Overwatch

Overwatch 2 PVP Beta Preview: A natural progression

The highly anticipated Overwatch 2 comes straight off the back of, what is in my opinion, one of the most successful runs a PVP shooter has ever experienced. Putting the internal Activision Blizzard issues aside, the original Overwatch has most definitely stood the test of time, continuously aiming to uphold the balance that it has…

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Overwatch to rename McCree, no future characters to be named after staff

Activision Blizzard will rename Overwatch character Jesse McCree in a future update. The announcement came via a social media post on official Overwatch channels. A message from the Overwatch team. pic.twitter.com/2W3AV7Pv6X — Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) August 26, 2021 “As we continue to discuss how we best live up to our values and to demonstrate our commitment…

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TikTok

*Updated* Donald Trump signs Tencent order, may make many video games illegal

Update 3:00pm AEST Here is the (rather oddly written) section that indicates the order is targeted at Tencent’s WeChat app and not their broader portfolio. Update 2:45pm AEST Sources have reportedly confirmed to the LA Times that the executive order itself pertains only to Bytedance’s TikTok and Tencent’s WeChat and was written to specifically exclude…

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Here’s everything Nintendo announced during this morning’s massive Nintendo Direct

Nintendo were not messing around this morning. After announcing yesterday that a 40-minute Nintendo Direct broadcast was scheduled for 8am AEST this morning, the Big N followed through with an E3 level slew of announcements. There’s so much to get through that we’re just going to bulletpoint this and sprinkle some trailers. Ready? Here we…

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Rainbow Six: Siege scratches an itch Overwatch seems to have forgotten about

In mid-November 2018, popular Overwatch streamer and former pro player Brandon “Seagull” Larned posted a video to his YouTube channel titled The State of Overwatch. In it, Seagull breaks down a number of criticisms of Overwatch as a game at present. He takes issue with the state of the game’s ongoing GOATS Composition meta and the abundance…

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From Runescape to Overwatch: The gaming holiday events you’ve got to get amongst

It’s December! Which means presents, sales, friends, family… aaand End of Year Events across a range of games! It’s always great – developers preparing content to see the year off with their player-base, usually around a winter-Christmas theme, content to be playable and fresh through until the next year… it’s almost a tradition of online games to…

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A love letter to the venerable video game shotgun

The shotgun is an immortal video game weapon. It’s simple — you click, they die. No arguments. If its a video game with guns in it, and most of them are, and it doesn’t have a shotgun in it … I mean, what are we even doing here? Its roots are deep, with the most…

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What makes a good ‘Ongoing’ game, now that we’re awarding games that have continued support?

This year marks the second year that The Games Awards have celebrated an ‘Ongoing game’ award, beginning last year and being won by Overwatch, to recognise “A trend towards games that continue to entertain long after their release and continue to grow and evolve with their players”, as last years presented made out on stage….

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A love letter to the humble video game grappling hook

Think about all the video games you’ve played. Now think about how many of those titles didn’t have a grappling hook in them and how lame that was. The grappling hook is one of the most iconic tropes in video games history. It has such longevity that people are still making games built around it…

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Gaming as a Service has been good for consumers, but tough for some developers

In 2010, Gabe Newell joined Sony at E3, in one of the most controversial crossovers of all time, to announce cross platform play between PS3 and PC for their then-forthcoming title, Portal 2. Newell also noted that he and the gathered throng were seeing a shift in the games industry. Video: Kahleb Olsson “Entertainment-as-a-product to…

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Limited Edition LEGO Overwatch Omnic Bastion has just been released

Overwatch, released in 2016 allows you to control one of several Heros in 6 v 6 shooting matches. Released on PS4, Xbox and Windows, this game is now being brought to reality… by reality I mean joining blocks together, using this thing you might have of heard before called LEGO! With a player base of…

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WIN one of 10 Virtual Tickets to BlizzCon 2018!

BlizzCon 2018, the biggest event of the year for fans of Blizzard Entertainment, is now only a month away. There’s so much to see at a convention this huge — from announcements for Blizzard titles like Overwatch, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone, to the pulse-pounding finale of the Overwatch World Cup — that it’s become…

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Games Interview: Heroes of the Storm‘s Matthew Cooper talks Mephisto, Hanamura and more

Mephisto, Diablo‘s Lord of Hatred himself, has entered the Nexus. We spoke to Heroes of the Storm Lead Content Designer Matthew Cooper to find out what it takes to successfully weave a character like Mephisto into a game like HotS, and we pick his brain on the recent Hanamura map rework, one of the comprehensive in…

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Microsoft Store’s Esports Academy is a crash course in the trials and tribulations of going pro in Aus

The Microsoft Store in Sydney’s Pitt St Mall will be hosting a brand new course these school holidays centred entirely around teaching students about what it takes to succeed in the rapidly emerging world of competitive esports.

