Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Life Update May 2016

There's not going to be a third post this month.  I was planning to blog last week, actually, but a bit of a crisis came up.  Don't worry, I'm safe, but I'm trying to help some friends of mine in real life, and things have been a bit trying of late.  I was going to write a sudden short story last week, actually, but I really haven't been in the mood for it lately. 
A bit of a clarification on that:  For the past ... few years, really, I've almost never written a sudden short story truly suddenly, usually because I'm far, far away from the keyboard when I think of it, so I jot down a note and actually write the story a bit later.  For instance, I have a sudden short story note written down right now, but I won't be getting to it this week. 
But, yes, expect 4 posts next month, since I'll be making up this month's missed post. 

Monday, May 30, 2016

Regarding Battleborn & Overwatch

I mentioned last month that, during this month, I'd talk a bit about the new games that came out:  Battleborn (by Gearbox) and Overwatch (by Blizzard).  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to play either game nearly as much as I'd like, but I think that I can give something of a summary of my impressions of these games. 
In short, Battleborn is better if you're after strategic depth and long play, but Overwatch is better if you're after a more tactical experience and shorter games.  I've also found both games to have noticeable shortcomings.  In Battleborn's case, a typical match is 5v5, but, in the interest of not constantly resetting matchmaking, if someone drops, then the game can continue as 5v4, but the team that's a man down isn't compensated in any way, meaning that they're always fighting at a severe disadvantage.  For Overwatch, it comes back to the character vs. class issue:  While it's possible to play a highlander-equivalent mode in a custom game, custom games require inviting people; quick-play matches have no character limits, and there's no way to quick-join a character-limited match. 
I hope to have deeper reviews at some later point, but that'll have to wait until next month, as I don't have the time right now to play these games enough to do the reviews justice.