Overwatch

There Are No Necessary Picks In Overwatch Anymore

“RIP Mercy,” Overwatch players mumbled after the game’s main healer suffered a big nerf on Tuesday. It was a long-coming but controversial change that made the game’s essential hero no longer so. It also sent a firm message to Overwatch’s players—one that the recently-launched Overwatch League is hammering in with each pro match: No hero…

Overwatch Voice Actors Try, And Fail, To Name Every Hero In The Game Under Pressure

The test here, conducted by D Piddy at SacAnime a few weeks back, was simple: name all 26 Overwatch heroes. And do it in 20 seconds or less. A bunch of cosplayers present at the show were asked, but also many of the game’s voice actors, including Anjali Bhimani (Symmetra), Elise Zhang (Mei), Crispin Freeman…

People Are Putting Video Game Faces On Real Porn, The End Is Nigh [UPDATE]

Fake porn has been around since time immemorial, but recent months have seen the practice take an unsettling leap forward thanks to AI-based video technology that allows people to easily map other people’s faces onto bodies that aren’t their own. Now video game characters’ faces are getting stitched onto IRL bodies as well. Warning: the…

Blizzard Nerfs Mercy’s Rez

After weeks on Overwatch’s public test realm, Blizzard’s big Mercy nerf has gone live. The controversial set of changes centers around the effect Mercy’s ult, Valkyrie, had on her resurrect ability. Previously, Valkyrie took away resurrect’s cast time. Now it doesn’t. It also granted a bonus resurrect. It doesn’t do that anymore either. In addition,…

I Think I Understand Sports Fans Now

Two winters ago, a high school pal whom I hadn’t seen in several years while he served in Afghanistan was back in New York, and, en route to a night of reconnecting over bowls of warm ramen, he abruptly ruined everything with a suggestion: Let’s go to a sports bar around the corner and watch…

Princess Peach, Protecting The Payload

Look, if Nintendo can work with Ubisoft, they can work with Blizzard. Art by Antonio Demico.

Finally, Upsets Are Happening In Overwatch League

For its first two weeks, Overwatch League settled into a predictable rhythm: top-tier teams Seoul Dynasty, New York Excelsior, and London Spitfire sat perched atop their perfect records while everybody else squabbled for scraps beneath the table. At the end of last week, those three teams were at a combined 12-0. This week, that tide…

Link Gets A Hole-In-One

Today on Highlight Reel we have flying ships, flying rocks, flying cars, 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 the…

Blizzard Is Now Monitoring YouTube For Toxic Overwatch Players

Overwatch, a team-based shooter about working together, isn’t always the friendliest of places. From random quitters to that one guy who won’t stop calling me a cuck, players often find ways to be toxic. To combat the issue, Blizzard is now banning players misbehaving on social media. In a developer update video yesterday, the game’s…

Fifth Maps In Pro Overwatch Are Good As Hell

Overwatch League matches are played across four maps, and usually, the result is a win or loss in those four maps. More often than not it’s a 4-0 sweep, or a decisive 3-1. You can even tie on certain maps, leading to score lines like week 1’s Dallas v. Seoul game that ended 2-1. But…

Fan Of Overwatch League’s Worst Team Buys $100 Of Skins After Losing Bet

Overwatch League’s first season is only a few weeks old, but already, a pecking order has begun to form. At the top, there’s Seoul Dynasty, the dynamite Korean roster that hasn’t lost a single match. Way down at the bottom, meanwhile, are the Shanghai Dragons, who have been grinding their wrists and keyboards into powder…

Overwatch Pro Flips Bird When He Thought No One Was Watching

Last night, London Spitfire DPS player Joon-yeong “Profit” Park shot a middle finger at the camera right after he got brought out as a substitution in the team’s second game against SF Shock. But Profit didn’t think anybody would see it. Update: Profit has issued a fantastic apology. Enjoy it below. Stylosa, who serves as…

Overwatch League Commissioner Just Hasn’t ‘Gotten Around’ To Posting Code Of Conduct

Overwatch League has a code of conduct, but no, you can’t see it, at least not until league commissioner Nate Nanzer gets around to putting it online, which he still hasn’t done two weeks into the league’s inaugural season. “We just haven’t gotten around to it,” Nanzer told the Telegraph. “I don’t know the exact…

Racist Jokes Keep Showing Up In Overwatch League Broadcasts

On the opening night of Overwatch League, a Dallas Fuel fan at the Blizzard Arena hoisted a sign with the alt-right meme frog Pepe on it, and had it confiscated by event staff before the night was over. But that was only the first meme with racist associations to worm its way adjacent to Blizzard’s…

With Overwatch’s newest map “Blizzard World” comes some shiny new skins. Cecilia and I take a look at them and take the new map out for a spin. The new map is live now for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Check it out in the video above.

Spawn Camped Overwatch Player Sneaks Away, Wins Match

Overwatch’s quick play mode can be the pits, especially when your team is hopelessly outmatched. Sometimes the other team rolls you so hard that you end up stuck in spawn, barely even able to play the game, let alone win. Faced with such a situation, one player took matters into their own hands. After a…

Despite Its Glamour, Overwatch‘s Latest Map Feels Familiar

Today, Blizzard dropped Overwatch’s latest map, a literal carnival of Blizzard references. “Blizzard World” is a theme park about Hearthstone, Starcraft, Heroes of the Storm and Warcraft. Playing it feels a lot like being invited to loud, garish party that you leave feeling just okay. Putting aside cute easter eggs, like a spawn point designed…

The Internet Reacts To D.va’s New Skin

Blizzard is dropping a ton of new skins and a new map for Overwatch today, but D.va’s new cat-themed skin has already captured the internet’s heart. D.va already has a lot of great skins, but hey, I’m not complaining. I mean, her mech has a tail on it now! That’s worth the price of admission.…

Widowmaker Player Is Ice Cold

Today on Highlight Reel we have snipers without mercy, D&D cheaters, World War 1 tactics 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…

South Korean Overwatch Team Lunatic-Hai Disbands

Lunatic-Hai announced yesterday that it would be disbanding and leaving the Overwatch competitive scene. In a statement (h/t InvenGlobal) the team says it was “difficult to face the radical changes within and outside Overwatch.” “We couldn’t be certain of consistent investment for the organization and the business,” wrote director Tae-Su Kim. “And we couldn’t bring…