Tag Archive

Blizzard’s Action RPG Series Comes To Mobile With Diablo Immortal

Posted on November 2, 2018 by Rae Michelle Richards

What Is It?

Diablo Immortal is the first entry in Blizzard’s two decades old ARPG franchise to be developed specifically for mobile phones. Revealed during the Blizzcon 2018 opening ceremonies, Diablo Immortal is promising to be the full dungeon crawling experience that players are used too but optimized for mobile devices and touch-centric interfaces. Development duties aren’t being handled by Blizzard directly but rather by Chinese publisher Net Ease who have published Minecraft in China, as well as the popular mobile Battle Royale, games Knives Out and Rules of Survival.

Is Your Favorite Class In Diablo Immortal?

At launch Diablo Immortal will support six classes:

  • Monk
  • Wizard
  • Crusader
  • Demon Hunter
  • Necromancer

No additional classes have been announced but during their “Diablo What’s Next” panel, developers did say that they will be listening to community feedback about what classes to bring to Immortal in the future.

What Do We Know About The World of Diablo Immortal?

  • Lore-wise Diablo Immortal is set between Diablo II and Diablo III and will explain questions like “what happened once Tyrel left heaven?” and “what was Deckard Cain up to between the two games?”.
  • Skarn, the Herald of Terror will be featured prominently alongside select baddies from Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.
  • 8 public zones will be in Diablo Immortal at launch with the first zone to be revealed called “Bilefen”, another zone called “Frozen Throne” (and no – not Arthas’ Frozen Throne) will also be available. Adventurers will also explore a library belonging to Zoltun Kulle that is different from the one that appeared in Diablo III.
  • Westmarch is a large thriving capital city during the events of Immortal.
  • Shared multiplayer open world zones will have respawning monsters while instanced dungeons will not have NPC respawns.

When Will It Be Out?

We don’t know when Diablo Immortal will release on either Google Play or iOS App Store just yet. It is also unknown how monetization will work in Diablo Immortal, if the game will be free-to-play or if it will be a premium priced mobile game.  By pre-registering on the game’s official website, future players can unlock rewards.

Source: WoWhead

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MomoCon Announce SUDA 51, Warren Spector, Blizzard Talent As The Big Draws For 2018

Posted on May 3, 2018 by Rae Michelle Richards

Anime conventions are pretty dang fun aren’t they? I’ve been attending conventions for at least the past 15 years – both as a fun activity with friends but also in a work capacity for coverage here. Anime and gaming fans in Atlanta, Georgia are going to have a lot to do at MomoCon This coming May 24th – 27th with the announcement of their special guests line-up.

SUDA 51 – the founder of Grasshopper Manfucture and creator of Killer Is Dead, No More Heroes and Killer 7 is joining representatives from Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) to make a mysterious special announcement. Perhaps with Travis Strikes Again coming out for Nintendo Switch this year we will see the first two No More Heroes titles on Nintendo’s hybrid handheld console?


Cossplay photo from MomoCon 2017 via MomoCon PR

Blizzard, not being content to just attend their own multi-day convention will be at MomoCon as well. Joining developers from the Heroes of the Storm Team and Overwatch Team are the voice actors for Mercy (Lori Pohl), Junkrat (Christopher Parson), Pharah (Lucie Phol) and Soldier 76 (Fred Tatasciore) will band together to defend the payload.. I mean help out with Blizzard’s selection of panels.

MomoCon 2018 takes place from Thursday May 24th through Sunday May 27th at the Georgia World Congress Center.

 


Lastly voice actors from a number of DragonBall fighting games from the last few generations of consoles will be on hand to share their experiences playing Akira Toyayama’s iconic characters. The voice actors from the latest Dragon Ball Fighterz, the Budokai series of games, Raging Burst and of course the Funimation dub of DBZ will be on hand. The recognizable voices of Sean Schemmel (Goku), Kyle Hebert (Gohan, Narrator), Christopher Sabat (Piccolo, Vegeta) and Josh Martin (Majin Buu) will all be present and sharing their experiences with attendees.

