Latest Posts by max1u3 - Page 2

The Archives event Retribution - Part 2

The second Archives event took place in 2018, it started on the 10th April and finished on the 30th of April.

The brand new brawl/mission that was introduced during this event was the Retribution event, which followed the Blackwatch cast (Reaper/Gabriel Reyes, Jesse McCree/Cole Cassidy, Moira and Genji). The aim of their missions was to take the head of Talon, Antonio Bartalotti, in. Instead, Antonio goads Gabriel Reyes and explains that any action they take will be a waste of time since his political connections will have him out of prison by the end of the week. Realising he's right, Gabriel Reyes changes the plan (Drastically) and shoots Antonio instead. The Retribution mission is their hasty escape from Rialto.

Not only was this mission introduced but we were also given a handful of brilliant skins.

Scion Hanzo and Soldier 24 are some of my favourite skins as well, so 2018 achieves skins were ab absolute win.

Here are all the cinematics for the mission as well:

I think, short as it is, that there's some really interesting content in the videos.

To start off with, I find it really funny that the video starts with McCree taking out one guy, then Gabriel takes out one guy as well, then Moira takes out three guys and it's like woah ok. Then Genji says hold my bear and takes out an entire group.

It amuses me.

Also, this interaction between McCree and Gabriel, he addresses him as 'Reyes' respectfully, but you can tell he's toeing the line out of concern because they're not just comrades. They're not just commander and follower. They were friends! They worked together for 20 years and it shows in this interaction here!

He's challenging his commanders decisions because he knows that they're friends and he's concerned for him!

Also, please look at these pictures and say to my face that this is not a man who's reflecting on every choice he made since joining Overwatch, and I dare you to tell me those choices aren't weighing heavily on his shoulders!

This is a man that knows if he keeps doing things the way he was doing them, nothing is ever going to change.

So he does something drastic and he kills a man.

He looks so tired :(

I sort of forgot the purpose of this post because I just got carried away psycho analysing Gabriel Reyes.

So, I guess your welcome <3

Halloween event 2023!

We're being fed this year lads!!!

Look at these skins!!! THE WIDOW AND THE ILLARI 🤭🤭🤭

Not sure what I think of the Sombra re-work tho.

Excited for the new game mode though!!

The Archives events Part 1 - Uprising

Uprising was the first achieves event introduced into Overwatch and was released in 2017. It was also a huge hit. It was introduced some four or five months before I started playing, but just reading through the comments and from my personal memories surrounding the event. I can say for certainty it was a hit.

I'll start it off small. they introduced a series of banger skins for this event, and until this day some of them are still my favourites.

Obviously, on top of the skins and the cosmetics, the mission was released.

This was the introduction video. Unlike the following two events, it didn't have an outro cutscene, just this short one at the start.

The uprising mission story itself, is simply stop a war before it begins. There's an null sector invasion in London that needs tackling before it progresses into something more, and Jack Morrison sends in a small strike team.

Their goal is to gain control of the large artillery guns scattered across kings row and take down their defences so Overwatch can move in and save some prisoners stuck in the factory, aka the final payload location.

There's also a lovely little pre-lude to the mission in the form of a comic. Said comic is also called Uprising and details the finer complications of Overwatch's actions in London.

It shows the complicated nature of the relations between Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes, and the strain Blackwatch was having.

It discusses the politics of Overwatch and highlights how much Overwatch was under fire at that point. It also gives us a look into Tracer and how she handled the start of her first mission as well.

Because, yes, this was Tracer's first ever field mission.

It also just gives us a nice little jewel, and shows us where Tracer got her "the cavalry's here" line.

All in all, the Uprising event was delivered with Grace, lore, cosmetics, and interactive and fun gameplay.

Overwatch 2 could never.

Re-Watching Origin Stories

I was re-watching Origin stories and was only a few in when I came to Kiriko's.

Everything is you know, not making sense because of the age differences between her and the Shimada brothers, and then, it starts to just make even less sense.

She basically says in her story that she didn't pick either her mothers way of protecting people, or her Grandmothers, instead she combined the both into a more renegade style.

