Overwatch

Everything about the announcement (plus all of the announcements at Blizzcon) feel sleazy and this just feels like a money move - not a move that's going to be good for the game.

what did they even announce? diablo4: apology edition, overwatch "sequel" and WoW's story getting more exceptional with every update, that's pretty much all I've heard. considering that shit ran for 3 days that's laughable.
 
I'm really interested, but there's no way in hell I'll pay full price for what is apparently just a fleshed out version of their annual "horde mode". It helps a lot that this will apparently be the vehicle they use for finally adding some story to their game with 30 fucking characters in it, but I'm also unsure of how that's supposed to work out. Is it going to have it's own seasonal updates where a new "episode" and storyline plays out? Is it just going to be exactly like the first game where they add some silly shit that moves nothing along?

I'm gonna laugh my ass off if they basically copy battleborn at this point.

here is how it worked: base game has a few pve missions for the different factions and unlocks a character (if you haven't already), typical banter depending on character, if you bring a certain character related to the "lore" of that faction/character you get some extra voicelines explaining some of the backstory (like why the lucha-libre has mechanical arms - because the other asshole robot character ripped them off. and that was long before doomfist).

season pass added story mode operations, basically the same but a lot more freeform and had 10 different "stories" per map since you were expected to play it at least 10 times to unlock all cosmetics (and once with every char to get their specific outfit, but that was just a recolor). gameplay etc was the same, just the voiceovers changed.
with freeform I mean one story was 3-4 characters sitting around a campfire and telling a scary story, with everyone going "here's what's actually happened". great fun actually and it really fleshed out some characters instead of just giving them a funny accent (like how the "russian" treehugger goes full russian soul. never expected that from gearbox of all people).

and in battleborn the pve stuff at least had some purpose to farm items to improve your character or add some new mechanic. don't even wanna imagine what shitty progression system blizz will tack on.
 
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The new HUD looks like baby's new unity fps game.
It’s called minimalism. And it sucks. Who needs art direction when you can just make every interface have the exact same fucking font.
 
So basically Overwatch: The Pre-Sequel except they couldn't wait for the second game before going full Anthony Burch on it. Also the promise of everything being transferrable is moot because, you know, it's the exact same fucking game with a couple of bells and whistles added before repackaging...

I won't be getting it since I never got into the first, and mere cosmetic grinding seemed pointless to me anyway. It just sucks that this half-assed effort counts as a "sequel" to modern consumers.
 
I won't be getting it since I never got into the first, and mere cosmetic grinding seemed pointless to me anyway.
A couple years ago, I spent twenty fucking dollars on some retarded holiday loot boxes that gave me a bunch of bullshit wrapped in Christmas lights that made my brain juices feel nice. Loot boxes kill, kids.
 
I think Blizzard treating it like a sequel is irritating people because Overwatch 1 doesn't feel close to "done" as a game, from a development standpoint. Everything about the announcement (plus all of the announcements at Blizzcon) feel sleazy and this just feels like a money move - not a move that's going to be good for the game.
It's a sequel but not in the way we think the sequel is but a big expansion. That's not verbatim but that's sort of how the qoute went. The reason people are irratated is the lack of transparency and what seems like a confused product as they can barelu tell us what it's directly supposed to be but to me it's an expansion they're treating like a sequel or a sequel that is supposed to "feel" like an expansion.
So basically Overwatch: The Pre-Sequel except they couldn't wait for the second game before going full Anthony Burch on it. Also the promise of everything being transferrable is moot because, you know, it's the exact same fucking game with a couple of bells and whistles added before repackaging...
I got the feeling that's for the people who think that just because they don't have to buy the skins again (which they'd do anyway as that's how Whales work) means it's enough incentive to make the game feel like the kind of sort of but not really sequel Blizzard is failing to make people understand due to confused marketing. Other than the approach to the PvE content which could have easily been in the first game there's nothing really new that warrants a purchase unless they force people to play this "updated" version which is made pointless when they announced eventually OW2 and OW will be merged into the same client.

That opens the question of why bothering making this product if all you need is a shinier version of the same engine to make things look slightly different.
 
That opens the question of why bothering making this product if all you need is a shinier version of the same engine to make things look slightly different.

60 bucks for another "game", that money wouldn't fly for an expansion or even an update. you also get free marketing with sites reporting OMG SEQUEL IS COMING instead of "new update released" that gets drowned out by other stuff, which hypes the game again and puts it back in people's perception.

from a business point it makes sense. still a shitty move.
 
from a business point it makes sense. still a shitty move.

