Tackling the Backlog, Issue 11 - February 2026

February is historically a crummy month for gaming for me.

Whatever the reason may be, I simply don't invest as much time in February towards rolling credits on games; as a result, all of the games I played this month were session games, logging in with my friends and watching numbers go up and down. My apologies to Like a Dragon for putting it on the back burner after giving it 30-ish hours. It's not you, it's me and this curse I try, and fail to break time and time again. So, let's see what stole me away from finishing any games for these short winter weeks.

Hey. Everything here is for the love of the game. If you like what I've got going on, hit the little orange button and I'll show up in your inbox for the hell of it. You can even give me money if you feel like it.

Overwatch

Overwatch is a game that I struggle to think about wholly positively. This is a game that, in my heart of hearts, I believe should have died many moons ago. Between Jeff Kaplan's departure (which can be talked about in much greater contect now thanks to this banger interview), the cancellation of the PvE story mode, and the shift to a free-to-play battle pass progression system, I feel like I should hate the game formerly known as Overwatch 2.

At the same time, I can't deny how fun Overwatch is, and how much it's been a great social tool for me and my friends. Overwatch kept my intrigue for a hefty bit of this month, and even last year with it being my most played game on Steam.

In a world where multiplayer experiences are more focused on established titles that have been around enough to define a generation, competitive games, and "friendslop," it's always fun to play something that I know my friends will be willing to hop on and play. On top of that, the game feels good once you've got a better idea on things like positioning and paying attention to cooldowns. I've grown from a Ramattra one-trick to a tank one-trick. I even enjoy the ranked experience, being able to divorce any internal metric of worth from the rising and falling scales of a video game.

With all that said, I'll be shoving Overwatch in a locker for the forseeable future. I've got other games to play!

Marathon Server Slam

I already wrote a little blurb about Marathon a few weeks ago, but I don't mind talking about the game again. The server slam itself was a fun time. While I didn't have any of those breakaway dynamic moments with intense Rook negotiations that made me contemplate death, morality, and the microcultures that pop up in emergent gameplay, I did enjoy the time I spent on Tau Ceti IV.

Since the Slam, I've been an onlooker seeing how people have been reacting to the game. It's in these moments that I've come to realize how much more of an eye I've had on social media these days. A part of it comes from having to do some digging around for startmenu as I handled Update Patch, its weekly news column, for March. I've spent a while trying to divorce myself from online opinions for some time now as I feel they just don't do anything for me. I haven't read a review from a stranger in a looong time, and despite the field that I'd like to see myself working in in the future, I've never really cared about review scores. If IGN gives a game a 7/10, and Backloggd's aggregate score is a 2.7/5 (neither of these are the scores for Marathon), and I think the game fucking rules, I gotta take my word above all else. This isn't to say that criticism is a waste of time – it's necessary more than you (not you, considering who even reads these in the first place) know. At the same time, I appreciate the intrigue around Marathon from the outside looking in. A man will tell you he's got nothing to say about the game, then proceed to give you a handful of thoughts that could be used as theses because he does, in fact, have something to say.

This game's got people thinking and I think that's awesome. Good art gets a reaction out of folks; that's the whole point! There's division everywhere regarding the art direction, the way the game feels, the narrative and its commentary on corporations and the gig economy, and I love that I've seen so much discussion over its weeks later. Killing is essentially currency in Marathon, why wouldn't you kill someone without a second thought? We are individualists, and my money is my money, God dammit. Both my backpack and my heart will be heavier than a feather by the time I finish this run.

Deadlock

MOBAs have never felt good to me, and for some reason, I've always felt bad about it.

I wouldn't consider this a skill issue. MOBAs have always offered a strange kind of friction that I don't resonate with despite feeling drawn to their design aspects. Mini bosses that a team has to work together to break down in order to progress, while also fending off enemy players and weak bots meant to draw your attention or kill you with 1,000 papercuts, culminating in an explosive battle in the opponent's homebase sounds awesome on paper. In practice, it loses me. Pokémon Unite is the only game of this type that has kept me hooked for a decent amount of time thanks to its branding, simple gameplay, and 10-minute time limits for matches.

Despite it ticking a lot of necessary boxes to find enjoyment in – solid character design, smooth movement and satisfying-ish combat, I think IMjust don't have the competitve drive to pursue Deadlock, even in a casual way. Most games, regardless of how hard they are at the beginning, have some sort of appeal that shines through and keeps me motivated. Deadlock just doesn't have that X-factor for me at the moment. Since the full thing isn't even out yet, maybe Valve will find a way to make this game tap into my competitive spirit. In the meantime, it'll quietly rest in my Steam library.

Highguard

Oh, Highguard. It didn't have to be like this! It never needed to be like this for you, or Anthem, or Concord. Not a damn one of you deserved this fate, and I'm sad that you won't be given the chance to grow and be celebrated by those who really wanted to see you become something.

To those who feel that the writing was on the walls, I hate that I can't protest you any harder than I can try. Highguard's death was a matter of hubris, and that breaks my heart. Game Informer's got a great writeup on the buildup until the fall, and even though Highguard fell victim to unreliable internal testing, a strange and bold pivot in marketing, and eventually layoffs that have left Wildlight Entertainment with a fraction of its original staff, I'll forever be of the opinion that this death was premature. A side effect of the instant gratification that the world continues to push for, trying harder and harder to streamline every process. Players have become stock indicators and heart monitors for games, a trend that should have never been legitimized.

There are plenty of valid arguments that contributed to why players might not have wanted to interact with Highguard in the first place. It was another free-to-play multiplayer title, with gunplay that only felt like a refined version of Apex Legends, an indistinct aesthetic, and maps that felt much more attuned to larger, Big Team Battle types as opposed to the 3v3 or 5v5 teams. Highguard wasn't perfect by any means, but it didn't deserve this fate, and I will miss it dearly.

Highlights

Despite February being a pretty milquetoast month, I've still got a few moments to celebrate.

• I hit Bronze 3 on Tank in Overwatch. Despite my love-hate relationship, I do enjoy the feeling of getting better at this game. I'm whispering little tips that I need to tell myself like using natural cover, and I'm noticing my shots getting cleaner. Nothing impressive by a mile, obviously, but I still enjoy it nonetheless.
• I only played a little bit of Highguard, but in the bit that I played I overheard my teammates discussing their thoughts on the game. One of them said "I like it way more than Apex," and that alone got me thinking. There's a clear line of appeal here, clear industry vets that care and want to implement what they learned into something they believed in. While online discourse gave very little positive, the voices that I heard showed some appreciation, and I love that.

March has been a bit of a doozy. I'll see you all next month to talk about lions and lambs.