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The industry has changed, the money is in online MP these days. If they sat around making "LAN games" they'd be out of business.
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New Blizzard FPS, Overwatch
- Thread starter soulesschild
- Start date
I_remember_when_pop_was_a_nickel.jpg
The industry has changed, the money is in online MP these days. If they sat around making "LAN games" they'd be out of business.
FPS just isnt my scene. I used to like doom back in the day and I think the difference was you didnt die so easily.
Sadly tho the majority of next gen AAA stuff is FPS, even GTA5 is adding a FPS mode.
RanceJustice
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Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed that this wasn't, as originaally intended, basically a "battleground" from the MMO known as Titan. Aside from that..
For the game type itself, it seems a little bit simplistic. Its essentially a Team Fortress 2 style of match-based game. Now, I have to admit that TF2 itself (and even others like Monday Night Combat) added new stuff over the years, including PvE cooperative content etc...which I'd very much like to see on Overwatch. Likewise, I'd rather see more inspiration from say... Natural Selection 2 and Killing Floor 2 to make a more complex "commander + officers + footsoldier" strategic feel with upgreades, campaigns etc.. , rather than just "Capture the point again. Escort the widget again". It remains to see how this develops.
That said, after playing Hearthstone and perhaps most importantly Heroes of the Storm, I feel a lot more confident that I will enjoy Overwatch more than many of the other games of its type. Blizz knew how to polish and better the DOTA/HON/LoL style MOBA title for instance, and if they do the same for the cooperative team shooter, that will be great. The characters for instance seem to have well thought out and interesting abilities and hopefully the mechanics will be innovative as well.
In terms of the overall design, story, and characters I liked it - yes, its "cartoonish" but its a good aesthetic. They are creating new and interesting lore for the characters, the designs themselves are neat, everything seems well animated etc.. and without saying too much on the topic, this is a hugely "diverse" game so hopefully there will be less for "those certain people who tend to claim every portrayal of game characters are wrong" to harp upon. Though sadly, I've already seen opposition from this camp. The cinematic trailer was well done and we have to keep in mind we haven't yet seen all the "first" playable characters introduced - the "Cowboy hat gunslinger", "Cyber Ninja", "Huge guy with a beer belly, gasmask", "Black dude with dreadlocks", "Long-coat wearing clean-cut fellow who was shown as a statue" etc... all are yet to appear officially. Some of them are even present on the official character wallpaper on the site, but with no further information. Oh, as a side benefit, it will be neat to see Overwatch characters make it to Heroes of the Storm, as a new Blizzard property.
Finally, my biggest concern here as always is monetization. Clearly for the gametype they will be unlikely to require players to buy the characters themselves. Unless they did the really cool thing and made it a *gasp* buy to play title, this means they'll have to sell cosmetics and or possible alternative weapons and whatnot. I have to admit I hope they at least make it less troublesome and confusing than Team Fortress 2 For someone who hasn't been playing since the beginning, the Team Fortress (and truly, DOTA) style "buy keys, buy boxes, get items of different rarities, craft them, special drop here, pay more for this there etc" seems overly complex and at time exceptionally expensive. I'm still not sure that Heroes of the Storm has it exactly right; I don't like how many skins are $9 or more, not to mention just unlocking every individual character is going to be costly or take a ton of grinding. So I'll be wary looking at how Overwatch announces the monetization.
Ultimately, I'm cautiously optimistic. Maybe it won't be the kind of game I'd spend hours upon hours playing, the way I had hoped it would be if it was more MMO-like (imagine Titan as a Destiny + Firefall + Overwatch as we know it now), but I'm guessing it will be fun. I can just hope they monetize it correctly and expand the gameplay WAY beyond simple capture-point and escort maps.
For the game type itself, it seems a little bit simplistic. Its essentially a Team Fortress 2 style of match-based game. Now, I have to admit that TF2 itself (and even others like Monday Night Combat) added new stuff over the years, including PvE cooperative content etc...which I'd very much like to see on Overwatch. Likewise, I'd rather see more inspiration from say... Natural Selection 2 and Killing Floor 2 to make a more complex "commander + officers + footsoldier" strategic feel with upgreades, campaigns etc.. , rather than just "Capture the point again. Escort the widget again". It remains to see how this develops.
