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Blizzard Announces Overwatch, a First-Person Shooter
Today at Blizzcon, Blizzard announced its first new franchise in 17 years: Overwatch. It's a first-person shooter, a type of game Blizzard hasn't made before. It seems to be based on team deathmatch combat, with a number of characters/classes that all have different abilities. The beta test will start sometime in 2015 (you can sign-up here at the official site, unless it gets crushed by traffic). Game director Jeffrey Kaplan (a.k.a. Tigole) said one of their big goals is to make it an approachable game in a way shooters often aren't. A cinematic trailer is available, as is a gameplay trailer. Blizzard has set up stations for players at Blizzcon to play Overwatch this weekend, so more details will be coming soon.
Is this a reaction to this announcement ?
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-11-04-destiny-has-over-9-5-million-registered-users
Hmmm, let's see:
- Autoaim
- Regenerating HP
- Tons of ammo
- OP weapons
- HUGE hitboxes
Thanks, I think I'll pass...
Let me guess, if you don't send your SSN and fingerprints you'll get locked out of your own game?
In soviet russia the government regulates the companies.
Blizzard just hasn't been the same since Activision
Looks like team fortress 2, albeit with less hats.
Looks like Team Fortress to me. This one is a fail. Sorry, Bliz. You have a great track record, but this one is a dud.
Hey, remember back when Sony had the big PS4 announcement, and they brought Blizzard on stage. During this time, Blizzard said they would be showcasing a brand new IP at the following PAX East... and it turned out to be a fucking card game.
So is this what they were SUPPOSED to showcase a year and a half ago?
Looks like a sloppy TF2 clone. Probably pay to win as well. Nothing to see here, keep playing TF2. Another nail in the coffin of what use to be a great game company.
Looks like WoW themed Team Fortress 2 to me. Maybe they want in on that sweet sweet F2P money without letting their cash cow out of the pasture.
Video games that most on slashdot played were something you picked up, and dicked off with for a few minutes, and sit back down. You could play for hours or play for minutes. Now we have allowed video games to become the new television, and they require people to immerse themselves into clans that take hours of time on a fixed schedule for people to play.
The Internet was supposed to allow for time-shifting so that you did not have to live your life around your entertainment. Now with these complex video games that require persons to schedule their lives around their games, we have a new generation of dolts being brought up.
Your entertainment should serve you, not the other way around.
Are there HATS!!!!!
Throw your spehss mehreens into overwatch to protect long corridors, especially.
dakkadakkadakka
It looks like one of the modded versions of Tribes I used to play in the late 90's. Definitely improved graphics and such, I wonder how the game play will be different. As a person who was a true Starcraft junkie, I rarely dismiss what Blizzard creates.
"Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
Why can't they have different levels? Easy, Medium, Difficulty, Hardcore? Each with lesser helpings and more "skill" required?
Or "Ladders"? Do better, fight better people?
Or a combination... choose a mode and fight your way up the ladder?
Don't humor yourselves, slashdot editors. We don't have enough traffic to take down a small conservative blog anymore, let alone a web page hosted by Blizzard. They know what they're doing, at least when they put up a website.
Have any sites gone down in the past 12 months from too much slashdot traffic? I haven't heard of any. We didn't even take down any of the small-time gun 3D printing sites, which are practically the bread and butter of this site now.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I was thinking the same thing. It looks a Lot like Team fortress 2... with a bit of anime thrown in.
F2P is already dead. It was clever at first, but those of us that railed against it (myself included) ended up being dead right about where it would lead to. Ripoff and ripoff, until you couldn't trust any developer at all. Culminating, of course, in the penultimate pay-to-win ripoff, ElderScrolls online. Where the games $60 upfront. AND there's a $15/month subscription just to play. AND there's a cash store so you can pay to win. It's easily the biggest flop of the year... maybe even the decade.
It's kind of fun. If they can add a team play mode I think it would be a blast.
Yay, another team fortress reboot with flavors of Tribes. Color me excited. NOT.
"Probably pay to win as well" What has Blizzard done that's "Pay to Win"? Paid character moves, leveling (buying a level 90 doesn't count as win, since the game "starts" at 90) and mounts?
So yet another first person shooter from a formerly innovative game company.
No thanks.
