I played a lot of Overwatch. I owned it across all platforms and put in hundreds of hours across a number of years since its original release. I also bought far too many loot boxes thanks to my compulsive personality and skins my brain convinced me I couldn’t live without. With the power of hindsight it was a pretty bad time, and I’m relieved the RNG has been wiped away in favour of a more honest model of purchasing skins. No longer am I toying with a slot machine and pulling myself further into a spiraling gambling obsession.

To me, this doesn’t feel like a reward for players who decide against spending any money, but a forced incentive to cough up the dough or get lost. Why wouldn’t you pick up the battle pass if it meant a new hero immediately and a selection of other rewards for the time you’re going to be investing anyway? Blizzard likely sees this as good business, but I really hope this isn’t how each season is going to play out, with new heroes being held hostage by the premium side of things instead of providing a way for us to test them out or toy with the wider roster without restriction. Only time will tell, and Overwatch 2 still needs to find its feet.

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

For that reason I know that Kiriko is right up my street, and I’ll be playing her with a passion when launch rolls around, but knowing that potential to experiment is no longer possible unless I decide to grind my life away or make an investment kinda sucks, and takes away the free cadence of content I’d grown used to with the first game. This may be the price to pay for no loot boxes and a modernised progression system, but this feels like a teething pain instead of the game Overwatch 2 really wants to be. Perhaps I’ll be proven wrong and the payoff will be worthwhile, but right now I’m not so sure.

I really hope the initial intention was pure, but the aftermath leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The community has done a better job of portraying queer stories in the Overwatch universe than Blizzard has themselves. Pairings have emerged from chemistry found in the game’s dialogue that its creators failed to capitalise upon, which is the sign of an excellent universe filled with potential. Now, Blizzard just needs to build upon it and treat its canonical queer characters with greater resp

But with the release of Overwatch 2 and its debut season less than two weeks away, we now have a concrete picture of how the experience will play out, as well as how much it differs from what came before. This isn’t a premium product anymore, but instead a free game that anyone can download, jump into, and have a reasonably good time without spending a penny. There’s a free version of the battle pass too, albeit with far fewer rewards and a focus on grinding things out over a prolonged period of time, but it’s there, and that kinda rules.

The benefit of a battle pass, compared to a loot box, is you get to see what you’re buying. You know exactly what you get for your $10 before you buy the premium tier - though, you still don’t get to choose what you’re buying. If there’s a specific skin, victory pose, or voiceline you’re after, your only option is to buy Coins with real mo

As the years moved on and seasonal events began to repeat, I fell out of love with Overwatch. I returned following the surprise debut of Archives, which promised a more intricate delving into the lore behind my favourite operatives, but it was a surface level exploration of narrative elements that simply didn’t do enough. A few skins caught my eye, tempting me to indulge in free loot boxes and to grind for a couple alongside friends who returned for similar reas

If you’re a free-to-play Overwatch 2 tips|https://overwatch2Fans.com/ 2 player, you only get 20 items from the seasonal battle pass. Overwatch 2 seasons last nine weeks, so it would take you just over 20 years of consistently completing every battle pass to earn the same number of items I got from Overwatch’s loot boxes. If you’re willing to upgrade to the premium battle pass, which gives you all 80 items, you’ll catch up to me in a little over five years - and it will only cost you $500. I’m doing napkin math here. I haven't factored in the 60 Coins you can earn a week or whatever we might get for free from seasonal events, but you can see my po

But for those not planning to pick up the premium battle pass or aren’t already cemented in the Overwatch ecosystem, some new heroes are locked behind progression in ways that actively discourages the experimentation this game is all about. Kiriko - the new fox girl support hero who I am totally not simping for already - is available immediately to premium battle pass holders or existing players of the original Overwatch, while everyone else must grind to Level 55 in order to unlock her. That’s a big time investment for a hero in a hero shooter.