Overwatch

Date played: June 29th
Platform: PS4

Last night was all about Reinhardt. I actually played a few rounds as both Mercy and Lucio, but most of my time was spent with the big German soldier. I was a total fucking badass with him in most matches. I was aggressive, I was fast and I overwhelmed the other team often. I was a bit reckless too... For example, in the first few minute of a payload match on Route 66, I went around the enemy team and charged into a well positioned Bastion. I held on tight and ran him into the nearby cliff, killing both of us in the process. But it was exactly what my team needed to push forward and get out of the first section.

I kill a Mei and Lucio on the point with Reinhardt's ultimate

I also used my ultimate liberally, sometimes even for a single player. Sometimes, that wasn't the right decision, but most of the time, it was the little extra that the team needed to progress. I had a really great game where a Lucio was healing us and a Zarya was doing some secondary tanking. As usual, there were many last second victories, all of it more exciting than ever!

As Lucio, I did pretty damn well also. He works best when the team he can shoot his little gun from safety into a chokepoint, healing at the same time. His ultimate is a real game changer that can save an entire team from an enemy onslaught. The only thing that really bugs me about Lucio is the way his weapon fires in 4 round bursts. It makes it more difficult to aim than Mercy's blaster. I was good with him though, winning the rounds where I used him.

Overwatch

Date played: June 28th
Platform: PS4

I had a great time with Overwatch last night and for the first time in a while, I haven't played a single game as Reinhardt. It's not that I don't like him anymore or anything, it's more that I've been experimenting with Zarya a lot. I played with both of my brothers over the course of the evening, and my best game was when I was Zarya attacking on Hollywood, with my brother playing Mercy.

It was a hard fought battle, but holy shit was it satisfying. While Zarya is very difficult to play well, when she clicks, she fucking clicks. Her gun can be a motherfucking monster when it's fully charged up, and good shield timing can be the difference between a win and a loss. On top of that, her ultimate is very fun to use.

Feels good man, feels good.

Of course, it really helped that my brother was healing me, or even boosting my damage when appropriate. Without a healer, Zarya's survivability can be an issue. For example, she can't win a one on one with Reinhardt and she gets fucked up rather quickly by Widowmaker. Zarya is a front line fighter who gets into people's faces and melts their skulls with her laser beam. This makes the action completely frantic and highly stressful, but also very rewarding. She works best when there is another tank to help, but she can handle herself alone.

I love her ultimate also. It gathers every nearby enemy onto a small area, making them prime targets for area damage, such as Zarya's own grenades, or others like Junkrat and Pharah. I got a play of the game by doing exactly that on top of the capture point on Hollywood. I then spammed grenades into the bunch and killed 4 enemies in the process. It's very satisfying.

I also had a few solid matches as Mercy, but nothing out of the ordinary. I can't wait to play more of Zarya and get better with her.

Overwatch

Date played: June 27th
Platform: PS4

I had a hard time winning last night, but holy shit did I try hard! I played mostly as Mercy, though I also spent a lot of time with Zarya, but I'll get back to that. As Mercy, I played well I think, at least, for most of my games. Last night's best match had me defending as Mercy. We had a Reinhardt, Bastion, Widowmaker, Junkrat and Pharah, so a pretty balanced team. The Reinhardt was very smart, and the rest of the team was good enough to know they should stay behind him. We fucking slaughtered the other team. They weren't a bad team either, they had very solid pushes and good coordination, but we were just a little bit better.

Unfortunately, that was the highlight of my evening, as I lost many many times otherwise. I actually experimented quite a bit with Zarya, so that might not have helped my chances of winning, though I'm getting better with her.

Zarya is a very different type of tank. She doesn't have as much health as the other tanks, but half of it is shields that recharge. Her bubble shield can be applied to others or to myself, with a relatively short cooldown. It absorbs 200 damage, but only lasts 2 seconds. It also boosts the damage of her weapon for a short time. So the trick with her is to intentionally go into the fray, take damage with the shield up, then damage people with her laser or grenades.

I'm falling in love with Zarya

She can go down pretty quickly, but when her cannon is fully charged, it's a fucking monster! Her ultimate is cool, but a bit difficult to use. It launches a gravity well that pulls every enemy in range into a very small space for a short time. When combined with her grenades, or better yet, with an ultimate from someone on my team, it's devastating. However, without support from the team, it's rather weak.

After a few matches, I started getting the hang of her and did really well. I love playing as her a lot and I think she'll become one of my favorite heroes, after Reinhardt and Mercy. She's powerful, but very hard to use well.

Life Is Strange

Date played: June 26th
Platform: PS4

I finished Life Is Strange!

I had left off as Max was being honored for her photograph at a famous art gallery in San Francisco. After a few discussions with the attendees and a heartfelt talk with the principal, Max noticed she had a bunch of missed calls from Chloe. When she called her back, she learned that the storm was real and that Chloe was in grave danger, so she used her prize winning picture to go back in time.

Things got really screwy here though. The different alternate realities were all confused and it was difficult to make sense of things. In fact, when she woke up, Max was sitting in the Dark Room, tied up and at the mercy of Mr. Jefferson. After a brief conversation, it became evident that he was about to kill Max by overdose. That's when the door opened and David showed up to save the day!

Unfortunately, Mr. Jefferson heard him and knocked him out. I used my rewind power to try to save David. The winning formula had me begging my captor to take a last picture of me. I then warned David as he came in, which was enough for him to overpower Mr. Jefferson and knock him out. I then had a long conversation with David, apologized to him and thanked him profusely for saving my life. He's a genuinely good person, he's just really rude and shitty about how he talks to others.

When he asked about Chloe, I decided to tell him the truth. That she had been killed in the junkyard by Mr. Jefferson. He was fucking devastated, and didn't hesitate to pull his gun and shoot the murderer in the head, killing him instantly. Max, intent on saving Chloe from her death, knew of only one photo that could help her, a photo Warren took the night of the party.

The problem is that the storm was real, and highly dangerous. Arcadia Bay is in danger, people are locking themselves in their homes as the city is being destroyed by the storm. Max hopped into Mr. Jefferson's car and headed for the Whales Diner to find Warren and the picture. When I reached town, it became clear that just getting to the diner would be difficult, as debris and fire were blocking the way.

I spent some time helping some people here, using my rewind power when possible. Some were trapped, others were in immediate physical danger, and I managed to save most of them. When I finally reached the diner, I found Warren, Joyce and Frank holed up in there, trying to survive the storm. I had a conversation with both Joyce and Frank, then went to see Warren about the picture.

This was one of my favorite scenes in the game. Max decided to confide in Warren and explain everything that happened. He was very receptive and supportive. His scientific mind worked quickly, and he came to the conclusion that the storm was all a result of Max using her power that first time in the school's bathroom. After a heartfelt hug, she took the photo and went back to the night of the party.

Max and Chloe had a very difficult conversation here. I had to pick all the right dialog choices to convince her that she shouldn't attack Nathan, or Mr. Jefferson. This required that I reveal what happened when I saved her father, including the wheelchair incident. Chloe was very understanding, and backed off.

