Overwatch

[lupi]

Overwatch - Origins Edition Launching Spring 2016
We have confirmation from Battle.net on the earlier Gamestop leak that Overwatch will be launching on PC, Xbox One, and Playstation 4!

We can't currently access the pre-purchase link with goes to BuyOverwatch.com.
Pre-purchasing will grant you a Widowmaker skin on launch.*
The Origins Edition, according to Gamestop, will be $40. (Source)
This still doesn't exclude the game from being free to play.
Included Content
Sources from Game.co.uk.

21 Heroes
5 Skins
Blackwatch Reyes (Reaper)
Strike-Commander Morrison (Soldier: 76)
Overgrown Bastion
Security Chief Pharah
Slipstream Tracer
Overwatch-themed content for several Blizzard Entertainment games:
Heroes of the Storm™ - Tracer Hero
World of Warcraft® - Baby Winston Pet
StarCraft® II Portraits
Hearthstone® Cardback
Diablo® III - Mercy Wings
Battle.net Post
The "Expected Game release" is on or before June 21st 2016. All digital content included with the edition will be available by launch.

 

[lupi]

preorder key in launcher now active, shows $60 price which is probably the digital collector version.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=37816688&postcount=44

 

[lupi]

First "closed beta" weekend is upon us. Tomorrow during maintenance additional accounts will be flagged for beta weekend access which will allow play during the first of several stress test weekends, lasting 20-23. After that only normal beta accounts will be able to continue logging in.

 

[Aikouka]

I hope I get in to the beta weekend! I'm already over my data cap, but whatever! :$

 

[Aikouka]

Just a FYI, I checked and I am able to install the beta. So, I assume other people have probably been given their temporary access too. Maybe if I play the game a lot, they'll consider me for a permanent key! Better stock up on Cheetos and Mountain Dew!!

 

[VashHT]

What shows up if you got into the beta? Does it just show up in the Overwatch tab in the blizzard app? I really want to try this game, getting kind of sick of moba's and I haven't played a fun competitive shooter in a while.

 

[JujuFish]

They're doing a stress test weekend. I'm also able to install the game.

 

[VashHT]

Yeah I came home and saw the install button, can't wait to give it a try.

 

[lupi]

got my weekend invite.

 

[VashHT]

On a side note does anyone here still play HoTS? I'd love to unlock cho'gall but I don't know anyone who owns him.

 

[lupi]

I do.

 

[Vivendi]

I'm in for the weekend as well. What's the download size on this game?

On a side note does anyone here still play HoTS? I'd love to unlock cho'gall but I don't know anyone who owns him.

"/join chogall" channel is full of people trying to GIVE Chogall to people who don't have them already. Because of exponential growth, almost everyone who wants him has him already. It's becoming harder to give the hero to two others to get the 2200 gold.

 

[lupi]

3.6 gb installed.

 

[digiram]

I need to check when I get home. Really wanna try this out.

 

[Soccerman06]

why no me

 

[Aikouka]

On a side note does anyone here still play HoTS? I'd love to unlock cho'gall but I don't know anyone who owns him.

I also have Cho'gall.

why no me

Did you update your beta preferences to include Overwatch?

"/join chogall" channel is full of people trying to GIVE Chogall to people who don't have them already. Because of exponential growth, almost everyone who wants him has him already. It's becoming harder to give the hero to two others to get the 2200 gold.

I wonder if Blizzard would get mad if you created two other Battle.Net accounts just to get the gold.

 

[Soccerman06]

Yeah, I did it when the beta was first announced.

 

[HybridSquirrel]

I played a bit this morning. It is incredibly fun. A lot more heroes than I thought and the frame rate and hit boxes work great (unlike Battlefront)

 

[DaTT]

I got my invite. Installing now...will play later

 

[cKGunslinger]

I'm not digging it so far, but I'm probably not the right target audience.

 

[Phobic9]

I liked watching this on Twitch with premades more than actually playing it. It's a shame because I was really looking forward to having my old UT itch scratched (I know, slightly different style of game...) but alas.

My main gripe with the game is that there isn't enough feedback (UI, sound, etc.) when you make a kill for starters. I understand they are focusing on the teamplay aspect but the game definitely feels a bit shallow at this stage for me.

