Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting. As always, if you encounter any bugs during your PTR play sessions, please stop by the PTR Bug Report forum to let us know about your experienThere are certain developers out there that make games that are far more polished than everything else out on the market. Blizzard pretty much leads the charge here, and Overwatch is absolutely no exception. In my over one-hundred matches played during the Overwatch beta, I haven’t experienced a single dropped frame or moment of lag. Think about that for a second. We live in an age where AAA games routinely launch broken, so for a beta (though this beta is essentially a final build) to be more polished than the final release of its closest competitor, that really says something.Much has been made of the rivalry between Blizzard and Gearbox Software, with the former seemingly attempting to hinder the success of the latter at every turn. Overwatch’s Open Beta’s Early Access period launched at the same time as the full release of Battleborn , making this the second time that version of the two titles have gone head to head with playable builds. There are a ton of similarities between the two titles, as both have over twenty playable heroes that each have a distinct personality and set of skills, but Overwatch and Battleborn are less similar than one might initially imagine. Whereas Battleborn is essentially a MOBA with a campaign (despite Gearbox’s complete avoidance of that four letter acronym over the years), Overwatch is an arena shooter in the vein of Team Fortress 2.Perhaps it’ll be a bit easier to collect my thoughts on Overwatch once the beta period is over, thus giving me a bit of time to ruminate on what has been the best surprise of my time here at Hardcore Gamer to date. Right now, I find myself stuck in a mode of childlike wonder that rarely comes along and the last thing I want to do is ruin this through academic over-analysis. I haven’t had a multiplayer experience that has come along and completely enraptured me quite like this in seven years; on top of all of this, any semblance of being jaded as a result of playing too many games has all but vanished as a result of Blizzard’s impeccably polished arena shooter. Since you all probably would like to see a bit of negative criticism in here to balance out the single most glowing article I’ve written this year, however, I’ll leave you with this: I really don’t like the feeling of knowing that I already need to write off hundreds of hours of my life.
June 2, 2025, is the 10-year anniversary of Heroes of the Storm , so it is fitting that Heroes Brawl has returned for the MOBA’s big year. This is a huge win for fans of the Blizzard MOBA – and many players are hoping it might be yet another prelude to an official revival of Heroes of the StoWith all of that gushing out of the way, I’d like to pinpoint the exact moment where I realized that Overwatch was a special experience, at least for me. While the PC audience is far more knowledgeable about team composition than its console counterparts (as a result of sheer time played), I found myself on a team where the other five players thought it would be a good idea to choose three Tracers and two Reapers. If you don’t know anything about Overwatch, you should know that a balanced team consisting of offense, defense, tanks and supports is going to succeed far more often than one where every player is in one category. Considering that Tracer is the squishiest offensive hero and Reaper is an offensive character that isn’t going to be able to do damage at range, I found myself at a loss. Generally when I’m attacking a central control point, I enjoy picking someone like Junkrat, whose bouncing grenades can cause absolute chaos. Unfortunately, this hero was out of the question, as my more casual teammates would not be able to succeed without a healer. It’s for that very reason that I chose Mercy, who can beam health into any allies that she aims her staff at.It seems as though everyone is picking sides in this debate, and after playing extensive amounts of both titles on PC over the course of the week, I can safely say that I’m more fond of Blizzard’s newest title. Granted, Battleborn has started to grow on me, which is impressive considering I have traditionally held the most negative opinion towards it on our staff, but there are three important reasons why Overwatch Stadium Roadmap is emerging as the superior product for those looking to dive into a hero shooter this Spring.
According to the patch notes, Brawl Mode will rotate every two weeks, on the 1st and 15th of each month, rather than every week as its predecessor did. As before, players can earn a special chest by playing three games of the Brawl while it is active. It currently remains to be seen if fans can earn this reward a single time each Brawl, or once a week while it is live. Considering there were over two dozen Heroes Brawls in the past, players will likely see most of their favorites return in time – and maybe even some new Brawls in the fut
June 2, 2025, is the 10-year anniversary of Heroes of the Storm , so it is fitting that Heroes Brawl has returned for the MOBA’s big year. This is a huge win for fans of the Blizzard MOBA – and many players are hoping it might be yet another prelude to an official revival of Heroes of the StoWith all of that gushing out of the way, I’d like to pinpoint the exact moment where I realized that Overwatch was a special experience, at least for me. While the PC audience is far more knowledgeable about team composition than its console counterparts (as a result of sheer time played), I found myself on a team where the other five players thought it would be a good idea to choose three Tracers and two Reapers. If you don’t know anything about Overwatch, you should know that a balanced team consisting of offense, defense, tanks and supports is going to succeed far more often than one where every player is in one category. Considering that Tracer is the squishiest offensive hero and Reaper is an offensive character that isn’t going to be able to do damage at range, I found myself at a loss. Generally when I’m attacking a central control point, I enjoy picking someone like Junkrat, whose bouncing grenades can cause absolute chaos. Unfortunately, this hero was out of the question, as my more casual teammates would not be able to succeed without a healer. It’s for that very reason that I chose Mercy, who can beam health into any allies that she aims her staff at.It seems as though everyone is picking sides in this debate, and after playing extensive amounts of both titles on PC over the course of the week, I can safely say that I’m more fond of Blizzard’s newest title. Granted, Battleborn has started to grow on me, which is impressive considering I have traditionally held the most negative opinion towards it on our staff, but there are three important reasons why Overwatch Stadium Roadmap is emerging as the superior product for those looking to dive into a hero shooter this Spring.
According to the patch notes, Brawl Mode will rotate every two weeks, on the 1st and 15th of each month, rather than every week as its predecessor did. As before, players can earn a special chest by playing three games of the Brawl while it is active. It currently remains to be seen if fans can earn this reward a single time each Brawl, or once a week while it is live. Considering there were over two dozen Heroes Brawls in the past, players will likely see most of their favorites return in time – and maybe even some new Brawls in the fut
