Video Gamers Podcast - Overwatch Reborn? – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and Ace are locking in and dropping back into Overwatch to break down the latest updates, balance changes and brand-new heroes shaking up the battlefield. Is Blizzard’s ongoing support enough to keep the momentum strong, or are these additions a sign that the game is evolving in bold new ways? The guys dive deep into how these changes impact team comps, competitive play and the overall state of gaming right now. From fresh character abilities to meta-defining tweaks, we’re analyzing what works, what feels broken and what it all means for the future of video games in the hero shooter space. If you’re passionate about gaming and want to know whether it’s time to reinstall, this episode has you covered. We’ll also talk about how these updates position Overwatch in the wider video games conversation and whether Blizzard still has that magic touch in modern gaming. Don’t miss this action-packed episode of the Video Gamers Podcast!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser, and Dettmarp   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder, Bobby S.   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/h2cHKAvSmu Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, fellow gamers, and welcome to the Video Gamers podcast. Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, Marvel Rivals, some of the greatest hero shooters ever. But lately, one of them has had a bit of a revival. That's right, Overwatch has passed Marvel rivals for concurrent player counts on the news of some big plans. Well, on today's episode, we're breaking down the state of the game. if Overwatch is truly back and if it's worth your time to dive into. But before we get to the fun, some introductions are in order. I am your host Josh.

And joining me, he's an Embrane, Maine. Nope, nope, wait, he just swapped a Soldier 76. He's a Soldier 76, May. No, no, wait, that's not working out for him either. Okay, now he's trying Cassidy. Oh, okay, few, he's on. adjourned now. Oh, Lord, help us. He just went healer. We're screwed. It's Ryan. You could just say I'm not good at the game. You can just say I'm not good. This is, this is the, uh, I can't say that Ryan. I have to say it in a

funny way for everybody else. I am very mid at this game. I don't know it. I don't know the characters. I don't know where to go. I am, uh, I am existing in, in this game. I also, there's no mercy around these parts because we are all good friends and as good friends do. Oh yeah. Absolutely. There's never mercy. Nor would I expect any. Yes. No mercy. Exactly. And joining us, he's trying really hard to be our support player extraordinaire, but Overwatch ain't Marvel rivals. And sometimes he just wants to hit a headshot or two. Healing be darned. It's ace. Listen, it's bad enough trying to heal in that game when every support character is just a DPS in disguise. It's a test, Ace. It's a test.

It is. One that I fail every single time because when I lock in healer, people are like, Josh, come on, dude. I never, you got to heal this time, Josh. And I'm like, I'll heal. I swear. I will, I swear. Just a little bit. Listen, my stance is they can't hurt you if they're dead.

That's true. This is true. There's less to heal if there's no one causing damage. Exactly. Exactly. Well, welcome in, everybody. We are going to be breaking down Overwatch and people are like, what the? Did I just step back into 2016?

Like you're doing an Overwatch episode? Yes, we are because like I said, Overwatch has overtaken Marvel rivals. So does that make this the number one hero shooter in the world right now? Currently. Probably. I can't imagine Team Fortress has more concurrent players than Overwatch. No, I don't think it does. I wouldn't believe so.

I'm just going to go out on a limb. And, you know, people are used to us being idiot. So if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But I'm just going to go out on limb and say that Overwatch is the number one hero shooter right now. We have been playing almost nightly, guys. We took a small break to knockout reanimal so that we could do that episode. And we have been playing almost every night. Ryan and Ace both have dabbled in Overwatch, but you guys are nowhere near, you know, my level as far as just

gameplay. I don't mean skill level. I just mean time spent in this game. We have been playing with members of the community. We've been playing with my daughter who is cracked just loves Overwatch more than anything. Yeah, cracked out on it, which might be why we're getting the harder lobbies now that I think about it. But guys, before we get to whether Overwatch is really back, whether it's, you know, hey, it's a good time to hop in. This is the time to check it out and that kind of stuff. We have a couple people to thank man. Some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some would say some heroes, you know, maybe not one of the roster of Overwatch, but heroes to us nonetheless, boys. So we want to give a huge shout out to Rowdy, who signed up for rare status. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. And guys, we got a brand new epic

member and new member of the Discord at the same time. This is what I love seeing because this means somebody found the podcast and went, I like what you guys are doing. And oh, you guys have a really good gaming community? Well, I would love to check that out. So it's a huge shout out to Baja, who signed up for Epic status, join the community, started chatting right away, just is right at home now, man, which is what we want every gamer out there to feel like when they join our community. So Baja, thank you so much for the Epic support.

