I can buy skins outright, but they used to be earned through chance, so the value of each skin is twisted in a way that the community is going to take a long time to reconcile. In reality is it no different to how things are done in games like Apex Legends or Fortnite , with the very best skins costing around $15-$20, but we were used to earning them in a much easier way, and thus it feels unfair. For someone like me with more skins than sense, I feel like a dragon sitting atop a mountain of gold unaware of how they stumbled across such riches. I’m serious, using the new values assigned to skins I think my account is worth thousands. Yet it’s also worthless.

Tracer and Soldier 76’s sexuality were confirmed in comics and other supplemental materials, and you’d struggle to see them mentioned in the game itself with the exception of a few small inclusions. Emily, Tracer’s girlfriend, is an optional spray, and the time-zipping agent will mention her briefly in a piece of dialogue in King’s Row, but beyond this it’s slim pickings for the gays in Overwatch. With the sequel set to focus on narrative to a significant degree, I sincerely hope Blizzard does a better job of embracing its queer characters instead of treating them like a dirty little sec

Overwatch 2 story mode|https://overwatch2Fans.com/ skins are nothing more than costumes to dress your favourite characters up in, so it seems silly for someone like me, who only plays rarely and not even as Soldier 76, to care about them so much. But it’s not really about whether the skins look good, whether I’d want them, and whether they’re better or worse than other sets. It’s that Blizzard had the opportunity to embrace the queer culture behind Soldier 76 and Tracer, a culture the company is happy to cater to in only the most minor of ways, and instead ducked it. A skin that was unabashedly queer was an opportunity to reinforce the diversity Blizzard often talks about, but Overwatch deliberately let the opportunity pass

Overwatch has received a lot of deserved praise and justified criticism for its growing cast of characters, two of which have been confirmed as members of the LGBT community. Tracer, the game’s cover star, is a lesbian whose partner has featured in the universe a number of times, while hardened marine Soldier 76 is also homosexual. This diversity is welcome, and a step above many other games out there, but much of the queer discussion surrounding Overwatch is pushed to the sideli

That’s an issue for another day though. Today, I want to focus on the Archives skins, particularly those of our queer characters, Soldier 76 and Tracer. The Archives event is running until April 27, and brings eight new skins to the game, each designed around a given character’s cultural history. Both Soldier 76 and Tracer are included in the event, but it’s extremely telling that neither of their cultural histories includes any reference to queerness. Soldier 76 is becoming Soldier 1776 which, I admit, is a good pun. The American soldier is donning the jacket of the Revolutionaries, these days probably best known from the musical Hamil

With a sequel, major characters will likely be reintroduced for a new audience, especially the likes of Tracer and Soldier 76. There’s no need to scream and shout about being queer from the rooftops, but just make that aspect of these characters clear in their history, and how it matters beyond a tick in the diversity box. I care about the relationships and dynamics of queer people, especially when I can see it in games like this, so the last thing I want is to see it shoehorned in and immediately shied away from whenever the situation calls for

Overwatch 2 is a weird sequel. It’s more of a live-service update with fancier menus and quality of life improvements instead of a fundamental evolution of what came before, except it’s a whole new game - although it’s free and your progress carries over, so it’s not really that much of anything.

I don’t really need an Overwatch story mode or an Overwatch spin-off to exist; I’m happy believing I’d love them if they ever came to life, and I don’t need to test that theory. A single player futuristic Western revenge drama with Ashe and McCree as the leads? Yes please. A Netflix adaptation of Overwatch’s main story with Maisie Williams as Tracer? Sounds amazing - please never make it. The idea of literally any genre of solo game with Mei or Mercy sounds fantastic, but it would never live up to my expectations and I’m much happier in my ignorant hope than in cold, hard real

Edgerunners is a new anime set in the world of Cyberpunk 2077, the highly-anticipated game that had an infamously rocky and controversial launch. It was losing players and support fast. But this new anime has sparked new life into the game, as it now boasts over a million players a day, and the general conversations around Cyberpunk 2077 have shifted in tone - people seem to be swinging back around to enjoy this gem in the rou