H.E.R.O - Retro Reflections - TBT

H.E.R.O. by developer and publisher Activision—Atari 2600 Throwback Thursday retro reflection written by Hamza. 1984.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

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Being an acronym for Helicopter Emergency Rescue Operation, this title is easily one of Atari 2600’s best, if not the best. Unlike most others while trial-and-error works wonders, and where points are all that matter, H.E.R.O calls for something more. It calls for primitive strategy, pin-point precision and good fun where you get to be an 8-bit Alex Ryder or James Bond – or any action hero of your choice. But this assuming is rather unnecessary because the hero has a name, Roderick Hero, or R. Hero... a pun on “our hero”. Geddit?

Designed by John van Ryzinfor the 2600, and released in 1984, H.E.R.O was and is a pretty advanced and detailed game on the console. Every now and then I play a very impressive 2600 game, and I’m talking Enduro, Pitfall! & Demon Attack, but this game really tested my expectations. I thought it would be like Elevator Action set underground; or something like Commando or Ikari Warriors; but H.E.R.O. is in its own class and more entertaining than the aforementioned.

With almost no graphical or interactivity achievements to boast and to compliment, its color scheme, the movements of the protagonist and the creatures are enough to make H.E.R.O. a satisfactory and working game that’s indeed playable for long moments. Coming back to the color schemes, they’re warm, rich colors that keep with the theme of underground mines and it was a relief they weren’t as glaringly eye-sore-like as I witnessed in Duke Nukum. Pink and yellow? Get the hell out...

Taking control of “our hero”, the player has to rescue trapped miners – one per level. I made it to level 7 before losing all my lives, so if there are multiple miners to rescue in level, then I’m unaware of it. Equipped with an backpack-mounted helicopter unit, a lazer-shooting helmet and limited number of dynamites, the player must strategically blast away the cave-ins, shoot creatures, – both known and unknown –, be careful not to accidentally destroy lamps and rescue the hapless miner.
 

Though the premise is simple and one that has been mercilessly revamped to the top difficulty level in succeeding games, even the most experienced gamer will find H.E.R.O. to be an engagingly challenging experience, and the end result to be a polished, satisfactory title for the legendary console. Although I concur that there are far better games than this one, like Tapper, Adventure and Activision’s Tennis... but H.E.R.O. doesn’t disappoint and should be reason enough to back you up when you’re trying to convince someone that Atari 2600 games do not suck!

In conclusion, H.E.R.O. is a fun, challenging game that should make the 2600 lovers love the console all over again; and newcomers a reason to stick around a bit more and give the console and its games a further try. Besides this, I highly recommend the above titles as your starting point!


Note: Screenshots from all platforms that were available at the time can be found here at Moby Games.

Score: 8 / 10

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Blur - Retro Reflection

Blur by developer Bizarre Creations and publisher Activision Blizzard—PC retro reflection written by Hamza with a purchased copy.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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Bizarre Creations' 2010 arcade racer, Blur, borrows a lot from the go-kart and vehicular combat racing genre. In fact it dives right into the eye of the hurricane and pulls out all the stops, giving us a level of panache unprecedented in the one genre where the more the crazy, the better. With cues obviously taken from Crash Team Racing, Road Rash, and Super Mario Kart, Blur pits real-world cars (albeit slightly disproportionate) in off-kilter, no-holds-barred racing which sees massive balls of fire, impregnable shields, and electric rain. Gamers who aren't accustomed to the mechanics and attitude of arcade kart racers (or arcade racers in general) are going to find this game a bit esoteric in terms of gameplay and the "anything goes" attitude that comes with the territory. There may be far better vehicular combat racing games than Blur, but this one does everything so well and provides hours of addictive fun. When I say hours, of course I referring to the split-screen multiplayer feature that supports up to four players. So if you have any friends left from the halcyon days of Mario Kart 64, bring them over for another taste of familiar, yet fresh and slightly mature, explosive mayhem that is Blur.

Blur apparently has a story, but I noticed it as much as that vase in a Sophie Dee video. When the terribly addictive gameplay is all that matters (and the one thing that you're going to remember anyhow), who cares who your next boss or bonus challenge is going to be. But for the need of a detailed review, here's the crux of the story: you're an aspiring racer wanting to wet his beak. An omnipresent female announcer with free time on her hands guides you to the hottest races and racers in town, with each stage having its own boss racer and distinct challenges, such as passing through a set number of golden gates to gain a set number of cheering fans on your side. The more you accumulate, the more minutes get added to your fifteen minutes of fame. And that's about it, really. Pretty standard fare, nothing you haven't heard of before. Like I said earlier, it's not the story that matters; it's the carnage-filled racing.