Definitely "not buying" as of now.

 

[Aikouka]

I played for about eight hours last night. It's hard to give a proper opinion on the complete state of the game, because they only made three maps available during this beta stress test (Hanamura, Outlook: Gibraltar, and King's Row). As for the combat, one very important thing to keep in mind is that everyone is capable of killing. In other words, this isn't like World of WarCraft where catching a healer by themselves will be insta-death.

I mostly played as Mercy, a healer, because almost no one plays the support heroes. Mercy is probably the most straight-forward healer, and the least team-focused healer. The reason is that her abilities are focused solely on a single target at a time. She can either heal them or raise their damage output. She can also pull herself to an friendly target, and it's on a very, very short cooldown (2 seconds I think?). So, she's very mobile in an environment with plenty of people. Zenyetta and Lucio, two other Supports, tend to be much more buff focused... especially Lucio. To be fair, Mercy's ultimate ability is resurrecting fallen members on the team.

Speaking of ultimates, your ultimate ability charges when you deal damage or heal depending on whether you're an attack/defense/tank or a support respectively. So, if you're healing a lot, your ultimate can charge fairly quickly. The problem is... when do you use it? If I heal with my meter charged, I'm essentially wasting the charge that I would've gained. However, if the opposing team gets off a really good charge (i.e. kills most of my team), I could really use that ultimate ability. That happened once during a game last night where a Reaper used his invulnerability to sneak into our group and kill all of them but me with his ultimate.

The only bug that I've ran into so far is the mouse wheel randomly not working in a game. That's a big deal with Mercy as you have to switch between your healing/upgrade weapon and your gun. Now, you can use 1 and 2 to switch as well, but since I only have two weapons, using the scroll wheel is fine.

 

[Vivendi]

Played it a bit as well. I always loved sniping in TFC. Tried out the Widowmaker a bit. Not really digging it so far. I always did prefer playing CS and DoD to Team Fortress though so maybe it's not the right genre for me.

 

[Aikouka]

Played it a bit as well. I always loved sniping in TFC. Tried out the Widowmaker a bit. Not really digging it so far. I always did prefer playing CS and DoD to Team Fortress though so maybe it's not the right genre for me.

I've barely played TF2, but my favorite weapons in Q3 (and similar arena FPS games) are the rocket launcher and the railgun. The railgun is about the closest thing you get to a sniper rifle in most of these games, so I figured that I'd like Pharah (uses a rocket launcher) and Widowmaker (uses a machine gun/sniper rifle hybrid). I do like playing as Pharah, but like you, I'm not as into Widowmaker. I do think that part of the problem is my aim... it just isn't as good as I used to be, but I did notice it getting better and better as I played last night. I had the same problems with aiming when it came to Hanzo (uses a bow and arrow) and Genji (uses shuriken).

In regard to the genre, I wasn't having as much fun in the beginning, but I think it started getting a lot better once I settled into the character. I talked about anyone being able to kill, and that's an important distinction. I found that the game wasn't as fun when I just sat there and healed all the time. Some may consider that being derelict of my duty, but arguably, me finishing off an enemy or taking out an enemy that's trying to flank us is the same as mitigating damage that I might have to heal. The only bad thing is that I don't gain toward my ultimate when I kill people. Overall, I think it just goes back to the simple concept of that you have to find what's fun for you. If you can't find anything, then it probably isn't for you.

When it comes to DPS, my favorite is probably either Pharah or Tracer. If you're fighting against Tracer, she'll probably piss you off. She's incredibly quick and can unload her weapon into you quickly. Her weakness is that she's rather frail, but the thing is... she's quick enough that a lot of players are bad at hitting her. Just don't run directly at a player (sounds kind of obvious...), and they probably won't hit you. Also, never fight Reaper in a closed area... and that goes for just about any character.

One thing that I learned very quickly is that Play vs AI is kind of useless. To be fair, I might just not understand how to set it up properly, but it appears that any bot is always going to be against you. So, I first set it up with 5 bots thinking that it'd be 4 bots + me vs. 5 bots (or 2 + me vs. 3). Nope! It was me vs. 5 bots!

 

[cKGunslinger]

I played a bit more (with actual people, I think.) Really enjoyed Reinhardt for a while.