blizzard

I don't quite fully understand it...but I love it. 

Yes, reportedly since May 24th more than 1,500 people in China have been removed from the game permanently. The developers are definitely not f**king around.

Banning over 1,500 players for life within the first week of the game being live, sets a solid standard for how other game developers might go about enlisting harsh if not appropriate punishment for the players out there that sap enjoyment from other peoples' games for the sake of cheating their own way to victory. Screenshots like this one depicting the rage struggles being felt by the cheaters caught redhanded have already begun to surface:

What do you guys think about the Blizzard Banhammer thus far--too harsh, or right on the money?

From the press release:

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," saidMike 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.

Expect a beta some time next year.

This game's been on one hell of a ride -- we're talking hurdling numerous obstacles like Blizzard's army of lawyers, causing controversy left and right, relaunching with a new name, finally getting Blizzard's approval, and then at last raisin' $84, 918 on Kickstarter.

Take note, this Starcraft II Mod is a completely new game -- gathering influence from WoW, Diablo, and surprisingly enough, FTL. It's currently in open beta, and is set for its final release next month. And here's the mod in action!

An era has come to a close folks, as we part ways with 'Battle.net' a name that's been around for the platform since 1996. The full memo from Blizzard reads:

We’re going to be transitioning away from using the Battle.net name for our gaming service and the functionality connected to it. Battle.net technology will continue to serve as the central nervous system for Blizzard games—nothing is changing in that regard. We’ll just be referring to it as Blizzard tech instead. You’ve already seen this recently with things like “Blizzard Streaming” and “Blizzard Voice,” and more changes are on the way.

When we created Battle.net, the idea of including a tailored online-gaming service together with your game was more of a novel concept, so we put a lot of focus on explaining what the service was and how it worked, including giving it a distinct name. Over time, though, we’ve seen that there’s been occasional confusion and inefficiencies related to having two separate identities under which everything falls—Blizzard and Battle.net. Given that built-in multiplayer support is a well-understood concept and more of a normal expectation these days, there isn’t as much of a need to maintain a separate identity for what is essentially our networking technology.

We just wanted to make sure everyone was aware as we moved forward with this change over the next several months; we’ll provide any relevant updates as the transition progresses.

Pretty exciting stuff here. The hype encircling Blizzard's latest franchise in 18 years has been palpable. As to be expected, the internet's already spat out a decent amount of gameplay videos/pictures. Can you really beat this though?



I went through a grabbed a pretty dang extended stream vid from Squadron foer anyone eager to spectate on various facets of gameplay available in beta:



Let's get a discussion rolling on everything and anything that's right, and wrong, with the game. Have you already started up with defaulting to Mercy or another support class, 'cause every gamer seemingly wants to play as Tracer? I don't know. Anyways, shoot:

The day has finally come! Get yoselves ready for heal-snipes people. Ana, Pharah's mother and also a sniper support character can heal allies from far away, AND put enemies to sleep. Check out the Ana origins trailer as well:

Thanks to Overwatch's remappable controls, Zak can comfortably enjoy playing the game with every character. He shared the following thank you letter he wrote to Blizzard:

Dear Blizzard,

First off I want to congratulate you on the launch of Overwatch. It is an amazing game and you should be proud. It is jam packed with so many exciting moments for every type of gamer. My girlfriend loves the lore, my buddy can't stop smiling when he gets a hook with Roadhog, and me? I love the options menu.

I was born with Cerebral Palsy. I can't walk and have very limited use of my hands. I love video games of all shapes and sizes and have been playing since I was 3 years old. I play them when I'm happy, I play them when I'm sad, and I've started and strengthened some of my best friendships because of them.

Some games allude me though. You see, the way my hands are I am only able to use one hand for one action at one time per hand. So essentially I can only press two buttons simultaneously. Because of this I have always been limited to certain play styles and characters in games. Yasuo in League of Legends is a no go for me because of all the mechanics at play. Grapplers in fighting games usually off limits because they mostly require simultaneous button presses. Shooters are the biggest offender though. It's a must to be able to move, aim, and fire at the same time and I am only able to do two at a time. This pigeonholes me into using shotguns... thats it.

I'm rambling. I just wanted to thank you, Blizzard, for having near endless control customization in Overwatch. I don't know if this was your goal, but because of your extensive options I am able to play every character in the roster and it feels great. Because of you I made my first snipe in a video game today.

Thank you Blizzard.

Fan Forever, Zak

Yes, dreams do come true. Fans loyal to the series are well aware the Warcraft movie's taking it back to the earliest of days, before the Dark Portal even opened, and when the PC game storyline began. In this TV Spot we catch some glances of what look like Frost Wolves from the Frostwolf Clan kind of just sinking their teeth into everything they encounter. Plus the square-off between the human warrior and the mountainous, roid-enraged Hulk of an Orc gets all the adrenaline pumpin'. The Warcraft movie hits theaters June 10th.