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StarCraft is turning 20 and we’ve never felt older. There’s free stuff though, if that helps

StarCraft, Blizzard’s evergreen (and only surviving) real time strategy series is turning 20 next month. If, like me, you were there and wondering if your Pentium 133 would run the game when it launched in 1998, you may be reading this in the grip of an existential crisis, horrified by the relentless passage of time….

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Overwatch‘s latest hero is Brigitte Lindholm — support/tank hyrbid and jill of all trades

After several days of teasers and speculation, Blizzard have revealed the latest hero joining the now 27-strong line up in Overwatch. Brigitte Lindholm, daughter of Swedish weapons master Torbjorn, is a tank/support hybrid, sporting one of the most unique kits of any character introduced so far.

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Want to join the Overwatch League? Overwatch Contenders begins in Aus and NZ in March

Australian and New Zealand players who think they’ve got what it takes to play in the Overwatch League can put their skills to the test when the Overwatch Contenders league touches down locally next month.

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The Overwatch League is making a few changes to its broadcast schedule for Stage 2

With Stage 2 of the Overwatch League’s inaugural season set to begin next week, Blizzard have announced a few changes to their broadcast lineup stemming from viewer feedback across Stage 1. This means a few timeslots are going to change. What does that mean for you, ANZ viewer?

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Overwatch League signs its first female player

With Stage 1 of the Overwatch League now complete, and with trades and player buys now in full swing ahead of Stage 2’s launch next week, we’re starting to see squads announce the newest additions to their lineups. The Shanghai Dragons are leading the Stage 2 charge with the signing of the OWL’s first female…

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Overwatch Year of the Dog event begins next week

Overwatch‘s Lunar New Year event returns next week according to an announcement from the game’s official Twitter account. The seasonal event begins on February 9 in Australia.

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Could the trade window finally break the Korean stranglehold on the Overwatch League?

In its first three weeks of competition, the Overwatch League, Blizzard’s ambitious tilt at an organised esports league, has been dominated by a triumvirate of Korean supersquads. All three have confidently held gold, silver and bronze on the ladder since the competition began. Many, ourselves included, wondered what, if anything, Blizzard could do to ensure…

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Overwatch‘s Blizzard World update has finally arrived

Trying to explain Overwatch‘s newest map, Blizzard World, is really weird. There is so much going on here, and so many logical and logistical cul-de-sacs to navigate, its easy to get lost in it. Let me try to explain.

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The Overwatch League is only a week old and there’s already a problem emerging

If there’s a problem with Blizzard Entertainment’s big esports gamble, Overwatch League, (beyond its rather obvious lack of female players and presenters) it’s that the divide in the skill level between its best teams and its less talented ones is pretty stark.

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The Overwatch League kicks off at 11am. Here’s where you can see every Week One match live

The day has finally arrived. One of 2018’s biggest esports events, the Overwatch League, kicks off at 11am AEDT today. With nine matches scheduled across Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we’ve got all the times and stream details so you don’t miss a moment of the action.

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The Iris’s Game of the Year Top 10: Honourable Mentions

2017 was such a fantastic year for games that we had to cut a great many titles we really loved from our final Top 10. There were a few titles, however, that we felt were well worth shouting out, titles that made an impression on us throughout the year. Ones we’re still thinking about now….

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Hanzo mains rejoice, you can now troll people in two games

Everyone’s favourite Overwatch troll pick, archer Hanzo Shimada, is about to be make his debut in Blizzard’s hero brawler/MOBA title Heroes of the Storm.

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Overwatch‘s 2017 Winter Wonderland event kicks off next week

Blizzard are bringing back Overwatch‘s holiday event for a second year with fresh skins, Mei’s Global Snowball Offensive, and a brand new Boss Fight mode that sounds like the world’s friendliest Evolve mod.

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Opinion: Is it time to raise the price of video games?

In the past few weeks, complaints against microtransactions in AAA games have reached a crescendo, with anger directed towards EA’s Star Wars Battlefront II, Monolith’s Middle-earth: Shadow of War and more recently, Activision’s Call of Duty: WWII for their inclusion of paid loot boxes.

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Win one of 10 virtual tickets to BlizzCon 2017!

For fans of Blizzard Entertainment titles like Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo and Hearthstone, there’s no bigger date than BlizzCon. But for Australian fans, BlizzCon 2017’s home at the Anaheim Convention Centre in Los Angeles is a pretty epic trip to make. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Blizzard ANZ to give away 10 Virtual…

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Ana is coming to Heroes of the Storm and here’s everything you need to know about her

The demand for Overwatch characters in Blizzard’s popular strategic hero brawler Heroes of the Storm has been rife ever since the game’s roster of iconic heroes was announced. Having added D.va, Tracer, Genji and Zarya to the mix in previous updates, Blizzard have now revealed two new Overwatch characters heading to the Nexus — Ana and Junkrat. While not much…

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