Overwatch

Overwatch‘s Latest Update Redeems The Game’s Competitive Mode

Earlier this week, publisher Blizzard instituted a new rule of law in the game’s competitive mode: Teams shall be comprised of two tanks, two supports and two damage-dealers, and each role shall be ranked separately. It’s a rule I long-hoped Overwatch would implement, and right now, it is breathing new life into the game. Even…

Overwatch League’s Role Lock Changes Still Can’t Please Fans

Overwatch League fans asked for change, and they got it. The season’s fourth stage kicked off three weeks ago with the introduction of a 2-2-2 role lock that requires teams to be made up of two tanks, two DPS heroes, and two supports. This change would finally put the long-reviled “GOATS” meta, which involves three…

Overwatch just got a big update. Gravity manipulating tank hero Sigma and the much-anticipated 2-2-2 role lock are now on live servers. They arrive alongside a slew of balance tweaks, including an increase in ultimate cost across all heroes.

Sigma’s New ‘Asylum’ Skin Raises Concerns About Overwatch‘s Handling Of Mental-Illness Tropes

Overwatch’s newest hero, Sigma, was introduced to the world on a gurney. Though the video was purposefully non-linear, Sigma had suffered a mental breakdown after attempting to harness the power of a black hole. He hollered half-coherently while being wheeled through what appeared to be a psychiatric facility: “Hold it together, hold it together!” Since…

If Horizon Zero Dawn’s Aloy Was In Overwatch

Ladislas Gueros is an artist based in Canada, and this is his idea on how Horizon Zero Dawn’s Aloy would look as a guest-starring Overwatch character. Like Hanzo, basically, only less annoying. You can see more of Gueros’ stuff at his ArtStation page

Sigma Is Tearing Up The Overwatch Playbook

Sigma, Overwatch’s newest hero, has descended onto the PC public test server, and already, he’s making a craterous impact. The gravity-manipulating tank has an ult of otherworldly power, but ultimately, it hinges on a simple principle: What goes up must come down. Players are using it to pull off some absolutely devious plays. When people…

The Internet Reacts To Overwatch‘s Sigma (And His Feet)

So the new Overwatch character is a scientist? And he got feet? The fact that Sigma, the new mad scientist of Overwatch, is not wearing shoes did not escape anyone’s notice. In fact, the internet is talking about it a lot. Meanwhile, a Blizzard character artist’s explanation that Sigma is barefoot to “sell the ‘asylum’…

Overwatch‘s New Hero Sigma Is Slow But Scary

What would you do if you could control gravity? Would you float everywhere? Hurl boulders at people? Yell all the time about a mysterious melody that haunts your every semi-lucid moment? Overwatch’s newest hero, the unhinged, accidentally evil astrophysicist Sigma, can do all of that and more. He’s fun to play, but he definitely takes…

Video Game Characters Are Terrible At Archery

Video game characters love their bows and arrows, but I hate to be the bearer of bad news—almost all of them are terrible at archery. As an archer myself, I’ve had to spend a lot of time teaching and observing the sport, so I thought it might be appropriate to explain why, in real life,…

Sigma vs. Sigma: The Comparison We Had To Make

A new hero is coming to Overwatch: the robot-suit wearing, evil scientist Sigma. His chunky robo-bod and nefarious allusions to power and control raise an important question: Is this the same Sigma from the Mega Man X series? Kotaku dives deeper in this very serious report. In order to determine if Sigma is that Sigma,…

Overwatch‘s New Hero Is Sigma, An Astrophysicist Who Doesn’t Know He’s A ‘Living Weapon’

After a series of teases that culminated in the apparent demise of Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan, Blizzard has revealed the game’s latest hero. His name is Sigma, and he has the power to see math. Also, perhaps related to that, he can control gravity. Today, Blizzard introduced Sigma in an animated story trailer. “Gravity is…

Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan has explained how the new role queue feature will work in-game. Both quick play and competitive modes will, by default, incorporate role queue. You’ll queue up for matches based on whether you want to play tank, damage, or support, and in the case of competitive, you’ll have a separate skill rating…

Role-Locking Is Coming To Overwatch, According To Leaked Video [UPDATE]

Today, a pre-recorded Overwatch League video leaked sharing news that Blizzard is apparently implementing role-locking in Overwatch and the Overwatch League. [Update—4:45 pm ET]: Overwatch’s game director Jeff Kaplan confirmed that players will now queue for specific roles in Overwatch games, too. Starting soon, all team compositions in the Overwatch League will consist of two…

Hasbro’s New Overwatch Figure Shows Off Reinhardt’s Pretty Face

Out of all the characters recreated in plastic for Hasbro’s first wave of Overwatch action figures, the hands-down, hammers-up best is the super-sized Reinhardt with his gorgeous mech suit and dinner plate-sized shield. The only way it could be better would be if we could see the old man’s pretty face. Oh hi there, San…

The Internet Reacts To Hanzo’s Abtacular Summer Skin

We’re once again in the midst of summer’s steamiest months, and you know what that means: Blizzard has made yet another Overwatch character hot. Also, Lucioball is back for the fourth year in a row. Between those two things, it’s unsurprising that it’s Hanzo “Hotzo” Shimada who’s the talk of the balmy beach town right…

Overwatch League is officially leaving Los Angeles next year. Well, for the most part. Season three will consist of 52 “homestand weekend events” at venues in teams’ home cities. Teams will be split into four divisions based on relative travel distance between their locations. All games will take place on weekends, as opposed to Thursday, Friday,…

2018’s Worst Overwatch League Team Just Won A Championship

Around this time last year, the professional Overwatch team Shanghai Dragons had just finished up a history-making 0-40 season. At the time, nobody would have expected that just one year later they’d be leaving the league’s top three teams in a heap of black-and-blue bodies on the ground. Maybe they should change their name to…

Overwatch Cheaters Are About To Get Games Automatically Shut Down

Blizzard is currently testing a new and interesting way of dealing with cheaters in an Overwatch match: whenever cheating is detected, they’ll just automatically shut the game down, no questions asked. They call it the “next evolution of cheat detection” in the game. Normally that would suck, because everyone else would be punished for one…

Custom Controller Lets You Rage-Quit By Literally Pouring Salt

A very wise man who wore a hood and whose skin was practically melting off his bones once said, “Good! Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you.” Probably, he was talking to a gamer about video games. Competitive games make people mad. There’s no getting around it, so you might as…

Role-Locking Could Resuscitate The Overwatch League

“Can I say anything I want?” asked Jong-ryeol “Saebyeolbe” Park after a particularly satisfying victory for his Overwatch League team, the New York Excelsior, last year. His translator nodded. Park’s eyes lit up. “I’m the best Tracer in the world.” He stuck his tongue out. Park was referring to the Overwatch hero Tracer, a zippy…