Up next in 10
This week we have a lot to say about the Overwatch (not two!) yearly overview. Much of it is negative, and a lot of it is tinged with incredulity, like the moment Liz found out there are actually two different billionaire nepo babies among the heroes. Some is positive, but most of the crew is not all that optimistic. The Hearthstone announcements last week were also new and exciting and interesting, but because Hearthstone is so consistent in what they deliver, it's just par for the course: three new expansions, three new minisets, Year of the Scarab. You know em, you love em.
And speaking of love, Love is in the Air in WoW, and our cohosts are, as always, transmog-motivated. Also, cute mount motivated. All the true endgames, we suppose!
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0:10
Hey everybody, welcome to the Blizzard
0:12
Watch podcast. Uh here on the podcast,
0:15
we talk about Blizzard entertainment,
0:17
its mini games, and some other things.
0:18
Uh with us this week is a special guest,
0:21
Nick, who's going to be talking about
0:23
stuff. And then we have Liz and Joe who
0:25
hopefully will also be talking about
0:27
stuff as well as making this site work
0:29
and the and the show work and all the
0:31
good stuff. And we have me who is really
0:34
a little incoherent due to medication.
0:37
So yeah, it's going to be great. Uh Joe,
0:40
>> do you do you have a name?
0:43
>> Do I have a name that people should
0:44
know? Yes,
0:45
>> I think I do. I definitely don't have
0:47
one people should know, but I do think I
0:49
have a name. I think it's Matt. I'm Matt
0:51
Matt Rossy. I I tend to host but I you
0:54
know I've missed sometimes but I'm not
0:56
missing this week again even though they
0:58
hopped me up on tons of medical
0:59
medication. Uh going on to this though
1:02
because Joe is going to talk about stuff
1:03
that I want to hear more about.
1:05
Overwatch and I'm not saying Overwatch
1:08
wrong. I'm not forgetting anything.
1:10
That's part of the announcement.
1:12
>> Oh boy.
1:13
>> You want to I'm gonna I'm gonna run
1:15
through the announcements first before I
1:17
start giving my oped because I think
1:18
that'll probably be the most beneficial.
1:20
Uh, so we got a whole bunch of stuff.
1:22
February 4th, the Overwatch spot
1:24
spotlight took place, and there was a
1:26
ton of unexpected announcements. Um,
1:28
some that we knew was coming, some that
1:30
we didn't, and it is intriguing, but not
1:35
necessarily in good ways as far as I'm
1:38
concerned. First is what Matt's alluding
1:40
to, and we've talked about a little bit
1:41
before. Uh, Overwatch 2 is no longer
1:45
going to be referred to as Overwatch 2.
1:48
The joke that we have been making since
1:49
Overwatch 2 has released is now
1:51
official. Uh it is no longer It is just
1:55
Overwatch. It is just back to being
1:57
Overwatch. Um I am
1:59
>> That means we can't make the joke
2:00
anymore. What are we going to do with
2:02
ourselves?
2:03
>> I'm just going to scream that I was
2:04
right from the top of the mountain. I
2:06
mean, that's what's going to happen.
2:10
>> So, with this with this name change,
2:12
have they changed anything about the
2:13
base game? Are we playing something more
2:15
like Overwatch
2:17
now?
2:17
>> Well, boy howdy Liz. I wish I could say
2:19
yes.
2:22
>> But we're going to get we're going to
2:24
get into that in a second. Let me run
2:25
through some of this other stuff real
2:26
quick because
2:27
>> gentlemen to evil.
2:29
>> Yeah. Yeah. Liz is trying to get me
2:32
started already. I see what you're
2:33
doing.
2:35
>> Some some days you wake up in the
2:37
morning and you choose violence and it
2:39
just happens.
2:40
>> Yeah. Um, I do want to make a note here
2:43
that with them dropping the two, uh,
2:45
we're starting again from season 1 now,
2:47
which, uh, should be, as we're recording
2:50
February 10th, uh, that day is the start
2:53
of season 1, which seems an interesting
2:56
choice. Sort of like a full reset. Uh,
2:58
and it does come with a ladder reset, a
3:00
battle pass reset, uh, a competitive
3:02
reset. Everything essentially is getting
3:04
reset back to season 1. and players feel
3:07
very strongly about that in both
3:09
directions. You can look at the internet
3:12
and find all of those opinions if you so
3:14
choose. Um they all go ahead.
3:18
>> It is 2026 and we are playing Overwatch
3:20
season 1.
3:22
>> Yeah,
3:22
>> 2026.
3:24
>> Yeah,
3:25
>> it's
3:26
confusing enough rewind back to the
3:28
beginning of Overwatch.
3:30
>> And that's true. That's true. I would I
3:32
would also like to rewind. I would also
3:35
wish that they actually rewound, but
3:36
again, we're gonna get there. Um, but
3:38
also Liz made me think of that
3:40
>> beginning of Overwatch as a game.
3:42
>> What's that?
3:43
>> I was saying never mind the beginning of
3:44
Overwatch as a game, just the year. We
3:47
just like to go back to Let's just go
3:50
back.
3:50
>> Yeah, let's just let's have a doover of
3:52
the past.
3:52
>> I I would like that. I would like that.
3:54
Anyway, go ahead, Liz.
3:55
>> Yeah, we we could make better choices.
3:57
We could play better games. I don't
3:59
know. I don't know.
4:00
>> We could hope. Uh so there are some
4:02
other things that are coming with that
4:03
as well which is going to be five new
4:05
heroes that all release on February
4:07
10th. Uh Domina who is a tank who works
4:09
for uh Talon uh the VP of Vishkar and is
4:13
a billionaire Nepo baby. You know
4:15
everybody wants to play a billionaire
4:16
Nepo baby. Right. That this is the
4:18
absolute perfect time to release this
4:20
type of character to your players.
4:22
Right. Right. I mean if you want to be
4:24
evil then yes it's kind of perfect.
4:27
>> It's it Go ahead Liz.
4:30
There is a little tiny bit more to
4:33
Vendetta in that she was
4:35
>> Well, we're not talking about cut out of
4:36
her no. This is Domino. This is not
4:39
Vendetta. We haven't even talked about
4:40
Vendetta yet.
4:41
>> Wait, wait. There's a second billionaire
4:43
Nepo baby.
4:44
>> Yes.
4:46
>> Do a new tank.
4:48
>> Oh, this is just so good. I love this.
4:51
>> I
4:53
>> All right, we're going to keep going
4:54
here. Uh Emmery, who's a a DPS who also
4:57
works for Talon, uh was originally with
4:59
Overwatch, uh now has a gun and can heal
5:01
himself with lif steal. Uh this is very
5:04
different from Reaper. Totally 100% not
5:07
Reaper.
5:08
>> This is Winter Soldier, except we
5:10
already had a Winter Soldier, so I don't
5:12
>> This is This is This is Winter Soldier
5:14
with a mustache.
5:16
Uh next is Mizuki, who's a support for
5:18
Talon. Uh has a magical hat, does a
5:21
bunch of magical healing. Uh, uh, Enron,
5:24
who is a DPS for Overwatch, who's the
5:26
sister of Wu Yang. Uh, Wuang is a
5:28
support hero that uses water. Actually,
5:30
really cool hero, and I do dig the
5:32
design of it, so I will I I'm not going
5:34
to be all negative here. Uh, but Adren
5:37
does DPS with fire and her fire. Um,
5:40
they're fans. She's basically a fan
5:43
dancer that does tons of DPS and solar
5:46
solar damage, which is really cool. Um,
5:49
there is a another hero that I'm sure
5:51
everybody's mostly excited about,
5:53
Jetpack Cat. Uh, Jetpack Cat, who I will
5:56
>> Jet Cat is the only part of this
5:58
announcement that made me happy.
5:59
>> Jetpack Cat is will never be referred to
6:02
by their actual name and will only ever
6:03
be referred to as Jetpack Cat on this
6:05
podcast. I'm making that rule now. Uh,
6:08
>> okay.
