Chrono Trigger

Date played: November 28th
Platform: Vita

So I ended up grinding a little bit on Mt. Woe, since it seemed to give a lot of EXP and tech points compared to other areas, and it was worth it. Crono and Robo have all their tech skills, and Ayla isn't far behind. I made sure Marle, Frog and Lucca all had their level 2 magic spells, then I moved on.

It turns out, a boss was right around the corner. Giga Gaia is a giant monster that fights our party using it's two hands. The hands are individual targets, so of course, I tried to take them out before the rest of the body. That went well, but then Giga Gaia regenerates his arms! Thankfully, he wasn't much of a threat anyway, so I took him out easily using some of my better tech skills.

Giga Gaia

Then, there was drama. Long story short, Melchior was held prisoner by the seal held by Giga Gaia. When he was released, he didn't know us yet, since he meets us in the far future. Then the mountain starts collapsing! The team ends up in the little village on ground level with Melchior. That's when Schala, the kingdom's princess, shows up with her little brother Janus. She says that the Queen is ready to activate the Mammon Machine. I'm not really clear on what the machine does, but I think it means Lavos would wake up.

Anyway, Schala is the only person that can activate the machine and she refuses to do it. She wants our group to stop the Queen from pushing forward with her plan. So that all sounded great, but that's when Dalton, the Queen's assistant, shows up and takes Schala hostage! He leaves with her, leaving us and Janus behind. Melchior says that he can help us stop the Mammon machine by giving Crono a special knife,  Janus disappears during this whole process, and Crono and his friends must reach the Ocean Palace to stop the Queen and the Mammon machine.

To reach the palace, we had to fight Dalton head on. He left Schala with the Queen and the Mammon machine, then stayed behind to guard the entrance. He mentions that there's a prophet that has joined the Queen's ranks, but that's pretty much all I know so far. Fighting Dalton was easy, it was barely a boss fight.

The Ocean Palace is a real dungeon, with tons of different routes to explore, a trove of treasures a hellish horde of enemies. The enemies here are pretty tough, resisting physical damage and being vulnerable to only one type of magic each. I ended up just fighting them with physical attacks and healing through it. I'm pretty sure the save point I used will lead me to the next boss fight!

Overwatch

Date played: All of last week!
Platform: PS4

Today's hero is Widowmaker.

Role: Defense

Difficulty: ★★

HP: 200

Armor: 0

Shields: 0

Total: 200

Favorite quote: "À la vie, à la mort."

Favorite map to play on: Numbani

Appearance

Widowmaker might be one of the most boring heroes to look at in Overwatch. Don't get me wrong, her voluptuous ass and very exposed breasts are nice to look at, but aside from that, there are only a few things that stand out about her appearance. One of these things is her massive sniper rifle, one of the biggest guns in the game. Then there's Widowmaker's iconic helmet, which is very cool. It kind of looks a bit like a spider's head. In fact, she's got a whole spider theme going on.

Skills

• Widow's Kiss: This is Widowmaker's main weapon. It's a big sniper rifle that also acts as a close range, rapid fire assault rifle. In assault rifle mode, it does little damage, but it is certainly useful when cornered. In sniper mode, there's a kind of charging mechanic in three stages. The first stage is instant and deals light damage. The second stage takes a bit more time, and deals medium damage. Finally, the final stage takes a bit more than a second and deals huge damage.
• Grappling Hook: Allows Widowmaker to latch on to ledges and pull herself up to it rapidly. It has good range, but it also has a long cooldown.
• Venom Mine: This thing is super weird. It is thrown by Widowmaker, then it sticks to the first surface it touches. When triggered, it releases a poisonous gas that deals 75 damage over a period of 5 seconds. 
• Ultimate - Infra-Sight: Allows the entire team to see enemy positions as heat signatures, even through walls, for about 15 seconds.

Strengths

• The master of ranged combat. She can outplay anyone at extreme ranges thanks to her great rifle and accuracy. 
• The venom mine works surprisingly well at taking out targets that are at low health.
• She can reach pretty much any ledge, platform or roof with her grappling hook.
• Her Ultimate is one of the best strategic tools in the game. Seeing enemy positions and animations through walls is incredibly useful.

Weaknesses

• Aiming is so fucking hard! In a game like Overwatch, things move really fast, so lining up a headshot from 200 meters away is really difficult. 
• The assault rifle mode can be useful, but as a whole, it's pretty much trash. It deals pitiful damage and has lots of spread...
• Widowmaker is almost useless on the point. She just can't get in close to the point or payload like other heroes can. Even Hanzo can jump in and survive at close range, but Widow will just die.
• While her Ultimate is very useful, it also requires that your team work together. On uncoordinated teams, it's not very good.

Comments

It's pretty simple... A good Widowmaker is amazing. A bad Widowmaker is fucking useless garbage. That's because the skill level required to aim accurately with her sniper is very high. She is not a hero for everyone, like Lucio or Soldier. She's a hero for the guy who has good aim.

When I played her, it was pretty frustrating because I knew what I wanted to do, but my aim just wasn't good enough. With a bit of practice, I was a bit more useful, particularly with the venom mine and Infra-Sight, but I would still need a ton of practice to be any good.

However, a good Widow can be a real game changer, particularly on defense. She can hold the objective on her own, as long as she gets those headshots consistently. She's extremely vulnerable to flankers. For example, if there's a good Widowmaker on the other team, I'll just use Winston for a little while to completely neutralize her. Reaper, Tracer, Sombra, Genji and even D.Va are her main enemies, though a decent Hanzo, McCree or Pharah can also be a problem.

I usually play a ton of Reinhardt, and at first, Widowmaker was a problem for me. She would often headshot me the moment I would drop my shield, crippling me seriously. However, with experience, I've learned to spot her at long range and keep my shield up when she's around. I've also learned that most Widows don't expect a firestrike to the face. Fire Strike works really well against her, as long as she's focused on another target.

She benefits a lot from Zenyatta's discord orb, considering every shot deals 30% more damage. This also works with a Mercy's damage boost, but that feels like a real waste since Mercy should be closer to the action. I kind of wish more Widows would stick with Reinhardt, it's a really effective combo. Unfortunately, it's pretty rare that Widows move with their team, they tend to keep to themselves a little too much.

