Overwatch

What I’ve Been Playing – Boring Gamer Edition

I wish it were more exciting this week, but it’s kind of more of the same. I’m admittedly in a bit of a rut in my gaming lately.

Overwatch

I almost wasn’t playing this anymore, again. It’s starting to reach a point where it’s more frustrating than fun again. Last weekend had a trial round for the upcoming new hero Juno (maybe it was two weekends ago?). Juno seems, a little lame honestly. She is a healer, but it kind of feels like an “easy mode” style healer. She doesn’t need to toggle between healing and damage, so you can just “shoot shoot shoot” But she seems really really weak. Like, her health is too low and her output for damage is super low. I didn’t get any real matches with her though aside from a few No Limits matches, which were almost exclusively 6v6 Juno, because everyone wants to try Juno.

This D.Va has nothing to do with anything, I just didn’t have any other non scoreboard screen shots from recent games.

The real tragedy of Juno’s release will be poor Venture. Venture was the last hero released, an they are a lot of fun to play and I just, generally enjoy them as a character. Juno falls into the same “cute Asian girl” category like D.Va and Kiriko which will make her extremely popular, instantly. Venture is a non binary person in a giant coat who eats dirt and rocks for fun. The point here is, I want more and better skins for Venture, who basically has nothing outside of a few recolors. Juno will probably get like 5 legendary skins right out the gate, because, she will be real popular for that.

Juno aside, I’ve long since finished this round’s base level battle pass. It was all Tokusatsu themed with a mix of Kaiju and Karate Bugman style skins, several for heroes I didn’t have any good skins for (Mauga, Soujorn) which was nice as well. All that is left is the Player Titles, which aren’t anything to cry over if I don’t get them, but the level 200 “Final Boss” title is kind of neat.

Sky: Children of the Light

It feels like the folks at ThatGameCompany has realized they have a popular game, but it needs more variety of activities to keep people interested. We had the Season of Nesting adding player housing, Now we have the Season of Duets with emphasis on the music aspects. I am a bit disappointed, not with Sky, but because I backed a Kickstarter recently for a little bluetooth keyboard deal that is supposed to be Sky compatible. That isn’t the only reason I wanted it, but it was one of them and it hasn’t come in yet. I mean, it hasn’t been very long, so I shouldn’t really be impatient, but it would have been cool to have for the music season of the game.

But also, right now there is an Olympics themed “Days of” style event. I’m not sure the official name. Each player was randomly assigned to one of 4 teams for 4 of the realms, Prairie, Forest, Wasteland, and Valley. Players can do a pair of mini games each day and compete with each other team for points. I don’t think there is an overall prize of any kind, but each day the highest point scoring team wins medals.

I ended up on the Forest Team. Which is fun because well, Forest is dominating the standings. They have won both Gold Medals every day so far. I almost feel bad. Especially because I am super bad at the daily games, i always come in last. It’s still a nice change of pace from the usual Days of Events where you just, go to an area and pick up 4 event currencies. It’s kind of nice to have to actually DO something.

Doom 3

I did branch out slightly, with Doom 3. I played through Quake II recently and have kind of been wanting to play something similar to that. The Doom series kind of felt like a logical place to move to, being the sort of, precursor series to Quake. I have never played Doom 3 so I decided to give it a go.

I’m… not really enjoying it. I’m really not into “Zombie games” and Doom 3 seems to very much be a zombie game. Also, everything is so fucking dark. God it’s so dark, why is it so dark? There is a flashlight, but it has a battery mechanic, which mostly feels meaningless since you can just, turn ti back on. It’s not like you have to find energy cells. It’s like someone realized it was all too dar, and instead of beefing up the lighting, they just added a shitty flashlight.

I played it, I’m not sure I’ll go back to it. Also, these models are kind of ugly.

American Truck Simulator

I’m almost caught up on my mission to visit every city for the DLC that I own. I’ve also started working on some of the other achievements in the game. A while back I started obsessing a bit with 100% completing achievements, and I could definitely see doing that for ATS over time. I’ve been playing it while watching through Star Trek Lower Decks. It’s a good sort of game for that, since it doesn’t require a lot of attention at times. Though sometimes I definitely don’t give it enough attention because I’ve gotten into more than a few accidents because I forgot to watch the traffic.

Something something don’t stream and drive people! Unless it’s a virtual truck, then it really doesn’t matter.

