Attention, Internet! Ragachak here! This is the first of many editorials by me! Whatever I find interesting at the time is what you will see in this column. Enjoy!
Two AAA titles dropping on the same day is typically a death sentence for one or the other. Say, TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan dropping with Overwatch. No matter how much fun it might be, it’s going to get buried beneath the weight of Overwatch. But Battleborn’s been playable since May 3rd. That’s weeks and weeks before Overwatch’s May 24th. So why all the hate and resentment? It’s been a standard in the gaming community since the days of the NES and Sega. We can’t “like both”, because that’s absurd. The games aren’t the same at all! Sure, they’re both shooters, and maybe Gearbox insists that you don’t call Battleborn a MOBA, but they aren’t the same. Battleborn is an adrenaline filled, foul-mouthed action game that has intense, fast-paced PVP to go along with it. But Battleborn has a story mode that you can explore, and the characters don’t all come unlocked. Its PVP can be ruthless, unfair and all told, pride-obliterating. If you take the PVE mindset into the PVP arena, you’re probably going to lose. You’ll sit there wondering, “Why am I level 2? The entire enemy team is level 7!” and I know this, because that was my experience day one of doing the multiplayer battles!
So what of Overwatch? It’s JUST PVP. The matches are pretty balanced, fair, and you can swap characters freely to meet whatever needs your team has at the time. The feeling of fun is much higher there. While I love Battleborn, you can quite easily be put into a situation where your team is outmatched in every conceivable way, and their team just counters yours. In Overwatch, you can fix that! Want to play the counterplay game? Go for it! But I don’t play Battleborn for the PVP so much. I play for the fun story and engaging characters, and the crude, awful humor. I love Gearbox storytelling as a whole. Why all the hate though? You know what one of the biggest arguments I saw for “Overwatch vs. Battleborn” was? “OVERWATCH HAS MORE PORN. So it is obviously superior.” I don’t even understand that. I don’t want someone to explain it either. Sure, certain websites have a lot of virtual porn for Overwatch, but damnit, I just want to play the game and be happy with other people who are happy about being there. Each game has their own merits, own flaws. It’s 2016, folks. Love what you love.