Blur is style and speed over everything else. Even when driving lower classes of cars, everything moves past you in a blur (hence the acute naming of the game). The locales in which you let loose your screaming banshee are nicely detailed, but nowhere as gorgeous as in most other games. It doesn't matter, really, because a single fleeting look at a building or a faraway vista is all you need to know that the game does indeed mix things up (even if you don't really pay much attention to them). The cars are nicely rendered and appropriately animated and designed for over-the-top arcade racing. This is something Need for Speed: Nitro on the Wii tried to emulate, but failed. (at-least the NDS port is pretty enjoyable).

Blur comes from that game design school which employs the "choose-the-right-car-for-the-right-track" tactic. There's a certain car (not naming it; find out for yourself) that is so perfectly suited for the long, winding road of Mount Haruna that, should you choose to select it, will put you in the lead just mere seconds into the race. It should be worth noting that that same vehicle is practically useless on other tracks (especially the Tokyo streets one). The physics of Blur walks the fine line between old-school arcade racers and modern simulators. It is a doggie-bag of practically every physics employed in virtually every racer to come into existence. The collisions feel tight but not forced or heavy. When hit by a Shunt or projectile, the impact feels strangely satisfying but hardly slows down your vehicle to aggravating levels. In fact, once the game picks up speed, it hardly slows down nor gives any reason to do so.

Now that the attention has come to the vehicles of Blur, let's talk about them. Being an adrenaline-rush racing game, it should come as no surprise that, et al, Koenigsegg CCX, Ford GT and Audi R8 are amongst the line-up. Perfect for speed-junkies or fans of the high-octance a la F-Zero, these slightly disproportionate supercars are perfect for setting the mood of goosebumps thrill. But these cars (and more) are only available in the later levels. For the opening levels, you're given a set of rather unconventional vehicles to spend time with; like Ford Focus RS, Ford Transit SuperVan3, and Volksvagon Beetle. Of course, these cars are also fitted with unrealistic engines and power, and only in a game like Blur would you see the spectacular and impossible sight of Ford GT going head-to-head with a Beetle. Finding this too difficult to believe? By all means, play this game for yourself and become a believer. The learning curve is respectful, though longtime racing fans will have little to no difficulty in taming the beasts - and it won't be long before they'll be obediently responding to your command.

Power-ups play an extensive role in Blur. The power-ups behave more closely to the unabashedly aggressive specials of Sonic & Sega: All Stars Racing than, say, Super Mario Kart (to which it is often strangely compared to). Not entirely imaginative in their execution, they at-least have an impressive penchant for fireworks: every power-up explodes or activates with a bang, sending wild arrays of color and chaos asunder. If one didn't know better, one could swear one's watching a pretty screensaver mimicking the sparkly trails seen in Katy Perry's Firework. Just for the eye-porn attractiveness alone, Blur gets ten out of ten.

Blur is definitely a must-play and I recommend it to everyone. If you have, for some strange reason or another, ever wanted a cross between Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and F-Zero GX, then Blur is the game of your dreams.

Score: N/A

Note: screenshots used can be seen here at Mobygames.

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Jaggy's Corner! - Sunday February 24th

This week we're going to cover more disheartening news as NCSoft has decided to cut up to 132 employees of the total 400 employees. Not only have they decided to layoff a ton of their employees but so has EA joined the ranks in mass layoffs. It begs the question, are the big AAA companies dying off? Well, I have a theory...

Update from ArenaNet https://t.co/vl5WRxomHl

— ArenaNet (@ArenaNet) February 22, 2019

Let's begin with NCSoft, the company that developed games like Lineage, City of Heroes, WildStar, Aion, Blade & Soul, Exteel, and Master X Master. Looking at this roster, most of them are no longer running. And it is widely known that WildStar's studio was shut down in September of 2018. Songyee Yoon, the CEO of NCSoft West said in this article, “Where we are is not sustainable, and is not going to set us up for future success.” As such, the company plans to restructure the company as well as merging ArenaNet and NCSoft's publishing divisions. Unfortunately, no one knows how many people's jobs will be affected. Suffice it to say, the projects they were working on have not been smooth. ArenaNet has not had any new IP's and therefore hasn't made as much money as they could be – a fact that is quite noticeable to investors. The only point that has been confirmed is the employees will receive two months of severance pay plus a bonus based on the time worked at the company.

About a day after the news broke about NCSoft, EA's Australian studio FireMonkeys is also undergoing restructuring. FireMonkeys was responsible for games like Real Racing 3, The Sims: Freeplay, and Need For Speed: No Limits. Right before announcing that massive layoffs are taking place for this development studio, the project for Real Racing 4 was cancelled. And while FireMonkeys has about 200 hundred people (according to this article here), it is said that about 40-50 people lost their jobs. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be any information about their compensation packages, which is different from the other two massive layoffs in the last couple of weeks.

In total, about 900 gaming professionals between Activision/Blizzard, NCSoft, and EA are all heading into the job market for positions. But what this massive bout of layoffs says to me is that the AAA gaming industry is perhaps not as sustainable as it once was. Gone are the days where these major companies deliver a game in a full state without massive DLCs and void of most game breaking bugs. And, many of these companies have embraced a pay structure that is better suited to mobile games (ie microtransactions) while expecting that their consumers aren't going to care.