It really does mean the world to us. It's greatly appreciated. And to everybody else out there that supports the show, thank you. this podcast would not be happening without the support of all these people. So, you know, we always say, hey, if you can contribute, it goes a long way to helping us do this. If you can't contribute, we completely understand. Tell a friend, you know, tag us in social media. You know, the best thing you can do is get other people to listen, leave us a review or rating.

There's lots of ways that you can participate and help out there if it's not financially. If you do want to support financially, you can do that over on Patreon. There's a link in the episode description. we give you a shout out, we give you cool perks, pre-show content, which has been fire lately boys. That's really become a fun thing for a lot of people. So we try to make it worth your while to say thank you. But there you go. So thank you, Rowdy, and thank you Baja for signing up to support the show.

All right, guys, I'm going to be honest, man. I freaking love Overwatch. You guys know that. I have a very love-hate relationship with this game because this is, this is to me, the best hero shooter in the world. I had a stint with Marvel rivals. I loved Marvel rivals for a long time. I had uninstalled Overwatch. Maybe. Maybe I rage uninstalled it. Okay. You guys can't prove that or not. But, you know, maybe I did. Um, you know, but you know, I'll tell you why, guys, let's just, let's just do one more thing. Before we get into the nitty gritty of Overwatch, you know,

it's been a little bit. Let's just, I'm a, I'm calling an audible. Ryan. Let's read a review, baby. Let's read a review. You know what? We had people to thank, dude. Let's just keep the good vibes going, man. I love it. I think you got a review for us, right?

I do. I do have a review. I'm glad you brought that up. We got a five-star review from Shua-9-99. And this one is titled Honest, Fun, and Ultimately Needed. I've ran across this podcast when looking for a review for Claire Obscure. Oh, come on. for listen from

far cry me a river with Paul and Josh to the Butler being a host to Ryan joining and Paul leaving now ACE is in and I really have enjoyed the different dynamics they all bring to the table

also Ryan I'm not a PVPVE player but I am on the arc graders kick just from listening to your all review it you guys crack me up because you're just friends playing games and not paid reviewers keep it up and friendly, friendly, friendly,

God bless. Nice. That's a great love it. Anybody playing Arc Raiders knows friendly, friendly, friendly, friendly, friendly, friendly. Don't shoot. Stop. Just remember everyone. Ryan doesn't consider Arc Raiders one of the best games in the last five years.

Yeah. Okay. Hold on. I commented on that, by the way, on that list. Like, I'm like, I don't know. I was so focused on not missing the other games that I totally missed the most of one that I'm still playing. Like the most important one.

Like this is the most important one that I'm still playing and it's not there. So that is my bad for that previous episode. If you haven't listened to it, go check it out. And don't judge me. Someone say that makes you a fair weather fan, Ryan. I guess so. But you know, whatever. Following the trends, Ryan, just ditching arc raider as soon as it's convenient to you.

Guys, I want to start off right off the rip because you two are fairly new to Overwatch. And what just because there's there's dude, we see it in our community. There's a lot of people that are like, oh my gosh, people are playing Overwatch again. Yeah. You know, what? Should I download it? Should I join in? Are we back? As people at, yeah, like literally, they're like, are we back? Like, what's going on here? So as people that don't have thousands of hours in Overwatch that are fairly new to the game. Like, what are your impressions? Is this where somebody downloading? Is it too complicated? Like, what are your thoughts? give them like lay it out for the people that want the info right up front like where where are you at

with this i'm going to go ahead and put my thoughts out there right now overwatch is a very high quality fun game i don't know if i would throw someone into it blind by themselves i would recommend they join like me or a friend who knows the game because it is a very complex game you can't just i feel like you can't just jump in by yourself and expect to understand what's going on It's kind of the same with rivals. I wouldn't expect anyone to be able to jump into rivals and be like, I can do this. No, you don't know positioning. You don't know what your role goal is.

