Overwatch Legendary Edition was announced for Nintendo Switch today. Tracer, Mei, Hanzo and all the other colorful characters from massively popular online game Overwatch are coming to Nintendo Switch. The fast-paced multiplayer game is scheduled to hit Nintendo Switch on October 15th.
Pre-purchase in Nintendo eShop starts today.
Join the fight for the future in the world of Overwatch and choose your hero from a diverse cast of soldiers, scientists, adventurers, and oddities. Bend time, defy physics, and unleash a dizzying array of extraordinary powers and weapons. Engage your enemies in iconic locations from around the globe in the ultimate team-based shooter.
The game will also be available in retail stores, however the package doesn’t actually include a game card and has a full game download code instead. The game is a hefty 12.1 GB. It also includes a redeemable code for Nintendo Switch Online Individual Membership 3-month subscription, 5 Legendary Hero Skins, 5 Epic Hero Skins, and 5 Origin Hero Skins.
Blizzard Entertainment is notoriously secretive when it comes to their in-development projects but that didn’t stop gaming journalist sleuth Jason Schreier of Kotaku unearthing that the Anaheim based developer halted work on the yet another Starcraft shooter (RIP Ghost) to move developers onto either a continuation or spin-off title set in the Overwatch Universe currently called “Overwatch 2”.
Project Ares was the code name given to this potential Starcraft third person shooter helmed by veteran developer Dustin Browder. A playable build of the game reportedly cast the player as a Terran Marine who could “gun down Zerg monsters” but future plans for the title included the ability to potentially play as the Zerg, but development was slow and it’s not known if this milestone was ever reached. Project Ares has been in active development for at least two years and it’s sudden cancellation only occurred a couple of weeks ago.
With developers moved onto what is essentially “the next Overwatch title” – what does that game look like? It’s been compared to Valve’s Left for Dead Games By Schreier’s sources, meaning that it has is most likely not a single player game but something closer to the smaller scale P.V.E modes released every spring for the game’s anniversary event. Imagine a scenario where teams of 4 Overwatch members have to defeat waves of Talon Robots – a likely event were Blizzard to show us more of the non PVP aspects of Overwatch. Reportedly Overwatch 2, the still unannounced Diablo 4 and the cancelled Starcraft project all run on the same engine – a change for Blizzard which with the exclusion of Starcraft II and Heroes of the Storm generally have different engines for each major franchise.
The public didn’t hear about the former Project Titan (which would be later reworked into Overwatch) very much at all while it was in active development. Aside from the odd omission of the projects existence during investor calls (and to be honest none of us listen to those) – Titan was spoken about mostly by fans as speculation and nothing more.
Blizzard actually did issue a vague statement to Kotaku which read in part:
“We always have people working on different ideas behind the scenes – including on multiple projects right now – but the reason we tend not to discuss them publicly is because anything can happen over the course of development.”
Anime conventions are pretty dang fun aren’t they? I’ve been attending conventions for at least the past 15 years – both as a fun activity with friends but also in a work capacity for coverage here. Anime and gaming fans in Atlanta, Georgia are going to have a lot to do at MomoCon This coming May 24th – 27th with the announcement of their special guests line-up.
SUDA 51 – the founder of Grasshopper Manfucture and creator of Killer Is Dead, No More Heroes and Killer 7 is joining representatives from Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) to make a mysterious special announcement. Perhaps with Travis Strikes Again coming out for Nintendo Switch this year we will see the first two No More Heroes titles on Nintendo’s hybrid handheld console?
Cossplay photo from MomoCon 2017 via MomoCon PR
Blizzard, not being content to just attend their own multi-day convention will be at MomoCon as well. Joining developers from the Heroes of the Storm Team and Overwatch Team are the voice actors for Mercy (Lori Pohl), Junkrat (Christopher Parson), Pharah (Lucie Phol) and Soldier 76 (Fred Tatasciore) will band together to defend the payload.. I mean help out with Blizzard’s selection of panels.
MomoCon 2018 takes place from Thursday May 24th through Sunday May 27th at the Georgia World Congress Center.
Lastly voice actors from a number of DragonBall fighting games from the last few generations of consoles will be on hand to share their experiences playing Akira Toyayama’s iconic characters. The voice actors from the latest Dragon Ball Fighterz, the Budokai series of games, Raging Burst and of course the Funimation dub of DBZ will be on hand. The recognizable voices of Sean Schemmel (Goku), Kyle Hebert (Gohan, Narrator), Christopher Sabat (Piccolo, Vegeta) and Josh Martin (Majin Buu) will all be present and sharing their experiences with attendees.
