Overwatch

[Deleted member 219079]

IN DEVELOPMENT GAME Overwatch is a new game by Blizzard, coming to beta in 2015. Its genre is FPS, it has very family friendly looking graphics, somehow reminds me of TF2, and has completely new game world. Also Mike Morhaime himself has only played it for like 5-6 months, and now the game can be played over on BlizzCon with 600 PCs, so they've been really fast on the project. Their main focus is to get the game on PC, they don't know about a) game on console b) game characters on Heroes. The panel speech: The time is set in the fully fictional modernized future, but still they didn't want to get too far in the future, because they wanted players to recall some famous landmarks in the game. If the game is like 60 years to the future, then there was an outbreak 30 years ago from that time. Evil forces called "Omnix" attacked the world. A strike force called "Overwatch" was formed to destroy these evils, and they successed, so they became the global protectors of the world. But now, 5 years ago, Overwatch has fallen apart, and no one knows why. So the plot of the game is "can Overwatch ever come back?". They plan to make the same thing which they did with WoW and MMO genre. They want to look for genres they love and look for best things they can get out of these genres. They wanted to make something unique with the artistic style of the game. They know their fans love competitive PvP games, so they wanted to yet again bring one new one to the fans. Approachability is something which is very important to Blizzard, after you spend hours upon hours on WoW areas, you start feeling uncomfortable and not something you want to spend that much time on, so they wanted to make world of colour and sound, a place you want to come back to. They wanted to create accessible characters. They wanted to make the game less lethal, because usually shooter games are pretty lethal, meaning they don't want you to die as much as in modern world shooter game. They have been focusing on 6v6 gameplay, because you feel less important in higher player amounts. For smaller team sizes, they worried that you're too important for your team, meaning single mistake annoys your teammates too much. So they found 6v6 a magical number. Everything that you're doing in the game is with the team focus, there is no focus on deathmatch, the teamplay is most important. (The panel read: "A game about heroes, not classes"). They wanted classes that people would care about. *blah blah* My opinion about the game: Well I've never liked realistic FPS games (as some might know), because I don't like shooting people, so children friendly graphics are good for me Also I loved TF2 soo much I know I'm gonna play this game, a little at minimum lol Screenshots SIGN UP/MORE INFO AT: http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/

 

[Eagle XI]

*cptpicardfacepalm*
This is it! Activision has assumed complete control over the company, how else can you explain this shit ?

 

[Deathcom3s]

My response to this? "Meh."

Honestly, I think Blizzard is losing it, and by the looks of this, they've almost completely lost it. Where's the innovation? This is TF2 meets Warcraft.

My time for gaming is already limited so much, a game like this just doesn't catch my eye. If i'm going to spend my limited time gaming, I want to make sure that time is filled with as many new, fun, and unique experiences as possible. This just doesn't appear to offer that. AT all.

 

[GreeN!X]

EDIT: I'll take all that back, I'll just hope for the best. xD

 

[PurgeandFire]

@Deathcom: It is true--this isn't their normal style. But I think it will mostly end up as a quick-paced PvP casual game (similar to hearthstone and heroes of the storm). IMO it is okay--I'm not against having options to spend my free time. As long as they still pay attention to their main franchises, it should be ok.

Still, as Eagle said, this feels like something far more characteristic of other gaming companies. It was completely unexpected from my end. Nice trailer though.

 

[Deathcom3s]

@Deathcom: It is true--this isn't their normal style. But I think it will mostly end up as a quick-paced PvP casual game (similar to hearthstone and heroes of the storm). IMO it is okay--I'm not against having options to spend my free time. As long as they still pay attention to their main franchises, it should be ok.

Still, as Eagle said, this feels like something far more characteristic of other gaming companies. It was completely unexpected from my end. Nice trailer though.

If you look at things, it would appear that Blizzard appears to be moving towards going all-in on eSports. Just at BlizzCon alone you have a SC2 tournament, a WoW PvP tournament, a Hearthstone Tournament, plus HotS. This just adds a competitive FPS to their eSports-worthy portfolio of games.