I love having a good Widow, but it's always a kind of gamble. A bad Widow is just a waste of space, but a good one can dictate the pace of the game. I do wish she had a bit more survivability at close range, so that she could contest points, but I guess if she needs to do that, it's because her team failed.

Worst enemy: Winston

Best teammate: Zenyatta
Most satisfying kill: Genji

Rating ★★

Friday Night Multiplayer Special!

Date played: November 25th
Platform: PS4

I spent the evening at my brother's house with some family and friends, and we ended up playing a bunch of multiplayer games. Much of our evening was spent playing 3 of the games from Sportsfriends.

We started with Pole Riders, one of the games we hadn't played before. The premise is simple. Two teams face off to carry a ball that is tethered to a rope that hangs in the air. The objective is to carry the ball to the opposing team's goal while defending your own goal. The twist is that the characters are pole vaulters that must vault to hit the ball...

Pole Riders is a lot better than I thought!

The controls are really weird, where the left stick controls the character, while the right stick controls the pole. It took us a while to get used to it, but after a few minutes, we were pole vaulting like crazy... With 4 players, this means complete fucking chaos as each team of 2 tries to carry the ball while blocking their opponents. You can even knock down a player, forcing him to respawn, by kicking them in the head.

This led to little strategies being devised by each team. For example, during one game, I was in charge of hitting the ball, while my partner would knock people out to clear the way. The absolutely ridiculous graphics and animations made this one a huge hit.

Then we played a bit of 4 player Barabariball. We've played this game a lot in the past, and it was just as fun on Friday. However, this is one of those games where the skill differences were more apparent between players. It was still wonderful to kick that ball around and try to sink it into your watery goal.

To close off Sportsfriends for the night, we played a bit of Hokra, which is basically a variation on hockey. With 4 players, this was a real challenge, as each player was aggressive, competitive and skilled.

We then jumped into Towerfall to end the evening. As always, Towerfall was a ton of fun. My trusty Turncloak Soldier battled against The Last of the Order, Vicious Vessel and Vigilante Thief. We had a bunch of great moments and plays throughout the evening, and we traded wins and losses very evenly. I fucking love Towerfall. 

Chrono Trigger

Date played: November 23rd
Platform: Vita

I finally entered the beast nest in 12 000 B.C and fought a boss right away. The mud imp, the red beast and the blue beast were a pretty tough fight... The imp has very high defense, and he heals the group, while the beasts counter attack everything. I was using Crono, Robo and Ayla. I ended up using Falcon Hit with Crono and Ayla and healing with Robo. It actually took a pretty damn long time to win, and I burned through a lot of MP, but I made it!

Mt. Woe

The next section is Mt. Woe, a set of huge floating mountains and rocky ground crawling with enemies. There's a lot of EXP and tech points to earn here, which led to Crono learning his ultimate skill, Luminaire. I decided to stop here and grind a little bit for the characters I haven't used much yet, mainly Marle. I'm sure there's a boss fight coming up, but I'll grind for a while first.

Chrono Trigger

Date played: November 20th
Platform: Vita

Instead of going into the Beast Nest in 12 000 B.C., I decided to back track to areas I've already explored to find some sealed chests and doors. It was pretty boring, but I found a bunch of cool shit. I got a very powerful sword for Crono, some armor for everyone, a few accessories and some items.

Going through the sewers of the future to find sealed chests and doors

I also received the Gold Stud earrings, which reduce MP consumption by 75%... I gave that to Robo so that he can heal without worrying about MP. I've been giving him all my magic and speed tabs, so he's now pretty fast (still slower than Crono) and his magic is pretty damn strong, so he's becoming my main magic user. I've been mostly using Crono, Ayla and Robo as my main team. I want to use Lucca, but Ayla just seems like a better fighter than her. I'm ready to go back to the nest now.

Overwatch

Date played: November 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th
Platform: PS4

Today's hero is Ana.

Role: Support

Difficulty: ★★★

HP: 200

Armor: 0

Shields: 0

Total: 200

Favorite quote: "Need someone to tuck you in?"

Favorite map to play on: King's Row

Appearance

Ana is Pharah's mother. They share a similar tattoo below their eyes and they definitely have a family look. Ana is much older of course, with white hair and plenty of wrinkles. She is missing an eye from a battle against Widowmaker, leaving Ana with an eye patch. She wears light armor and a sort of hooded trench coat. She wields a big sniper rifle, some grenades and a special gun that shoots sleep darts. Ana has some of the coolest skins, my favorite is Shrike.  

Skills

• Biotic Rifle: A long range rifle that damages enemies and heals allies. It can be scoped, allowing greater precision at long range. Weirdly enough, this weapon doesn't deal more damage with headshots. It also deals damage and heals over a short period of time instead of dealing all it's damage at once.
• Sleep Dart: Ana fires a dart that puts an enemy to sleep for 5.5 seconds. If a sleeping enemy is damaged, they will wake up. It has a 12 second cool down.
• Biotic Grenade: One of the craziest abilities, this grenade heals allies in a radius, and also damages enemies. It leaves an aura on the affected heroes. This boosts healing for allies for a short time, and denies enemies from healing. 
• Ultimate - Nano Boost: Ana boosts an ally for 8 seconds. This will increase the target's damage and damage resistance.

Strengths

• Ana is the hero with the strongest healing, outperforming even Mercy on a single target. Granted, it's pretty hard to heal that much consistently, but the potential is there.
• Nano Boost is a game changer. Ana's Ultimate works really well on heroes that deal a lot of damage with their Ultimates, like Reaper, Roadhog or Genji. It can work well with most heroes though, so it's always an important ability. 
• The biotic grenade is a lot stronger than it first appears to be. It's a great defensive tool when Ana is under attack, since it heals her too. At it's best though, it should be thrown to hit as many enemies as possible during a push, as it will stop them from healing.
• The sleep dart can turn the tides of battle, as long as your teammates don't hit your target. It can incapacitate important enemies, such as tanks or healers. 

Weaknesses

• Aiming is very difficult with Ana, and for multiple reasons. First, her weapon fires rather slowly, so each hit is important. Second, when allies or enemies walk in Ana's line of sight, they will block your view of the target. This is infuriating when trying to heal your tank, then a teammate walks in front of you, preventing you from healing the dying tank.
• If she gets flanked, Ana's only option is the sleep dart and biotic grenade. The sleep dart works well, but it's hard to aim due to a slight delay when firing. The biotic grenade is a bit of a last resort where Ana will try to fight an enemy head on. It's very difficult to do well.
• On maps with many tight corners or lots of walls to block line of sight, Ana becomes even more difficult to use. She does better on maps with long sight lines.
• The timing of her Ultimate, Nano Boost, is pretty tricky. It needs to be used when people are actively fighting to be most effective. Plus, your target needs to have a good amount of health, you don't want him to die just after receiving the boost...