Blizzard has rolled out a whole wave of unlockable goodies across Diablo III, Starcraft 2, Overwatch, Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original Starcraft on PC. Each game has a different reward to claim ranging from small profile portraits to exclusive skins featuring Sarah Kerrigan (yay!).
Here’s a breakdown of what players of each tittle will receive should they login between today and March 31st:
Starcraftr II – A set of three user interface skins (one per race), a portrait and a decal.
World of Warcraft – /salute a Starcraft mini-pet and receive the “Salute to Starcraft” limited time achievement.
Overwatch – Sarah Kerrigan Ghost Skin for Widowmaker.
Hearthstone – Play the Starcraft themed Tavern Brawl between March 21st and 25th and receive 3 free Kobolds & Catacombs packs.
Heroes of the Storm – 20th anniversary Protoss, Terran and Zerg display pictures featuring artwork from the original game.
Diablo III – Dominion’s Revenge pet.
I’m a little disappointed in the Heroes of the Storm reward in particular. Considering the amount of Starcraft Heroes – like Raynor, Kerrigan, Tychus etc – you’d think they’d have something a little more substantial than three display pictures. Both SCII and Heroes of the Storm even share the same engine! Rumor has it the next revealed hero will be from the Starcraft Universe but the dev team could have done so muchg better here.
You might have already heard the news yesterday: Ubisoft mentioned on their Investor’s Call that “Player Recurring Investments” (read: microtransactions) have outpaced the sale of full price and discounted digital copies of their games for the first time ever. In terms of raw numbers of the 343 million euros the company made from their digital businesses 175 million Euros were the result of “Player Recurrent Investments” (which include microtransactions, add-on DLCs, Rainbow Six Siege Season Passes, subscriptions and those sorts of things). The 83% rise in microtransaction purchases over the past year for Ubisoft could signal the tipping point where small recurring payments within the AAA games we play outpaces traditional complete products for the foreseeable future.
I’m certainly not calling this the “death of the $60 game” or “the decline of games as a complete product” but there is no denying that over the past year major game studios have tried to forcefully inject smaller purchases into franchises that have not been known to use the previously mobile only lootboxes / battle crates / whatever you’d like to call them. What started with cosmetic item crates in Overwatchhas quickly morphed into Warner Bros Interactive selling Legendary Orcs for real money in Shadow of War, players being able to purchase level-ups and weapon power in Fortnite‘s PVE mode and most recently random lootbox exclusive mount skins in ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2.
A slide outlining the “digital revenue split” between Digital Distribution and Player Recurring Investments.
Tempting players with the chance of highly coveted items, exclusive skins and other valuables for only a small amount of cash does sound an awful lot like gambling. Yes, there is no chance of getting “nothing” when you purchase an Overwatch loot box but the disappoint that comes when you open a box that contains nothing but duplicates, sprays and the occasional voice lines became such a meme within the community that the Overwatch team found it necessary to fiddle with the odds found within loot boxes so that duplicates are less prevalent.
While I’m on the topic of odds – popular public contests like Mcdonald’s Monopoly, Casino tables and slot machines in British Columbia and other games of chance have to clearly outline the odds that a player faces before they make their decision. The gaming industry has not faced threats of regulation when it comes to disclosing odds to players in North America yet but the Chinese government is well ahead of us and passed a law requiring game makers to disclose the odds of “random drops” within their titles. In the Chinese version of Overwatch you have the probability of one “legendary item” (the highest rarity) for every 13.5 loot boxes. If you try to roughly convert that to $USD or time spent depending on the calculations used you’re either spending $7.99 USD (for 14 lootboxes) or roughly 20 hours of gameplay time FOR THE CHANCE of unlocking a legendary item, not necessarily the one you want.
Are we at a turning point? Only time will tell but here’s hoping that the discussions around microtransactions, gacha style loot boxes and random chances for real world money within gaming face some kind of regulations in the near future. I know personally I’ve spent a good chunk of spare change on loot boxes and microtransactions over the past year and I don’t feel any happier or better off since I did. It would have been nice to know that to get that Soldier 76 Grillmaster Skins during the first summer games would have cost me 20 hours of my life just for the chance…
Pictured in the header: Overwatch’s loot boxes, Fortnite’s Llamas, Shadow of War’s crates, Tess’ Eververse in Destiny 2, Heroes of the Storm’s loot boxes and Guild Wars 2’s Mount Adoption Certificate. Embedded in this post is an amazing video by Jim “Fucking” Sterling, Son!
