Overwatch

[Cappuccino]

I'm expecting to see two things...

1. Way too many people playing Tracer, Genji or Reaper. The latter isn't too big of a deal, but Tracer and Genji are probably two of the hardest characters to play properly. Essentially, those three are some of the flankers in the game, so if you're sitting there behind Reinhardt's shield all game, you're doing it wrong.
2. Way too many people sitting at the first gate of Hanamura and just shooting at the defenders. Hanamura is probably the worst of all control point maps (the others being Volskaya and Temple of Anubis) when it comes to the choke point, and most people are just too passive to push. The have this idea that if someone is shooting at them, they have to try to kill the person first.

nerfplz

 

[Aikouka]

The best thing about the stress test is that it's a good time to get all of those cute sprays that I've been looking to get. I ended up getting McCree's (kill 4 people with one Deadeye) and Tracer's (kill 4 people with one Pulse Bomb). I was really close to getting Torbjörn's (kill 4 people during one Molten Core), but I was one off.

I'd actually be interested to see how many more people are in the game right now, because I only ran into 3-4 closed beta people last night. (You can usually tell by the level as the stress testers are only about 10-15.) That's also good, because most stress testers don't understand the level system, so they see that I'm something like 28, and there's no care in the world. However, they don't realize that the bronze color of my border means that I'm actually 128.

 

[jimrawr]

Game is super fun.. Wish it wasnt ending tonight :*(

 

[Grooveriding]

I've had the closed beta for a long while now. I expect this game to be a blockbuster that is heavily played for years.

My wife got in for the beta weekend. She's been playing the beta on my account for a long time already, but it must suck for those who do get limited access for just a few days and then lose it.

 

[Aikouka]

I've had the closed beta for a long while now. I expect this game to be a blockbuster that is heavily played for years.

I'm not 100% sure. The thing that makes me wonder is that the Twitch numbers aren't that great. It could be just because the game isn't out yet, but it could also be because the game isn't as intriguing with people.

 

[Worthington]

I had fun with it during my brief stress test. I can't really speak to it's longevity but I and the friends that got into the weekend with me will definitely be playing on release.

 

[Aikouka]

I was thinking a bit more about the possible popularity, and I wonder how much will come down to the community itself. Right now in closed beta, the community isn't too bad. I don't run into many arrogant players or players with bad manners, and I'll actively speak out against any players like that if they happen to be on my team. I also tend to play with some female players fairly often, and it's pretty rare to see guys be creepy/weird toward them. Although, that's during closed beta, which has a far smaller player pool than it will during open beta and release.

I also hope that Blizzard will allow us to curate our potential random teammates a bit better. I'd like to prioritize people that are actually using communication channels vs. those that don't. I'd also like to avoid non-English-speaking foreign players for the same reason. I tend to run into a few Koreans while playing, and they never talk nor join the voice channels. The only conversing that they do is in text and it's always in Korean. To make matters worse, they're also not even that good.

 

[jimrawr]

I'm not 100% sure. The thing that makes me wonder is that the Twitch numbers aren't that great. It could be just because the game isn't out yet, but it could also be because the game isn't as intriguing with people.

You can only watch so much without being able to play the game. It gets boring. Most people stream the games they play, not the games they don't.

 

[Aikouka]

So, the closed beta officially ended today, and we've all gone to "Onlywatch" status. I did have some really fun games yesterday though.

In one, I joined up with a group of people, but I was late, so I was just sitting there spectating their game. However, if anyone ever leaves the game, a spectator is instantly brought in as a backfill. So, I'm just chilling and watching the people play on Nepal (King of the Hill) when all of a sudden I'm at the character select screen. "Oh, god... who do I choose!? Who do I choose!?" I ended up going with Pharah (girl with the rocket launcher and jetpack) as they had the tank and healer roles filled well enough. Sweet mother of God, the enemy team was not prepared for what I wrought! I don't know if they just kind of forgot that I was there or something, but I was taking out people left and right... including the enemy's Pharah!

The second fun map was also on Nepal when we decided to have fun and run what's commonly called the "Cancer Comp", which is comprised of 2x Lucio (healer), 2x Winston (tank) and 2x Tracer (DPS). It was a little rough at first, but once we got into the groove, the enemy couldn't touch us. Of course, it helps that I either didn't die or only died once. Tracer's biggest benefit is being able to annoy the enemy and take out stragglers, so you've got to stay alive.

The third fun map was when I played Roadhog on Hollywood as defense. The team never even captured the first point as we kept them locked down tight. The best part is that I never died the entire time!

The only bad part is that I forgot to record any of these matches. :\ I just need to get in the habit of recording them all and deleting the boring/not fun ones. But I did record two Hanamura defense maps yesterday... in one, I was playing as Roadhog and the other was Zenyatta. The Zenyatta one was a bit messier than I would've liked, but apart from a single instance of overextending (and paying for it), the Roadhog one went pretty well (if you ignore the somewhat poor hooking).