The game then jumped back to the present, with Max and Chloe near the lighthouse in the heart of the storm. As they were discussing their recent experiences, Max zoned out and found herself back in the classroom on that first day. This was easily the weirdest sequence in the game, as Max was hallucinating and reliving some of the more significant events of the game. Shit looked weird, doors led to areas that make no sense and everything was just fucking crazy.

At one point, I had to unlock a bathroom door with a code. In another area, I had to sneak through a maze, avoiding people who were searching for me. Hell, there was even a confrontation with myself in the diner! People close to Max were insulting her, treating her like shit and blaming her for everything, including Chloe. After many of these crazy hallucinations, Max woke up with Chloe near the lighthouse again.

Chloe realized that she had been cheating death for a while, and that thanks to Max, she was still alive, but the entire city was about to be destroyed. She pulled out a photo from her pocket, the blue butterfly picture that Max had taken in the bathroom on that first day. I had to make a choice. I had to choose to either go back in time and let Chloe die in the bathroom, shot by Nathan, or to continue saving Chloe, sacrificing the town in the process. They kissed, admitted their love to each other, and said their goodbyes.

Max and Chloe finally admit their love for each other

For me, it wasn't a hard decision. I knew Chloe was defying fate, and the greater good had to prevail. I decided to let Chloe die in the bathroom. While my choice was clear, going through that scene was incredibly difficult. Chloe's lifeless body lay on the floor of the bathroom as Max wept... It was a very emotional scene.

From this point, I was pretty much crying the entire time. The city was saved, but Chloe is dead, and in this timeline, she never even saw Max. She never learns what happened to Rachel. She believes that she is alone, that no one loves her and that she is worthless. It was heart breaking. The funeral scene was accompanied by a wonderful song, with every major character present at the scene. Even Frank was there, hiding in the bushes.

After the credits rolled, the stats showed me that about half of players chose to save Chloe, and the other half chose to save Arcadia Bay. I know I made the right choice, but it doesn't mean it didn't hurt. Just like in life, sometimes, the hardest decisions are the ones that force you to think of the greater good, rather than emotional safety.

Life Is Strange was a wonderful video game. It tackled topics that are very rare in this medium such as death, drug abuse, rape, torture, bullying and suicide. It dealt with these topics in a mature way, propelled by the deep, well developed characters. I wish more video games were as emotionally demanding. This game was hard to play, but very much worth my time.

God of War: Ghost of Sparta

Date played: June 26th
Platform: Vita

I finished Ghost of Sparta!

Man, I realize how much I've missed playing a mindless, violent action game. I spilled some guts, I split monsters in half, I stabbed a few cyclops in the eye and decapitated some gorgons. It all looks spectacular and is very satisfying.

The last few sections of the game featured the sunken city of Atlantis and the depths of Hell. Unsurprisingly, there were many swimming segments in Atlantis, where strong currents created some interesting little puzzles. The story has been simple throughout, with Kratos searching for his long lost brother Deimos. After hours of glorious, challenging battles, Kratos finally finds him.

Unfortunately, Deimos holds a grudge against Kratos because he feels like he was abandoned, so they fight. Just as Kratos is about to die to Deimos' cruel, vicious attacks, Thanatos, the personification of death itself, showed up and attacked the violent man. Deimos seemed to forget his hate for Kratos and paired up with him to battle against Thanatos.

Deimos

This final battle was really cool. At the press of a button, I could order Deimos to attack Thanatos with his spear. This created some great moments as Deimos saved Kratos from death multiple times. Thanatos transformed into a giant demon creature midway through the fight. I battled it hard, using all of my strongest attacks, and eventually defeated him. In the process, Deimos was also killed.

Ghost of Sparta is a simple game, but it's a hell of a fucking ride. It's always fun to battle against mythical creatures like this, and I can't wait for the next game in the series. I also have God of War Ascension on PS3 that I never played, so I might try that one sometime.

Overwatch

Date played: June 26th
Platform: PS4

I didn't get to play much Overwatch yesterday, but I had a few good matches as both Reinhardt and Mercy. At one point, I was in a team that decided it would be a good idea to have 3 Genjis, a Hanzo and a Bastion on attack... I began the match with Zenyatta, but that didn't really work, so I switched to Winston. That didn't work either since my team was a bunch of chicken shits who didn't go on the objective. I switched to Reinhardt and turned the tide of battle in our favor. I charged the point, I killed motherfuckers and we eventually won the round. It was almost a miracle, considering my team was pretty much useless before I switched. We still lost the match, but it was a valiant effort.

Later, I played a good match as Mercy on Gibraltar defense. I actually got quite a few kills here again, using her deceptively powerful pistol. Later, on Anubis defense, I had a really good game as Reinhardt. We had two Mei's on the team and a Symmetra, but no healer. This meant that we had excellent defense, but when the opposing team broke through, it hurt. Thankfully, Symmetra's teleporter was up, so we were back in the battle quickly. My best play was a triple kill on a McCree, Junkrat and Mercy as they tried to flank us. They didn't think I would come up behind them, stun them with my Earthshatter ultimate and charge in!

Triple kill!

I also had a really fun match as Mercy where we had two Winstons on our team, attacking Anubis. This worked surprisingly well, with the two Winstons going in at the same time. Together, they are very difficult to stop. I had a clucth revive that won us the match at the end.

God of War: Ghost of Sparta

Date played: June 25th
Platform: Vita

It's been a long time since I've played a high quality 3D game on a portable system. There's just not that many... I've played a shit ton of Ghost of Sparta yesterday, completing a battle or two when time permitted, then putting the machine down. That's the part I love about portable games. Sure, the game would look better on a console, but I couldn't play it for 2 minutes then let it go.

Kratos is an angry motherfucker

Either way, I made huge progress through the game. I've unlocked every ability and I'm pretty sure I'm now in the last third of the game, or further. I've also upgraded my main weapon to maximum, as well as a few other skills.

I've got some chain lightning magic, a weird orb that damage enemies and holds them in place, and a magic hammer that turns enemies to stone for a short period. I also have the ability to imbue my weapon with fire, which deals more damage, and is needed against armored enemies. I also have a new weapon, a shield and spear, though I really don't like it that much. The combos with it aren't as fun, and it's only been useful in a few specific areas where the shield is required.

The real fun of the game comes from combat. I've fought countless mystical creatures, like Cyclops, Minotaurs, Gorgons, Harpies, skeletons, Satyrs and rabid hounds. The boss fights are amazing also. I fought a giant lion and a death phoenix. The phoenix even had a whole free falling sequence as Kratos chases the legendary bird through the sky.

The graphics of the game are absolutely spectacular, considering this game came out in 2010 on the PSP, no less. Now I wish they had made a God of War game on the Vita... The music is as dark and brooding as ever. The sounds of bloody intestines being pulled out of a creature's body are appropriately disgusting. This game is very well made.

