New 'Overwatch' Patch Brings Fixes To Competitive Play, Olympic Loot Boxes And More

8.5
  • Playstation 4
  • Windows
  • Xbox One
  • Shooter
2016-05-24
Tracer doing her thing
Tracer doing her thing Blizzard

On Tuesday, Blizzard released the newest Patch Notes for Overwatch across all systems. There’s the Summer Games Loot Box, which brings over 100 new skins, emotes and icons to the game in time for the 2016 Rio Olympics. There are also a ton of quality of life changes and console buffs to Anna and nerfs to McCree.

Here’s the whole list from Blizz.net.

Please note that the following changes will apply to all platforms unless marked with a [PC Only] tag.

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Seasonal Event: Summer Games Crack your knuckles, stretch those hamstrings, and turn up the volume—the Summer Games are here! From now through August 22, players can earn Summer Games Loot Boxes, collect over 100 seasonal items, and challenge their friends to a futuristic soccer match in our new brawl: Lúcioball!

GENERAL UPDATES

Competitive Play

Players who leave a competitive match before its conclusion will now have to wait for at least 10 minutes before joining another competitive match During subsequent rounds on Assault maps (Hanamura, Temple of Anubis, and Volskaya Industries), the amount of time provided for team assembly has been reduced

Miscellaneous

Added Lúcio as an AI hero in Practice vs. AI, Play vs. AI, and Custom Game modes Several minor, behind-the-scenes improvements have been made to the in-game matchmaker

MAP BALANCE UPDATES

Made several minor adjustments across Watchpoint: Gibraltar to ensure better balance for defending and attacking teams

USER INTERFACE

Made several minor improvements to the way hero selection tips work: The "No Builder" and "No Sniper Hero" warnings have been removed

"No Support Hero" now reads as "No Healer" (does not apply to Symmetra)

Hero selection tips are no longer displayed during team assembly in a Brawl Zenyatta's Transcendence speed increase is now noted on the Hero Details screen

Players can now select which type of Loot Box (standard or seasonal) they'd like to open next [PC Only]

Players can now set an FPS cap by selecting "Custom" from the “Limit FPS” dropdown

BUG FIXES

General

Fixed a bug where Widowmaker’s “Noire” skin and the Origins Edition skins would not count towards unlock progress of the “Decked Out” Achievement

Fixed a bug where “The Path Is Closed” Achievement could not be obtained by D.Va while in her mech [PC Only]

Fixed a bug where players were unable to use the “Join Game” option from the social menu on their friends

Fixed a bug that caused Custom Games to ignore the “Return to Lobby” setting when the game mode was set to Competitive

Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the Tutorial to become unplayable after players switched heroes [PC Only]

Fixed a display bug with the mouse cursor for Windows systems using a 16-bit desktop [PC Only]

Removed developer option to disable all shadows via the settings file

Maps

Fixed a bug causing the “old timey” end-of-round music filter on Hollywood to remain active after leaving a match Fixed a bug that kept the 30-seconds-remaining music from activating correctly on Payload maps.

Heroes

Fixed a bug that was affecting the majority of Ana’s “Most in Game” career statistics

Fixed a bug that caused Ana’s Biotic Grenade to miss an allied Reaper while in Wraith Form

Fixed a bug with that caused Junkrat’s “Jester” and “Fool” skins to incorrectly display during a Highlight Intro

Fixed a bug that kept Soldier: 76’s Ultimate charge meter from displaying progress gained for the Tactical Visor ability in the Tutorial

Fixed a bug that caused the visuals and sound effects on Reinhardt’s Rocket Hammer to malfunction when hitting an enemy

Fixed a bug that caused Widowmaker’s “Widow’s Kiss” spray to be replaced by the “Je Te Vois” spray

Competitive Play

Fixed a bug that kept grouped players from being able to rejoin a match when disconnected

Fixed a bug that caused a player’s Skill Rating to be displayed incorrectly when rejoining a match in progress

A.I.

Fixed an issue hindering Ana from restoring allies to full health

Fixed an issue allowing Reaper to use Wraith Form to escape in situations where he should be stunned

CONSOLE-SPECIFIC CHANGES

Please note that the following changes will apply only to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Some of these changes may have already been made to PC.

GENERAL UPDATES

Competitive Play

Attacking teams now have 4 minutes to capture the first point on Assault maps (down from 5 minutes)

HERO BALANCE UPDATES

Ana

Biotic Rifle Rate of fire increased by 20% Magazine size increased from 8 to 10

Developer Comments: While Ana has been very well received, she was showing to be a little bit weaker overall. In addition to helping her feel better to play, these changes should also increase her healing and damage output.

McCree

Peacemaker Primary Fire Damage falloff range decreased by 10 meters Damage falloff amount is unchanged

As a result, even with this change, McCree’s effective range is still higher than it was at launch Alternate Fire Rate of fire increased by 15% Flashbang Recovery time (i.e. the amount of time before McCree can fire again) decreased from 0.5 seconds to 0.35 seconds

Developer Comments: McCree’s latest range increase helped him quite a bit, but it was a bit too much in the right hands. This change weakens his long range damage somewhat, but still keeps it stronger than it has been in the recent past. The other changes combine to allow him to land more alternate fire shots on targets that he has hit with Flashbang.

BUG FIXES

General Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the killcam to show a black screen Fixed a bug that sometimes caused players to lose the ability to select a hero using a controller on the hero select screen

Heroes
Targets of Ana’s Sleep Dart will no longer instantly recover when damaged (recovery time is now 0.5 seconds)
The correct hit pip sound will now play whenever one of Ana’s darts impact with a barrier
All of Ana’s in-game sounds now have proper occlusion

User Interface
Fixed a bug that caused “Attack” and “Defend” indicators to not always display on the hero select screen

Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause Lúcio, Mei, and other models to only partially render (or disappear)
Fixed a bug that caused the scoreboard to sometimes display the wrong stats if you switched hero mid-match
Fixed a bug in Competitive Play that caused the numbers on the post-match skill rating bar to not increment correctly

REVIEW SUMMARY
Overwatch
8.5
'Overwatch' May Not Be Perfect, But It's Damn Near Close
Overwatch doesn't care if you've ever tried an FPS before, it holds your hands and makes you feel okay while you shoot rocket launchers, icicles and sound waves.
  • Amazing Art Style
  • Balanced Mechanics
  • Characters Keep You Coming Back For More
  • No Single Player
  • Overwhelming At First
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