You don't understand how to swap when you're getting hard countered. Like there's a lot that goes into that. But I don't think that should scare people away. If you have someone who's willing to work with you, it's a great time. Yeah. Now, that's a really fair assessment. And I kind of to stack upon that as someone who spent a lot of time playing rivals with ace.

Like I got to Lord Thor, Lord Moon Knight, you know, I was, I was a really very decent tank. I held my own in most matches, even in comp and stuff like that. So to go from that to this world of Overwatch where there's four bajillion characters, all that have different skill sets, all that I don't know, and all these maps also that I don't know. So throwing somebody into that world, it is overwhelming. It is something that you're not expecting, you're not used to, and it is a lot to deal with.

It helps probably if you're not in these crazy matches with these super high-ranked people that I was in. You know, I tried the best I could, and I did okay at it, but I'm sure I would do. Anytime I played without them, I would just wipe the floor with the other teams, but you still, you have to, it is very much a technical hero shooter where there are, hard counters. There is strategy. There is positioning. There is positioning. There's a lot. There's a lot to this game. And we're going to go into it. But first bat, like, you have to give it some time to kind of marinate. Like, try out different characters, see what you're going to like and go from there. But initial response is like, whoa, this is a lot. But if you stick to it and you're willing to

like try it out and like play the hero shooter for what it is like I think you'll learn to love it. I will say if you want a good time to join, join when they add five new characters. Yeah, right. Nobody knows what's going on. Yeah, and nobody knows how to play. Yeah, and nobody has a clue what's going on. Kill the cat. Kill the cat.

Kill the cat. Kill the cat. Oh, that's stupid jet pack cat. So I love hearing these takes from you guys. I will say you two are at a natural disadvantage because you were playing with me and my daughter. You know, she has a very high MMR. So, you know, and I will say one of the things that I think Overwatch does really well is its matchmaking to where, you know, she's near master level. You guys are, you know, silver, let's, maybe bronze, right?

Like you're brandy players. And again, this is not your skill set. This is for people that are thinking about jumping in, right? If you jump in, like, Ryan, if you and A's played without me and Cassie, you guys would get lobbies that are right up your, like honestly, you would. Like, you legitimately, right? you, because I don't want to scare people off from trying the game, but yes, if you were playing this game with somebody that has a thousand hours in it, you're going, it's going to try to balance your matches, right? So, you know, you're going to have a guy that's almost master

level that very well could just be absolutely obliterating your team, you know, because your master level person is a healer that can't do damage. They might be healing like crazy, but then nobody on the other team is dying kind of thing. If you play with people of similar skill sets or similar time, the game really does match you at that point. And that's why, Ryan, you say, hey, when I play by myself or, you know, I actually feel like I know what I'm doing at that point. Yeah. So I will say if the, the beauty of Overwatch is, is the learning process to me. Like, it's, you know, that to me, that's the fun of a hero shooter, right? Like, yeah, absolutely. Hey, which character is my character? Like, which one just feels right, plays right? I'm good with naturally.

you know, I hit my shots or I'm healing like crazy or something. To me, the fun of a hero shooter is finding that character that jives with you. And when you do, you just lock in and you play that guy until you start to like understand. And okay, I don't have to think about their their abilities. I don't have to think about the cool downs. I don't blow every cool down I have the second I get in a fight. Yeah. You know, which is what new people do.

Right now with the addition of the five new characters, Overwatch has 50 characters, guys. That's so many. Like 50. It's weird to me because I've been playing Overwatch since the beta, right, to where it's like, I know all these characters like the back of my hand. It doesn't mean I play all of them, but I know who they are. I know what their abilities are.