The story still doesn't really make sense, but I understood that Kratos is trying to find his brother Deimos in the depths of hell. For some crazy reason, there was a sequence where I met with King Midas, the man who turned everything he touched into gold. I threw him in a river to make a path...  I'm really loving this game, and while it looks to be rather short, it's been a great experience.

Overwatch

Date played: June 25th
Platform: PS4

I was on fire last night, as both Reinhardt and Mercy! While I didn't win them all, I won a lot of them with smart play from my favorite tank and healer. As Reinhardt, I battled against other Reinhardts a lot, and won those battles almost every time. It seems like the ones I encountered weren't very experienced with him, so I was easily able to avoid their fire strikes and charges while retaliating with strong attacks.

I got a couple of these last night

As Mercy, I had an epic game where I had something like 20 kills. Instead of damage boosting someone, sometimes, I'll just pull out my pistol. Combined with a decent team, this creates opportunities for incredible kill streaks as Mercy. I shoot through Reinhardt's shield, or defend myself against a flanking Tracer or Genji with my pistol drawn, and I kill more often than you might expect for a healer. In my best match, I got a triple kill by shooting people in the feet from under the payload. The payload floats a little bit off the ground, just enough so that if I crouch, I can shoot enemies in their legs from behind the safety of the payload.

I also spent some time trying out a couple of new heroes, playing one round as Mei and one as Zarya. Mei is very difficult to use well, though she can hold a point really well with her freezing ability. The hardest part of using her is landing good hits with the icicle gun. It hits pretty hard, but it has a very slow rate of fire and is rather hard to aim. I like her, but she'll take a lot of practice for me to be any good with her.

Zarya is very interesting, and I definitely want to try her some more. Her cannon is very good at offering support fire from the back lines, so she works best with another tank like Reinhardt or D.Va. Her close range laser is good too, but it has medium range and has to be "charged up" by absorbing damage with Zarya's shields. I didn't do great with Zarya, but I will try her again that's for sure. 

Ratchet & Clank

Date played: June 24th
Platform: PS4

My daughter and I have been enjoying our vacation time together, doing a ton of fun activities together. This also means that we were pretty low on energy yesterday, so we stayed home and did some more quiet stuff, including a level of Ratchet & Clank.

Ratchet and the Galactic Rangers assault enemy headquarters on planet Quartu. Visually, this level was a lot less interesting than the previous ones, mainly because it's set on a dark planet filled with machinery and a general industrial look. Thankfully, the action was still great. After a brief platforming section as Ratchet, Clank had his time to shine. There was a rather long section where Clank had to use bots as bridges, jumping platforms and power supplies to progress. The puzzles were interesting and really fun.

Then, Ratchet got into a huge boss battle against Mrs. Zurkon, a giant robot that is responsible for the creation of my favorite character in the whole series, Mr. Zurkon. This battle was challenging! Mrs. Zurkon hovers in the air and shoots out highly dangerous projectiles. She also summons dozens of Mr. Zurkons and can build herself a powerful shield.

Ratchet celebrates the death of Mrs. Zurkon

Thankfully, I had my jetpack ready to go, so most of this was an aerial battle. I used a combination of the Groovitron dance ball, the Warmonger rocket and Mr. Zurkon to deal most of the damage. The Warmonger is a very satisfying weapon to use. It hits really fucking hard, it's accurate and it creates pretty explosions. I died once, but was successful on the second attempt.

After destroying Mrs. Zurkon, the Galactic Rangers discovered that the bad guys were planning on destroying a planet, then rebuilding it for their own needs with the help of a device called the deplanetizer. Of course, this meant going to the deplanetizer and taking care of business on site. When we got there, there was an aerial ship battle waiting for us. I fought a giant spaceship by firing missiles at it while dodging it's attacks and destroying it's missiles. It was very pretty and lots of fun to play. Next time, we'll try to destroy the device!

The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes

Date played: June 24th
Platform: 3DS

My friend asked me to play Triforce Heroes, so I played a couple of levels in the Volcano world. The first one was rather simple, but it introduced the boomerang. What's really cool about the boomerang in this game is that it can grab another player and carry them over gaps. This creates some pretty fun scenarios.

The real action was in the second level though. In a dungeon filled with dangerous lava, a little mine cart served as our main base of operations. The cart traveled through the dungeon and we had to use a combination of the boomerang and the bow to progress. Because the cart is in perpetual movement, it makes it rather difficult to aim, but also rewarding when we succeeded.

This boss battle was rather difficult

The boss battle was very difficult here. A bad guy was on another mine cart which followed a path parallel to ours. The creature threw bombs at us, which we had to throw back at him. The problem is that when picking up bombs, it's rather easy to pick up another player instead, resulting in inevitable damage, or worse, a player being throw into the lava by accident. We lost all three of our lives here, but finally managed to get it on the fourth try. 

Overwatch

Date played: June 24th
Platform: PS4

Mercy is a cold blooded killer, at least, when I play her.  I played a bit with my brother yesterday, and had a few matches as Reinhardt, then a few as Mercy. I was a good Reinhardt, making clutch plays at the end of rounds and generally helping my team win.

Mercy is more dangerous than she looks

As Mercy, I was very strong. I did the usual healing and reviving, but what made me great with her is all the kills I got. People underestimate Mercy's pistol all the time, thinking she is harmless. However, it's a powerful tool that can wither away enemy health behind a Reinhardt shield, or in close combat against heroes like Tracer, Junkrat, McCree, Reaper, Genji, Hanzo, Widowmaker and others. In one match, I had 20 eliminations as Mercy, while still doing some great healing. Shit, I even got a triple kill with her when defending a point, winning us the game. I love to play Mercy aggressively.

God of War: Ghost of Sparta

Date played: June 23rd
Platform: Vita

I pulled my Vita out of retirement. It's been a while since I played something on it, but I had been meaning to download Axiom Verge to it for a while. So I charged the device, booted it up and downloaded a few games, including Ghost of Sparta, a PSP game that had been free on PS+ a while ago.

There have been 2 God of War games on PSP and I had fucking loved the first one, Chains of Olympus, when it first came out. I had always meant to play the sequel, Ghost of Sparta, but never got around to it. I've loved every God of War game, so I wasn't too surprised at myself when I had a ton of fun with Ghost of Sparta right away.

Honestly, I have no fucking clue what's happening in the story. The little bits of story that are presented are incoherent, and quite simply, irrelevant. This game is all about glorious combat and bloody death. All I understood is that Kratos, the hero, has visions and wants to stop them. To do this, he goes to Atlantis and the temple of Poseidon.

The game opens with Kratos on a ship, fighting some little monster men. Combat is simple, but has depth. There's a light attack, a heavy attack, a grab, a dodge, a block and a jump. Combined together, this makes for some really fun combat, which was always the best part of God of War. After dispatching the little monsters, the ship was attacked by a giant sea creature named Scylla. It has tentacles, is huge, and spawns little spider-like creatures to attack Kratos. After fighting this beast a few times as I moved through the ship, I eventually chopped off a couple of tentacles, though it's not dead yet. The deadly beast is still lurking in the waters nearby.

