2016 was supposed to be the year of the MOBA, the year every game under the sun would try to adapt the mechanics of games like League of Legends and DOTA II to other genres, the way Call of Duty injected RPG-style progression into a first-person shooter.
As a trend, that concept fizzled. But only because one game did it so well that was no room for competition.
Overwatch, Blizzard Entertainment’s “hero shooter,” has rewritten the first-person shooter, crafting a unique team-based experience that is simultaneously deeper and more accessible than its peers.
What the game offers is deceptively simple — a small number of objective-based six-on-six variations on “King of the Hill.” Those games become endlessly replayable, however, thanks to the game’s 30-something characters, each of which offer a unique skill-set. Each character feels unique, and most feel different from any shooter you’ve ever played. From Lucio, the roller-skating healer who boosts his team with the power of his music, to Reinhardt, the hammer-wielding human shield, each character feels like they could have an entire game built around them. Playing Overwatch often feels completely unlike any of the words fans and critics would use to classify it. It feels like something special.
As with many competitive games, Blizzard’s post-launch commitment to Overwatch has led to continually changing dynamics — through patches, new characters, and rotating “event” modes — in how these characters work with and against each other. The nature of these tweaks, however, which have included some big swings, feel sharp and considered, well beyond what we’ve come to expect from most games. The result is a game that continues to feel new months after launch.
If that weren’t enough, Overwatch has engendered a love from its community that extends far beyond the bounds of its code. Its beautiful, Pixar-esque art style, combined with a deep lore for those willing to dive in, has driven players to carry that love outside the game to art, fan fiction, and more.
At a time when every game, no matter the genre or format, wants to jump-start a multimedia franchise or an ongoing “service,” often to their detriment, Overwatch has inspired a generation of players.
Inside is as close to “perfect” as any game we’ve played this year. The second project from Limbo developer Playdead, the side-scrolling puzzle game uses excellent environmental storytelling to convey both its mechanics and its story to players. Every aspect of Inside‘s opaque dystopia, from the animation of guard dogs chasing you through the woods, to the zombie-like walk of the human drones that you encounter, fosters a sense of foreboding and dreadful urgency that fuels your need to escape, even when you don’t know what you’re escaping from.
Though it lasts only a few hours, Inside succeeds in everything it tries, and does so with a level of polish that most games never come close to achieving. Even if it is not your kind of game, you should look to Inside as a technical marvel, and a gold standard for game developers who too ship games before they’re truly finished.
After six games, you’d think Sid Meier would run out of ideas. Yet, somehow, Civilization VI feels contemporary and classic at the same time. With core changes to some of the game’s fundamental systems, every aspect of the game feels fresh and new. The ideas behind those changes, like the notion that the growth of cities should be reflected geographically, or that roads are established through trade routes, seem to be statements about history and philosophy, as much as game design.
Of course, that wouldn’t matter if the game weren’t also still incredibly fun to play. We’ll probably be muttering “one more turn” to ourselves night after night for months and years to come.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.