Calling it now, first “hero mission” is based around Zarya fighting muh Russian oppressors where it’s revealed she’s actually trans. Followed by a parade of “journalists” saying this is actually exactly what Overwatch 2 needed.
They can't even implement all of the features that were in OW1. Basically they forked a version off at some point and re-implemented all the menus and such, but they haven't been able to get all the features working. In game, players still have voice lines about being on fire, but there's no on-fire meter or display in the scoreboard. For the first two seasons, there was a glaring alignment error where the player lists were displayed at the start of a comp game. Everything is just barebones basic.
Gonna take this opportunity to plug a rather affordable game I found recently that has very tight game design:
Dungeons of Dreadrock
It's been a while since I played a game that felt that focused and polished. It isn't big or complex but it does its core gameplay very well as a dungeon crawler puzzle game.
Having read some of their server code, I can understand why. They used a very technically interesting and efficient, and therefore difficult to understand and modify, code architecture. On top of that, all the smartest engineers at the company from 2006-13 were working on it, which means it's incomprehensible to the blue hairs still working there.
Unfortunately not, I had source access because I was working at Blizzard at the time on the Heroes servers (RIP in pepperoni).
The code was actually really cool and interesting, you just needed a Master's level of understanding in C++ and software engineeering to read it. I apologize for bragging, but I was one of very few people left at the company who had that when I quit.
Both. I was specifically reading the skill rating update code. They had a bespoke algorithm, and their code was all architected with ECS (Entity-Component-System). The guy who wrote the algorithm was almost as insane as I am. It took me a full week to piece together the actual calculations it was doing to update each player's skill rating after each round.
"Composition over inheritance (or composite reuse principle) in object-oriented programming (OOP) is the principle that classes should achieve polymorphic behavior and code reuse by their composition (by containing instances of other classes that implement the desired functionality) rather than inheritance from a base or parent class."
Jesus flying spaghettimonster.
This is Magic: The Gathering as a software design philosophy.
Should have been deleted on sight. I'm so fucking tired of running across code that the author didn't bother to comment. The fact that someone would do that with a particularly complex piece of software is frankly inexcusable. I don't care that you're an autistic software savant, other people have to be able to decipher your code after you get hit by a bus.
The biggest insult here is that the bar is slow low that even Fatshark was able to clear it, but Blizzard couldn't. And Fatshark is one of the kings of both incompetent coding and hating everything fun in their game to the point of not allowing you to play anyway they don't like via patches.
They had a golden opportunity to revitalize it with a new support hero and they made him a gay dude who fucks plants. His name is wife leaver and his ultimate ability is a faggot-tree.
Unironcially. You don't even see any AI stuff for overwatch, no one really cares and imho good riddance. For me it was over when they kept destroying characters I enjoyed(like for example Mercy's rework was amazing... Only to nerf it again and again). I just cannot be arsed.
I had the same issue with R6 siege, they at least have rolled back the ridiculous story and character designs and getting more military again. Still on the fence for playing again since it's a VERY sweaty game..
Signs are pointing in that direction. Interest in Diablo 4 is largely nonexistent now, and reviews of the beta are not favorable from the few parties who were still interested.
ABK has taken one major loss after another this year, and their responses to these losses have been completely underwhelming. Overwatch 2 is essentially on life support. In fact, Overwatch 2 was arguably dead on arrival. It was a pretty tough pitch when the company selling it just about destroyed the first entry. I'm sure just about everyone here understands how. Activision-Blizzard's "solution" to this problem has been to pretend there isn't one. Their approach seems to be new skins, half-assed events, and soylent comics explaining the lore of their diversity rangers. Mediocre art is about all anyone who works for the Overwatch team is capable of, so look for nothing but skins and comics until they inevitably announce Overwatch 3 sometime next year. "We promise it'll be different this time!"
I was going to go on a tangent about the equally abysmal state of other Activision-Blizzard franchises, but I don't have the energy to spare for it right now.
The biggest problem with Overwatch is that everyone wants to play DPS, because that's the only role that's fun. It's an FPS, no I don't want to hold left click to heal and follow someone around who is actually playing the game nor do I want to stand around holding right click to put up a shield protecting the two players who get to play a game.
Active healing sucks in FPS games, Doc in R6Siege gets to play the game, and the assault in the Battlefield series just drops health, so you can still play the game.
Overwatch has always had a problem with the support and tank characters.
Businesses and tournaments finally realized OWL was an entirely artificial scheme that drew in neither money nor crowds, and with that Blizzard lost both the interest and funding to keep even trying to pretend they cared about OW.
Incoming tranny reveal.
Probably with an established character so they can say xyz was trans all along. I can already hear the seals(aka journos) clap in the background.
Calling it now, first “hero mission” is based around Zarya fighting muh Russian oppressors where it’s revealed she’s actually trans. Followed by a parade of “journalists” saying this is actually exactly what Overwatch 2 needed.
We hired so many activists, no one knows how to LUA script missions and events anymore.
They can't even implement all of the features that were in OW1. Basically they forked a version off at some point and re-implemented all the menus and such, but they haven't been able to get all the features working. In game, players still have voice lines about being on fire, but there's no on-fire meter or display in the scoreboard. For the first two seasons, there was a glaring alignment error where the player lists were displayed at the start of a comp game. Everything is just barebones basic.
Gonna take this opportunity to plug a rather affordable game I found recently that has very tight game design:
Dungeons of Dreadrock
It's been a while since I played a game that felt that focused and polished. It isn't big or complex but it does its core gameplay very well as a dungeon crawler puzzle game.
