Overwatch Rock, Paper, Scissors, Genji, D.va

Today on Stop Review we talk Overwatch balancing. Overwatch claims that for every hero there is a counter and after looking through the game that's partially true. Heroes all have certain antithesis' like Bastion and Genji. Bastion is a stationary character that deals incredibly high amounts of damage Genji relies on being mobile and harassing enemies from behind using his dash to finish off enemies all while staying moving and climbing the high walls in the map. These heroes are opposites and you might be able to counter a Bastion with a Genji using his Reflect Skill but a smart Bastion just wont shoot you. So it really comes down to knowing the game.

When I say it comes down to knowing your heroes its knowing what skills and abilities make them (or you vulnerable). A Reinhardt usually loses to a reaper because reaper gets in too close with and his shield doesn't work a Reinhardt might counter by sticking by his fellow heroes so a reaper gets taken out before he can do damage or he might charge the reaper before he can do anything. Heroes don't necessarily rock paper scissors each other. the largest part for countering a hero is countering the person playing, for example, I won't stop playing Soldier: 76 because i keep getting taken out by Roadhog and his chains, I'll sprint around the team and hit Roadhog from the back or better yet coordinate and attack with my team.

While knowing your characters is all well and dandy some maps just aren't kind to some characters. Usually me and my friend can play Torbjorn on a payload map offensively and once we set our turrets on the payload that pain train never stops but we run into trouble on Kings Row because of all the corners characters can hide around and take out our turrets with. Maps can be unkind to certain characters, mostly to non-support characters as ,they don't need a map they need a character to support. Keep in mind your maps and game modes when deciding your character.

The last thing I want to talk about is play styles. Just so you know there is a wrong way to play a character, A Reinhardt that chases that Genji is not only a bad Reinhardt but also a useless Reinhardt because now your team is getting killed while you get and extra elimination. A good hero knows where they work are you harassing enemies to get them away from your team or are you wading your way into the enemy team soaking up all the damage while your team lays waste to the team killing you. The basic roles follow these set patterns Offense is harassing and killing, Defense is killing and damaging and setting up  defensive positions, Tanks are getting shot at, and Support is keeping everybody alive long enough to pull this off. that's the gist of hero roles.Remember this isn't concrete each Character can be used in a variety of roles in a variety of situations and has their own play style. Experimentation is the key to figuring out hero roles and counters try new things and don't assume a new hero will fix things try all that you can with your heroes 

Trending

Whats up with the trend Youtube gaming Minecraft has been a massive game but recently I took a look at Youtube's trending gaming videos and apparently even though Google searches are down Minecraft has a majority mark on the trending videos for gaming and after some review of the channels its easy to see why.

Firstly lets take a look at subscriber count the biggest trending videos are made by channels with subscriber counts numbering in the millions which can have in turn means a massive amount of views and buzz on their latest videos. first there's a channel with over 10 million subscribers but after two days his video has received 1 million views. now a million views is a lot but in terms of his subscriber count you would think it would be more as most people subscribe so that they know when the newest video comes out. so i watched some of their videos and looked at some of the games played, what I found didn't surprise me at all.

Starting with the majority of the the content Minecraft. Minecraft started getting popular in 2011 but it didn't really start becoming the industry giant we know until it was covered by youtubers and spread throughout the internet. Now looking at the statistics Minecraft searches are slowing down and numbers are dipping. but the Minecraft part doesn't concern me Minecraft has always been a go to for any channel looking to capture new viewers during the craze. What I saw was Garry's mod and the ever popular Happy Wheels and that's the basis of so many channels now. Happy Wheels and Minecraft are what I like to call the Internet Celebrity starting pack. After a popular youtuber who I wont name but rhymes with ew-tie-die covered Happy Wheels it took off even today, 4 years later, the video in question is still one of the most popular videos ever. This fact hasn't deterred some people from being "inspired," by this success.

