New Overwatch Update Live, Adds Horizon Lunar Colony

With the new Overwatch update now rolling out on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, Blizzard has added the Horizon Lunar Colony Assault map.

Here’s the description for Horizon Lunar Colony:

Horizon Lunar Colony is an Assault map set in a scientific base on the moon. Built as a first step towards humanity’s renewed exploration of space, the colony’s goal was to examine the effects of prolonged extraterrestrial habitation—on human and ape alike. The scientists’ research proved incredibly promising…until, suddenly, all contact and communications with the base were lost.

Now, many years later, attacking and defending teams must return to the moon and battle for control of the colony’s facilities, all while they discover clues as to the fate of its previous inhabitants.

On their forums, Blizzard said Horizon Lunar Colony would be disabled in Competitive Play for the first week, but then later revealed that the server tech to do that isn’t available yet:

Apologies everyone but I was mistaken about Horizon Lunar Colony being disabled in Competitive Play during this week. We are considering this for future map releases but server tech for it isn’t available right now. New heroes are disabled for the first week, and that was the source of my confusion.

So to be clear, Horizon Lunar Colony will be in the Competitive Play map rotation this week.

Here’s what else you need to know about today’s Overwatch update:

New Legendary Skins

Oni Genji and Officer D.Va have been added to classic loot boxes

Custom Games and Game Browser

Player gravity and projectile gravity can now be modified

Knockback magnitude can now be modified on any weapons or abilities that have a knockback effect

Jump height can now be modified

Hero Updates

McCree

Deadeye: Targets now begin locking on after 0.2 seconds, instead of 0.8 seconds; Damage accumulated over the first 1.0 seconds increased from 20 to 80 (damage per second after the first 1.0 seconds is unchanged)

Reaper

The Reaping (Passive): Remove health orbs; Now regains 20% of all damage done to heroes as health

Roadhog

Head hitbox size reduced by 20%

Scrap Gun: Bullet damage decreased by 33%, Fire rate increased by 30%, Clip size increased from 4 to 5

User Interface Updates

A quick summary of each player’s most-played heroes is now available by highlighting the player in the Groups section of the Social menu (statistics displayed will dynamically change based on the mode/ruleset)

A new “All Modes” option has been added to the Career Profile that allows players to view combined stats from all game modes

A new “All Competitive Seasons” option has been added to the Career Profile that allows players to view combined stats from all Completive Play seasons

The “Damage Done” statistic has been replaced with “Hero Damage Done” in multiple locations

A new “Barrier Damage Done” statistic has been added to the Statistics section of the Career Profile, as well as an “All Damage Done” statistic, which combines damage done to barriers and heroes

Averages are now calculated in 10-minute slices, rather than by the number of games played

“Rate This Match” option no longer appears at the end of a match

Bug Fixes

General

Fixed an issue causing players to lose progress on their On Fire meter, after the meter had been completely filled

Fixed a bug that prevented the Health Pack respawn timers from displaying correctly after a player experienced latency

Arcade

Fixed a bug that could cause the announcer’s “select your hero” voice line to play during the end-of-match screen after Elimination games

Fixed a bug that prevented the Z’s from appearing above a sleeping enemy during Elimination games

Competitive Play

Fixed a bug that caused your first win to appear as a loss in your Career Profile

Custom Game Browser

Fixed a bug that prevented some settings from being properly displayed in the summary when viewing 3v3 Elimination presets

Clarified an error message that appears when a player attempts to exit the Settings page with an invalid combination of settings

Fixed a bug that caused the lighting from health packs to appear on Capture the Flag and Elimination maps even after health packs had been disabled

Fixed a bug that allowed Torbjörn’s Armor Pack ability to function even after being disabled in custom settings

Heroes

Fixed a bug that prevented players from hearing the voice line that typically accompanies their ultimate if they executed the ultimate after being stunned

Fixed a bug that could cause D.Va to become stuck if her mech was killed just as she summoned it

Fixed a bug preventing Genji’s sound effects from playing if he used his primary attack immediately after a Swift Strike

Fixed a bug that prevented Orisa’s movement from slowing while she fired her Fusion Driver

Fixed a typo in Orisa’s “Satisfied with Protection” voice line

Fixed a bug that prevented Orisa’s Supercharger from being destroyed if run over by the payload

Fixed a bug affecting the animation speed on Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer, causing the weapon to feel unresponsive while swinging

[XB1/PS4] Fixed a bug that caused Mercy’s skirt to clip inside of her feet during the Relax emote