The latest ‘Hero’ to join the ranks of Overwatch’s roster is the Tallon geneticist Moira. Clad in purples and blacks this support hero uses her scientific knowledge to heal her allies and damage her foes, sometimes simultaneously. Needless to say, her reveal came as a complete surprise, unlike last year’s Sombra reveal, Jeff Kaplan got to keep Moira’s debut a complete secret until he could unveil her to millions of fans during the BlizzCon 2017 opening ceremonies.
She has a healing beam which is she uses to restore health on her allies using her left hand. A dark energy creeps out from her right hand, dealing damage to her foes and healing her and replenishing her ‘biotic energy’. Biotic Orb is a rebounding projectile that damages any enemy it passes through and heals any friendlies it may come in contact with. Fade allows Moira to teleport a short distance, similar to Reaper’s Wraith Form. Finally, her ultimate, Coalescence, as her firing both her healing beam and damaging beam at the same time.
Here are the official descriptions of her kit from the Overwatch website:
BIOTIC GRASP
Using her left hand, Moira expends biotic energy to heal allies in front of her. Her right hand fires a long-range beam weapon that saps enemies’ health, healing Moira and replenishing her biotic energy.
BIOTIC ORB
Moira launches a rebounding biotic sphere; she can choose between a regeneration effect that heals the allies it passes through, or a decay effect that deals damage to enemies.
FADE
Moira quickly teleports a short distance.
COALESCENCE
Moira channels a long-range beam that both heals allies and bypasses barriers to damage her enemies.
Moira is expected to be released on Overwatch’s Public Test Region sometime next week. For now, we’ll all have to watch the videos of her in action coming from the show floor.
The stylistic headgear worn by Blizzard’s fictional pro Starcraft player, D.VA , can soon be yours with the announcement of a line of officially licensed peripherals based around everyone’s favorite gremlin.
Razer will be releasing Razer Meka Headset, styled after the iconic headgear and color scheme that D.VA sports with her default outfit in Overwatch. Seriously look at the screen grab from the trailer below, I honestly screamed when I saw this headset – it’s perfect for protecting the payload!
The Razer Abyssus Elite mouse sports the purple and pink aesthetic that D.VA is known for combined with the matte black used in a lot of Razer’s product line. Don’t let the cute bunny emblem at the bottom of the mouse fool you, it is packing enough punch to handle any number of actions per minute. According to the official site, the Abyssus supports up to 7200 DPI and Razer’s Chroma custom lighting technology.
Last up is the Razer Goliathus mouse pad which sports a giant version of D.VA’s bunny emblem complete with racing stripes also styled after her default look. Accented by cute bubbles and pink Razer Logo this mouse pad completes the trio of brand new Overwatch accessories.
In terms of price, the Goliathus is the cheapest of the three at $20.00 USD. The D.VA Abyssus Gaming Mouse has a retail price of $59.99 USD and both of these are available now. That sweet looking D.VA headset, however, is currently listed as “coming soon”, so we’ll bring you an update on that as soon as we have it.
Heroes of the Nexus shall assemble within the foundries of Volskyia Industries with the latest in-game event for Blizzard’s MOBA. Bringing a brand new Overwatch themed Map (Volskyia Foundry), the elder sniper Anna from OW, a brand new A.I system and an in-game Pachimari limited time quest this event is a substantial amount of content for a game that has such a frequent release cycle.
New Hero – Ana
Seasoned sniper Ana enters the nexus with her trust biotic rifle and grenades on hand to lend support to her team. Her basic abilities allow players to shoot syringes full of healing serum at friendly targets or inflict poisonousness wounds that deal damage over time to enemy units. Biotic Grenade can either heal friendly units for a large amount or stop enemy heroes from receiving healing for a limited time. Her passive trait is pretty interesting, it is almost like Lunara’s poison, in that it applies DOT (damage over time) to those hit. Unlike Lunara’s basic attack trait, Ana’s can stack up to five times on a single target.
