Overwatch animated short "The Last Bastion" debuts at Gamescom

As promised last week, Blizzard revealed the Bastion animated short at Gamescom today, telling the tale of Bastion, the Overwatch killer robot whose life was changed by the beauty of the natural world. But can he truly become more than what he was built to be—or is his fate hard-coded in his programming?

As stories go, it's pretty lightweight stuff, but the animation is awfully nice. Say what you will about Blizzard, but it sure knows how to put a trailer together. Sorry, no spoilers, you'll have to watch it to find out what happens, but I will give you a hint: Woodpeckers are awful.

Once you've finished, dive into some extracurricular parrot lore.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.