6:09
>> Um, but yes, it's a highmobility uh
6:12
support that I think is really, really
6:15
cool. um that I think started as a joke
6:18
in an interview uh back when Bridgetette
6:20
or Bridgetette was being teased and
6:23
everybody's like, "Oh, it's a jetpack
6:24
cat." And I forgot which which developer
6:26
made the joke. Uh but literally they
6:29
made the joke and everybody's been
6:31
begging for it like all throughout
6:33
Overwatch one through Overwatch 2 and
6:36
now they finally made it a character. Go
6:37
ahead, Liz.
6:38
>> Well, there was it was a I mean there
6:40
was concept art for it that they showed
6:42
off at one BlizzCon. Not
6:44
>> it was at like an art panel or something
6:46
where they were talking about oh these
6:48
are designs we tossed around and
6:49
everyone was like jetpack cat we must
6:52
play jetpack cat and now it's been like
6:55
a decade.
6:56
>> Here's the thing about jetpack cat.
6:58
First off Joe, you don't have to call a
7:01
jetpack cat anything else because as of
7:04
right now they still haven't given
7:05
jetpack hack any other name than
7:07
jetpack.
7:08
>> Yes, there is a there is a name for
7:09
jetack cat.
7:10
>> Yeah, but not on the site. Not when you
7:12
go to their official link. They didn't
7:14
put it there.
7:15
>> I mean, she has a name, but yeah, it's
7:18
not used anywhere in her hero
7:20
information.
7:21
>> I I know. I know. Which is
7:23
>> We're going to rant about that in a
7:24
second. Don't worry.
7:26
Um,
7:27
>> I just I I don't care that if Jetpack
7:30
Cat is good to play or not. I'm just
7:31
looking at this picture, this little
7:32
kitty, and going, "This is adorable."
7:35
>> And and and and Anna is correct. Her
7:38
name is Fica, but it's Jetpack Cat.
7:40
Anyway, um what I will I do want to
7:43
focus on some cool stuff before we start
7:45
getting into some of the weird negative
7:46
stuff. Um which is they're also
7:49
introducing in this season new roles of
7:51
the game. Not necessarily new roles than
7:54
what you would think. Uh you're still
7:55
going to have tank damage and support
7:57
heroes, but there are now sub roles that
7:59
each one can specialize into. Uh so you
8:02
have tanks that are uh either going to
8:04
be bruisers, which uh they're basically
8:07
big brawlers. They go in, they reduce
8:08
critical damage received, and then while
8:10
at critical health, they gain movement
8:12
speed. Um, these are going to be uh
8:14
Maga, Orisa, Roadhog, and Zarya, ones
8:18
who were basically in the like they were
8:20
they were kind of off tanks before, but
8:23
now they're being more disrupty tanks,
8:25
which I think is really neat. Uh,
8:26
initiators, staying airborne, uh,
8:29
lightly heals you. So, those are things
8:30
like, uh, div.a, Doomfist, Winston, and
8:33
Wrecking Ball. uh tanks that have high
8:35
mobility that want to get in and out and
8:37
do sort of like hit and run tactics. Uh
8:40
stalwart reduces knockbacks and slows
8:42
received. And this is your classic tank.
8:45
So your your dominoes, your hazard, your
8:46
junker queen, your raat rotatra, your
8:49
Reinhardt, your sigas. Damage has a few
8:52
things that they're specializing into.
8:54
Uh you have sharpshooter, which is uh
8:56
critical hits reduce your uh movement
8:58
ability cooldowns. So this is Ash,
9:00
Cassidy, Hanzo, Soldier, and Widowmaker.
9:02
These are ones that reward high skill uh
9:05
high skill combat shots. Uh not
9:07
necessarily volume of attack of damage,
9:09
but like those those really important
9:11
like one hit, get in, get out. Um so
9:14
this is going to be more focusing on
9:16
that. You have your flankers uh which
9:18
are going to be uh health packs heal you
9:21
for more and these are sort of like the
9:23
front liners, the glass cannons. So it
9:26
gives them a little more sustainability
9:27
which I think is a nice choice. Uh,
9:30
Anren, Genji, Reaper, Tracer, Vendetta,
9:32
and Venture are in this category. You
9:35
have your specialists uh where
9:38
eliminating an enemy increases your
9:40
reload speed, which is pretty cool. Um,
9:43
and those are Bastions, Emory, Junkrat,
9:45
My Soldier 76, Symmetra, and Torbjorn.
9:48
Uh, recon, you deflect enemy uh enemy,
9:51
you detect enemies below half health
9:53
through walls after damaging, which that
9:56
is really massive and really cool. Uh,
9:59
Echo, Freya, Farah, and Sombra are in
10:02
that category. Farah, that's a huge like
10:05
benefit for her uh because her main
10:08
attack does an AoE splash, being able to
10:11
see where people are hiding behind walls
10:12
and predicting those shots, being able
10:13
to lead that shot. Huge upgrade for that
10:16
type of character. And then support is
10:18
broken down into three uh subcategories.
10:20
is you have your tactician where you
10:22
gain excess ultimate charge which
10:24
carries over after using your ultimate
10:26
ability which is really cool uh because
10:29
a lot of the tactician supports uh that
10:31
you we're going to read off here they
10:33
tend to sit on their alt a while because
10:35
it's it can make a big difference in a
10:37
team fight. So this is your Anna, your
10:39
Baptiste, your you well now your jetpack
10:41
cat, but Lucio and Zenyatta and those
10:45
like those two alone their ultimates are
10:48
massive fight alterers. So being able to
10:50
store a little more of, you know, that
10:54
that uh excess ultimate charge and being
10:57
able to get that back up quickly after
10:59
doing it is huge because again those
11:01
characters once they pop their alt if it
11:04
takes forever to get it back up, they're
11:06
sort of useless or I shouldn't say
11:07
useless, suboptimal until it's back up
11:10
and max to engage in another team. Uh
11:12
you have your medics uh where healing
11:14
allies with your weapon also heals you.
11:16
So, your Kirao, your life weaver, uh,
11:18
but your Mercy and your Moiraas, which
11:20
really neat that helps self- sustain.
11:23
Uh, Mercy tends to have a problem with
11:24
self-sustain. So, this is really nice.
11:26
And then survivor, using a movement
11:28
ability, activates your passive health
11:30
regeneration.
11:32
This is probably the largest one for me
11:34
uh because Breijgit is in this category
11:37
and I play when I do play Overwatch I
11:39
play a ton of Breijg. But that's one of
11:41
the things she is a engager support that
11:45
being able to have a sustainable
11:47
self-heal massive Juno, Mizuki and Wuang
11:50
are also in this category. So, these are
11:53
really interesting sub subasses,
11:56
I guess you would call them,
11:57
specializations, very similar to like
11:59
what you would have in D and D with
12:01
like, you know, sort of like these
12:03
categories for uh these characters makes
12:05
them feel a little more unique and a
12:07
little less generic, which is something
12:10
in my opinion, now we're going to get to
12:11
the negative part, that should have
12:12
happened when Overwatch 2 first released
12:15
because this is something that other
12:18
hero shooters in the genre have already
12:20
been doing and them coming to it late is
12:24
I I'm glad to see that they're doing it,
12:26
but I'm very interested in why it took
12:29
so long to get here, but it is good
12:32
overall for the state of gameplay in any
12:35
questions about that before I move on to
12:37
the cinematic and some of the other
12:39
stuff. Not a question, but I will say I
12:43
made a comparison before we started
12:45
about Overwatch and Destiny, and the
12:47
only thing I'll say is be very careful
12:51
with letting them turn a meme around the
12:54
game into something like tangible and
12:58
real into the game. That is something
13:00
that did happen in Destiny and it did
13:02
not end very well. Continue.
13:04
>> Yeah.