Unclear marketing is actually a really bad business move and unless Blizzard does an amazing job clearing up whatever the fuck Overwatch 2 is supposed to be in the next short while - they're going to lose sales as a result.

Nintendo ate tons of shit for unclear marketing (via the Wii vs. the Wii U, the 3DS and the "new" 3DS, etc) until they learned their lesson and cleaned up their messaging through marketing.

Blizzard has already wasted tons of time to get the messaging out, as well, another bad business move. Blizzcon would have been the place to lay it all out and get into the very minor details but it came and went with no answers for anyone. There's no release date, there's no pricing (+ no answers to how it works if you've got a version of the game already, physical/digital for consoles), no new heroes, no systems details, etc.

They very clearly rushed the Overwatch 2 annoucment because they wanted good press from Blizzcon (after a bad one last year + them being in trouble this year with esports + them being in touble for being Chinese Bootlickers) but they botched it so hard they didn't get much from it - same as Diablo 4.

In my opinion - the smart move would have been to rush one of the announcments (Diablo 4 or Overwatch 2) and have that be the headline getter, then have a much more polished annoucement for the other title at Blizzcon 2020, because even if you take away all of the hot water Blizzard is in from a PR standpoint - from a strictly gamer standpoint - no one cares when Blizzard games are announced; people care when they're released.

Diablo 3 took 4+ years to finish, then another ~18 months to fix and then tied a bunch of the fixes into an expansion.
Overwatch took a similar amount of time, after being made from the guts of a dead project allegedly a decade old.
Starcraft 2 took 3+ years to get out 1/3rd of the game, it took 8+ for them to get all the way to the full campaign.

They really need to reexamine how much "social capitol" they've got, because they're acting like they have tons when they have next to none - and this OW2 announcement shows it.
 
So let me get this straight... They’re changing Overwatch to Overwatch 2. But it’s basically the same game with added content?

What’s the fucking point then?
 
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So let me get this straight... They’re changing Overwatch to Overwatch 2. But it’s basically the same game with added content?

What’s the fucking point then?

It's a really convoluted way to sell an expansion to a product while also trying to make sure they don't fracture/lose the existing Overwatch 1 playerbase, which is already dwindling.
 
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So can someone confirm this for me

i read somewhere that if you buy overwatch 2 you get access to the single player stuff, and the multi player

but if you bought overwatch 1 you need to buy overwatch 2 to play the single player stuff

So blizzard are gouging their original overwatch adopters twice?
 
So can someone confirm this for me

i read somewhere that if you buy overwatch 2 you get access to the single player stuff, and the multi player

but if you bought overwatch 1 you need to buy overwatch 2 to play the single player stuff

So blizzard are gouging their original overwatch adopters twice?

No one can confirm it because Blizzard hasn't set the record straight. I can tell you what's very likely though.

Overwatch 1 players will get all of the base updates and thier launcher will turn into Overwatch 2, but will only have "PVP" available, with the other options (PvE, Story, Training/Whatever) greyed out. To unlock the other modes, there will be a cost ($20-$40 depending on how big Blizzard's balls are) which would be very similar to how they currently handle expansions (for Starcraft/Diablo/WoW) - this will be handled though the console store/blizzard launcher.

New Overwatch 2 players will just have it like a brand new game, same menu but with all options unlocked right away, likely for the full $60 (depending on how big Blizzard's balls are, again).

The only problem they're going to encounter is that they're going to have to release the "Overwatch 2" stuff on consoles as DLC, meaning that you'll need a physical disc to play it on consoles (not switch) if you've got Overwatch 1 physically, which most people do.
 
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This gameplay trailer makes me wonder why game ai has stagnated and gone downhill. Is it just not something that gets budgeted anymore?
 
So let me get this straight... They’re changing Overwatch to Overwatch 2. But it’s basically the same game with added content?

What’s the fucking point then?
It has to be money to be honest. It's the same engine which can be updated and released for those already playing the game I'd imagine they could just shut down OW for a while to update the engine then bring the game back up .The only new content that has been showed is the emphasis on PvE and the whole leveling thing that will go on with it (It's gonna be very limited), a new character and one new PvP mode that could just been in the current OW.
 
This gameplay trailer makes me wonder why game ai has stagnated and gone downhill. Is it just not something that gets budgeted anymore?
I can only imagine it's because making challenging AI wouldn't appeal to mass audiences. Mass audiences who wouldn't have bought the game anyway.
 
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