Overwatch

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This is a decent article about someone's first impressions: http://kotaku.com/overwatch-makes-a-great-first-impression-1740372992

Personally, I can't get enough of watching people play this game. It's fantastically pretty to look at, and it's really got a good amount of energy to it, and everyone who's in the Beta seems to be having a blast with it so far.




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[Geostigma]

I didn't get a key for this. I am salty =/

 

[Cthulhu]

Oh right this is a new Blizzard franchise, could've sworn it was Valve... which is anecdotal proof about where they got their inspiration from (TF2, maybe dota to a lesser degree). I'm not convinced or excited though; tried HOTS, not convinced (but then I never really got into its competitors either), and this looks just like TF2, just slower (based on that gameplay trailer) and with a load more kinda lame characters/stereotypes.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

The pacing is really solid. Here's a couple random videos from YouTubers that I follow:

Also, Duncan's starting a series about all the characters with Pharah.

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[X-SOLDIER]

New gameplay trailer:

Stoked that there'll be a PS4 version, so that my lovely significant other and I can play it.



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[Geostigma]

IDK why but for some reason I thought Overwatch was gonna be F2P.

Honestly though 40$ for the base game is reasonable and I do happen to play enough of other Blizzard games where the 60$ Origins Edition actually doesn't sound like a bad deal. Especially for those D3 wings which would be really neat to have since I don't have wings in D3 and all the other ones go for several hundred dollars lol.

 

[Cthulhu]

It's not? TIL. I did gather that the console versions wouldn't be though (idk, console games always have distribution costs?), and in that case it'd be unfair for PC players. Ah well, if the base game is good and they limit the in-game purchases / DLC then it should be fine.

then again, this is Blizzard, who hauled in billions or so with the Diablo 3 in-game purchases thing and will probably repeat it in one way or another.

 

[Geostigma]

Yep. Unless I misread the purchase page or something idk lol. Maybe it could be free and be pulling a Smite with a 1 time purchase for all heroes deal lol

http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/buy/

But yeah your right. If Heroes of the Storm is any indication Blizzard can definitely monetize the crap out of Overwatch =/

 

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[X-SOLDIER]

All the available/unlockable skins in the new Beta Relaunch

Also, Amazon has informed me that the PS4 release date is apparently May 24th now.




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[Tennyo]

I remember being surprised when I saw that this was made by Blizzard. I, too, thought this was Valve. It seems very Team Fortress 2 to me.

 

[FallenAngel]

The *vast* majority of these are just palette swaps/recolors.
I mean, I get that they can't just churn out 4+ fully featured skins per char when the game isn't even out yet, but I'm afraid that people will see the sheer amount of available recolors as a cash grab.

Ideally, in a game that has a rather hefty base cost like this one, simple recolors should be free, since the real money for MOBA-style games is in alternate skins anyway.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

…you realize that none of those skins cost ACTUAL money, right? The palette swaps are all immediately available, and the others are all things that you can either win, or get with in-game currency earned by winning things in matches.

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[Geostigma]

Not to mention they don't really look that bad AND they are pretty to look at. They look like they actually took skill to make and weren't half assed.

Want to see some real garbage? Look up smite skins. Here I'll save you the trouble and screen cap a few

 

[FallenAngel]

…you realize that none of those skins cost ACTUAL money, right? The palette swaps are all immediately available, and the others are all things that you can either win, or get with in-game currency earned by winning things in matches.

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I did not, in fact.
Nowhere in the video(I watched the first one) does it insinuate that though(all palette swaps appear locked in the vid with a "price" next to them, that didn't look like immediately available to me...there wasn't a voice-over explaining Overwatch's skin system either so I just went and assumed it works like other MOBAs I've heard of) and Overwatch isn't a game I've followed that closely(I've seen enough gameplay clips to be interested but haven't bothered checking out their monetization scheme) so I guess I got mislead.
Thanks for clearing that up then.

Not to mention they don't really look that bad AND they are pretty to look at. They look like they actually took skill to make and weren't half assed.