Cool, chill, whatever.

Then it shows this at the very end:

Like who are these people??

They all look pretty young, and by the looks it it they're all dressing up as Japanese spirits or Yokai.

Those are five sick character designs and all we've heard about them is this single screen grab and some possible references in the Yokai short story?

In the Yokai short story, three characters are mentioned, Ryōta, Nobuto and Sakura. We're introduced to them as Kiriko is meeting them for a festival.

We also learn that Ryōta and his friends do illegal jobs on the side to slight the Hashimoto gang - which are the group of thugs that run the area, Kanezaka, where Kiriko lives.

Here are the bozos in Kiriko's short:

This fight always gives me chills ngl, it's so well animated and staged, it's a wonder to watch.

Also, just have to point out a little line of consistency (that could also be considered laziness considering you've view on it).

But, this Bozo: (from Kiriko's short)

First appeared in Hanzo and Genji's short:

Which came out seven years ago now.

I guess it depends on your point of view. Would it be considered lazy because they couldn't be bothered to make another lackey. Or, is it consistent to use a character they'd already assigned to the Hashimoto group seven years ago.

Guess it can be a little bit of both.

Anyway, getting a bit off topic.

The Yokai short story basically depicts Kiriko stopping her friends from blowing up a warehouse in-case it caused collateral damage, and instead they just sabotaged the weaponry inside the warehouse.

She brings them around from the destruction by telling them a story she heard the Shimada brother's father tell them when they were younger.

At the end of the story they talk about forming a group of that strikes from the shadows at the Hashimoto, and the word Yokai was specifically mentioned.

Which is what these look like:

I'm not sure about the two women, but I'm fairly sure the green one on the right is supposed to represent a Kappa and the brown animal mask on the left is a Tanuki. I'm assuming the one in the back is supposed to be an Oni, sort of like Genji's skin.

So, could this group contain some of the members mentioned in the short story? Are some of them Ryōta, Nobuto and Sakura?

Just from names alone, I would assign the Oni in the back as Ryōta, the Tanuki as Nobuto and the girl holding the umbrella as Sakura.

It would make sense for them to be there if they were mentioned in the short story, which honestly, I feel like should have taken place during their little groups peak.

And included descriptions.

The writing of the short story was kind of weak as well and I just skimmed over most of it quickly. There were a lot of flowery descriptions and analogies, but other times things were too blunt and straightforward. It wasn't a thrilling read to say the least.

Although, it's difficult to make 6 pages good or thrilling, so I suppose they worked with what they had.

If the short story had taken place when the gang had all come together, and it detailed a more complicated heist against the Hashimoto it would have been a much more interesting read.

Plus Blizzard would have had the opportunity to develop more lore, instead of putting loosely put together ideas out there for the sake of time.

Trust me, I know what people will be willing to cut out and half ass all for the sake of meeting deadlines. I'm an art student.

So, I feel the writers are less to blame here and the Blizzard managements are more in the blame.

They keep mass producing these heroes with the bare bones of lore, and then chuck them into the game. It makes more sense for the newer heroes to have less lore, but some of the older heroes have just as much lore as the newer ones; less in some cases.

Surely the writing team hasn't been too pre-occupied with OW2, since well, there was a shortage of new heroes for years and the missions turned out to be... not what we thought.

I just don't understand how Blizzard can keep putting out these strands of lore and then not follow them up.

It drives me up the wall.

If Blizzard was a blanket they would have too many lose threads to count when it came to Overwatch Lore.

Just! Please give us something more concrete Blizzard!

Write more books, draw more comics, release more lore, release more lore centred events!

The Overwatch universe is a plethora of amazing stories to be told and Blizzard is missing on almost everything!

Why's she being so mean to him? :(

He's just being adorable!

I am the Illari in question just in case you were wondering 😂😂

Apex was the opposite team D. Va as well 😂🫠

I can never really tell if I'm getting complimented or insulted when I get remarks like this one...

It was made from the enemy Wrecking Ball towards me after we won.

