And now for something adorably sweet.

Like many children, Shane Hickey’s young daughter loves to draw, and again like many children based her sketches and doodles on what she saw around her. In this case it was Blizzard’s upcoming game Overwatch and she decided to design her own character, which Shane decided to tweet to Blizzard to show them his daughter’s fanart:

@PlayOverwatch hi team! my daughter created a new character.Her name is birst. She’d love to know your thoughts pic.twitter.com/b31YWUPqSs

— Shane Hickey (@shanehickey) May 20, 2016

The character, named “Birst”, is described as a combination damage-dealer-healer equipped wither boomerang and a laser-suit-dress hybrid garment. She could be considered somewhat a combination between existing characters Lucio and Mercy, but it seemed that the Overwatch team loved the idea.

One of the concept artists decided to take the original fanart sketches and… well, here’s the result:

@shanehickey Our artists were so inspired by this that they created their own fan art! Hope your daughter loves it! pic.twitter.com/c1ToeH1MJF

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) May 21, 2016

Reportedly Shane’s daughter considered it “the highlight of her life thus far”. Currently Shane’s account has the fanart as his avatar and banner as well.

It might just be a small gesture, but it’s always lovely to see bigger companies doing things like this, especially for younger fans. Who knows? Maybe in a future update Birst will become playable or the basis for a new character.

Hey, remember when Team YP got banned from competing in one of eSports’ major leagues? Well now it seems Capcom are also about to cause more headaches for the porn site sponsored-team – Capcom have banned sponsors of “adult content” in a recent rule change.

Players will not be allowed to participate in any tournament if they are sponsored by any sponsor that could be linked with adult content, which Team YP’s sponsorship with site Youporn certainly falls into. While many eSports events and ESL have been outlawing the adult content sponsors in their rules, this is the first time a publisher has followed suit.

The new rule, which also has an effect on sponsorships involving tobacco, alcohol and even e-cigarettes, has been attracting a little concern not only from Team YP although they’re probably the most obviously affected by this. Other teams in the Street Fighter V professional circuit have been adding their weight to the discussion too. Even commentator and long-time proponent of the fighting game community, James Chen has added his voice to the discussion:

“I definitely don’t think it’s fair for players like Filipino Man and Valmaster (two of Team YP’s players) to have this rule sprung on them like this. I do hope that a compromise can be achieved where these players are allowed to be supported by their team for travel/lodging and still play.”

Capcom have said that they are currently reviewing if any compromises can be made, such as allowing players to compete if they do not promote their banned sponsor.

“We understand everyone’s concern around the sponsorship rule in the [Capcom Pro Tour] ruleset. We will review and have an update soon. In the meantime, we won’t promote sponsors we deem inappropriate but all players are allowed to compete.”

Recently a lot of companies have been getting stricter with players found cheating in their online multiplayer games. For example, after some well-publicized exploits within the new game The Division Ubisoft not only implemented some new detection methods but upped their ‘first offense’ penalty while keeping the ‘second offense’ the same as it had always been – perma-ban.

Now Blizzard have come out saying that anyone found cheating in their new game Overwatch will get a permanent ban as well. Difference is, Blizzard aren’t messing around and have said they will do this upon a player’s first offense.

To be totally clear the quote from the post about cheating on the Overwatch forums says that Blizzard will slap this ban upon any player “found to be cheating—or using hacks, bots, or third-party software that provides any sort of unfair advantage”. It then goes on to inform players about how they can report cheating as well as the guidelines for doing so.

Blizzard have a small history of this, having tackled cheaters in Diablo the same way back in 2012 and also banned botters in Hearthstone during 2014; although that occasion saw the bans only being temporary ones.

Check out the topic here for the full details. And make sure you behave in game when Overwatch releases on May 24th. Wouldn’t want to see any of you banned for not playing fair. 😉

In a surprise move for an age in which release dates are constantly being pushed back, Titanfall 2 has been announced to be releasing months before its previously estimated release date of before Match 2017.

