I don’t really need an Overwatch story mode or an Overwatch spin-off to exist; I’m happy believing I’d love them if they ever came to life, and I don’t need to test that theory. A single player futuristic Western revenge drama with Ashe and McCree as the leads? Yes please. A Netflix adaptation of Overwatch’s main story with Maisie Williams as Tracer? Sounds amazing – please never make it. The idea of literally any genre of solo game with Mei or Mercy sounds fantastic, but it would never live up to my expectations and I’m much happier in my ignorant hope than in cold, hard real
To me, this doesn’t feel like a reward for players who decide against spending any money, but a forced incentive to cough up the dough or get lost. Why wouldn’t you pick up the battle pass if it meant a new hero immediately and a selection of other rewards for the time you’re going to be investing anyway? Blizzard likely sees this as good business, but I really hope this isn’t how each season is going to play out, with new heroes being held hostage by the premium side of things instead of providing a way for us to test them out or toy with the wider roster without restriction. Only time will tell, and Overwatch 2 still needs to find its feet.
Overwatch 2 is taking Blizzard’s 2016 hit and making it a free-to-play game which, as features lead Jade King points out , makes perfect sense. In the past six years, we’ve had goliaths like Apex Legends, Destiny 2, and Fortnite take centre stage – Overwatch is simply evolving with the ti
Right now I have almost everything I could ever want, and I’m smart enough now to avoid wasting money on currency unless there is something I desperately want. The battle pass is one of the few means of progression right now, with the character levelling system teased in earlier trailers abandoned until PvE rolls around. Seasonal skins that used to justify events are now available whenever we like, or a part of bundles that cycle click through the up coming page the store each and every day.
Where a lot of hero shooters have characters that either riff on Overwatch or age old tropes, Overwatch’s originality makes it easy to project onto. They still aren’t perfect – we won’t be able to play as a Black woman until Overwatch 2 – but they’re head and shoulders above the competition in terms of what I look for in the genre, even though I never play
Finally, Xbox has implemented How Long to Beat , giving you a heads up on how long on average it’ll take you to go for a completionist run or just a main story playthrough. With gaming’s approach to length changing thanks to subscription services such as Game Pass and PS Plus, features editor Andrew King argues that this is long overdue, letting people find shorter nuggets to power through in their free time, or bigger time sinks for those who prefer a longer adventure with more commitm
Overwatch was the game I played constantly at university, and playing around with its existing roster while delving into each new hero was a big part of its appeal. My flatmates and I would fall in love with specific roles, or gravitate towards certain heroes because their aesthetic called out to us. I’m a filthy weeb and also very gay, so my mains ended up being D.Va, Mercy, and Lucio, with venturing into DPS territory rarely.
Meanwhile, the whole meta has stirred up behind-the-scenes drama, with TrainwrecksTV calling out Mizkif for allegedly covering up sexual assault for his friends . Why didn’t he speak up before? It’s a messy situation – calling out gambling is good, but Stacey argues that it takes the right circumstances for streamers to take action, all in the name of good pr
Main tanks can’t go anywhere, which is just a simple fact. To combat a main tank, you need damage, so if the other team runs two DPS and you run an off-tank, you’re going to feed ultimates like they’ve been brought up with a silver spoon. There’s just no way you’re running one support with two tanks and two DPS either, mostly for the same reason – it will affect the damage/healing balance per team way too much. As a result, the most basic logic available to us suggests each team will be made up of a main tank, two DPS, and two healers – no room for off-tanks. And, as with all metas, team formations are often mirrored. Gr
However, Overwatch has always felt like one of my favourite games even though I so rarely play it. While other hero shooters feel loaded with generic characters, Overwatch’s cast feels full of life and heart. Overwatch 2 – which really might have been a mistake , considering most online shooters use the season model – will apparently include a campaign mode, but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. Obviously, I love single player games and prefer PvE to PvP, but Overwatch won my heart as it is. There’s something about how vibrant the characters are that makes me think I want to see their own journeys, but I’m not sure if I actually trust Overwatch 2 to pull it
