Geekscape Games Podcast: Level 95 – ‘Sombra De Amiibo’

The BlizzCon 2016 Opening Ceremonies had so much information on Overwatch that it was hard to believe it only took up 20 minutes of time! As the festivities begun, between the reveal of new maps, modes and characters, Blizzard announced what might be the most game changing reveal of all; the Overwatch League.

Looking to combine traditional sports with eSports, the Overwatch League looks like you would expect something you would expect from the NFL, NBA or MLB. By allowing pros to prove their worth at a nearby combine, their play will be evaluated for the chance to join a legitimate sports team. If a potential owner likes what they see, they can sign you to a contract, complete with a salary for your services. The plan is to give major cities around the world their own teams, making this incredibly ambitious plan looks like it could be one major step forward in legitimizing eSports in a way that will make digital competition surge to levels that can compete with physical sports. I bet your parents feel pretty foolish for telling you to go outside now, don’t they?

There’s no word on if this is going to be a PC exclusive opportunity, but chances are console players are going to be left in the dust. Still, we all have plenty of time to brush up on our payload escorting skills ahead of the league’s launch, which is expected to be in 2017. What are you hoping to see out of the Overwatch League? Think you have what it takes to be the next superstar of gaming? Let us know what you want to see from the league in the comments below!

BlizzCon 2016: ‘Hearthstone’ Is Getting A New Expansion & Card Types!

by Courtney DossettNovember 4, 2016

Three months after the release of Nights of Karazhan, Blizzard announced the newest expansion for Hearthstone today at BlizzCon 2016. The Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, has a fun, 1930’s gangster feel, and plenty of shady characters to help your hero mete out some damage.

Meant to give you a gritty, big city feel, Gadgetzan is run by 3 different crime factions, each supported by 3 hero classes. The Grimy Goons: arms dealers with their classic mobster pinstripes supported by the hunter, paladin, and warrior. The Kabal, fringe casters who have been corrupted with dark mana, more reminiscent of classic villainous casters, are in the potion trade, and are backed by mage, priest and warlock heroes. Last, but not least, we have the Jade Lotus faction, heavily inspired by Pandaria, filled with assassins hungry for gold and jade, with the rogue, shaman, and druid heroes filling their ranks.

The developers also revealed some exciting new card features. If you want to wait until the expansion is released at the beginning of December, stop here! But do keep an eye out for teasers leading up to the release in the next couple weeks.

SPOILERS

There are two big changes in card types coming with this expansion.

The first are tri-class cards. Each faction is associated with 3 different hero classes, and with that come a tri-class card that allows you to choose a card from one of the 3 classes associated with your faction. For instance, if you are playing a mage, you would be able to choose a mage, priest, or warlock card to put into your hand. Every faction’s card has a different mana cost and minion associated with it, but seem balanced across the board.

The second exciting reveal comes with the Kabal Leader card, Kazukus, which allows you to create your own spell. First you discover the cost of the new spell, either 1, 5, or 10 mana, then choose two powers, like deal 6 damage to all minions, and summon 3 minions that died this game. This card promises to be a lot of fun and offer a lot of choices for players within the game!

Even though I haven’t spent any money on Hearthstone, preferring to acquire expansions with in-game gold, The Mean Streets of Gadgetzan has me rearranging my budget for a pre-order.

How many of you are going to pre-order? What new cards are you excited for? Let us know in the comments below!

BlizzCon 2016: Here’s What We Know About Oasis, The Next ‘Overwatch’ Map

by Josh JacksonNovember 4, 2016

A new character wasn’t all that was revealed during the Overwatch- What’s New? panel at BlizzCon 2016. During the presentation, the team behind the game discussed Oasis, the next new map scheduled to released by the end of the year.

As a Control map, the two teams will fight over controlling a specific point on one of three sections of the map. Located in the Middle East, this display of human advancement was built when a group of scientists got together and decided to push the boundaries of what technology can achieve. Apparently, these brilliant minds were able to put together a kind of desert utopia, complete with one thing the world needs in this time of crises; jump pads!

Yep, jump pads are back! Once a staple of FPS maps, Blizzard said they were inspired both by the old school design choice, as well as giving players a unique way to move around that isn’t possible elsewhere. Did you think Bastion was annoying as is? Wait until he parks his turret mode on a jump pad and keeps bouncing up and down while decimating your team! How about a Roadhog hooking an exploding D.Va mech and placing it on the pad, allowing it to blow up high in the sky? And the McCree’s… I’ve never looked more forward to 12:01 PM in my life.

No matter what unique changes Oasis brings, one thing is for sure… Your entire team will still play Deathmatch rather than get on the point. All the art work shown so far is tentative, so don’t kill us if the final version doesn’t look exactly the same. Needless to say, with a December PTR release scheduled, and an early 2017 release for the main game, let’s hope we all get to play in it sooner than later.

What are your thoughts on Oasis, or any of the other news to come out of BlizzCon so far? Be heard below!

BlizzCon 2016: Starting Monday, Quick Play Will No Longer Allow Hero Stacking In The ‘Overwatch’ PTR

by Josh JacksonNovember 4, 2016

In one of the more controversial news pieces to come out of BlizzCon for Overwatch in between the Sombra confirmation, the details on The Arcade, and the new Oasis stage, it was revealed that Quick Play will no longer allow multiples of the same hero in the PTR, (the PC test server,) starting on Monday. If previous PTR changes are to go by, this change should come to the main game within a month. Formerly a competitive exclusive feature, Quick Play will now become a way for players to test out their competitive strategies in a similar environment rather than the free for all that it is now.