Comments

I think Ana just might be the hardest hero to use well. Just like Zarya, Genji and McCree, she requires lots of coordination, good aim and excellent awareness. When she works though, she fucking works. She can heal more than anyone but a Transcending Zenyatta, making her excellent at healing tanks.

The biggest problem with Ana is that she requires excellent aiming to be effective. For example, when the team has many small and fast heroes. Trying to heal Tracer, Genji, naked D.Va or Sombra is kind of a nightmare, and is usually not very effective. The only real solution is to use the grenade on them, and that means I can't use it on enemies.

Another thing that makes her difficult to use is that she has no mobility skills at all. She can't climb, grapple, jump, fly or teleport, so just like Zenyatta, she is relegated to the back line and is very vulnerable to flankers.

Surprisingly, she is actually a pretty effective sniper when needed. For example, she can take care of a turret or Bastion that sits at long range. She can even take on Widowmaker or Hanzo in some cases. However, if Ana is busy taking out targets, she's not healing.

Her sleep dart is pretty cool, but it's real fucking hard to aim, so I often use it only on large targets or people that are running straight at me. On the other hand, her biotic grenade is incredibly powerful and versatile. It can save a group that was hit hard, but it can also cripple an enemy team that is already struggling to survive.

Finally, her Nano Boost is fantastic. It used to provide a speed boost, but it was patched to remove that ability. It's still incredible, particularly on a hero that has his Ultimate ready. Reaper is probably the one that benefits the most with his Death Blossom. Roadhog's Whole Hog is terrifying when boosted. Reinhardt is very dangerous with it too when he swings the hammer like a madman. Surprisingly, Mei is also a great target for the boost, since she gains a lot of damage resistance while shooting her freeze gun in the middle of the fray. Overall, Nano Boost is a very strong ability.

I love using Ana, though I still struggle with my aim. I've been steadily improving with her. At first, I was healing for maybe 3000 HP on a good game, now I can reach the same numbers as Mercy, Lucio and Zenyatta if the conditions are good. I still need to learn how to use her grenade most effectively, and I always need to work on my aim, but I feel like I can use her relatively well, considering I've only recently started playing her. I love Ana, but only on certain maps.

Worst enemy: Sombra

Best teammate: Reinhardt
Most satisfying kill: Widowmaker

Rating ★★★★

Chrono Trigger

Date played: November 19th
Platform: Vita

12 000 B.C. is a weird fucking era... On the ground, there's not much happening. There's kind of an ice age going on, and all I could find was an empty cave, and a weird portal thing. I went through the portal and we found ourselves on a floating island, high above ground level. There's a group of people who live on these floating islands, and they all have magical abilities. They call themselves the Enlightened Ones.

They clearly have a lot of technology, though they all seem pretty rude. I explored a couple of little towns here. Apparently, they use the power of Lavos to power a big machine, the Mammon machine, that helps them lead idyllic lives. There's a brother and sister, Schala and Janus, who serve the kingdom's queen. Schala is mature, and has powerful magical abilities. Janus is super weird, being socially inept and unable to use magic.

Schala and Janus on the sky islands of 12 000 B.C.

Schala has a magical pendant that is very similar to Marle's. She charges it by using the Mammon machine, then goes through a sealed door by using the pendant's magic. Crono goes to the machine and charges his pendant the same way, allowing him to access sealed doors. The team is then attacked by a creature sent by the elite of the Enlightened Ones.

The Golem was a really tough fight, but mostly because I didn't understand it's trick until much later in the battle. The thing is, this guy will copy any abilities that are used against him then he'll use them on the team. After fighting like crazy and losing people left and right, I figured out that if I alternated magic attacks of different types, the Golem didn't hit as hard as before.

I beat him, but was captured by the Enlightened Ones, then sent back through a time portal by them. Schala sealed the portal behind us, leaving us stranded in 65 million B.C.. We had gathered information that led us to the future, where we are supposed to find a special vehicle that can travel through time.

After going through the sewers, we found a hidden ship called the Epoch that can travel through time without going to Time's End. I think I went back to 12 000 B.C., but the pathway to the sky islands is closed. I found a different path where I met with some "normal" humans, who don't have magical powers. I bought a bunch of new weapons, armor and items, and I'm about to enter a beast nest of some sort.

F1 2016 demo

Date played: November 19th
Platform: PS4

For the first time in 20 years, I've been watching F1 racing on television. I've watched every qualifying and race this year, and I'm loving Formula 1 lately. Codemasters has always been amazing at making great racing games, so I was excited to try the demo for F1 2016.

The game is overwhelming in a lot of ways. It's got everything! Tire selection, pit strategy, formation laps, safety cars, DRS, team management, car development, practice, qualifying, pit stops, fuel consumption, it's all there.

There's some really cool stuff in the practice session. For example, you can do a "track acclimatization" event, where you're scored on how fast you are, and how close you are to the racing line. It really helps to learn the tracks. In the demo, the circuit was Australia. I messed around with practice quite a bit, then did qualifying and then the race.

I picked Force India, since they have a decent car, but don't have the huge expectations like Mercedes or Ferrari. My teammate is Sergio Perez, one of my favorite drivers this year. I set up the assists so that there's no auto-braking, but the rest I left at default.

I attempt to pass Raikonnen to earn 4th place

I did rather well in qualifying, placing 7th, 2 spots ahead of Perez. The race was a whole other story. The event was shortened to 15 laps, though I could have raced the full event if I wanted. In the beginning, I did really well. I had a good start and gained 2 positions early on. I even managed to pass both Rosberg and Hamilton for about one lap. I misjudged a corner and dropped to 5th though, then I had to pit for a tire change.

I don't know if I did it wrong, but after the pit stop, I was down to last place in 22nd. I moved my way up the grid, but then when I reached Vettel at around position 10, I pushed him a little bit too hard in a corner and damaged my front wing, forcing me to pit again and screwing up my pit strategy... I still managed to work my way up to 15th place, but that's the best I could do.

