Friday, November 7, 2014

Overwatch and Other Blizzcon Announcements

Well, there's no new WoW expansion announced this year at Blizzcon, and surprisingly nothing about Diablo III (unless they decide for some reason to announce it after the opening ceremonies.)

The biggest news is Overwatch, which really looks like what all the rumors about Titan had suggested - I honestly think the "cancellation" was just a "let's not make it an MMO" decision. So what is Overwatch?

Set on Earth in a relatively near future (about sixty years is what they're saying,) Overwatch is a team-based PvP shooter that has a sort of superhero aesthetic (honestly it looks very similar in style to Disney's Big Hero Six.) The background is that robots went crazy about thirty years ago and the Overwatch was founded to fight them off. With the crisis handled, the Overwatch has been disbanded, but the former members becoming mercenaries and, well, basically superheroes.

There are several heroes to choose from who all have different abilities, and you'll pick one to fight in 6v6 multiplayer combat. It looks to be very much in the vein of Team Fortress 2. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anything of a single-player campaign, and it looks like any real story content is going to be outside of gameplay. Still, given the popularity of multiplayer shooter games, it's not surprising to see Blizzard step into that arena. The game looks really cool, but as pretty devout PvEer, I don't know if it's for me.

The other major announcements were Legacy of the Void, the long-ago announced, but now confirmed and with a trailer Protoss installment of Starcraft II. The other is an expansion for Hearthstone called Gnomes vs Goblins. I don't really have much in the way of details on that yet, but I think we can expect a big influx of cards and probably some new mechanical shifts.

Heroes of the Storm now has a date for the beginning of its closed Beta, which is January 3rd. They also unveiled some new maps, as well as new heroes Jaina, Thrall, and the Lost Vikings (who will naturally work as a team.)

So that leaves WoW and Diablo. I'll post more as the weekend goes on.

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