Eventually, I got off the ship into the temple of Poseidon. I fought many monsters here and solved a couple of simple puzzles. The two most interesting battles had me fight a Minotaur and a Cyclops respectively. The Minotaur hits hard and moves rather quickly, but was easy to block. The Cyclops is slower, but can't be easily blocked. Instead, I had to dodge, then hit him with my chains when I could. This led to Kratos stabbing the motherfucker in the eye with his chains, resulting in a sea of spurting blood. I'm glad to finally be playing this game.

Overwatch

Date played: June 23rd
Platform: PS4

I played a bit of Overwatch last night and got pretty lucky with having healers in most matches, so that was nice. I played Reinhardt for most of the evening, with a few matches as Mercy. I also dabbled with Lucio and Winston, but not for very long.

One match was absolutely horrible. We were on defense on a capture point map, and our tank was a Roadhog, so I went with Mercy to keep him alive. That motherfucker was no where near the action, I was healing a fucking Torbjorn since he was the only one near the objective. The Roadhog soon disappeared completely, sitting in a corner, until he was kicked off the server for inactivity. Needless to say, that was one of the quickest losses I've had.

I played against an amazing Reaper, I wish he had been on my team instead!

Later, I was playing pretty damn well, we had good team composition and things looked like they should go well. However, the opposing team had the best Reaper player I've ever seen! This guy got something like 35 kills, was always in a great position and was very accurate with his shotguns. I think that dude won the game almost on his own.

I had good plays throughout the evening. At one point, I got a quadruple kill with Reinhardt. As Mercy, I revived 3 players while on the objective, which gave us the win. It was a fun night of Overwatch, that's for sure.

Soul eating worms and car soccer

Eat me Nidhogg! Give me glory!

Date played: June 21st
Platform: PS4

I went to visit my brother last night who had a few friends over and we ended up playing a bit of Nidhogg and Rocket League. Nidhogg was a real hit with the group. We fenced, we jumped, we dodged and we pulled each other's hearts out for a good little while. I was pretty good of course, since I have lots of practice with the game. I still had a bit of a challenge from my friends, and lost a couple of matches. The evening's running joke became to congratulate people on being gloriously eaten by the Nidhogg whenever a match ended.

We also played two quick games of Rocket League. There's been a pretty big update to the game that added some cosmetic items and a really cool "victory screen" at the end of a match that highlights the winning team. We lost our first match 5-1, but we were rusty. We played against the same team in our second match and won 3-2. It was close, but our skills were starting to show. That's all we had time for, but it was a real blast. 

Overwatch

Date played: June 20th and 21st
Platform: PS4 and PC

I love Overwatch. I really do. I tank or heal and barely ever play defense or attack characters. Still, even with that, I often find myself in groups that refuse to play as healers or tanks. This means that way too often, I'm a healer without a tank or a tank without a healer.

There always seems to be a Genji, a McCree, a Reaper, a Tracer, a Widowmaker, a Hanzo, a Junkrat. I think people don't want to win. I'm really good at both healing and tanking, but I can't do either without someone else picking up the other role. I still had a few amazing matches, including one where we had a good Symmetra while I played as Reinhardt. She was good with putting up teleporters, so that sort of mitigated the lack of a healer, and we won. So it's possible to win without a healer, but it's extraordinary.

I played with one of my brothers for a while, and with one of my friends also. I even tried the new weekly brawl, but it was awful. The brawl limits character selection to defensive heroes only. I picked Bastion and Junkrat, but it was fucking hopeless. It was still funny to see a bunch of defensive characters try to capture a point though.

Overwatch

Date played: June 19th and 20th
Platform: PS4

Well, Overwatch has pretty much taken over my entire gaming time. The fact that I can play it with my brothers helps a lot of course... We also have a new player, a friend, who bought the game recently. He likes to play mostly as Roadhog, but also seems pretty good with Pharah. As Roadhog, he's pretty good overall, getting lots of hooks and positioning himself rather well overall.

This also means that I end up healing more often than tanking these days. It kind of sucks honestly, since I really like to play as Reinhardt, but we seem to always be missing a fucking healer... On the bright side, I'm a real badass with Mercy now. I heal everyone that stays with the group, I keep tanks up through insane damage pushes and I revive people often. I don't "conserve" my ultimate with Mercy because it charges very quickly and makes a huge difference in the match. I even bought a cool skin for her!

Games like these are why I love playing Reinhardt

My real love is for Reinhardt though. I finally had enough credits to buy a legendary skin, so I bought Stoneheart, a piece of armor that looks like it's made of stone and exposes the big German's face. When I play him, if we have a healer, I can change the entire tide of battle by pushing those pesky offensive characters back with my huge shield. I'm also more offensive than ever with him. A well timed offensive push with Reinhardt can be terrifying for the enemy team.

My brothers are still using the same characters. One is often Widowmaker or Junkrat, though he's played Mercy a few times, while the other will usually play Tracer, Pharah, Soldier, Lucio or Mercy. I love it when he plays the support classes, he's a smart player, so we usually end up coordinating very well together.

Ratchet & Clank

Date played: June 19th
Platform: PS4

Yesterday was father's day and I spent my all of my time with my 6 year old daughter. We spent some time playing through one planet of Ratchet & Clank together, Pokitaru. This place is a beautiful tropical island resort. Unfortunately, the bad guys have sent water harvesters, large ships that scoop out water from the ocean, which is very bad for the little tourist planet.

Ratchet got some help from a local dude so that he could upgrade his ship and destroy the water harvesters. There is a lot of water on this level, lots of stuff to find underwater. The local predatory fish enjoy jumping out of water and attacking Ratchet. Thankfully, they are easily dispatched with the pixelizer, the game's shotgun equivalent. I also fought the large tentacled monsters a few times, usually with the help of Mr. Zurkon and my big fucking rocket launcher!

Pokitaru is beautiful, even when it's being invaded by water harvesters

When we got the upgrade for the ship, I also received an upgrade to Clank that turns his helicopter blades into jet engines, boosting Ratchet's mobility. The next sequence had me blowing up the water harvesters in a very cool air battle. After saving the planet, I completed a side mission where I had to kill a whole bunch of green, blobby enemies. My daughter and I had lots of fun watching these guys dance to the beat of the Groovitron! The animation is fantastic and fun to watch.

I reached the next planet, where Ratchet and the other Galactic Rangers assault the bad guy home base, but had to stop playing. This should be awesome!

Overwatch

Date played: June 18th
Platform: PS4

I played a ton of Overwatch again yesterday. For the first time, I got to play with two of my brothers at the same time! All three of us are objective players, meaning we don't go off chasing after useless targets. On top of that, we're all pretty good, and we had voice chat on top of it. Even though we only got to play 4 matches together, we completely obliterated the other teams and won all our games.