Why is this happening? Well, I have a theory based on a friend of mine who posed a couple of questions, “Why do you think investors are pulling out of gaming? What are they afraid of or, what changed to make investors believe that the gaming industry is not where they want to put their money?” At first I speculated that maybe investors fear that article 11 and 13 copyright laws might be part of the issue. But now that I'm thinking about it again, I wonder if the backlash of gambling in the form of lootboxes might have their jimmies rustling. My reasoning behind this thought comes from breaking news that released a couple of days ago about the FTC planning a public workshop on lootboxes.

Can you imagine? There is going to be a workshop to illustrate how lootboxes work! Aside from the fact that this seems like a ridiculous notion, what I want to know is how long would such a workshop last? If it's anything over about 10 minutes, I'm asking questions. And I think this workshop most likely be directed at how gambling works and/or what to do if children are sucked into this exploitative profit scheme. But this also leads to the idea that without microtransactions gaming companies will make LESS money. As much as I dislike the microtransaction business model, they do offer game companies monetary stability – a fact that is lacking when you consider the total number of units needed to be sold in order to break even from a games' development costs.

What I'm saying is, if AAA gaming companies are forced to get rid of lootboxes and/or microtransactions because they are perceived to be gambling, the top companies would be losing a significant amount of income. And to me, it feels like investors fear the worst and are pressuring the companies for more profits OR are threatening to drop their investments.

To tack on to that idea, here is a wonderful article titled the 'Economics of Microtransactions'. This article contains an important quote when looking at an industry that has become dependent on this business model:

“Game studios are now purposefully designing bad systems and mechanics, hoping that people will be willing to pay to get past the poorly-made parts of the service: when microtransactions are the sole source of income, we start to build our entire product around that model.”

Yikes. Maybe there is a solid reason as to why hundreds of people are being let go? And it's not because the people don't have value, but because companies fear the loss of their cash infusions. (I'd also like to pat myself on the back for last weeks article where I stated that Bobby Kotick was only part of a greater systemic issue...I still believe that firing the guy would not solve the issue. But that's just me.)

Anyways, what do you think about this speculation? Are the layoffs a reaction to investors fearing that the gaming industry will cease to have monetary stability?

Until next time.

Article by Susan N.

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Jaggy's Corner! - Saturday February 16th

I find myself disgusted with this weeks events for many reasons, but primarily I'm upset about Activision Blizzard's news and the community's reaction to it.

The TL;DR of the Activision Blizzard announcement is that the company had a record breaking year, solidifying themselves as the giant AAA company to live up to – or tear down as the case may be. The company downsized by 8% meaning that about 800 people lost their jobs. This is what provoked my multitudes of reactions like fear for the friends and casters of Blizzard's esport division losing their positions. I became upset at the fact that some of the new leadership was hired on with several million dollar bonuses. And then I was happy that social media tried to do what they felt was right and just in that game development companies tweeted their available job positions.

Through the mixture of emotion, I became upset once more because the gaming industry – the consumers – are missing the fundamental issue hidden within this news. While I'm not excusing the company for screwing over a lot of industry professionals in favor of more profits, I am going to shed light on a couple realities leading up to this week's layoff.

First, Blizzcon kicked off with a sad announcement that should have put the community on notice that things were changing. Mike Morhaime stepped down as CEO of Blizzard and temporarily became a consultant. He entrusted his beloved franchise to J. Allen Brack who had been working along side Mr. Morhaime for more than ten years. Surely this should have been a red flag that the company was transforming with different goals... Anyways, at Blizzcon they announced the infamous Diablo Immortals announcement which spawned the meme, “You all have phones right?” (On a side note, who the heck hired those guys anyways?) Both of these events were catalysts for the downward spiral that Blizzard found themselves in, although I suspect that things were transitioning long before Blizzcon.

A couple weeks after Blizzcon, it was announced by several gaming sites that the whole leadership of Activision Blizzard drastically changed. This is where Bobby Kotick (CEO of Activision Blizzard) appointed Rob Kostich to be the President of Activision, Dennis Durkin in charge of Emerging Businesses Division in Esports, and Humam Sakhnini to head up the Candy Crush division.

Normally, when there are massive adjustments to the upper management of a company, people should expect a new focus. So, imagine my shock when Game Workers Unite sparked a Twitter campaign and petition with the hashtag #Firebobbykotick like it would reverse the damage. (And by damage, I mean not just for the games and the loss of hundreds of jobs, but for the stock market decline.) It was then that I facepalmed.

Let's think about this for a moment, shall we?