In reality, they're almost being forced to create new IPs at this point. Warcraft has been kept alive with WoW, they just released D3, and they're still working on StarCraft 2. They could come out and just release D4, but that just seems silly at this point. Really, their only option appears to be coming up with a new IP. Titan obviously failed, and it looks like this may have risen from the ashes of that, especially since the dev time on this appears to be around 6 months. They probably dropped Titan and instantly began putting more resources towards this.

 

[rulerofiron99]

I think this is Titan. They were probably making something similar to Destiny, and decided to change focus to PvP.

Anyway, it looks fun. Blizzard has always made well-polished games, and this looks like it'll have enough interesting abilities to add something fresh to the genre.

 

[gorillabull]

yep blizzard has officially lost everything that made them who they are. well.... time to stop playing videogames and get a life the new generation will have to grow up with this.. w/e it is

 

[Kino]

If put in Blizzard's position, I really have no idea what could be done to please the angry crowds.

All your core franchises have been very recently updated, hence rendering sequels untimely.
That leaves new IP as the only sensible option.
You have an MMO, RTS, HnS and a card game, you need something different.

I guess they "could" have made a Lost Vikings game, but then people would still be angry because it would be deemed too "low budget" of a genre.

 

[gorillabull]

you dont get it.. blizzard is making a game like this because their creative potential has been ruined by corporate greed wanting to cash in on their popularity. blizzard games used to be somewhat unique however this game is obviously designed with the currently standard game elements for the market, notice the general look of everything, it is only intended to maximize the game's popularity for most people. its just a standard model of a consumer product created for an active market the point is that the game will most likely lack quality since it is a cheap ripoff only to be used to maximize profits for them. thats what theyre all about now...

 

[Deleted member 219079]

Go play your CoD and play through scenes like this, knowing that plenty of 10 year olds have played them too.

Children friendly graphics is the ONLY way to go with Overwatch, I'm 100% against realistic graphics in FPS games.

Still, as Eagle said, this feels like something far more characteristic of other gaming companies.

Not gonna lie, yep it does, something like sequel to the Diablo/Starcraft/Warcraft franchise would've been better imo :/

 

[BlinkBoy]

Hey it does not look bad, I actualy like it.

I love the fact that instead of classes they went for heros approach.

So it's more a combination of MOBAs, FPS and Team Fortress 2 like.

 

[Nuclear]

Looks like something aimed at 12 year olds to be honest.

 

[Deleted member 219079]

Answering criticism:

Looks like something aimed at 12 year olds to be honest.

Ye it does.

Yes, I agree. Blizzard has hit rock bottom. And it's not whether a game is "hardcore enough" for certain gamers, as games don't have to be so serious.

Overwatch, along with hearthstone, heroes of the storm, are vastly different from the traditional near-perfect games that Blizzard used to produce. It's clear these new games are ALL about money. Spending far less money on a game-making that undoubtedly will come with bucket loads of subscription fees, micro-transactions and e-sport revenue. There is nothing wrong with making money but please remove "Gameplay First" from your orc&wolf statue and please remove "Gameplay First" from your company's mission statement. You are not worthy. You are not worthy of creative big-dreamers such as Rob Pardo working for you anymore. You may not be a cesspool of money-grubbers YET but neither are you considered to be "the pixar of the animation industry" or "Steven Spielberg of directors" anymore.

The giant statue in front of Blizzard that says "Gameplay First" can now be "Money First". Then again, I said it was "money first" a long time ago, when Blizzard went on Nasdaq.

I thought the monetary gains of WoW would gave you more cash to make even better games. I was wrong. Money, indeed, does corrupt.

P.S. And for fuck's sake, please don't make identical copies of well-remembered characters (the that-was-awesome kid from The Incredibles).

This guy's wrong, nothing bad with trying new stuff and not sticking to the old

If put in Blizzard's position, I really have no idea what could be done to please the angry crowds.

All your core franchises have been very recently updated, hence rendering sequels untimely.
That leaves new IP as the only sensible option.
You have an MMO, RTS, HnS and a card game, you need something different.

