“NERF THIS!”

August 22, 2018 4:41 PM

“After two years of waiting, Overwatch hero D.Va finally has her own animated short. The seven-minute clip, called “Shooting Star,” [YouTube][Animated Short] stars pro-gamer-turned-mech-pilot D.Va, and it delves into her backstory, revealing how she went from Korean e-sports star to Overwatch hero. Like the rest of the shorts — which include the backstories of everyone from Mei to Bastion — it’s an absolutely gorgeous, glittering, colorful film that’s surprisingly emotional and full of wonderful Easter eggs for fans. It’s enough to make you wish Blizzard would just go ahead and make a feature-length Overwatch movie already.” [via: The Verge]

Previously on MetaFilter: A collection of all of the Overwatch animated shorts released thus far.

posted by Fizz (28 comments total)

Bonus: Busan | New Control Map | Overwatch [YouTube]

“Explore the serene setting of the Sanctuary, surrounded by an ancient temple, beautiful gardens, and historic architecture. Clash in the bustling metropolis of Downtown, where players will fight across a busy PC bang, flashy karaoke bar, and central light rail station (just watch out for the train). Contest for position in MEKA Base—home of South Korea’s frontline defense against the gwishin omnic attacks: D.Va and the rest of the MEKA squad. Teams must fight to hold each of the three stages to establish complete control of the city that refuses to surrender its way of life to any threat.”

posted by Fizz at 4:43 PM on August 22, 2018

💜 My main. 💙
posted by Fizz at 4:53 PM on August 22, 2018 [5 favorites]

I CRIED AND I AM STILL CRYING I LOVE MY DORITO GREMLIN WAR HERO
posted by poffin boffin at 4:54 PM on August 22, 2018 [12 favorites]

nb the noraebong in the busan spawn can be interacted with if you are reinhardt, and any hero can dance emote interact with the DDR in the busan arcade
posted by poffin boffin at 4:55 PM on August 22, 2018 [4 favorites]

Who suffers from PTSD but learns how to fight through her struggle and ask for help when she needs it but is still shown to be an accomplished, intelligent, powerful, and strong human. All the feels.
posted by Fizz at 4:55 PM on August 22, 2018 [6 favorites]

That was sweet. And seriously, playing D.Va is a blast. Looks like I gotta go back again...
posted by emmet at 4:55 PM on August 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

Also, someone tell Blizzard executives to just make a full length animated Overwatch film. Also, also, have Dave Filoni direct it. Also, TAKE. ALL. MY. FUCKING. MONEY.
posted by Fizz at 4:57 PM on August 22, 2018 [3 favorites]

I liked most of the other Overwatch shorts, and loved a couple of them -- Bastion's was heart-stopping -- but I found this one almost mawkish and, I really hate to say it, badly voice acted. Each line was mostly okay but they didn't follow each other -- there was no follow-through delivery.

But how fucked up is the KDF for putting poor Hana out there all by herself and turning essentially a child into a merchandising brand -- jfc appalling
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:33 PM on August 22, 2018 [3 favorites]

And I was nearly out.
posted by nfalkner at 5:40 PM on August 22, 2018

I haven't actually played the game in over a year, though being a huge dedicated player when it first launched. I'm on PS4 and I am reasonably sure that everyone who is still in the game at this point (at least in competitive mode) has a mouse/keyboard adapter or some kind of superpower because I swear everyone but me can aim for headshots in fractions of a second which I find flat out impossible with a controller, I didn't used to suck, but I can't play any more, it just feels bad, man.

Hey poffin boffin are you on PS4 and how are you finding it?
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:43 PM on August 22, 2018

I literally bought a new computer because the experience of playing on PS4 was so bad. :-/ (I mean, I also had an influx of cash coincidentally, but my decision to get a proper gaming rig was mostly to play Overwatch.) Playing on PS4 is tantalizingly close to playing the game, but it is not the thing itself. Like sugar-free ice cream.
posted by Scattercat at 5:55 PM on August 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

putting poor Hana out there all by herself and turning essentially a child into a merchandising brand

Well, she was already a famous e-sports player before she joined the military or whatever it is.

I think all the MEKA pilots are supposed to be young? Something about reflexes or whatever.

Get in the robot, S̶h̶i̶n̶j̶i̶ Hana
posted by thefoxgod at 5:56 PM on August 22, 2018 [2 favorites]

I do quite well on the PS4, then again my main is Torbjorn
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 6:16 PM on August 22, 2018

I play on XBox and have no issues, and would do much worse on PC (mouse/keyboard is painful for my particular brand of RSI, while controller usually gives me no problems). Tried briefly on PC but it was less fun than on console. But at this point I have been avoiding shooters on PC for so long it would take a while to retrain from controller shooting.
posted by thefoxgod at 6:21 PM on August 22, 2018

yes ps4 and i wouldn't do comp if you paid me in cold hard cash money AND sacrificed all congressional repubs in a giant wicker man for my amusement

but i only play moira now bc she can 1v1 anyone in the game and win except for roadhog
posted by poffin boffin at 6:40 PM on August 22, 2018 [4 favorites]

i wouldn't do comp if you paid me in cold hard cash money AND sacrificed all congressional repubs in a giant wicker man for my amusement

Are you certain? Maybe we should try it anyway just to make sure.

