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Community => Other Games => Topic started by: slickriptide on May 06, 2016, 10:20:39 PM

Title: Overwatch
Post by: slickriptide on May 06, 2016, 10:20:39 PM
I can't imagine that anyone on the planet has avoided hearing about Overwatch by now, but if you haven't - it's a new game from Blizzard that is having a free beta weekend. When it launches for real, it will be a buy-once, play-forever game. (How 1990's!)

Overwatch is what happens when your company spends years developing a superhero game, decides that it's not fun and never will be, but isolates one aspect of the game that IS fun and turns that into a new game, using the dead game's backstory.

Overwatch is a character-based shooter. There are (ballparking here) twentyish characters to choose from, maybe a bit more than that. They generally fall into the Tank/Support/DPS trinity and everyone of them has a unique backstory and a unique set of personal abilities. It's fast-paced, serious/funny/snarky by turns depending on the personalities of the characters you choose to play. It's teams of five playing against each other on an assortment of playing fields that each have their own kind of objective. One of the unique aspects of the game is that you can choose to be any character at any time. Is your team suffering from lack of a tank? Change to a tanking character on the spot.

I've been in the closed beta for the last few months, and I've played on and off during that time. I've always enjoyed it, which is saying something despite the infrequent sessions. I typically don't like shooters and steer clear of them. Overwatch  manages to scratch something of the superhero itch in a very casual, low-pressure way. Granted, that once it goes live, there will probably be a real push from the PvP crowd for everyone to be good at PvP, but you can make choices in the way you prioritize your matchmaking to lean towards more casual combat if that's your thing.

Storywise, the deal with Overwatch is that Skynet sort of happened. The robot revolution took place but the humans fought back and created the Overwatch - an international organization of superpowered individuals who took the battle to the machines. Russia was the only country that went their own way, developing giant Mecha to fight fire with fire, so to speak.

In the "present day", the war is over. Peace has been made between the two races and intelligent robots now live with and intermingle with the human population. The Overwatch has been recently disbanded, leaving many of the former "heroes" at loose ends. Loose enough that some of them have become "super-villains" and mercenaries either by inclination or to maintain their chosen lifestyle.

The battles in Overwatch represent the new reality of the former "watchers". Teams of super-powered people competing to rack up rewards to further their own agendas, though of course the good guys are more concerned with keeping the world safe than with their personal status.

Cinematic trailer for the game on Youtube: https://youtu.be/FqnKB22pOC0 (https://youtu.be/FqnKB22pOC0)
Title: Re: Overwatch
Post by: Inc42 on May 13, 2016, 10:58:18 PM
I hadn't been paying attention to Overwatch at all, didn't even realize it was a super hero game, but when I went to load up Hearthstone I saw it was in open beta so I went ahead and downloaded it. The opening cinematic had me hooked, and I enjoyed it enough that I preordered it about an hour later.

This is basically an updated Team Fortress 2 with better graphics and more characters to choose from. I really, really hope that they do develop more for it than the PVP matches it has so far, because the story line and characters are very interesting. I love that you can load into a game and because you are playing one character and another player has a specific character it can trigger dialogue between them. It's obvious that the story is rich, but it is completely missing from the game, and I WANT it.

It is a lot of fun, but there have already been times where after loosing 5+ matches in a row I had to walk away from the computer, so I think it will be an "on occasion" game for me, but if they added a story mode or co-op missions of some kind I would be on it all the time. As it stands, unless you are big on TF2 style games, I would recommend watching some game play on Twitch/YouTube before dropping the money on it.
Title: Re: Overwatch
Post by: KoolVirus on June 29, 2016, 02:55:10 PM
If anyone is playing Overwatch add me; KoolVirus#1470
See yall in game.
Title: Re: Overwatch
Post by: Flying Code Monkey on July 02, 2016, 09:33:28 AM
I am super-interested in Overwatch, but also extremely new to it ... so far just warming up with easy bot matches to get accustomed to the maps and basics before I dive into a real game and get killed a gazillion times by people with skill.  A semi-regular crew from around here would be extra nice.

The game says my full tag is FlynCodeMnky#1876.
Title: Re: Overwatch
Post by: Flying Code Monkey on July 14, 2016, 05:12:34 PM
In the event that there are some Overwatch experts lurking here, please explain what I'm doing wrong in this particular situation.

The map is Nepal.  The stage is the interior objective, the circular platform surrounded by a pit, surrounded in turn by a square of corridors.  Seems like every time I arrive on this map, an enemy Bastion plants himself in the far corner.  I can't blame him for doing so ... nice view of the objective platform, not many avenues of approach, with his back side facing the corner.  I've been wrestling with the most effective way to handle this situation.  Last night's attempt was with Genji.  For purposes of this example, I assert that ...

* Reflect was available when I approached and got his attention, then activated immediately when he fired on me.
* My targeting reticle for Reflect purposes was sitting on Bastion himself, not in some other location.
* He fired on me for the entire duration of Reflect, during which time I'm hearing the proper sound for bullets being reflected.
* He did not have a healer (nor did he self-heal until presumably after this incident).

At the conclusion of Reflect, instead of a dead pile of scrap in the corner, I'm facing a Bastion with about one-third of his health remaining.  As I stare at his not-corpse, wondering why he isn't dead, he continues firing and obliterates me (that part was predictable).  So ... I don't get it.  Given the circumstances as described, I thought this would be an effective counter, and I'm at a slight loss as to why it didn't work.  I suppose the possibility exists that he had extra armor from a Torbjorn (can't recall if they had one).  Has Bastion's reflected damage to himself been reduced?  Does the Reflect require extreme precision targeting?  I'd actually selected Genji specifically to counter the Bastion planted in the corner, and was quite confident it would work.

Caveat, I am by far not the best Genji who ever lived, but it looked as if I had done everything correctly ... up to the point where Bastion didn't die.  Conceded, I should have been more mobile as soon as Reflect concluded, and possibly escaped to the side.  I was a bit dumbstruck, which I admit.  Most likely, the Bastion was driven by a more experienced player, but I don't follow precisely what bit of skill would have saved him in this case.
Title: Re: Overwatch
Post by: Flying Code Monkey on July 15, 2016, 05:44:42 AM
So I've figured out what I'll be doing the next time I find a Bastion parked in that spot (he is so doomed), but I'm still baffled by my lack of Genji success.  Any additional information on how to handle him properly with Reflect will be much appreciated.