While that usually means we’d be looking at maybe an early 2017 release window, GameSpot has seen an earnings report from the publisher EA in which the release date has been narrowed down to be launched during the third fiscal quarter of the year. In other words, around October to December.

This probably means that for their big sequel EA are aiming to get Titanfall 2 out just around Christmas towards the end of that quarter. They’ve another game coming out too that is similar, with Battlefield 1 having a release date of October 21st and Call of Duty’s latest incarnation Infinite Warfare from rival Activision releasing on November 4th. EA will probably want to avoid releasing too near either for the risk of losing sales due to players having to choose just one shooter genre game at the time.

Of course, this is far from a confirmation of any release date, but it’s a fair bet we’ll see Titanfall 2 being advertised as a gift for this Christmas, and it’ll be available on both Xbox One and PS4 along with PC so it’s hitting the three major platforms as well.

Hopefully it’ll be just as attention grabbing as the first game, but maybe have a little more longevity.

Battleborn is an interesting collection of ideas. Taking Gearbox’s trademark humor, first person shooting, hero abilities and throwing them into a blender with a cooperative campaign and three multiplayer modes, it gets most things right but leaves some room for improvement. This is arguably an entry into the emerging Hero Shooter genre, similar to Paladins and Overwatch. Gearbox has put it’s own spin on things however, and the combat in the game is unique and feels surprisingly good. But more on that in a minute. First off, let’s break down the modes.

Single Player

Battleborn comes with an 8 mission campaign, with more missions to be added later in the year. This campaign can be experienced either solo, cooperatively, or with strangers via the public queue in game. Up to 5 players jump into scripted missions with minimal story. The story is told through radio chatter and dialogue between various NPCs. Most of this dialogue is going to consist of “Oh no, bad guy A is going to destroy thing B. We must top it!” It’s not ground breaking, but neither is it bad. The voice acting in the game is well delivered and gives each character a sense of personality and purpose. Its just that the story seems like so much fluff for some rather generic objectives.

Most missions will see you either escorting an NPC through the level, guarding a base of some sort, or doing both. This can quickly get tedious as failing to defend a base, or letting your NPC companion die means a complete restart. Seeing as how missions can take upwards of 40 minutes to complete on the higher difficulty levels, this can be extremely frustrating and punishing.  On a positive note, the game is well balanced, the levels are easy to traverse and in true Gearbox style, whenever you complete one you are showered with loot. Similarly, the hordes of enemies that you face are distinctive, fun to fight and can provide quite the challenge on higher difficulty levels. Although with a well handled team of five, none of the encounters I’ve played are what I would call Dark Souls level hard.

As a note, there are elements of the single player that are shared with the multiplayer and I will go into them in more detail in that section – things like collecting shards to activate gear or build emplacements to combat the NPC enemies, and the levelling system. In addition, due to the way the single player campaign works outside of co-op (you vote on which maps to play, and people tend to choose the maps that offer characters as rewards rather than going through in order) I have been unable to finish 3 of the 8 missions due to lack of co-operative partners to play with. We plan to rectify this and will amend the review, but that’s dependent on Lonesamurai.

Multiplayer

The real meat of Battleborn lies in the multiplayer. The game is broken up into three distinct modes: Capture, Meltdown and Incursion. Capture is the simplest, consisting of three capture points that you and the enemy team fight over control of. The more points you control, the faster you accumulate points. The first team to 1,000 points wins.

Meltdown on the other hand is an interesting mashup of FPS sensibilities and MOBA elements. Each side starts in opposing bases. In between are two lanes running in between, each of which contains an insane talking furnace named MINREC. Teams must escort their minions down the lane and into the maw of the furnace as he screams about environmental responsibility, spouts statistics and gleefully shouts at the minions to be reborn as various new objects such as a replica sword or a shopping cart with a wobbly wheel. Once a team reaches 250 points, their furnaces will move further back, forcing them to protect their minions longer. Scattered about the map are emplacements that you can spend shards on. These shards are awarded for completing objectives, killing enemy Battleborn or minions and for shattering large and small shard crystals found around the map. Emplacements vary from damaging turrets, accelerators that will provide a speed boost and spawners that will place giant special minions onto the field.