It definitely has a TF2 look (and absolutely some copied aspects), though I also see some almsot LOL style strategy play (assuming the balance it properly). I agree the gameplay trailer made most characters seem a bit overpowered, but it was made in a way that is more like a trailer than actual game play. I'm intrigued but certainly not sold. I'd like to see how they plan to allow match development. All in all, it looks nice, and if blizzard can get the mechanics solid it could be a very interesting game.
Please stop fucking up Blizzard. Return them to how they were before you purchased the company, and pull your dick out of their ass. http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/sta... Notice When everyone started pulling away from World of Warcaft? http://finance.yahoo.com/echar... Notice Blizzards stock plummet in 2008? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A... Isn't it funny that within a year of Activision purchasing blizzard that their stock tanks, their games suffer, and everyone looks the other direction? Diablo 1 and 2 were awesome. Several expansions of World of Warcraft were awesome, and StarCraft was great. Activision took over and Diablo 3 was horrid. Wrath of the Lich King was the last expansion that was mostly completed before the acquisition and every expansion since then that Activision started making changes to has tanked. If Blizzard wants to survive, buy yourselves back and make a run for it.
They are so overbearing toward their customers and fans, they simply aren't worth it.
Someone bring back Tribes already.
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This is nothing like Tribes, tribes had insane mod-ability, this will have none of that. Also, I see no skiing in this game, without skiing it can't be Tribes.
I'm not so sure about that. I play Warframe which is F2P and have yet to see anything I'd have to pay money for if I didn't feel like it. It's a great game too.
And yet Tera would disagree with you about F2P models. Almost everything is cosmetic, and as for the P2W item that people birch about (PP Bolster for crafting) is a waste. EME let's you have 10 accounts per IP. All the top tier end game gear requires 1 or two types non tradeable, non bankable items to craft. Sure, I've made enough gold to buy the other mats 10 times over, but i still have to grind line everyone else. Oh yeah, and DotA 2 and LoL have some words to say about F2P being dead.
Like most of what Blizzard has done recently, the cinematics are the best part. Blizzard should either start doing CG animation or spin off an animation studio. As for the game, not something I would pay to play but I can see a limited appeal for a short amount of time before something else comes along. I'd rather play Oni from Bungie.
They tried a couple of years back. Too bad Hi-Rez was just trying to chase the CoD audience and freemium revenue. The unlock system is virtually intolerable and the playerbase is miniscule, but with a little patience and a little luck you can still get into a decent round of "Crisco Disco" and see what might have been.
Where's the Pizza Planet Truck?
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
They did, and it failed. Tribes: Ascend.
hold the phone professor. What cash shop are you referring to in ESO? Other than.. paying for a horse? or race choice?
F2p is more like "buy this potion for 2 hours of quadruple experience!" or "buy this uber sword of slaying!" ESO was selling fluff. The monthly fee + box sale is.. well maybe a bit outmoded, but it's been the norm for MMO's for quite sometime. Until, interestingly enough - the *actual* F2P games came out.
More like Incredibles themed than WoW themed, but with "technology" instead of superpowers.
And why does it have a backstory shoe-horned into it away? How is that supposed to translate into "capture the flag" or whatever?
This is incredibly inventive! A NEW FPS to enter the flooded market of 100000 gazillion OTHER SHOOTERS!
Way to be creative!
not.
Yeah, but it failing was due to the terrible job Hi-Rez did with it. I was in the early beta, and the unlock system reminded me way too much of cheap pay-to-win games. Then there was the fact that Hi-Rez basically abandoned development on Tribes:Ascend when Smite came out, the same way they abandoned development on Global Agenda when Tribes:Ascend came out.
Umm, didn't Blizzard just recently can a game they were working on? I can't remember the name off-hand, but I'm fairly sure this wasn't their first attempt at a new IP in the past 15+ years.
Buck Feta. You know what to do.
we have enough FPS's don't we?
Where the Heck is Warcraft IV, the Protos installment of Stacraft 2,
You know, crap we might actually care about from Blizzard.
I've noticed the usual slew of comments along the lines of "I won't play because of Blizzard DRM", "This is a failed idea because Blizzard has dumbed-down the genre too much," etc..
But I'm keeping in-mind the first few words of the summary: "Today at Blizzcon". "Blizzcon". Not "E3", not "PAX". This is a gaming company that has a large enough fanbase and IP that they run their own convention on a semi-yearly basis. They're a juggernaut.
Somehow, I think Blizzard is going to produce a solid game with this. Maybe it'll have fundamental flaws at first (Diablo3+auction house), but the company's shown a willingness to learn from atrocious mistakes and turn-around their failures (D3expansion nixing auction house and soulbinding most items, including gold, and firing Jay Wilson).
