I do appreciate the fact that all regular Overwatch players will have access to the new content regardless of whether or not they buy Overwatch 2 (with the exception of the singleplayer modes.) So at least they’re not going to split the playerbase. But is anyone going to be around when that happens? Does Overwatch have enough cultural cachet to survive such a long draught of substantial content? Or will 2022 be the year that Overwatch is officially declared dead and buried as all its fans have long since moved

Well, it turns out I was wrong. Quite wrong. It now looks like Overwatch 2 won’t be out until 2022 at the earliest, which likely means regular vanilla Overwatch won’t see any significant updates for over a year. And that’s a very bad thing when it comes to maintaining a stable fanbase for your multiplayer shoo

This map is considered a classic for a reason—it’s both thematically neat and well-crafted in its overall level design. This Hybrid map possesses all sorts of nooks and crannies for DPS-minded players to take advantage

This bizarre map doesn’t have a ton going for it outside of the sort of self-congratulatory Blizzard themes that permeate the area. Once you’ve gotten past the amusing StarCraft nods and the subtle, cheeky references to The Lost Vikings , there’s really not much to love about this st

The whole premise of Overwatch 2 is to offer a campaign. It’s not going to reinvent multiplayer, which is already a successful esport and will likely stay the exact same aside from the kind of regular updates we get now. All I want is for Overwatch 2’s campaign to be a blown-up version of Archives, though, as opposed to something that is emphatically single-player or something that incentivizes over-competing. I want it to give you plenty of opportunities to pull off a sick Barrage, but I don’t want Valkyrie or Coalescence to become pointless vs bots with stupid AI. I want there to be actual reasons for choosing to play as Winston instead of Hanzo, or Lucio instead of Tracer. I want maps that allow for the kind of absurd synergy you see in Assault on Volskaya, as opposed to just arbitrary ult-spamming in the middle of a wave-based minig

While perhaps lacking the impact and appeal of Wii Sports , this similar showcase for Nintendo’s then-new Switch shines when it comes to cheeky, detailed motion controls. Working in tandem with equally refined HD Rumble, 1-2 Switch feels more like a simulation (albeit a strange one) than a game, despite the basic aesthe

With its complete mechanical overhaul done for Overwatch 2, Bastion the point-controlling turret is no more. Instead, this bionic buddy-of-birds is now an all-terrain vehicle, with its stationary turret having been traded for a new Assault mode which transforms Bastion into a roaming, mini gun-firing t

At the same time, this installment goes a step beyond, filling in some depth with new more involved sports, online gameplay, and of course — smooth, dynamic motion control via the Joy-Con. This time around, badminton, association football (which utilizes the Leg Strap), and the highly fun volleyball replace Wii Sports ‘ baseball, golf, and box

Compare that situation to that of games like Apex Legends . As someone who hopped over from overwatch 2 tier List to Apex, I can say that it feels much more alive at the moment thanks to seasonal updates. The maps are always being altered and updated ( and sometimes there’s a new one! ), there’s a new character every season, and there’s plenty of new events, modes, and rewa

On the other hand, attacking teams will often be in for a frustrating ride when trying to push the payload when facing super-skilled snipers or defensive-minded heroes like Torbjorn or Bastion. From both a design and artistic standpoint, there are certainly better options than Gibral

When Overwatch 2 was revealed in 2019, I assumed that it had to be nearly finished. Obviously Blizzard was announcing it because it was going to be releasing sometime in 2020. Otherwise, it could risk losing a lot of its popularity. Devoting resources to working on a sequel rather than adding content to the current game could cause players to drop off as the updates became less frequent. So it had to be just about ready to come

As we all know, Blizzard is owned by Activision. And if there’s any company that loves putting out sequel after sequel, it’s Activision. We still get a new Call Of Duty game every single year, which is insane since that means we’re going on 16 years straight of COD sequels. But that method hasn’t worked for other games. This strategy almost killed the Tony Hawk franchise and did kill the Guitar Hero franchise. In fact, it pretty much snuffed out the entire plastic instrument sub-genre of rhythm ga

Overwatch’s biggest strength is how good its characters feel to play. Unfortunately, playing them online can feel unrewarding, specifically because of how toxic its player base is. Fortunately, Overwatch 2 has a unique opportunity to rectify this by offering the same high-octane gunplay without forcing you to hemorrhage SR purely because people on your team are being total dicks. It doesn’t need a complex story, or a million maps, or anything like that. All it truly needs is a basic, solid structure like Mass Effect 3 had, where you can run wild with your favourite heroes and use abilities to your heart’s cont