F1 2016 seems like a really fucking good game, but it takes a lot of time to play since there's so much management to do. I loved what I played, and if I see if on sale for cheap, I might pick it up. 

Chrono Trigger

Date played: November 17th
Platform: Vita

Crono, Lucca and Robo went to explore the Pterodactyl nest in the Norther parts of 65 million B.C.. After a few random battles, we reached the peak and found Ayla getting ready to ride a pterodactyl into combat against Azala and his minions. Azala is the big bad reptite guy who has been giving the humans trouble.

I replaced Lucca with Ayla and went flying. This was the first time I was able to move above mountains and oceans in the world map, using the friendly pterodactyls as mounts. It was a really cool moment... We went straight to Azala's big keep, Tyrano Lair, and began battling in it to reach him and to save Kino and the other villagers.

Ayla's got a cool ride!

I explored the dungeon, fighting many random battles and navigating a maze that was riddled with inconvenient teleporters. I then had a mini boss battle against Nizbel, again. This giant triceratops is a tough guy, but he's very vulnerable to lightning, so I used Ayla and Crono's dual tech, Volt Bite, to do most of the work.

After this, I was finally ready to battle Azala. He retreats to the back of his keep and summons a huge T-Rex to aid him in battle! This fight was pretty tough... I focused on Azala first, dealing the heaviest damage I could to him. Them, when he fell, I focused on the T-Rex. He has high defense, but he drops it once in a while to perform a countdown and launch a big attack. This is the time to hit him hard... I just had to ensure that Robo kept up everyone's HP.

With Azala defeated, the team offers him to join us in our quest to save the world, but he refuses. He dies in spectacular fashion as Lavos comes out and destroys Tyrano Lair. This leaves behind a new time portal, so the team jumps in and finds themselves in 12 000 B.C.! I can't wait to see what's next... I think this is the furthest I've ever gotten in this game.

Overwatch: Sombra edition

Date played: November 15th
Platform: PS4

Sombra is here!

Sombra

After months of teasing, ARG madness and anticipation, Sombra, Overwatch's latest hero, is finally here and available for play. Her release also coincides with a huge patch that makes major changes to the game, so I figured I should make a special post about it.

The biggest, most noticeable change is that Quick Play is now limited to one of each hero. This may sound like a simple change, but it's very, very welcome. The days of 6 Torbjorn players on defense are over... The days of having 4 Genjis are over. This is a huge improvement... It also forces people to learn new heroes when their favorite was already picked.

There are new modes too, though I didn't try them yet. There's a 1v1 and 3v3 team deathmatch mode on a new map that is specifically made for this mode. There's a "No Limits" mode, where hero stacking is allowed. Mystery heroes is now a permanent mode, with brawls now cordoned off into their own section.

Many heroes received major balance changes. All Ultimate costs have been increased by 25%. Torbjorn's hammer is faster, but weaker. He also generates scrap to build armor packs in addition to regular scrap pickups. Pharah hits a bit harder and can fly a bit higher. Mercy's health regeneration activates faster. Ana's Nano Boost no longer increases movement speed. Soldier's damage has increased slightly. Mei's Ultimate costs even more than the 25% increase. Zarya's particle and projected barriers charges her gun a bit less than before. Overall, this seems like a really good patch.

However, the biggest change to a hero, by far, is for D.Va. She now has an incredible 600 health, up from 500. This makes a huge difference in her survivability, which was much needed. I think she is now good enough to tank on her own instead of as a secondary tank. Her movement speed while firing has increased also, making her a better "pusher" than before.

Now, the main event, Sombra. I managed to play her a few times last night and I'm very impressed with her! Her gun is fast, easy to shoot and it has lots of ammo. It's not as strong as other offensive weapons, like Tracer's or McCree's, but it's definitely competent. It does best at close range, but it's also pretty reliable at mid range.

Her teleport ability is super cool. Sombra throws a small beacon on the ground that remains active for up to 15 seconds. She can then teleport instantly to it... It's insane really. She can even teleport while the beacon is in mid-air! It acts as a wonderful escape tool, but also as a great way to push forward or reach remote areas of the map.

Then there's her invisibility skill. She can become invisible and run at a faster speed for a short period. It's active a lot longer than I expected and it can be combined with her other skills very easily. As an escape tool, it's not that great because it takes a bit too long to activate. It is deactivated when she is shot too, so a smart player will just keep shooting in your general direction.

Sombra can also hack people, devices and health packs. Hacking people deactivates all their skills and abilities (except their main weapon) for a short period. Hacking devices like Torbjorn's turret has a similar effect. Hacking health packs is a whole other story though. Sombra can hack a health pack to make it impossible for the enemy team to use it, while regenerating it twice as fast for your team. It's active for a long time and can be placed on multiple health packs at once!

This is extremely powerful and honestly, it might just be Sombra's most impactful skill. Not only does it cripple the enemy team, it also creates a "safe space" for your team. I still have a lot to learn, but I already know that hacking health packs is a crucial skill in Sombra's kit.

Finally, there's her Ultimate, an EMP. This does the same as the hack, but in a large radius around Sombra. It can cripple an entire team and leaves them defenseless for a few seconds. It's an awesome ability to use during a big push or when overwhelmed by attackers.

Of the matches I played with her, I did best when attacking on King's Row. I think Sombra is easier to use on attack than on defense, at least so far. That's because her abilities seem to favor flanking, which is easier when attacking. I did relatively well with her, considering she's a brand new hero. It's weird, in a lot of ways, she feels like an offensive Symmetra, which is super cool.

I think Sombra fits my style pretty well, but we'll see how she develops as people learn her.

Overwatch

Date played: November 11th, 12th and 14th
Platform: PS4

Today's hero is Soldier 76.

Role: Offense

Difficulty: ★

HP: 200

Armor: 0

Shields: 0

Total: 200

Favorite quote: "I'm the one who does his jobs. I'm thinkin' you're the other one."

Favorite map to play on: Route 66

Appearance

Soldier 76 just might be the most boring-looking character in the game. He's a soldier, and it shows. He does have a really cool visor thing, so that's cool. He also has a killer jacket, it almost looks like a Nascar leather jacket. The big, stylized "76" on the back looks real nice. He's got white hair, and many of his comments and voice lines imply that he's been around for a while. He wields a big, high-powered assault rifle.