I'm really good with Reinhardt

I used Reinhardt for two games, Winston for one, and Mercy for one. One of my bros used Soldier, Lucio and Zenyatta, while the other alternated between Widowmaker, Junkrat and Reinhardt.  We made a really amazing team together. Some of the games were really fucking hard to win, but we did it. Communication helps a whole lot... I'm finding myself being more offensive than even before when using Reinhardt, now that I have a lot of experience with him. I know his limits, I know his strengths, I know when to push, and I know when to back the fuck away. It's very rare that I meet a Reinhardt that matches me on the battlefield.

I had a really good match as Winston on a king of the hill map. I even managed to throw 3 or 4 guys off the map to their deaths with my ultimate. The hardest part of playing Winston is getting out of a brawl alive. I have to get out just a tad earlier than I want to, otherwise a stray shot or two will take me out as I leap away. I love Winston.

Later, I continued playing with one of them and again, we made a great team, though we lost quite a bit. I still feel like we played really well together. I believe I'm a really good Reinhardt and Mercy, and getting better and better with Winston. My brother is very strong with Pharah, Soldier and is improving with D.Va. Overwatch is amazing, but it's even better when playing with a group. I love playing this game with my bros!

Overwatch

Date played: June 17th
Platform: PS4

One of my brothers came over last night and brought his PS4 to play some Overwatch with me. We had two TV's and 2 PS4's in the same room, so we played all evening together! It was so fucking awesome, this was the most fun I've had with Overwatch since I bought it.

We played a wide variety of characters, switching around as needed. I played a lot of Reinhardt, Mercy and Winston, with a bit of Symmetra once in a while. My brother used Reinhardt, Mercy, D. Va, Pharah and a lot of Zenyatta.

While the usual Reinhardt/Mercy combo still worked wonderfully for us, regardless of who was doing what, we really clicked later in the evening when we went Winston/Zenyatta. These guys work surprisingly well together. Zenyatta's discord orb, healing and high damage output combined with Winston's high health, barrier shield and close range mayhem creates some amazing synergy. My bro would send a discord orb on a squishie, like McCree or Genji. Then he would send me a healing and I would jump the attacker, set up my bubble and shot my Tesla cannon. Even though it's a low damage weapon, the discord orb makes it powerful enough to take out a squishie in one attack.

I fell in love with Winston last night

I've also surprised Hanzo's and Widowmakers with Winston, who don't stand a chance if they're isolated. Winston has become one of my favorite characters to play after Reinhardt and Mercy. I'm getting the hang of using his ultimate too... Since it restores full health, I often use it when I am almost dead, then I smack the enemy team around, then jump out when things get too dangerous. I've often managed to keep an entire team occupied while my team captures a point or moves the payload. Winston is highly mobile, very sturdy and many classes don't really know how to react to him. I'm definitely going to play more of him.

Together, me and my brother won many, many matches last night. Most of them in fact. He's a smart player, so he takes real advantage of Reinhardt's shield, regardless of which class he uses. I've seen him decimate most of the enemy team as he stood behind my shield as Pharah. I see a lot of Pharah's just jumping around and flying high, only to get picked off easily by Soldiers, Bastions, Widows and other offensive heroes. But Pharah is at her best when protected because, well, she shoots motherfucking rockets. Then when a clean opportunity presents itself, she can jump in and take care of a fleeing enemy or a flanker. My brother plays Pharah very well.

He was interesting to watch as D.Va too. At one point, I played Winston beside his D.Va and it was a fun way to jump into the enemy front line and wreck havoc. As for myself, I'm finding that I'm really fucking good at controlling space and denying enemy movement, regardless of which class I play. I think I have to try Mei, since she fits right in with my play style.

I really hope I get to do something like this again, it was an absolute blast to play with my brother while in the same room. Obviously, communication was really good between us also, which gave us a huge advantage. Go Winston! 

Overwatch

Date played: June 16th
Platform: PS4

I had another fun evening of Overwatch, some of it with one of my brothers. I played a healthy mix of Reinhardt and Mercy, though I also had a fun match as Symmetra on defense. There were a few appropriate rooms for setting up her turrets, the teleporter was as valuable as ever and her long range orb projectiles can shut down a chock point pretty well.

I had a really good play with her when a Reaper and a Lucio entered my turret nest of a room. Confused, they looked around, trying to find my well hidden turrets, so I charged in and added my weapon's primary fire to the mix. I melted the Reaper in a few seconds, then took the Lucio. It was a very satisfying moment.

Symmetra's nest of death destroys Reaper and Lucio

When I played with my brother, I showed him what a real tank looks like on the battlefield by dominating with Reinhardt while he was alternating between Junkrat and Widowmaker. He also played one match as Mercy, and one match as Reinhardt to get a better feel for how tanking and healing work in this game. He was a pretty good Reinhardt, but struggled with Mercy a bit. Obviously, he has a lot to learn still, but he's learning fast. I had a really fun time keeping him alive as Mercy while he was Reinhardt.

Our best match was when we played Illios. I was Reinhardt and he was Junkrat. We captured both points easily, even getting a shutout in both rounds. We completely overpowered the other team... I'm pretty good at being well positioned with Rein, while he lobbed and endless stream of grenades towards the doors used by the enemy. It worked so fucking well, I was surprised. Most Junkrats are afraid to be close to the front line like this, I think they don't trust their tanks, but since we have voice communication, it was easy to warn my bro or threats.

I want to play with my bros some more!

Overwatch

Date played: June 15th
Platform: PC and PS4

Once again, I played a lot of Overwatch last night. First, I played on PC with my friend, and we tried this week's brawl where EVERYONE is Soldier 76. It was as completely ridiculous as it sounds. It actually felt a lot like a cheap rip off of Call of Duty... It was fun honestly, but I wouldn't play that for too long. At first, I sucked, but after a few minutes, I was using the Soldier's range to my advantage, and played a bit more like I play COD. Headshots are key of course...

After this dumb mode, we went back to the normal playlist. I played a lot of Reinhardt, but also a lot of Mercy. At this point, it's almost like I'm playing about 40% Reinhardt, 40% Mercy and 20% others, like Winston or Symmetra. Honestly, I would prefer playing more Reinhardt, but there just aren't a lot of people that heal in this game, and I want to win, so I fucking heal. Thankfully, I was pretty damn good at it last night, getting many quality plays, all of it near the objective. I made many solid plays with Mercy throughout the evening. I even had a few moments where I flew up to my buddy's Pharah, damage boosted him, then healed him in mid-air. It was glorious.

Later, I played with one of my brothers on PS4. It was our first time playing together, and he hasn't played a lot yet, so we had many fun discussions. He played Widowmaker for most of the matches, though he also messed around with Reaper. I'm not surprised at all, since he's always been kind of a camper in shooters. He's been a sniper in Battlefield, and would use semi-auto rifles in COD, so Widowmaker makes sense.

My brother and I get ready for the match

He's also a pretty damn good shot, so if he can play Widow how she is meant to be played, I'll be happy to heal or tank. In one payload match, he even got the play of the game, in large parts because of me! A genji was flanking us and no one noticed him except me, playing Mercy. I pulled out my fucking pistol again and shot the dude in the head a few times. It was enough to get him to come out. My brother noticed him and shot him dead. I then healed my wounded bro and gave him a damage boost, which gave him a couple more kills.

