Overwatch

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…

Check Out This Hot New Lego Overwatch Trash

Lego’s first round of Overwatch sets were nice, but they left out a few key characters. Two new sets due out in October fix three of these oversights, adding Junkrat, Roadhog and everybody’s favorite hamster mech pilot Hammond to the mix. 227 plastic pieces can be arranged to form Hammond and his signature ride, a…

Overwatch vs Team Fortress 2, A Battle To The Death

Overwatch’s rivalry with Team Fortress 2 is about to be settled once and for all, not the on the battlefield, but on a battlefield in Source Filmmaker. This was made by animator The Winglet, and is truly something. I’m years past getting any of the TF2 jokes, for example, and still found the whole thing…

Overwatch just kicked off a new themed challenge event, this one focused on combat medic Baptiste. Inspired by the “What You Left Behind” short story Blizzard released yesterday, the Reunion Challenge offers new Baptiste cosmetics—including a special skin—to players who win games from June 18 to July 1. You can also unlock additional cosmetics by…

South Korean Overwatch League Broadcast Apparently Omits Pride Day Festivities

If you tuned into the Overwatch League’s Friday games, you probably saw dozens of esports fans decked out in rainbow garb or flashing LGBTQ-themed signs as soon as the camera turned their way. It was Pride Day for the Overwatch League—a day that Overwatch publisher Blizzard put on for fans to “come together for diversity and…

Overwatch Workshop’s Most Popular Mode Is The Card Game Uno

The Overwatch Workshop, which allows players to create new modes with robust tools and rudimentary programming, has given rise to all sorts of unexpected oddities: a Smash Bros. clone, airplane races, portal guns, Mercy reinventions, and heaps more. The most popular mode of all, though? Uno. Yep, the card game. This information comes straight from…

Recreation Of Smash Bros. In Overwatch Is Shockingly Accurate

If I was a betting man, I’d put my entire accumulated fortune of [single, chirping cricket inside a wallet] on the idea that there have been several very serious conversations inside Blizzard about the idea of a Smash Bros.-like fighting game starring Overwatch characters. In the meantime, one fan has made that idea a reality.…

Feedback Makes Me A Better Gamer–When You’re Not An Asshole

I’ve begun to think of my weekly, local Super Smash Bros. tournament as a sort of doctor’s appointment for my ego. Regulars tell me that it’s normal to just win one or two games at these things, yet selection bias mandates that the people who attend a lot tend to be confident that they’re really,…

Overwatch League Commissioner Leaves Blizzard For Epic

The Overwatch League’s founding commissioner, Nate Nanzer, announced on Friday night that he is leaving one of the most-hyped pro esports leagues in the world. The news was first broken by ESPN, which reported that Nanzer is leaving the league for the team-based shooter to join Epic Games to work on competitive Fortnite “This has…