Like that has to be a compliment right? 😂

It just throws me off when people use the word diff and then follow it with something that's not hate 😂😂

The Decline of the Anniversary Event, Part 3

The final remix event took place in August and just...ugghhhh

Tada, here are the Rem-mixes...

I just...

I'm literally studying concept and character design and I would get fail for plagiarism if I tried something like this.

As usual, here are the originals. You won't be surprised to see another skin that already has a twin colour pallet worm it's way in here.

It's not like there are literally dozens of skins that don't have twin skins Blizzard.

But really.

You do you.

Some real classics in there, skins I know people really adore. Then they go and get those crappy remixes. It just makes me wander what Blizzard was thinking.

I'm not as mad about the weekly challenges this time, for the purely selfish reason that I skipped the last two special events because I thought the skins were mid and was glad for another chance to get them.

I can understand why Blizzard would want to give new players the opportunity to get these skins, but it also feels like laziness wrapped up in false generosity. It still miffs me when I realise we got absolutely NO new, original, content for three whole events.

But, I guess it doesn't compare to this years Anniversary event.

For starters, there isn't even a trailer on their YouTube for it. Nor is there a separate post for each week on their Instagram.

I was busy during the first week, *cough* playing Baldurs Gate 3 *Cough* and I didn't get a chance to earn any of the rewards of SS the information, so this is all I got for week one.

In the first week the Winter Brawls and the Battle for Olympus mode came back and they had a series of challenges and rewards tied to them. Most of the rewards were pitiful credits, which are still a pretty dead currency even with the anniversary shop being open (for only a month). Everything still costs a steep price even if the currency is credits. Other than that it you can earn the classical hero icons for Junker Queen and Sojourn. The big reward here is the Echo highlight intro.

Wait.

That's weird.

I can't find the skins.

What?

Where did they go?

Oh wait-

There they are, costing as much as paid for OW1.

Oh yeah, here's the anniversary store, where you can buy everything with 'credits'.

The only skins you could buy with credits were the space raiders ones, the Ice Angel skin, the Art Deco skin, the Pearlescent skin and the Infinite ace. The Beekeeper and Hermes skins still cost real money, they're just discounted.

I can't say for certain those are all the credits skins though. I had the space raider skins on pre-order and I bought the infinite ace when it came out.

Anyways, here's week 2.

Once again, we have returning events, nothing new, and a series of challenges to complete. More classic golden player icons, a few credits and a Junker Queen victory pose.

It's not really screaming, quantity is it?

Finally, week 3.

Finally, in week 3 we see the return of the Summer Games modes and the mischief and magic game mode. The rewards are mostly the same with the golden player icons and credits, but finally, finally, we're presented with our first free skin. The cursed captain Reaper skin!

Hooray.

A single skin.

Lucky us.

Honestly.

Blizzard started out with 11 free legendary skins you could get through loot boxes, and now all hey offer is a card machine and a single free skin?

Do better Blizzard please.

I'm literally paying the price of OW1 for every skin I buy.

It's just getting ridiculous.

Apex Legends manages to have loot boxes and a battle pass, so why can't we?

The Decline of the Anniversary Events, Part 2

2022 didn't actually have a singular anniversary event, per say.

It experienced a series of Re-mix events, the first one being in April instead of the archives event.

Personally, this really pissed me off at the time. The achieves event is my absolute fave event, and it also always happens on my Birthday. It was something I looked forward to, and then they just... stopped doing the event. No explanation. Nothing.

Instead they gave us this 'you can copy my homework, but change it slightly so no one knows' event collection.

Literally nobody asked for this. Nobody. They're not original skins just crappier versions of the originals. I'll put the originals below so you can see what I mean.

Personally, I think the originals are much better than the re-mixes. What makes it worse in my opinion though, it that some skins they chose to re-mix already had two colour variants. So, they end up giving one skin, THREE different colour pallets.

I also hate how they white wash all the colour from the originals skins in this re-mix event.

So, not only have we not gotten any original skins, they're not even amazing recolours either. There aren't any suitable changes, just a colour pallet wash. So lazy.

And before anyone says, it's because they were busy with OW2, busy doing what? OW2 feels like it has less content than OW1 and the only visible differences are the UI and the missing second tank.