I guess they "could" have made a Lost Vikings game, but then people would still be angry because it would be deemed too "low budget" of a genre.

I didn't know Blizzard had "angry crowds"?

I think this is Titan. They were probably making something similar to Destiny, and decided to change focus to PvP.

Anyway, it looks fun. Blizzard has always made well-polished games, and this looks like it'll have enough interesting abilities to add something fresh to the genre.

Nope, Titan was canceled

*cptpicardfacepalm*
This is it! Activision has assumed complete control over the company, how else can you explain this shit ?

Blizzard can still publish games under its own name, even though Moneyvision owns it. This looks like something Moneyvision might've demanded/forced them to do, how could we ever know?

 

[Nuclear]

Also some of the characters had pretty annoying accents. As if they had to make forcibly "ethnic" characters to promote diversity? I don't know.

 

[gorillabull]

one of the characters is a fucking gorilla, your argument is invalid

 

[E.M.C]

It is sad to see once awesome gaming company fall so low. WoW truly marked the beginning of the end for the company we knew and loved. I never thought I'd see the day where people who gave us games like Diablo and Warcraft to stoop so low as to cater to preteen kids and go all Pixar on me and shit.

 

[Deleted member 219079]

It is sad to see once awesome gaming company fall so low. WoW truly marked the beginning of the end for the company we knew and loved. I never thought I'd see the day where people who gave us games like Diablo and Warcraft to stoop so low as to cater to preteen kids and go all Pixar on me and shit.

Hmm, WoW wasn't a bad game, what makes you think so? You should try to play it with friends on skype, it's addicting and fun.

Also SC2's campaign aren't that bad I'd say they're worth playing, and their adding 2 new game modes to SC2's next expansion, apart from the "Kill your enemies" standard rts mode.

What comes to D3, it's fun sometimes, but most of the time I'd rather launch LoL. Maybe D3 was a bit of dissapoitment.

Then Hearthstone, I think it was a good game it's really fun and fun to spectate. Talking of which, there's a spectator mode coming to HS! Perrrrfect

Plus the upcoming Warcraft movie, it's a must see!

I dunno why you say Blizzard is on a downfall, I think LotV, HotS, HS exp, WoD and OW will be fun games.

 

[E.M.C]

I never said that WoW is a bad game, but it has certainly marked a milestone in Blizzard's business practice. Sure, they were already a big company before it, but having the biggest MMORPG transformed them into a huge company, that eventually led to Activision merger, and the rest is as they say a history.

My point was that they no longer put gameplay first, as the YT quote you put says, they're cash-first, gameplay-second company now, which is a shame but nothing new in the gaming industry. WoW showed them just how big they can get, and just how many revenue they can make by continuing to bastardize the Warcraft universe by releasing one moronic expansion after another, and that's something I'll never forgive them no matter how fun the game itself might be.

Not to mention that WoW is the reason Warcraft IV is never going to happen.

 

[Deleted member 219079]

Here's the hot question answered:

"How are you going to avoid the comparison to a vertical TF2?"
"If anybody wants to compare this game to Team Fortress 2, I'd take that as the world's greatest compliment. I love that game, it's probably one of my favourite games of all time. Those guys at Valve are geniuses. I'd take that as a tremendous compliment. I think though, as you start to play the game, you realize how different the game is from Team Fortress 2. Sure there's some team based objectives or whatever but already at the show we have 12 heroes here, but Team Fortress has different direction with the heroes, they're very customizable, like Demoman can charge you with the blade. So they have very different direction right at the gate. Or I should say we have different direction from them. I think that you realize that when you start to play Overwatch, it's not about running around and putting people under their crosshairs." *blah blah*

 

[Chaosy]

Personally I just think the concept and art style reminds quite a lot of TF2. However I don't see it as negative. I mean they made Heroes of the Storm which is a Dota / LoL (moba) themed game, and yet they made it unique, it's very different from both the other ones.

