‘Twas the Night Before Overwatch

‘Twas the night before Overwatch, when all ‘cross the globe,

Every gamer was waiting, donned in their soft robes,

Their headphones were hung by their PCs with care,

In hopes that Overwatch soon would be there.

The gamers were nestled all snug in each chair,

While visions of Tracer blinked ’round without care.

The beta was returning, just ‘few hours away

To bring joy and fast battles back to their day.

Those returning to beta watched with glee,

While others not as lucky waited to see

If a kind Install button would bless their screens

Or if their beta joy would be limited to other means.

Blizzard started the server, so lively and quick,

With hopes it wouldn’t crash down like a brick.

More rapid than eagles, the tweets came ‘tweeting,

And called out the heroes that would soon be meeting:

“Now Junkrat! Now D.Va!

Now, Zarya and Bastion!

On, Mercy! On, Genji!

On, Pharah and Winston!

On top of the payload!

To the top of the wall!

Now fire away! Fire away!

Fire away all!”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

Pharah and Mercy leaped to the sky.

Bastion and Symmetra prepared the defenses,

While Genji and Zenyatta gathered their senses.

And then, with a twinkling, ’twas heard on the roof,

Torbjörn’s turret exploded with a poof.

New players’ heads were spinning around,

Then in the middle Reinhardt came with a bound.

He was dressed all in armor, from his head to his foot,

Around swung his hammer, rendering noobs caput.

He gathered ultimate charge with each splatter,

Before he maxed out and released his Earthshatter.

Matches ended quickly and began once again.

Some found victory, some ended with pain,

But out rang calls after the highlight,

“Happy Overwatch to all, and to all a good fight!”

Overwatch is returning to Battle.net once again! Though Blizzard hasn’t announced the exact time, it is believed that with the February 9th date listed for the return of the beta, it will go live as soon as the clock strikes midnight Pacific Time. The Asia region will also be launching on February 16th.

Among the updates and new features to be included in this upcoming version of the Beta, Blizzard has given extra focus to:

An all-new progression system

Two new maps, including a new game mode

Several hero balance updates

And a variety of Private Game updates, including full A.I. matches

Quite the delightful promises, but I wanted to include a wishlist of my own, unless Blizzard decides to pop down my Battle.net chimney with some extra gifts tomorrow.

Visual Unlocks

With a progression system listed as part of their newly added features, Blizzard seems ready to build out the Overwatch experience to fit the mold of modern multiplayer games. I hope that Blizzard takes a page out of their own book and adds the visual unlock tiers that Heroes of the Storm uses to give players additional customization and bragging rights within the game.

New Heroes

Though Blizzard has not yet shown perfect balance in Overwatch, I can’t help but find myself hungry for new heroes. The combination of MOBA-like abilities within a FPS world has made the viable hero designs endless and I hope to find more heroes that fit will with my play style, as well as more interesting characters to expand the lore of the world.

Improved Spectator Mode

Overwatch is clearly a game that could excel in eSports, combining the popularity of the older giants of eSports, like Counter-Strike, with the fun gameplay and graphics of the newer titans, like League of Legends. However, as it is such a fast-paced game with very complicated maps, the current spectator mode feels clunky and cumbersome for navigating.

More Beta Invites

While Blizzard has not confirmed new beta invites will be sent out on the 9th, they did note in their announcement:

With so much new content available, we’re also looking to recruit more players to help us get an even wider range of perspectives and feedback—so if you’re interested in participating, make sure to opt in!

Thus, I am hopeful a new round of invites will begin on the 9th, if not soon after. I would love to play with more of my friends and have a larger group of players in general, so keep an eye on your Battle.net account for your invite!

Balanced Lower Level Play

It is hopeful that, in the break since the beta was closed down and with their balance improvement claims, Blizzard has managed to balance the heroes which were unable to keep balance between high and low level play. Some heroes, such as Bastion, dominated the newer players while being easily taken out by more skilled players.

With rusty and new players coming to the beta, I hope that Blizzard has decided to mitigate their frustration with the game as much as possible by preventing lower skill dominating with character like Bastion. After all, a happy and healthy Overwatch community is important to the future of this beloved game of mine!

I hope that you all get to enjoy the beta! Leave me your own Overwatch wishlist items in the comments!