What would firing Bobby Kotick do exactly? Because all of the upper management have received their bonuses and the damage has already been done. Firing Mr. Kotick might hurt him in the short term, but it won't actually change anything. This kind of process has been used over many years of Mr. Kotick being president of Activision. And my opinion is based on a number of different articles like:

• An article from 2008 about Mr. Kotick: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2008/11/activision-if-we-cant-run-a-game-into-the-ground-we-dont-want-it/
• In 2009 this article released: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2009/09/actiblizzard-ceo-kotick-policy-rewards-profits-removes-fun/
• Then in 2012, Blizzard let go of about 600 employees: https://kotaku.com/blizzard-axes-600-employees-world-of-warcraft-dev-team-5889338

But if there is any doubt that this kind of practice is rather common these days (and not just in the video gaming space, either), watch Jim Sterling's informative video where he goes into detail about the capitalist nature of game companies. Among his examples are companies like EA and Activision...

What I'm saying is, Mr. Kotick isn't the problem, he is merely a bishop on a very troubled chess board and he just happens to be part of a much greater issue. The fact that people have started a petition to fire him is no better than saying that banning Twitch accounts will make the platform better. All one has to do is create another account to dodge an account ban and all that is needed to continue a cycle of greed is another executive that will suck the life out of their consumers.

The news about alleged Activision/Blizzard layoffs next week could mean hundreds of great game makers will be without work. We can't have that.

PLEASE RT this document: a massive list of game dev job opportunities across the world. Help folks find work!https://t.co/UkzvwvyLTi

— Mitch Dyer (@MitchyD) February 9, 2019

Look, I get that the gaming community is angry about the people that lost their jobs, – especially after some Activision Blizzard management received millions of dollars in bonuses - but many of those people have years of experience and knowledge to get better positions. After the news broke, one Twitter user compiled a list of companies that are hiring, because the game developers tweeted about their various job opportunities to help the people affected by the layoffs.

Now, I'm not saying that I like what happened this week, considering my love for many Blizzard titles, but bringing out the pitchforks isn't going to change much right now. My biggest concern with Activision Blizzard is related to cutting back on their QA, IT, community support, and game support teams. All of these positions are important to the end user, and while I don't know how many of these positions are now vacant, I can hope that Activision Blizzard cares about their games and their dedicated gaming community.

If history has anything to say, Activision Blizzard is still a large company that plays by the same rules as other large companies. Sometimes that means changing things up. But you know what? My hope is that the new generation of gamers will change our industry for the better. Sure. Call me an optimist and I'll accept that perhaps I'm living in a pipe dream. I can still hope for the best even though I know that the industry won't be changing for quite some time.

Until next time.

Article by Susan N.

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Spyro Reignited Trilogy - PS4 Review

Wanna feel nostalgia... Then look no further because our loveable purple dragon is back. For those who are first timers to the series, Spyro the Dragon was first released back in 1998 on the PlayStation by Insomniac Games. Since then many titles have appeared with our tiny purple friend. Some great, some good... Some not so good *cough* Year of the Dragonfly *cough*. But what I do know is that the first three games released back on the PS1 were the platinum form of these masterpieces.

Boy, oh boy, was my 7 year old shelf ready for this game. Dad comes home after work one day with this in his hand and I bounced with anticipation. Now fast forward 20 years later and here I am still bouncing out of EBgames with the remastered edition of the first three games. We start off all three games with our little dragon hero, Spyro, and his dragonfly companion, Sparks. Together they cross the different realms to protect its dwellers.

I had the pleasure of playing a bit of Spyro with my companion Richard. 

"Richard, mind giving everyone your thoughts on the Tree Tops level we played together...?"

"$&@#%, that level!"

"Thank you, for your honest input." 

In Spyro the Dragon (the first game) your objective is simple. Nasty Gnorc (bad guy) has been 'offended' by the dragons of his realms and turns them all to crystal... Or is it stone??? (It's crystal) Spyro, being as tiny as he was, was ignored by Nasty and is determined to beat that Gnorc to next Sunday and save his brethren. Spyro: Ripto's Rage (second game) continues shortly after the first game. Our purple friend just wants to spend some time relaxing and goes to vacation in Dragon Shores, but unaware of other events happening in a different realm he is fished out of a portal to the world of Avalar where a warlock named Ripto (other bad guy) is wreaking havoc. He must help his new friends, Elora and Hunter, defeat Ripto. Finally, in Spyro: Year of the Dragon (third game), which also follows the pervious game, our reptilian hero chases after some egg thieves into a lost realm. There Spyro, Sparks and Hunter encounter The Sorceress (yes... another bad guy, I know) who has stolen the dragon eggs to power her magic and the realm. 

All three games basically follow the same control mechanics. As Spyro you have the ability to jump, glide, tackle and breath fire. You can use these abilities to take out bad guys by charging them or lighting them up like the 4th of July. Flying is especially useful to getting at those hard to reach places.

As you traverse the game you'll come across portals that will bring you to new areas, each one is unique and different. While you visit these tiny domains you must keep an eye out for treasures and the sealed dragon elders. The more you collect the further you'll advance in the game.