13:06
Well, all of this presentation was uh
13:08
kicked off with a very good uh as far as
13:12
visual effects go cinematic with some
13:15
great voice acting. Uh which starts with
13:18
some of the backstory of Vendetta and
13:21
how she got her name. Uh and Liz and I
13:23
were both talking about this before the
13:24
podcast started. Um, and uh,
13:29
yeah, I while the cinematic was cool
13:32
visually, the story beats on it were
13:34
tonedeaf at best. Uh, the the setup here
13:38
is that Vendetta mourns her father in
13:40
the past, her father being killed by
13:42
Doomfist. Uh, her father being the one
13:44
that was in charge of Talon before
13:46
Doomfist killed him. This happened 10
13:48
years ago. Arbitrary time in Overwatch
13:51
amount here. Um, and so she comes back
13:54
fully grown up with her, you know,
13:57
stalking uh sword and her battle heels
14:01
and uh
14:03
>> hacks Doomfist arm off and shoves him
14:05
out of a window taking over a talon. Uh,
14:07
Liz thinks about the sword, Liz,
14:11
>> anything else but not the sword.
14:12
>> Liz, how do you feel about how they
14:14
portrayed Vendetta? Why don't Why don't
14:15
you go and rant a little bit?
14:17
>> I The character is as thin as a piece of
14:20
paper. I mean, the problem is Vendetta
14:23
has gotten more short. She got a hero
14:25
short. She's had two short stories that
14:27
you can find on YouTube narrated by her
14:30
voice actor. And her entire character is
14:35
that she's mad. She's she's mad about
14:37
her father. She's mad about Talon.
14:41
But that's it. That's that's the
14:43
character top to bottom. Her father
14:45
died. Doomfist took over Talon, which
14:49
she she saw as her birthright.
14:52
And so she did the only thing you could
14:55
do in this situation, which is she went
14:58
and became a gladiator
15:01
and and fought in gladatorial combat
15:04
battles until she became like really
15:06
powerful and famous and she had
15:09
influence and wealth. And then she went
15:13
in and killed in quotation marks
15:16
Doomfist.
15:18
And it's she's gotten more story than
15:21
most Overwatch characters do. And all of
15:24
it is story. Well, it's just it's all
15:27
the same. Like I could I could work with
15:30
this as as like a starting point, you
15:34
know? It's like, okay, her father died.
15:36
She's really angry. She goes off and she
15:38
gains power and money and influence. And
15:40
then she comes in and takes over for
15:41
Overwatch. I could as a as a start of a
15:45
story that I can go with that. Except
15:48
that's it. That's we've had every every
15:52
story just kind of reinforces this. Her
15:55
father died. She's really mad. Her
15:57
father died. She's really mad. She
16:00
doesn't have any goals. What's she going
16:02
to do with Talon? Why did she want
16:04
Talon? Why does she think Talon is her
16:06
birthright when Talon
16:09
it feels like Talon is kind of a council
16:11
situation? Do does anyone else get that
16:13
read?
16:14
>> Kind of.
16:15
>> They definitely had the bunch of people
16:16
on Clint's.
16:18
>> Yeah.
16:18
>> You know, holograms on Flint's in the
16:20
middle of the room. So,
16:21
>> but the Yeah, but the caveat is they
16:23
were all operatives with Doomfist
16:25
technically being the one in charge,
16:26
right? That's the whole setup that they
16:28
that people probably have forgotten
16:29
since Doomfist's introduction in the OG
16:32
days, right? That was the setup for it.
16:35
Liz, you you've hit on a a key point
16:37
here that I think is a divergent uh
16:39
thing for Overwatch for people.
16:42
Overwatch is a game, good or bad. The
16:45
story was part of what made Overwatch
16:47
one charming and drew a lot of people in
16:50
compared to other shooters that were out
16:51
there, right?
16:52
>> There were ostensibly better uh shooters
16:56
out there. There's there are better
16:57
shooters out there now. Um, the story
17:00
set it aside because they set up these
17:02
characters and they made you care about
17:03
them when they were at the height of
17:05
their story.
17:06
>> Vendetta sort of is a representative a
17:09
representation of or a perfect
17:11
distillation of how bad the story's
17:14
gotten since the people who care about
17:15
it have left the company in my opinion.
17:18
Right. It's it's
17:19
>> I I gotta say something here because
17:21
that's that you know that part of that
17:23
is how dare you say something so
17:25
controversial yet so brave. Uh, but also
17:28
I will say this,
17:31
the reason Overwatch did that was
17:32
because it focused on the heroes.
17:34
Vendetta is not a hero. Talon, nobody in
17:36
Talon is a hero.
17:38
>> I would argue though that Reaper had a
17:40
complicated story.
17:41
>> I would argue he does not. That he is an
17:43
edge lord and that that's it. Like I you
17:47
you could tell me all about how he Reyes
17:49
used to fight with Soldier 76 blah blah
17:51
blah. We don't see it. There's no
17:53
there's no point where you get it.
17:54
Vendetta's biggest problem is she's
17:57
Batman.
17:58
>> Just like Batman, she has two speeds. I
18:00
must I must avenge what I've lost and my
18:04
parents are dead. That's Vendetta. That
18:07
the problem with Vendetta is she's
18:08
Batman. Uh the problem is that we we
18:12
have these characters who have stories
18:13
like that. Like Moira is interesting,
18:20
but is Zarya interesting really? like is
18:23
Zarya really all that interesting? Have
18:24
we seen much about Zarya? Um, some of
18:28
the characters get have have had more
18:30
story than others. I think the real
18:32
problem here is quite simply that they
18:34
have done a ton of press for Vendetta
18:38
and none of it is about Vendetta or what
18:43
motivates Vendetta because mo motivates
18:45
Vendetta is my parents are dead and
18:48
that's it. And it's it is really weird
18:51
to watch this stuff been watching the I
18:54
loved every cinematic I've watched and
18:56
then as soon as I put it like stopped
18:58
watching it I was like wait a minute
19:00
hold on that doesn't make any sense and
19:03
that's been the problem I've been having
19:05
this whole time. It's it's just grasping
19:08
the I can't tell if I'm not putting in
19:12
the work to understand it
19:13
>> or if it doesn't want me to do Do you
19:16
know what I'm saying? like it feels like
19:18
it's kind of I'm gonna shut up and let
19:20
us talk now.
19:21
>> I just feel like they're expecting us to
19:24
care about these characters and be
19:25
invested in these characters, but they
19:27
haven't put in the work to develop these
19:31
characters to make us care. So, Vendetta
19:33
goes in in this big dramatic scene,
19:36
fights with Doomfist, and it's like, I
19:39
don't care if Doomfist wins or loses. I
19:41
don't care if Vendetta wins or loses. I
19:43
have no emotional investment in either
19:45
of these characters because they have
19:48
there there's been so little story
19:50
development and I would say if you watch
19:52
that cinematic the only beat there okay
19:56
there are two emotional beats in that
19:58
cinematic one is at the beginning when
20:01
Vendetta is mourning the loss of her
20:03
father and I mean that's a very that's a
20:06
very clear kind of grabby thing that
20:10
they're like this is why you should care
20:12
about Vendetta. She lost her father. You
20:14
see a a traumatized young woman who is
20:18
who is grieving, but that's that's the
20:20
end of Vendetta's character development.
20:21
That's the beginning and the end of
20:23
Vendetta. Um, and then there's a moment
20:26
when Vendetta comes into the talent
20:28
headquarters and is confronting
20:29
Doomfist. And Sombra has like this
20:32
startled look and she like glances
20:34
across the room at someone. I don't I'm
20:36
not entirely sure who she was looking
20:37
at, but it's like and that because
20:41
Sombra's an older character, they did
20:44
put some effort into building Sombra out
20:46
as a defined per person that you could
20:49
care about, that you could relate with.
20:51
She's not just generic bad guy number
20:54
24.
