Tracer and Soldier 76’s sexuality were confirmed in comics and other supplemental materials, and you’d struggle to see them mentioned in the game itself with the exception of a few small inclusions. Emily, Tracer’s girlfriend, is an optional spray, and the time-zipping agent will mention her briefly in a piece of dialogue in King’s Row, but beyond this it’s slim pickings for the gays in Overwatch. With the sequel set to focus on narrative to a significant degree, I sincerely hope Blizzard does a better job of embracing its queer characters instead of treating them like a dirty little sec

Moira is similar to Ana in that I imagine she'd be a very solutions-driven kind of friend. She's probably not here for you crying in the bathroom and would be more interested in compiling a six-step plan to get you back on track, but I think she'd be far more willing to tolerate that one of those steps might have to be ‘sob in the bathroom for a little while’. She's the sort of friend who might put up a bit of a front, but goes out of her way to help you in secret ways. She needs to keep up her mystique, but she won't let a friend get hurt. We all need a Moira in our cor

I don’t care for online shooters in general; I’m much happier with a good offline story game most of the time. That’s a big reason why my Overwatch numbers are so low - I’m busy playing through a gripping narrative rather than getting better at playing as D.Va or

Finally, while Blizzard did share some updates on the mobile game Diablo Immortal, no release for the game was given. There is another testing phase planned for later this year, similar to the technical alpha held last Decemb

Typically, when games try and tell their in-game story outside of the game, it’s because the narrative is a bit naff. I don’t mean stuff like the Life is Strange or Tomb Raider comics, which both expand upon an existing story, I mean the likes of Outriders’ recent short there to give backstory and establish the lore of the game. Maybe just... do that in the game? But again, Overwatch is an exception to the rule. Overwatch’s character reveals feel like you’re reading a secret diary, it’s like you’re being let in on something special, not having a crumpled up piece of paper with the word ‘BaCkStOrY’ written on it in crayon - this, by the way, is exactly what watching that Outriders short felt l

It was convoluted and it didn’t do much to cut back on toxicity. Instead of antagonizing your teammates for not getting enough kills, players would just rub their gold medals in each other's faces. In the end, it just led to bullying with extra steps, so for Overwatch 2, the developers replaced it with a good old-fashioned scoreboard. Now players can see exactly how many elimins, assists, and deaths everyone has right away. Flaming your teammates has never been eas

The presentation began with the announcement of a retro collection of Blizzard's oldest games: Lost Vikings, Rock n' Roll Racing, Overwatch2Fans.Com and Blackthorne. The Arcade Collection features the original versions of all three games as well as a definitive edition that provides extra features like custom button mapping, the ability to save anywhere, rewinding up to ten seconds, and the ability to watch a playthrough of the game and jump in whenever you w

Where a lot of hero shooters have characters that either riff on Overwatch or age old tropes, Overwatch’s originality makes it easy to project onto. They still aren’t perfect - we won’t be able to play as a Black woman until Overwatch 2 - but they’re head and shoulders above the competition in terms of what I look for in the genre, even though I never play

The first online-only BlizzCon kicked off today with an announcement-filled opening ceremony. The livestream featured updates, reveals, surprises, and new game announcements, including some that are already available today. Here's a look at everything announced during the BlizzConline 2021 opening cerem

Overwatch has received a lot of deserved praise and justified criticism for its growing cast of characters, two of which have been confirmed as members of the LGBT community. Tracer, the game’s cover star, is a lesbian whose partner has featured in the universe a number of times, while hardened marine Soldier 76 is also homosexual. This diversity is welcome, and a step above many other games out there, but much of the queer discussion surrounding Overwatch is pushed to the sideli

I prefer a scoreboard in general. Transparent information is just more useful and easier to parse, and the medal system never functioned the way it was intended to. However, I do think something valuable was lost in the transition. In Overwatch, every match would end with a score screen that revealed all of your medals. In Overwatch 2, matches just end. On the one hand, getting players back into the queue to play another round as quickly as possible is a good priority to have. On the other, where are my shiny medals god damn