Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

New Christmas-themed ‘Overwatch’ event makes Winston a yeti

Add as a preferred source on Google

It’s that time of the year again. The temperature is cold, the cocoa is hot, and lawns are covered in snow. Blizzard is getting into the holiday spirit with Overwatch, as well — the new “Winter Wonderland” update adds plenty of Christmas-themed skins, as well as a brand new brawl featuring Mei.

Running until January 2, Overwatch‘s “Winter Wonderland” update introduces over 100 new cosmetic items, including new sprays, posts, icons, and, of course, character skins. Want to turn Winston into a yeti or McCree into Scrooge? Now is your chance, provided you have plenty of credits built up from playing the base game over the last few months.

Recommended Videos

Other skins include a Nutcracker Zenyatta, which is both adorable and creepy, as well as a Rudolf the Reindeer skin for Roadhog. Throughout the event, instead of opening standard loot boxes, you’ll be opening these prizes through special holiday boxes, wrapped up in a bright red bow.

Also included in the update is “Mei’s Snowball Offensive,” a new brawl featuring the icy character in a simplified state. Her weapon can now only fire one snowball before it needs to be reloaded — accomplished by finding particular piles of snow throughout the “Ecopoint: Antarctica” map — but the shots are one-hit eliminations. Hit everyone on the opposing team before they take out your allies and you’re a winner — it isn’t “Lúcioball,” but it certainly gets us in the mood to drink hot cocoa and sit around the fire.

In addition to these changes, you’ll also notice that the maps “King’s Row” and “Hanamura” are now covered in snow and Christmas trees. Gameplay doesn’t appear to be altered, and the other maps remain unchanged.

Are you getting into the holiday spirit with Overwatch? Have you turned Torbjörn into Santa Claus yet? Let us know in the comments!

Gabe Gurwin
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Phantom Blade Zero hands-on: An extraordinary game with unbelievable combat that I can’t get enough of
Every fight feels like a beautifully choreographed martial arts movie, except I'm the one controlling every move.
Phantom Blade Zero poster

We have had a considerable number of high-profile game releases this year, but none so far have had as much hype behind them as Phantom Blade Zero. The source of all that hype was a 2023 trailer highlighting its fluid kung-fu-derived sword combat. Considering that, at the time of writing this piece, there are over 700,000 concurrent players on Steam alone, on a weekday no less, I think it's safe to say that the hype has converted into gamers actually showing up for the game. I have sunk around 10 hours into this game today, and so far, it has been nothing short of an absolute masterclass in action combat.

A world that pulls you in from the start

Read more
Claude helped bring a PS2 emulator to the browser, and it can run GTA San Andreas
TabStationToo adapts PCSX2 for browser play, with the developers reporting near-full-speed performance in some games
TabStationToo on laptop

Two friends have used Claude to help bring the open-source PS2 emulator PCSX2 to a browser. Their project, TabStationToo, has been tested with games including GTA San Andreas and Final Fantasy XII.

The developers say Claude did most of the programming while they directed the work and tested the results. It’s still experimental, but games run locally without installing a desktop emulator.

Read more
Phantom Blade Zero joins GeForce NOW, and your old PC can join the party
No gaming PC? Nvidia has a way to play Phantom Blade Zero anyway
Phantom Blade Zero Featured Image

Phantom Blade Zero is finally here, bringing its slick martial arts combat and striking kungfupunk world to PC. If you're worried that your PC can't run it, Nvidia has a cloud solution. The game is joining GeForce NOW at launch, allowing players to experience S-GAME's ambitious action RPG without investing in expensive new hardware.

The announcement is part of Nvidia's latest GFN Thursday update, which brings nine games to its cloud gaming service this week, alongside modding support for two popular RPGs and new subscription options for players in India.

Read more