20:56
Yeah, we know more about Sombra. We've
20:58
seen uh multiple cinematics with Sombra
21:01
and a whole lot of lore behind her. So,
21:04
you're invested and when you see her
21:06
react to the situation that
21:10
has emotional weight because you know
21:11
who she is. You uh this is a character
21:15
that maybe you already like, but
21:18
Doomfist has always just felt like he's
21:20
kind of there. He's he's he's a guy
21:22
carrying a carrying the Doomfist. That's
21:25
that's the thing. And Vendetta's whole
21:28
character is that she's mad. She's real
21:31
mad. Uh, but it's like Sombre is someone
21:34
you can care about because you know
21:35
about her. And so we go into this
21:38
dramatic cinematic which was beautifully
21:40
put together. It was the voice acting.
21:43
It is great.
21:45
Just from a from an artistic point,
21:48
everyone did great work here, but there
21:51
isn't an emotional payout for it because
21:54
we have not been given a reason to care.
21:56
Why does it matter who runs talent?
21:59
Talon is Talon is a group of bad guys.
22:01
Is Doomfist better? Is Vendetta better?
22:05
Why do we care? And by telling a story
22:08
without ever setting up stakes, without
22:10
ever giving us an emotional investment
22:13
is it doesn't there's not an emotional
22:16
payoff in the end.
22:17
>> Yeah. And I think I think
22:18
>> so narratively
22:20
>> Oh, sorry. I was going to say I agree
22:21
with you, but I think that's part of the
22:23
problem that Overwatch has, which is
22:25
>> and we we talked about this before.
22:27
Overwatch as a game is a shooter based
22:31
heavily off the story that it is built
22:33
upon. And it's not just that it is a
22:36
good competitive shooter. It was a good
22:37
competitive shooter with compelling
22:39
characters, characters that you could
22:41
identify with, stories that you could
22:43
identify with. That's how it started.
22:45
And now, especially with Vendetta,
22:47
again, that distillment, it's
22:49
half-hearted. It's almost like they're
22:52
doing it because they need to do it, but
22:55
aren't really doing it or they they've
22:58
sort of lost sight of what the goal is,
23:00
right? You can make
23:01
>> There's one other thing to think about
23:02
in that though, and it's I think it ties
23:04
into what you're saying. Think about all
23:06
the new heroes they've had since when
23:09
that period of time when it was
23:10
Overwatch 2. There's been a lot of them
23:13
and they're adding 10 more. Five more
23:16
already and another five.
23:17
>> I haven't even gotten to that part yet.
23:19
Yeah, that was part of what I was
23:20
actually about to go launch into. So,
23:22
yeah. So, speaking of the story, because
23:25
these are things that do matter. Um,
23:27
they did say that there are going to be
23:29
a number of motion comics and other
23:32
things that are going to be released
23:33
throughout the course of the year also
23:35
accompanying the five additional heroes
23:38
that they're going to uh release over
23:41
the next year which one coming out each
23:43
season. So, there is a potential for
23:46
them to fix this by figuring out how to
23:50
how to tell that compelling story. But
23:52
when's the last time we got a motion
23:54
comic or an audio drama that actually
23:56
mattered?
23:57
>> I mean, I would say that Vindetta did
23:59
have a short story. We a motion comic.
24:03
Um,
24:04
>> the mattered part was
24:06
>> Well, yeah, but it was good at setting
24:07
her up, but it needed a step two, you
24:11
know, and she's had more stuff, and
24:12
there's never been kind of the step two
24:14
on who this character is and what their
24:16
goals are.
24:17
>> Yeah. And they also talk about releasing
24:19
in-game events to support this as well,
24:21
which which the story arc because the
24:23
whole fight against talent is supposed
24:25
to be a whole year-long story arc that
24:28
somehow we're supposed to care about. Uh
24:30
characters are going to get new voice
24:32
lines. Uh we're going to get new
24:33
animated hero trailers. We're going to
24:35
get short stories. Um there they said
24:38
that their aim is to bring major updates
24:39
every year that improve and expand the
24:41
experience of playing Overwatch with
24:43
both gameplay and story arcs driving the
24:45
universe forward. I would love to see
24:47
that. I'm not going to lie. I would love
24:49
to see them make good on that promise. I
24:51
don't have a whole lot of high hopes,
24:52
though, especially when I feel like
24:55
they're spending more time worrying
24:56
about and and I'm saying this as
24:58
somebody who's looking at historical
25:00
data,
25:01
>> more time concerned with what collabs
25:03
they can cram into the game than uh
25:05
making sure that they have a compelling
25:06
character story for their character.
25:08
Right? Because even now, one of the
25:10
things that came up is that we're gonna
25:11
have Hello Kitty collab skins. I'm sure
25:13
tons of people are going to be excited
25:15
about that, but I mean, again, you need
25:18
to have players for the game. And one of
25:20
the other things that I do want to
25:21
mention, and this is something I'm
25:22
ranting about a little bit, uh, is that
25:25
they're going to be reworking the UI.
25:27
And I hope you like the Marvel Rivals UI
25:29
because it's the Marvel Rivals UI. It's
25:31
a little diff a little different, like,
25:34
you know, just enough that they can say,
25:35
"Oh, we, you know, it's different." But
25:37
it's basically the Marvel Rivals UI,
25:40
which okay, great. But it a lot of this
25:44
feels from the name change, the hero
25:48
release schedule, the attempt at making
25:50
a cinematic that is supposed to make you
25:52
somehow invested in the character. All
25:55
of this feels like Overwatch like taking
25:58
a last gasp screaming, "Hey, we're still
26:02
relevant." And I'm not trying to say
26:04
that as like like I I hate the game or
26:06
anything. I don't. Um, but it seems like
26:09
they're they're faltering trying to find
26:11
their footing in a world right now that
26:14
has so many good compelling hero
26:17
shooters that they're getting left
26:19
behind. And I think they need to go back
26:22
and review what made Overwatch one great
26:25
and look at that as opposed to keeping
26:27
up with the Joneses. Because here's the
26:30
thing, Marvel Rivals is always going to
26:31
do its own thing. And Marvel Rivals is a
26:33
game that doesn't have to make a lick of
26:35
sense with its story because it's comic
26:37
books. Comic books don't have to make
26:39
sense. And a lot of times that's the
26:41
entire point of them. Um, you have the
26:44
other one which is like Heroes Fighting
26:46
in Valhalla which I can't remember the
26:48
name off the top of my head, but I
26:49
watched the gameplay. I've played a
26:51
couple like, you know, instance of it.
26:53
It's a lot of fun. It has compelling
26:55
gameplay. It's a siege hero shooter. Uh,
26:57
it does its own thing. like you have all
26:59
these other options out there for all
27:01
these all these things in that genre
27:03
that Overwatch helped define that you
27:06
have to go back to what made this cool,
27:10
what made people want to play this game
27:13
and that actually care about that and
27:15
that's what they need. So, I'm not
27:17
saying Overwatch is dead. I'm not saying
27:19
that Overwatch, you know, 2 will never
27:22
be a sorry, Overwatch without the two
27:24
will never be a successful game again.
27:27
Um, but like do you remember like like
27:30
things like Overwatch League and that
27:32
that made people invested in the game,
27:35
broadcasting that, having the arena,
27:37
having these these teams that were so
27:39
charismatic when they were, you know, in
27:41
their in their like awkwardness, uh, you
27:43
know, being these big heroes for it, but
27:45
like actually investing in it and then
27:48
walking all that back and then just
27:49
hoping people are going to keep playing
27:50
your game. It's not how you do things.
27:53
And I'm sure it makes money. I'm sure
27:54
that it still is is is in in sort of
27:57
like a profitable state. Otherwise, the
27:59
game would have been sunset. Uh I'm I'm
28:02
sure of that. But it could be better. It
28:05
could be a better player experience.
28:07
They say they want a better player
28:08
experience. This is me saying, "Please
28:10
put your money where your mouth is.
28:12
Please take the time to understand what
28:14
makes this game cool and please work on
28:17
improving it." So, I have talked a lot
28:20
about Overwatch. If anybody else wants
28:21
to say anything, please go ahead and do
28:23
so. I am gonna take a drink of some
28:25
water now.
28:28
>> Nick
28:29
or anything?
28:30
>> Oh, yeah.