 

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Blizzard Celebrates Starcraft 20th Anniversary With Cross Game Promotional Event

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Rae Michelle Richards

Blizzard has rolled out a whole wave of unlockable goodies across Diablo III, Starcraft 2, Overwatch, Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original Starcraft on PC. Each game has a different reward to claim ranging from small profile portraits to exclusive skins featuring Sarah Kerrigan (yay!).

Here’s a breakdown of what players of each tittle will receive should they login between today and March 31st:

  • Starcraft Remastered (full version) – Starcraft 20th Anniversary UI Skin.
  • Starcraftr II – A set of three user interface skins (one per race), a portrait and a decal.
  • World of Warcraft – /salute a Starcraft mini-pet and receive the “Salute to Starcraft” limited time achievement.
  • Overwatch – Sarah Kerrigan Ghost Skin for Widowmaker.
  • Hearthstone – Play the Starcraft themed Tavern Brawl between March 21st and 25th and receive 3 free Kobolds & Catacombs packs.
  • Heroes of the Storm – 20th anniversary Protoss, Terran and Zerg display pictures featuring artwork from the original game.
  • Diablo III – Dominion’s Revenge pet.

I’m a little disappointed in the Heroes of the Storm reward in particular. Considering the amount of Starcraft Heroes – like Raynor, Kerrigan, Tychus etc – you’d think they’d have something a little more substantial than three display pictures. Both SCII and Heroes of the Storm even share the same engine! Rumor has it the next revealed hero will be from the Starcraft Universe but the dev team could have done so muchg better here.

For more details check out the official Starcraft II site.

[Image via SubControllers on Flickr]

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Microtransactions Outpacing Game Sales Sets a Worrying Precedent

Posted on November 9, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

You might have already heard the news yesterday: Ubisoft mentioned on their Investor’s Call that “Player Recurring Investments” (read: microtransactions) have outpaced the sale of full price and discounted digital copies of their games for the first time ever. In terms of raw numbers of the 343 million euros the company made from their digital businesses 175 million Euros were the result of “Player Recurrent Investments” (which include microtransactions, add-on DLCs, Rainbow Six Siege Season Passes, subscriptions and those sorts of things). The 83% rise in microtransaction purchases over the past year for Ubisoft could signal the tipping point where small recurring payments within the AAA games we play outpaces traditional complete products for the foreseeable future. 

I’m certainly not calling this the “death of the $60 game” or “the decline of games as a complete product” but there is no denying that over the past year major game studios have tried to forcefully inject smaller purchases into franchises that have not been known to use the previously mobile only lootboxes / battle crates / whatever you’d like to call them. What started with cosmetic item crates in Overwatch has quickly morphed into Warner Bros Interactive selling Legendary Orcs for real money in Shadow of War, players being able to purchase level-ups and weapon power in Fortnite‘s PVE mode and most recently random lootbox exclusive mount skins in ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2.  

A slide outlining the “digital revenue split” between Digital Distribution and Player Recurring Investments.

Tempting players with the chance of highly coveted items, exclusive skins and other valuables for only a small amount of cash does sound an awful lot like gambling. Yes, there is no chance of getting “nothing” when you purchase an Overwatch loot box but the disappoint that comes when you open a box that contains nothing but duplicates, sprays and the occasional voice lines became such a meme within the community that the Overwatch team found it necessary to fiddle with the odds found within loot boxes so that duplicates are less prevalent. 

While I’m on the topic of odds – popular public contests like Mcdonald’s Monopoly, Casino tables and slot machines in British Columbia and other games of chance have to clearly outline the odds that a player faces before they make their decision.  The gaming industry has not faced threats of regulation when it comes to disclosing odds to players in North America yet but the Chinese government is well ahead of us and passed a law requiring game makers to disclose the odds of “random drops” within their titles. In the Chinese version of Overwatch you have the probability of one “legendary item” (the highest rarity) for every 13.5 loot boxes. If you try to roughly convert that to $USD or time spent depending on the calculations used you’re either spending $7.99 USD (for 14 lootboxes) or roughly 20 hours of gameplay time FOR THE CHANCE of unlocking a legendary item, not necessarily the one you want. 

