2023

The first Playstation State of Play is set to be held on February 23rd at 4PM Eastern. This is the first one of 2023. It’s going to feature Sony’s third-party partners, including a first look at five PS VR2 games that will be released later this year. It’s also going to showcase Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The last time anything was shown of the game, Kevin Conroy’s Batman was shown to be a part of the game. The game is set in the same universe as the Arkham series, which Conroy also starred in.

This might be Conroy’s last released project as he died on November 10, 2022 from colorectal cancer. He had been voicing various iterations of Batman since the 1990’s Batman the Animated Series. He also played a live action version of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batwoman during the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event on the CW.

If you’re a streamer or other content creators, Sony is allowing co-streaming of the event. There may be some copyrighted content that won’t have the license to. For this reason any music is advised to be left out of the content.

Both Nintendo and Microsoft had similar events earlier this year. There’s expected to be more of these kinds of events from all three console makers throughout the year. Keep an eye out here for more information regarding upcoming events.

It used to be E3 was a huge event, both in person and digitally. Press conferences from big companies would happen in front of a live audience and be streamed live. For the passed three years it has either been digital only or cancelled all together. This year, however, E3 is back with an in person event.  This year’s is geared up to be completely different from before the pandemic. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo are all reportedly sitting it out. Sony hasn’t attended the event since 2018. Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest is set to start before it this year on June 8th. So far the only company that has indicated being at E3 is Ubisoft who has said that they have a lot to show off. If Ubisoft is the only press conference, then it looks like it could be smaller than previous E3s.

Microsoft said that they will have a press conference over the summer in LA, but hasn’t indicated a date yet. Sony has stated that they will have a press conference before the conference. In January, Microsoft had a smaller event that showcased some of what’s to come in 2023. In February Nintendo had a smaller event showcasing new games and releasing a Metroid Prime remake. Nintendo is expected to have more Nintendo Direct press conferences throughout the year. Though we have yet to hear from some other major players in E3, like EA, Devolver Digital, and a PC World’s PC Gaming Showcase, it already feels like it’s going to be different.

How different can E3 be before it becomes unnecessary?

At this point it may already be unnecessary. Last year, PC Gaming Show held off until November and people still referred to it as their E3 conference. People considered Summer Game Fest to be a replacement for E3 in the years it was cancelled. At this point E3 seems to be more than just a single event, but an idea. Much like Kleenex is used for tissues, E3 has transcended to something much bigger than itself. So is an E3 event necessary to the average person? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean it won’t keep evolving and changing and being used for things that it isn’t.

Season 3 of Overwatch 2 is here and it is the first one without a new hero. Though there is no hero, there are map and other changes, including some pretty major Mercy changes. Blizzard has also revealed that starting in season 4, they are removing the map pool and that all maps will be available going forward.

Antarctic Peninsula

There is a new map called Antarctic Peninsula. As its name implies, it takes place in the Antarctic. The map features penguins and an area where you can attack water and have fish fly out of it. The map is pretty similar to the training area and if you spent a lot of time there, it will feel very familiar.

NEW FEATURE: STREAMER PROTECT

Players can activate streamer protect from the in-game settings. This will hide yours and others’ names while streaming Overwatch. It is a client side option, so your name will not be hidden from other players, just hidden on your stream. All in all, this seems pretty useless compared to other games’ streamer mode.

Overall Changes

Players can now endorse members of the opposing team. This means that if you are in a full party, you still have thee option and ability to endorse and be endorsed after games. Speaking of after games, you can now view scoreboards from your previous matches in the View Game Reports screen. Previously you couldn’t see the scoreboards unless you were playing back a game.

Legacy credits are now earnable in the Battle Pass. Previously called Legacy Credits, these weren’t able to be earned in Overwatch 2 and were instead carried over from the previous game. These credits can be used to purchase skins that were available in Overwatch 1.

When changing heroes, your ultimate charge will be reduced to 25% as opposed to the 30% it previously was. Also when playing game modes where you can have more than one tank, all tank health will be reduced.

There’s some big competitive changes as well. In seasons 1 and 2, you needed 7 wins or 20 losses to get an initial rank, then the same number to either rank up or down. Season 3 is reducing the numbers to 5 wins or  15 losses. I think this is still too much and it should go back to Overwatch 1’s ranking system, but it is a step in the right direction. I haven’t personally played the new system, but less time between rank changes is a good idea.

Hero Changes

The biggest change to heroes is Mercy. Her movement ability cooldown is going down a full second to 2.5 seconds. Mercy’s healing per second is being reduced to 45, but will also be increased 50% for teammates under half health. She’s also losing the ability to heal over time that all the other support heroes have. She will now self heal equal to 25% of her output. These changes are meant to force her to heal others more instead of damage boosting as much as players have been doing. I am not a Mercy player and I can feel these changes. She is, without a doubt, a lot easier to kill.

Reinhardt also had some significant changes as well. His charge cooldown has gone down to 7 seconds and his fire strike damage has increased to 100 from 90. His Earthshatter direct hit damage has been reduced to 170 while increasing the knockdown duration to 2.75 seconds. He feels good, even with these changes, he doesn’t feel much different if at all.