Here is a breakdown of all of her basic moves, trait and ultimate abilities:
Healing Dart – First dart to hit a friendly hero heals for 250. Biotic Grenade – Heal Heroes in range for 175 + they gain an additional 25% healing for next 4 seconds. Enemies hit with Biotic Grenade cannot receive healing for 2 seconds and take 60 DMG. Sleep Dart – Put an enemy hero to sleep for 3 seconds, Attacking the same hero with a basic attack from any source causes them to wake up. Nano Boost (Ultimate) – Ana recovers 200 mana, friendly hero affected by Nano Boost 30% spell power and their basic ability cooldowns have a refresh % of 150%. Eye of Horus (Ultimate) – Fire up to 8 specialized rounds. Enemies hit with rounds from Eye of Horus take 175 DMG, friendlies hit by Eye of Horus take additional 300 points healing. Ana is not able to move while using this ultimate.
New Map –Volskyia Foundry
Travel to the futuristic tundra of a Russian foundry in this brand new Overwatch map for Heroes of the Storm. Unlike the currently pulled from rotation Hanamura map, Foundry has only one objective active at a time. With a small King of the Hill style objective point – each team must strategize effectively to control the objective or risk losing it to their opponents. Just like in Overwatch a contested point can go into a nail-biting overtime. Your team’s reward for holding the control point? The ability for two players at once to control a giant mech and march it straight to the enemy base.
Pachimari Collection Quest For the next little while, a personal favorite of mine – Overwatch’s little Pachimari plush – will be collectible in Heroes of the Storm. At the start of a match, dozens of loot boxes will spawn on the field and the team that collects the highest number of Pachimari during those opening seconds are rewarded with progress towards the event quest. Not only do these event boxes contain “legendary” gold Pachimari but a “Pachimari MVP” is crowned before the gates come down to begin the match!
What do you think of this HOTS event? Let me know in the comments section!
Today is a big day for Overwatch fans as the mid-September patch bringing additional damage to the Starcraft playing D.VA, a major rework for the German doctor Mercy and our first playable glimpse of post-apocalyptic Australia with the Junkertown map.
Junkertown
We previously covered this brand-new escort map which introduced us to one of the fandom’s favorite new (off-screen) characters – the Queen of Junkertown. Junkrat’s former home also played host to the last Overwatch animated short ‘the plan’ which hilariously featured Junkrat and Roadhog scheming to gain re-entry into this locked down settlement, only to fail spectacularly. You too can now escort an adorable Pachimari with a golden crown to the goal.
Here is Blizzard’s official description of the map:
Junkertown is located in the harsh and unforgiving Australian Outback. Constructed from the remains of a destroyed omnium, it’s now the home to a band of lawless scavengers known as the Junkers, led by their cutthroat Queen. When they aren’t pillaging the omnium’s skeleton for anything of value, the Junkers blow off steam in the Scrapyard—a massive gladiatorial arena whose combatants fight for glory, riches… and to survive.
D.VA Changes
Our favorite pro gamer has her damage mitigation nerfed in favor of additional DPS thanks to the addition of a brand new ‘micro missile’ ability. This new ability fires a volley of missiles in a straight line towards the center of D.VA’s vision. According to the patch notes Blizzard’s developers felt that Defense Matrix was too strong and reducing its up time without compensating would make D.VA too weak. This rectified with the addition of micro missiles and the fact that D.VA can now continue to fire her canons while using her boosters.
D.va is ready to get her enemies in her sights. – Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment
Micro Missiles (New Ability)
D.Va fires a barrage of small rockets that detonate on impact, dealing damage in a limited radius around each explosion. These can be fired while D.Va is using any other ability or firing her Fusion Cannons
Defense Matrix
Defense Matrix’s resource meter will now deplete twice as quickly
Energy regeneration per second has been increased to 12.5% (formerly 10%)
Boosters
Fusion Cannons can now be fired while flying
Mercy Changes
Probably the most striking in change in this update is the rework to Mercy – instead of her ultimate resurrecting an entire team she has a new ultimate called “Valkyrie”, she does, however, retain the ability to resurrect players with that ability becoming a single person rez every 30 seconds. While in Valkyrie mode Mercy can fly in 3 dimensions for the duration of the Ulti, she does additional damage with her blaster pistol and both her damage boost beam and healing beam chain from one teammate to another if they are within proximity. Will her new ulti be enough to clinch a last-minute overtime victory? Time will tell.
