Monthly Archives: November 2014

Team-Based Shooter Overwatch Announced at Blizzcon

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To end the opening ceremony of BlizzCon 2014, Blizzard Entertainment introduced a brand new game: Overwatch. This is a brand new IP from the studio that has stuck to its Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo titles for years.

Overwatch is a team-based, multi-player shooter, and from the first video shown of gameplay, it certainly has a Wildstar meets Team Fortress 2 vibe. Characters will have a wide variety of guns and tools at their disposal on some interesting urban and historic-style maps, and in addition to special abilities, we also got a chance to see some characters in a flight mode above the streets.

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Overwatch’s game director is Jeff Kaplan, and BlizzCon attendees will be able to test drive the game during the weekend. Stay tuned for more news about Overwatch as we get it!

Edit: The Overwatch website is now live at http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/ – and beta sign-up is already available!

You can watch the BlizzCon livestreams here.

Late Edit: The official press release for Overwatch is now available, you can read it below.


In front of a live crowd of more than 25,000 BlizzCon® attendees and an expected online audience numbering in the millions, Blizzard Entertainment today announced Overwatch™, a pick-up-and-play first-person shooter featuring an amazing cast of heroes and set in an all-new Blizzard game universe.

The action of Overwatch takes place in a technologically advanced, highly stylized future earth. In a time of global crisis, an international task force of soldiers, scientists, adventurers, and oddities known as Overwatch had come together to restore peace to a war-torn world. After many years, the group’s influence waned, and it was eventually disbanded. Overwatch might be gone now . . . but the world still needs heroes.

With an emphasis on accessibility and pure fun, Overwatch brings Blizzard’s signature easy-to-learn, hard-to-master gameplay to the FPS genre. Harnessing the power of their hero of choice, players will join forces in teams of six and battle each other across a range of futuristic global locations, from the hologram-lit streets of London to a bazaar in the shadows of a high-tech Egyptian pyramid. Every battlefield is iconic and built to highlight each character’s unique abilities, and fights can shift from streets to rooftops to open skies within the span of a breath.

“Overwatch is our take on a vibrant, near-future universe with amped-up characters and action-packed team-based gameplay,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “With every new Blizzard game, we look at our favorite aspects of a genre and put our own spin on things. Our goal with Overwatch is to create an awesome FPS experience that’s more accessible to a much wider audience while delivering the action and depth that shooter fans love.”

The heroes of Overwatch each bring their own distinct weapons and superabilities to bear. Here’s just a glimpse of the numerous heroes that will ultimately fill Overwatch’s rosters:

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Symmetra, an Indian architech, manipulates light and energy to shield her allies and damage her enemies—and she can turn the tide of any battle by building a device that instantly transports her teammates to the front lines.

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.

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.

Learn more about Overwatch, including all of the heroes and maps revealed at BlizzCon, and sign up to participate in the upcoming beta test at the official website, www.playoverwatch.com. Further details about the game will be announced there in the months ahead.

League of Legends: New Summoner’s Rift map nears open beta

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Changes in League of Legends are afoot, with the completely revamped Summoner’s Rift map set to go live soon.

In preparation for the launch, players can take a virtual tour of the map with Riot’s specially designed interactive Summoner’s Rift experience here. This will be the site for all future updates on the map. A new Summoner’s Rift gameplay trailer has also been revealed, and is available here.

Dates for launching into open beta will be revealed soon, and the rollout will be in the following stages:

  1. Phase 1: Team Builder and all bot games
  2. Phase 2: All normal modes and custom games
  3. Phase 3: Ranked

For more info, visit http://promo.euw.leagueoflegends.com/en/srmapexperience/

Das Tal: Now Greenlit on Steam

Das Tal

Fairytale Distillery received word from Valve that their PvP-focussed Sandbox MMORPG, ‘Das Tal’, has received the support it needed from the Steam community to be Greenlit (over 4,500 positive votes). The independent developer spent three months on their Greenlight campaign and just got greenlighted when they seem to have hit the Top-100.

With Greenlight a massive success, the team also just announced the options they now offer for supporting Das Tal’s ongoing development financially. There are four different supporter packages available for purchase – some of which allow instant access to the pre-alpha game. The packs range from about 30 to 200 dollars and come with various different entitlements, such as access to private developer forums, credit bragging rights and full access to the latest version of the game (even on the core development server).

“We are very aware of how hesitant a lot of people are these days with purchasing early access games, so we have done our best to create these packages in an honest way, even down to the name. The money we receive is, as suggested by the name, to support the continued development of Das Tal. We have put together unique perks that we see as being great value, and we hope people agree. The packs are not only there to fund the game – they also allow our most dedicated fans to influence the game’s development directly.”

Harbinger Package:

Delivers a ton of extra trial keys, the closest possible contact with the development team, instant access to all dev servers and builds, and the ability to reserve multiple character names and a clan name. This package is intended for clan leaders and diehard fans.

Vanguard Package:

Brings instant access to the game on the staging server, five trial keys to bring along some friends and close contact with devs and character name reservations. This package offers the best value for personal use.

Seeker Package:

Closed alpha access, a reserved character name, access to priority forums and other extras like concept art. This is a package for those who don’t need the whole shibang but are still interested in some extras and being quite involved in the development.

Nomad Package:
This package has some smaller perks such as concept art pack, access to alpha test weekends and a forum title and avatar. It is the cheaper of the options for gamers on a budget or who want to start playing when the game is ready for them.

Remember that you can always apply to Alpha test Das Tal for the chance to check out the game’s current state before committing to support the project. The package details listed here are also summarized, so make sure you check out the store page itself before making your mind up!​​

For more info, visit http://www.das-tal-game.com/

Heroes & Legends Conquerors of Kolhar Mobile Version Now Available

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Phoenix Online Publishing today announced that epic fantasy strategy RPG Heroes & Legends: Conquerors of Kolhar is available for Apple and Android devices. With fast reaction-based mobile gameplay, the game invites players to battle over 130 monsters in both story-driven and random encounters, craft their own weapons and armor, and unlock special abilities and powers as they play through an epic fantasy adventure. The game is available in the App Store (https://itunes.apple.com/app/id902133400) and Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.postudios.HeroesAndLegends) for $3.99.

In Heroes & Legends: Conquerors of Kolhar, players are invited to build their own weapons and armor and lead a party of wizards, warriors, assassins, and other characters into battle against waves of lethal adversaries as they race to stop an ancient evil. Armed with both might and magic, heroes will wield the powers of ice, fire, and lighting against their adversaries as they take the fight to their enemies, gaining in experience and collecting wondrous mystical artifacts of every kind along the way. The deeper players delve into this epic tale, the more challenging scenarios they unlock, and host of new friends and enemies they’ll make as they experience the adventure of a lifetime.

Key Features:

  • Fast-paced mobile gameplay
  • Epic blend of fantasy role-playing and strategy
  • Fight for glory in story-driven quests and random adventures
  • Craft your own custom weapons and armor
  • More than 100 bloodthirsty monsters to battle
  • Dozens of powers and special abilities to pick from

Heroes & Legends is also available for PC, Mac, and Linux on Steam, the Phoenix Online Store (store.postudios.com) and other online retailers. For more information, see www.POStudios.com.