Sparks is also pretty handy if you pay close attention to him. If you get injured by an enemy your sparkly friend will start to change colour, indicating that your health is low, but if you feed him a delicious helping of butterflies your buzzy buddy will point you in the right direction. I mean it, Sparks can also detect any treasure you may have missed. (Now in the first game as well)

Not much changes between the first and second game, other then a couple added skills such as swimming, climbing and rock smashing, until you get to the third one. In Year of the Dragon, Spyro gains new allies such as Sheila the Kangarou, Sgt. Byrd the penguin, Bentley the Yeti and Agent 9 the Chimpazee. Each character has a different play style and will only be playable through certain mission. Sparks also gets to be playable in special mini games where you fly around spitting... light beams? (I don't actually have an answer to this) At the enemies.

Now then, let's get down to the bread and butter of the remake. Toys for Bob, bless your little heart for taking on this classic masterpiece and making it even BETTER. By the gods, this game is B.E.A.U.TIFUL. It's like wearing contacts for the first time and the world around you suddenly just POPS! The colours are rich and the new character models are to die for. Spyro, never looked better. They even took the effort to remodel EVERY SINGLE DRAGON IN THE FIRST GAME!!! Wow... They have personalities now and quality animation. It just brings tears of joy and nostalgia to us original players. If any other company would like to follow this lovely example of how a remake should look like then please call Toys for Bob/Insomniac games, thank you.

There isn't much to complain about in this remake. All the old glitches seem to have stayed they same with some minor tweaks, here and there. But I find that's what makes the game even more charming is to keep it exactly the way we grew up with. Except for Tree Tops in Spyro 1... It still sucks.

To conclude, the Reignited Trilogy is... just as it's titled. REIGNITED, INDEED! I can happily say that this game is worth every penny and the time to experience for both new comers and old school players. This game gets my rating of 10 out of 10. Bravo, Spyro. You will be remembered as such... And not your ugly counterpart that is Skylander... Just, no.

Game Information

Platform:
Sony PlayStation 4
Developer(s):
Activision
Publisher(s):
Activision
Genre(s):
Action
Adventure
Mode(s):
Single Player
Coop
Other Platform(s):
Microsoft Xbox One

Source:
Provided by Publisher

Article by Natasha

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Jaggy's Corner - Sunday November 4

It’s November peeps and that means a number of things for me like birthday’s coming up, National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo), and BlizzCon.

Sadly I am not in Anaheim, California to see what BlizzCon has to offer but there have been a number of big announcements that I’d like to cover.

Destiny 2

After Mike Morhaime passed the torch to the new president of Blizzard Entertainment, the first big reveal for me was the news that Destiny 2 would be free for anyone who logged into Battle.net before November 18th. It’s important to note that players will only have access to the base game for free with Curse of Osiris and Warmind already included. Forsaken, the newest DLC content will not be included in the Destiny 2 content. Still, if players wanted to give the game a shot without committing to a dollar amount, this is the way to go!

Celebrate the anniversary of Destiny 2's PC launch with a free game download.

Claim your free gift on Blizzard https://t.co/roHUYkBnm4 now through November 18th! pic.twitter.com/oY10tz8vJh

— Destiny The Game (@DestinyTheGame) November 2, 2018

That’s great for new players but fear not! Veteran players will receive an exclusive gift that supposedly includes a new emblem, shader, and two exotic emotes! That said, we don’t have further information on this fact except for the quick mention from Steve Cotton, the developer of Destiny 2: Forsaken, and the BlizzCon official news post. We do know that the content will be available in December so keep your eyes peeled for that!

And just to sweeten the deal, there is also a free trial of the Gambit mode from November 9-11th for existing players. This is a new mode introduced into Destiny 2 which blends both multiplayer and monster slaying elements in a 4 versus 4 match. Players collect currency to summon a boss, hopefully before the other team. This boss will help to take down the opponents so that your team can win. It’s a mode that also allows enemy players to jump into your map. It’s an interesting interpretation of a PVP map and I haven’t played much of it, but it is fun!

Starcraft 2

After all of the amazing additions and changes to Starcraft 2 over the years, Blizzard has an excellent handle on giving all types of players content like the arcade maps, co-op missions, immersive single player campaigns across three expansions, and high level competitive play through the World Championship Series. At BlizzCon, it was announced that there would be a new co-op commander available to purchase. The familiar Protoss leader Zeratul finally enters the ring and I’m excited.

Zeratul is outfitted with all sorts of interesting abilities that players will be able to use and those abilities will revolve around something called Prophetic Vision. With it, he will be able to located Xel’Naga artifact fragments to improve his combative ability in a co-op match. He will be able to call down units, get artifact enhancements, and use a couple of top bar abilities. Each top bar ability will have different customizable options that will suit the player’s style depending on the map for that week.