Skills

• Heavy Pulse Rifle: A fully automatic rifle with 25 rounds per magazine. It has a bit of spread after the first few shots. 
• Helix Rockets: A set of tiny rockets that travel in a spiral at high speed. Hits hard and has some splash damage.
• Sprint: Soldier 76 can sprint at will, running faster than any other hero. He cannot shoot while sprinting.
• Biotic Field: A little emitter that is placed on the ground. It heals anyone inside it's 5 meter radius at a rate of 40 HP per second for 5 seconds. 
• Ultimate - Tactical Visor: Soldier 76's badass visor locks on to any enemies for 6 seconds, granting perfect accuracy. Cannot headshot or target turrets.

Strengths

• Soldier 76 is the "bread and butter" damage dealer of Overwatch. His weapon is easy to use and reliable.
• Sprint is vastly underrated. Not only can it be used to get back into battle faster, it's also a great escape tool and and even better flanking tool.
• Helix Rockets hit fucking hard. They are perfect for taking out a Bastion, or other targets that are easy to hit, like tanks. Works well at chokepoints also.
• Biotic Field can help the healers when they can't keep up. It's got a pretty large radius and heals fast enough to be useful in a fight. 

Weaknesses

• Tactical Visor is really hard to use efficiently... At range, the damage drop off hurts a lot. Also, it can be hard to pick a target due to how the ability works. Sometimes, I'll waste it firing at a healing Roadhog but I was aiming at the healer behind him.
• Soldier 76 has limited defenses against heroes like Winston, Roadhog, Reaper, Mei and even Symmetra. Basically, anyone that gets in his face and has a bit of survivability has a good chance of winning against Soldier.
• The long cooldown on both Helix Rockets and Biotic Field make it difficult for Soldier to defend himself when they are already on cooldown.
• Needs to be relatively close for his damage to be consistent. At range, there's significant damage drop off and accuracy is much lower.

Comments

Soldier often feels like he's just the "Call of Duty guy". In a game like Overwatch, where every hero has some crazy thing going on, either in their appearance or abilities, Soldier feels incredibly boring.

That's not to say he's not useful! He's the most reliable damage dealer in the game. Even the worst players can get a few kills with his automatic rifle, so he's almost always a welcome addition to the team. He and Reinhardt make excellent partners, since the shield is perfectly suited to Soldier's play style. Mercy is another great partner, with her 30% damage boost, particularly while using Tactical Visor. Not only that, but his biotic field can really help a team get through a tough battle.

Then there's the rockets. These things hit really fucking hard, so a solid hit with them can make a big difference. They have infinite range too, making them great at harassing Bastion, or even snipers. When I'm playing Reinhardt, I'm always hoping for a Soldier to join our team, as long as he stays behind my shield.

One of the problems with Soldier is that he's just fucking boring. I do well enough with him, but I just get bored of his kit. It's just shoot-shoot-shoot, heal, rocket, shoot-shoot-shoot. His abilities aren't really exciting, even if they are pretty good overall.

The other, bigger problem, is that McCree is usually a better choice than Soldier... McCree's Peacekeeper pistol is far stronger than Soldier's Pulse Rifle. The biotic field and rockets usually don't make a big enough difference to warrant taking Soldier over McCree. It depends on the player, but for me, McCree is almost always a better choice.

Worst enemy: Symmetra

Best teammate: Reinhardt
Most satisfying kill: Pharah

Rating ★★

Super Mega Baseball Extra Innings

Date played: November 14th
Platform: Xbox One

I have no idea how I ended up playing this game last night... I had downloaded it to Xbox One a while back, as part of the free games with gold, but never really intended to play it. Last night, I turned on my Xbox by accident, picking up the wrong controller, and saw this game in my list, so for some weird reason, I booted it up.

The Beewolves vs the Sirloins

Super Mega Baseball is a cartoonish baseball game, but it plays a lot like the more serious games. It's got a great art style, with characters that would feel right at home in a Saturday morning cartoon. The animation is wonderful too, as it even communicates the players' state of mind. For example, a stressed out pitcher will visibly sweat, and if the pressure gets too high, he'll have steam coming out of his ears! It's funny, but it's also a great way to communicate information to the player.

Batting is fun, simple and a little difficult, as it should be. There are power shots, bunts and regular hits, though aiming is kind of weird. Pitching is even better, with multiple pitch types and a little reticule that increases the pitch's quality when I align the cursor correctly.

Fielding is the worst part of the game, mainly because the characters kind of move on their own and getting them to catch the ball is hit or miss. There's like a slow motion camera on certain hits, where I'm supposed to be able to catch the ball with a fielder, but I've missed these every time. I must have been pressing the wrong button or something.

I'm surprised that I enjoyed a baseball game! Super Mega Baseball is charming, fast, easy to pick up and generally plays well. I just wish I understood fielding...

Chrono Trigger

Date played: November 13th
Platform: Vita

Crono, Frog and Robo carry the Masamune sword to a nearby mountain where Magus is rumored to have built his castle. However, a big cliff stops their progress. Frog has a bit of a flashback, revealing his true name to be Glenn, and that he was transformed into a frog by Magus. After the flashback, Frog decides to finally wield the Masamune, which he uses to split open the fucking mountain and make a path to Magus' castle!

The castle was one of the coolest and longest dungeons yet. I fought many enemies here, many of which are only vulnerable to magic. It was pretty long too, with many different rooms, all filled with enemies. In the process, I defeated 3 mini bosses.

Slash is the guitarist from Guns and Roses a soldier loyal to Magus. He uses physical attacks and doesn't really do anything special. He just hits hard. I kept my team alive with Robo's heals, with Frog healing once in awhile if needed. Flea is the bassist from Red Hot Chili Peppers a wizard that uses many debuff spells. He's got poisons, sleep darts, the works. Finally, Ozzie is the legendary lead singer for Black Sabbath a cowardly wizard that uses many tricks and traps to slow down Crono and his team. His battle was super weird... He hid in an ice block, sending out counter-attacks when I attacked him. To beat him, I had to target the switches around the battle, which wasn't obvious.

Magus and Frog

With the trio of wizards taken care of, I could finally face Magus. I remember this battle from my childhood as being very difficult. However, it turns out that my reading skills were pretty bad back then, so when I beat him last night, it wasn't very difficult at all. The trick is that Magus is only vulnerable to one type of damage at a time. This is displayed on screen in a little text window, so as long as I was paying attention, I could damage Magus.