That said, after playing Hearthstone and perhaps most importantly Heroes of the Storm, I feel a lot more confident that I will enjoy Overwatch more than many of the other games of its type. Blizz knew how to polish and better the DOTA/HON/LoL style MOBA title for instance, and if they do the same for the cooperative team shooter, that will be great. The characters for instance seem to have well thought out and interesting abilities and hopefully the mechanics will be innovative as well.
In terms of the overall design, story, and characters I liked it - yes, its "cartoonish" but its a good aesthetic. They are creating new and interesting lore for the characters, the designs themselves are neat, everything seems well animated etc.. and without saying too much on the topic, this is a hugely "diverse" game so hopefully there will be less for "those certain people who tend to claim every portrayal of game characters are wrong" to harp upon. Though sadly, I've already seen opposition from this camp. The cinematic trailer was well done and we have to keep in mind we haven't yet seen all the "first" playable characters introduced - the "Cowboy hat gunslinger", "Cyber Ninja", "Huge guy with a beer belly, gasmask", "Black dude with dreadlocks", "Long-coat wearing clean-cut fellow who was shown as a statue" etc... all are yet to appear officially. Some of them are even present on the official character wallpaper on the site, but with no further information. Oh, as a side benefit, it will be neat to see Overwatch characters make it to Heroes of the Storm, as a new Blizzard property.
Finally, my biggest concern here as always is monetization. Clearly for the gametype they will be unlikely to require players to buy the characters themselves. Unless they did the really cool thing and made it a *gasp* buy to play title, this means they'll have to sell cosmetics and or possible alternative weapons and whatnot. I have to admit I hope they at least make it less troublesome and confusing than Team Fortress 2 For someone who hasn't been playing since the beginning, the Team Fortress (and truly, DOTA) style "buy keys, buy boxes, get items of different rarities, craft them, special drop here, pay more for this there etc" seems overly complex and at time exceptionally expensive. I'm still not sure that Heroes of the Storm has it exactly right; I don't like how many skins are $9 or more, not to mention just unlocking every individual character is going to be costly or take a ton of grinding. So I'll be wary looking at how Overwatch announces the monetization.
Ultimately, I'm cautiously optimistic. Maybe it won't be the kind of game I'd spend hours upon hours playing, the way I had hoped it would be if it was more MMO-like (imagine Titan as a Destiny + Firefall + Overwatch as we know it now), but I'm guessing it will be fun. I can just hope they monetize it correctly and expand the gameplay WAY beyond simple capture-point and escort maps.
Bismo Funyuns
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What am I looking at, other than a typical false/embellished IGN headline? Titan was dropped, period. It didn't become Overwatch. Blizz said they used some ideas from Titan in Overwatch, that's it. Different groups within Blizz worked on these games, different project managers.
Anyway, WGAS I guess. I never really caught the TF2 bug, and disney MOBA here isn't vaulting me over the fascination threshold either. But it'll be unexplainably, mysteriously hugely popular as Blizzard titles tend to be, just like Hearthstone which seemed lackluster at first sight but turned into a juggernaut among a certain crowd.
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The CGI trailer was nice...that's about it though.
This is what Blizzard comes up with?
They canned a new mmo (Which a ton of people wanted/were looking forward to) and turned it into this....so disappointed.
I don't really like TF2, it got old after a while and the whole cartoony art style has worn me down.
I just wish they'd have tried something more diverse or unexpected.
I mean throw this game up against The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and other huge games on the horizon and it doesn't really offer that much.
This is what Blizzard comes up with?
They canned a new mmo (Which a ton of people wanted/were looking forward to) and turned it into this....so disappointed.
I don't really like TF2, it got old after a while and the whole cartoony art style has worn me down.
I just wish they'd have tried something more diverse or unexpected.
I mean throw this game up against The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and other huge games on the horizon and it doesn't really offer that much.
I agree to a degree, the trailer led us into something with a rich world and story then it turns into TF2 2.0... I enjoy TF2 and played it a lot until the item craziness upset the balance but it was and still is a great game.
I don't mind if someone tries to improve upon it but this looks like the same basic classes and abilities tweaked and pumped up not much improved that we have seen thus far. I'm interested but its way low on my list.
I would have preferred another MMO or Warcraft 4 (sans the hero's that ruined 3).
The PVP aspect of the cancelled MMO:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertc...s-overwatch-is-the-remnants-of-project-titan/
This game looks like TF2 crossed with Shadowrun! Shadowrun was probably the single best class/team based shooter I've played in ... well in maybe 10 years? I mean that too, it got a bad wrap due to the IP associated with it, but the core design and gameplay was rather ahead of its time and unparalleled.