To make this event even worse, they recycled special event challenges for the weekly challenges.

As a long time player, I already had all of these, and the only new content I got were a few sprays.

Needless to say, I was livid.

The re-release of these skins was so badly executed. It was completely unfair to any player who already had these skins and Blizzard didn't even try very hard to provide new content.

Just remembering it now makes me feel petty.

The next Re-mix happened mid next month and lasted until June.

Once again they just released re-mixed skins, but worse this time.

These were the re-mixed skins, now I'll show you the originals.

What makes these ones worse in my opinions, aside from the horrible colour schemes, is that fact that they chose two skins that already had two colour pallets. There are so, so, so, many skins in the game, why chose two more that already have a twin skin?!

Then once again they 're-wind' or recycle (as I like to call it) previous special events.

Like I love the Mercy and Sigma skin, but please Blizzard I unlocked them when they came out.

I understand you want the newer players to have a chance to unlock them, but please, please, please, reward us consistent players with something new.

I ran out of picture space again, so now there's gotta be a part 3 lol

A Breakdown of all the Overwatch Anniversary events so far.

I'm in the mood to write lengthy paragraphs examining OW2 today, so let's go for it.

Just to clarify, my first Anniversary event was 2018, so I have just a wee bit of experience playing these events. Unfortunately, I didn't have the pleasant experience of playing the first anniversary event in 2017.

But, it's as good as any place to start, so what exactly did we get in the 2017 anniversary event.

Three new area maps were added, which I'm sure most of you are familiar with. They were Castillo, Black Forest, and Necropolis.

Not only that, but NINE FREE legendary skins were added during the limited time event, that anybody could pick up through loot boxes.

Not just that though, there were over a hundred unlockable items also released during that limited time. Ranging from skins that were lower than legendary, to player icons, to sprays, to voice lines, to emotes, highlight intros, and victory poses.

The 2017 Anniversary event was also the event that introduced dance emotes, which I'm fairly sure you just have to plainly buy no, but don't quote me on that.

WELL

Moving onto 2018

A new death map was released on the 2018 Anniversary event called Petra. Honestly, it blows my mind that Petra came out five years ago now. I remember logging on, and loading up deathmatch and getting lost out of my mind on this new map.

They released 8 legendary skins

and 3 epic skins

Including Lightning Tracer. Man, I remember just how much people hated this skin, claimed it was the ugliest skin ever made.

Personally, I think there are more than a handful that can rival it nowadays.

The 2018 event also introduced being able to buy past event items for all the events, not just anniversary.

Now that I've summarised all the wonderful gifts 2018 gave us, let's hurry on over to 2019.

This year, unfortunately, they did not release any new maps, (that doesn't mean they didn't realise new maps during the year, they just didn't release maps during the anniversary event).

But, they introduced another reel of awesome legendary skins. Except, there was only 6 this year.

Don't get me wrong. I love almost (egg head Pharah is the exception) and I physically screamed when I pulled Academy D. Va.

But, the delice shows when you compare things side by side.

No new map, and 3 fewer legendary skins.

Here are the epic skins as well, nothing special really though what can you say really.

Although, let me put it out there. I am not complaining. I got to play and earn all these skins for free and it was an absolute privilege that I did. I'm just pointing out the differences as the events progress.

2019 was also the first year to introduce legendary loot boxes for logging in. It was free and guaranteed one or more legendary. I'll just put it out there now, I absolutely adored these loot boxes. They were always the highlight of my game time when one came sliding quietly into my loot box tab.

Next up, 2020.

Now, looking at all of these event trailers together, I've released Blizzard made a very particular choice when displaying the legendary skins this year. Notice in the previous years they're usually grouped together and displayed like that? Well, not this year, because there's only 5 new legendary skins.

By displaying each skin induvial and using a highlight intro, it gives the impression there are just as many skins as usual. Very clever Blizzard, I'll give you that.

So far, we've gone from 11 legendary skins in 2017, to 5 in 2020. That number fell dramatically quickly.

2020 was also the first year to introduce the weekly challenges that became ever present in OW1 events.

