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PayPalOverwatch has returned with the "2" now in the bin, along with a big content update with new heroes and a new lobby UI. In many ways it makes sense, Overwatch 2 never really hit the levels it was supposed to, and most of what was going to make it a sequel was never even released. So this reset feels like a good step for the game overall.
Seems many players are returning to it to check it out as well, at least on Steam where we can see public numbers, it hit a new all-time peak concurrent player count of 165,651 on February 10th. That doesn't take into account players on console or Battle.net directly either. If this keeps up, and it might, we can safely say Overwatch has truly returned.
As for the new UI, it's actually a lot better. Clearly inspired by what other online games have done, but either way I like the layout that puts all the actions you want only a click away.
This is acting like a big reset with it now being in "Reign of Talon - Season 1: Conquest". With five new heroes already available including a cat with a jetpack, which of course is going to appear in every single game for a while isn't it?
Blizzard developers said:
Choose your allegiance as Overwatch and Talon collide in a five-week faction war that’s shaped by how you play. Complete missions, uncover new lore, and earn exclusive cosmetics to rep your faction of choice. And don’t worry, you’ll be able to switch sides to see the story from both perspectives.
With new Competitive updates, the arrival of Vendetta in Stadium, evolving gameplay mechanics, and loads of new cosmetics, Season 1 sets a new standard for how the story of Overwatch is told and how you play it.
How's it running on Linux with the update? Surprisingly, without issue as far as I can tell. Jumping into a few games and not a single crash on my Fedora KDE / AMD GPU system with Mesa 25.3.4 using Proton Experimental. Performance seems as good as it usually is - nice to see an update drop without a major feature broken for it.
If you've had a different experience with the update, do leave a comment and let us know how you're finding it.
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However, I randomly noticed an extremely nice feature. Since I'm playing this game in HDR with Proton Wayland mode, the Steam overlay (that is still X11) does not work. Meaning, I couldn't take proper screenshots, because all the general desktop screenshot apps (like Spectacle) annoyingly don't support HDR in any way, causing an overtly bright, blown-out image. Steam gets it right by converting to SDR, but the (non-working) overlay is required ... or so I thought! Turns out, if you use the internal overwatch screenshot shortcut, the game directly triggers the screenshot feature via the Steam API, showing the familiar Steam notification even in Proton Wayland without the overlay! This image automatically gets the HDR to SDR tone mapping treatment of Steam and I get my uncompressed file in ~/Bilder/Steam like usual. Fantastic feature, maybe this helps some Linux users.
Quoting: Purple Library GuyThere should be a game about submarines and/or scuba diving combat, called Underwatch.and the space version Outerwatch
Philadelphus 3 hours ago
Quoting: dpanterWait, so Blizzard can't count to 3 either? 🤔OverwatchOverwatch 2Overwatch 3Overwatch surely is one of the games of all time. 🍌
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