The last thing I want to discuss is the behavior of the content creators I viewed. These personalities all share certain characteristics they are loud, intensely over reactive, and they talk quickly. these characteristics are spread through many content creators and they all sound and act with the same mannerisms and expressions. I feel like there is a certain lack of originality and certain affront to original personaliities and content that cant get through the carbon copies of eachother.

Here's Something New: A Review of Captain America Civil War

Alright so aside from the mini rant about Corn Pops this site has mostly been about videogame editorials, well diversity is the spice of life so we're shaking it up like a bartender in a Bond movie.

WARNING SPOILERS IMMINENT

Lets start with the story comparison to the comics, in the comics the story focuses around the Hero Registration Act which requires the registration and cooperation of all heroes/vigilantes to reveal their identities and work for the government. Steve Rodgers otherwise known as Captain America opposes the Act believing the bureaucracy would stop them from doing the good they do. Tony Stark also known as Iron Man believes that they are too powerful to govern themselves. This divide spreads to the entirety of the Marvel universe. The  story ends with both sides fighting and losing friends in the fighting and after witnessing the destruction of a city and the lives put in danger turns himself in. The movie is slightly different due to the limited amount of heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Also there is a reason the Movie is called Captain America: Civil War and not Avengers: Civil War is because the story starts off with the new Avengers but degrades into a Captain America story. It starts with an Avenger's mission in Wakanda where after saving Cap's life from a bomb Scarlet Witch ends up tossing it at an office building killing civilians. Meanwhile  Tony Stark is confronted by the mother of a boy killed in the last Avengers movie and he begins to see the tragedies they have caused and approaches the team with the Act. This Act starts the divide in the team, what really starts the divide in the team is when Bucky, The Winter Soldier" blows up a UN council about the Heroes Act that kills the king of Wakanda the father of T'Challa or the Black Panther. from there the teams side based on their previous feelings on the Act adn the teams fight it out with some members letting themselves get capture to let Cap and Bucky get away to stop a man from getting the 5 other winter soldiers the soviets created. after that Iron Man and War Machine go after them and War Machine is paralyzed and Iron Man goes after them alone and tries to kill Bucky because Bucky killed his parents which is the source of Tony's trauma and he snaps and nearly kills both Bucky and Cap.

While I prefer the Comic storyline the story of the film is very well written and greatly expands the cinematic universe for Marvel. With the limited characters they managed to weave together a coherent storyline while expanding the background of new characters. Focusing on Captain America also was a plus because it provided a better focus for the story and helped out  the motivation of all the characters. some of the problems are some of the introductions of the heroes are weak and some of the heroes are weakened to put them on par or make them beatable by the other heroes.

Overall the movie is the best of the Captain America movie yet and the writers and actors did an amazing job and in my opinion they particularly nailed it with Spiderman and they made a movie with leaves the future of the MCU with a ton of possibilities

OVERWATCH GIVE ME MORE-VERWATCH

Let me get this out of the way I love Overwatch. It's gorgeous, colorful, funny, and full of character and stories that are amazingly well written and well designed. I've been in love with this game since it's announcement.

If you don't know about Overwatch its a character based team FPS which basically means there are 12 different characters each with varying play styles and abilities, for instance there's Bastion which is a robot that can turn into a high power stationary turret or there's Genji a cybernetic ninja that can throw shurikens reflect incoming projectiles with his sword and do that anime dash thing where they slice an enemy and they take damage after they got slashed which is neat. But there are 12 different play styles with that can suit every kind of personality. I personally prefer Reinhardt the giant armored knight with a massive hammer and a laser shield.

Now Overwatch has your standard objective based game modes there's king of the hill, payload, and objective defense/attack. while the game modes are basic the varying team compositions really change up every single game especially if you and your friends are trying some gimmick like 5 Bastions with 1 Reinhardt shielding them or 6 Tracers blinking all over the battlefield.