I really liked playing with my brother, and I can't wait for us to have a game where the 3 of us are all online together, it will be ridiculous...

Overwatch

Date played: June 14th
Platform: PC and PS4

I've been sick for the last few days, so I haven't played as much as I would like, but I still managed a few games between long naps and long periods of complete inactivity... This means I had a few rough matches, since my body isn't at it's best, but I got better eventually.

Most of my time was spent with Reinhardt, but I also played with Lucio, Symmetra, and lots of Mercy. I was a real fucking badass with Reinhardt. I'm using him more aggressively than before, since he can wreck real havoc, but he's not invincible, so I still have to be cautious.

In one match, on Temple of Anubis, I had a really good Mercy player with me who kept me alive, but also boosted my damage when I went swinging with the hammer. At one point, I kept the opponents at bay at the door right after the first objective by doing a ranged fire strike, charging in, swinging the hammer like crazy, then retreating with my shield up as Mercy followed me. It was so awesome, all thanks to that Mercy who was top notch. I also had a good payload match where our Bastion was set up on top of the payload, while I protected him with my shield. It was kind of ridiculous...

I had a few good matches using Symmetra on defense. I also tried her on attack, but she really struggles aside from her long range orb and her teleporter. The turrets are really much better on defense. I love playing Symmetra though, she's so much fun. Setting up turrets in the right spot, then peppering the chokepoints with giant energy orbs is really satisfying.

I'm starting to be really fucking good with Mercy now. I'm discovering that her ultimate, which revives nearby heroes, recharges very quickly, so it's often not a bad idea to resurect someone who died, even if it's not during a crucial moment. Chances are, the ultimate will be charged up for next time. Her damage boosting ability is very strong with high damage heroes like Soldier 76, Widowmaker, Hanzo, Reaper and Pharah. It also works quite well on a rampaging Reinhardt or a Roadhog during his ultimate.

Battle Angel

However, what really clicked for me with Mercy is her pistol. Previously, I had almost completely ignored it, thinking it was mostly useless. However, with headshots, that thing can take out most offense characters pretty quickly, and most people aren't expecting Mercy to shoot them down. In one match, I had 10 blaster kills, including killing a full health Reaper and a Genji during his ultimate. I even got a Widowmaker at range... I'm loving Mercy, and I think I may like her more than Lucio in most scenarios now.

Finally, at the end of the evening, I had a weird fucking match. We were on point defense, and I had picked Mercy. However, when I saw that we had 3 Torbjorn's on the team, I figured I might as well join in on the fun and picked the little dwarf also. Then, the other two players picked him too! We played a full match with 6 Torbjorns, and of course, 6 turrets. The funny thing is, we won. Easily. The other team wasn't very well organized, and they weren't very smart, but they didn't even make a dent in our team's defense. I even got a stupid play of the game while I was doing practically nothing. Torbjorn is dumb.

Overwatch

Date played: June 10th and 11th
Platform: PC

I played lots of Overwatch again last night. Most of my time was spent with Reinhardt, though I also messed around with Mercy, Lucio and Winston. I wasn't as good as usual though, maybe I was too tired or something. I had a few really good ones as Reinhardt, mostly on king of the hill maps. I struggled a bit with Mercy, though I had a few good ones. Lucio is always reliable and fun, but I didn't play him too much.

Winston is really fun, but challenging to play

Winston is still the one that gives me the most trouble. I really want to get better with him though, since he can be very disruptive to a well organized team. Funny enough, I had a lot of fun killing Winston as Reinhardt last night... It was a king of the hill map, and the other team had a Winston who would often pop his ultimate while on the point. This was a perfect opportunity to charge right into him and either kill him with a pin, or fly him off the map. I fact, I ran him off the map three times while he was in rage mode, so that was a lot of fun!

Overwatch

Date played: June 9th
Platform: PC and PS4

Once again, I played a ton of Overwatch last night, some of it with my friend and a few of his friends, then later with my brother. With my friend, we ended up in a group of 4, all with voice chat, so that was a really cool experience. We did rather well overall. I was using Reinhardt and my buddy healed for a bit with Mercy, then later played with Pharah. I even got a play of the game with the big tank, so that was fun. My friend also received a great play of the game as Pharah where he killed a bunch of people on the capture point on Illios.

Throughout the evening, I had a few nice games with Lucio, including a few kills where I pushed people into bottomless pits, it's a very satisfying move. The highlight of the evening was when I messed around with Winston and Mercy. I'm getting much better with both of them.

Winston is all about getting in, messing with people, then jumping out. I've found him really good at taking care of squishy heroes, including the fast ones, with his Tesla Cannon. I've murdered countless Tracers, Symmetra's and Genji's with him. I also find him pretty good at fighting Reinhardt's who have their shields up. The only problem I have with Winston is that I'm not very good with his ultimate yet, but I'll keep practicing. He's really fun to play.

I'm getting more comfortable with Mercy

Mercy is very powerful also. I'm getting the hang of avoiding enemies by flying to nearby teammates and floating around while healing. Her pistol is surprisingly useful in a few situations too, like taking out turrets from behind a Reinhardt who has his shield up. Her damage boosting ability is very strong with high damage characters like Soldier 76, Reaper, Pharah and Bastion.

I even got a play of the game with her by reviving 3 teammates while we were defending the payload. It turned the tide of battle and led to our victory. I want to play more Mercy for sure.

Overwatch

Date played: June 8th
Platform: PC and PS4

As usual, I played a lot of Overwatch last night, some of it with my friend on PC. I played a lot of Reinhardt, and some Lucio and was pretty good as usual. However, there's a major problem with Overwatch, and it's that too many people want to play offensive characters, or even defensive characters. There simply aren't enough tanks and healers.

I pretty much play exclusively as healers or tanks, but even then, it happens way too often that I'll pick a tank, and we get no healers, or I'll pick a healer, and we get no tank. I just don't understand. Shit, I even played as Roadhog a bit because he can heal himself, I was so desperate for a healer... It's frustrating.

I played as Mercy for a bit, and while she is a really powerful healer, especially with her ultimate that revives everyone, she's also extremely vulnerable if unprotected. The match I played with her, our tank was a D. Va and that fucking bitch would run away as soon as enemies got close, so I got destroyed by Pharah, Winston and Widowmaker constantly.

I guess I'll play Roadhog if we don't have a healer...

As Roadhog, I had fun, but without a healer, our team still got decimated like little bitches. His hook is fun, but hard to aim. His shotgun is really powerful too, but he's big and slow. Later in the evening, I switched to PS4 and I had better luck, having real tanks and healers. I did amazingly well when we had a good Mercy on our team, even a Zenyatta was good enough to keep the team alive. The difference between a good team composition and a bad one is incredible in this game.

If you're a dude that always picks an offensive or defensive character, no matter what your team looks like, you're a shit player. Go play Call of Duty.

