Review: Overwatch
Pharah's first core ability, known as Jump Jet, allows her to rapidly boost into the air. Aside from the fact that this is an awesome tactic for maneuvering around the map, it also presents Pharah players with a huge advantage, as most players are concentrated on ground-level encounters. Needless to say, any rockets that come from above will generally take the other team by surprise, so use this to your advantage. Her second ability, Concussive Blast, doesn't do a great deal of damage, but it has the ability to push enemies a significant distance. If you're looking to annoy the hell out of opposing snipers (or anyone during the second round of Capture on Nepal), try using this to push them off of the map. Finally, her ultimate, Barrage, causes her to remain stagnant while she unleashes an insane amount of rockets in the direction of her reticle. This is best utilized in combination with Jump Jet, but you should be aware that you're going to be a relatively easy target for those behind you, so try to plan accordingly.
The 21 characters are grouped together in 1 of 4 classes: Offense, Defense, Tank and Support. Though characters may share a class, each plays completely different from one another. For example, Soldier 76 and Tracer are both part of the Offense class, but each has its own unique strengths and weaknesses. Soldier 76 players like a traditional Assault character from a Battlefield game. He deals good damage at mid-range and can even drop a healing beacon, but he doesn’t have a lot of health. Tracer, on the other hand, has small clip-sizes and ramattra Gameplay tips low health but is fast and able to rewind time to pull herself to safety. There aren’t two characters that are similar, and there isn’t a single character that is a perfect "all-around" character. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, and learning how to play to those strengths and exploit enemy weaknesses is all part of the game’s meta.
With Overwatch, the charming hero shooter from Blizzard, launching this week, we want to make sure that you’re as prepared as possible to help your team dominate. Overwatch’s main focus is clearly on the interplay between its dynamic characters, so in order to become competent, you’ll need to understand how every character works. Throughout the week, we’ll be publishing guides on each of the twenty-one launch heroes, three at a time, with the hopes that you’ll be able to recognize certain patterns on the battlefield.
Despite what my love of recent independent titles like Hyper Light Drifter , Firewatch and The Banner Saga 2 might suggest, I have a strong history with games of a more bombastic persuasion. My most played game of all time, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, found a way to capitalize on the combination of my love for multiplayer chaos and my susceptibility to addictive feedback loops. Granted, I would never claim that Modern Warfare 2 is some sort of godlike game, but there was something about its complete lack of balance and downright brilliant map design that tapped into a very specific portion of my mind.
Besides the size of this update, the rate at which this Heroes of the Storm update arrived is particularly noteworthy. Since they resumed in 2022, most of these updates have had two to three months between them, and about a month between the patch's arrival on the Public Test Realm and the live release. Not only did this patch arrive faster than usual – less than two months after the last Heroes of the Storm update – but it also came the same month as it hit the PTR. While this could mean nothing, Heroes of the Storm ’s 10-year anniversary is on June 2, leading many fans to wonder if the increased attention could herald something big in store for the MOBA's big milest
Soldier: 76's abilities are both simple and incredibly useful. His main, low-cooldown ability, Sprint, is exactly what it sounds like: a dedicated button that allows him to run fast. Outside of heroes like Lucio and Tracer, who have dedicated techniques that allow them to move fast, Sprint allows Soldier: 76 to escape battle quicker than the vast majority of heroes out there. If you're someone who despises the fact that Overwatch doesn't have a dedicated sprint function, this might just be the character for you. In addition to this, his other main ability, Biotic Field, enables him to place a small healing area on the ground around him, giving him the chance to regain health and get back into a fight right away. Finally, Soldier: 76's ultimate ability, Tactical Visor, gives him a few seconds of automatic, 100% accuracy aiming (yes, this is a straight up aimbot), and is perfect for eliminating a host of defenders on a given objective. Needless to say, if you're looking for the most balanced hero of the entire roster, you should give Solder: 76 a hard look.
Now, Heroes of the Storm has rolled out another patch – and this time, it has added a feature back to the game that has been gone for almost five years. Heroes Brawl, originally introduced as Arena Mode, is officially back in Heroes of the Storm as Brawl Mode . This game mode features special maps with drastically different rules, ranging from the all-Nova Ghost Protocol snipe fest to the Escape from Braxis PvE map. Brawls will rotate every two weeks, on the 1st and 15th each month, with the first one, Lunar Rocket Racing, available now until mid-Febru