Also I keep in mind that Blizzard has yet to release a game that isn't very good in terms of quality.
Sure you might not think 'wow this is the best game ever' but you'll always get value for your money you spend on a Blizzard made game. Afterall Blizzard aims for quality, if they don't like how the game looks the scrap it. *cough* titan *cough*

With that said, I will likely give it a shot.

 

[robizeratul]

Overwatch DOTA

Someone needs to make this happen!! Each hero has about 3-6 skills(including passives) so it would be perfect.

A fresh dota map with these cool heroes could be a lot of fun. What do you guys think?

 

[Avex]

What makes that different than every other moba?

Jeez, I really don't get why the genre is so popular. There's barely any innovation.

Only games that really took innovation are games like HotS, Smite (barely), and Overwatch, I suppose is a MOBA of some kind.

 

[Ezekiel12]

Only games that really took innovation are games like...

You are forgetting DotA 1, as it also used to be new and cool (a long time ago).

 

[Kino]

What makes that different than every other moba?

Jeez, I really don't get why the genre is so popular. There's barely any innovation.

This is true.
Compare all the commercial MOBA games with AOS's created by the wc3 modders.

Its depressing to see how solo modders have made more ingenious takes on the genre than whole companies.
Not to mention many of these mods are years old.

 

[Nuclear]

Well, modders don't have to take millions of dollars worth of risk when they release something, so they can try new stuff and innovations more wildly without worrying about commercial success.

 

[Avex]

I mean Overwatch looks interesting, its like TF2 and a First person moba had a child.

I'll try it out, if it's f2p or has a trial. If it's F2p and good, Tf2 is likely going to go into the toilet. But the thing about TF2 is that people have investments into it (hats, items, etc), while Overwatch might not have such systems.

Microtransactions are a big deal these days, another reason why SC2 is struggling.

 

[Deathcom3s]

Microtransactions are a big deal these days, another reason why SC2 is struggling.

It's kind of interesting to note that not very many people seem to have a strong interest in SC2. Then all of a sudden there's a tournament of some sort, and the number of viewers/streamers on twitch skyrockets.

 

[Avex]

It's kind of interesting to note that not very many people seem to have a strong interest in SC2. Then all of a sudden there's a tournament of some sort, and the number of viewers/streamers on twitch skyrockets.

Everyone loves watching super high-skilled players play games that are difficult.

 

[Deathcom3s]

Everyone loves watching super high-skilled players play games that are difficult.

Obviously. I was just pointing it out. I found it quite amusing.

 

[Deleted member 219079]

They uploaded some new videos onto their youtube channel:

Tracer

Torbjörn

Symmetra

Reinhardt

Reaper

Pharah

Mercy

Hanzo

Bastion

What's your favourite hero?

 

[Celaquil]

you dont get it.. blizzard is making a game like this because their creative potential has been ruined by corporate greed wanting to cash in on their popularity.

Admittedly I haven't read the entire thread, but this caught my attention.

Seriously, why is everyone always mad at a company for doing what they can in their
line of work to make money? Ultimately that is why game-developers make games.

Blizzard have already shown that they can make quality games, that they won't budge
under the pressure of needy gamers who shout at them for release-dates. They've
earned lots of money doing this, and they chose to spend some of this money, and
some of their time, to make something they've never made before. An FPS.
- Why not?

I just really don't get what the point of getting all hateful before a game is even
released is. If you're going to bicker, at least wait till you can say for certain that
the game is shitty, in your opinion.

Now, I won't say that Overwatch really looks much like my kind of game so far,
but I'm guessing it's still not completely finished and there might be changes coming,
or things I didn't know about it, that might make me change my mind.

 

[gorillabull]

hearing tracer say lets try that again and the dwarf guy do his avatar thing is gonna get annoying really fast especially after you get killed a few times exactly after you do it

 

[Deleted member 219079]

Imo Tracer looks really fun to play

I like the Blink and Recal synergy. I dunno about the pistol though...

 

[GreeN!X]

Widowmaker and reinhart looks really fun to me. At least from the videos.

 

[trolman]

Looks like shit, a family friendly shooter is like an E rated porno.