I know who counters who. But I've learned this over 10 years of playing Overwatch. So you guys are right that it absolutely can feel daunting. But there is fun in the process of figuring. out the different characters. And they have a practice range. You can just go in by yourself. It loads a private practice range for you. You can try every character in the game, see what their abilities are, run around, try the ultimates and all that stuff. It's a fantastic place to just get your feet under you. But as a new player, it will put you in new player lobbies. Like you will,

you will get people of similar skill. And that's when you start to kind of just play the game and figure it out. And let me tell you, these lobbies are terrible. from somebody with experience, right? Like, they call it like, I'm stuck in bronze hell because people like in bronze, they don't know positioning, they don't know counters, they don't know cool downs and maps and this stuff.

But it's like there's kind of a fun to be had there because like nobody knows in the bronze lobbies, right? And everybody's just running off different directions and all this stuff. And then it's like, that's the learning, right? That's kind of the fun chaos. But then when you start to learn the game

and you start to learn the abilities and the strategies and the positioning and who counters who, it unlocks this next level that keeps you going from like the 30 hour mark to like the 100 hour mark. And then it's like, then there's the perfecting the four or five characters that you learn and you want to play with. And perfecting those four or five characters is what goes from like the hundred hour mark to like the thousand hour mark. Yeah. And this to me is why I love hero shooters so much because if it clicks with you, you have almost infinite play a in these games.

Like, I have, I think I probably have 1600 hours, if not more in Overwatch. And there are characters that I have played for an hour, like legitimately an hour because they're not my kind of character, dude. Like, I don't play sniper in Overwatch because I don't like Widowmaker. I think she sucks. Or I suck with her. We just got wrecked by one the other night. Oh, she did.

God-level Widowmaker, you know. But to me, that's the fun. So, you know, if you're willing to either just hop in, have a little bit of fun. It's chaos. You know, you'll figure it out as you play, but you will get the easy lobbies all the way up to I'm a thousand hours in and I'm still mastering this character. I think that's the beauty of a hero shooter. And I think with Overwatch specifically because it's got a decade of just experience behind it, you have infinite playability if this resonates with you. You know, whereas Marvel rivals is what, a year and a half old at this point?

And while they've been making tons of upgrades, like they don't they don't have that. like balancing history. Like I'll say this, 50 characters, how the heck do you balance a game where you have 50 character roster, dude? I don't know. Overwatch does it, dude. They do it somehow, you know?

And I don't know how, and it doesn't mean that some characters aren't a little bit more powerful than others, but in the right hands, any character can be great. Yeah. Yeah, who'd you say vendetta? Yeah, I know, right?

Yeah. So. I agree. I think the joy of a hero shooter is finding your, you know, set of characters and just mastering them, especially when someone else comes against you

as your character and you just get to diff them. Like, you're just like, oh, I'm the, I love that. Yeah. Like,

Reaper's one of my mains that I play. And like, anytime there's an enemy Reaper on the other team, you're like, oh, boy. And then I'm like, oh, no,

wait, this guy's cracked. Oh, no. I'm going to swap guys to counter their tank. Okay? I'm going to change here real quick. So,

listen, Overwatch has been out for a decade. We're not going to get into the mechanics of the game and this kind of stuff. If you don't know what Overwatch is at all, like, number one, where you been? You should know. Like, where have you been?

But so we're not going to break down all the characters and all the mechanics, but I do want to talk about what the game feels like currently from an experienced players' point of view to newer players' points of views. What kind of works right now for you guys? What doesn't work right now? And that way people can kind of get an idea of just where is it at? Like, that's kind of more of the goal of this episode is to say, hey, Overwatch has been around for 10 years.

It is seeing a resurgence. Like, like, you know, like, it's hot. It's the hotness right now, which makes me very happy. But that's kind of the goal is to say, hey, is it worth your time to check out? Do you want to come play with us? Because we've been playing with people, which is a lot of fun. We're planning a community night so that we're going to have custom Overwatch games, which if you have not done is an absolute blast.