Overwatch Season 11 – Super Mega Ultrawatch

Jun 26th, 2024

by Ramen Junkie.

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Overwatch has just launched Season 11, and it’s paying tribute to Tokusatsu. A lot of folks are calling it the Power Rangers season, but the designs on the sentai skins are closer to the bug eyed Kamen Rider than to Power Rangers. Power Rangers usually have a more themed helmet for each team and solid visors not bug eyes.

There are also several monster skins that are more of a nod to Kaiju, though nothing super directly “Godzilla” or anything. Road Hog has probably the closest thing to a Godzilla skin and Zenyatta is wearing some dinosaur pajamas. There is also a pink squid-haired Lucio.

Not to be confused with Pink Mercy, which is returning to raise money for the Breast Cancer Foundation. It seems like some gatekeeper type folks are upset about this one. Because somehow it’s bad that other people can spend money to get an untradable video game cosmetic.

People are also upset about the Ultrawatch theme. Several of the skins are light reworks of other skins which people are saying is lazy. I am inclined to agree a bit. I don’t really care about the “lazy” skins, the pass is $10. I am concerned a bit that Blizzard is trying to push the value there being for the Mythic coins (which cost $80 otherwise), versus quality pass content. Some of the highlights, victory poses, and emotes are also essentially just the same thing repeated, which is a bit lame. Several are for newer characters, who I have almost nothing for though, so that’s ok, I guess.

Even more lame is that all of the voice lines are currently unavailable. I guess there was a bug with the special audio. I mean, this is Season 11 Blizzard, and this is a big company. It feels like this should be nothing to make work.

I also kind of wish the special mode was a bit more themed around the season, maybe Monster team heroes vs Sentai team heroes.

I ended up buying in though anyway, and I decided to go in for the Ultimate Bundle deal, which had a couple of extra skins and $20 worth of OW currency. With the 20-level skips that I forgot that bundle had, I am already over halfway through the base pass. I really like the Sentai-themed, much more than a lot of the previous themes.

There is also a beach theme as a sort of secondary theme with a whole mess of “Lifeguard” themed skins. They all kind of feel like Baywatch Overwatch with their red outfits. There is also a Kiriko lifeguard skin that seems like the one everyone wants. The trailer also has teased some sort of upcoming Transformers crossover, though it’s not clear how that will work with Overwatch. Most of the speculation suggests Bastion (Shockwave), Ramattra (Megatron) and Reinhardt (Optimus) will get some sort of Transformers-themed skins. I could see maybe Starscream from Pharah or Optimus Primal from Winston as well.. Hopefully it’s some remolds and not some lame recolors.

Lastly, the Pink Mercy skin is making a return with a new variant, along with proceeds going to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. I already have Pink Mercy but I will probably donate for the “Rose Gold” variant.

Figma – Widowmaker

Jul 3rd, 2019

by Ramen Junkie.

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I never thought I would actually manage to get caught up on something around here but here I am, caught up on Overwatch Figmas. The last of the four released so far that I have yet to talk about is Widowmaker. I almost didn’t order Widowmaker. I hate Snipers in the game and don’t really play Widowmaker at all. I wanna say it was a slow month anyway for pre orders, so I decided to go ahead and let it ride out.

I’m kind of glad I did, because she’s a really great release for the line. She has all of the Aesthetic balance of say Reaper, with proper pose-ability like Genji, minus the weird quirks of Genji. Plus a ton of really nice and appropriate accessories. Hell the accessories are really kind fo what makes this figure for me.

The rifle is the big one. In the game, Widowmaker’s Sniper Rifle coppalses into a machine gun. It probably would have been easier to just include two guns I suppose, but instead, you get one gun with interchangeable parts. The barrel swaps on and off and there is an attachable scope piece. It all fits together great and works well for the effect.

Another one of her abilities is her arm mounted grappling hook. The figure includes a separate forearm piece with a hook attached. The nice part is this makes it really stable to allow her to hang from it for posing if desired.

She also includes her poison spider mine and an additional swap out part for her X-Ray thermal goggles ultimate ability. There aren’t a ton of parts, but they handle the gamut of her abilities superbly. She also has enough pose-ability to properly handle all of the various accessories properly.

So, regardless of my problems with Snipers in game, the figure is really nice. She also fills a nice roll along side Reaper and Sombra to filling out the Talon team.

