It’s hard to believe that Overwatch has been around for a year already. With special events year-round, it always retains a big presence in the gaming community. Starting Tuesday, Blizzard is celebrating the anniversary with a special event full of new skins, emotes, and more.
Anytime from May 23 through June 12, players can fight in three new arena maps as they earn Anniversary Loot Boxes full of event-based goodies for their favorite characters. More than 100 different rewards include 11 skins, 24 dance emotes, 24 voice lines, 25 sprays, and 25 player icons. Anyone who logs in during this time will automatically earn a free Anniversary Loot Box.
As part of the event, three new Arena maps have been added to the Arcade. Arena maps are smaller maps designed to keep things intense for up to 3v3 elimination matches. The first, Necropolis, is an impromptu field base full of stone corridors, deep pits, and a tall vantage point atop the ruins. Castillo is an old fort full of winding stairs and multiple levels that provide plenty of coverage. The final addition, Black Forrest, offers many opportunities to flank opponents on the pathways between Eichenwalde Castle and the woods.
In addition to the event, Overwatch recieved an update with a number of patches and adjustments. New options have been added for Elimination mode in Custom Games and Game Browser. These include Hero Lockout, Limited Hero Pool, Tiebreakers, and Hero Reveal. In Custom Games, players now have the ability to disable secondary fire and secondary weapons. Also, players can now disable one Symmetra Ultimate while leaving the other active.
For typical play, many tweaks have been made to a number of characters. In general, recoil recovery aim compensations can now be disabled for Ana, McCree, and Widowmaker. Other adjustments have been made to Genji, Hanzo, Orisa, Reaper, Reinhardt, and Soldier 76.
In-depth details about Tuesday’s patch notes are available on the Overwatch website.