So that's kind of the goal. We're going to get in a little bit more of that right after this break. All right. we're back, we're talking Overwatch, it's 2016. No, it's not. It's 2026, but here we are, boys. Here we are.

People are like, is this a rerun episode? Really? What's going on here? Ryan, one of the things that I remember you just shouting, I think it may have been the first night that we were all playing together, is you just went, and you have a lot of Marvel rivals playtime.

So it's not like you don't know what a hero shooter is like, but at one point you just went, what is going on? This is chaos, dude. Like, what is happening? people are shouting ultimate lines there's voice lines going down there's all kinds of explosions and things happening and i just it made me chuckle because i'm like isn't it great and you're just like what is happening so i mean you know there is so much going on but in that chaos do you find

fun at the same time oh i mean absolutely um i think that was one of the things where it's less like it was like a bunch of ultimates all at once and when you you when you're new to a series that you know is 10 years old and like you said 50 character strong like there's a lot of character lines there's a lot of things and ultimates that i don't know you know Marvel rivals there's not a lot of characters i've been with it since launch i know when i hear something what what to expect this i did not so i'm kind of in the mix of chaos and i see all these things dropping you guys why did you move he said this he said that on I'm like, I don't know what's going on.

I'm like, I'm just running around, just shooting everything. You know, I'm trying my best. Again, like we said, it didn't help that I was in the crazy MMR lobbies. But I will say the cool thing about this game is that, like, there is, there is so much there. It's almost like, you know, it's like algebra 1-2 versus like 5-6. like you're you're in the same world but like once you get to that end area you understand all the jargon and you know what's going on and you know whatever they throw at you you can kind of figure it out and that's what it's like for me like I I kind of somewhat understood but I didn't really get it

you know and the more I play the more I understand the more I get the more I know where positioning is the more I know where I need to be the way the map flow works every map has kind of like a flow based on how, I mean, how the map is being played. Like there's, there's, there is a lot of strategy, a strategy to these games. So, um, yeah, man, it's just, it's overall, it's been, uh, it's been an interesting experience to play with you guys. That's for sure. I can give you a few, uh, hints here, Ryan. If, uh, you hear something that's not in English, run. Yeah. There you go. Yeah, right.

That's probably a good idea. Find a hiding spot. I shouldn't be up there anyways, you know, you, but you know me, I'm just like, ah, you should have run up front. Yeah. I, so. You know, you kind of mentioned that, that like, you know, even after five, six games, you started to understand a little bit, right? Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Every match you play, you learn something from. And it is chaos at first, but it's funny because that processing of the chaos becomes such like an ingrained into you thing. And I think this is one reason, like, I go back to Overwatch time and time again, is that it is a, comfort game in the sense that I understand all this stuff. But you guys know, I love chaos,

dude. I want fast-paced, just crazy comebacks and things happening all around and these, these, you know, clutch plays from, you know, it's a 2v2 and now it's a 1v2, but your one guy took out another one. Oh my gosh, it's 1-1. And it's like, dude, I can't believe it. You got the point. And it's like those moments, I think, I think Overwatch does a phenomenal job of the play of the game after every match to say like, this is the person. that did like something really epic and you get to kind of rewatch that, which is always fun to see. One of the things to me that I love about Overwatch, other than just that progression and that constant learning and every match you learn something new. And oh, that's the ultimate voice line when

the guy's on my team. Oh, oh, that's the ultimate line when he's on the other team. Run, run, run, and you start to just kind of start to learn these things naturally. The one thing for me that stands out head and shoulders above any of the other hero shooters out there is the level of polish on Overwatch, dude. Like, I don't, like, Marvel Rivals, this is not shade to Marvel Rivals at all. I loved Marvel Rivals for a really long time. But like, Overwatch's polish level is unbelievable, dude, from the maps and how they're constructed to the characters and the different abilities that they have and the personalities that

they have in the way that they play, you know, like some characters, like, some characters like, you know, here's something, Ace, and, you know, we joke around and Ryan for you, too. Like, not everybody has cracked out aim, dude. Oh, God, no. If you have cracked out aim, Nexivis, talking to you, you know, there's characters where you can excel because you were cracked out on your aiming ability. If you have no aim whatsoever, but you have amazing situational awareness, like you're like, I know where everybody's at.

