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

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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.

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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…
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