Overwatched looks like Blizzard played Shadowrun, loved it and decided to make a game like it but better in every way. Sign me up.
edit. In regards to Overwatch being Titan or whatever, I can say with fair certainty that this is loosely aligned. I'll put this out there now since its been a few years, not sure if anyone recalls my posts about Titan back when. My dated contacts on the Blizzard dev team were Sr level software architects who were first brought into the Titan team during the framework design. Key-carded access to a room with less than 10 employees is how it started, and nobody there even knew what game they were building. They (select Sr engineers/architects) were given explicit guidelines as to what the framework for the game they were going to help create would require. Zero art assets or even initial game design were even in place at this time. Just 6-8 guys white-boarding core framework design for a game nobody had a vision for yet... mostly.
About 6-8 months of that went by before a then (small) crew of conceptual artists were brought in. Then the art team, and later a full blown dev team was working on "Titan". Around this time, I was given a little more information about the product. It was never a "new" IP, in fact .. that was a coy and a play on words that Blizzard put out there because they never really knew what IP this game would reside in. The early workings of Titan were set in a spin-off of the Starcraft universe. "World of Starcraft" so to speak, but nothing like WoW in typical MMO design. It tooks months for me to pry more information and when I did, I only got 2 words ...
Hellgate London
From there I assumed the game would be some kind of 3RD Person/1ST person shooter combo, instanced world shooter with RPG elements. Still mind you, all taking place in the Starcraft universe .. but with new characters, races etc... Then I heard about the game being scrapped, design and all. All work was killed. Later, that it was still alive and being "worked" on. Anyways, now that Overwatch is here and I look at it.. I personally surmise that ...
1. Overwatch is the scraps of part of Titan
2. Overwatch was a Starcraft game, and all the characters you see in it were reskinned/designed to be unique. Art assets were revamped to give the game an "un" SC look.
3. This took less than a year to achieve, because most of the work was already done.
I still feel like this game feels like a spiritual successor to Shadowrun. It has all the makings of a Shadowrun game bolted into something else. Everything I said above should be taken with a grain of salt because ... this is the internet, don't trust anyone and my source was a friend of a co-worker. I did however, meet and shake hands with the mystery "Sr Architect" on several occasions.. that much is 100% true.
double edit. Come to think of it, thinking way back ... when I was told this game was set in the "Starcraft" universe that was never said that way. When I asked about which existing IP, I was told (paraphrase) "could be any, really". Looking at some of the Overwatch assets as they are today, it almost seems as if there are pieces of Warcraft, Starcraft and maybe even Diablo in the character design. Who knows, wild guess but maybe the game even started out as a "multi-IP" based shooter that characters from many worlds in it.
I mean, look at this image and tell me you don't see angels, demons, mech tech, dwarves, humans, a monk or even robots with pointy ears??
Overwatched looks like Blizzard played Shadowrun, loved it and decided to make a game like it but better in every way. Sign me up.
edit. In regards to Overwatch being Titan or whatever, I can say with fair certainty that this is loosely aligned. I'll put this out there now since its been a few years, not sure if anyone recalls my posts about Titan back when. My dated contacts on the Blizzard dev team were Sr level software architects who were first brought into the Titan team during the framework design. Key-carded access to a room with less than 10 employees is how it started, and nobody there even knew what game they were building. They (select Sr engineers/architects) were given explicit guidelines as to what the framework for the game they were going to help create would require. Zero art assets or even initial game design were even in place at this time. Just 6-8 guys white-boarding core framework design for a game nobody had a vision for yet... mostly.
About 6-8 months of that went by before a then (small) crew of conceptual artists were brought in. Then the art team, and later a full blown dev team was working on "Titan". Around this time, I was given a little more information about the product. It was never a "new" IP, in fact .. that was a coy and a play on words that Blizzard put out there because they never really knew what IP this game would reside in. The early workings of Titan were set in a spin-off of the Starcraft universe. "World of Starcraft" so to speak, but nothing like WoW in typical MMO design. It tooks months for me to pry more information and when I did, I only got 2 words ...
Hellgate London
From there I assumed the game would be some kind of 3RD Person/1ST person shooter combo, instanced world shooter with RPG elements. Still mind you, all taking place in the Starcraft universe .. but with new characters, races etc... Then I heard about the game being scrapped, design and all. All work was killed. Later, that it was still alive and being "worked" on. Anyways, now that Overwatch is here and I look at it.. I personally surmise that ...