Are we at a turning point? Only time will tell but here’s hoping that the discussions around microtransactions, gacha style loot boxes and random chances for real world money within gaming face some kind of regulations in the near future. I know personally I’ve spent a good chunk of spare change on loot boxes and microtransactions over the past year and I don’t feel any happier or better off since I did. It would have been nice to know that to get that Soldier 76 Grillmaster Skins during the first summer games would have cost me 20 hours of my life just for the chance… 

Pictured in the header: Overwatch’s loot boxes, Fortnite’s Llamas, Shadow of War’s crates, Tess’ Eververse in Destiny 2, Heroes of the Storm’s loot boxes and Guild Wars 2’s Mount Adoption Certificate. Embedded in this post is an amazing video by Jim “Fucking” Sterling, Son!

 

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Report: Players Being Banned From Destiny 2 On PC For Running Common Apps Like MSI Afterburner, Discord and OBS

Posted on October 25, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

User reports from launch day suggest that PC players of Bungie’s Destiny 2 may find themselves with a permanent ban if they are using common PC benchmarking tools like FRAPS and MSI AfterBurner or chat programs like Discord with the overlay functionality enabled. 

Over on /r/DestinyTheGame several users have reported that their accounts or friends accounts have been banned without explanation for running common PC programs in the background while playing Destiny 2.  

Here is a short (and at all definitive) list of programs that MAY cause interference with Destiny 2. This list is based upon user reports and has not been confirmed by the game’s publisher or developer as of press time: 

  • Open Broadcasting Software (OBS) in “Game Capture” mode. 
  • Windows 10 Game DVR (with background recording enabled). 
  • MSI Afterburner’s Performance Overlay 
  • FRAPS 
  • Discord’s Chat Overlay 
  • Running either the Battle.net or Destiny 2 as a “Non-Steam Game” through Steam. Doing this enables the Steam Overlay by default. 

Destiny 2’s official support page lists several cases where streaming software such as XSplit or OBS is “not supported” when using “Game Capture Mode”. Similarly, performance tools with overlays such as FRAPS and MSI Afterburner are also listed as not supported.  

Here is what Bungie’s support page has to say in regards to recording programs:

“OBS and XSplit 

The Game Capture mode of applications such as OBS and XSplit is not supported. The following methods are supported for capturing video of Destiny 2 on PC:  

To capture while playing in Exclusive Fullscreen: 

  • Hardware capture through methods such as Elgato, AVerMedia, or a dedicated streaming PC is supported. 
  • NVIDIA Shadowplay and AMD ReLive are supported. 
  • To capture while playing in Windowed Mode (including Borderless Fullscreen): 
  • OBS and XSplit Screen Capture mode is supported. 
  • OBS and XSplit Window Capture mode is supported.  

PLEASE NOTE: Other recording applications, such as Dxtory, Razer Cortex, Fraps have similar restrictions to those outlined above. “

In regards to Hardware Monitoring and Overlays this is what Destiny 2’s support page recommends:

“Overlays
Some features from third-party applications which rely on the use of screen overlays are generally not compatible with Destiny 2. The following are examples of features which may not be compatible with Destiny 2 on PC. 

Voice Communications

“Who’s talking” and visual notification features, such as those provided by Discord or Mumble, are not compatible with Destiny 2. Notification features may still be provided through the third-party application. 

Hardware Monitoring

Framerate and statistics overlays, such as those provided by EVGA Precision XOC, MSi Afterburner, and Fraps, are not compatible with Destiny 2.”

I’ve reached out to Activision Publishing for an official response to this story as well as clarification on whether or not apps like Windows Game DVR which are built into the OS and enabled by default can cause an issue with Destiny 2’s anti-code injection system. I’ve also asked if Destiny 2’s anti-code injection system doesn’t play nice with apps like Discord which detect games running on your system. This whole thing could be the result of a launch day hiccup or bug in the game’s code. We won’t know for sure until we hear back. 