Another amazing part of Overwatch is the character and world crafting that Blizzard has done. Each character has a backstory and relationship with other characters. These stories are expanded on in the Overwatch comics and and animated shorts (which can be found here). The story of Overwatch starts 30 years in the past when there was an uprising of sentient robots that built their own military bots to destroy humanity. When the governments of the world couldn't stop them an elite team of the best and brightest around the world was assembled. They were a small team than included Reinhardt, the German soldier, Torbjorn Lindhorn, the Swedish engineer, the Egyptian sniped Anna Amari, and two soldiers from an American super soldier program Gabriel Reyes and Jack Morrison. The team quickly became the most effective fighting force against the robots. the war left certain countries devastated but eventually resistances started forming and the strie force became Overwatch which expanded as more men and women proved themselves to be heroes. (if you want even more story check out the whole story we know so far here)

The game as of the beta is well balanced and each character seems to have an antithesis which is able to challenge that hero's play style. the most obvious being Genji and Bastion because they can counter each other in every way based on the players knowledge of the other the Bastion can take down Genji very quickly but if Genji hits his reflect and the Bastion starts firing the bastion will kill itself. Overall every character seems useful and unique. One thing to remember is the game is based on switching heroes so you can counter the opposing team and your favorite character is not the best character for the job. I'm a little biased but this game seems like one of the best unique and new IP's to come out in a good while.

Bloodborne More Like Blood-swore-n as in "How Come I Swore so Much?"

Bloodborne, is a game developed by FromSofware the creator of DemonSouls and the more recent Dark Souls III. These games are known for their difficulty and unforgiving enemies and systems. I have no experience with any of the souls game and I wasn't about to dive into a series with no experience so I borrowed Bloodborne and dove in. What followed was a never ending tale of frustration and an increasing amount of expletives of varying volume.

Going into the game blind I only knew of Bloodborne and the other souls games by their reputation. I expected things to be difficult and I expected to die which I thought I was prepared for, it instantly went out the window as I was one shot by practically everything and attacked by hordes of enemies and I got even more frustrated as 2 hours in I hadn't even reached the first boss. Now admittedly I went right past it because I wasn't interested in the dead end of a bridge so I went right past it.

Surprisingly the things that killed me the most were the enemies because unlike most games enemies will attack at the same time and will combo you into a corner of frustration and defeat. I beat the first boss my second try and the "Blood Starved Beast," on my first try which made me quite impressed with myself. Unfortunately everything else started to destroy me like some absolute goose with a gatling gun who i ended up having to shoot off a roof in the lowest point of my gaming life.

Now on to my usual shtick the combat in this game is amazing. The raw visceral nature of the combat makes every hit feel solid and and damaging. The other part of the combat is Bloodborne's "Trick Weapons," the weapons in Bloodborne morph into another weapon to change the move set and range of the weapon. One weapon, The "Threaded Cane," is a cane sword that transforms into a bladed whip that is used to hit multiple enemies and extend the reach of the weapon at the cost of its damage. The weapons I've been using have been "Kirkhammer" and "Ludwig's Holy Blade" both start off with a one handed sword and the hunters sidearm which is usually a gun but when it transforms the former transforms into into a massive two handed hammer and the latter transforms into a great sword by combining with its sheath. this changes the gameplay from a counter and multi hit based fast attacker to a dodge based style while using heavy attacks on the openings the dodges produce. fast paced combat is favored in Bloodborne because of the counter based gameplay and the fact that after you're hit you have the opportunity to regain your lost health by hitting enemies.

The story from what I've gathered starts with a foreigner (you) being given the blood of the beast which turns you into a hunter. After your first death you wake in the Hunters Dream which is the hub of the game where you level up, purchase items, and repair/fortify weapons. After you are given the blood your goal appears to be escape the godforsaken, monster filled, hellscape that is Yharnam. Oh and the second boss is an old hunter who reveals that due to the beast blood injected into the hunters they turn into the worst  of the beasts, so there's that to look forward to.