Conversely, those shards can be used to activate gear that has been brought into battle. This gear is generally awarded through completing campaign missions, levelling characters up to a certain point or they can be acquired via loot packs purchasable with in game currency.  Up to three pieces of gear can be equipped at in any given loadout, and depending on the rarity of the gear costs a larger amount of shards to activate. This system applies to all three game modes and creates a surprising element of strategy within each match. You can choose to play the map and level up emplacements, earning XP as you do so. Or you can choose to save your shards and activate your gear to gain passive power and defensive attributes. Smartly, Gearbox has crafted this system in such a way that both playstyles are not only rewarded but can make a significant impact on the outcome of a match.

 
Incursion, the final mode, is a break the base mode that involves a central area with tons of minions and Battleborn clashing in a constant explosion of violence. Each base is guarded by two sentry robots. There are also multiple NPC camps about the level. You can attack these minions and upon their defeat, they will join you in battle as powerful pushers. Its important to have minion backup when taking on the sentries, as they will make quick work of a single player character.  Speaking of characters….

Presentation

Complimenting these game modes is a wide cast of characters. Battleborn features 25 characters, with more planned later. All characters and maps will be free, however Season Pass holders will get codes to unlock the new characters immediately. Players without the season pass will likely have to complete a challenge to gain access to the new characters. Unlike some other hero shooters, Battleborn has a both ranged and melee characters. There is a lot of balance on display here, and all the characters have their own unique moves and personalities. Theres Rath, the dual sword wielding space sith who is totally not a vampire; Kelvin the living crystal monster who likes shiny things and Orendi the four eyed magic wielder just to name a few. Most characters are unlocked via mission or challenge completion.

In game, each character has a primary attack, some type of secondary such as a shield or sidearm or blade and three abilities. Two abilities will be unlocked from the start of a match and the third Ultimate ability will become available once level 5 is reached. At the start of every match, all players start at level 1 and gain levels via map actions, completing objectives or killing enemy Battleborn. Each time you level up, you can access the Helix, which looks rather like a DNA helix. Each level of the Helix contains two choices that will modify your abilities in some way. The bow wielding Thorn for example, can have her scattershot of arrows changed to fire in a wider arc for more AOE damage, or tightened up to three more precise bolts for a concentrated punch. These levelling choices provide depth to each match by allowing you to react to the battlefield and choose abilities that will let you counteract the enemy team.

In terms of graphics, Battleborn is gorgeous in motion. It shares a similar art style with Borderlands in that it seems cellshaded in a way, but also has fully 3d models and some reasonably high resolution textures. It’s bright and cartoony, splashing the screen with brilliant color at every opportunity. However, this is a double edged sword. Battleborn in the middle of a giant 5v5 fight is a mess of chaos and particle effects. After a few matches, I found myself able to sort through the chaos, but I still had situations where I didn’t know quite where I was once a battle cleared up.

Characters are distinct, voice lines are well delivered and; on the PC at least; the game runs silky smooth. It’s important to note that the console versions are locked at 30 FPS, which may be a major negative for some players. All in all though, Battleborn is gorgeous and plays extremely well.

Verdict

Battleborn is a great game. It can be chaotic at times, and it suffers from a lack of map variety. Each mode only has two maps available making for a total of 6 multiplayer maps. The characters and voice acting are great, but they single player campaign suffers from some repetitive design and frustrating failure states. All in all however, Gearbox has crafted a lively and vibrant shooter with some truly unique game modes and playstyles.

Battleborn: 7.5/10