Want to see some real garbage? Look up smite skins. Here I'll save you the trouble and screen cap a few

Have played neither game and the screens for Smite are really pretty tiny so their exact quality is hard to judge from just those pics, that said a recolor is a recolor is a recolor.
A skinny Smite dude with a light paintjob vs the same dude with a dark paintjob doesn't excite me any more than a Overwatch robot with a light grey paintjob vs the same robot with a dark grey paintjob.

They're both comparatively low effort works and I see little reason to bash one game for it and not another?

The gold/blue, gold/black and silver/blue palettes that seem to color the character's skin and hair as well() and drown out all details look like complete crap though, I'll give you that.
Is that indicative of the general skin quality for the game or did you just pick a bunch that were especially bad?

 

[Joe]

Apologies that this isn't really related to Overwatch, but here's another representation of skins in SMITE.

There are golden and diamond reskins for every character that can only be made available through reaching a certain rank with that character. Outside of this, they each have other sets of unique skins and outfits you can buy. They're not half-assed by any measure. They even change the effects and particles of their abilities.

Anyhow. I'd never pay money for a skin that was essentially a recolour. To hell with that, it's lazy as fuck.

 

[FallenAngel]

Interesting. So the golden/diamond(totally looked like silver to me) skins are intentionally garish to broadcast "look at me I play this character a lot!" from 10 miles away, but the other skins have more variance and change in-game graphics for skills?

Do Overwatch skins(the high-tier, non-palette swap ones) change in-game skill visuals as well?

 

[Geostigma]

Yes gold/Legendary/diamond skins right now are mastery rewards for playing a God a ton then once you master the champ you are allowed to purchase it with in game currency..

But initially that wasn't quite the case. You could still achieve them via mastery + in game currency. Except the cost was astronomically high and it was more affordable at that time to use their purchased currency if you REAAAALLY wanted a bronze turd.

They've scaled the cost back mainly due to the amount of people rightfully calling out Hi-rez for giving a shit deal.


I feel my point still stands though. Many of I would say the first 25-30 Gods have easily some of the laziest and ugliest recolors in video game history in my opinion. Many of which have been rectified to being purchasable only by in game currency rather than cash , but at one time all of them were only able to be purchased by cash. Which again was changed because fans surprisingly don't like paying real money for virtual shit.

One only needs to go to the smite wiki and look up champs by release date and check out their skins.


And i contest that a recolor is not simply a recolor.

In Overwatch the recolor skins atleast look like they put time and effort into crafting the pallete swap and considered the colors used.

Smite's Black haired apollo literally just has black hair, pants and is pale. His complexion imo doesn't even mesh well with the aesthetic they went for either.




Going off the top of my head some Smite early gods to look for on the wiki would be (these numbers are not including the literally stain on my eye balls that are the golden/legendary/diamond skins)

Ra , Has something like 4 recolors. Off set by having the genius Ra-Merica one though.
Neith , 3 recolors
Isis- 2-3 Recolors.
Anubis - 3 recolors
Poseidon - 2 recolors (one is literally just wearing a t-shirt over the base model)

Bakasura used to be recolor incarnate but it seems they updated his model.
Old Ao Kuang was also recolor incarnate.


I think Hi-Rez actually realized they can't pedal crap covered recolors as skins around the time Nemesis was released and they did up their game.

Until then though a ton of skins were simply recolors and were NOT free.

 

[Joe]

Oh I wasn't trying to contest the point that there were a lot of lazy reskins in the game. There's at least one effortless skin for every single character, even if you leave out the 'prestige' ones like the golds and diamonds.
It's just your initial point leaned heavily towards completely ignoring all of the unique and well-designed skins, of which there are quite a lot now. It kind of made it look like SMITE only has lazy reskins for their aesthetic purchases, which is very far from the case at this point. Not that I'm much of a SMITE player anyhow.

Moving the conversation back to Overwatch, do we know if planned future characters will be purchasable? I like that buying the game gives you all the characters - and it's plenty more than I expected from Blizzard - but I'm wondering if all owners of Overwatch will gain access to new characters as they're released, or if they will monetize that.