I can understand what's going on in the battle. I just can't shoot anybody. There's characters for you, man. They literally have characters. right well or like Winston Winston Winston's a great that doesn't have to aim hazard too

that to me falls into this level of polish where they go anybody can play this game dude you do not have to be cracked out you do not have to be great at shooters to be good at Overwatch and enjoy Overwatch

now if you're trying to play a weapon based character where you need to have like insane sniping ability don't play the character you know what I mean they don't play that one because you're probably not going to be good at it but i guarantee you there's probably five or six other characters that actually fit what you were naturally good at at that point

and that's one reason i think overwatch stands out is because they have made it to where people that aren't super into shooters can actually have a great time in overwatch dude and that's a rare thing in this genre do you think that do you think that that was like strategic on their part that they intentionally yeah they intentionally made like life's sap characters and then like non- aiming characters and then you have your cracked out like specifically like super super sensitive aiming characters like do you think that they did that purposefully to like create kind of that that wave where everybody gets like something that they're good at yeah and they even came out and said that like long long ago they said we want overwatch to be for everybody that's cool

you know and so we want people that are intimidated by having to aim to have a character that is viable you know that you can play where you don't have to aim. I made this for you, you need to pay attention to your position more. I watched your Twitch streams. You were missing all them shots. I don't have to aim. No, no, no.

Well, Ryan was playing on control. He was on controller. And there's no aim assist on PC. Like, come on, man. You say that about Overwatch, but rivals has the same thing. There are still characters who are like, don't have to aim. So it's like, that's something. What do you think they got it from, Ace?

I don't know. Where do you think Overwatch got Domina? Huh? Where would she come from? I will say in the new Enron, which is basically Phoenix. Now they've just leached off one another. Just go back and forth. Oh, yeah.

They're just eating one another now. I'm here for it, man. That's good. It's funny characters. The best thing that ever happened to Overwatch was Marvel Rivals. It absolutely was. And, you know, we, and I'll just, you know, this is a good time to mention it, right? like Overwatch went through some crap, dude.

As someone that's been playing this since launch, since beta, really. Absolutely love this game. It was, you know, it was like top 10 game of all time for me with how much fun original Overwatch was. And then they came out and they said, guys, Overwatch 2. So for anybody that's not familiar with this story, I'll give you the very quick summary. Overwatch 2, hey, we're redoing some of the graphic style.

We're amping everything up. We're going to give you a PVE component for this. so we can't we can't have overwatch one in the way so we're going to release overwatch two and people went cool but i can still play overwatch right and they went no and people went wait a minute what do you mean no and they're like we have to divert all our attention to overwatch two guys we cannot support overwatch it's it's going to be to the detriment of overwatch two and then people went okay but like you're still going to leave the six v six game playing right and they went

And people went, what do you mean? And then they said, yeah, we're taking it all away. We're changing everything. But don't worry, guys. You're going to get a PVE game out of this that's going to be PVEE Overwatch. That's the reason we have to do this. You know, sorry about all that. And then how was that PVA game, Josh?

Dude, how was that? Honestly, I can't. That's the nicest way I can put it. What about all my skins I paid for him overwatch one? They went to bear over to watch. Those transferred, but. The loot boxes were gone. That's what it was.

And the battle passes locked the characters behind that. That's the, see, this is where they really went off the rails because they, they did some bad, bad things where they started having battle passes, but then new heroes, which is always fun in a hero shooter,

new heroes were locked in the battle pass. So you did not get to play the new hero unless you bought the battle pass, or you put in like a hundred hours worth of gaming to be able to unlock the hero like one. one hero. Yeah. Right. And then, and then they came out and said, hey, you know that PVE mode that we promised you guys,

which was the whole reason for Overwatch 2? By the way, that got scrapped, guys. So no PVE and you're stuck with Overwatch 2 now. And people, this is when the game really started to fall off, dude. Like, this is when I quit. This is when a lot of people I know that were playing quit. And not long afterwards, Marvel rivals comes out. Yep.

and kicks them right in the butt and then lo and behold, Ace, you said it and there is so much truth to this. The best thing that ever happened to Overwatch was Marvel rivals because the world went, heck yeah, Marvel rivals. And then everybody at Blizzard and Overwatch went like, well, what about us?