1. Overwatch is the scraps of part of Titan
2. Overwatch was a Starcraft game, and all the characters you see in it were reskinned/designed to be unique. Art assets were revamped to give the game an "un" SC look.
3. This took less than a year to achieve, because most of the work was already done.
I still feel like this game feels like a spiritual successor to Shadowrun. It has all the makings of a Shadowrun game bolted into something else. Everything I said above should be taken with a grain of salt because ... this is the internet, don't trust anyone and my source was a friend of a co-worker. I did however, meet and shake hands with the mystery "Sr Architect" on several occasions.. that much is 100% true.
double edit. Come to think of it, thinking way back ... when I was told this game was set in the "Starcraft" universe that was never said that way. When I asked about which existing IP, I was told (paraphrase) "could be any, really". Looking at some of the Overwatch assets as they are today, it almost seems as if there are pieces of Warcraft, Starcraft and maybe even Diablo in the character design. Who knows, wild guess but maybe the game even started out as a "multi-IP" based shooter that characters from many worlds in it.
I mean, look at this image and tell me you don't see angels, demons, mech tech, dwarves, humans, a monk or even robots with pointy ears??
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Cyberpunk 2077 will be the game that forces me to buy a new PC...it just screams 'look at me, I'm different'
limitedaccess
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The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 are likely single player (well not much info on Cyberpunk 2077 yet other than setting) only games. Doesn't really seem like comparable games.
When is this likely coming out? More direct competitors/comparisons would be things like Evolve, Battlefield: Hardline, Battlefield 5?, CoD ??, and Unreal Tournament. Now since people have tried Evolve and Hardline alphas, not exactly some sort of amazing earth shattering experience yet from those.
Is Heroes of the Storm going to be released in the same time frame basically? Since isn't that still in beta as well.
Not necessarily a bad thing. Personally there's a lot of aspects of actual PvP in a MMO context which I don't really like, particularly nowadays, such as the grinding time/advantage correlation.
When is this likely coming out? More direct competitors/comparisons would be things like Evolve, Battlefield: Hardline, Battlefield 5?, CoD ??, and Unreal Tournament. Now since people have tried Evolve and Hardline alphas, not exactly some sort of amazing earth shattering experience yet from those.
Is Heroes of the Storm going to be released in the same time frame basically? Since isn't that still in beta as well.
Not necessarily a bad thing. Personally there's a lot of aspects of actual PvP in a MMO context which I don't really like, particularly nowadays, such as the grinding time/advantage correlation.
HardUp4HardWare
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totally.
Yakk
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I'll give it a try, gameplay will tell me if I'll continue playing it, or not.
Comixbooks
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Looks decent more realistic then the Valve version yet animated pretty fluid like.
Looks like a updated Unreal tournament.
Looks like a updated Unreal tournament.
What ever happened to that Titan game they were working on for years? When is that one coming out?
This Overwatch game looks just like Team Fortress 2.
limitedaccess
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It's discussed in this thread and on this page...
not sure why people are getting a TF2 vibe from Overwatch
TF2 is a very shooter based FPS
while to me, Overwatch is a very MOBA-like skill based FPS game
in the different Overwatch character videos, there are many characters with skills that do not require any FPS skill at all
TF2 is a very shooter based FPS
while to me, Overwatch is a very MOBA-like skill based FPS game
in the different Overwatch character videos, there are many characters with skills that do not require any FPS skill at all
limitedaccess
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Demographics.
You tend to associate with what you are most familiar with. These forums, and I'd say tech oriented communities in general, tend to skew towards FPS games.
Zangmonkey
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In what way, whatsoever, is Overwatch at all like warcraft?
Is it because Tornbjorn is dwarf-like?
The art style is so clearly not Warcraft that the comparisons are ridiculous.
The lead artist, Arnold Tsang, came from comic and Capcom art and very clearly brought Asian Capcom art with him.
Is it because Tornbjorn is dwarf-like?
The art style is so clearly not Warcraft that the comparisons are ridiculous.
The lead artist, Arnold Tsang, came from comic and Capcom art and very clearly brought Asian Capcom art with him.
very astute observation
bloodhawke83
I Strike Fear into the Hearts of the Masses
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lots of people will play it when, they offer items for WOW if you play x for y. just like they did with Hearthstone.