Orissa’s Augmented Fusion Driver now damages less at 15 meters as opposed to 25. Personally, this one isn’t that noticeable as someone who plays a lot of Orissa. Ramattra’s Ultimate now lasts a maximum of 20 seconds, which still seems really long, but at least there is a time limit for it now, instead of going on potentially forever. It will also take longer for him to get his Ultimate. Roadhog’s Ultimate also got increased from 6 seconds to 8 seconds. Roadhog, Reinhardt, Wrecking Ball, Zarya, Soldier:76, and Symmetra’s Ultimates all cost more.

Mei, Pharah, Reaper, Brigitte, Lucio, and Moira’s Ultimates have all been reduced. I can definitely feel Mei and Brigitte’s reduced cost, these two have been having Ultimates a lot more often in games I’ve played.

Final Thoughts

Overall these changes are good. They’re not perfect, not by a long shot, but it feels good. I am enjoying the new season and have purchased the Battle Pass after being unsure because there’s no hero this time around. The new skins look great and the fact that you can get credits for even more skins, I think it’s a good deal. I’m having fun and will be getting to level 80 of the pass, like I have the previous two seasons.

A few days ago, DC Studios revealed their plans for the first phase of their new unified Universe. Unlike how Marvel Studios started, not everything produced by the company is going to be in the same universe. Marvel has recently started to explore their multiverse with Loki, What If, and Multiverse of Madness. DC looks like it is ready to explore it, as well as time travel, right away.

Movies

Superman: Legacy

This is the first official movie of the DC Universe (DCU as confirmed by studio head Peter Safran). James Gunn is writing the movie that is set to be released July 11, 2025. No director is attached yet, but after a comment by Safran, there is a good chance that Gunn will also direct it. The movie won’t star Henry Cavill, but instead will focus on a younger Superman.

The Authority

The Authority is an ends justify the means superhero team. Safran likened it to Jack Nicholson in ‘A Few Good Men’. It sounds like this is going to be a little bit like Peacemaker, who wanted peace, no matter how many people needed to die. In the end, it sounds like they’ll be doing things that Superman and the other Justice League won’t do.

The Brave and the Bold

This movie isn’t connected to the highly successful Robert Pattinson universe or movie. This will feature the Bat family. It will be a movie featuring Batman and Robin, though this Robin will be Damian Wayne. Damian is Bruce’s son that in the comics he didn’t know about until he was eight years old. A director for the movie wasn’t named, but there are rumors that Ben Affleck, who was supposed to star in and direct his own Batman movie, is attached to direct the movie.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

The movie features Kata Zor-El, Superman’s cousin. Gunn explained “We see the difference between Superman, who was sent to Earth and raised by loving parents from the time he’s an infant, versus Supergirl, who was raised on a rock chip off of Krypton, and watched everyone around her die and be killed in terrible ways for the first 14 years of her life.” It sounds like this is going to be connected to the Superman movie, but will it revolve around a teenage Kryptonian? We saw Superman grow up in Smallville, seeing Supergirl grow and be a different kind of Kryptonian could be very interesting.

Swamp Thing

Gunn likened Swamp Thing to Guardians of the Galaxy in the MCU. How  does Rocket Raccoon fit in with Iron Man? Well we saw how that worked out, though this movie is said to be darker and more horrific than the others. With this project Gunn reiterated “we’ll still have Swamp Thing interact with the other characters” which sounds like we will see some sort of meetups throughout the movies and shows.

Shows

Creature Commandos

This is the first project greenlit by Safran and Gunn. Gunn has already written every episode and it’s already in production. Weasel from Gunn’s Suicide Squad will be a member, as will Rick Flag Sr., who will also show up in other projects. Other members of the Commandos include Nina Mazursky, Doctor Phosphorus, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein,  and G.I. Robot.

Waller

With Gunn busy working on other projects, season 2 of Peacemaker is on hold for the time being. Instead the characters will appear in Waller. We last saw Waller in Black Adam, in command of the Justice Society. Before that, we saw her get outed to the world by her daughter for running A.R.G.U.S. and the illegal stuff she’s been doing. How does she go from head of A.R.G.U.S. to the Justice Society? The series takes place after Peacemaker season 1, so it’s possibly the show answers this.

Lanterns

This show “plays a really big role leading us into the main story that we’re telling across our film and television.” Safran said. It will see Hal Jordan and John Stewart investigating a mystery. It sounds like it will be an origin story and possibly see both Green Lanterns working together.

Paradise Lost

This is a Game of Thrones kind of story. It is set on the island of Themyscira, before the birth of Wonder Woman. It will be about the origin of an island of all women. How it came about, what are the truths behind it?

Booster Gold

Booster Gold is from the future. He travels back in time and pretends to be a super hero. We saw Donald Faison play Booster Gold in the finale of Legends of Tomorrow, but this one sounds like he will be doing more than just playing golf.