I beat him, but then something fucking weird happened. A time portal opened up and swallowed up Crono and his team, along with Magus. We woke up in Ayla's house in 65 million B.C. of all places, but Magus isn't around. Word is, there's a giant fire raging in the village to the North, so I'll check it out next!

The Walking Dead: Michonne

Date played: November 13th
Platform: PS4

I completed episode 2 of The Walking Dead: Michonne.

It was a pretty short one, just a bit over an hour. It was also a very gruesome one... It begins on Norma and Randall's boat, right after Sam shot Zachary. Sam is shocked that she actually killed a person, but seems lucid enough.

One of Zachary's friends, Jonas, enters the room and finds his buddy dead on the floor... Michonne and Sam subdue him and tie him up, then they exit the room to find save Pete from Norma. There was a short sequence here where we walked around the boat and knocked out a guard, stealing his flare gun in the process.

When we reached the deck, we found Pete tied to a chair. Michonne snuck behind him, while Sam stayed back. We were ambushed by Norma and Randall... I jumped on Randall while Sam jumped on Norma. We won our little battle and freed Pete.

Pete wanted to go back to Norma and try to reason with her, but I had a bad feeling about that plan, so I held him back. We then used the flare gun to light a barge on fire, creating a distraction, while we swam through the fiery waters to reach a small boat. Sam informs them that her father's house would be a good hiding place, so they drive the boat to the shoreline and head towards her family's house.

Dozens of walkers blocked the path in front of us, while we were still being pursued by Norma's people behind us... Michonne decides to push forward using one of her old tricks. She chops off the arms of two walkers, ties a rope around their neck and uses them as camouflage! It was violent, but it worked. At some point during all this, Sam was shot in the shoulder. She can still walk, but she's weak.

With Randall and his goons still in hot pursuit, the group attempts to climb a broken radio tower as a shortcut to the house. They make it safely to the top, but the tower collapses behind them, forcing Randall and his crew to take another, longer route. When we reached the house, we were greeted by Sam's family. This includes a couple of kids, a big sister and the father.

Michonne carries Sam inside the house's grounds

They were cautious of Michonne, but seeing her help Sam, who is bleeding out on the floor, was enough for them to trust her. I had to rub alcohol on Sam's wound, then get the excess blood out of the way, then remove the bullet the with pliers. It was fucking gruesome and quite difficult to watch... To cauterize the wound, I then used a scalding-hot fire poker and stuck it on Sam's flesh, closing the wound for good.

I also had to inform the family that their son was dead, the kid who got shot with Sam earlier. So that was rough. I had a few conversations with the family members. One girl is older, and I'm not sure what her relationship to Sam is, but she revealed that the family's mother had killed herself a while back, but that the father was hiding this information from his family.

The conversation with the father was just as rough, though he lied to me about the mother. When he was cleaning up some walker limbs from the front gate of the house, he left the gate open just a little bit too long. Randall had made his way to the house, and now he had a good view of the father. Randall shot the father in the head mercilessly as Michonne scrambled to hide from the maniac.

With some quick thinking and good maneuvering, Michonne and Pete killed two of the attackers and captured Randall before he could do more damage. They put him in a shed, then put his hands in a vice to hold him in place... We talked to him a little, trying to get some info on Pete's people, but it wasn't very useful, despite the violent interrogation methods...

It wasn't long before Norma was calling Randall on the radio, so I chose to have Michonne speak with her directly. We proposed a trade. We give Randall back, she leaves us alone. I realize the odds of this deal being successful are low, but it seemed like the best option. So I chose to leave Randall alive, and Norma's coming over to negotiate...

Chrono Trigger

Date played: November 12th
Platform: Vita

After picking up the broken half of the Masamune, I tried talking to Tata, but it didn't really lead anywhere. When I went to visit Frog though, we found a clue. He had the other half of the Masamune, and Melchior's name was written down on it. We went back to 1000 A.D. near Medina village and spoke with him, and he revealed that he could fix the sword, but needed a rare red stone called Dreamstone. The only hint is that it was common a VERY long time ago...

This led our team to 65 million B.C.! This time period is easily my favorite in the game. There's something about dinosaurs and cavemen that I just love. As soon as we got out of the portal, we were confronted by a bunch of reptile people called Reptite. There were too many for us to handle alone, but thankfully, a buff, blonde cave-woman appeared and saved our asses!

Ayla is a great character. She's got big muscles and a heart of gold, but she's also pretty dumb, being a cave-woman and all. We talked to her about Dreamstone an she led us to her village. The cavemen are very friendly, so much that they had a huge party for us! We drank soup, we danced and we had a great time. The soup must have been special though, because we got knocked out until morning...

Ayla is a badass

In the morning, Lucca was horrified to discover that her time travel wand had disappeared! We followed some footprints, which led us to a forest maze full of dangerous dinosaurs. Ayla joined the party, so I've been rolling with Crono, Robo and Ayla for this dungeon. Dinosaurs are all vulnerable to lightning, so I ended up using Crono's lightning skill a lot. It turns out, Ayla's friend Kino had stolen the wand because he was jealous of the attention the time travelers were getting. However, he was ambushed in the forest and the wand was taken by the reptites.

After fighting dozens of reptites and dinosaurs, we fought a boss. Azala is a high ranking Reptite, and he sends his bodyguard, Nizbel, after us. Nizbel is a giant triceratops-like dinosaur. He was one of my favorite looking bosses yet, with great artwork, animation and sound effects. He has huge defense, so Crono's lightning tech was important to use, it lowers Nizbel's defense.

After the battle, Azala conceded and gave us the wand, and Ayla left to go back to her village. My team went back to 1000 A.D. to see Melchior and repair the sword. We then presented it to Frog, in 600 A.D., who agreed to join our team, but refuses to wield the legendary sword. We must now stop Magus and his army!    

Chrono Trigger

Date played: November 10th
Platform: Vita

After beating Zombor, I gained access to the Southern part of the continent. There is a town called Porre, where I bought some new equipment and learned more about the legend of the Masamune sword and it's hero.

A young person, Tata, is said to be the hero of legend. I also found Frog in his home, but he didn't have much to say. The team decided to explore a nearby mountain, Denadoro mountain, to find the Masamune and Tata.