 

[Geostigma]

Oh I wasn't trying to contest the point that there were a lot of lazy reskins in the game. There's at least one effortless skin for every single character, even if you leave out the 'prestige' ones like the golds and diamonds.
It's just your initial point leaned heavily towards completely ignoring all of the unique and well-designed skins, of which there are quite a lot now. It kind of made it look like SMITE only has lazy reskins for their aesthetic purchases, which is very far from the case at this point. Not that I'm much of a SMITE player anyhow.

Moving the conversation back to Overwatch, do we know if planned future characters will be purchasable? I like that buying the game gives you all the characters - and it's plenty more than I expected from Blizzard - but I'm wondering if all owners of Overwatch will gain access to new characters as they're released, or if they will monetize that.

Well I think I was biased because when I did play

It kind of made it look like SMITE only has lazy reskins for their aesthetic purchases

This was absolutely the case. That's why I give Overwatch a big pass , the skins comparatively are great for recolors (where as Smites were not ) and they are free from the get go. Heck some of them I wouldn't mind paying for if the price was right.


As far as New champion releases. I could have sworn I saw an interview with Chris Metzen where he said buying the game gives you new champs free as well.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

As someone who actually plays SMITE, I can say that their Golden/Legendary/Diamond (mastery) skins are getting a lot better. They're also in the process of converting all the old-style mastery skins (the ones with shiny skin/hair) into the new style mastery skins that have normal colored skin/hair. So a lot more people are getting those (and those skins are more about the bragging rights that come with Mastery Lvl 10 then looks). Also, the amount of new skins they come out with each new patch is getting a tad ridiculous...

Also, given that you're a lot closer to your character then in isometric games (SMITE plays like a 3rd-person shooter) the details on even re-colors aren't lost on you or on other players.

On a side note, the degree and cost of skins aren't random. They follow the following tier list:

Tier 1: Recolors and Mastery skins
Tier 2: Slight model modifications of default skins
Tier 3: Different theme then the original skin, often have custom voice packs and new skill graphics
Tier 4: Different theme then the original skin, always have custom voice packs and always have different skill graphics

With Tier 1 skins costing currency you earn by playing the game, and the other Tiers costing currency you pay for (or by the log-in rewards...)

Realistically, an average skin set for gods looks something like this:

Spoiler: Isis

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Overwatch is gonna support Atmos over headphones, and other cool things like the fact all of the heroes have their own footstep audio, etc. will make that pretty kickass for anyone who can use it.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/overwatch-will-let-you-play-by-sound-with-dolby-au/1100-6435821/




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[FallenAngel]

On the one hand, that sounds like a really cool thing.
Immersion gaming has become an increasingly popular topic, though largely focused on various VR/AR viewing devices so far, there have been some cool experiments/advances made with the technology and having the audio component follow suit seems like the logical next step.

On the other hand, I'm a bit concerned that, if it actually turns out to be as big an advantage as they make it sound like, people unable to afford expensive, high-quality headphones will be at a notable disadvantage.

I guess it won't turn out to be as big a difference at the casual playing level as it would at the pro-gaming level(where everyone will then use the appropriate hardware anyway), since even if you hear a footstep noise from 3 feet diagonally above you, most people won't be able to, in a split second, recognize exactly which of the 21 characters it is(unless the foostep sounds are really distinctive), in which direction he/she/it is moving, check the markers to make sure that's not actually an ally and then pinpoint shoot the nearest point from where you could be potentially ambushed.

Pretty sure I couldn't at least.

 

[Geostigma]

God I love Blizzard Cinematics. They always make me want more but Overwatch cinematics go that extra mile and make me wish it was a movie.

If you have never seen the WoW cinematics I highly recommend doing so as well they are all great. This video *should* get the Xpack cinematics on auto play

I had a video to all cut scenes for D3 but edited it out because the guy who made the video is a retard :mosnter: I'll just put the best one instead lol
Spoiler as fuck though if you never played D3.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

That was FANTASTIC! I can't wait for the other ones!!

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