mercy also boasts a slightly passive perk known as Angelic Decent, which allows her to fall slowly when in the air by holding the jump prompt. This not only allows her to hide in plain sight, but it will also allow for moments of healing without being right in the thick of the action (survival is the name of the game with Mercy). Finally, Mercy’s ultimate seems simple to use, but it’s a wonderful way to frustrate your team if you’re careless. Resurrect gives Mercy the power to revive fallen teammates, which is exceptionally useful when trying to take over an objective or win in overtime. However, simply spamming the ultimate button whenever a teammate dies isn’t the most effective use of this ability, as it can often mean causing a swift second death. We recommend waiting for either multiple teammates to be down, or timing it for a massive push on an objective. As always, remember that Mercy is there to help, so in order to play this character effectively, you need to be committed to the success of others, which might not be your style if you’re always seeking your next triple kill.