But there are still plenty that are pure shooters though, but yes its nice that they have some classes that are primarily healers or engineers though. IMO that doesn't detract from anything.
Regarding the shooters, I like the Japanese guy with the bow and arrow. I believe this will be one of the most skill based at first glance, as the arrow has a trajectory so you have to aim higher or lower based on distance, it appears draw time matters for max strength vs fatigue holding too long so there's some delay in shooting, and the arrows bounce off the terrain to allow for trick shots like in pool if you understand basic trigonometry.
I'm excited to try it out at the very least.
Bismo Funyuns
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For me this seems most similar to Battlecry. The art style of Battlecry looks more appealing, sort of TF2 crossed with Dishonored, but the gameplay videos for the Overwatch classes look like a lot of fun. There seem to be more diverse abilities and gameplay features with Overwatch.
this post sums up how i feel.
blizzard has lost all originality
first heroes of the storm and now this. a compete rip off of tf2.
i watched this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXjvFFw0CPc
and i hate how they talk about the game mode like its something completely new and has never been seen before.
i thought i lost all the respect i could for blizzard after d3's launch.
guess i was wrong.
Breath_of_the_Dying
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In the Blizzcon opening panel for overwatch, Jeff Kaplan (Game Director for WoW for many years and now Game Director for Overwatch) explained many many reasons why they chose certain things, none of them were "technical limitations."
Why 6v6?
They tested smaller and larger sizes, and 6s felt like the sweet spot with making you feel like you're contributing as a team (diminishes as size gets larger) and doesnt put too much stress on you to perform at the pro level just to keep up with the team (individual stress goes up with smaller team sizes). This isnt the magic number for every shooter, but with the game they have it was their sweet spot. When I first tried it, 6v6 seems pretty chaotic, but as people started learning characters, I felt like I was significantly contributing to the team, but the entire game didnt rest on my shoulders to win for them. Six is a good number, it feels awkward at first, but a few games you really start seeing how Heroes synergize with each other.
Why no experience (like a MOBA)?
He said they tried this in internal builds, and it just wasnt fun. There is more fun in switching classes as the match evolves (heavy defense, siege breakers, ect).
Why no deathmatch?
The same reason Heroes has shared exp, they want to focus on the team experience and objectives than just straight up killing each other. Deathmatch basically means it becomes a twitch shooter, and the victor goes to who is best at lining up their shots on their enemies. There are enough games like that in the FPS genre. Objective based matches reward teamwork, as opposed to just trying to do your best individually and raging when your teammates suck.
Why not a twitch shooter?
One word, Accessibility. This is representative in all Blizzard games. People make the assumption that lower barrier of entry leads to a lower skill cap in the game. This is very wrong. The best games are the ones that are easy to learn, and hard to master. A good team in Overwatch can easily beat a team of pro snipers if the snipers arent working together. They want to allow more people to play and contribute in each match in more ways than headshots. Veteran FPS players will enjoy it too, there is a sniper hero, and some quick up close and personal heroes as well, but that is just one aspect of the game.
I played it, and really liked it. The game felt good. It's hard to explain, but I felt more like I was the character and looking around, than moving my mouse to aim at my enemies. I mostly played the Widowmaker (the sniper), but I did switch it up when tanks were running in with shields (one of multiple counters to snipers).
Some things that may or may not have been discussed
Their website gives good backstory on each of the 12 shown heroes, as well as videos/writeups of each of their abilities.
http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/
Why 6v6?
They tested smaller and larger sizes, and 6s felt like the sweet spot with making you feel like you're contributing as a team (diminishes as size gets larger) and doesnt put too much stress on you to perform at the pro level just to keep up with the team (individual stress goes up with smaller team sizes). This isnt the magic number for every shooter, but with the game they have it was their sweet spot. When I first tried it, 6v6 seems pretty chaotic, but as people started learning characters, I felt like I was significantly contributing to the team, but the entire game didnt rest on my shoulders to win for them. Six is a good number, it feels awkward at first, but a few games you really start seeing how Heroes synergize with each other.
Why no experience (like a MOBA)?
He said they tried this in internal builds, and it just wasnt fun. There is more fun in switching classes as the match evolves (heavy defense, siege breakers, ect).
Why no deathmatch?