Having read some of their server code, I can understand why. They used a very technically interesting and efficient, and therefore difficult to understand and modify, code architecture. On top of that, all the smartest engineers at the company from 2006-13 were working on it, which means it's incomprehensible to the blue hairs still working there.
Unfortunately not, I had source access because I was working at Blizzard at the time on the Heroes servers (RIP in pepperoni).
The code was actually really cool and interesting, you just needed a Master's level of understanding in C++ and software engineeering to read it. I apologize for bragging, but I was one of very few people left at the company who had that when I quit.
Was the code not commented properly or was it just structurally a labyrinth?
Both. I was specifically reading the skill rating update code. They had a bespoke algorithm, and their code was all architected with ECS (Entity-Component-System). The guy who wrote the algorithm was almost as insane as I am. It took me a full week to piece together the actual calculations it was doing to update each player's skill rating after each round.
Jesus flying spaghettimonster.
This is Magic: The Gathering as a software design philosophy.
Should have been deleted on sight. I'm so fucking tired of running across code that the author didn't bother to comment. The fact that someone would do that with a particularly complex piece of software is frankly inexcusable. I don't care that you're an autistic software savant, other people have to be able to decipher your code after you get hit by a bus.
Man, I wasn't that good, but I loved Heroes. Rexxar!
Dude, that bear. He killed so many of my vikings.
That's exactly what it is.
How else do you explain being incapable of making a Vermintide/Darktide clone?
The biggest insult here is that the bar is slow low that even Fatshark was able to clear it, but Blizzard couldn't. And Fatshark is one of the kings of both incompetent coding and hating everything fun in their game to the point of not allowing you to play anyway they don't like via patches.
Virtue signaling does not sell games? Next you are going to tell me that there is not an infinite amount of money for ESG and DIE!
It was easy to tell how dead it was, there was a massive decrease in the amount of porn made from it's characters /s
They had a golden opportunity to revitalize it with a new support hero and they made him a gay dude who fucks plants. His name is wife leaver and his ultimate ability is a faggot-tree.
Unironcially. You don't even see any AI stuff for overwatch, no one really cares and imho good riddance. For me it was over when they kept destroying characters I enjoyed(like for example Mercy's rework was amazing... Only to nerf it again and again). I just cannot be arsed.
I had the same issue with R6 siege, they at least have rolled back the ridiculous story and character designs and getting more military again. Still on the fence for playing again since it's a VERY sweaty game..
The Russian Badger got me into that game, and Ubisoft providing materiel support to terrorists got me out of it.
Makes it easy for me: doesn't work on my OS of choice? Not gonna play it. I suck at competitive shooters in general so it's not too much of a loss.
Lol.. blizzard is such a piece of shit company. Molesting women, woke as fuck, mtx up the wazoo now. Gg.
Hope diablo 4 falls flat.
Signs are pointing in that direction. Interest in Diablo 4 is largely nonexistent now, and reviews of the beta are not favorable from the few parties who were still interested.
Do you guys not have phones?!
I played the beta.. its basically an mmorpg. Open world with timed bosses and has the same event circles like mmorpg like lost ark.
Ugly as fuck female chars. So ugly it makes aloy from horizon look like a 8 out of 10.
Skills are there, but atm not spammable because no mana leech items just mana leech with base skills.
70 dollars and battle pass, they can fuck off.
One of my friends recently put 10,000usd in activision-blizz stock lol.
They had to cobble Diablo 4 together after the original plan to call the mobile game Diablo 4 totally collapsed.
Blizz fucked up every major IP indeed.. lol. Forgot about diablo immortal. I heard they were profitable because of whales though.
I hope Microsoft kicks their asses when they buy them out
Give blizz to the koreans.
Please use archive links for sites like that. https://archive.ph/fARQ5
ABK has taken one major loss after another this year, and their responses to these losses have been completely underwhelming. Overwatch 2 is essentially on life support. In fact, Overwatch 2 was arguably dead on arrival. It was a pretty tough pitch when the company selling it just about destroyed the first entry. I'm sure just about everyone here understands how. Activision-Blizzard's "solution" to this problem has been to pretend there isn't one. Their approach seems to be new skins, half-assed events, and soylent comics explaining the lore of their diversity rangers. Mediocre art is about all anyone who works for the Overwatch team is capable of, so look for nothing but skins and comics until they inevitably announce Overwatch 3 sometime next year. "We promise it'll be different this time!"
I was going to go on a tangent about the equally abysmal state of other Activision-Blizzard franchises, but I don't have the energy to spare for it right now.
The biggest problem with Overwatch is that everyone wants to play DPS, because that's the only role that's fun. It's an FPS, no I don't want to hold left click to heal and follow someone around who is actually playing the game nor do I want to stand around holding right click to put up a shield protecting the two players who get to play a game.
Active healing sucks in FPS games, Doc in R6Siege gets to play the game, and the assault in the Battlefield series just drops health, so you can still play the game.
Overwatch has always had a problem with the support and tank characters.
Businesses and tournaments finally realized OWL was an entirely artificial scheme that drew in neither money nor crowds, and with that Blizzard lost both the interest and funding to keep even trying to pretend they cared about OW.
Wow. Who could have seen that coming...
There is a second Overwatch?
The only good thing about Overwatch are the animated shorts. The game itself is just repetitive low effort trash.