As most of you know by now, Overwatch will have stress tests every now and then to test their server hardware and technology.

Our first Beta Test Weekend will begin on Friday, November 20 at 9:00 a.m. PST and end on Monday, November 23 at 9:00 a.m. PST.

To help us get the most out of this testing phase, we will be flagging accounts for the Beta Test Weekend a little early, during a scheduled maintenance on Thursday, November 19. We encourage all new recruits to use this additional time to download and install the beta client so you can be ready for action once servers come back online.

If you're selected to participate in this Beta Test Weekend, you'll see an Install button appear in the Overwatch tab of your Battle.net desktop app as well as an Overwatch Beta license in the YOUR GAME ACCOUNTS section of Battle.net Account Management.

You'll also receive a Beta Test Weekend invitation sent via email to your registered address; however, please note that these messages are sometimes slow to arrive.

For more information check Source.

Unfortunately, i didn't get in but i thought that some of you have got in and in need of a heads up.

I got in and I'm looking forward to trying this thing out.

i have this installed since october 27th but i get this gem everytiem it updates lol http://i.imgur.com/KtNOttl.png

No more Onlywatch for me I guess.

Dang, and here I thought I got closed beta access. Guess it's probably just this weekend thing. That kinda hurts my excitement quite a bit. I hardly have any time to actually play this weekend. Is there no way to tell the difference between weekend access and closed access? The FAQ says that you'll see the exact same thing for both (install button and game license). The communication on this kinda sucks.

Edit: I went to the forums to test out whether or not my account has access to post, and it does not. So I'm assuming I'm weekend only. Bummer. Someone else would have been better off with the access this weekend than me.

Awww yeah, got into it for this weekend. It's time to OverPLAY!

I'm in it. Super hyped!

I got in for beta weekend, at least I have all day sun and monday morning to play :P

Didn't get in.

Duder, it's overwatch.

Got in. THANK THE LORD

If there wasn't Fallout 4, AC: syndicate and Just Cause 3 to keep me busy, I'd be pissed right about now.

got in, hope it's fun!

I got in, however it doesn't look like the servers are up yet. Just sits at authentication.

The irony is that I'm away for most of the weekend.

@ripelivejam said:

The winner.

I haven't been excited to play a shooter in years, yet this looks absolutely fantastic. Still waiting, as I haven't gotten my invite yet, but I really want to.

Yeah, you'll notice on the launcher it has "breaking news" telling you that they have a 24 hour maintenance in preparation for the stress test weekend.

I'm also in, and proceeded to rub it in my friends' faces as none of them made it and I remember when they did the same to me with Hearthstone. Karma, bitches!

Well I got in. I know what I'm doing this weekend.

Overwatch to Onlywatch to Onlycrash I suppose; at least for today.

Still no beta access here.

Seems pretty fun, I'll have to play it on a good comp at some point to get a better idea; about half the heroes are cool and the other half are boring. Has the standard Blizzard issue where 95-99% of the people playing aren't very good which isn't that great for a team game. We haven't quite reached the critical mass of Bastions yet but that will probably happen before the weekend is out.

I got in looking for some Bomber to play with my Battletag ID is Iron#1869

hmm. seems ok- gameplay is solid. it's definitely a team-based shooter, though (a lil boring).

The classes are fun, but the current maps objectives are extremely dull.

They will really need better maps to sell this game, and I hope they add interchangeable weapons as the meta-game like TF2.

Got some time on a good comp, it's pretty damn fun once you find a suitable class. 16-2 + Play of the game with Junkrat is pretty satisfying. I would buy it on PC for 40, very little desire to play it on console sans Mouse/Keyboard for 60.