You can only watch so much without being able to play the game. It gets boring. Most people stream the games they play, not the games they don't.

I donno... I watched the game a lot when I didn't have beta access. :\

 

[lupi]

BB offering a $10 reward cert for pre-purchases and overwatch is on eligible title list.

 

[lupi]

Have an extra code for the pre-release beta period. Send me a PM and i'll lottery it off on saturday.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

hmm best buy promo isn't too bad. cd keys has origins version for ~$39 after 5% off coupon but that might be a little more gray area. Base game without the digital extras is only $40 straight from Blizzard.

 

[Aikouka]

hmm best buy promo isn't too bad. cd keys has origins version for ~$39 after 5% off coupon but that might be a little more gray area. Base game without the digital extras is only $40 straight from Blizzard.

You also get 20% off at Best Buy if you're a GCU member.

 

[QuantumPion]

Is this game fun for casuals/solo? Or is it a hyper competitive game that is only fun if you are on a team of friends and study all the synergies and what not?

 

[Aikouka]

Is this game fun for casuals/solo? Or is it a hyper competitive game that is only fun if you are on a team of friends and study all the synergies and what not?

As long as you enjoy fast-paced, non-realistic, objective-based FPS, you should be able to have fun in Overwatch. You don't need a team to play; however, you do gain a 20% experience bonus if you're grouped with at least one other person. (The bonus doesn't depend on the number of people on your team; it's always a flat 20%.)

There are things that you'll need to learn such as things that work and things that don't work so well. Also, it's important to keep in mind that there's nothing wrong with saying, "Well, this hero isn't working out. I better switch to something different!"

There is a bit of a learning curve with the game simply because the 21 heroes are fairly distinct. For example, the tanks (Reinhardt, Winston, Zarya and Roadhog) are all played very differently, and they all meet the concept of a tank to varying degrees. Most classes typically have the stereotypical version of that archetype. For example, Reinhardt is a tank with a shield, and Mercy is the support that has direct, single-target healing and resurrection capability. However, then you get variants that are very different such as Zarya. She's a tank that can make herself or others invulnerable for 2 seconds (on separate cooldowns) every 10-12 seconds, and she has the least amount of health as a tank; however, her mechanics can also allow her to deal the most damage out of all the tanks. Another example is Symmetra. She's a support character that, unlike the other 3 support characters, has no heals. She actually plays a bit more like a defensive (has turrets), buffing hero.

 

[Sonikku]

 

[s44]

Any organized AT groups for this? Planning to annoy people as heals.

 

[Worthington]

Anyone got their early access codes yet?

 

[s44]

I did. Ordered from Amazon though, not sure about other sources.

 

[CurrentlyPissed]

If you use gmail, check your promotions tab. They all went there.

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

 

[lupi]

Ordered from BB and got it early last week.

 

[darkewaffle]

Woohoo, it's back as of last night. It's a blast when playing with friends but after we quit I tried a few quick play games solo and it really wasn't anything to write home about in comparison. I think since the teams are limited to 6v6 (whereas most games scale higher than that) the relative importance of each person and communication between them is really magnified.

 

[Aikouka]

Woohoo, it's back as of last night. It's a blast when playing with friends but after we quit I tried a few quick play games solo and it really wasn't anything to write home about in comparison. I think since the teams are limited to 6v6 (whereas most games scale higher than that) the relative importance of each person and communication between them is really magnified.

I think that it's more or less just a product of matchmaking without a good set of data. Pretty much everything was wiped after the closed beta ended, and so everyone is on equal footing in the beginning. Now, this only lasts a week, so you may not see a ton of variation, but when the game comes out, things will eventually get settled so the better players are kept away from the weaker players.

As for my experience, probably the worst thing was a game where this Junkrat sat there spamming the Healing emote ("Need healing!") the entire game regardless of his health. To be clear, I hate that emote as the healer. It's like someone telling me, "Hey, scrub! Learn to do your goddamn job and heal me!" Because, here's the thing... in most cases, I can see you just fine, and I do not need you to tell me to heal you. As a healer, the two parts of my job are battle awareness and triage. The first means that I keep an eye out as to where my teammates are and how much health they have as well as if they're taking any damage or may due to enemy placement. The latter is essentially who I heal based upon that information.

I was really tempted to ignore that Junkrat on heals, but I couldn't do it. It's against my healer creed! I just set him to "Avoid this player" (press 'p' and right click on the player), and I'll hopefully never see him again.

The only other thing is people just making bad choices on heroes and a general lack of teamwork.

 

[lupi]

Will char data be wiped again after the open beta?

 

[s44]

Of course.