Overwatch

Date played: June 7th
Platform: PC and PS4

I had another evening filled with Overwatch matches. I played with my friend, then later my brother again. I played well for the most part, usually as Reinhardt, though I had a few matches as Lucio and even one match as Mercy.

Mercy is really interesting and fun to play. She is a very strong, single target healer that works best when paired with a tank. Unfortunately, she can't fight much. I mean, she has a little pistol, but it's almost useless. So Mercy is great, but only when protected by her team. Her damage boosting beam is also very useful on most offensive and defensive characters, though she can't heal at the same time.

Of course, her biggest asset is her amazing ultimate skill that revives all nearby teammates. It can turn the tide of battle more than any other skill in the game. She can also fly to a teammate and she can float while falling down, but I haven't gotten the hang of that stuff yet. I think I did pretty well with her, but I need to spend more time with her.

This match was amazing

I also had a very tense, amazingly fun king of the hill match as Reinhardt. In fact, I think it might be my strongest performance in a match yet, even though we lost in the end. At 32 eliminations, 18 objective kills, 2:22 objective time, 9042 damage done, 13 deaths and 15159 damage blocked, I feel like it was a really good game for me. Obviously, that wouldn't have been possible without a good team. We had a good Lucio to heal, a very good Mei to block off areas and slow down enemies and a smart McCree that loved standing behind my shield. The action was constant and he back and forth between the two teams was very satisfying.

Overwatch

Date played: June 6th
Platform: PS4 and PC

I spent some time playing Overwatch with my friend, then later, my brother. As usual, I had a ton of fun, but I ran into some difficult groups. I first played on PS4 without a group. I ended up playing a bit of Lucio since no one was healing and we already had tanks.

Lucio is very powerful for many reasons. As a healer, he's more dangerous than Mercy in combat, and better at healing than Zenyatta. He's also much sturdier than either of them since he can move quickly, can wall ride and even has a "push" wave with his gun. Plus, his healing affects all that are near him, including himself, so he can run away from a fight and heal up.

Lucio is so much fun to play

On top of it all, his pistol is dangerous. While he won't win a one on one battle with a real fighter, he can still spam his gun in the general direction of opponents and whittle down their health, helping his team take them down. His ultimate is powerful too, though it has to be timed really well to be effective. He provides a huge amount of shields to nearby allies, but it only lasts a short time. It's perfect when rushing a point or just before an enemy ultimate hits.

If I can't play Reinhardt, I'll usually play Lucio. I feel like it helps the team a lot, and I get a few kills myself in the process. Of course, I played lots of Reinhardt too, but I struggled to find teams that worked with me. I even switched to Roadhog in one match since no one was taking advantage of my barrier... Shit, most of the team was just running to their deaths, one by one, I even played a match where we had a bunch of offense characters, with no healers. We lost that in 2 or 3 minutes tops.

It's frustrating. That's why it felt so damn good to finally play with my brother at the end of the evening. That dude knows how to play the objective. If people want to "practice" their characters, I feel like they should do that in the AI mode... With my brother, we didn't win all that much, but at least we were getting close.

Overwatch

Date played: June 5th
Platform: PS4

I love gaming, I really do. I also love playing with friends and family. However, because of the way things are, that means I have some friends playing games on Playstation, Xbox and Windows... One of my brothers bought Overwatch for PS4, so being the dumbass that I am, I went ahead and bought the game AGAIN on PS4.

I REGRET NOTHING!

Last night, I played with my brother all night. He's had some experience with the game in the beta, then later when he played at my house, so he's not a complete newbie. He is also pretty damn good at video games in general, so it didn't take him long to pick up the game and get into the groove. His favorite character is Tracer, but he also enjoys Mercy, Lucio, Soldier 76, D. Va and Pharah.

He's at his best when using either Tracer or Mercy, but has been learning the others rather quickly too. Of course, buying the game on PS4 again means I get to start at level 1 again, so the first few matches were complete bloodbaths. We completely dominated everyone... I used Reinhardt and he used mostly Mercy, so we were very strong. I got play of the game a bunch of times during the lower levels.

Players at low levels don't have all the information and knowledge they need to be successful yet, so I was able to run into the middle of an enemy pack, swing my hammer a few times then retreat pretty easily. At higher levels, this isn't possible, someone will take me down quickly or stun me. In fact, I even had my first quadruple kill by using a combination of all my abilities, swinging hard into a bunch of squishy heroes. I also had a few nice rounds as Lucio, and a rough one with Winston.

As we leveled up though, we finally fought some worthy opponents and started losing a few matches. It was a lot of fun to play with my brother and voice chat with him. In fact, I wish I was playing Overwatch with him right now.

Overwatch

Date played: June 4th
Platform: PC

I didn't have that much time to play yesterday, but I still managed to get a few matches in. I did well with Reinhardt, as usual. I also spent some time with Winston during a match where we already had a tank, a healer and offensive heroes. I figured Winston would be a good fit for the team.

Winston's ultimate

Winston is a gorilla and a scientist who has devised his own weapons. He has a booster pack on his back that allows him to jump a long distance very quickly. It deals a little bit of damage upon landing, but nothing dangerous. He also has a bubble shield that is similar to Reinhardt's barrier except that it's much weaker and has a pretty heavy cool down. He has a short range electricity weapon that doesn't deal that much damage, but is still useful, usually from inside the bubble. Finally, his ultimate is kind of a berserk mode where Winston becomes consumed with rage as he cobbles his opponents with his fists. Again, this doesn't deal much damage, but it knocks people back.

It's really hard to play as Winston. He required a lot of effort and careful planning to be efficient. However, he's really good at just jumping to the front lines, wrecking some shit for a moment, then getting the hell out. A few times, I was able to disrupt the front line just long enough for my team to make a push. The timing is real tricky though, since Winston doesn't really kill anyone on his own. I like his mobility though, and I feel like spending more time with him. 

Overwatch

Date played: June 3rd
Platform: PC

My brother came over to hang out, so we spent most of our evening playing Overwatch, passing the controller between rounds and matches. As usual, the game was tons of fun. Of course, most of my time was spent with Reinhardt, and I did really well with him.

My brother tried out Tracer, Junkrat and Lucio, but he really got into the groove when he picked Pharah. Her high mobility, her awesome vertical combat and her powerful rockets were perfect for his style. He ended up doing pretty damn well with her.

I spent some time with Winston in a match where we already had a tank and healer. I like Winston, but he's difficult to use. The best strategy I found for him is to jump into the fray, pop the bubble shield, shoot the weapon a bit at the enemies in range, then jump the fuck out before going down. Winston is a disturber, a nuisance, a scatter artist. His ultimate doesn't hit too hard, but it pushes people back. I used it to force a Bastion to move from his perfect spot, giving my team the chance to move in and push forward.