I got into the beta and... I am not enjoying my time with it. If it's not the boring objectives, it's how ungodfully easy it is to cheese all of them. If it's not cheesing the objectives, it's boring stalemates because the enemy team is just a bunch of Bastions turret camping. If it's not that is a crappy roflstomp one way or the other. If it's not that, it's basically a FFA with one of the few useful heroes because there is some serious Hearthstone levels of balance right now. I will say the game plays very well, it's very smooth, but it needs some major tweaks character wise and either some more varied objectives or something because "Bumrush this point to insta-win" or "Take 2 Wilson and a Lucio and win the Payload" is getting exceedingly boring.

I cannot recommend this game for $60... I'd have issues saying "Go for it" at $40.

Enjoying it overall, but it's not hitting the height of TF2 I was hoping for. Not loving the maps - I really miss 5cp maps, and I can't fucking stand the hud, viewmodels, etc etc just so much shit on the screen. Also it's hard to judge something like this when everyone is of such varying skill levels. Once the skill based matchmaking gets locked in more, I'm sure that will make it much more interesting.

FUCKING ADD A KILL FEED BLIZZARD.

Still not in...

I'm not going to buy this game out of spite! SPITE I say!

sorry i think you mean 'eliminations' feed, thank you.

the game has an interesting design aesthetic- on the one hand, i'm really enjoying how varied and somewhat atypical the character designs are (diverse cast of characters that draw on some cliches but for the most part feel legit)...

...but on the other hand, maaaaaaaan does this thing feel like it was designed to appeal to literally everyone on the planet. every target demo, every continent- it really does feel like IMHO there's an almost disney-like razor's edge precision to the character designs. and that isn't necessarily a bad thing- it's actually extremely shrewd for business, i'd imagine. but it also does feel like there's absolutely zero artistic risks being taken.

really fascinated to see how this thing does once it's finally out.

Yeah this is exactly how I feel. *some* characters feel very satisfying but if this is it then the time I spent with OverWatch yesterday was pretty much all I needed to get out of that game as I'm already tired of seeing the same maps and being pigeon-holed into picking certain characters if I actually want to increase my odds of winning rather than increase the fun that I can have.

I am really enjoying overwatch, right now my only complaint is not having any competent teammates. So if you want to team up for some serious overwatch play add me "Chop#1860"

I like it! I mean, I'm not entirely sure what would constitute an artistic risk in this sort of thing, but everything looks incredible.

The weekend beta is missing 3 (or 4 I forget) maps present in the closed beta. Shame cause 3 current maps is a bit on the low side.

And interesting that a lot of posters here think Bastion is good?

Me and a lot of streamers agree that he's underwhelming at higher levels of play. He gets hard countered quite easily by a single person using certain high mobility characters, Junkrat, and D.VA. One flank and its guaranteed death, he's great against new players but significantly gets weaker at higher MMR.

Also I don't know if you guys know, there is a hidden MMR that puts you in games with players of similar skill level. So early on you're going to be fighting newer people that aren't good at the game until you have a steady win rate. Losing of course lowers your MMR so, you might just be stuck with bad players.

The only required comp currently is a Mercy or Lucio mixed with a Tank (not D.VA, she's harass/antisniper), and a mix of assault characters + 2nd tank (optional but good plug in D.VA here :P).

I love to play Reinhardte (offense), Lucio (offense), Mei (defense), Mercy (defense), and D.VA (both). I'm slowly branching out to other characters. Assault classes I didn't play much in TF2 so I guess I tend to not play them even here... Gotta fix that.

From the few hours I've put into it I'm really liking it and Mei is the best thing ever.

I'm not going to claim to be pro Overwatch material, but the teams that I've been getting matched with are as dumb as rocks, and I don't see myself escaping from that bracket unless I get a few friends in this game. I'm talking charging straight ahead as Widowmaker levels of dumb.

They should probably just randomized your first 20 or so games before sorting you by MMR, as I've lost like 12 in a row and am now among the damned. Again, I'm not great, but I'm not that bad.

@animateria: Bastion is just very simple and easy to use and thus appealing; he can be useful in small numbers but won't be as reflexively useful as a skillful Hanzo for example. The phrase "me and a lot of streamers agree" is a hilarious one by the way.

