High Scores 2016
Feature

High Scores: The Best Videogames of 2016 – 4 to 1

This is part of Kill Screen’s list of the best videogames of 2016. To see the rest of the list, check out all the other parts. /// 4. Anatomy If Kitty Horrorshow is the new mistress of videogame horror, then right now Anatomy is her masterpiece. It’s as unsettling as it is smart. You’re tasked with collecting cassette tapes around a dark, silent house. As you listen to them, a monologue suggests the house is alive. One line that sticks: “There is even a fair number of comparisons to be drawn between those organs of the house and those of the…

Feature

How Overwatch Whipped Up an eSports Frenzy in South Korea

This article is part of a collaboration with iQ by Intel. Professional and amateur players are shifting their focus to a game that’s breathing new life into competitive eSports in South Korea. Earlier this year, for the first time in nearly four years, League of Legends (2009) was not the most popular game in South Korea’s PC bangs. Inside internet cafes or “PC rooms,” Blizzard’s recently released Overwatch was the competitive online game of choice, edging out LoL by as much as 30 percent in June. It’s almost the equivalent of Wimbledon pulling in more viewers than the Super Bowl. “The…

News

Everybody scream! It’s Overwatch on Halloween

It’s probably too early in the day for me to playing Overwatch, being around noon. After all, I have work to do. But I’m ignoring that for now. For a fleeting hour or so, I’m taking a break, because Overwatch’s latest themed event is here. And oh buddy, it’s Halloween. A couple hours spent in Overwatch’s Halloween Terror event and I already feel as if it’s leagues better than the Summer Games from August. Maybe that’s because I’m not into sports, but skulls and pumpkins? I’m 100 percent on board. In the timely update, players can now buy the rare skins…

Overwatch
News

We wrote an ode for every character in Overwatch

How do you tackle a game as big and aqueous as Overwatch? Every so many weeks its meta game changes; characters fall in and out of favor, you win, you lose, you get fed up of firing pellets into Reinhardt’s shield for entire rounds. These changes are, for the most part, minuscule—noticeable only to the most dedicated players. Stand back far enough and you wouldn’t see them. What you will be able to observe from such a distance, however, is a maelstrom of rockets, gigantic thighs, and dragon spirits twirling in deadly coitus. Overwatch stands out for its personalities, so…

Zenyatta
News

Praise be to Zenyatta, then chill the heck out

We love Overwatch. So we assembled 22 of our best writers and set them to work—a writer to jump into the skin (or robotic shell) of each character. The result is 22 odes. You can use the “Overwatch odes” tag to leaf through them all, or use the handy list at the bottom of this post. /// For real, the Overwatch stable of dudes is stocked with tryhards and fuccbois—whether they’re chomping on cigars like a pre-senile Clint Eastwood, or floating across the stage wishing they were at a Type O Negative concert. Comparatively, the two playable Omnic characters are…

Winston
News

Winston, the Science Gorilla, is in charge

We love Overwatch. So we assembled 22 of our best writers and set them to work—a writer to jump into the skin (or robotic shell) of each character. The result is 22 odes. You can use the “Overwatch odes” tag to leaf through them all, or use the handy list at the bottom of this post. /// The last time I went to the zoo, I stood for a long while in front of the gorilla’s enclosure. One of the animals—an enormous guy—was sat with his back to the glass pane that showed his home to passersby. Occasionally he would…

News

Soldier 76 is here to make everyone else look good

We love Overwatch. So we assembled 22 of our best writers and set them to work—a writer to jump into the skin (or robotic shell) of each character. The result is 22 odes. You can use the “Overwatch odes” tag to leaf through them all, or use the handy list at the bottom of this post. /// Soldier 76 is a dude. Not just male—the blonde, cold-eyed, brawny former leader of Overwatch is a classic beau hunk, a quiet slice of manness straight out of a John Hughes film. His scars, in spirit and in flesh, from his days at…

News

An ode to Reinhardt, tortured scion of a broken land

We love Overwatch. So we assembled 22 of our best writers and set them to work—a writer to jump into the skin (or robotic shell) of each character. The result is 22 odes. You can use the “Overwatch odes” tag to leaf through them all, or use the handy list at the bottom of this post. /// Berlin, 1945. Spring has sprung, drawing a bitterly cold winter across Europe to a close. Like a stockyard’s hammer, Stalin’s Red Army has struck crippling blow after crippling blow to the Wehrmacht, and now sits outside the gates of Germany’s capital city. Concerted…

Pharah
News

Don’t play fair, play Pharah, exclusively

We love Overwatch. So we assembled 22 of our best writers and set them to work—a writer to jump into the skin (or robotic shell) of each character. The result is 22 odes. You can use the “Overwatch odes” tag to leaf through them all, or use the handy list at the bottom of this post. /// At the end of a round of your fave shooter, you are blessed with a wall of stats to pore through and analyze. If you’re a Very Serious Player, maybe you bought a Very Serious Mouse to improve your “accuracy percentage.” But what…