A full write up of the new co-op commander and detailed descriptions of all the abilities can be found directly on the Starcraft 2 website. Players will also be able to watch a video showcasing the new abilities. You can check that out here.

Warcraft III: Reforged

Perhaps the most exciting news of the day was the announcement of Warcraft III: Reforged. Essentially, Blizzard is bringing back Warcraft III with a ton of new updates. Let me just say that as a person who loved Warcraft II: The Tides of Darkness, I’m super excited to play the legendary game that I never had the chance to play. In fact, I can’t wait to get back to playing as the Horde once again. A player can leave Azeroth, but they can never leave their allegiance. FOR THE HORDE!

*Ahem* Back to what I was saying… The character animations have been updated, the UI has changed for the better, there are tons of player created custom games, and more! Not only have they added a ton of content to the game, but they’ve rebalanced the heroes and units to bring it up to today’s standards of the RTS genre. And one more thing, they’ve even gone as far as adding 4k capability! I mean, what’s not to love?!

Be sure to check out all the information available about Warcraft III: Reforged on the website.

Overwatch

Combined with a new animated short which introduces the relationship between the new hero and McCree, Overwatch has a new hero. Her name is Ashe and she has a western feel, much like McCree but with a different fighting style. You see, Ashe’s family paid little attention to her so she created her family. That family is the Deadlock gang who has a reputation for being tough as nails. Ashe is the leader of this gang. Together they steal various objects for monetary gain, presumably.

In terms of how Ashe plays in Overwatch, she has a number of abilities at her disposal like a semi-automatic rifle that also has the ability to do precise shots, the use of dynamites for AOE damage, a heavy knock back ability, and she can summon a sidekick comically named “B.O.B.” With all of her abilities and knowledge, Ashe will be a force to be reckoned with on the Overwatch battle field.

Another Overwatch related announcement is Blizzard teaming up with Kellogg’s to release the new “Lucio-Oh’s” cereal, and it will be available to buy in December. Not only will players receive the food contained in the box, but they also will receive loot boost codes to use in-game. As we know, players are all about that fat loot!

In tandem with the cereal, right now players can download a full album of Lucio music. But, get it quickly because it is only available until November 20th! The album is titled Synaesthesia Auditiva and the music has a distinct chillstep yet up tempo sound. I actually quite like it, in truth. Anyways, get the music here while you can!

Other Mentions

There were many other interesting things announced at BlizzCon like new content for Heroes of the Storm, HearthStone, and the dreaded Diablo III mobile game. I’m sure the game will be fine but many are not enthused. (All you have to do is watch the videos with the crowd booing its announcement. On a second side note: The fact that the crowd was more excited for a cereal that was originally a joke than a full game baffles me. Although, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised because Pandas were not technically part of the World of Warcraft lore until they made an April fool’s joke into a full expansion for the game, so what do I know?)

Anyways, yes, the mobile market has increased drastically over the last couple of years. Yes, virtually everyone has mobile devices. And while it is true that businesses want to expand their player base, taking a beloved franchise into the mobile market was a gamble that Blizzard lost, in my opinion. I would argue that the reason Blizzard lost the gamble is because they came at it from behind. Diablo III was a train wreck at launch and it basically blew itself into shrapnel when the auction house was released. And yes, I know they admitted that the auction house was a mistake, causing them to take it out of the game, the damage had already been done. Later, Blizzard tried to resurrect Diablo III with the launch of Reaper of Souls. This expansion added challenges like rifts and seasonal characters, which brought a ton of players back to the game, but other Blizzard games are infinitely more popular than Diablo III.

Now, Blizzard has done many fantastic things for gaming in terms of optimization, RTS balancing, new content, etc… But, when it comes to the Diablo franchise specifically, the mobile Diablo announcement is a huge disappointment. While I respect that Blizzard is trying to bring the franchise back to life by expanding into a newer space (to them), they shot themselves in the foot by saying that there were no plans to make Diablo: Immortal available for PC version, even in the future. (Not that that is a bad thing because mobile to PC ports haven’t always been great. I’m sure Blizzard would do it properly if it became a PC ported game but still, I’m not onboard.)

Final Thoughts

I’m extremely excited for Zeratul in Starcraft 2, despite the fact that I can’t protoss to save my life. He brings a new dynamic to the current mutation maps that I’m sure many players will test out. I’m also extremely hyped for Warcraft III: Reforged since I never had the chance to play the game during the glory days. I’m even mildly excited for the Overwatch community because Ashe looks badass. She’s a tough cookie and I like her style. And along with the Overwatch announcements, while I’m not a big fan of a cereal, I enjoy the music album.

I think with most of the announcements that I read about or saw in the opening ceremonies on Twitch, I’m pleased with where Blizzard games are going. I can’t wait to see how all of these games flourish with the new content.