Activision Publishing previously provided Broken Joysticks with a review code for a single copy of Destiny 2 for consideration. We have not personally experienced issues with third-party applications & Destiny 2. 

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Heroes of the Storm Volskyia Foundry Event Now Live

Posted on September 27, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Heroes of the Nexus shall assemble within the foundries of Volskyia Industries with the latest in-game event for Blizzard’s MOBA. Bringing a brand new Overwatch themed Map (Volskyia Foundry), the elder sniper Anna from OW, a brand new A.I system and an in-game Pachimari limited time quest this event is a substantial amount of content for a game that has such a frequent release cycle. 

New Hero – Ana 

Seasoned sniper Ana enters the nexus with her trust biotic rifle and grenades on hand to lend support to her team. Her basic abilities allow players to shoot syringes full of healing serum at friendly targets or inflict poisonousness wounds that deal damage over time to enemy units. Biotic Grenade can either heal friendly units for a large amount or stop enemy heroes from receiving healing for a limited time. Her passive trait is pretty interesting, it is almost like Lunara’s poison, in that it applies DOT (damage over time) to those hit. Unlike Lunara’s basic attack trait, Ana’s can stack up to five times on a single target.  

Here is a breakdown of all of her basic moves, trait and ultimate abilities: 

Healing Dart – First dart to hit a friendly hero heals for 250. 
Biotic Grenade – Heal Heroes in range for 175 + they gain an additional 25% healing for next 4 seconds. Enemies hit with Biotic Grenade cannot receive healing for 2 seconds and take 60 DMG.
Sleep Dart – Put an enemy hero to sleep for 3 seconds, Attacking the same hero with a basic attack from any source causes them to wake up.
Nano Boost (Ultimate)  – Ana recovers 200 mana, friendly hero affected by Nano Boost 30% spell power and their basic ability cooldowns have a refresh % of 150%.
Eye of Horus (Ultimate) – Fire up to 8 specialized rounds. Enemies hit with rounds from Eye of Horus take 175 DMG, friendlies hit by Eye of Horus take additional 300 points healing. Ana is not able to move while using this ultimate.  

New Map – Volskyia Foundry 

Travel to the futuristic tundra of a Russian foundry in this brand new Overwatch map for Heroes of the Storm.  Unlike the currently pulled from rotation Hanamura map, Foundry has only one objective active at a time. With a small King of the Hill style objective point – each team must strategize effectively to control the objective or risk losing it to their opponents. Just like in Overwatch a contested point can go into a nail-biting overtime. Your team’s reward for holding the control point? The ability for two players at once to control a giant mech and march it straight to the enemy base. 

Pachimari Collection Quest 

For the next little while, a personal favorite of mine – Overwatch’s little Pachimari plush – will be collectible in Heroes of the Storm. At the start of a match, dozens of loot boxes will spawn on the field and the team that collects the highest number of Pachimari during those opening seconds are rewarded with progress towards the event quest. Not only do these event boxes contain “legendary” gold Pachimari but a “Pachimari MVP” is crowned before the gates come down to begin the match! 

 

What do you think of this HOTS event? Let me know in the comments section!

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Junkertown Animated Short & Trailer Showcases Overwatch’s Latest Map

Posted on August 21, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

The Australian crime duo of Roadhog and Junkrat star in a hilarious animated short designed to promote the upcoming map, Junkertown. A mix between the stylish post-apocalyptic aesthetic of Mad max and the comedic  tomfoolery of a character like Junkrat, these two pieces of media provide our first in-game glimpse of the Australia wasteland that has been teased since the game’s release.

I think my favorite part of the whole trailer has to be Junkrat’s continually revised plan and of course the gold crown on Pachimari – because if any Overwatch character deserves some swag it is Pachimari.

Here is a bit about the founding of Junkertown curotesy of the Overwatch Wikia:

“After the Omnic Crisis, the Australian government hoped to restore peace with the omnics by granting them a large area of land surrounding the Australian omnium. In doing so, many residents of the outback were displaced, and some of them, including Roadhog, formed a group of rebels they called the Australian Liberation Front. The ALF eventually managed to sabotage the omnium’s fusion core, which blew up the omnium, irradiated the area, and scattered scrap metal across the outback.

