Overwatch

[Mr. Analog]

I'm actually kinda surprised there's no Overwatch thread already, anyway for those who don't know Blizzard had been working on something big for a long time called Project Titan which from what I gather was supposed to be like Firefall (but even Blizz couldn't get that to work) so the ashes of that project evolved into Overwatch.

Here's the Cinematic trailer:
http://youtu.be/FqnKB22pOC0

And a "Gameplay" trailer:
http://youtu.be/dushZybUYnM

Overwatch is an upcoming FPS from Blizzard, a first for them, first impressions is that it's a TF2-like. It's two game modes are right out of TF2: CTF and Payload. The characters are colourful, cartoony and fill specific roles, again, much like TF2. There are a lot more characters to pick from and the powers are wildly different, most characters have a great deal of mobility through abilities. A new feature added to the mix are super abilities, much like a finishing move in Street Fighter or a character-specific MOBA ability (think of a super power that can be activated once a meter is filled that has the potential to wipe the other team if they are in range of the attack)

Now, the Cinematic trailer reveals a style and a world that they've built around the game which in (typical Blizz fashion) is fantastic, it's hard not to get HYPE when you see what they're going for (imagine if TF2 and The Incredibles had a baby, yeah, it's like that)

Where the HYPE turns into HYPE? is in the gameplay trailer. Taking a step back, one of the things that MADE TF2 a classic when it first dropped was meticulous care to ensure there was balance, a foil to every class. The immediate problem I see is that there may be the concept to balance for each class you can play but the new x-factor are these "ultimate" moves. From reading articles about hands-on play from the February event it sounds like you really can pop a special move and wipe a team if you get lucky, and not all specials are created equal. To me this is a major unbalancing feature, it's supposed to add the ol' razzle dazzle and make things fun but mechanics like that in online PvP games get exploited immediately (just look at the long list of weapon "nerfs" in TF2 over the years).

The other thing that I see as harmful even though the intention is pure is making the kill/death ratio "not matter" (there is currently no deathmatch mode), the idea is to make a fun game casuals can get in on and play to win through teamwork rather than having to focus on individual stats, sounds great until you consider that there's then no option to group people by actual skill level. This causes imbalance in other games (again, like TF2) where a seasoned or pro player will jump on a pub server and function like a one man wrecking crew on newbies or scrubs (ahh the glory days of playing Spy when TF2 went free to play!)

Anyway, to summarize I'm cautiously optimistic. If it launches F2P I'll probably jump in because TF2 is getting kind of stale, if it's P2P I'll wait and see how balancing goes. There is a Beta this year and beta IS beta and may work out all the kinks ahead of time, but I'm afraid the one thing they are banking on to make the fun feature is going to degenerate into an endless balancing grind which we've seen destroy other games of this type.

[Lazybones]

With so many class variations the balance on this one should be interesting..

Looks like something I would love to try out..

[Mr. Analog]

Yeah, like I say I'm trying not to get HYPE about this game but it's hard

It certainly looks like fun

Speaking of fun Splatoon is shaping up nicely as well

[Melbosa]

I'm waiting for this one as well.. but then I just launch D3 and forget about it

[Mr. Analog]

That'll be me when Cities: Skylines goes online

Speaking of citybuilders EA shut down the original Sim City studio, Maxis:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/electronic-arts-closes-maxis-studio-makers-of-simcity-and-the-sims-1.2982873

[Mr. Analog]

Ster just posted a video today about it, some interesting points.

http://youtu.be/PwXsUvgxfNI

The good news is it sounds like it has some depth the bad news is Beta isn't until Fall sometime

For those who don't know _STAR is a pretty well known TF2 player, so his view coming from that world is an interesting one

[Darren Dirt]

And a "Gameplay" trailer:
http://youtu.be/dushZybUYnM

grunch:

WOW that is a huge number of different player archetypes!

Good luck in keeping it all in balance, Blizzard! #nerftastic


Looks visually cool though, TF2 but a bit darker and more "MMO" vibe.





post-grunch:

yeah, "The Incredibles", good call!

Yeah, like I say I'm trying not to get HYPE about this game but it's hard

"HYPE" not "hype", am I missing an acronym reference here? #confused

Ster just posted a video today about it, some interesting points.

http://youtu.be/PwXsUvgxfNI

The good news is it sounds like it has some depth the bad news is Beta isn't until Fall sometime

For those who don't know _STAR is a pretty well known TF2 player, so his view coming from that world is an interesting one

I noticed one of the Related Videos for the Official Gameplay Video was "Overwatch is TF2?" or similar ... by "_STAR". 

[Mr. Analog]

I spent the last 2 days watching STAR_ livestream Overwatch (which is interesting because he and Jerma985 are both off to Blizzcon today so the timing was good I guess, anyway) I watched probably 16+ hours of gameplay and there are a few things that stood out to me

Fast respawn time
There IS a respawn timer BUT it's not as punishing as other games, in fact it seems like the only function it has is to give characters with res abilities (Mercy) a chance to bring the team back from death

No ammo
No getting into a battle and running out of ammo, that said you still need to reload and some characters (Torbjorn) require "scrap" to build things. I'm not fully sure if this is a positive or a negative, in TF2 the only characters that really care about ammo are the Engineers, most classes don't survive long enough for it to be a problem, but you lose that awareness of available resources.

