The Chinese scientist was my most played hero in the first game by a considerable margin. However, with the launch of the latest game, she is being quickly caught by Zarya, D.Va, and Ashe. Mei’s ability to freeze has been taken away, making her significantly less fun to play as. She can still block people with her wall and can defensively hide in ice herself, but her main gimmick has gone. I don’t think she was ever that viable a pick anyway, but at least she had some neat abilities. Now she just does damage and can create walls. Not much to

But it’s a problem in single-player games too. If I’m losing a game in Marvel Snap I can retreat and I won’t lose as much rank, but if I have a challenge to play cards in the last turn, I have to see it through to the end, even when I know I’m going to lose. In these instances I have two competing objectives - win the game or play a six-cost card. When you’re playing as though you’re trying to do something other than win, you’re engaging in deviant play. Games should not encourage this, yet almost all of them

All of the characters have new skins for Overwatch 2, some better, some worse. It’s all down to personal preference, and most of the dedicated players have skins for their main anyway. Even with my limited playtime, I have a simple palette swap skin for Ashe in my closet. With Mei though, the skin seems to fundamentally change

Right now, it’s a literal "if and when we do that" situation. Even Warzone, another Activision Blizzard game, sticks its war-grizzled operators in cosplay for big crossovers. If overwatch 2 tips and Tricks|Https://overwatch2tactics.com/ joins in, it’ll be hard to deny that this trend is the new norm - it’s not about what artists can design or think of, it’s about the biggest brand deals, and at that point, it all becomes cold and corporate. But maybe the "if and when" won’t stick and Overwatch will keep chugging along like Apex Legends, making its own designs that outrank most others from elsewh

Everything must be realistic, atmospheric, and other vague adjectives taken from focus groups and written on white boards. It might remain as a callback, but if it does it will be an exception to the rule. Any of these sorts of things left in by mistake tend to be taken out immediately because players having fun in their own way isn’t part of the developers’ vision. Any way you find to exploit something, even in a single-player experience where no one else is impacted, is viewed as a mistake to be fi

Overwatch 2 was supposed to be the same game as Overwatch, only with a battle pass, but it’s not Overwatch without Mei for me. She’s always been my best girl, but things just aren’t the same now. And it’s not me, it’s

Mei has recently been pulled from Overwatch 2 for two weeks because players were using her wall to reach places they weren’t meant to. Maybe this is too much to tolerate at the highest competitive levels, but mostly I just think ‘who cares?’. Didn’t they just nerf Mei out of existence anyway? Is it really that big a deal that you can mess around on some m

I am not an expert in Overwatch . Though I have a sneaking suspicion that some data was lost when my accounts merged, the word ‘minutes’ appears on my Most Played Heroes list more than the word ‘hours’ does. I am not an Overwatch die-hard who can tell you the best counters, the new meta, or the perfect strategy. I just pick the characters I like and who seem fun. Occasionally there is a disconnect here - Sombra is cool but I can’t play as her - but mostly, I stick with favourites and hope for the best. Unfortunately, Overwatch 2 has delivered a double body blow to my love of

Live-service games tweak heroes all the time, of course. Hanzo, for example, is likely to get a nerf soon. But this doesn’t feel like a typical tweak to the meta, and instead like Blizzard has changed Mei just because. It’s not only her gameplay that has changed either - it’s her look too, and that’s another major letd

And of course, it must be said that loot boxes weren't simply disliked because they were annoying. A study in 2021 also stated that loot boxes are "structurally and psychologically akin to gambling", and suggested that a third of players buying loot boxes could be classed as "problem gamblers". However, with this many Overwatch 2 players complaining about the new system put in place, the battle pass hardly seems to be an improvem

Does anyone actually enjoy doing daily challenges in games? I for one resent logging in to play and finding a list of chores to do. Even trivial challenges - something I would accomplish through normal play - rub me the wrong way. I don’t know what I’m more upset about: that someone invented such an anti-player progression system, or that every developer in the world took one look at it and said "Yep, that’s good enough for

I’ve found Ashe to be a lot more enjoyable to play as, and that’s another part of the problem - it’s not like I’m short of options. I love westerns and the general aesthetic and aura of cowboy stories, and Ashe leans into these tropes brilliantly. She’s wry and romantic, while all of her abilities still work. I’m not married to Mei (such is the tragedy of life), and my experience with Overwatch is limited enough that giving up my main brings about little more than a shrug. For those who have racked up considerably more hours than me on the clock though, taking away one of Mei’s core abilities while claiming to be the same game feels insulting. You can’t even go back to the original Mei because the first game has been taken offl