The presentation began with the announcement of a retro collection of Blizzard's oldest games: Lost Vikings, Rock n' Roll Racing, and Blackthorne. The Arcade Collection features the original versions of all three games as well as a definitive edition that provides extra features like custom button mapping, the ability to save anywhere, rewinding up to ten seconds, and the ability to watch a playthrough of the game and jump in whenever you w

Blizzard also revealed the highly-anticipated update to WoW Classic: Burning Crusade Classic. The first-ever expansion to World of Warcraft is getting re-released sometime in 2021. Classic players will be able to choose if they want to keep their characters in the Classic Era or advance them into the Burning Crusade Era of the game. Burning Crusade Class will be included with no additional purchase for all World of Warcraft subscrib

The thing is, Overwatch pitches itself as a lovingly inclusive universe where all manner of people, robots, and other living beings can co-exist in harmony. Much of its lore explores past conflicts and moments of history, but the sequel intends to focus on the present. If Blizzard can take time to flesh out talking animals amongst its cast, I’m sure the queer characters also deserve a spotli

But with the release of Overwatch 2 and its debut season less than two weeks away, we now have a concrete picture of how the experience will play out, as well as how much it differs from what came before. This isn’t a premium product anymore, but instead a free game that anyone can download, jump into, and have a reasonably good time without spending a penny. There’s a free version of the battle pass too, albeit with far fewer rewards and a focus on grinding things out over a prolonged period of time, but it’s there, and that kinda rules.

On the surface, the game is making all the right decisions. Both versions of the battle pass are packed with skins, sprays, charms, and a variety of content that outweighs anything its predecessor had in its first few months. Seasonal events are established, and an existing roster of heroes we’ve already fallen in love with have a generous roster of cosmetics and lore to build upon. I’m already invested, and for Blizzard that is half the battle right now.

That’s an issue for another day though. Today, I want to focus on the Archives skins, particularly those of our queer characters, Soldier 76 and Tracer. The Archives event is running until April 27, and brings eight new skins to the game, each designed around a given character’s cultural history. Both Soldier 76 and Tracer are included in the event, but it’s extremely telling that neither of their cultural histories includes any reference to queerness. Soldier 76 is becoming Soldier 1776 which, I admit, is a good pun. The American soldier is donning the jacket of the Revolutionaries, these days probably best known from the musical Hamil

Blizzard released a trailer for Forged in Barrens that details some of the new cards and keywords coming later this year. You can pre-order the new set now for $49.99 or upgrade to the mega bundle for $79

Overwatch 2 is a weird sequel. It’s more of a live-service update with fancier menus and quality of life improvements instead of a fundamental evolution of what came before, except it’s a whole new game - although it’s free and your progress carries over, so it’s not really that much of anything.

I can buy skins outright, but they used to be earned through chance, so the value of each skin is twisted in a way that the community is going to take a long time to reconcile. In reality is it no different to how things are done in games like Apex Legends or Fortnite , with the very best skins costing around $15-$20, but we were used to earning them in a much easier way, and thus it feels unfair. For someone like me with more skins than sense, I feel like a dragon sitting atop a mountain of gold unaware of how they stumbled across such riches. I’m serious, using the new values assigned to skins I think my account is worth thousands. Yet it’s also worthless.

Grand Theft Auto Online has continued to grow since the initial launch in 2013, and has had numerous content updates to match. From replayable heists to goofing around with your crew, there is no shortage of content in Grand Theft Auto Online. With players spending so much time on their characters and hideouts, it begs the question of whether or not progression, or at the very least cosmetic items, will transfer over to the next entry of the series. One way Rockstar can appease long time players is to adopt a system similar to Overwatch

But for those not planning to pick up the premium battle pass or aren’t already cemented in the Overwatch ecosystem, some new heroes are locked behind progression in ways that actively discourages the experimentation this game is all about. Kiriko - the new fox girl support hero who I am totally not simping for already - is available immediately to premium battle pass holders or existing players of the original Overwatch 2 Walkthrough|Https://Overwatch2Fans.Com/, while everyone else must grind to Level 55 in order to unlock her. That’s a big time investment for a hero in a hero shooter.