Hero stacking has been a contentious topic pretty much since the game launched. Blizzard has argued in the past that it brings a legitimate level of strategy to the game shortly before removing it from competitive, while players range from wanting to be able to play as who they want to regardless of team composition, to hating getting stuck in games with five Genji’s screwing around while the enemy walks the payload to the goal. Hero stacking will still exist in the form of the No Limits brawl in arcade, but as of now, brawls are significantly less popular. Blizzard is hoping the new format will spark interest in the bonus modes, but as of now, that remains to be seen.

Personally, as long as we still have the option to stack in the game, I don’t mind. As it stands, we have no way of practicing for competitive outside of playing in competitive itself, meaning that we might get dropped a few ranks before figuring out what works. But what do you think? Let us know in the comments, and check back with Geekscape for all the news coming out of BlizzCon!

BlizzCon 2016: The Arcade In ‘Overwatch’ Will Bring Back Lucioball and Junkenstein’s Revenge!

by Josh JacksonNovember 4, 2016

During the Overwatch- What’s New? panel, the team went into more detail about The Arcade, a new mode that’s on its way to the team based shooter. It turns out that not only is it right around the corner, but it’ll give us plenty of reason to duck out of competitive and quick matches by bringing back some fan favorite brawls!

Promising to bring back Weekly Brawls from past runs, players will be able to create a type of playlist for them and their friends to fight through. So rather than sticking to one brawl and getting bored after a few matches, each fight will mix up the combat with each fight’s unique set of rules. Most importantly, the event exclusive modes, Lucioball and Junkenstein’s Revenge, will return via The Arcade as well! So if you needed your FPS soccer fix, or want to team up with three friends against the AI instead of having to gun them down, we won’t have to wait a whole year for them to cycle back around! What’s even better is that I’ll have more time to unlock that no door damage Halloween spray!

Aside from the brawls, the team expanded on their reveals of one on one and three on three combat. One on one will have each player pick the same hero, and have them square off in a best of five duel. Three on three matches will consist of elimination rounds, with the team’s characters are locked in until a round is over. By elimination, it means that once a player is killed, they’re done for the round. At that point, they can decide to keep their team as is, or mix it up for different results. Some of these modes will take place in unique maps, such as the recently revealed Antarctica arena, giving us a look at Mei’s backstory through nods throughout the environment.

But who cares about Brawls, right? They don’t give you as much EXP for those sweet loot boxes. Or at least, that was the old Overwatch. When The Arcade is released, your first win during the Weekly Brawl will give you a box outright! After that, every three wins will award you with another, up until you reach the maximum of three for the week. That’s four boxes a week total!

Needless to say, we’ll have plenty of reason to dig into The Arcade when it launches, hopefully by the end of the year. Especially when it’s now the only way we’ll be able to play with stacked heroes going forward. What are your thoughts on the news? Let us know below, and keep checking back for all the BlizzCon 2016 news!

BlizzCon 2016: Sombra Is Finally Confirmed For ‘Overwatch’ Alongside A Peek At New Modes

by Josh JacksonNovember 4, 2016

After months of poking, prodding and teasing through social media, Sombra has finally been officially revealed during the BlizzCon 2016 opening ceremony! Giving us a look at what to expect thanks to a surprise animated short featuring her, Widowmaker and Reaper, the plot surrounding the countless King of the Hill matches is starting to really heat up. But is she friend, foe, or only in it for herself?

As the latest offensive hero to be revealed for the team based shooter, she looks to bring a completely different type of skill set to the game. If you’ve been following the leaks, it seems like they were spot on, but for those who managed to stay in the dark, you’re in for a surprise. Courtesy of the Overwatch website, here’s what we can expect when Sombra arrives in our games.

Stealth and debilitating attacks make Sombra a powerful infiltrator. Her hacking can disrupt her enemies, ensuring they’re easier to take out, while her EMP provides the upper hand against multiple foes at once. Sombra’s ability to Translocate and camouflage herself makes her a hard target to pin down.

ABILITIES

MACHINE PISTOL

Sombra’s fully-automatic machine pistol fires in a short-range spread.

HACK

Sombra hacks enemies to temporarily stop them from using their abilities, or hacks first aid kits to make them useless to her opponents.

THERMOPTIC CAMO

Sombra becomes invisible for a short period of time, during which her speed is boosted considerably. Attacking, using offensive abilities, or taking damage disables her camouflage.

TRANSLOCATOR

Sombra tosses out a translocator beacon. She can instantly return to the beacon’s location while it is active (including when it’s in mid-flight).

EMP

Sombra discharges electromagnetic energy in a wide radius, destroying enemy barriers and shields and hacking all opponents caught in the blast.

On paper, Sombra sounds like a game changer. Being able to teleport at a much faster speed than Reaper helps her mobility, while her stealth makes it easy for her to flank opposing teams. If that wasn’t enough, her Hack ability completely disables opponents and their ability to heal through packs, and that EMP ultimate can set up major comebacks when defensive teams are completely walling you off. Then again, reading about it and its actual application in game are two different things, so we’ll be keeping our eyes on the floor impressions, since she’s available to try at the convention.

Aside from the new character, Blizzard promised new modes and maps, including what they called The Arcade. Revealing Eco Point Antarctica, Mei’s home stage where she was frozen for years, this map was the first one mentioned for The Arcade, which will offer 1 vs 1 and 3 vs 3 matches. The Oasis will be the next standard map, a type of high tech utopia built in the Arabian desert. The new content was said to arrive on the PTR in December, so it’ll be a little longer before we’ll be able to check it out for ourselves.

Watch Sombra’s reveal animation below, then let us know if you think she’s living up to the hype! And keep checking back with us for all the news coming out of BlizzCon, including more details on the new modes from the Overwatch panel later today.