28:30
>> Oh, no. I was gonna say nothing says
28:32
compelling story like a Hello Kitty
28:33
collab. Like
28:35
>> really.
28:36
>> And you don't include the cat.
28:38
>> You just put a cat in the game, man.
28:40
>> But you can have Widowmaker. Bats Maru.
28:43
>> That's all fine, man. But you just put a
28:45
cat in the game and then there's no K
28:46
Hello Kitty skin for it. Although if you
28:49
go to San Rio, do you realize that they
28:51
tell you they will tell you to your face
28:53
that Hello Kitty is not a cat? She's an
28:56
11year-old living in London. I'm not
28:58
kidding. You look this up.
29:01
>> They have a video of them telling people
29:04
this.
29:04
>> Yeah, she's she's literally according to
29:06
them a little girl named Kitty White.
29:08
>> If not cat, why cat? Anyway,
29:11
>> she has a cat. She has a pet cat.
29:14
>> She's she's a personification. Not to
29:16
bear the lead. not to bury the lead so
29:18
far, but like this I remember so as
29:21
someone that has mostly observed or
29:23
watched from the outside looking in. Um
29:26
I remember one of the correct me if I'm
29:28
wrong if I'm making this up because I've
29:29
been doing that a lot lately uh just cuz
29:31
I don't sleep anymore. Um the pivot from
29:36
Overwatch to Overwatch 2. One of the big
29:39
big big backlash criticisms was that
29:42
they essentially went all in on PvP for
29:45
Overwatch 2. canned all the story and I
29:48
think I want to say 2022 is when it was
29:52
our bad should not have canned the
29:54
story. Now we're going to drip feed some
29:56
story back again.
29:57
>> Yeah, more or less.
29:58
>> A pretty accurate timeline of events
30:01
>> because one of the big things that was a
30:02
selling point for
30:05
uh in particular uh Overwatch 2, at
30:07
least what it was built for before we
30:09
got further into development was that it
30:10
was going to have cooperative story
30:13
mode. essentially a campaign, something
30:15
to give you the story in game that
30:17
wasn't just these minute events that had
30:20
a cinematic and then we didn't get them
30:23
right because that the entire direction
30:24
of the game kind of got well redirected.
30:28
But yes, there's a huge backlash of it
30:30
and they've been trying to like walk
30:33
that back. But again, I do think that
30:35
the people that were devoting the time
30:38
and effort and the energy behind like
30:41
the character pitches and the story of
30:44
it that were so passionate about it, I
30:45
don't think they work on the project
30:46
anymore. I don't even know if they're
30:48
still with the company because that was
30:50
however many layoffs ago and however
30:52
many restructurings ago
30:54
>> and how many you're going to work on a
30:55
different team ago,
30:57
>> right? like it's
30:58
>> I think really we can pretty much trace
31:01
it to exactly when we started who were
31:04
the
31:05
>> concept people. Um, Michael Chay left.
31:08
Um, our our f friend formerly known as
31:12
Tigle, uh, Jeff Kaplan, he left. And I I
31:15
call him my friend. I don't know him and
31:17
he might have done horrible things for
31:18
all I know. I have no idea. My point's
31:20
just a lot of people who were basically
31:23
the people behind the vision for
31:24
Overwatch. I I have a weird
31:27
understanding of all this because I went
31:28
to the 2019 Blizzcon where they put out
31:30
that the cinematic for Overwatch 2. And
31:33
in a weird sort of way, it's made me
31:35
think that I don't necessarily agree
31:37
with Joe's idea that they should look
31:39
back. If anything, they're looking back
31:41
too much in my opinion.
31:43
>> And it's because I look back at that
31:46
cinematic and the we're going to have
31:50
these villains come in and they're going
31:51
to be a big threat and Overwatch is
31:53
going to have to come back together to
31:54
fight them and it's going to be this
31:56
multiple storyline thing. and they were
31:58
Null Sector and Null Sector whimpered
32:01
its way through the opening of Overwatch
32:04
2 and finally got put out of its misery
32:06
in like a couple one-off events and and
32:09
a couple story thing and I'm looking at
32:11
the rise of talent. It's just null
32:14
sector again.
32:16
>> Yeah,
32:16
>> it's just I think the problem is at
32:18
least in part you can't ever you can't
32:21
really go back. This is one of the
32:23
things that I've always thought about
32:25
with a with a live game, you can't just
32:27
go back. You can't look at what you did
32:29
before because in this case, I feel like
32:32
they're trying too hard to do that.
32:35
They're trying to reinvent early stuff
32:38
and it keeps not working.
32:39
>> I would argue that
32:40
>> I feel like you're you're wrong. You're
32:42
not wrong in that. You're going to say
32:45
>> um I should just let you say it. Go
32:46
ahead and say it and then I'll I'll come
32:47
back in because I I have a response. I
32:49
was going to say I my argument would be
32:51
that I I agree but they're they're not
32:54
analyzing it. They're just trying to
32:56
repeat it if that makes sense. Right.
32:59
Like they're not looking at why why
33:02
>> I wanted to go ahead Nick.
33:04
>> Yeah. I don't think I think for Joe what
33:07
I what from hearing it from what Joe is
33:09
saying it's I agree there's actually
33:12
benefit in going back and looking at
33:14
what has worked but just looking or
33:18
hearing how this is all supposed to
33:20
unfold it almost sounds like they're the
33:24
looking back portion is to force feed or
33:28
cram monetization in between when that's
33:31
really where the story building should
33:33
actually be
33:34
It's it has taken a backseat to making
33:38
money, which yes, I know that that's
33:40
what games serve to do. But when you
33:44
don't take care of the narrative side of
33:46
the things for so long, for years,
33:48
you've neglected it and then you've put
33:50
together from what I can tell is a bunch
33:53
of nonsensical short stories and then
33:55
you want to try and hit a home run
33:58
immediately at bat to try and get people
34:00
invested. Well, yeah. Now people are
34:01
confused as to, well, why do I care
34:04
about this? And then it kind of becomes
34:06
like a it's eating itself. Now,
34:08
>> even if the stories were good though,
34:10
ancillary tie-in media has never been
34:13
Overwatch's strength. And the best they
34:15
ever did was with cinematics that
34:17
they're not capable of reproducing right
34:19
now, cuz you can't get a Bastion
34:22
cinematic out of this storyline. People
34:24
love Bastion because of that cinematic,
34:27
which was basically just old robot has a
34:29
bird.
34:30
Like if you try and describe what
34:32
happens in the cinematic, old robot has
34:34
a bird. But of course, they executed old
34:37
robot has a bird so well that people
34:39
love that robot and its bird. You know,
34:42
like there's there's a big difference.
34:44
Like you could have a paper thin
34:46
premise. Bastion has as paper thin a
34:49
premise as you're going to find. Bastion
34:53
is basically um a robot who wants to to
34:57
not just be a robot anymore. He's
34:59
Pinocchio, but it's not done poorly. And
35:04
Vendetta could be great with the exact
35:06
same storyline she's got now if instead
35:09
of just walking in and killing Doomfist,
35:12
we And the worst part about that is that
35:14
I'm sorry, uh, we've already told you
35:16
what's in the cinematic trailer because
35:18
it is a cinematic trailer. You already
35:19
know that that Doomfist is quote unquote
35:21
dead. But the problem is nobody watching
35:24
it for a second feels like Doomfist is
35:27
actually dead. You never see the body.
35:29
>> There is no stakes to this fight.
35:32
>> No think anything has actually happened
35:36
and that's to me the big problem. It
35:38
always feels like there's no motion.
35:40
>> You're saying Liz
35:40
>> and also the fact that the the fact that
35:45
you know all of us know that there's
35:48
absolutely no chance Doomfist is dead.
35:50
We've seen these stories before. There
35:52
is zero chance Doomfist is dead.
35:55
>> Exactly.