And then we all went, screw you guys, man. You haven't put any effort into this game at all in like two years. Man, in fact, you screwed everybody over that loved your game. And then they went, maybe we should you think we should try a little bit guys

should we try and then they started trying again and look where we are now we're freaking doing an episode on Overwatch back in the golden age man we are so back I will say with with Overwatch right now

currently we have 106,000 players 106,000 rivals uh huh 123. Oh, it just swapped because right before recording, I checked. And Overwatch was overrival. Rivals just released their new character, though.

Yeah. See, they're the warring guys. I love it. That's good for us, though. This is great for both. That's good for us. Yeah, it's great. This is great.

They're going to be awesome. What is it? Competition breeds ingenuity. Yeah. They say. Absolutely. Like, this will be perfect for both of them. High tide rises all boats.

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, it really does. So listen, as somebody that has been playing Overwatch for a decade, I feel like Overwatch is in a fantastic place right now. I love they have made some upgrades over the years. So people, because we have a lot of people that are saying, bro, I haven't played Overwatch in like six years.

There is a lot of really good upgrades to the game. This isn't counting just all the fun new characters, but they've added a perk system so that as you play the match and you get kills, you get kind of XP. You just kind of remember to use it. Yeah, Ryan, use your perks. Ryan, your perks. Ryan, your perks.

And then Ryan stops, goes AFK for like two minutes while he's reading over the perk. And he's like, I don't know which one to pick, guys. You know. That's always like, left to right. Left to right. That really lets you kind of customize some of the gameplay and how your character does things, you know. And there's a lot of different options for each character. You get two minor perks and two major perks that you can choose from.

And they do make their, they're like actually game-changing perks. Siky nade. Yeah, sticky nades for the guy that Ryan likes now, the new guy. they've added a ton of maps. They've added a ton of game modes. So it's not just the two capture point or control point. They have push now. They have flashpoint and another one.

I can't think of the name of off the top of my heads. But they have a variety of modes. They have map voting at the beginning of every match now, which I think is a cool thing. So like they've really added a lot to the game to kind of say, hey, here's some fun little tidbits and things like that. Clash, there it is. I think that's the name of the mode, ace.

So, you know, they've made these upgrades, they've made these changes. All of these have been good to the game. The balance is in a good place, in my opinion. These new characters, they released five at once, a little overtuned, a little over tuned. Everybody knows it, but they're new characters, and this is just the normal thing that happens in any hero shooter. Yep. You know, they're already patching them a little bit to try to balance, but they go very, they go very minimal in their, in their balancing to try to not have anybody get way skewed out of range

either as far as being like really OPE or just really sucky. Unless you're the cat. I think except for the cat, but the cat's easy to take down a few years. Kill the cat. The cat plays. The cat plays have honestly been pretty funny and have made some really funny and cool videos too. All the cat did was throw me off the map like

400 times. That's what the cat did. He solo opened you so many times. I love that more than anything, Ryan. Even though Ryan was probably super salty about this, but every single time that enemy cat got his alt, he targeted Ryan for some unknown reason and would just fly Ryan off the map every single time.

And then it just got to be read here like, no, no, not a go, why? Why? Everybody would just go, bye, Ryan, bye. Yeah, we already know it was over. I'm just like trying to do mid-range fighting and then all of a sudden he just scoops me up and it takes me off the map.

There's nothing I can do. I can't do anything at all. Yeah. Oh, so good. Worst game ever. No, I'm just kidding. I also absolutely love and prefer the first person point of view. No shade to rivals again.

Amazing game. But I don't like with a with a hero shooter dude, first person makes all the difference in the world to me. I don't know. I like to see around myself like fully. So I don't get flanked as easily. Yeah. Because you can do that in real life, Ace. Yeah.

