Tag: The Arcade

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

by Josh Jackson

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 Jackson

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.