This was a regular dungeon, where Crono and the team climbed the mountain, crossed it's waterfalls and explored it's caverns. There were many secrets here, including a new weapon for Robo, an amazing accessory that cuts MP use in half and a couple of stat increase tabs. There were some special enemies that wield big wooden hammers. They were pretty tough, but if I used a fire attack on them, their hammers burned and they became very weak.

Masamune in it's different forms

At the end of the dungeon, I met two young people called Masa and Mune, guarding the sword. They fought me, but were easy to beat. After the battle though, they used some Dragon Ball fusion shit and fused their bodies into one. The resulting abomination is a large monster called Masamune. He's pretty straight-forward to fight, but he hits real fucking hard. With Robo using the half MP accessory, I was able to heal often without using ether potions, so it went pretty well.

I was then able to pick up the Masamune sword, but it's broken... I went back to Porre, and I think I have to find Tata now.

Overwatch

Date played: November 8th, 9th and 10th
Platform: PS4

Today's hero is Reaper.

Role: Offense

Difficulty: ★

HP: 250

Armor: 0

Shields: 0

Total: 250

Favorite quote: "I'm not a psychopath. I'm a high-functioning psychopath."

Favorite map to play on: Volskaya

Appearance

When I first saw Reaper, I couldn't help but laugh! He wears a long, black trench coat with a hood. The kicker is the awfully stereotypical mask he wears. It makes him look like Death. The whole thing is super cheesy and honestly, it made me not want to play Reaper. He wears big boots and gloves and a bunch of shotgun shell bandoliers. He wields two giant shotguns, named Hellfire Shotguns. To add to the ridiculousness of the character, he doesn't actually reload his guns. Instead, he throws them to the ground and pulls out some fresh guns from his coat... Then there's the whole "attitude" thing. Reaper speaks in a low, menacing voice, but it feels like he's a cartoon character rather than a dangerous, scary hero. His voice lines are just as stupid. I still like him, he fits the game's theme quite well.

Skills

• Hellfire Shotguns: Two giant shotguns, each loaded with 4 shells. They hit like a fucking truck up close, but are very weak at range.
• Wraith Form: Reaper transforms himself into a shadow, granting invincibility and faster movement speed for 3 seconds. He cannot use any weapons or abilities while in Wraith Form.
• Shadow Step: Reaper can teleport to any location with solid ground in his line of sight, up to 35 meters away. There is a slight delay before he teleports.
• The Reaping: When enemies die, they drop their "soul". which Reaper can absorb to regain 50 HP.
• Ultimate - Death Blossom: One of the most spectacular, powerful and scary Ultimates in the game. Reaper spins around, unloading his shotguns at a rapid pace, damaging anyone in the vicinity.

Strengths

• Reaper is the best tank killer in the game, no question. His shotguns are perfect for taking out large targets at close range.
• Reaper's high mobility is a huge advantage. When used correctly, his Shadow Step can be used to flank an entire team, or push an objective. Combined with his Wraith Form and self-healing with The Reaping, Reaper becomes very difficult to kill.
• A pure killer, Reaper can take out most enemies relatively easily, as long as he can get close to them. The shotguns are unmatched in terms of damage, aside from maybe some very good McCrees or lucky Junkrats.
• Death Blossom is the kind of Ultimate that can make the difference between a win and a loss. A well timed Death Blossom can kill an entire team, or at the very least, it can cripple them badly.

Weaknesses

• Mei is Reaper's bane. If there's a good Mei on the other team, it's usually better to switch to another hero. 
• Reaper is useless at any kind of range. If the enemy defenses are too strong for a flank, he will be left with few options to help his team win.
• When Reaper's Wraith Form is on cooldown, he is very vulnerable to attackers. On top of that, he takes a good amount of time to reload.
• When fighting at a choke point, Reaper isn't as useful as other DPS heroes. If there are no good flanking opportunities, McCree, Soldier, Pharah, Tracer and Genji are all better choices.

Comments

Reaper is an important hero. He's got huge damage potential and when he's played well, he is a real force to be reckoned with. He's every tank's nightmare too... Taking out Winston is child's play as Reaper. Roadhog doesn't do much better... Reinhardt and D.Va can survive a bit more, thanks to their shields, but if Reaper gets behind them, they are dead meat. Zarya is the only one that stands a chance, as she can deal high damage and she can bait Reaper into shooting her while her shield is up, charging up her weapon.

Aside from tanks, Reaper can take out most heroes relatively easily, as long as gets close. The only one that is a real problem is Mei, and potentially Pharah. Mei can freeze Reaper before he can kill her, plus she can heal herself. Pharah can just stay out of range. Other ranged heroes are less of a problem since Reaper can teleport to their location if needed.

Some of the best plays involve a Reaper shouting "DIE! DIE! DIE!" as he makes his shotguns spit out death during Death Blossom. It can be combined with many Ultimates for maximum effect. Zarya's, Mei's and Reinhardt's Ultimates are all great ways to set up Reaper for a big play.

I don't play him often, but I'm starting to like him more and more. He's a simple hero though, and while there are tons of cool things he can do with movement, he's kind of a loner, which doesn't really fit my style. I definitely want to play him more often though.

There are maps where Reaper does better than others. For example, any Control map will usually reward Reaper's close range style. On maps where range is important, like King's Row for example, it's a bit more difficult to be effective with Reaper, but it can still work. Reaper is a great hero, and he's almost always a great addition to the team.

Worst enemy: Mei

Best teammate: Zarya
Most satisfying kill: Winston

Rating ★★★★

Chrono Trigger

Date played: November 7th and 8th
Platform: Vita

I didn't play very much in the last two days, but it was enough to defeat two bosses and make a bit of progress. When I last stopped, I was in the middle of a big cave where enemies were only susceptible to magic attacks. It turns out, there was a boss in the next room!

Heckran is a scary looking monster with big claws. He can only be damaged by magic attacks and he has a strong counter attack. A message on screen indicates if Heckran is in "counter" mode or if he can be damaged, so I had to pay close attention to it. I had Crono, Lucca and Robo on my team, so healing was kind of difficult. It didn't help that Crono was equipped with a Rage Band, which makes him counter-attack on occasion.