35:56
>> But Vendetta Vendetta doesn't right but
36:00
also V the fact that narratively
36:02
Vendetta does not even acknowledge it's
36:04
a possibility. She doesn't order someone
36:07
out to check the body. She doesn't she
36:10
you know it it sets her back as a
36:13
character. She has spent all of this
36:16
time on one hand she spent all of this
36:18
time planning and working so hard to
36:20
take over Talon, but on the other side
36:23
she just shoves Doomfist out a window
36:26
and okay, I run Talon now. No need to
36:29
check on that. No need to do anything
36:32
else. I'm in charge, you know.
36:34
>> Yeah, I said it before and I think I'm
36:36
going to say it again. One of the things
36:38
that got me was you could change this
36:40
right now with like one change and it
36:43
would be 10 times better if she just
36:45
flat out refused to kill him. If she's
36:47
like, "No, I don't want you dead."
36:49
>> Like, I understand what you've built. I
36:52
I know you did good things for this
36:55
organization. I just think I can do
36:57
better things. You're going to work with
36:59
me one way or another. Like, I can I can
37:02
basically make you my right hand. No
37:05
joke meant. Sorry about the hand. Or or
37:09
I can put you in a cell and just torture
37:12
you for information. But either way, I'm
37:15
not killing a resource. And then it
37:17
doesn't look like she's stupid for not
37:19
killing him. Although you're still going
37:21
to be like, "No, no, kill him. Kill him.
37:22
Don't do this." But you're at least
37:24
there's a motivation.
37:26
>> We're not This is not a racial ghoul and
37:29
we need a racial ghoul here. We need a
37:31
figure who's powerful and
37:34
you're so right. That would be so good
37:37
if we got that and we did not get that
37:40
there. I mean, oh, you were talking
37:42
earlier about uh how Marvel rivals can
37:46
get away with not making sense. Joe was
37:48
talking about that earlier because it's
37:49
comic book logic. I Overwatch operates
37:52
on some very similar comic book logic.
37:55
These are heroes and villains. They're
37:57
larger than life and they have their own
37:59
comic book sort of stories. But I feel
38:03
like at least part of the problem here
38:05
is that Overwatch has gotten behind. You
38:07
know, Overwatch has continued
38:09
Overwatching for a number of years
38:12
without putting a lot of effort into the
38:14
story. And I don't want to say they put
38:16
no effort in because yes, every
38:18
character, every new character has a
38:20
backstory. Usually has a little hero
38:22
cinematic, maybe a short story. There's
38:24
a little work on every character to to
38:27
give them a place where they fit into
38:29
the setting. But there hasn't been a lot
38:32
more than that. There's just this this
38:34
little bit of story and that's it.
38:36
That's all the story. So now we have all
38:39
of these characters. We don't have a
38:40
reason to care. We don't have a reason
38:42
to be invested because they've been put
38:44
up with these little backstories that
38:46
basically just give us a reason to, hey,
38:48
this is the character I'm going to
38:49
choose on the character select screen.
38:51
They haven't. So we get here and they're
38:53
like, we're going to tell a story. But
38:55
now they're very far behind
38:58
on having a story. So they need to work
39:01
harder to get us invested. And this I'm
39:06
glad to see they are trying. But this
39:08
initial outing is it's okay. It's okay.
39:12
I'm not invested. And frankly, I'm
39:15
already kind of tired of Vendetta. She
39:17
has one note.
39:19
>> Yeah. We got to go with what Joe said
39:21
earlier. Um, you said this before the
39:23
pre-show, Joe, but I have to use it. I
39:26
think you said it was aggressively
39:27
almost offensively mid.
39:29
>> Yep. That's exactly what I said. That is
39:31
that is a direct quote,
39:32
>> which is such a good characterization of
39:34
it. By the way,
39:35
>> that is pretty solid. I I don't share
39:37
every opinion Joe has here, but one of
39:39
the things that I do absolutely believe
39:41
is that they are not trying hard enough
39:45
to to break out of things we've already
39:48
seen. Like none of this is surprising.
39:51
They have a character who is basically
39:53
just the fire themed sister of a
39:56
previous character. You've already done
39:59
opposing siblings, guys, and they
40:01
weren't just opposites of each other.
40:03
They were opposing. They weren't copy. I
40:06
mean, come on. I'm wind. I'm fire. We
40:10
fight. Like, no, no, no. What are you
40:13
doing? You've already done this and you
40:14
did it better. So again, I think Liz is
40:17
right in a lot of ways with like it's
40:19
good to see them trying again. And I
40:21
know that they probably there's probably
40:22
some poor sucker who has to listen to
40:24
this podcast and is going, "Oh, please
40:26
don't go a please understand. We want
40:29
you to be happy and making a good game.
40:32
We just think you need to calm down."
40:34
Like take Joe's advice and analyze what
40:36
you did before.
40:37
>> Yeah.
40:38
>> At least that's an ethos, man.
40:40
>> I got nothing but that I haven't already
40:42
said. So yeah, I think we should uh I
40:45
think we should move forward.
40:46
>> Yeah. Otherwise, we'll just be here
40:48
doing Overwatch for the rest of the show
40:50
when the show is already
40:52
>> get the trans.
40:53
>> There's there's too much to say. There's
40:55
too much.
40:56
>> Well, I mean, World of Warcraft stuff we
40:58
can mention. Uh first off, we'll just
40:59
mention Love is in the air is going to
41:02
be from February 9th to February 23rd.
41:05
So, you if you're listening to this when
41:07
it comes out, you should be able to go
41:09
and do that. Um, they now have more
41:12
things you can't get, uh, I guess or or
41:15
not very likely to get, uh, in that in
41:17
addition to the rocket, they now have a
41:19
spring butterfly mount.
41:20
>> Uh, yes, man. I I love this butterfly
41:24
mount. Uh, but yes, it's another it's a
41:26
rare drop mount. You have a higher
41:28
chance to get it on your first kill of
41:30
the day. So, you don't have to go
41:32
through and grind it with 20 alts. Just
41:34
go and do a kill and you're going to get
41:36
it or you're not going to get it. So,
41:38
good luck. Good luck to all of us.
41:41
>> The transmogs are actually pretty
41:42
interesting because Nick just mentioned
41:43
that. So, Nick, do you want to talk
41:45
about the transmogs?
41:46
>> Oh, no. I was just talking about the
41:47
stream. Oh,
41:48
>> okay.
41:50
>> I thought you meant the actual transmogs
41:51
available in in this event. Sorry.
41:54
>> No, I think it was Liz asking if she
41:55
needs to get the transmog. Yeah, get the
41:57
transmog. Do it.
41:59
Uh the transmogs in the new there's
42:04
there's a lot of old stuff but the new
42:06
stuff is actually colorcoordinated with
42:09
the butterfly mount for better or worse.
42:12
So it's going to you can do this on this
42:14
could stand on its own but it is
42:15
colorcoordinated with the butterfly
42:17
mount. It's shoulders with little pastel
42:20
feathers and little butterflies that fly
42:23
around you. And this is this is Blizzard
42:27
has done this before. This is a recolor,
42:29
kind of a springy recolor of some of a
42:32
couple of previous shoulder combos, but
42:35
it is one that I love because you put on
42:38
these shoulders and you have
42:39
multicolored butterflies flying around
42:42
you. It's just this is the best. What
42:45
else? What else can I say? Uh, but those
42:47
are those are our new things this year.
42:48
We have some sort of spring transmog,
42:50
which are recolors of things we've seen
42:52
before, but they are really cool. and a
42:55
butterfly mount. That's uh
42:58
>> I will point out disappointed.
43:00
>> There's also some weapons.
43:01
>> Yeah.
43:02
>> And the weapons are I think also color
43:04
coded
43:05
>> and I don't all of these are these
43:08
haven't been on the trading post before
43:10
in different color variations. I know
43:13
cuz I have them.
43:14
>> All right. I've I managed to miss that
43:16
sword and I'm kind of annoyed with
43:17
myself now because I should not have
43:19
missed. But yeah, that's still,
43:20
>> you know, we're on we're on year this is
43:23
the third anniversary of the trading
43:25
post this month. So I that's a lot of
43:28
trading posts. That's just that is so
43:31
many.