Resurrect (Formerly Mercy’s Ultimate ability)
Ability now targets a single player, instead of every player within a radius
Radius reduced to 5 meters
Ability cooldown is 30 seconds
Mercy is no longer granted invulnerability while Resurrect is active
Valkyrie (New Ultimate Ability)
Valkyrie unleashes the full power of Mercy’s Valkyrie suit, enhancing her weapons and abilities for 20 seconds
Caduceus Staff: Mercy’s healing and damage boost beams now affect all allies near the targeted teammate, and the staff’s effective range has been extended
Caduceus Blaster: Now has infinite ammo and increased projectile speed
Guardian Angel: Increased range and movement speed
Resurrect: Cooldown is instantly reset when Valkyrie is activated and reduced to 10s after the initial cast
Hover: Mercy gains the ability to fly freely, at increased movement speed
Regeneration (Passive): No longer interrupted when Mercy takes damage
Wrapping Things Up
It is going to take some time for these major changes to two of Overwatch’s mainstays to work its way into the meta and for the community to adjust to them. While I’ve played a few games as both the damage dealing D.VA and reworked Mercy but I’m going to leave my impressions unwritten for a few days while I let the changes sink in.
Let me know your thoughts on this latest Overwatch patch in the comments section below.
The Australian crime duo of Roadhog and Junkrat star in a hilarious animated short designed to promote the upcoming map, Junkertown. A mix between the stylish post-apocalyptic aesthetic of Mad max and the comedic tomfoolery of a character like Junkrat, these two pieces of media provide our first in-game glimpse of the Australia wasteland that has been teased since the game’s release.
I think my favorite part of the whole trailer has to be Junkrat’s continually revised plan and of course the gold crown on Pachimari – because if any Overwatch character deserves some swag it is Pachimari.
Here is a bit about the founding of Junkertown curotesy of the Overwatch Wikia:
“After the Omnic Crisis, the Australian government hoped to restore peace with the omnics by granting them a large area of land surrounding the Australian omnium. In doing so, many residents of the outback were displaced, and some of them, including Roadhog, formed a group of rebels they called the Australian Liberation Front. The ALF eventually managed to sabotage the omnium’s fusion core, which blew up the omnium, irradiated the area, and scattered scrap metal across the outback.
Survivors would go on to build Junkertown in the ruins of the destroyed omnium. The town’s residents, called Junkers, make a living scavenging parts from the omnium’s skeleton. In the center of town is a gladiatorial arena called the Scrapyard where the Queen of Junkertown oversees mech battles.”
It is unknown if both the upcoming free for all and team death match modes and Junkertown will launch on the live servers simotanously as one update or if they’ll be spread across two updates over the course of September. FFA and TDM are already available on PTR.
Heroes will clash against each other with no payload to escort in Overwatch’s upcoming Deathmatch mode which will be introduced in a new patch after the Summer Games conclude on August 28th. Unlike the death match-like Skrimish Mode, the official DM modes will come with their own special scoreboard and some modifications to player abilities.
Gamer Director Jeff Kaplan surprised the community with the two new modes – Free for All Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch in a brand new developer update via the official Overwatch YouTube channel. Certain Heroes will not have access to all of their abilities during a Free For All match – Mercy for example only has her blaster and since she cannot resurrect herself, her ultimate ability is turned off alongside her escape ability. When playing Mercy on TDM all of her abilities are unlocked with some small tweaks – when using resurrect your opponents kill count will be reduced!
Players need not worry about being the top player on the scoreboard to get credit towards their Arcade loot boxes. As long as a player is within the top 4 (on their team in TDM or overall in FFA) they’ll receive credit towards the weekly boxes. When the two modes launch they’ll have win conditions set to first to 20 kills for FFA and 30 kills for TDM. The selection of maps will differ between modes – split between existing maps used for objective mode, the elimination maps added during the Orisa patch and a brand new map focusing on the backstory for Talon member Widowmaker.
If you’re sick of playing Lucioball or trying to unlock that time limited McCree and Soldier 76 skins you can tryout these new modes on the PTR. They are expected to be rolled out around September 5th, which is the first Tuesday after the Summer Games end.
The summer games have arrived once again in the futuristic world of Overwatch. This year’s iteration of Overwatch’s first ever seasonal event sees some changes to the Lucio Ball mode, the addition of competitive Lucio Ball for those brave enough and of course both the unlockable skins from last year and a few brand new ones for those lucky few who happen to get them as drops (or have 3000 credits laying around).
