Overwatch

Cecilia and Heather are testing out Overwatch’s new hero, the mech-driving hamster Wrecking Ball right now on YouTube Live!

Overwatch‘s Latest Hero Is Wrecking Ball, A Hamster In A Mech [Update]

It looks like Overwatch’s newest hero might be who—but not what—we thought. Fans speculated that the first-person shooter’s 28th hero could be Hammond, a monkey companion to the genetically-engineered gorilla Winston. So it came as a surprise that Overwatch just released Hammond the hamster, who goes by “Wrecking Ball,” onto the game’s public test realm…

Sounds like Sombra will be the next Overwatch character to receive major changes. In a forum post, lead designer Geoff Goodman said that her stealth and translocator will soon have infinite duration, but stealthed movement speed will take a hit, and she won’t be able to cap points while invisible. Still, quite a buff!

Overwatch’s Trolls Are Losing

Overwatch players needed something to incentivize good sportsmanship and, yesterday, they got it. Blizzard’s latest Overwatch patch is toning down the hierarchy of skill and introducing a hierarchy of decency. It’s a masterstroke of features, all interacting to reward civility and cleanse the game of antisocial behavior. At its heart is a new “endorsement” system…

Overwatch Players Have Made Their Own Ways To Celebrate Pride Month

Even though Overwatch’s mascot character is an out lesbian, the game didn’t offer any Pride-themed events or costumes this month. So players have found their own ways to celebrate. When Blizzard released a holiday comic that showed the Overwatch mascot character, Tracer, celebrating Christmas with her girlfriend, fans were ecstatic. They’d already been writing fic…

Overwatch’s long-awaited Symmetra overhaul is now live. The game’s latest patch, which spent most of this month in testing on the PC PTR, also includes new social features like a looking for group tool and a slew of balance tweaks.

Overwatch Cosplay Puts The Guns Down For A Second

Team Paraluna are a pair of cosplayers from the Netherlands who are responsible for these terrific Overwatch costumes. There’s so much detail here. Witch Mercy’s garments are airbrushed to look worn, while her book was hand-made with actual pages (as in, it’s not just a block of wood or foam). Dragon Symmetra, meanwhile, has a…

Realm Royale Mixes Wizards And Warriors With Fortnite

When hero shooter Paladins announced a battle royale mode, it felt a bit like a tacked on extra to a game struggling for identity. That battle royale mode has transformed into a standalone game, Realm Royale. While it’s still in alpha and rough around the edges, Realm Royale has a few good ideas that could…

How Pro Gamers Live Now: Curfews, Personal Chefs, And All Of It On Camera

Every day is Christmas at the Philadelphia Fusion esports mansion. The team’s marketing and content director Hung Tran gestured to the towering decorated pine tree to the right of the front door by way of explaining the joke: the pro gamers who live here get whatever they want and do whatever they want. But Christmas…

Top Overwatch Players Fall For The Oldest Trick In The Book

It didn’t make any sense. “What are they doing, dude?” asked Houston Outlaws tank Austin “Muma” Wilmot as the other team, made up of top-ranked players including LA Gladiators tank Chan-hyung “Fissure” Baek, repeatedly crashed against the holo-shield walls of a relatively lackadaisical defense. Then it hit him: Where’d the payload go? Fellow Houston Outlaws…

Doom Cosplay Is The Real Deal

Yes, that’s cosplay. This is Aussie cosplayerScrap Shop Props with a 1:1 Doom Space Marine, which just won best in show at the Supanova expo in Sydney. If that’s not enough, he’s also responsible for one of the biggest and best Reinhardts I’ve ever seen, that comes complete with a jet engine effect at the…

Overwatch League Team Completes Glorious 0-40 Season, Is Possibly Shittiest Pro Sports Team In World History

The first 12 team slots in the Overwatch League cost, reportedly, $20 million each. This was mostly because at least a dozen rich people were willing to give that much money to Blizzard, but was also at least in part to avoid situations like the ongoing disgrace that is the Miami Marlins, where a cash-poor…

You’re saying Brigitte’s name wrong. Fortunately, the voice of Overwatch’s most recently added hero, Matilda Smedius, is here to correct you. Watch (and listen) and learn.

Symmetra Turret Launched From Space

Today on Highlight Reel we have Reworked Symmetra strategies, Vampyr glitches, bike flips, and much more Watch the video then talk about your favorite highlight in the comments below. Be sure to check out, like, and share the original videos via the links below. Subscribe to Kotaku on YouTube for more! Catch up on all…

It’s Hard To Look Away From The Overwatch League’s 0-37 Team

After last night, the Shanghai Dragons are 0-37 in the Overwatch League. That’s longer than any losing streak in the history of the big four North American pro sports—worse than the 1976-77 Bucs and Process Sixers losing 26 and 28 games over two seasons. Worse than the Louisville Colonels losing 26 straight in 1889. They…

Overwatch Fans Are Swooning Over Symmetra’s New Voice Lines

Symmetra’s rework has been blowing Overwatch players’ minds. For some fans, their favorite part are her new voice lines. Today, numerous changes to Symmetra went live on PTR, including her new ultimate. This attack will create an enormous shield that cuts across the map, lasts for 15 seconds, and has 5,000 HP. It’s totally wild.…

Zoning In Overwatch Can Actually Work

Who among us has not insisted that we were “zoning” after spending an ultimate attack in Overwatch that didn’t hit anyone on the other team? Of course it was your intention all along to scatter the other team away from the area—actually killing them is for meatheads. We’re refined gamers, just like DPS/flex player Hae-seong…

Here’s What Symmetra’s Rework Looks Like Right Now In Overwatch

The much-anticipated rework for Overwatch’s Symmetra is on the game’s test server, and it’s already clear that Overwatch will look pretty different when it’s released in full. As one of the most exhaustive hero reworks yet, Symmetra’s new toolkit is significantly more tactical. And, finally, developer Blizzard reclassified Symmetra as a defense hero, not a…

Overwatch Is Getting A Looking For Group Tool

For pretty much the entirety of Overwatch’s two-year existence, players have been clamoring for a role queue or some other way to simplify character selection. Now Blizzard’s taking a stab at doing something about it. Game director Jeff Kaplan, Our Hallowed Gamefather, announced a series of new social features that’ll be released as part of…

Deaf Overwatch League Fan Comes Up With Custom Signs For Heroes

In Overwatch, sound is key. Aural cues tell you when enemies and allies are using their ultimates, and (good) teams regularly coordinate over voice chat. For deaf fans, those are some pretty big hurdles to get over whether they’re playing or watching. 14-year-old Danik Soudakoff is a deaf Overwatch League fan who was recently spotlighted…