43:31
>> Yeah, I can't argue. But so we've got
43:34
that going on. We've got love is in the
43:36
air. So you know, hey, go have fun. Get
43:38
get or don't get your pet. Uh, we've got
43:41
the new Zalatas cinematic, which I I
43:45
don't I don't have a reaction to right
43:47
now other than uh liar lying liar
43:50
telling lies is the best possible
43:52
summing up of a cinematic I've ever
43:55
seen. Uh, genuine lore drop off lying
43:58
liar telling lies. Who's to say? Uh, I
44:01
think it's door number two, but yeah.
44:04
Um, so that happened. And we've also got
44:07
the new login screen and theme for
44:09
midnight right now. Like it, you know,
44:11
they they've it's been out for a bit.
44:13
>> Yeah. Um, patch 12.0.1 rolled out today.
44:16
So, this came with it. It's just it's,
44:19
you know, the same voidy thing we had
44:22
before, but now Silver Moon City is in
44:25
the middle of it. So,
44:28
>> yeah. And it's interesting too because
44:29
if you did the uh I want to say lore
44:31
walking the lore walking events last
44:34
year the Zalatath one that kind of kicks
44:36
into this whole this new cinematic we
44:39
have for Zolotath. It's very related to
44:41
it. It's basically showing what happened
44:44
instead of her original bit uh in the
44:46
black empire. It's showing what happened
44:48
on uh crash. So it but it ties in. So
44:52
I'll say that much and but yeah we got
44:54
the new login screen. We got all that
44:56
stuff. Um, what else is like what's like
44:58
I don't want to go into a verbatim
44:59
reading because for one thing we don't
45:00
really have the time, but we we get a
45:02
lot of class changes and updates. I'm
45:04
going to go around and try to let
45:05
everybody talk about a class changer or
45:07
something they want to talk about. And
45:08
I'm going to start with Liz.
45:09
>> Um, well, one thing that I I do think
45:13
has been really good with this is
45:14
Blizzard has made a lot of changes of
45:17
interface changes and they're changes
45:19
we've seen in the beta that have just
45:22
been moved over to live in advance of
45:24
midnight's launch. So, uh, there's some
45:26
new kind of customization features.
45:29
There new feature on the cooldown
45:30
manager, like Blizzard's own sort of
45:32
boss mods thing. Used to be like a
45:35
timeline of abilities. Now, you can
45:37
change that into uh timers that it'll
45:40
display on your screen, which I like a
45:42
lot. That's more like how DBM did it,
45:44
and I think it's a lot easier to read
45:47
than the timeline format. So, there are
45:49
lots of little interface changes like
45:51
that that I think are going to be really
45:53
good.
45:53
>> All right. Uh Joe,
45:55
>> I talked a lot. Go to Nick.
45:57
>> Okay, Nick.
45:58
>> Really funny because because I have not
46:00
played any retail World of Warcraft
46:02
because I've been too busy playing the
46:04
Burning Crusade Classic on the
46:05
anniversary realm. So, I can talk about
46:07
that because we launched it or it
46:09
launched last Thursday and launch was
46:13
about how launches go. If
46:16
>> now's no one else has
46:17
>> perfect, no problem.
46:19
>> Everything good. No, I ran we ran in the
46:22
same location into the dark portal for
46:24
5ish minutes. Crashed, logged back in,
46:29
crashed, logged back in, and then
46:32
watching like 3,000 people try to talk
46:37
to the quest giver that sends you to
46:39
Honorold or to
46:41
>> I forget what the Horde equivalent is
46:42
because I've never made it as Horde to
46:44
Outland. Um, honestly, it was great. No.
46:48
Um, jokes aside, Sounds like the
46:50
original launch. So,
46:52
>> yeah, it does.
46:54
>> But in comparison to the um the patch
46:56
launch from a couple weeks ago, it was
46:59
miles and miles smoother. Um it didn't
47:04
get extended or u delayed for launching
47:09
by eight or so hours like I think
47:11
prepatch did. Uh, if anything, it took
47:14
about, at least for me personally, I
47:16
tried to get on at 3 Pacific when it
47:19
launched and had some issues.
47:21
>> But, uh, once about an hour or so
47:25
passed, I was able to actually get in,
47:27
go through the portal, and then start
47:29
questing. Enemies started appearing,
47:30
vendors started appearing, and then I
47:33
could actually like do stuff. It would
47:36
the game would register things as
47:38
complete. And when one of the things
47:41
that I enjoy about the classic launches
47:45
is that even though you know you hear
47:48
all the memes blah blah blah dead game
47:51
this that or the other or people pay for
47:53
this uh one of the one of the
47:57
technological
47:58
I think benefits of the anniversary
48:01
realms is that it's basically just a big
48:03
mega server. So you are always still
48:07
questing with other people. Like I love
48:09
running into stuff and just picking up
48:11
random groups for questing. Obviously
48:14
the drawback of that in the beginning is
48:16
that you crash, you lag. Like the lag
48:19
was so bad that first day, but it's
48:21
evened out over the last I'll say 3 or 4
48:24
days. Uh may actually maybe since the
48:28
start of the work week, but you know,
48:30
there's a connection there, I'm sure.
48:32
But overall, compared to the pre- patch
48:35
launch, the anniversary C or the
48:37
anniversary launch itself was relatively
48:40
smooth. Obviously, people hit 70 in like
48:42
the first couple hours, which you know,
48:44
dungeon spam. Yeah. Uh, and now we just
48:50
stick to the road map and see where
48:52
we're uh what at least when the next
48:55
phase launches in the spring.
48:56
>> All right, cool. Thank you, Nick.
48:59
Um, I'm going to do two things right
49:00
now. One of them is turn to Liz and say,
49:02
"Hey, uh, could you do the site news and
49:04
then start talking about Hearthstone?
49:06
>> Everything. Everything, all the time,
49:09
all at once." I want to say thank you to
49:11
all of our supporters, particularly our
49:14
supporters out on Patreon because you
49:17
guys are what keeps the site going and
49:20
growing. Uh, even a little bit of
49:22
support helps us so much. If you support
49:25
us at $3 a month, you get early access
49:27
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49:29
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49:36
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49:40
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49:42
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49:44
Blizzard Watch podcast pre-show in which
49:46
we talk about things. It It's kind of a
49:50
grabback every week. You never know. You
49:52
never know. Um, so if you can support us
49:56
financially, go to
49:57
patreon.com/blizzardwatch.
50:00
And uh, any amount helps keep the site
50:03
going and growing. Thank you guys so
50:06
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support us financially, I understand
50:11
times are tough. That's that's probably
50:13
enough said. Uh, but you also support us
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follow us for podcast clips and all of
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You never know. You never know what's
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51:00
you can support us if you want to, if
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51:06
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51:25
That is at
51:26
blizzardwatch.com/warcraft-books.
51:30
So, uh anything you can do to help us
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out helps us out. Guess I'm just
51:35
repeating myself at this point. So, I
51:38
will wrap up and say thank you all for
51:40
listening and being here. I appreciate
51:43
your support.
51:44
>> And now we will all put up again. So Liz
51:48
now talks about harstone for a while.
51:49
I'll ask questions so at least you won't
51:51
be continuously talking. So for example,
51:55
what's going on with the year of the
51:57
scarab again? Like what's what's this
51:59
new expansion all about? Is it anything
52:00
I would have heard of?
52:02
>> Well, you know, it's a little expansion
52:03
called Cataclysm.
52:06
Yeah. So, you've possibly heard of the
52:08
cataclysm, which is going to be
52:10
happening in Hearthstone now because I
52:12
Deathwing is back and he is here to
52:16
destroy us all. That's that's kind of
52:17
the whole thing. You see, you know,
52:19
that's kind of what's going on with
52:20
Talon and Overwatch, except Deathwing is
52:23
actually interesting. So, but but we're
52:25
not going to talk about that.
52:26
>> I'm laughing very hard.