Returning Skins
Last year heroes like Torbjorn, Mercy, Genji and Zarya got a single skin that represented their country to celebrate the 2016 Rio Olympics. Tracer received two skins featuring a giant stopwatch instead of her usual Chronal Accelerator and McCree wrapped himself in the American flag to celebrate the festivities. If you need a refresher on all of the outfits, voice lines and sprays from last year’s event make sure to check out this recap video:
New Skins For 2018
Six new skins are available to unlock for 3000 credits for this year’s celebration. There are still several heroes who do not have summer games skin and unfortunately for everyone who has taken a liking to Doom Fist, he’ll have to wait until next year.
What we do get is the first summer skins for Junk Rat in the form of Cricket equipment, Blizzard going full meme with the Grill Master 76 skin, yet another entry for Lucio (that makes 3 total) and both Widowmaker and Sombra get their first Summer skins with the release of this event.
Here they all are:
Lucio Ball
Several substantial and minor tweaks to Lucio Ball have been made with the 2017 Summer Games:
Lucio Ball matches with custom modifiers can now be created for custom games.
The second arena for Lucio Ball has been added, based on Sydney Australia.
Lucio’s “push” ability will work only on the ball, no more sending other players flying across the arena.
Competitive Lucio Ball will be available for everyone in the Arcade until the event ends.
Competitive has its own Match Making Ranking system and the top 500 players in the world will receive a special spray for ruling competitive.
Everyone who plays at least one game of Lucio Ball will receive a special spray to commemorate this year’s games.
Overwatch’s 25th hero, Doomfist, has finished his testing phase on the PTR and is now live on the PC and console versions of the game. Alongside the release of Doomfist – who has been adjusted considerably since his initial reveal – this latest patch brings a number of changes to player mobility across a number of heroes and voice lines for both D.VA and Genji.
Doomfist
I’ve covered Doomfist in the past two weeks a couple of times. So to get a quick impression of what he is capable of, here is a summary of his abilities that I posted a few weeks back. Primarily his adjustments on the PTR involved how far his rocket punch and uppercut abilities launched opponents and moved. The actual functionality of the moves hasn’t really changed.
Doomfist Abilities:
Hand Cannon – Fires short ranged projectile from the knuckles of his smaller hand. Ammunition is automatically regenerated over time. Seismic Slam – Doomfist leaps forward into the air and smashes down to the ground affecting any foes below him. Rising Uppercut – Launches enemies that are in front of Doomfist into the air. Rocket Punch – A powerful charge forward that completes with a massive blow from Doomfist’s mechanical arm. Meteor Strike (Ultimate) – Leap into the sky and then come crashing down to deal damage and stun opponents. The Best Defense (Passive – Gain a temporary shield when dealing ability damage to opponents.
Movement Changes
Mcree’s flash bang now slows targets considerably faster than before. This means that a swift striking Genji can’t dodge the slowing effect of the Flash Bang’s stung.
Graviton Surge, Zarya’s ultimate ability, now stops all hero movement for those in the affected area. This means that using Genji’s Swift Strike or spending all of Tracer’s blink charges are no longer viable strategies to escape the Gravity well. Ditto for Mercy’s shift ability which allows her to fly towards a friendly target.
Highlight System
Remember that highlight system that Jeff Kaplan talked about during a recent developer update? It is now live on PC! Overwatch will now curate your top 5 daily clips and store them for a full 24 hours. Players are also now able to generate 12-second clips by using a new bindable record button. One thing to remember about these highlights is that they are only valid until the next patch – regardless if it is a major or minor addition to the game. Make sure to export your highlights often!
“The game will continue to automatically generate highlights for you based on your recent gameplay. These auto-generated highlights—now categorized as “Today’s Top 5”—will be surfaced on a daily basis and persist for a full 24 hours (or until the game client is patched, whichever happens first).
Players can now generate their own highlights! The ability to capture 12 seconds of your own gameplay has been added to the game, and can be bound to a single button of your choice (or a button per highlight slot) in the Options menu under “Request Highlight.” These player-generated highlights will be saved under a new section called “Recently Captured” and will persist until the game client is patched. Players can have up to 36 recently-captured highlights stored at one time.
With the above, players can now record any of their “Top 5” or “Recently Captured” highlights, exporting them as a video file to their gaming platform’s designated media library (on console) or directory (on PC). On PC, players will also have the option to select the quality at which these highlights are exported, supporting up to 4K for Windows 8 or higher operating systems, and up to 1080p on Windows 7.”
