Overwatch 2 and Stadia Are What Happen When Game Companies Don’t Care About You

At this year’s BlizzCon event — entitled BlizzConline for its all-digital format — Blizzard released a forty-minute video dedicated to Overwatch 2 . It showcased the new Talents system, two new maps, and a few things that might get overlooked on one viewing. There was no release date announced, but there’s enough for Overwatch fans to chew on until Blizzard nails down an official launch d

As long as you’re not playing an offensive map, where you’re moving ahead every minute, your turret can be relied on to watch your back while you crowd-control and pick off stragglers with his rivet

Even getting past the heavy use of Blizzard gimmicks, the layout of the map itself can also be annoying. With its narrow passageways and higher-level paths that criss-cross it, any defending team worth its salt tends to have a huge advantage; especially near the bottleneck that makes up the beginning/Assault portion of the game. The only real advantage for the attackers tends to be the indoor portion at the end — but good luck making it th

Though her Pulse Pistols have been nerfed and now deal a point less damage per bullet, due to an armor overhaul, she deals more damage to armored targets than before. Like other quick-firing heroes, Tracer can make short work of most enemies if exploiting their weak spots and dealing critical h

The follow-up to the hit hero-based shooter Overwatch has recently been announced by Blizzard , which has its millions of fans buzzing with anticipation and talks as to what fun new additions the game will contain. It’s already been announced that Overwatch 2 will add to the already vast lineup of heroes, kicking things off with at least one new charac

And that brings us back to the question of __ whether Overwatch 2 competitive guide 2 needs to exist, or if it’s just one giant Activision-endorsed cash grab. While the story mode is enticing, these missions could have easily been added into the base game as DLC. Many players would have gladly paid $20 or $30 to play through a cinematic adventure with Tracer and company, but instead, we’re getting a new game that will likely be priced at the same level as other triple-A releases. This means if you want to see the journey of Overwatch’s revival you’re going to have to pony up $60, and that doesn’t feel justifia

The stealth-assassin hero may not be the first to come to mind when picking for a PvE match, but the changes made to her character in Overwatch 2 have cranked up her abilities with only a minor nerf to her bullet damage. Against the less evasive NPCs in PvE, her SMG can crank up her DPS with a barrage of critical h

One enemy type that has shown up very little, whether in the form of gameplay or concept art, is the Orbiter. These drone-like fliers seem to appear in groups and hover above players and/or objectives. In the BlizzConline video, a group of Orbiters flies over the player on both Route 66 and Numbani, and they don’t seem to be attacking the player in any obvious

This is an enjoyable, well-crafted Hybrid map to tangle in, particularly for more defensively-minded players, who can utilize the solid chokepoint under the bridge which leads to the initial capture po

It’s the same corporate avarice that led us to Stadia , only Google was far more incompetent with how they sold it. Fortunately, Google has more money than there are gods in the heavens; they can (mostly) pay people back for the company’s mistake . But remember Stadia wasn’t a live game that just didn’t take off. It was an entire platform that didn’t take off. A platform that Google promised would stay online for the foreseeable future. And, like Blizzard, Google could also afford the servers.

Some of the most exciting details shown off surround the bounty of upgrades coming to the PvE enemy faction, Null Sector Omnics. While these bots appeared in Overwatch seasonal events like Uprising and Halloween Terror, many players felt they posed little threat and were mostly uninteresting bullet sponges. Blizzard aims to correct this with Overwatch 2. And while much was revealed at BlizzConline, there were a few details that are easy to overl

Overwatch getting shuttered and Stadia getting taken behind a woodshed isn’t the apocalypse. Most titles on Stadia already exist elsewhere and Overwatch 2 appears to be a real video game. This isn’t the end of all things. You can be excited about Overwatch 2 while still admitting it’s a crappy way to treat fans. The suits at Blizzard and Google (I know it’s «Alphabet» or whatever now, but come the fuck on) don’t care about you. Maybe that’s a cliche, but it’s worth remembering because it’s going to only happen more as the «take the money and run» strategy plays out. They’ll promise and swear that your purchase will be good and playable for the foreseeable future and then take that shit away the moment it’s convenient.

While the Orbiters in these shots seem easy to eliminate (the Tracer player on Route 66 guns down multiple of these bots with just a few shots), their role is not clear and could be more objective-focused. ( All this said, it’s nice to see these two maps brought back for Overwatch