52:30
Um, and but Cataclysm is kind of what
52:34
you might expect if you know Cataclysm
52:36
from Warcraft. Deathwing is coming in.
52:38
Deathwing is going to be a new hero card
52:40
in the expansion, which is actually very
52:43
cool because if you play Deathwing, you
52:45
can summon cataclysms,
52:49
which is just a little hilarious. And
52:51
probably if you get to the point of
52:53
playing Deathwing, it's just one. You're
52:55
going to cause a cataclysm, one to four
52:57
cataclysms, and that's just going to be
53:00
that's going to be it. Uh, but yes, as
53:04
Hearthstone does kind of run like
53:06
clockwork, so you can kind of guess when
53:09
a new year is going to start. Year of
53:11
the rap Raptor is going to end, and Year
53:13
of the Scarab is going to begin. The
53:16
first expansion in Year of the Scarab is
53:18
Cataclysm. And it's uh it has cool new
53:21
keyword called shatter in which when you
53:24
draw a card it breaks into two cards.
53:27
One card is on the left side of your
53:29
hand and one card is on the right side
53:31
of your hand. And if you play all the
53:34
cards in the middle and you bring those
53:36
two cards together, you will get both
53:38
effects of the card by just playing one
53:40
card. So it's it's a little weird. It's
53:44
got a really cool theme. It definitely
53:46
fits in with Deathwing shattering the
53:48
world. This also brings colossals back
53:52
to the game. Colossals were from uh
53:55
Journey to the Sunken City, I believe,
53:57
where they were just these huge mobs
54:00
that you because of their mana cost, you
54:03
didn't get around to playing them late
54:04
game usually. So you'd get a colossal on
54:07
the board and it's not just one minion.
54:10
It's a colossal plus these like little
54:12
associate minions that so you could fill
54:16
a whole board with this big colossal
54:18
monster with each little component
54:21
having different effects that kind of
54:24
buffed them up and then
54:27
they were really hard to get off the
54:29
board and really powerful and really fun
54:31
to play. So I'm really glad to see them
54:33
back. One of the new a new tweak with
54:36
colossals is that there is a new type
54:38
another new aics called Herald. And if
54:41
you play a Herald card, it buffs your
54:43
colossal even if your colossal is not on
54:45
the board. So this is a lot like old
54:48
Kathun decks where you had cards that
54:50
you'd play and you'd buff Kathun no
54:52
matter where he was in your deck. So,
54:57
this is a really cool concept where
54:59
you're you're putting down cards and
55:01
you're buffing up that colossal and when
55:03
you can finally put them on the board,
55:05
it's just going to be it could be game
55:06
over. So, I think these are really fun.
55:10
I think this is some really cool
55:12
concepts and really cool cards that
55:14
they've announced. So, I am I am looking
55:16
forward to this one. I'm not always
55:18
super hyped about Hearthstone
55:19
expansions, but this one sounds really
55:22
fun. And I think Hearthstone does its
55:23
best when it has a really strong
55:25
exciting theme. So this is a great one.
55:29
>> Can we ask?
55:29
>> Now years in Hearthstone always have
55:32
>> uh because
55:34
we know there's going to be two more
55:36
because there's always two more. So
55:37
every
55:38
>> like they they just
55:39
>> Yeah. Every year in Hearthstone,
55:41
>> yeah, it's three per year and year
55:43
doesn't map precisely to calendar year
55:46
as you can tell. Hero of the Scarab will
55:48
have to
55:51
Yes. Yes. So Blizzard has just announced
55:54
the first one, Cataclysm, due out in
55:56
March 17th, and they've teased the next
55:59
two, the sort of in that there's going
56:02
to be another expansion this summer,
56:04
which does not have a name, but does
56:06
seem to feature Vanessa Van Clee
56:08
breaking out of a Kieran tour jail. So
56:11
whatever theme that fits into, I mean,
56:14
I'm there for it. But yeah, it's it's
56:18
just a little teaser and we know that we
56:20
are getting the third expansion and a
56:23
quote unquote surprise
56:26
that will be unveiled at BlizzCon. So I
56:30
I'm just I'm thinking what could they
56:31
surprise us with? Heart because
56:33
Hearthstone is so on on rails, you know,
56:37
it's three expansions a year, three
56:39
Hearthstone seasons a year, three
56:41
battleground seasons a year, and it's
56:43
like it's just bang bang bang. The
56:45
schedule is predictable and you always
56:48
know what you're going to get. So, what
56:49
what are they going to surprise us with?
56:52
I really want to know. Liz Khan is so
56:55
many months away. How am I uh I I guess
56:58
I just have to wait. I I got to be
56:59
patient here. Really bad at being
57:01
patient.
57:04
>> I mean, hopefully it's not Mercer 2.0
57:08
Hearthstone 2. It's they're going to
57:11
launch Hearthstone 2 and then next month
57:12
they're going to go back and say, "No,
57:14
actually we're Hearthstone again." So
57:16
>> Hearstone Classic.
57:18
>> See, that would probably actually
57:19
>> Oh boy.
57:20
>> And people would be happy. But yeah, um
57:22
let's talk briefly about the fact that
57:23
we're also going to be getting different
57:26
They're not having their normal
57:27
mid-season mini sets. They're doing
57:29
something slightly different.
57:30
>> Uh
57:32
uh yeah, they've changed. So, usually
57:34
every expansion has one mini set and
57:38
that a mini set is just a collection of
57:41
x number of cards and it's sort of it
57:43
follows the theme of the expansion. Now,
57:46
they're doing these class sets which is
57:49
kind of like a mini set except it's
57:52
going to be a collection of class
57:54
specific cards. So, I think that's
57:57
pretty interesting because instead of
58:00
just buying, okay, I'm buying this pack
58:02
of cards and it has some class cards and
58:03
some general cards, you can say, okay, I
58:06
like playing death knights this season.
58:08
I'm going to buy the
58:09
>> Yeah, you can target it and say, I'm
58:11
going to buy the Death Knight class
58:12
pack.
58:13
>> Um, my question is
58:15
>> pricing question mark. And you know, is
58:19
this instead of doing one mini set that
58:20
you can buy for one price, does this
58:22
mean we're going to have a mini set for
58:24
every class that we buy at just as much
58:27
of a price? So, this could be on one
58:30
hand, I think this is a good change.
58:32
This could be easier to buy focus cards.
58:35
On the other hand, it could be
58:37
expensive. This could be a very
58:39
expensive change, and we'll just have to
58:41
see.
58:42
>> Yeah, we don't know the pricing right
58:44
now, so we just have to wait on that.
58:45
Yeah, but we'll find out.
58:47
>> Thank you, Liz. Thank you for rounding
58:49
all that up for us. Uh, and explaining
58:52
it so that I, guy who plays Hearthstone
58:54
once every seven months, is like, "Okay,
58:56
I understood what she said." Uh, but now
59:00
though, guys, uh, we're going to have to
59:02
wrap up our little show here because we
59:04
talked a lot about Overwatch, so we had
59:06
to kind of get through everything else.
59:08
>> We have feelings.
59:10
>> There's so many feelings.
59:11
>> We have feelings. Uh, but this has been
59:13
the Blizzard podcast. Uh, thank you to
59:14
Nick for coming on and talking about uh
59:16
TBC Classic. Um, because I I wasn't
59:21
going to do that the first day. That's
59:23
that's You are braver than I am, sir.
59:25
>> Yeah, it's all I want to do right now.
59:28
>> Uh, thank you. Thank you to both Joe and
59:30
Liz for being really really opinionated
59:32
about Overwatch, which allowed me to be
59:34
opinionated on Overwatch.
59:35
>> Thank you for thanking me for having an
59:37
opinion.
59:38
>> I mean, it much better than when you
59:40
don't. If you don't have an opinion, it
59:42
says great. No, we don't have anything
59:44
to talk about. Nobody has an Now we have
59:46
them. Uh, but this has been the Blizzard
59:49
podcast. Thank you guys so much for
59:50
being here with us and we'll be back
59:53
next week.