(I almost never played competitive either. I did for a bit, but eh. I prefer that magical level of groups trying to win because winning is fun, but not being complete dicks about it because losing is supposed to be fun too if you're doing it right.)
posted by Foosnark at 7:25 PM on August 22, 2018 [3 favorites]

The only time I play comp is at the beginning of the season to do my placements. Even then, I only do the placement matches. On one hand, the stress of comp can be a serious bummer. On the other hand, it is nice to see relatively accurate measurement of my skill growth over time. I feel like just doing the placements strikes a nice balance between the two.

After placements? Mystery Heroes and 8 player Deathmatch (mostly as Doomfist, sometimes Sombra if I feel frisky, sometimes Brigitte after a long day of raising my tantrum-throwing 2 year old).
posted by Groundhog Week at 8:26 PM on August 22, 2018

Whoa whoa whoa. PC overwatchers here? Diamond PC support/dps main here. We should queue and report the racists and homophobes together.
posted by avalonian at 9:09 PM on August 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

I do PC Overwatch, but strictly Mystery Heroes. I bet there’s a group on MeFightClub, though.

Anyone else follow OWL? Starting to be some news about roster changes for s2 — Fissure from the Gladiators has gone to Seoul, and SF released iddqd, Nomy and dHak today. And this weekend is All-Star weekend; I’ve been watching the casters practice for the all-caster match and it should be some high comedy.
posted by rewil at 9:34 PM on August 22, 2018

The short is a cute look at DVa. I found it a bit stilted, though, and didn't love it as much as many others. Wish they had done something that wasn't fighting over the ocean. But then I main Zarya, so...

(There are MeFightClub OW games almost every night, avalonian. DM me for battle.net tag. )
posted by gemmy at 9:39 PM on August 22, 2018

Rewil, I do follow OWL (Houston Outlaws are the team I chose to root for during season 1), but I'm not going to be following the offseason too closely. With the addition of at least 4 more teams, rosters are probably going to go through a bunch of turnover.

That being said, Fissure was the reason the Gladiators caught fire in stage 2. He's an insane main tank. Considering that Seoul performed poorly (compared to expectations), it's no surprise they'd shake things up. I feel bad for Miro though... I'm a Winston main and watching him pwn as Winston before OWL started was fun and educational.
posted by Groundhog Week at 9:57 PM on August 22, 2018

It's interesting to compare Blizzard's Overwatch films with Valve's TF2 ones. Valve's were far funnier, but their approach to character makes that easier: the TF2 characters are all annoying idiots. Blizzard is trying to make its characters heroic. So they embrace the Doritos and energy drinks for D.Va, but she's also kind of enthusiastically, nerdily heroic. It's a harder set of marks to hit.
posted by zompist at 10:24 PM on August 22, 2018 [3 favorites]

Blizzard is trying to make its characters heroic.

But sort of generically heroic: it's apeing the iconography of heroism but their ability to hit the mark they're aiming for really depends on whether or not we buy what they're doing as being rooted in their character. One of the things the TF2 shorts got right was making sure the motivation fit the character, which as you say is easier when they're various flavours of murderer. But they apparently had a lot of problems getting the Medic and Pyro videos right, the Medic because finding an in-game action that corresponded to the Medic's character took some tries, and the Pyro because they don't really have a clear character.
posted by Merus at 10:54 PM on August 22, 2018

What did Busan ever do to deserve this?
posted by adamgreenfield at 3:54 AM on August 23, 2018

On a technical level, I do agree that the voice-acting for this seemed a bit off, more so than with past animated shorts. But my love for D.Va makes up for these slight shortcomings. I'm just happy that she was given this bit of time to shine, she's always been my favourite and this was just joyful.

I'm sure I play Overwatch in what many would consider to be the wrong way. I rarely play online against humans, I mostly play against AI bots at medium and hard level and I'm also mostly here for the backstory of Overwatch, the skins, the tumblr comics. I just love this universe they've created. It panders to my tastes and I'm all in on that.
posted by Fizz at 6:17 AM on August 23, 2018 [5 favorites]

I think people really underestimate the utility of the defense matrix (as seen in the video). It's really satisfying to block every Reinhardt's Fire Strike every time he uses it.
posted by runcibleshaw at 12:29 PM on August 23, 2018

anem0ne, thanks for all of your really great comments and add-ons to this post/discussion. :D
posted by Fizz at 5:25 AM on August 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

I think people really underestimate the utility of the defense matrix (as seen in the video).

ever since they nerfed it it's really only useful in mayhem tho
posted by poffin boffin at 11:54 PM on August 24, 2018