Tracer is the only character I can play with any degree of skill right now. Though that's probably mostly because I'm still at the level where people are easily confused by all of the teleports and time travel.

Also gives me an excuse to at least have some fun when everyone decides that both sides turtling up is the way to go..

@fredchuckdave: I aim to please. :)

ha- you're probably right to call out the 'artistic risk' jab because that wasn't the best way to express what i felt.

i think what i was trying to say was- everything about the game's visual aesthetic seems to adhere to the mandate that "this must appeal to everyone." and like i said earlier- not a bad thing, especially from a business perspective. hell- as a fan of pop music, that's kinda the whole point. and since we're talking about an activision/blizzard product here, that sort of directive shouldn't surprise me.

i guess i just find it a bit boring? or rather- aside from the fit-and-finish and polish- there's nothing about any character design, save maybe the mecha-dwarf guy and the giant hammer knight, that feels identifiably BLIZZARD.

the tl;dr is- i look at the above image and it looks like any AAA or iOS developer on the planet could be making this game. and for some reason it just feels strange to me.

just my opinion, however.

@mellotronrules: Ah, I think I see what you're saying. I see how the designs could look somewhat perfunctory, or even expected in a sense. I do think it feels in line with what's becoming a sort of overarching Blizzard aesthetic though. A consistent style of fit and finish that you can also see in StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm.

But yeah, I'm right there with you: very curious to see how this thing fares once it's out proper.

Uncalled for! They only got in on a naverage cardgame!
Then again I haven't played overwatch, but it looks interesting.

@mellotronrules: You know what? I see what you're saying and I kind of agree. It doesn't really "feel" like a Blizzard game. Blizzard games tend to have a certain feel to them it Overwatch doesn't really have that.

That being said. I had an absolute blast with the beta this weekend and will absolutely pick this game up when it comes out.

The best way to play this game effectively, is to play it with a group of friends (or people like you folks in here ;D).

Yeah, same here. I don't know if it's because I've been losing a lot but god damn there are people who just love to play Widowmaker/Tracer/Reaper/Not a tank or support hero because they really need take out that turret and Torbjorn who's just camping at the attackers entrance at Hanamura (where he really should have been at their Objective at that point of the match), and keep dying again and again and again instead of just ignoring the dwarf and his turret and just fucking head straight to the objective.

Made me go back to TF2 for a bit and man that game is still a lot of fun.

I did not expect the support characters to be this enjoyable. In TF2, I was a Heavy 99% of the time, as it was just so much fun to mow people down, but in Overwatch I've had a far better time playing Jamaican Skrillex* or Lady Who Builds Infinite Amounts Of Asshole Turrets Oh My God So Much Fun* versus any character whose main occupation is "clicking on people until they die." It's not that the shooting is bad, but it feels more rote and shallow; the support crew feels like they have far more strategy, from jamming turrets above doorways to prioritizing orb targets, all while still shooting (with less effective weapons, but you still do the "click until dead" thing with almost all of them). It's kind of a revelation for a guy who always enjoyed having a pocket medic but never wanted to be said medic, mainly because it felt far more boring than just blasting people to bits. Overwatch keeps you interested and thinking with these second line classes in a way that I find quite surprising.

*I can't remember anyone's name. I know I keep seeing their names, but I keep wanting to call her Phantasmagoria for utterly unknown reasons. I guess I've got Vinny on the brain? And the music guy keeps morphing from Lucio to Lucifer, which just doesn't seem fair to him at all.

Ugh... RIP my sleep schedule.

I think I'm getting in the middle range of MMR, rarely an idiot in my party or in the opponents party.

Everyone starts to communicate and listen to each other too.

Still encounter snipers that are selfish idiots but I had that problem in TF2 too. It's just that at 6 v 6 team comp actually matters. Damn snipers... can't live with them can't.. well... maybe I can live without em.