Also, I’m sad that Mike Morhaime, after 20+ years with Blizzard Entertainment, has stepped down from CEO of the company and will fulfill an advisory role to Blizzard. During the opening ceremonies, he has passed the torch to his colleague and friend, J. Allen Brack - the executive producer of World of Warcraft and 12+ year veteran of Blizzard. He will valiantly aim to fill the giant shoes left by Mike Morhaime. And while I’m sure Brack will do very well in his new position, many Blizzard fans (myself included) will miss Mike’s ambition and passion.

To Mike Morhaime I say good luck to you in the future. Your continued passion for video games through the years has brought many of us together as a family. Thank you for everything.

Check out the BlizzCon coverage with the virtual ticket which can be purchased here. If not, there is plenty of coverage from community members, so be sure to follow the hashtag #BlizzCon2018 on Twitter!

What’s the most exciting announcement for you? Let us know in the comments below!

Article by Susan N.

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Jaggy's Corner! - Saturday March 31

All month Blizzard has been running the 20th Anniversary of Starcraft. Some familiar faces are present at a celebration event. People like Day9, Artosis, Whitera, Ret, TLO, and iNcontroL have been recalling Starcraft moments over the coarse of 20 years. This prompted me to talk about Starcraft and the impact it has had on my gaming career.

I wouldn't be a writer for Chalgyr's or Ginx Esports TV if it wasn't for Starcraft. Truly.

Many years ago, my brother and I would play both Warcraft 2 and Starcraft. I remember at the time I was terrible at Starcraft and decent at Warcraft. So, it made sense that I transitioned to World of Warcraft where my brother stuck with Starcraft, then BroodWars, then Starcraft 2. He would occasionally show me videos of Husky Starcraft casting replays of professional players' matches. I had no idea what was happening most of the time.

Then there was one video of Husky Starcrafts' that tipped me over the edge. I think it was not long after the video for Pylo the Pylon's short life span. It was at that point I stumbled onto Twitch TV for the first time. I landed in Demuslim's stream, a well known Terran player, who I appreciated because he was always humble while playing, but he explained what he was doing and why. For a person who had played some Starcraft but had sucked horribly, this was the best stream for me to end up in. The only drawback to his stream was the fact that I have always been a zerg player. Eventually, I had to find a streamer that could help me with specific builds.

What year is this? #SC20 pic.twitter.com/3F6gGWPL3F

— Chris Yap ᴮᵒᵒ (@booradl3y_) March 30, 2018

I found out about Fenner's Fundamentals and LowkoTV at about the same time. Both of these players had YouTube videos that helped new players with the basics of Starcraft builds. I ventured into Lowko's stream first and I became addicted to watching the streams for many hours each day. Six months later one of the mods decided to step down because he was getting back into Dota 2. Lowko asked his chat, "Who wants to be a mod?" I said nothing at the time. The chat blew up. In the end, he gave me mod status because I always chatted with people and was nice.

To make a long story short, that was the first of my many swords on Twitch. As such, I worked hard to learn about the bots, potential spammers, using IRCs, etc... I'm now at 40+ channels and it's still one of the fun things I do because I am always learning new things and meeting people. But nothing prepared me for a chance encounter that would ultimately change my life for the better...

Once in a while I channel hop. I get bored of the same game, so I actively seek out new games and new streamers. Often, I'll pick someone at random who doesn't have a ton of viewers, especially if it's 2am. Anyways, one of those choice encounters was hopping into Scheist's stream. On the first day I was there, he talked about needing a bot for his channel. Me being me asked what he wanted. After some discussion, he modded me. From there, he asked me in private what I wanted to do in life, which was to write for esports. He talked to a woman that ran her own esports website and that led to my getting the position.

Starcraft Memories

I remember a lot of fun things because of Starcraft. I remember clearly Eseipha and I getting Temp0 to say something to ToD in french. He did it flawlessly and we laughed our guts out when ToD said, "Do you know what you just said to me?"

I remember going to IEM in Toronto where everyone in the crowd yelled out "HOI HOI HOI" for a map called Catellena. The whole reason for that was because of BasetradeTV map intros... I'll just let you enjoy the intro if you've never seen it before...



Also at IEM Toronto a bunch of us went to an after party where Poizon and I played pool. Then I got owned by some Smash Bro Melee pros. Later still, a bunch of people played Cards Against Humanity.  It was a great night.

All in all, the Starcraft LAN events have been awesome.

I think the hardest memory of Starcraft for me was the day I wrote an article about the legendary JaeDong's retirement. #Imnotcrying #yourecrying. I have no idea if that article was as impactful as it was to write it. I know the editor could tell how important of a player Jaedong was to Starcraft. You can see that here

I could never truly explain how much I owe to the Starcraft community on its 20th anniversary, but needless to say, it led me to writing. I'm forever grateful for the impact this game and community has had on my life.