Nendoroid D.Va (Hana Song)

Jun 12th, 2019

by Ramen Junkie.

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One thing I really like about the Nendoroid line is that they are hitting essentially all of my “Mains” in Overwatch. Tracer, Sombra, Mei, Lucio is coming, and D.Va. These are my top five, in some sort of order. I suppose that probably just says I prefer the mainstream heroes over some of the less popular heroes.

Not surprisingly, Nendoroid D.Va is just Hana Song, aka “Baby D.Va”. In game she rides inside her giant MEKA robot, collectively they are known as “D.Va”. After taking some damage, Baby D.Va pops out and the robot is destroyed. It’s a fun mechanic in game. It doesn’t work too well for toys. A working Nendoroid sized MEKA would really bump up the cost and while cool, wouldn’t really add much to the figure.

She does come with a mini sized MEKA figure though, which is fun to use with the larger regular D.Va. The small MEKA even has swivel arm articulation. If you really want a larger MEKA that mostly works for the scale for display, the Funko POP! D.Va comes with an un-articulated larger MEKA. The style isn’t perfect and the Nendo doesn’t fit inside it at all, bit it looks alright next to her on a shelf.

Aside from her mini MEKA, D.Va comes with the usual assortment of alternate hands and faces, as well as her pistol, a cell phone, a bag of chips and a soda. It probably would have been too much considering it’s “non canon” but I would have loved some sort of cheese covered “Gremlin D.Va” face to go with the food accessories.

The hands are really great. She can make a lot of her fun emote poses from the game, like her D.Va bomb selfie or the heart hands. The chips and soda fit well in her hands as well using little pegs. The stand has an extra accessory bit to attach Mini MEKA to.

D.Va also shares the pose-able articulation that all of the Overwatch Nendos have. For anyone unaware, a lot of Nendoroids don’t really have knees or elbows, but they often will instead have alternate arms for different poses. Occasionally there will be some, like the Overwatch line up, that have regular articulation, despite the small size.

All in all, D.Va works really well in this style. I will say though, next to other Nendos like Mei or Junkrat, she feels a little light on the parts and accessories. I’m not sure what more they could have given her though really.

Overwatch Ultimates – Lucio

May 29th, 2019

by Ramen Junkie.

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Today’s figure is Lucio from the Overwatch Ultimates line by Hasbro. I feel like Lucio could make a pretty cool Figma, but there are a lot of other factors that make me feel like Figma will never get around to doing Lucio. Of all the figures shown off prior to the line’s release, Lucio was the one I was the most worried about. Ana had her obvious flaws in the promo photos, so she is expected to be a little disappointing. Lucio basically had one photo going around, where he was standing stiff upright with his little effect parts attached.

Basically, I was really worried Lucio would be a complete brick. Fortunately, he is quite the opposite. His upper body is loaded with joints, including some neat butterfly joints in his shoulders, similar to ones often seen on Spider-Man figures in Marvel Legends, except hidden inside his vest. Even his ponytail is articulated, which is a nice bonus. His Sonic Amplifier has a little cord that attaches to his arm which also holds on pretty well without really hindering articulation.

The lower half is… mostly alright. The hips have a pretty wide range of motion, the ankles have a LOT more than expected. The real problem, and only real problem with this figure, is the knees. The knees have barely any range of motion, somewhat because of the bulk of his legs hindering things, though it also just seems to be limited. I posted a photo demonstrating the entire range of motion, but basically it’s like 20 degrees of bend.

This does kind of really suck for posing him in any dynamic jumping poses. He also can’t make a proper Sound Barrier pose since he can’t completely bend any knees.

The knees issue doesn’t completely ruin the figure, it’s just really disappointing. You can sort of fake some more dynamic range with his ankles and hips, but it’s not quite the same.

Aside from the Sonic Amplifier, Lucio has 2 extra hands (4 total). Oddly, 3 of the four hands are for his left hand while he only has one hand for his right hand. There is a hand to let him hold the Sonic Amplifier on the left but there isn’t anywhere to plug the little cord in on the right. He also has a couple of green swooshy effect parts to look like his speed boost skating. The effects are pretty good aside from the rubbery plastic on mine was bent and distorted out of the package. I could probably boil and reshape them if I wanted to.

All in all, Lucio is pretty satisfying. he could use better knee articulation but otherwise he’s a nice figure. He has a lot of dynamic style going for him too which makes him generally fun to mess with.