{"id":70376,"date":"2014-11-08T10:05:52","date_gmt":"2014-11-08T08:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=70376"},"modified":"2014-11-08T10:07:30","modified_gmt":"2014-11-08T08:07:30","slug":"overwatch-blizzards-pick-up-and-play-team-based-shooter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/70376-overwatch-blizzards-pick-up-and-play-team-based-shooter","title":{"rendered":"Overwatch: Blizzard\u2019s \u201cpick up and play\u201d team-based shooter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hold on to your keyboards, kids, because Blizzard has announced a brand new game. A shooter \u2014\u00a0of all things \u2014\u00a0which it calls <a title=\"Blizzard files new trademark\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/63178-blizzard-files-new-trademark.html\">Overwatch<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Billed as a \u201cpick-up-and-play first-person shooter\u201d with a fresh cast of heroes set in a brand new Blizzard game universe, Overwatch looks like the love child Team Fortress 2 might have had with <abbr title=\"Defence of the Ancients\">DotA<\/abbr>.<\/p>\n<p>Blizzard Entertainment&#8217;s big bossman Mike Morhaime made the big announcement at Blizzcon, their big annual event in Anaheim (California, USA) last night, to big applause.<\/p>\n<p>Did I mention that this was big? Because this is the first time Blizzard has announced plans for a shooter since the ill-fated StarCraft: Ghost was put on \u201cindefinite hold\u201d and eventually cancelled.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t let memories of Ghost being <a title=\"Blizzard explains why StarCraft: Ghost was canned\" href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/10047-blizzard-explains-why-starcraft-ghost-was-canned.html\">shunted from studio to studio<\/a> so that Blizzard could focus on World of WarCraft bring back the fever dreams, though.<\/p>\n<p>Overwatch promises to be a very different animal, and not just because its camera perspective differs from Ghost.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t believe me? You shouldn\u2019t. Here watch the cinematic trailer:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lNhcT_NivD8\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And then watch this gameplay footage:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pYC44YPb_5k\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And then <a href=\"http:\/\/playoverwatch.com\" target=\"_blank\">sign up for the beta<\/a>, which Blizzard promised would be coming in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Those who look closely might also see that there are striking similarities between the <a href=\"http:\/\/kotaku.com\/heres-what-blizzards-titan-actually-was-1638632121\/all\" target=\"_blank\">rumours around Titan<\/a>, the massively multiplayer online game which Blizzard recently announced <a href=\"http:\/\/www.polygon.com\/2014\/9\/23\/6833953\/blizzard-cancels-titan-next-gen-mmo-pc\" target=\"_blank\">it had cancelled<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Kotaku reported that development on Overwatch began in mid\u20132013, when Titan was cancelled.<\/p>\n<p>Blizzard\u2019s Chris Metzen later <a href=\"http:\/\/www.polygon.com\/2014\/11\/7\/7175677\/overwatch-titan-maps\" target=\"_blank\">confirmed on a panel<\/a> that people weren\u2019t just seeing things they wanted to see, but stressed that the two games are very different.<\/p>\n<p>Want to know more? Here\u2019s some of the PR stuff from the press release that accompanied the announcement:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cOverwatch is our take on a vibrant, near-future universe with amped-up characters and action-packed team-based gameplay,\u201d said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. \u201cWith every new Blizzard game, we look at our favourite aspects of a genre and put our own spin on things. Our goal with Overwatch is to create an awesome FPS experience that\u2019s more accessible to a much wider audience while delivering the action and depth that shooter fans love.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The heroes of Overwatch each bring their own distinct weapons and superabilities to bear. Here\u2019s just a glimpse of the numerous heroes that will ultimately fill Overwatch\u2019s rosters:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tracer, a former British test pilot who shrugs at danger, can execute impossible acrobatic assaults thanks to her ability to teleport, drop energy bombs, and even reverse time.<\/li>\n<li>Reinhardt, a hulking German soldier in battle armor, can charge great distances and pin his enemies to a wall or slam the ground with his rocket hammer to knock them off their feet.<\/li>\n<li>Hanzo, a bow-wielding Japanese mercenary, has the ability to scale walls with his bare hands, fire off a tracking device that illuminates nearby enemies for his team, and unleash a huge spirit dragon that does grievous damage to all enemies in its path.<\/li>\n<li>Symmetra, an Indian architech, manipulates light and energy to shield her allies and damage her enemies\u2014and she can turn the tide of any battle by building a device that instantly transports her teammates to the front lines.<\/li>\n<li>While each hero represents a formidable force on their own, players can amplify their potential by assembling into a well-balanced team and creatively combining powers. No matter which hero or playstyle they prefer, players will be able to team up and accomplish the incredible in Overwatch.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At BlizzCon this weekend, Overwatch is fully playable and running on 600 PCs, and attendees there are the first in the world to play it. Gamers at the show are able to select from a current roster of 12 playable heroes and go 6v6 against each other, capturing or defending points and attacking or delivering payloads across three wildly different maps. New heroes and maps will continually be added to the game as development progresses, and beta testing will begin in 2015.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3 id=\"related\">More Blizzard news<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/64771-blizzard-to-sue-starcraft-2-hackers.html\"><strong>Blizzard to sue Starcraft 2 hackers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/64049-activision-blizzard-to-spend-r5-2-billion-on-destiny.html\"><strong>Activision Blizzard to spend R5.2 billion on Destiny<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/63178-blizzard-files-new-trademark.html\"><strong>Blizzard files new trademark<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/62990-blizzard-games-battle-net-hit-by-ddos-attacks.html\"><strong>Blizzard games, Battle.net hit by DDoS attacks<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/news\/61568-blizzards-free-to-play-hearthstone-thrown-wide-open.html\"><strong>Blizzard\u2019s free-to-play Hearthstone thrown wide open<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the ashes of Titan, Blizzard has shaped Overwatch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":70378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1359,665,8963,21,2544,10096],"class_list":["post-70376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-activision-blizzard","tag-blizzard","tag-chris-metzen","tag-headline","tag-mike-morhaime","tag-overwatch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}