Not ones to throw the baby out with the bathwater, Blizzard salvaged some of the already designed player classes from Titan and used them as the inspiration for several of their characters. Seeing a fit for their burgeoning universe, Blizz genderswapped the free-running Jumper class and took the character's light-up harness and dual pistols and incorporated them into Tracer's final design. The prototypes for characters like Reinhardt, Reaper, Soldier 76 and Genji can also be seen above. The characters weren't the only things that came from the Titan project, either. Overwatch's Numbani map was directly inspired by concept art by Peter Lee, which depicted a gleaming, futuristic African c
Driveclub was hit with multiple delays before it was released in October 2014 and as a result it's easy to forget that the game originally announced as a PS4 launch title. So with almost 11 extra months in the oven, was Evolution's PS4 exclusive a hit? As a single player game, yes, it succeeded. The multiplayer component, however, was a complete trag
Grand Theft Auto V broke sales records and in the process cemented itself in history as one of the most popular games of all time. But while the single player component for the game launched with little issue, the multiplayer mode fell apart quick
Tracer seems to be a bit of a controversy magnet, all things considered. When the Overwatch beta released, a chunk of the fanbase had a problem with one of Tracer's victory poses. The stance was called "Over the Shoulder", and it featured Tracer from behind looking back at the camera (seen above on the left). One user took to the Blizzard forums to complain at length, stating that giving Tracer a standard sexy pose undermined the whole point of the character. It became a hot topic of discussion and grabbed the developers' attent
Early in the year, Firewatch immersed me in one of my absolute favorite stories of the year in the American wilderness, while Far Cry Primal took me back to a more brutal time period. In the spring and summer, DOOM brought me into a roaring rendition of Hell that I will never forget, and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End concluded an epic adventure that came once in a generation. For the fall and early winter, Gears of War 4 brought high-octane action, Dishonored 2 gave me contemplative stealth action, and Watch Dogs 2 provided __ open-world action in a vast, colorful setting of San Franci
Overwatch didn't even really register on my radar until a few months before its release. I'm someone that generally sticks to playing mostly single-player titles: if I do pickup a multiplayer game, it's usually for only a few months at most before I either move on to something else or gradually lose my interest. However, the videos I'd watched and previews I'd read prior to Overwatch 's release grabbed my curiosity: once I had my hands on the game's open beta right before launch, I was officially hooked and it had my attent
BEST VISUAL ART Firewatch (Campo Santo / Panic) The Last Guardian (JAPAN Studio / Sony Interactive Entertainment) Overwatch (Blizzard Entertainment) Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment) Inside (Playdead) Honorable Mentions: The Witness (Thekla), Battlefield 1 (EA DICE / Electronic Arts), Abzu (Giant Squid Studios), Thumper (Drool), DOOM (id Software / Bethesda Softwo
After several weeks in the Public Test Region, Overwatch 's character roster has expanded with the newly-added tank Orisa, while the game is also seeing various new updates this week that is sure to entice players into jumping into the fps game maps and seeing what has been added or alte
There's a tiered system to the skins, and Tracer currently has the highest number of the top tier "Legendary" skins, with eight in total. Some of these skins contain easy to miss details and references. The "Slipstream" skin seen above puts Tracer back in her original fighter pilot outfit, complete with aviators as a reference to the character's origins. The name of the "T.Racer" skin, coupled with the character wearing a speedway style helmet, seems to be a nod to cult anime show Speed Racer. Several fans have theorized that Tracer's "Posh" and "Sporty" costumes are references to British girl group The Spice Girls. However, unless Blizzard unexpectedly drops a Scary, Baby, or Ginger skin on us in the near future, we may never know for s
On September 20, 2016, Activision and Bungie released Rise of Iron _ , a large new expansion for the Destiny _ universe. The expansion included fresh new content in the form of a new location, a new Raid, a new Strike, additional quests, gear, and a new game mode, which drove an increase in MAUs A quarter-over-quar
_2016 has come to a close and while the new year ahead has plenty of games for us to look forward to, the beginning of the year is also the perfect time to reflect on the games that made the previous year so exceptional, with 2016 being no exceptiona