Get A Video Rundown
Want to know more about the latest Overwatch Patch? Check out the handy video recap in the player below or read the official notes on Blizzard’s site.
The next hero to join Overwatch, the much hyped Doomfist, will be making his way onto the live servers this coming Thursday, July 27th. Ahead of his debut in the live version of the game Blizzard hosted a panel yesterday at the San Diego Comic Con where they talked about the development behind one of Overwatch’s most mysterious heroes.
Filming doesn’t appear to have been allowed at the panel, as every YouTube video discussing the panel is an original work rather than a recording of the panel itself. Luckily for those of us not in California right now GameSpot was able to attend the panel and grabs some cool photographs of early concept art for Doomfist.
Early concepts for Doomfist allowed him to pick up enemy combatants and use them as human shields – blocking damage. Doomfist players could also simply throw their opponents off of clips, which I’m sure made for some hilarious deaths during the opening stages of Route 66. Blizzard also experimented with making him a melee only character and at one point in development, he was even considered for the tank role. Like the Overwatch’s early experiments with a melee only version of Genji, melee only Doomfist simply was too difficult to balance around the other heroes so they added the shotgun knuckles that he posses in his final iteration.
How do you feel about Doomfist’s beginnings? Would you have liked to see him as another Tank rather than the DPS role her currently fills? Excited to play him in competitive? Let us know in the comments section.
After teasing the existence of the third Doomfist since the original cinematic reveal trailer back in 2014, one of the leaders of Talon has finally come to the world of Overwatch in playable form. Today’s reveal comes alongside the release of a developer update featuring game Director Jeff Kaplan, an animated anime short featuring Overwatch Vs. Doomfist and the availability of the mighty fisted fighter on the Public Test Region!
Let’s get the bad news for dedicated followers of Overwatch out of the way – for whatever reason (be it character related, overall direction, perhaps they never considered him for the role) – Terry Crews does not worse Doomfist. Blizzard chose to go with the talent of Sahr Ngaujah – who is known for roles in 2007’s The Signal & Stomp The Yard, as well as last year’s Money Monster.
Jeff Kaplan outlines Doomfist’s key abilities, including his colossus of an ultimate, and goes on to explain that Doomfist is designed as a front line brawler who excels at taking on one or two enemy heroes. He is able to launch heroes into the ground and any time Doomfist gets some air he can slam down dealing damage. Players who are successful at mitigating damage and dealing blows will be rewarded with a temporary shield, extending their survivability, thanks to Doomfist’s passive trait.
Jeff Kaplan outlines Doomfist’s key abilities, including his colossus of an ultimate, and goes on to explain that Doomfist is designed as a front line brawler who excels at taking on one or two enemy heroes. He is able to launch heroes into the ground and any time Doomfist gets some air he can slam down dealing damage. Players who are successful at mitigating damage and dealing blows will be rewarded with a temporary shield, extending their survivability, thanks to Doomfist’s passive trait.
Here are Doomfist’s abilities:
Hand Cannon – Fires short ranged projectile from the knuckles of his smaller hand. Ammunition is automatically regenerated over time.
Seismic Slam – Doomfist leaps forward into the air and smashes down to the ground affecting any foes below him.
Rising Uppercut – Launches enemies that are in front of Doomfist into the air.’
Rocket Punch – A powerful charge forward that completes with a massive blow from Doomfist’s mechanical arm.
Meteor Strike (Ultimate) – Leap into the sky and then come crashing down to deal damage and stun opponents.
The Best Defense (Passive – Gain a temporary shield when dealing ability damage to opponents.
If you are a fan of Blizzard’s origin shorts – such as The Last Bastion or Infiltration (Sombra) then be prepared for a massive treat – OVERWATCH IN ANIME!!! – poor Tracer gets absolutely clobbered by our newest villain however.
So what do you think of Doomfist and his almost fighting game-like ability to send opponents flying upwards and then crashing them into the ground? For me, it brought back memories of infinite air combos from Magneto in MVC2 and I couldn’t help but be reminded of Sentinel after hearing that one of his abilities was called “Rocket Punch”. If you want to have a go as Doomfist he is currently available on PTR, no word yet on when we can expect a release on the non-test version but this usually happens within a week or two.
Great job Blizzard, thanks for not dragging this reveal out for months!