The same reason Heroes has shared exp, they want to focus on the team experience and objectives than just straight up killing each other. Deathmatch basically means it becomes a twitch shooter, and the victor goes to who is best at lining up their shots on their enemies. There are enough games like that in the FPS genre. Objective based matches reward teamwork, as opposed to just trying to do your best individually and raging when your teammates suck.
Why not a twitch shooter?
One word, Accessibility. This is representative in all Blizzard games. People make the assumption that lower barrier of entry leads to a lower skill cap in the game. This is very wrong. The best games are the ones that are easy to learn, and hard to master. A good team in Overwatch can easily beat a team of pro snipers if the snipers arent working together. They want to allow more people to play and contribute in each match in more ways than headshots. Veteran FPS players will enjoy it too, there is a sniper hero, and some quick up close and personal heroes as well, but that is just one aspect of the game.
I played it, and really liked it. The game felt good. It's hard to explain, but I felt more like I was the character and looking around, than moving my mouse to aim at my enemies. I mostly played the Widowmaker (the sniper), but I did switch it up when tanks were running in with shields (one of multiple counters to snipers).
Some things that may or may not have been discussed
- You can switch heroes any time you're in the spawn point. It's heavily encouraged. If you're not changing heroes to adjust to the enemy strategy, you're doing it wrong.
- If you're simply strafing back and forth between cover to shoot, you're doing it wrong. This is why this game does have a MOBA-like feel to it, timing of abilities is very important, arguably more so than pure shot accuracy.
- On the same lines of ability timing, each hero has a single unique ultimate, and well timed Ultimate can change the tide of the battle. Team wide res, invulnerability while healing, laying down teleporters, and team-wide infrared vision are a few of the ultimate you have access to.
- Hero abilities really synergize with each other. I cant wait to see some 2 or 3 person ability combo strategies that people will come up with.
- There were 12 playable heroes at Blizzcon, 2-4 of each of the for loosely categorized roles: offense, defense, support, and tank. They were all very unique, and just scratched the surface of upcoming heroes. You can already spot a number of heroes in the cinematic.
- There are no different loadouts per heroes, it just lowers accessibility and adds an arbitrary layer of depth that isnt needed in the game. Each character has a small and static list of abilities, if you want other abilities choose another character.
- Its not new, like WoW was never new. It's taking what is fun in a genre and focusing on those fun aspects first and foremost.
- Blizzard stated that this new IP is just the start to a new universe. They are working hard to make each hero have a backstory, and will release a lot of media (something like WoD lords of war) to set the stage of overwatch. Wow started with Warcraft 1, and Overwatch is like the Warcraft 1 of a new IP.
Their website gives good backstory on each of the 12 shown heroes, as well as videos/writeups of each of their abilities.
http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/
Bismo Funyuns
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That's too bad, team deathmatch is my favorite mode for this type of game.
Somehow it seems Blizzard wants to keep tight reins on this one, I get the impression they will not likely open the game up for unofficial private servers, community-created maps, mods, etc., the way Valve has done with TF2.
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But there are still plenty that are pure shooters though, but yes its nice that they have some classes that are primarily healers or engineers though. IMO that doesn't detract from anything.
Regarding the shooters, I like the Japanese guy with the bow and arrow. I believe this will be one of the most skill based at first glance, as the arrow has a trajectory so you have to aim higher or lower based on distance, it appears draw time matters for max strength vs fatigue holding too long so there's some delay in shooting, and the arrows bounce off the terrain to allow for trick shots like in pool if you understand basic trigonometry.
I'm excited to try it out at the very least.
Haha, my impression was the opposite: "oh no, it looks like a TF2 Scout using a huntsman" - the weapon Valve added to TF2 to 'help' players that weren't skilled enough to use the sniper rifle (the game is rife with such weapons now).
It's one thing to say it's a team game but another to say it's "not a twitch shooter". To what degree are they minimizing the skill of aiming? If two teams are evenly matched and using good strategies then weapon proficiency is still going to be a factor (or at least it should be). The Reaper, for instance: the video shows him going into some sort of uber mode and killing everything in the room really fast...is that an auto-targeting ability or is the player required to actually do something besides push a button?
Played TF2 for years so definitely interested in seeing what Blizz can do with a similar concept (competitive TF2 is generally 6v6 as well, if anyone isn't familiar). Signed up for the beta so we'll see.
Spoonmaster
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Thought it'd toss in my opinion despite the overall negative response in this thread.
