News
Overwatch Winter Wonderland Officially Kicks Off
Overwatch has officially kicked off it’s Winter Wonderland event.
The event will see players participate in weekly challenges and a new mini-game mode called Snowball Deathmatch, which is an eight-player free-for-all deathmatch where everyone will play as Mei (who also gets a new ability called Catch), with a modified snowball gun like the one from Mei’s Snowball Offensive.
Weekly Challenges will unlock limited-time rewards by winning nine games, with rewards including player icons, skins, and sprays. Additionally, new cosmetics include Legendary skins: Jotunn Doomfist, Mountain Man McCree, Rat King Reaper, and Rime Sigma. Also, three Epic skins and various icons and sprays will be available as well.
The schedule:
- Week 1: Ugly Sweater Soldier:76 (Epic)
- Week 2: Holly Moira (Epic)
- Week 3: Snow Angel Mercy (Epic)
Here are the official path notes:
GENERAL UPDATES
New Feature: “While You Wait”
In this patch, we’re replacing our “Skirmish” mode with a brand-new feature called “While You Wait!” Now you can choose between a variety of game modes to play while you queue for a match
When in queue, players will now be prompted to pick from the following game modes:
- Practice Range – Practice your skills—solo or in a group—against training bots
- Skirmish – Spar with other players without keeping score
- Deathmatch – Compete for the top place on the scoreboard
- Custom Game – Select a custom game from the Custom Game Browser or create your own. (If you want your custom game to be available for everyone to play, make sure to choose the setting: “Allow players who are matchmaking.”)
All While You Wait game modes are optional and can be accessed by a single player or as a group. Only your group leader can select the mode for their team.
Note: You don’t have to leave your queue after a match ends to play another While You Wait mode. In order to access the While You Wait menu, click on the game mode you’re queued for and choose a While You Wait option from there.
WORKSHOP UPDATES
- Custom Games – Practice Range Mode
- New Workshop Values
- Game Mode
- Current Game Mode
- New Workshop setting
- “Allow players who are matchmaking”: allows players who are matchmaking to participate in the Custom Game created
HERO UPDATES
General
- Armor damage reduction increased from 3 to 5
Orisa
- Base armor increased from 200 to 250
- Protective Barrier health reduced from 900 to 600
- Fortify cooldown decreased from 10 seconds to 8 seconds
Sigma
Experimental Barrier
- Health reduced from 1500 to 900
- Barrier health regeneration rate reduced from 150 to 120 health per second
Kinetic Grasp
- Cooldown reduced from 13 seconds to 10 seconds
- Damage-to-shield gain ratio increased from 40% to 60%
Reinhardt
Barrier Field
- Health reduced from 2000 to 1600
- Movement speed penalty reduced from 50% to 30%
Steadfast passive knockback resistance increased from 30% to 50%
Developer Comment: The above changes to armor, Orisa, Sigma, and Reinhardt are aimed at decreasing the overall amount time players spend damaging barriers while improving the individual heroes in other areas. This is a significant change to the pace of the game and we’ll be monitoring these heroes closely to ensure they retain impactful gameplay in the tank role.
Moira
Biotic Grasp healing reduced from 4 to 3.25 (80 HP/s to 65 HP/s)
Developer Comment: Moira’s primary heal has proven to be too potent, largely due to its ability to heal multiple targets.
D.Va
Defense Matrix cooldown decreased from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds
Developer Comment: With role locks in place there is some room to improve D.Va’s impact as a tank, so we’re partially reverting a previous change which increased Defense Matrix’s cooldown.
Widowmaker
Grappling Hook cooldown increased from 10 to 12 seconds
Developer Comment: With barriers having less uptime, Widowmaker will be even more effective at locking down long sight lines. This change weakens her mobility so she can still be reasonably countered.
Torbjörn
Overload cooldown decreased from 12 to 10 seconds
Developer Comment: Torbjörn has difficulty in extended team fights once his turret is eliminated and Overload has been used. This change allows Torbjörn to be able to rely on his Overload more often.
Genji
Ammo increased from 24 to 30
Developer Comment: As average hero survivability has gone up over time, Genji can sometimes have difficulty finishing off his targets. Loosening his ammunition constraints will help give him a small boost.
Zarya
Particle Cannon (Secondary Fire)
- Explosion radius increased from 2 to 2.5 meters
- Ammo cost decreased from 25 to 20
Developer Comment: Zarya’s overall damage output is in a good spot but the secondary fire was left feeling a little too weak after the last set of changes.