None of them are really anything special. I remember being fond of the Widow one because of the gold highlights, but I also disliked the Sigma and the McCree ones because their eyes were covered.

Not much else to say really about 2019, the legendries are classics and it was the first anniversary event to use the weekly challenges, but that's it really.

2021 is where I really start to get pissed of at Blizzard.

Remember how I said before that showing of each skin specifically in their highlight intro was a cheap way of making it look like there's more content than there actually is? Well, it get's worse. At least in 2019 they specified that these were new skins.

In 2021, they just roll out the dance cutscene and introduce the new skins without saying they're introducing them, and combining skins from old events into the background. Maybe because it's late when I'm writing this, or maybe because I'm so used to seeing these skins in game, but I had to actually google a list of what skins came out in 2021 because I couldn't figure out the new ones from the old ones.

Anyways, I figured out which are the new ones, and here are your... five skins.

I won't lie. I'm not really a big a fan off... any of these. I suppose Funky Baptiste would be the best, but personally, the quality of the skins declined so dramatically. You can sort of already see it happening in 2019, but I don't think the delice is too noticeable until 2021.

But maybe that's just my personal preference.

These were the weekly challenges, and honestly, I love Tux Hammy. It's just so classically cute. The vibrant Echo is definitly a look too, just maybe not mine.

This is the bit where it gets a bit... trickier.

I'm going to have to make a second post because you can't post more than 30 pictures per post.

Can someone tell me why Blizzard thought this was a good idea??

Why is the 2023 anniversary player icon just wilding at the top of the menu, instead of being in chronological order??

How I feel after every defeat :(

Members of overwatch from Winstons recall cinematic :)

I realise I haven't posted in days and I have a perfectly reasonable excuse for that... Baldurs Gate 3 ✨

The most darling Rein ever ♥️

I feel that 🥲

Mercy is the official Mum of the group ♥️♥️

My duo calls lag non consensual movement 😂😂

Props to Tom Beansons for going the extra mile and getting coffee making hands 😚

Just so everybody knows, Ashe still keeps photos of McCree everywhere 😘

Look at all the pretty pictures I got when OW2 REBOUND hide ui to left of my D-pad and I thought my game was broken for the first 3 seasons 🥰

Cheers Blizzard 😘😘

Throwback to OW1 when me and my duo threw to Silver and actually got stuck 😮‍💨😂

(Miss you portraits and old rank symbols 😘😘 AND OW1)!!

Just Chilling ♥️

Replayed the Toronto mission with my duo today and here’s a quickly recap of what happened -

My trying to squish my duo and discovering I can instead whack the trees 😌

Aggressively screams at duo to drink bean juice ☺️

Accidentally buys the only train ticket 🥲

“What would you do if you came onto the train and people were sitting like this?”

Look very closely as to where Sojourn is :)

“I can shoot him in the head if that helps?”

“Would you like a mechanical brain?”

“Oh look, it’s the annoying guy.”

Team Kill 💪🏻

Just another cute Junkrat interaction ♥️

It's 2:30am and I... need to touch some grass

Hello folks and on today's episode of I complain about Overwatch Lore, may I present Gabriel Reyes' son?!

And his freaking wife????

We're introduced to them during the 'Code or Violence' short story and we don't really get to know much about them, other than they met after the Omnic crisis and she found another partner after Gabriel Reyes was pressured dead.

They mention a 6 year old son in the short story and that has to be the kid in the picture, no doubt.

But it bring to question, when was he referencing his sons sixth birthday? How many years before Overwatch was disbanded was that? Presuming it was the last one before Overwatch disbanded he was be 11 in the current Overwatch timeline. Why have we heard nothing about a little Reyes running around in the world? Why are there NO in game voice lines about his son?? Or wife????

And his wife! How did they meet? When were they married? How long were they together? Does she still mourn him and want him back or has she accepted things and moved on with her new partner?

Give me more Blizzard I beg 😮‍💨😮‍💨

Got you Sombra 😋

This so gives me the ick, like why do they need to put a label on what they have?? It's none of your business life weaver 😐