Overall the game beats you down and emphasizes the savageness of tearing your way out of the grey and desolate city by rewarding you for tearing apart your enemies. The game overall was a positive experience that emphasized the careful planning of strategies in order to fight large groups and massive enemies. Bloodborne is solid and incredibly well done which is expected from the company that brought out games like Demon Souls and the Dark Souls franchise.

Delay of Game

Why do games get delayed? Its simple games get delayed due to technical problems that must be solved in order to deliver the experience the creators envisioned when they started. I wanna talk about two games in particular, Platinum Game's "Scalebound" and Nintendo's "Legend of Zelda Wii U." These two games have were shown at E3 2014 almost two years ago and have suffered massive delays and detail changes that have greatly impacted fan response for both games

Starting with what I believe is the lesser of the two evils, Scalebound, Platinum games dub stepping, dragon taming, and super fighting RPG which I have been in love with ever since its original trailer in 2014. See the key feature of Scalebound is teaming up with your super awesome dragon that is fully customisable from armor to abilities. I love dragons they are the coolest thing ever and what made Scalebound's dragons so amazing was their AI that made them go into combat in multiple ways from spitting fire at a platoon of enemy soldiers  or stomping the enemy soldiers into pancakes of armor and soldier.you also get to have your dragon fight giant monsters which is another amazing feature because its like watching a godzilla movie you can be a part of. Now Scalebound's incredibly ambitious AI and game design has got to have unseen hiccups in production that I understand  and the delay may be a full year or it could now it was changed from holiday 2016 to a 2017 date to be announced.

Now lets move on to the game that has really rustled some jimmies The Legend of Zeld Wii U. Oh boy has this game been around the block. Much like Scalebound LoZWU debuted at E3 2014 to everyone's expected elated excitement (heh heh alliteration) but due to difficulties was delayed. After some dissappointment and a lack of updates there was an announcement a few days ago on the Nintendo twitter it was explained that the Wii U part of Legend of Zelda Wii U was getting the addition of +NX or from LoZWU to LoZWUNX if you're in a hurry. Now what comes next is speculation but what this appears to be is a ploy to push NX sales. As the release of the NX draws closer and closer Nintendo has to find new games to sell this console that is coming up that isnt even replacing an outdated console because the Wii U holds its own against other modern consoles. In the end this delay seems more based on marketing and business strategy rather than technical improvements. Especially since the second version delays the other.

Honestly there is nothing wrong with delays sometimes they are a healthy part of a game that can make it great. The only problem with with delays is ulterior motives for pure monetary game and affects the previous product that shouldn't have been changed in any way.

Weapon Shop de Omasse: Rythm Smithing with Charm

Weapon Shop de Omase is a rythm based blacksmithing game in which you rent weapons you crafted to story characters  or NPC's with various numbers after the name NPC.

The basic crafting is centered around maintaining a combo streak throughout the process of hammering the molten ingot the desired weapon this is done by hitting the pattern of strikes set to a specific beat. the higher the streak the higher the bonus to the different damages to the weapon, slash, pierce, and blunt. while crafting the weapon you have a time while its over heated perfect temperature and its too cool to forge so there's also a slight time limit that can be extended by reheating the piece on coal that is a limited resource but you should always have more than enough to never have to scrap a piece.

The real place this game shines is the dialogue of the characters whether its NPC 24 asking you if you want to save such a great weapon for a character with a name or the fabulous Mr. Grape asking for a giant club so he can defend himself from monsters while he gathers ingredients for a beauty cream. The characters all have personality and stories that compel you to make better weapons so you can see where there story goes and what new weapons you can craft.

Overall the game is fun rewarding and friendly and is just a welcoming gay to play for an hour or two on the the plane or when you just have a few minutes to kill. The crafting is fun the story is fun and there isn't a single complaint that I can find with this game especially for its eight dollar price tag its a great game to play.