Survivors would go on to build Junkertown in the ruins of the destroyed omnium. The town’s residents, called Junkers, make a living scavenging parts from the omnium’s skeleton. In the center of town is a gladiatorial arena called the Scrapyard where the Queen of Junkertown oversees mech battles.”

It is unknown if both the upcoming free for all and team death match modes and Junkertown will launch on the live servers simotanously as one update or if they’ll be spread across two updates over the course of September. FFA and TDM are already available on PTR.

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Overwatch Getting FFA Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch In Next Patch

Posted on August 11, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Heroes will clash against each other with no payload to escort in Overwatch’s upcoming Deathmatch mode which will be introduced in a new patch after the Summer Games conclude on August 28th. Unlike the death match-like Skrimish Mode, the official DM modes will come with their own special scoreboard and some modifications to player abilities.

Gamer Director Jeff Kaplan surprised the community with the two new modes – Free for All Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch in a brand new developer update via the official Overwatch YouTube channel. Certain Heroes will not have access to all of their abilities during a Free For All match – Mercy for example only has her blaster and since she cannot resurrect herself, her ultimate ability is turned off alongside her escape ability.  When playing Mercy on TDM all of her abilities are unlocked with some small tweaks – when using resurrect your opponents kill count will be reduced!

Players need not worry about being the top player on the scoreboard to get credit towards their Arcade loot boxes. As long as a player is within the top 4 (on their team in TDM or overall in FFA) they’ll receive credit towards the weekly boxes. When the two modes launch they’ll have win conditions set to first to 20 kills for FFA and 30 kills for TDM. The selection of maps will differ between modes – split between existing maps used for objective mode, the elimination maps added during the Orisa patch and a brand new map focusing on the backstory for Talon member Widowmaker.

If you’re sick of playing Lucioball or trying to unlock that time limited McCree and Soldier 76 skins you can tryout these new modes on the PTR. They are expected to be rolled out  around September 5th, which is the first Tuesday after the Summer Games end.

[Header Image Via Youtube]

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Overwatch’s Summer Games Are Now Live – Here Are The New Skins For 2017

Posted on August 8, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

The summer games have arrived once again in the futuristic world of Overwatch. This year’s iteration of Overwatch’s first ever seasonal event sees some changes to the Lucio Ball mode, the addition of competitive Lucio Ball for those brave enough and of course both the unlockable skins from last year and a few brand new ones for those lucky few who happen to get them as drops (or have 3000 credits laying around).

Returning Skins

Last year heroes like Torbjorn, Mercy, Genji and Zarya got a single skin that represented their country to celebrate the 2016 Rio Olympics. Tracer received two skins featuring a giant stopwatch instead of her usual Chronal Accelerator and McCree wrapped himself in the American flag to celebrate the festivities. If you need a refresher on all of the outfits, voice lines and sprays from last year’s event make sure to check out this recap video:

New Skins For 2018

Six new skins are available to unlock for 3000 credits for this year’s celebration. There are still several heroes who do not have summer games skin and unfortunately for everyone who has taken a liking to Doom Fist, he’ll have to wait until next year.

What we do get is the first summer skins for Junk Rat in the form of  Cricket equipment, Blizzard going full meme with the Grill Master 76 skin, yet another entry for Lucio (that makes 3 total) and both Widowmaker and Sombra get their first Summer skins with the release of this event.

Here they all are:

  

Lucio Ball

Several substantial and minor tweaks to Lucio Ball have been made with the 2017 Summer Games:

  • Lucio Ball matches with custom modifiers can now be created for custom games.
  • The second arena for Lucio Ball has been added, based on Sydney Australia.
  • Lucio’s “push” ability will work only on the ball, no more sending other players flying across the arena.
  • Competitive Lucio Ball will be available for everyone in the Arcade until the event ends.
  • Competitive has its own Match Making Ranking system and the top 500 players in the world will receive a special spray for ruling competitive.
  • Everyone who plays at least one game of Lucio Ball will receive a special spray to commemorate this year’s games.