Also, on a slightly different subject... Looking at all these comments about DRM just makes me feel like the majority of Slashdot commenters are becoming out-of-touch with modern gaming. The "always-connected DRM" ship has sailed for modern, highly-polished gaming experiences. If you want to play a modern blockbuster, you're going to have to put up with always-connected DRM. There's no need to tell us that you're not playing X because of the DRM - yep, we get it, you don't play popular games anymore.
(Or maybe you've pirated it to avoid the DRM -- but you didn't do that out of anti-DRM principle; you did that because you didn't want to pay for the game.)
The game play trailer looks like there's third-person perspective, too? Which would be great for those of us who puke when playing FPSs
Bark less. Wag more.
You can just pay them 30 USD to unlock everything. Basically either buy the game or slowly unlock everything for free.
http://www.hirezstudios.com/tr...
There's already a game called "Overwatch"
It's a mod for the DayZ mod.
See subject.
I don't like the genre either, but before you bash it for not being an altogether new type of game, why don't you wait and see if there's something unique it brings to the table.
Besides lets face it:
Warcraft wasn't the first RTS (nor was starcraft).
WoW wasn't the first MMO.
Diablo wasn't the action RPG.
Hearthstone wasn't the first computerized trading card game.
Blizzard isn't really known for creating new categories of games, they are (was at least) known for perfecting them.
It's like a mashup of Saturday night combat and Ut4.. but with sucky graphics
And if you don't count the gorilla, there's an equal number of playable ladies & dudes. The body-type on the ladies is a little cookie-cutter for my tastes, but it's a heck of a lot better than almost any other shooter I can think of in recent memory.
blizzard was overrun former pixar employees... only that they are building more war games for kids. fuck you blizzard... fuck you. could this be sponsored by the us army?
They're trying too hard to look like Team Fortress, and it's got a bit too much of the American Sleaze with the over-the-edge pretentiousness. I wonder if they will also completely dumb it down like they have with World of Warcraft, by adding arrows and booming text-messages everywhere so people know when and what to shoot at.
Good luck with that.
Fire a million bullets , keep the defense industry in profit - hit fuck all.
Maybe I'll eat my words if the game play is an improvement over TF, but this reeks of design-by-committee. I thought Dialbo III might have just suffered from putting the WoW team on it, but now it really does look like Blizzard has jumped the shark.
for a cooldown in the trailer? You know, you don't have to show the boring part where you balance gameplay in the *bleepin'* trailer...
While I'm on the subject, did Pixar do the trailer? If not they should sue. It looks so much like the Incredibles I was genuinely disappointed when nobody in red tights showed up.
It does look like it's gonna be another generic class based shooter though. It's gonna be hard for blizzard to pry users away from Valve. Funny, because they usually are on the other end of that equation with WoW.
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And why does it have a backstory shoe-horned into it away? How is that supposed to translate into "capture the flag" or whatever?
Incidentally, TF2's backstory when it came out was:
Two companies that each control half the worlds governments are secretly controlled by one person who force them to fight each other over useless objectives to keep up appearances.
It wasn't until the first Halloween update (a year after the game came out) that that any semblance of a real plot involving the Mann family and Saxton Hale came about. Which is funny since the Mann family plot started as an excuse to have a ghost on the then-new Halloween map.
The TF2 backstory is now... complicated. And entirely unnecessary to just play the game.
On a side note, TF2 lore is separated into 4 sections: Original Game (back story prior to most of the game's modes), The Australium Saga (happens between original game and the DoomsDay map), Blood Brothers (happens between the Australium Saga and the MvM game mode), and Ring of Fired (post-MvM story and likely ties into the Asteroid map currently in beta). This is ignoring the non-canon Halloween storylines.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
Game director Jeffrey Kaplan (a.k.a. Tigole) said one of their big goals is to make it an approachable game in a way shooters often aren't
This is likely just meanless talk for the stockholders. But I highly doubt that is a good idea. The problem with modern shooters, especially consoles, is the skill ceiling is so low that it becomes random chance for anyone over the few months of play mark. This just won't work well for PC gamers who still play CS in large numbers everyday. Even Team Fortress was not really casual. Only casual relatively and it inherited a lot of people from the older smaller video game crowds and it's player base can not be called casual compared to a Halo or Call of Duty 'press F to pay respects' crowd.