BUG FIXES
General
- Fixed a bug that caused players spectating teammates during killcam to be unable to rotate the camera
- Fixed a bug that caused the “Prepare Your Defenses” text to appear for the attacking team when a game starts in Mystery Heroes
- Fixed a bug that could cause a client crash when attempting to spectate a friend at the start of a quickplay game
- Fixed an issue where Max Health granted by heal-over-time abilities was being calculated incorrectly with Gravitic Flux
- Color Blind Mode – Fixed an issue which caused models affected by infra-sight to appear washed out when using colors other than red
- Workshop – Fixed an issue causing map names and dropdowns from being displayed in the incorrect case
- Workshop – Fixed an issue preventing D.Va from being detected in Player Died events
- Workshop – Toggling the custom game lobby hot key while viewing lobby settings should now properly close the screen
- Custom Games – Renamed Assault/Escort to Hybrid
- Fixed a bug that could cause heroes with regenerating health/shields to not take full damage when damaged while at full health
- Various hero abilities (e.g. Symmetra’s Turrest, Roadhog’s Hook, Sigma’s Accretion, Orisa’s Halt, etc) will now respect the collision boxes on vending machines and other such props
- Fixed a bug that caused High Precision Mouse Input to cause toggle crouch to behave inconsistently
Maps
- Black Forest (1v1) – Fixed a bug that allowed Reaper to Shadow Step through the breakable doors
Heroes
Doomfist
- The default circle is now hidden when using advanced reticle settings
- Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented the sound effect of Doomfist’s Rising Uppercut from playing
- Fixed a bug where Seismic Slam could land on an enemy’s head while playing FFA modes
Junkrat
- Fixed a bug where Junkrat grenades would not explode when slowly rolling down steep inclines
Lucio
- Fixed a bug that caused the audio visualization effect on Lucio’s glasses to disappear
Orisa
- Fixed an issue where Orisa’s halt projectile could sometimes appear to go through the ground when viewed in 3rd person
Reaper
- Fixed a bug allowing a player to swap heroes while using Shadowstep
Roadhog
- Fixed a bug that prevented Roadhog’s hook from damaging turrets and barriers
Sigma
- Fixed a bug that caused Sigma’s primary fire not to function if he was hacked while deploying experimental barrier
Widowmaker
- Turning off the toggle zoom control option for Widowmaker while zoomed in no longer remains stuck in the zoomed state
News
Capcom Announces New Content for Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak
Capcom has officially announced that Free Title Update 4 will be arriving for Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak on February 7th which will include new foes alongside new Anomaly Research content, Event Quests and a new paid DLC.
Velkhana, the elusive Elder Dragon, has been spotted by the scouts of Elgado Outpost and poses a chilly challenge as it can freeze hunters in an attack, and will join the arrival of Risen Crimson Glow Valstrax when the new update drops.
New Anomaly Research will be available, Afflicted Chaotic Gore Magala joining the A8 Quests, and the Anomaly Investigation cap will be upped to 220.
More is in the works for Free Title Update 5, which is currently slated to arrive in April
News
Overwatch 2 Aims to Penalize Players Who Are Friends with Cheaters, Increased Voice Comms Monitoring
Blizzard is leveling up their efforts to thwart cheaters and misconduct within Overwatch 2, as the company aims to penalize players who are friends with cheaters and will amp up their monitoring of voice communications.
The company detailed this in the brand new update for its Defense Matrix Initiative, which is focused on curbing “gameplay sabotage, abusive chat, and cheating” stating their plan to come down on players who team up with cheaters, and more.
Blizzard admitted that cheating in Overwatch 2 is a problem and has “actioned over 50,000 accounts” since the game launched and starting in Season 3 they will be actively identifying players that purposely team up with players who are regularly flagged as cheaters, and will also face potential discipline.
Overwatch 2 will also have improved protection for streamers, as the issue of Stream sniping continues to be a problem, and in Season 3 they will be “introducing new streaming protection features that should be a huge step toward enabling content creators to share Overwatch 2 with their fans safely.”
Blizzard is encouraging players to report any disruptive or problematic behaviour in their matches.
Mobile
EA Shuts Down Apex Legends Mobile, Stops Development on Battlefield Mobile Game
EA and Respawn Entertainment is shutting down their Apex Legends mobile game with the company announced that they will be sunsetting the title this May with EA adding that they have also stopped development on a mobile Battlefield title.
According to Respawn Entertainment, the decision to sunset Apex Legends was not an easy one to make but the company said that “factors” beyond its control have prevented it from “maintaining the high-quality experience and content” players deserve and expect.
Despite the game having a rather strong start, Respawn said that the content pipeline for the game began to “fall short of that bar for quality, quantity, and cadence.”
EA announced that they made the decision to halt the Battlefield mobile title as they wish to create “deeply connected Battlefield ecosystem” which made them arrive at the decision to “pivot from the current direction”
“We remain highly committed to unlocking Battlefield’s enormous potential,” the company said in the statement. “We’re hard at work at evolving Battlefield 2042 and are in pre-production on our future Battlefield experiences at our studios across the globe.”
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