Microsoft is doing more to tackle toxicity in multiplayer Xbox games. The company is introducing a feature that allows Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One players to capture a 60-second video clip of abusive or inappropriate voice chat and submit it for moderators to review. "This feature is purpose-built to support the broadest arena of in-game interactions between players and works across thousands of games that offer in-game multiplayer voice chat, including Xbox 360 backward-compatible titles," Xbox Player Services corporate vice-president Dave McCarthy wrote in a blog post. Microsoft designed the tool for both ease of use and to minimize the impact on gameplay. When you capture a clip for reporting, it will stay on your Xbox for "24 online hours."

Blizzard has released a string of excellent Overwatch animated shorts over the years. While the shorts are sublimely rendered and help to sketch out the backstories of the cast, Blizzard hasn't neatly pulled together the sprawling narrative of this universe so far. The developers have pledged to do a better job of that in-game starting with Overwatch 2's sixth season, which gets under way in August. Before we get there, though, Blizzard is releasing an Overwatch anime. The three-episode miniseries is called Genesis.

Season five of Overwatch 2 will arrive on Tuesday, bringing with it updates such as a mythic skin for Tracer, a fantasy theme and a fresh limited-time game mode. However, it feels like a bit of a placeholder as Blizzard is already looking forward to the sixth season, which starts on August 10th. The studio is calling this the biggest update to Overwatch 2 yet. It'll be called Overwatch 2: Invasion and it will include co-op story missions . Long-promised hero missions, which were going to feature long-term progression features for all heroes, are no longer happening.

Editor's note: Ryan Smith is a graduate of East Carolina University and has been an avid gamer since the early and mid 90's. Other favorites include BioWare and Bethesda RPGs, Dark souls, Total War titles and various MMORPG's and Shooters. RALEIGH – Amid a sea of controversies over the last few years, Blizzard Entertainment (a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard) has also seen a massive player count drop in their pillar title World of Warcraft. Their RTS(real time strategy) titles, formerly among their best and most popular, are either relics of their former selves in the case of StarCraft 2, or abysmally received upon launch such as the case with Warcraft 3: Reforged, now infamously one of the worst reviewed games of all time. However, they did enter the world of First Person Shooters for the first time in 2016 with a massively popular title known as Overwatch.

Gone are the days when free games equated to ropey puzzle games and knock-off clones of games that had a price tag. These days, courtesy of in-app payments and the ease of offering both a sample of a title alongside its full-fat version, there are actually plenty of great games to play without spending a dime. Following the continued success of titles like Fortnite, the level of quality across mobile, PC and consoles has never been higher. Put your card away, and consider this your starting point. At launch, many of us assumed Genshin Impact was a tenuous Zelda: Breath of the Wild copy with impressive anime graphics and not much else.

Blizzard Entertainment will be suspending key games like Overwatch 2 and World of Warcraft in China because it failed to reach an agreement with partner NetEase, it announced. Those titles along with Hearthstone, Starcraft, Heroes of the Storm, Diablo III and Warcraft III: Reforged will be unavailable in China starting on January 23, 2023. Diablo Immortal, which arrived earlier this year, won't be affected as it's covered by a separate agreement, according to NetEase. "The two parties have not reached a deal to renew the agreements that is consistent with Blizzard's operating principles and commitments to players and employees, and the agreements are set to expire in January 2023," Blizzard said in the press release. "We will suspend new sales in the coming days and Chinese players will be receiving details of how this will work soon. Upcoming releases for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Hearthstone: March of the Lich King, and season 2 of Overwatch 2 will proceed later this year."

It's possible to love a video game. To be devoted to it, to value what it does for you, and how it makes you feel. To want the best for it. Not in the same way you love a person -- or at least, I hope not. But take a look at any major fan convention for video games, movies, TV, or almost anything that develops a subculture, and you can see this love is real, active, and powerful. And if it's possible to love a video game, then of course it's possible to fall out of love.

It's possible to love a video game. To be devoted to it, to value what it does for you and how it makes you feel, and to want the best for it. Not in the same way you love a person -- or at least, I hope not. But take a look at any major fan convention for video games, movies, TV, or almost anything that develops a subculture, and you can see this love is real, active, and powerful. And if it's possible to love a video game, then of course it's possible to fall out of love. To feel disconnected from what first drew you to it.

A whole bunch of factors have coalesced into a perfect storm of terribleness for support players. The competitive ladder is a hot mess. The rank reset resulted in a Wild West situation, with Grandmaster players placed alongside Golds. Support players are being shuffled into games with huge rank disparities -- possibly because there aren't enough supports queuing, leaving the matchmaking algorithm to cobble together whatever matches it can. On top of that, the loss of a second tank in the move from a 6v6 to a 5v5 format means it's much easier for opponents to dive on an enemy or punish a sloppy play.

Some battle passes are better than others, and unlocking an essential piece of content doesn't always take too much time. But in "Overwatch 2's" case, hero unlocks tied to the battle pass feel especially egregious. Even as someone who plays the game a lot, the road to Level 55 is far away. Overwatch is also a series that's been designed around swapping heroes on the fly. Countering an enemy team by switching to the appropriate heroes is absolutely essential to victory.