This attack as Soldier 76 didn't go well at all

I had a few moments with Junkrat and Soldier 76 also, but it didn't go super well. My best moment of the night was on Route 66 on attack. As we pushed the payload forward in the first section of the map, a Symmetra had been wrecking us from afar with her giant ball of death, while her turrets protected the front line. I charged her from range with Reinhardt, hoping to pin her and kill her. She dodged, but not enough. I ended up clipping her which sent her flying off the cliff to her death. Similarly, in a match where we were being destroyed, I was very close to death and our healer had died. I charged into the enemy Reinhardt, who was still full health and protecting the whole team. I grabbed him and flew off the map with him, giving my team a chance to regroup.

Overwatch

Date played: June 2nd
Platform: PC

Bastion is very valuable if protected

My first few matches were pretty damn rough. I played relatively well, but I got matched with very good players that knew how to coordinate.

Later though, I had a couple of very good matches, as Reinhardt of course. My team had two Reapers, a Hanzo, a Bastion and a Mercy to defend in the point capture mode.

We held the first point for a long time. I used my shield to protect my team at the only choke point while Bastion had set up near the point, but with line of sight to the door. The two Reapers were protecting the flanks while the Hanzo dealt damage through my shield. We held and held, our Mercy even resurrecting a few of us when the pressure was on, but eventually we lost the point to a Hanzo, Lucio, Junkrat and Pharah push.

We now had to hold our last point for more than 6 minutes. Throughout the whole match, me and the Bastion were communicating through voice chat. It's amazing the difference it can make. We coordinated together. He told me when he had to move or when I was blocking his view, while I told him when I had to drop the shield or when I saw enemies that were a threat. It worked so fucking well... I basically sat in front of him with my shield while he destroyed the opposition, protected from enemy attacks, while our Mercy kept both of us healed and boosted Bastion's damage output. We were very powerful. Reaper watched our rear to take out flankers and other crafty heroes. We won, and it felt amazing. It felt like we had worked hard for the win and deserved the glory. It was so fucking awesome!

Overwatch

Date played: June 1st
Platform: PC

I was pretty damn good last night as Reinhardt. In a payload match that I played with my friend, we completely dominated the field. We had a very good Mercy who kept us all healed up and didn't get herself killed. She even revived me twice in the same run, so even though I died twice in the match, I never respawned in the spawn room.

Feels good man.

At one point, I ran in front of the payload and flanking the opposing team from a side door. I then used my ultimate to stun a Mercy, Tracer and Torbjorn. I killed the Mercy and Tracer quickly, then the dwarf's turret and finally, the little man himself. I think this push is what won us the match... I even got the Play of the Game by pinning a Bastion and taking out a Torbjorn and his turret in one fell swoop.

In another match, I had a few battles against a Winston. He's tricky because he also specializes in close range battles. I killed him every time, but it was only due to having Mercy on me. Later, I got fucked up in more ways than I could imagine by an excellent, ruthless Tracer. I mean, she completely controlled the battlefield by being very accurate with her pistols, placing her ultimate bomb at the right time in the right spot, and using her blink very well. She literally ran circles around my lumbering Reinhardt and shot me in the back until I died. Multiple times. She was fucking brilliant.

I also played with a very good Lucio. It's amazing how much difference voice chat can make in a match... Me and him would coordinate our team's attacks and hold them back to wait for a full group and push together. When attackers go off on their own, it's never successful... The key to winning in Overwatch is to use team work. I fucking love Overwatch.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Date played: May 31st
Platform: PS4

It's been a while since I've played Uncharted 4. When I jumped back in, I was at a checkpoint in the middle of a furious car chase, with Nathan Drake jumping from car to car, shooting motorcycles in the process. I was chasing Sam who was riding a motorcycle, also trying to escape the bad guys hired by Rafe.

Once again, Uncharted proves it's the best in the business at creating epic, unbelievable action scenes. When I reached Sam with my Jeep, my vehicle was blown up! I found myself on the ground with the burning car on top of me. Pulled myself out slowly, shot a couple of guys while lying on the ground and barely escaped the fire. Just as I thought I was safe, a giant armored personnel carrier rushed towards me. Same swooped in on his motorcycle Nate hopped on as they sped away from the enemy vehicle.

This was one hell of a sequence. The two brothers raced down the streets of a little town as the giant truck chased them and shot at them with machine guns. It's really hard to describe this in words, but I guarantee that it was a very exciting, pulse pounding scene.

After we escaped, Nate and Sam met up with Sully at a safe house nearby. When they entered the room, all were surprised to see Elena... This has to be one of the best dramatic scenes in the series as Nathan tries to explain why he lied to her about his treasure hunt and his brother. The facial motion capture is done so well here, you could feel the deception, the pain, the sadness, in the lover's faces. The scene ends with Elena storming out and Nate sending Sully to watch over her instead of running after her...

These islands were a lot of fun to explore

Nathan and Sam then head out to the coordinates they found in the tower. This led them to a small island East of King's Bay. After exploring the absolutely stunning environment, they found a large room where they had to solve a puzzle. I had to move and rotate some balls to make them match some designs on the walls. Some of it was a bit tricky, but nothing too complicated. This revealed a bunch of pirate statues, including a very large one of Avery himself on a nearby island. When we reached the statue, there was a looking glass that we could look through. It pointed to another spot on the island, a small structure with a pointing arrow.

During most of this chapter, We had a boat that we could use to navigate the area, sort of like the Jeep from earlier in the game. It was a lot of fun to just explore the area and look at the beautiful scenery. We followed the arrow, which led to another, and another, and so on. Eventually, we entered a large cavern. After much climbing and swinging, we reached another tower that revealed the location of yet another island nearby.

That's when I went through the game's opening scene with Nate and Sam on the boat, fighting Rafe's forces in the midst of a huge storm. I stopped playing when I woke up on the island, injured from the crash. I can't wait to see what happens next!

Overwatch

Date played: May 31st
Platform: PC

"Justice will be done."

I've really found my role in Overwatch with Reinhardt... While I will sometimes play with Symmetra and Lucio, that's usually only because someone else already picked a tank. If I can, I pick Reinhardt. I played with my friend who mostly used Reaper and Pharah. He was harassing and killing enemies while I held the line and objectives with my mighty tank.

Reaper is cool and all, but while he does a lot of killing, it's pretty rare that he actually makes a big difference in winning the game. Pharah, on the other hand, has a huge impact on the game. She can pepper an area with her rockets to spread a team out and she is ideal for taking out turrets and Bastions that are positioned behind enemy lines. She's also really good at clearing an area with her ultimate, making way for the payload to move forward or allowing attackers or defenders to regroup. She's always a welcome addition to any team, so I like it better when my buddy uses her instead of Reaper.

We played really well together, and even when we lost, we lost with fucking honor, fighting to the last damn second like a vicious honey badger. As Reinhardt, it's pretty rare that I get play of the game, so when I got one last night, it felt amazing! I had a damn good play too. I was the last man standing, attacking the point. I charged in and killed a Mercy by pinning her against a wall, then I used my ultimate to stun a Reaper and Tracer who were closing in, all while contesting the point. I then used Fire Strike on them, killing the tracer, and took out the Reaper with my trusty rocket hammer. That won us the round, even though we lost the game.