Overwatch 2 And The Future Of The Hero Shooter

Well, it turns out I was wrong. Quite wrong. It now looks like Overwatch 2 won't be out until 2022 at the earliest, which likely means regular vanilla Overwatch won't see any significant updates for over a year. And that's a very bad thing when it comes to maintaining a stable fanbase for your multiplayer shoo


Valorant offers multiple modes for the most competitive players or people who want to enjoy a fast-paced FPS. You can play objective-based games or aim to rack up kills in deathmatch. Even when there is a mission to complete, if you are bloodthirsty, you will be helping out your team to earn that


The two things really go hand in hand, as the new game drives people over to watch the OWL, while the OWL playing the new game can convince people to buy it. Overwatch 2 will probably bump up the amount of promotions for the OWL, giving out in-game currency, skins, or other prizes for watching. With a new game out, more money than ever will be pumped into new tournaments. You should expect to see a whole lot more eSports integrat

It’s the same corporate avarice that led us to Stadia , only Google was far more incompetent with how they sold it. Fortunately, Google has more money than there are gods in the heavens; they can (mostly) pay people back for the company’s mistake . But remember Stadia wasn’t a live game that just didn’t take off. It was an entire platform that didn’t take off. A platform that Google promised would stay online for the foreseeable future. And, like Blizzard, Google could also afford the servers.

Just because a sequel exists doesn’t mean I don’t want to play the original. When Warcraft 3 came out, I didn’t want Warcraft 2 erased from existence - even if Warcraft 3 had more content. When I play Smash Bros. Ultimate, I don’t wish Nintendo would break every copy of Smash Bros. Melee with their bare hands. Let me repeat that: even when a new game contains all or most of the content of a previous game, that doesn’t mean the previous game should have a bullet put in the back of its head. Especially if there are fundamental differences in the way games play out. Smash. Bros Ultimate may have the content of Melee, but the two feel different.

Don’t get me wrong - I don’t mind that there’s an Overwatch 2. Hell, I don’t even give a shit that it’s a free-to-play nightmare that’s going to be dominated by kids with rich parents. I work in show business - the entire world is dominated by kids with rich parents. And I respect that in order to keep their esports racket fresh, Blizzard creates new Overwatch content just like how their professional players create new racial slurs.

Overwatch getting shuttered and Stadia getting taken behind a woodshed isn’t the apocalypse. Most titles on Stadia already exist elsewhere and Overwatch 2 appears to be a real video game. This isn’t the end of all things. You can be excited about Overwatch 2 while still admitting it’s a crappy way to treat fans. The suits at Blizzard and Google (I know it’s "Alphabet" or whatever now, but come the fuck on) don’t care about you. Maybe that’s a cliche, but it’s worth remembering because it’s going to only happen more as the "take the money and run" strategy plays out. They’ll promise and swear that your purchase will be good and playable for the foreseeable future and then take that shit away the moment it’s convenient.


If you’re not intimately familiar with Overwatch, it might be hard to tell Overwatch 2 is even a different game. It has a few new characters and some new maps, a new game mode called Push, plus some subtle character redesigns, but it's largely the same game it's always been. But if you’ve been an active Overwatch player, a lot of the subtle changes have actually made a pretty big differe


Even getting past the heavy use of Blizzard gimmicks, the layout of the map itself can also be annoying. With its narrow passageways and higher-level paths that criss-cross it, any defending team worth its salt tends to have a huge advantage; especially near the bottleneck that makes up the beginning/Assault portion of the game. The only real advantage for the attackers tends to be the indoor portion at the end - but good luck making it th


Aside from that, the core game should mostly be left alone. Some slight tweaks, skins, and new abilities for heroes will probably be added in that will both delight and infuriate both fans new and old alike. Since this game is probably being developed for new consoles as well as PC, there'll likely be a significant graphical update, so you can enjoy the beauty of Reinhardt's hammer in glorious 4K - and hopefully functional 21:9 support this go-round. There's also things that can be improved, like load times, how to deal with toxicity among certain players, and the whole loot box situat


I can tell you firsthand why this is a huge blunder from Blizzard. I used to play a lot of Best Perks Overwatch 2. It became a nightly ritual to log on, meet up with the large group of friends who gathered online to play, and run through multiple rounds of competitive matches. One of the reasons why we all kept playing was because the game felt like it was always changing. We'd get a new character like Sombra or Orisa. Or a new map would be added to the rotation. Or we'd get a big seasonal event that would add in a new game mode and a bunch of unlockable skins. It felt like a game that kept giving and giving more so than any other game I'd played at the t