How often do you get to see yourself from behind? you know, in a game, it's just more, it's more immersive, man, it makes sense. I don't know. I'm a fan. I like it.

I like it too. I like it. I like it too. I don't like third person. Yeah, it's either or. I like both. So, you know. Yeah, I mean,

I like, I'm adaptable, but I prefer first person. Um, so there you go, people. I mean, listen, I'll give my thoughts.

As somebody is playing this game for a decade, I think it is an awesome time to jump into the game. I think that Overwatch absolutely has another decade of life in front of it, especially if they keep up this like, oh, we probably should put some effort into this game. I think there's lots of optimizations and perks and things like that that they can do. I feel like they're on the right path. Don't be intimidated by the hero roster.

That's part of the fun of the game is just find a guy. Pick a picture that you think looks good. Play for a round or go into the practice range and see what you think and go, yeah, it's kind of boring. Oh, this guy's awesome. You know, like that's how I found Reaper, who's one of my mains. I'm like, dude, shotgun dude, he's edgy, but he freaking wrecks.

house if you're point blank to somebody, I am an aggressive player. Reaper fits my playstyle perfectly. The sit back guy, I just wind up running in front of the tank and dying, you know, because I'm an aggressive player. Like, know yourself, right? And so it's like, Reaper fits perfectly for me. You will find a character you like. If the support characters are super fun, tanks are super fun. DPS are fun, as always. There is a role for people. You will find your, your kind of niche into characters that you like. It is a little intimidating, but if you're new to the game or a returning player after a very long time, you will get lobbies

that put you with similar skill people. And let's be honest, dude, nothing feels as good as like getting that play of the game or that last minute win and then somebody on your team got the play of the game. And your whole team is just like, bro! Yeah. That's awesome. Like, that just feels good

as a gamer, man. It does. You know, so I say Overwatch's back, baby. I think this is a perfect time to jump back into it. I know we're going to be having some community nights. So if you want to have fun and play with other people, come join us in our Discord server for those because one of them is actually we probably just had one,

but we'll probably be scheduled. Hey, Josh, what's the price on Overwatch? Yeah, how much is it costs? It is $3.99. $3.99. $3.99. Be like, that's the other thing. It's freaking free, man.

That's the best part. Ace, Ace, as somebody that loves cosmetics and skins. Oh, gosh. How do you rate the skins and cosmetics in Overwatch? Overwatch has some of the best skins and cosmetics. There's a lot. There's so many. And they do collabs with other, like, other, like, different properties without putting the characters in the game.

Which is super cool. That's how I ended up with the entire Persona 5 collection that I get relentlessly dunked on for. No, you get to use it now, Ace. This is perfect. It finally worked out. You got to use your skins, man. Everyone but Genji. Yeah.

So, all right. Well, listen, that's going to do it for this one, everybody. come play with us, come join us. I'm actually hoping that we play some Overwatch tonight. Yeah, I hope so. This is active. It's fun. It's a good time.

It's not going anywhere. This is a great time to get into the game. Again, it's free. What do you have to lose? Exactly. So give it a try. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised on where this game is actually at 10 years later. So, all right, listen, if you haven't rated the show,

make sure you rate us five stars on Spotify. We're so close to 2000 rating. We're still pushing for that. On Apple, as of this recording, we are two reviews away from 900. So if you have not left us a review on Apple, please take a second to do that. Like we did earlier in this episode, we read them on the air a lot of times. But let's get to that 900 people. We need your help for that.

Come join our community. I've already told you that. And if you want to be like Rowdy and Baja and support this show, there's a link in the episode description. It only takes a couple minutes to sign up. You can cancel it any time. And it's as little as five bucks a month. We give you a lot of perks to say thank you.

It's worth it. It really is. And that's not trying to sell you something. All right, that's going to do it for this one, everybody. Until next time, happy gaming. See you. Ryan, look out the cat. The cat's back.

Peace out. Came back. No, right. There goes. See you, Ryan. No.