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A Look At The Development of Overwatch’s Doomfist

Posted on July 22, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

The next hero to join Overwatch, the much hyped Doomfist, will be making his way onto the live servers this coming Thursday, July 27th. Ahead of his debut in the live version of the game Blizzard hosted a panel yesterday at the San Diego Comic Con where they talked about the development behind one of Overwatch’s most mysterious heroes.

Filming doesn’t appear to have been allowed at the panel, as every YouTube video discussing the panel is an original work rather than a recording of the panel itself. Luckily for those of us not in California right now GameSpot was able to attend the panel and grabs some cool photographs of early concept art for Doomfist.

Early concepts for Doomfist allowed him to pick up enemy combatants and use them as human shields – blocking damage. Doomfist players could also simply throw their opponents off of clips, which I’m sure made for some hilarious deaths during the opening stages of Route 66. Blizzard also experimented with making him a melee only character and at one point in development, he was even considered for the tank role. Like the Overwatch’s early experiments with a melee only version of Genji, melee only Doomfist simply was too difficult to balance around the other heroes so they added the shotgun knuckles that he posses in his final iteration.

How do you feel about Doomfist’s beginnings? Would you have liked to see him as another Tank rather than the DPS role her currently fills? Excited to play him in competitive? Let us know in the comments section.

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Starcraft Remastered Out This August

Posted on June 30, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Prepare to construct additional pilons and make sure your mineral harvesting skills are at peak performance as Blizzard is prepared to re-release 1998’s Starcraft and the Broodwar Expansion for the HD generation on August 14th through the Blizzard App.

StarCraft: Remastered features not only revamped visuals & widescreen support but also the ability to play this real time strategy classic in 4K for the first time. While unit balance and build orders will remain unchanged from the original versions, Blizzard has made an effort to clean up the mission briefing artwork and remaster the in-game audio as well. New features that where not possible in ’98 also include cloud saving through the Blizzard App, matchmaking and brand new leaderboards.

StarCraft: Remastered will be priced at $14.99 USD ($19.49 CDN) and includes three special building skins for those who pre-order before the games’ release.

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Overwatch’s Next Map Sends Players To The Moon

Posted on June 2, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Overwatch’s next new map for both competitive and quick play will take Blizzard’s heroes to the moon with the upcoming addition of the Horizon Lunar Colony. This new map, lore wise, gives us a sense of where the game’s giant ape Winston grew up and the circumstances surrounding his past and an ape uprising on the moon.

Gameplay wise Horizon Lunar Colony will feature a single low gravity section near point A. There is a set of airlock doors that players can move through to experience combat with less gravity – how long do you think Junkrat would let his grenades float around? Like Hanamura, Temple of Anubis and Volyskaya Industries, Horizon requires the attacking team to capture 2 different capture points to achieve victories while defenders must keep attackers at bay until time expires.

Fans of Overwatch lore can be found via new tidbits on computer monitors, the names of scientists and other contextual objects in the map. If you watched the first animated short released when the game was announced in 2014 you might recognize some of the rooms on the Colony.

Modified gravity won’t just be exclusive to the Horizon Lunar Colony map – a special arcade brawl with low gravity will be available during launch week. Also as an added treat gravity sliders will also be added for hosts of custom games.

With the Overwatch anniversary event ending on the 12th it feels like the OW dev team are hard at work on new content to keep us coming back.

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Jeff Kaplan Aware of Overwatch Community’s Concerns About Anniversary Loot Boxes

Posted on May 26, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Overwatch’s 1st-year-anniversary event is well underway with the first week of the three-week celebration almost complete. Now, game director Jeff Kaplan has acknowledged that the development team is aware of players complaints surrounding the drop rate of the coveted event only skins.

Unlike previous events where the limited time skins came in a variety of rarities ranging from the rare blow to the high-quality blue drops to the epic quality orange legendries. The anniversary skins not only don’t encompass the entire 24 hero line-up but because they’re only available as legendaries a number of loot boxes needed to open to obtain all of them has increased significantly compared to other events.