Played it this weekend live at the convention, I found it to be very fun. No idea if it'll be balanced, but the polish is definitely there and I see myself sinking in at least a couple of hours playing the game with some friends.
Played it this weekend live at the convention, I found it to be very fun. No idea if it'll be balanced, but the polish is definitely there and I see myself sinking in at least a couple of hours playing the game with some friends.
aeonrevolution
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Yeah, I get the hate everyone has, and rightfully so. It isn't what I would've expected Blizz to pop out....but it looks to have potential. I'm looking at it from a purely competitive view. If things are balanced and the gunplay is improved a bit then the game might be cool.
I'm not excited about Overwatch, but I'd like to keep tabs on it for sure.
I'm not excited about Overwatch, but I'd like to keep tabs on it for sure.
Breath_of_the_Dying
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2007
- Messages
- 1,454
Oh being accurate will help, definitely, but it's not the end all be all of the game. You will die for sure, just not as often as you would playing a traditional twitch shooter.
Being the fastest quarterback in the league will help you be a good quarterback, but it alone doesnt put all the points on the board.
Being the most accurate sniper will help clear enemies, but it wont single handedly win a game.
I dont think there's an equivalent of that guy with a shotgun who goes 50 and 0 that just kind of ruins the game for everyone. Headshots dont insta-kill tanks and dont have the throughput to burn down shields effectively. They do one-hit head shot kill most other characters if they're not buffed or shielded.Shields can be pierced with energy attacks, so if the opposing team switches to multiple tanks, you could try burning through them with energy weapons.
Zenytta - along with energy weapons - can put a debuff which makes the target take extra damage.
Mercy - the healer - can also buff an ally's damage, which I believe will put tanks pretty close to 1-2 head shot damage range.
Torjborn has a really crappy gun, really only used in desperate situations. His strength lies in putting down a single turret that can be upgraded two levels with enough resources. The turret can be deadly when well placed.
Reaper's death blossom is auto target on everything as you use it, its his ultimate. It's very much like Valla's strafe in Heroes of the Storm. Just using in range will get you kills on the enemy. On the other hand, using it at the right time could break a choke defense that has set up multiple turrets and traps on. These ultimates give it the MOBA like feel.
This is still definitely a shooter, and accuracy is a part of it. All else equal, the better shot team will decisively win. But once you start embracing the abilities and team synergies, it becomes much more than who is the best shot. The better players will embrace the abilities and teamwork, rather than trying to kill everyone on their own. Its also not a rock paper scissors game, just possible strategies to counter enemies encounters you struggle with.
Jeff Kaplan said it himself, as his team got into rhythm playing the game night after night, he found that the utility abilities the support heroes bring is most often the reason why they won or lost. A well placed teleporter for an attacking team to get behind the enemy chokes or a good push with Transcendence to help keep everyone alive, can change the tide of the game. I played it at Blizzcon, and it was a blast.
I cant wait to host a 6v6 party with this, it will make for a great drinking game. At the end of the game there's a "best kill of the game" replay. Everyone that got killed in that replay, take a shot!
Being the fastest quarterback in the league will help you be a good quarterback, but it alone doesnt put all the points on the board.
Being the most accurate sniper will help clear enemies, but it wont single handedly win a game.
I dont think there's an equivalent of that guy with a shotgun who goes 50 and 0 that just kind of ruins the game for everyone. Headshots dont insta-kill tanks and dont have the throughput to burn down shields effectively. They do one-hit head shot kill most other characters if they're not buffed or shielded.Shields can be pierced with energy attacks, so if the opposing team switches to multiple tanks, you could try burning through them with energy weapons.
Zenytta - along with energy weapons - can put a debuff which makes the target take extra damage.
Mercy - the healer - can also buff an ally's damage, which I believe will put tanks pretty close to 1-2 head shot damage range.
Torjborn has a really crappy gun, really only used in desperate situations. His strength lies in putting down a single turret that can be upgraded two levels with enough resources. The turret can be deadly when well placed.
Reaper's death blossom is auto target on everything as you use it, its his ultimate. It's very much like Valla's strafe in Heroes of the Storm. Just using in range will get you kills on the enemy. On the other hand, using it at the right time could break a choke defense that has set up multiple turrets and traps on. These ultimates give it the MOBA like feel.