Fixed a typo in the description on Roadhog’s Junkenstein skin

Fixed a bug that allowed enemy players to detect Sombra (while Stealth was active) if they were within a certain distance

Fixed a bug causing Symmetra’s hair to take on an unnatural appearance when her Vishkar or Architech skins were equipped

• Fixed a bug with how Widowmaker’s Grappling Hook interacts with the flying drones on Oasis

Maps

Fixed a bug on Volskaya Industries that prevented the ice from appearing broken when players fell off a ledge to their death

Fixed a bug that allowed players to reach unintended locations on Cairo

Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to reach unintended locations on Eichenwalde

User Interface

Fixed a bug that caused the Heroes of the Storm promotional portraits to appear locked, even after being unlocked

Fixed a bug that could cause an error message in chat if you attempted to spectate a new player while already spectating another player

Fixed a bug that could cause the chat window to be placed too high on the main menu, blocking menu options

Fixed a bug preventing the UI from correctly showing which heroes are unavailable in Limited Duel games.

[PC] Fixed a bug that prevented text from wrapping in the Report Player text box

Will you be playing Overwatch today?

[Source: Blizzard Forums (1), (2)]

E3 2017 Disappointments

Sony E3 2017 Disappointments
Missing in Action

The most glaring disappointment from the show was what wasn't shown. Games that stole the show in previous years, such as Death Stranding, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Shenmue 3, were all nowhere to be seen. Sony's history of announcing games far too early is finally catching up with them.
Days Gone Continues to Disappoint

Days Gone has now had two major E3 spotlights, and hasn't managed to impress either time. It doesn't look awful, but it seemingly is bringing little new to the table other than hordes and hordes of zombies. I'd love to be excited for it, but it's becoming more difficult to buy into what is looking to be a very bland release.
God of War Goes Backward

Last year God of War was unveiled with a lengthy uncut gameplay sequence. This year, we got a trailer. Granted, the trailer was a solid one, but it's disappointing not to see one final push of uncut action before the game releases in early 2018.
2018

While Sony has some solid releases planned for the rest of 2017, very few got a spotlight during the actual presentation. Knack 2, Everybody's Golf, Gran Turismo, and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy will make sure gamers aren't bored at the end of the year, but there wasn't a huge blockbuster announced that will carry Sony's holiday line-up.
Detroit: Become Human

Last year, Detroit: Become Human was brilliantly shown off via a trailer that emphasized how the player could impact the story. This year, all of that storytelling was thrown out the window for a typical trailer that had me questioning if I really wanted to play David Cage's latest title. No game dropped more in terms of personal anticipation this E3 than Detroit, which isn't what Sony wanted.
Too Many Trailers

Sony's emphasis on going from game to game helps keep the excitement rolling, but this year it felt like viewers watched nearly an hour of trailers. Without gameplay demos and speakers to break up the monotony, it got old pretty quickly. Games like Call of Duty: WWII suffered due to this, as little context was given as to why players should care about what was being shown off.
Monster of the Deep

Virtual reality had a weak showing at E3 2016, as Sony decided to focus on big name tech demos rather than exciting new experiences. Thankfully, this year was much better on the VR front, but there was one notable inclusion that seemed like Sony didn't learn. That was the Final Fantasy XV VR experience titled Monster of the Deep. This fishing spin-off isn't what anyone wanted from FFXV in virtual reality.
Great Announcements Wasted on Pre-Show

What is perhaps the biggest disappointment is that Sony had some great announcements that they could've used to get some real fanfare. Most of these ended up being on the stream's pre-show, where it was announced that Undertale was coming to PS4 and Vita. That announcement would've got a huge pop from the Los Angeles crowd, but instead it was stuck inside a stream that most people didn't watch. Other big reveals include Knack 2's release date, and Superhot VR.
Where Was Sucker Punch?

One of the biggest surprises during the show was the lack of surprises. Very few new games were announced during Sony's presser, and InFAMOUS developer Sucker Punch was nowhere to be seen. It's going on three years since their last game, so it's surprising not seeing anything new from the talented studio. Hopefully fans won't have to wait much longer.
Needed a Better Closer

Sony ended the show by finally showing off Spider-Man, and the gameplay looked fantastic. That said, it looked a little too familiar to the Batman Arkham games, and didn't leave me with my jaw dropped. The show felt like it needed a better closer, one last shocking announcement, and that was nowhere to be seen.