Over on the Overwatch Reddit user, Desks_Up crunched some numbers and calculated the total cost of all time limited items across the six seasonal Overwatch events. It’s important to keep in mind that these calculations assume that you want to buy every item. If you’re only after one or two skins then it is completely possible to grind out 6,000 credits within three weeks using just the level-up reward boxes and arcade boxes.

Quoting Desks_Up:

In total, buying all purchasable items from the Anniversary event requires 56,475 credits for 108 items:

11 Legendary skins: 33,000 (~58.4% of total cost)

24 dance emotes: 18,000 (~31.9% of total cost)

48 voice lines: 3,600 (~6.4% of total cost)

25 sprays: 1,875 (~3.3% of total cost)

This is much more expensive compared to the total cost of the previous events:

Uprising: 36,825 credits for 95 items

Year of the Rooster: 37,050 credits for 99 items

Winter Wonderland: 33,075 credits for 94 items

Halloween Terror: 31,500 credits for 94 items

Summer Games: 0 credits for 0 items (32,250 for 72 items if they were buyable)

Because this event is more expensive than all the other events, if you want most or all of the cosmetics, DO NOT BUY USING CREDITS UNTIL THE LAST WEEK (unless you have at least 56k credits). As much as you might want those items, you’ll have to suppress your desires to get the most from this event.

All of this brings me back to Jeff’s comments on the official forums surrounding the feedback of players like Desks_Up. He acknowledges that the developers have been reading player feedback and discussions surrounding the drop rate of items and the rarity of the skins on offer during seasonal events.  Jeff offers no immediate actions that Blizzard might take to help remedy the disparity in terms of grinding needed to earn a wanted item, it is probably more realistic that all of this feedback will find its way into the updated 2nd year events starting with Summer Games this August.

Here is Jeff Kaplans post as it appeared on NeoGaf:

How do you feel about the drop rate of legendary Overwatch items? Have you received the skins that you’ve wanted from the Anniversary Event despite all of them being legendary? Let us know in the comments section.

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Overwatch’s Anniversary Event Is Upon Us

Posted on May 23, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

The teased Overwatch anniversary event has descended onto Blizzard’s servers as promised. This update brings a whole selection of new skins (although sadly not every hero receives one), brand new emotes for all heroes including some hilarious dance emotes and a whole pile of common items that will remain in loot boxes after the anniversary event concludes. Also added were three brand new “arena maps” that will provide some much-needed variety to the elimination modes.

Here is a small sampling of some of my favorite new skins:

The following heroes received new time limited skins for the anniversary event:

  • Pharah
  • Soldier 76
  • VA
  • Tracer
  • Mei
  • Hanzo
  • Zarya
  • Bastion
  • Genji
  • Symmetra
  • Lucio

Dance emotes have also been added for all 24 heroes and you can preview them all without logging into the game, just head over to the official Play Overwatch site to preview them.

If you’d rather hear about the update from the game’s director Jeff Kaplan, Blizzard released a nearly ten-minute developer update alongside the patch this morning. I can’t believe it has been a year since Overwatch was originally released. It was one of my most played titles last year and since I received the Mei Bee Keeper skin from my free loot box I’m free to grind boxes until I get that sweet Kaman Rider skin for Genji.

Overwatch Anniversary will become a seasonal event and the new dance emotes & three new elimination maps will remain available after the event ends on June 12th.

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Login To Overwatch Before Jan 1st And Get 5 Free Loot Boxes

Posted on December 27, 2016 by Rae Michelle Richards

Blizzard is in the giving spirit – they’ve left 5 free Winter Wonderland loot boxes for every Overwatch player who logins between now and January 1st.

Winter Wonderland’s loot boxes bring with them a chance to score some new event exclusive skins, winter themed sprays and chilled out player icons. Each loot box is guaranteed to include at least one item from the holiday collection. For a more exhaustive look at the goodies available in these limited time boxes make sure to check out our previous coverage.

Overwatch was one of the most pleasant surprises of the year and we gave it a glowing review just a couple of weeks after release.

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