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18 hours ago
Overwatch matches to flood with Bastions attempting chandelier jumps
I'm not a sports-watcher. Generally, looking at people play games just leaves me with the wriggly, uncomfortable sensation that my time could be better spent playing a game myself. Every now and then, though, I see a clip of a pro pulling off something wild and get a glimpse of what I'm missing. Like Bastion yeeting himself up to a chandelier and raining fiery canon…
6 days ago
Overwatch ‘remaster’ patch dishes out changes to nearly half the roster on the PTR
Yesterday's Overwatch update to the public test servers calls itself a 'remaster', which immediately got me worried. After all, Overwatch has long been sliding away from its more accessible roots, killing some brilliant (if broken) abilities in the never-ending push to be a good esport. What have they done now, I panicked. Removed D.Va's mech? Decided Pharah didn't realy need a jetpack? Not quite -…
2 weeks ago
Overwatch gives Bastion a Lego makeover with new challenge skin
The best thing about Bastion, Overwatch's portable chaingun, is the way it falls apart. Other heroes might spiral and ragdoll once they've popped their last hitpoint, but Bastion? The robot falls apart like every screw in its chassis just gave up, leaving a discarded Bionicle kit on the battlefield. There's a bunch of Overwatch Lego kits these days, but it's no wonder Bastion's Lego reimagining…
Feature: Two teams remain
I had a different opening paragraph for this article until I went looking for a header image. Now I've deleted it, and instead I'm going to talk about why I'm in love with this picture of Park "Saebyeolbe" Jongryeol. This is my 22nd and penultimate entry in this column, and choosing a lead photo is always one of my favourite parts, because there are also…
4 weeks ago
A lot of beef has been thrown over Overwatch's Role Queue. It kicked off back in July, when Blizzard chose to restrict professional Overwatch League team compositions into '2-2-2' builds, requiring equal representation from Damage, Tank and Support roles. They did this in the middle of the latest tournament. It was weird. I don't watch or particularly care about the pro scene, but last night's…
1 month ago
Feature: The beginning of the 2019 season was 6 decades ago
The regular season of the Overwatch League is over, wrapping up with a local event in – well, in Los Angeles, where it usually is, but in a different bit of the city. Just a few weeks of playoffs to go until we crown a victor. Then we’ll get to thinking about next season, when teams will be shipped all over the globe for similar…
Overwatch’s Workshop mode gets dummy bots, dancing Reinhardts
Overwatch’s latest test region patch brings a clutch of changes to its Workshop, the experimental mode that allows players to create their own games. The biggest is the ability to add dummy bots; characters that have no human or AI driving their actions. Crafty players, then, can use the scripting tools to make them do just about whatever they like. Having seen what people have…
2 months ago
Feature: Embrace not knowing what on earth is happening
With just a couple of weeks left in the Overwatch League, the simulation is falling apart. Sure, things have been unpredictable throughout, but I’m currently staring at the stage four standings and it says Washington Justice are first. First! They’ve won five games in a row after just two in the whole of the rest of the season. It’s almost as though making giant structural…
Gravity grappler Sigma, Overwatch’s 31st hero, went live last night, and now the servers are covered in debris. This weaponised Richard Feynmam bobs along like an angry balloon, throwing out bombs, chunks of the world, and barriers. I haven’t had the chance to play him, but I have seen the confusion he brings to the game, and I can explain his abilities below.
Overwatch’s replay viewer is designed to get into the nitty-gritty of your games and figure out how to improve, or maybe just to show off when you kill a Genji as Mercy. But if you want to momentarily (very momentarily) feel bad about Shimada elimination, the Brothers cinematic is always available to remind you of their tragic brotherly betrayal. Now, a fan has recreated it…
Feature: Roadfrog and friends
Welcome to stage four of the Overwatch League! It's finally happened: damage-dealing heroes are back, forced in by Blizzard introducing a role lock that enforces two of each category. That’s why this week, we’re mostly going to be talking about tanks.
New study finds that 74% have been harassed in online multiplayer games
According to a recent study by civil rights group the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), 74% of people who play online multiplayer games have experienced some form of harassment, with 65% experiencing “severe” harassment, which may include physical threats or stalking. And that's only the start of their downpour of awful numbers, which cover bigotry, extremist views, which games have the worst occurrence rates, and more.
Feature: Oh! Yes! Hammer down!
While some people might be into neon-lime Dragonblades and only the edgiest of Reaper skins, my favourite part of Overwatch is its spawn rooms. It’s fun to enter the fray guns blazing from time to time, it is supposed to be an FPS after all. But there’s something about the spawn rooms in Overwatch that adds an extra layer to how you connect with the…
Overwatch’s new hero is fun, but the reason he’s barefoot is bollocks
Sigma, Overwatch's new floaty man, is now live on the test servers. He's a tank who uses gravity magic to chuck quantum pebbles at people, an energy vortex to transform incoming fire into shield juice, and a highly mobile barrier to protect himself and his team. He's also a thematically boring mad scientist, but let's not hold that against him. His ultimate is great fun.
Overwatch’s next hero is Sigma, a gravity-bending villain with a PhD
Overwatch picks up another academic super-villain with new lad, Sigma. An "eccentric astrophysicist" with a fondness for harnesses and eyebrows that could skin a bear, Sigma's origin story was revealed last night. This followed some tantalising Tweets from Overwatch boss Jeff Kaplan (the tease) wherein an entire update video was sucked into a piano rehearsal.
3 months ago
Overwatch begins testing its game-changing Role Queue system
The age of casually flitting between roles mid-match in Overwatch is over, as Blizzard just dropped a game-changing patch on their competitive team shooter's public test servers. Applying to Quick and Competitive match modes (as well as the esports league, which is a shakeup), players will now have to commit to a role - Tank, DPS or Support - before their match and queue for…
Feature: There's not much more of a Breakthrough than this
I’ve said two things here multiple times. Firstly, this season of the Overwatch League is one of upsets and unpredictability. Secondly, I love and cherish Shanghai Dragons. But I still wasn’t ready for the Dragons to face a playoff gauntlet of the big three teams, New York Excelsior, Vancouver Titans, and San Francisco Shock, and beat them one after one to become stage champions. In…
Rather than have players suffer through matches where cheaters are cheating up the place, saving bans for future punishment, Overwatch should soon shut down games mid-round as soon as it detects skulduggery. That's a solution Blizzard are currently toying with on the test servers, director Jeff Kaplan explained last week, and it sounds great. When faced with cheaters, I have always found some catharsis in…
Feature: I don't know what peach thing is about and at this point I'm too afraid to ask
The Overwatch League’s season three has hurtled towards its playoffs, locking in all of the places for next week. Although Shanghai Dragons didn’t have to make it quite so close, did they? My poor heart could barely take it. And now they’ll be facing New York Excelsior in the quarterfinals, a team that heard people (me) say that they were squarely in third place behind…
Innovative new controller lets you ragequit by pouring literal salt
If only there was an easier way to stop playing your favourite games. The infuriating multiplayer ones, I mean - mid-session while you're at the peak of being piqued. I'm guilty of a ragequit or three, and I'm thrilled at the prospect of future anger absconsions being facilitated by the literal manifestation of my salt. The dream is real thanks to Eric Heckman, a YouTuber…
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