So, while the boss was in counter mode, Crono would sometimes hit him with a counter attack, making the boss attack my team in the process... This meant I had to resort to using tonics to stay alive, though it still wasn't too hard. After the battle, Heckran revealed that Magus had played a role back in 600 A.D.. Through some odd logic, Lucca links Magus to the awakening of Lavos, so we set out to 600 A.D. to stop Magus.

We traveled back in time to 600 A.D. and started looking around. Eventually, we figured out that we needed to reach the Southern continent, but it wasn't accessible because of battles on the bridge. In one of the weirdest scenarios yet, Crono and his friends must go to the castle, convince the chef to give us some jerky and bring that back to the soldiers on the bridge. Silly yes, but soldiers have to eat too don't they?

After giving the jerky, I was allowed to walk on the bridge, but a battle was still raging there. I met Ozzie, a wizard monster of some kind who is clearly a bad guy. He sent out some skeletons after me, then retreated, but not before sending a huge boss our way.

Zombor!

Zombor is a giant skeleton warrior. He has two areas that can be targeted, his head and his legs. While physical attacks worked well enough on him, he was even more vulnerable to magic damage. His legs were vulnerable to fire and water, while the head was vulnerable to shadow and lightning. I took out the head first, which exploded with such force that it damaged my team heavily. Robo healed up my team and we took out the legs easily.

Overwatch

Date played: Nov 4th, 6th and 7th
Platform: PS4

Today's hero is Roadhog.

Role: Tank

Difficulty: ★

HP: 600

Armor: 0

Shields: 0

Total: 600

Favorite quote: "Violence is usually the answer."

Favorite map to play on: Illios

Appearance

Roadhog is a fat motherfucker. Like, really fat. In fact, I think he might be the largest hero in the game. His giant, exposed, tattooed belly takes up a lot of space, making him an easy target for enemies. He is armed with a big, chunky shotgun and a huge meat hook. He wears a gas mask, hiding his face. He's got a biker vibe going on and even has pieces of tire forming his armor. He also carries a little flask on his arm, which he uses to heal himself. I love Roadhog's different skins too, they are pretty varied. His voice is funny too... Roadhog has a huge presence on the battlefield. You can't miss the fat fucker even if you tried.

Skills

• Scrap Gun: A brutal shotgun that rivals Reaper's in damage. It's pretty slow and only has 4 bullets though. Alternate fire shoots a small ball of scrap that explodes after a few meters, extending the range of the shot.
• Take a Breather: Roadhog drinks from his flask to restore 300 HP in a short period of time. It has a relatively short cooldown at 8 seconds.
• Chain Hook: Roadhog's signature ability. He launches his hook at a long distance and hooks an enemy. He then yanks the hook and drags the enemy towards him.
• Ultimate - Whole Hog: Roadhog transforms his scrap gun into a fully automatic shotgun that fires continuously and pushes enemies back.

Strengths

• Roadhog is probably the best hero to play when your team sucks ass. He can heal himself, has enough health to survive big attacks and he can kill reliably.
• The hook is one of the best abilities in the game. It can interrupt most Ultimates, including Pharah's, Reaper's, Bastion's, McCree's, etc.
• Whole Hog can be a game-changing ability. While it deals a good amount of damage, it's generally more useful as a control tool. It can easily push and entire team away from a choke point or objective if timed correctly. When combined with Ana's Nano Boost, it becomes even better and can lead to a team kill.
• Roadhog can kill most squishies in a single combo, by hooking them and shooting them in the face with the scrap gun. Instantly killing a healer or annoying attacker can turn the tides of battle.

Weaknesses

• Roadhog is huge, very slow and has no defensive mechanisms. This makes him a very easy target at any range. For example, a Hanzo or Widow can decimate him at range. Junkrat's grenades are a bitch to deal with too.
• Having to reload after 4 shots all the time is very difficult. This makes Roadhog very vulnerable to counter attacks if he didn't kill his target. In fact, when I play against Roadhog, I try to count his shots to time my counter attack.
• Very weak against long range heroes. Roadhog has ZERO defense against long range attacks. Sure, he can heal himself, but that doesn't get him past the choke point.
• Sometimes, Roadhog is just a big battery for enemies to charge their Ultimates on... All the other tanks have abilities that let them absorb damage by using shields or barriers. This doesn't charge enemy Ultimates, which is great. Roadhog, however, doesn't have anything to protect against damage, so when enemies hit him, they get free Ultimate charge.

Comments

Roadhog is a weird hero... When I first played him, I hated him. His weapon has only 4 bullets, he's slow, he's easy to hit and he doesn't have any defensive abilities. Plus, the hook isn't that easy to pull off.

However, the more I played, the more I saw value in Roadhog. He's not a great main tank, but he's an amazing secondary tank. A roadhog behind a Reinhardt shield is very intimidating and powerful. He can kill a squishy in one shot, and that strikes fear into anyone but Reaper, Mei and other tanks.

When I play against a good Roadhog, I often end up using Tracer or Bastion. Tracer can run around the big guy pretty easily and if she can avoid his hooks, she'll kill him without too much trouble. Bastion can also melt Roadhog in a few seconds, but he needs to stay out of hook range to be effective. Pharah, McCree, Soldier and the snipers can take care of Roadhog too, but again, they need to be very careful not to get into range of his hook.

These days, I play Roadhog once in a while. It's weird, it's almost like there's a "time" for Roadhog. You can feel it sometimes, when you need your team to be tougher and meaner, or when they need to push through a choke point.

Whole Hog, his Ultimate, is one of the best ways to control a space. It can push a cluster of people away from a critical location. It can even be used to throw people off the map in certain situations. Speaking of which, the hook can do the same thing on maps that have pits inside the map, like Illios or Nepal. You position yourself just at the edge of a pit, then hook someone who is on the other side. They will fall to their death when the hook releases it's victim.

I like Roadhog, but he's hard to use well, and he's not always useful, depending on the map and team composition. He's a ton of fun to use though. His scrap gun hits like a truck, his hook frustrates most players and his Ultimate is just so fucking satisfying to use.

Also, I end up using him when my team sucks. For example, if we've got no healer and no tank (which happens way too often...), I'll pick Roadhog since he can keep himself alive better than the other tanks. I think Roadhog is really cool, but there's a time and place for him.

Worst enemy: Tracer

Best teammate: Junkrat
Most satisfying kill: Zenyatta

Rating ★★★