Quick Look: Overwatch

@purplepartyrobot: D.VA can shred an entrenched Bastion or deal with a turret really easily. I also find that a lot of people tend to just freak out when you jet at them and bump em' around.

Her main problem is still that her head in smack dab in the middle of the mech so she may as well have half HP at all times. An unfortunate quality in a tank role.

@szlifier: Lovely, thank you!

Excited for the future of this game.

My only real issue with the game is blizzard polished the game to hell and back, I feel like I can constantly feel the presence of the blizzard designers, every beat, every hero moment pre-determined to ensure maximum enjoyment, its a strange feeling and some would say its worthy of the utmost praise but it feels restrictive on an instinctual level, kinda weird.

Wow! This seems like Monday Night Combat. Nice eye candy mind..

For what it's worth, I managed to start playing this around 4:30 pacific (as soon as I could stop working, and start playing). I played for around 5 hours non-stop with no issues.... Not a bad launch, Blizzard, not bad at all :)

The reason you can't pick a mode is so everyone is funneled into the same mode. No split userbase going all in on Attack/Defend and abandoning the other modes. Same reason there will never be a team deathmatch mode because everyone would flock to that and also most characters would be fucked in that mode.

I think it's pretty smart honestly. Also love the first 30 minutes or so of this Quick Look.

Is there any sort of character progression or anything in this game?

Nope. You get a free loot box on each level up, but it's all cosmetic.

@efesell: Thanks for the info, definitely not going to get it now. Cosmetics alone are not a good enough incentive to keep playing a game for me personally, especially at 50$ Cad

Totally agree that this is what the fps genre needs, even if it's on the surface a step back. A return to fun shooting mechanics, speed, and use of skills. Not grinding away to get a slightly more accurate assault rifle. Don't know what the hangup with progression is; i think it's played out and largely amounted to a novelty and a pretty thin excuse to keep playing a game.

Being a goal oriented person, I'd like something to aim for other than just being better at a game. I can get that anywhere.

Not that I've ever seen, but we might as well be cynical just in case.

It's weird to me to require a reason to keep playing and not just to have fun doing so but hey to each their own.

Seems to me that most complaints are about people not actually wanting to learn the game or the characters, but rather wanting to level up. Since your actual skill and understanding of character balance isn't quantified by numbers on a chart, it's incomprehensible for some people.

Jeff likes a thing and Drew drank soda. What in the hell is going on?!?!

The BEST loading screens is the old Age Of Empires loading when the dudes are building a big building while the game installs.

This definitely looks like the game they've wanted to make in a long time. I resented them for making the latest entries of Diablo and Starcraft fairly cartoonish, but I will greatly welcome them putting those sorts of efforts into a new IP.

You guys played the PC version :D
I am so proud! ^__^

Was it recently you noticed the change? I ask because I've never been able to during the past 12 months I've owned a PS4.

To add to this, the being-stuck-at-98% thing can happen for a number of other reasons. I know of older applications that around 97/98% would begin a verify step, to check that all the correct data had been loaded. It can also be that maybe it was loading assets in, and had finished, but then scripts need to initialize, which hang the application. Another reason, and this one isn't as uncommon as I would like, is that the loading bar is just for show, and just waits at the end until it is actually done loading.

As far as "retrying" goes, it is often a case where there's just a 30 second - 1+ minute timer going, and after the timer is done it then actually tries again. This is why it can be more effective to just cancel and try again yourself, but with an example like Overwatch it hits their servers harder.

@dasakamov: Thought as much, thanks

counter strike porn sprays I think were the first porn I ever saw, so I guess those guys won after all.

Junkrat is so mark hamills joker im almost convinced he voices him.

Time to douche-bag-ary, also zero, have to admit I laughed at that one.

@assirra: Its not a hang up, its motivation once the buzz of newness is gone. Obviously, some dont need it, and that is cool, but i dont understand what will keep a majority of people playing past a week or two.

Im not judging, merely stating that the excitement about this game befuddles me.

Ill be curious how long the GB crew keeps playing regularly.

@ajroo: I've played Rocket League for 200 hours. I've played CS:GO and other iterations of CS for thousands of hours. Both of these games have very simplistic game modes and very few maps which are played regularly. What keeps me coming back to these? The same thing that will keep me coming back to Overwatch - a balanced, competitive game that is fun to play with a bunch of friends and is also fun to play more seriously.

The fact that the games are quite short is a bonus too as I get older and have less ability to sink time into competitive games.

Not to mention the fact that the characters are all very diverse; I think the character design in this game is actually legitimately amazing in terms of skill sets and making each one uniquely different.

I'm unsure why you think leveling up and 'progression' (read: locking things behind a level-up system that should be avaliable from the get-go) adds to the longevity of a game as well. For me, it actually shortens it because once you are done getting everything you feel like you've 'finished' the game.

People who think this is a good thing encourage bad game design imo.

CS didn't have leveling up and it dominated for years. It's unneeded in FPS games, especially competitive ones. Gamers are like gambling addicts who need their fix now.

i have a feeling dan holds out with it the longest, though dark horse bet may be brad if he gets obsessed with it like he does with random games. alex possibly. they all kinda seem like they'll sour on it when the git gud crowd gains momentum.

but i feel this will last the way team fortress 2 lasted so long with mostly cosmetic unlocks: it's just a damn fun game that rewards you as you gain skill with it and learn the rhythm of the play and become stronger and more unstoppable skills-wise. won't hurt to have more maps/heroes/modes added (again ala tf2). to me this just touches on that bygone era where games didn't need (what to me feels like) excess progression baggage and can stand on their own merits.

i will say it's totally cool to want that or to still be into that in a game, and i do feel the itch for it myself at times too (did enjoy the somewhat brief time i spent with the division and destiny, though those more tap into my diablo 3 obsession than anything). it's just my feeling that those features are shoehorned into every game now, and it's getting a bit old hat.

I just put in my refund ticket for this thing. I was rather excited for it, being a big fan of TF2. Sadly, the matches are short, the maps are few, and the characters are imbalanced and often unfun to play against. Might take another look at it in the future some time.

Although I'm enjoying the game, I do have to agree that the cosmetic unlocks alone may not be enough to keep my hooked for very long.

I don't know if it's just me, but I'm really not interested in Overwatch. It looks pretty and I'm sure it plays well, but I'm not looking for a new team shooter, and if I really needed one at a pinch, TF2 is still sufficient.

I'm on a i3-6100's 530HD and get a solid 30fps at 1080p medium settings

I've already played like 20 hours of this game, and it's awesome, but it really needs that Ranked mode coming at the end of June.

i also never really understood how people don't see progression unlocks as really detrimental to game balance in general. i mean, matchmaking aside (which usually don't work at all), you have the potential of a guy unlocking the best weapons and just wiping the floor with the first time players. shouldn't everyone be on equal footing?

I hate the look of this game.

I love Overwatch, it's a game I can easily pick up after work and unwind. It's my new Splatoon!