The Multiverse

While these movies are all connected, there are still projects outside these that are still happening. The Batman 2 and Joker: Folie à Deux are both still coming. Before Superman, we will be getting Shazam Fury of the Gods, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and The Flash. Gunn has stated the Flash is what creates the DCU. The end of the movie makes some things different and some things the same. This means that Jason Momoa and Gal Gadot could reprise their roles. When asked about Gadot, Gunn said she was not let go and had a meeting with her weeks ago. 

I for one am excited that there’s finally some direction to the universe. While I liked Black Adam and Wonder Woman 1984, it felt like it was supposed to be part of a larger universe that was loosely held together. Now it sounds like the strings will be much stronger, possibly even stronger than some of the Marvel projects have been lately. Are you excited for this new DC Universe?

For a while now I have been considering the fact that I may be autistic on top of having ADHD. Having one without the other is rare. It started when I saw things on TikTok about how pretty much all autistic people do these certain things that I do. I have taken online tests and they all say that there is a good possibility I have autism. The one piece that I couldn’t place was a special interest.

Special interests are pretty much a common staple with autism. When it comes to ADHD, hobbies come and go and you will probably spend a decent amount of money on a hobby and then not touch it for a year after weeks or months of loving it. I have had a lot of hobbies over the years, but not really any special interests, until I realized something. When I was a kid I wanted to make movies (content creator wasn’t a thing back then). I’d want to write, direct, star in, do pretty much everything with it. After weeks of writing though, I would change gears and decide to turn it into a play instead of a movie. Now I will focus on writing blogs and articles and other things and then change to making videos and pictures, etc. So in some ways my special interest has always been content creation.

That’s not the only special interest I’ve had. Computers too. In college I wanted to get certified in everything and took computer classes that would have covered a lot of different majors and certifications. I wanted to code, build them, build networks, etc. Now I’m a web developer and I always try and find new ways of doing things. When there’s a new feature that I can do something I’ve never done before, I get excited about it. When I get a new piece of hardware, I can’t wait to put it in.

In some ways I’ve combined the two special interests when it comes to creating content with games and streaming. New programs, new commands, new things to do with the stream, etc. Streaming has somehow took both interests and combined them. Come to think of it, that might be why I don’t necessarily focus on trying to grow. I focus on the actual stream process and interesting things to do. I know I should focus on growth, the more growth, the more things I could do with the stream, but that part doesn’t hold my attention.

When it comes to hobbies, I tend to drop them after a bit of time. I have noticed that if I want to get back into a hobby, I can find a problem and try and come up with a solution. It’s temporary, but I can usually hyper focus on the problem until I find a solution. Sometimes that solution results in me spending more money on the hobby though. Sometimes it’s hard to care about a problem enough to focus on it though.

If you have ADHD, how do you get back to focusing on things? Are you’re autistic, what are your special interests? If you’re auDHD, do you too have a main special interests with hobbies that go along with it?

Is Leatherface going to be going the way of the Demogorgon? That may be the case. Earlier this week alternate names for Leatherface’s perks were found in the player test build (PTB). While we have no confirmation from Behaviour directly, Leaks by Daylight on Twitter backed up this news by saying that Leatherface will only be in the game for a few more months.

Stranger Things was rumored to be coming back to the game last year, but now the rumors are saying that it will be the anniversary chapter in June and feature the Rainbow Room. Last year there was a video that seemingly featured the new map. Unlike Stranger Things, Leatherface was only a character. Back then they considered him a paragraph and not a chapter. He didn’t have a map or a survivor with him, so his departure from the game would only mean that you wouldn’t be able to purchase him anymore. It’s assumed that if you own him already, he will be playable even after he’s no longer purchasable.

A Texas Chainsaw Massacre game will be coming out in a few months. That could play into the reasoning why Leatherface will be leaving the Entity’s Realm. While the game looks fun, it’s hard to imagine that a franchise focused game is going to knock Dead by Daylight off its current horror throne. I wouldn’t be surprised if Leatherface was back after a year or so after their game releases.

So there was a few months without an update here. It was a pretty uneventful couple of months, just streaming and work for the most part. The last week of December was anything but uneventful, though. After Christmas both Kris and I came down with Covid. We are recovering, but even being vaccinated, it knocked us out. I am going on my last couple doses of Paxlovid and even after one dose, I was feeling much better.

Since catching Covid I haven’t been streaming, but once I am feeling up to it again, I will be playing through the God of War series and potentially a lot of others on my new PS5. I will admit my PS4 didn’t get much usage because the controller felt small and misshaped for my hand, but with the PS5 controller, it seems bigger. I am looking forward to playing that and others. I’m hoping once I am feeling better that I can dedicate more time to content creation whether that’s writing, images, streams, or videos.

I’m coming up on a year since my heart attack too. I definitely don’t want to be doing that again and after this last year, it seems I am in much better health. My next appointment could mean some reductions in medication too. I have to get blood and other testing done before my appointment in April. There’s a few months left to go.

When I wake up, I’m going to plan out some short form videos, if I can. If I’m feeling up to it then I may even record them. I added a project manager to WordPress so to keep myself organized and on track, but it’s just a mess of different projects for different areas. I guess that wasn’t as successful as I had hoped it would be.