Team Comp / Balance
Team composition is REALLY important and it needs to change (often several times) during the course of gameplay. For example if one team has high DPS heroes (McCree, Widowmaker) the counter needs to be heavies with shields (Reinhardt, Zarya) to counter the shields the other team needs to get flankers or characters that can punch through shields (Reaper, Tracer, Symmetra). This means everybody on the team needs to know how all characters play and the team needs to communicate needs as they happen. A good team comp and communicative players means more effective pushes and translates into wins

Coordination is Everything
Games like these have choke points to force combat and tighten play in CTF maps its all about protecting 2/3 chokes; one out of the gate, one at the first CTF zone and one at the last CTF zone. Effective teams can push the first few chokes to the first CTF zone rather easily, holding them there or at least hampering progress vs the timer is where both offense and defense need to be coordinated. For Payload maps the payload usually has a starting position which needs to be defended / attacked, then a first route with a checkpoint pause (spawn points for the attackers move up) then a final route with a destination. Each stop is a choke, sometimes during routes there are 1-2 chokes, again managing a strong offense / defense means coordination. If you are getting flanked, you need to switch to anti-flank defense, if you need to push to beat the clock you need to coordinate at push. What this means is pub games are going to be chaotic and unpredictable, if the pubbies can't quickly form a team they are going to struggle hard. Forming a tight team is really the only way to go; communication, character knowledge and team coordination is the way to win things. This matters because Overwatch will launch with a matchmaking system, that means if pubbling effects your ranking you won't want to do it because even though YOU might be at the top of your game the team you're with might not and things can fall apart quickly.

Ranking vs Casuals
The concept of rank based matchmaking is at its heart an attempt to balance the game so that its fun for everyone, the problem I see is that so much of your success as an individual is based on how well a team is coordinated, you can be the best Reaper in the match with a 26 player kill streak and still lose the match if the rest of the team can't get it together, now because this is a closed beta Blizz is monitoring stats on all games and how the ranks might affect matchmaking so hopefully they can find the right balance between an individuals performance vs team performance or else they are going to end up with the same problem most MOBAs have where its an extremely sharp curve to climb for newbies, which makes the game hostile to new players and ends up compounding the problem and makes it unfriendly. This is DEATH to any FPS, which is generally more casual friendly than strategy based games

NERFs
According to STAR_ there have been several character nerfs already and from the look of things more to come. Some characters are way better all-rounders, some characters can be almost game-breaking if played by an experienced player, part of the closed beta is to explore some of these things but in my mind when the game gets its first large influx of players there is going to be an endless cycle of balancing. Where TF2 was designed with very obvious foils to all classes there is a lot more complexity and subtlety with Overwatch as not every class is a niche. So you can actually see somebody pulling a surprisingly effective flank with a character like Mercy because she can be made mobile and has a decent weapon, that's not an effective use of her role but if a player is good enough and the need is to break Reinhardts shield (or at least get him to turn around on a choke) it can be an effective strategy. This is the kind of stuff people are figuring out in closed beta, I expect it to get more interesting as the game launches and I have no doubt in my mind that there will be an ever-changing "tier" list that will also become the nerf waiting line (much like weapons in TF2 get nerfed almost every patch)

In conclusion
It really looks like a fun game that you can sink into, the closed beta looks great so far and it seems to run pretty well on even average hardware. Obviously there are some concerns over whether or not the game will actually grab people the same way TF2 did, part of this will be based on how much the game costs up front and what you get with it, what you have to grind for and / or if they have microtransaction content or not.

Personally I'd like to see a free-to-play game with cosmetic unlocks, if they need to charge an upfront fee I think the lower it is the better, as much fun as it looks paying upwards of $60 to get stomped on a pub server isn't worth it

EDIT:


I swore I would never return to Battle.net but here I am, joining again and signing up for the Overwatch beta

With the HUGE list of people already signed up my chances are ... slim but you never know...

[Mr. Analog]

Overwatch will not be free to play, base price $40 on PC and $60 on console
http://kotaku.com/overwatch-base-price-will-be-40-60-on-consoles-1741052019

Blizzard also revealed that Overwatch is expected to go live in the spring 2016, "on or before 06/21/16." A prepurchase option is live now at Battle.net.

http://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-will-not-be-free-to-play-blizzard-confirms/

Nothing stated about microtransactions or whether all heroes will be unlocked from the start / or cosmetics

[Tom]

Stay away from WoW. We don't want to lose you

[Mr. Analog]

Stay away from WoW. We don't want to lose you

Believe me I looked at the available games list on the Battle.net client and the only thing that looked good was "Rock n' Roll Racing" LOL

It's kind of like Origin and the DISASTER that was WATCH_DOGS, I ended up buying Assassins Creed Unity and that was a huge kick to the face (before that game I never had to actually fiddle with nVidia settings to make the game actually "play" and even then it was locked in 780p adding a really annoying black bar around everything)

Nope, give me Overwatch or give me... uhh UNLOCK FALLOUT 4 DAMMIT



EDIT: half finished thought!!

It's kind of like Origin where the only reason I created an account and downloaded it was for a couple of games...

Which is also why I'm staying way far away from Star Wars Battlefront ($60!!! That's insane for what you get)

[Mr. Analog]

Wouldn't it be funny if I got accepted into the Overwatch closed Beta this week


hahaha no

[Mr. Analog]

Did anybody get into the stress test beta weekend?

'Cause I sure didn't

[Melbosa]

Nope not i

[Mr. Analog]

Closed Beta is closing until Q1 2016

Sounds like they're going into analysis mode, sort out what things need balance, matchmaking / queue adjustments and hopefully looking into more e-sport friendly tournament modes.

http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/blog/19981654/overwatch-closed-beta-going-on-break-december-10-12-3-2015