Of course, I'm not the only one who has been impacted as a result of this game. There are countless examples like Day9, HuK, LowkoTV, DJWheat, itmejp, and many many others. Here here is a preview video called Starcraft is Life – A 20th Anniversary Celebration



I'm excited to watch this when it launches

If you are a Starcraft fan, what have been some of your best memories? Let us know in the comments.

Until next time.

Article by Susan N.

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Destiny 2 - Xbox One Review

Destiny 2 is Bungie's sequel to their 2014 $500M gamble, Destiny. Set shortly after the events of the final expansion of the previous title, Destiny 2 opens with your world crumbling and takes you through a campaign that is surprisingly long, if shallow. Rounding out a mediocre at best campaign, is the same experience on multiplayer as found in the original Destiny; if you are doing strikes, who cares about level design, just get to the end to get the gear. Destiny 2 is still a grind and has developed no depth to bring it to "quality sequel" status. It is, and should have been, no more than the next DLC for the original. Rather than a fully-fledged game, Destiny 2 is a half-hearted attempt at saying "You wanted story, so we paralleled the greats and made a shallow experience to add to the already-mundane experience that you have been playing since 2014."

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Call of Duty - Infinite Warfare Multiplayer Beta - Play Time

This weekend saw the Closed Access Beta for the upcoming Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, and we decided to record some of our hands-on time with the game (with Chris manning the controller as our resident FPS ace). Overall, our impressions were really favorable.

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Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Two Hearted Ale - Beeps and Beers

As someone who has been gaming for a very long time and still has a pretty extensive game collection, I find it interesting to see so many remake/remaster games these days. Especially since most of the time, they do very little to really improve on the original outside of perhaps making the graphics a little smoother and better-looking. That being said, sometimes these games are so good that they really don't need much done to them to make them worth going back and visiting. I have been spending a lot of time with Marvel: Ultimate Alliance over the last couple of weeks - a game that I adored when it first released on Xbox 360 originally. Then there is Two Hearted Ale, one of the first IPAs I drank when getting into craft beers - and also arguably still the best IPA as well.

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Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 - PS4 Review

Having shared my thoughts about the original Marvel: Ultimate Alliance game in this morning's review, I thought I would go ahead now and talk about is sequel. Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 is a button mashing, top-down-ish action-RPG that gives you a lot to do and an enjoyable cast of characters to do it with.

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Marvel: Ultimate Alliance - PS4 Review

Two of my favorite games from the Xbox 360 were the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance titles. They took some of my favorite properties, mashed them together with a blend of action and RPG elements, with lots of exploration and collectibles and I happily logged dozens of hours with those two games. When I heard that Activision was re-releasing these games, I was curious about both the timing and what the end result would be. All in all, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is still a good experience, though a fresh coat of paint cannot completely hide the handful of flaws that held the game back years ago and still exist today.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan - PS4 Review

As someone who grew up absolutely loving TMNT, I had high hopes for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan. After all, PlatinumGames had knocked it out of the park with the nostalgia-inducing Transformers: Devastation. Perhaps the game was rushed, or the development team just never quite got a handle on the material, but unfortunately this TMNT game is far too repetitive with some aggravating mechanics to top the experience off.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan Gameplay Trailer

I loved what PlatinumGames did with Transformers last year, so you can bet I'll be keeping an eye on TMNT as it draws closer.

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New Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game officially confirmed

There have been rumors for weeks now about the upcoming TMNT game by PlatinumGames, but the official announcement comes with some cool assets to boot. Considering just how much I enjoyed Transformers, I can't wait to see what they do with this title.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Xbox One Review

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 for the Xbox One is the continuation of what is easily the best sub-series of the megalithic Call of Duty franchise. This third entry in the series is arguably the best, with lightning fast gameplay, interesting locations, stunning graphics, an interesting progression mechanic, and some of the most explosive action I have seen in quite some time. Black Ops 3 is, without a doubt a must have for any shooter fan.

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Transformers: Devastation - PS4 Review

PlatinumGames knows action gaming and their latest offering with Transformers: Devastation is arguably their most entertaining yet. Admittedly, the experience is not as long or as deep as some other titles out there, but the look and feel of the show shines through and the end result is a title that I found impossible to put down until I had won. And then I started to play again.

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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 - Xbox One Review

There was a lot of talk that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 would get the series back to basics and install a sense of nostalgia in longtime fans of the series. This holds partially true, but anyone hoping that the series has evolved in any considerable way are likely to come away disappointed.

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Deadpool coming to current gen consoles

Sadly, this is not an all-new game, but I still enjoyed the title enough when I played it on my PS3 in the past. As a huge fan of Deadpool (I refuse to admit how many times I have watched every last iteration of the trailers for the upcoming movie), I still consider this good news.

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Transformers: Devastation - pre-order bonuses

I've been personally following this one since it was announced. Transformers was probably my favorite cartoon as a kid, and the games have been hit or miss over the last several years. However, this one looks like it was ripped straight from my childhood, and I couldn't be more excited about it.

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