This is still definitely a shooter, and accuracy is a part of it. All else equal, the better shot team will decisively win. But once you start embracing the abilities and team synergies, it becomes much more than who is the best shot. The better players will embrace the abilities and teamwork, rather than trying to kill everyone on their own. Its also not a rock paper scissors game, just possible strategies to counter enemies encounters you struggle with.
Jeff Kaplan said it himself, as his team got into rhythm playing the game night after night, he found that the utility abilities the support heroes bring is most often the reason why they won or lost. A well placed teleporter for an attacking team to get behind the enemy chokes or a good push with Transcendence to help keep everyone alive, can change the tide of the game. I played it at Blizzcon, and it was a blast.
I cant wait to host a 6v6 party with this, it will make for a great drinking game. At the end of the game there's a "best kill of the game" replay. Everyone that got killed in that replay, take a shot!
So it's basically Blizzard's take on TF2, where they took the concept of the Medic's game-changing ubercharge/kritzkrieg mechanics and distributed one to each hero. It will certainly alleviate the issue of "no one wants to play Medic, we lose", which should make for interesting strategies. Other than that, everything you described above is basically a game of TF2.
Having stuff like the Reaper's ultimate in the game is anti-skill though, which is disappointing. It's one thing to get a large damage buff (TF2's Kritzkrieg, Quake's quad damage, etc.), but quite another to just have the game instagib everything for you without any skill required. Such "I win" abilities remove the element of skill not only for the user, but also for the opponents since there is literally nothing they can do; it's the FPS version of an enrage timer, haha. We'll see how the game evolves in beta I guess.
also don't forget how blizzard cancelled titan right after titanfall came out. looks like blizzard needs a new crack game to get people hooked on ever since the number of people playing WOW has dropped from 12 million to a measly 6.8 million.
jonneymendoza
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2004
- Messages
- 6,395
When will we see a WOW 2?
keep it up blizzard, your saving me alot of money on pc upgrades by releasing nothing of interest for a long ass time
they are loosing their touch and loosing their core teams, seems its easier for them to just copy other games and reskin them now, or pay another company to make them for them
they are loosing their touch and loosing their core teams, seems its easier for them to just copy other games and reskin them now, or pay another company to make them for them
never..mmo's are a dieing genre...well, at least the 'wow' model mmo....thats why they went with overwatch...people just don't have time to play games for 8 hours a day and run raids that take 4 hours..they want quick, fun, arena type matches that last 15 minutes
besides, there's plenty of F2P classic 'wow' clone mmo's out there to scratch the itch
i've stated before, WOW was a black swan event...no one could have predicted it...there won't be another one
limitedaccess
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- May 10, 2010
- Messages
- 7,594
I forget to mention that and Battleborn. At least Blizzard is being more unique and differentiating with the name
You might actually be referrering to Battleborn, its the one from Gearbox, Battlecry is the one from Bethesda (publisher).Fortnite might also be in the same category of up coming games.
Rainbow Six: Siege is more different but somewhat along the lines as well.
People keep bringing up the demise of WoW but I think some context is important here. WoW is of course past it's peak however it is still a massive source of revenue much higher than other MMORPGs.
There is very little guarantee of any new MMORPG from Blizzard at this point coming close to replicating WoW success, not just historically but just its present state.
i have a feeling Blizzard will avoid the MMO for a while, the majority of those subscribers will just move from Wow to new MMO so they invest time and money and keep the same people
i think most of those who got out of wow dont really want to go back, nor do they have time
i think most of those who got out of wow dont really want to go back, nor do they have time
Breath_of_the_Dying
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2007
- Messages
- 1,454
Titan or Destiny has nothing to do with the direction of Overwatch. "Titan" changed direction well over a year ago. Mike Morhime himself said that he's been playing it internally for 4-6 months. Even from Titanfall's March launch, it would be impossible to build a game based off a propitiatory engine in such a short time. The game is lacking content, it only had 12 playable characters and like 2-3 very short maps, but the game felt polished as a game engine. The interface, the tutorial videos, the characters, and the cinematic doesn't happen overnight.
November 13, it's called Warlords of Draenor. Brand new character models, new zones, more levels, more quests, more raids, garrisons, what exactly would you want from WoW2 that Warlords isnt bringing?
Subscription based MMO's is a dieing model. WoW, FFXIV, Wildstar, and Eve are the only ones that I know that can hold on to the model, and I see Wildstar being axed from that list very soon. F2P and microtransactions is the new shit now, and as long as games dont give an advantage to buying everything, I'm ok with my character not having the latest skin.