Blizzard has announced that the Overwatch update adding Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch to the Arcade is now live on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. It also brings player reporting to consoles, which is part of the reason why the download size is 16GB on PS4 and 14.3GB on Xbox (it’s 6GB on PC).
The other reason was given in the patch notes: “Over the past few months, we’ve been working on a number of significant under-the-hood changes that will help us streamline the patching process. This will allow us to reduce the download size in future patches, but it does mean that today’s patch is larger than a traditional patch.”
Here’s the highlights for today’s Overwatch update:
New Game Modes: Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch
- Two new game modes have been added to the Arcade: Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch!
- In Deathmatch, eight players go head-to-head until one player scores 20 points. Players will earn 1 point whenever they land the final blow on an opponent and will lose 1 point whenever they die to environmental damage (ex: falling off a cliff) or self-inflicted damage. This scoring will be tracked in a brand-new scoreboard. The first player to 20 points wins!
- In Team Deathmatch, two teams of four players face off until one team scores 30 points. Players will earn 1 point for their team whenever they land the final blow on an opponent and will lose 1 point for their team whenever they die to environmental damage (ex: falling off a cliff) or self-inflicted damage. If players are resurrected before they respawn, the corresponding point for their death will be deducted from the enemy team’s score. This scoring will be tracked in our default scoreboard. The first team to 30 points wins!
- Both modes will play out on a selection of maps from our existing pool: Hanamura, Horizon Lunar Colony, Temple of Anubis, Volskaya Industries, Dorado, Eichenwalde, Hollywood, King’s Row, (TDM only) Black Forest, (TDM only) Castillo, (TDM only) Ecopoint: Antarctica, (TDM only) Necropolis
- We’ve made several modifications to many of these maps (including restricting play to a specific area and developing a special respawn system). We’re also introducing a brand new map specifically for Deathmatch: Château Guillard! Learn more about this map below.
- Both modes will be available for play in Custom Games
New Deathmatch Map: Château Guillard
- Château Guillard is located near Annecy in southeastern France. For hundreds of years, it was the estate of the influential Guillard family, until it gradually fell into disrepair after the family’s power waned in the decades after the Revolution. Recently, the château has found a new owner: the Talon agent Widowmaker, who has returned to her family’s ancestral home.
General
- A number of data format changes have been implemented
- Match-wide voice chat has been added for Deathmatch and Custom Games
- [PS4/XB1] Player reporting has been enabled
- An “Aim Ease in” option has been added under the “Advanced” tab in the “Controller” menu. This allows players to customize their turn rate acceleration.
Competitive Play
- The length of Competitive Play seasons has been reduced to 2 months (formerly 3)
- The winner on Control maps will now be decided based on a best-2-out-of-3 series (formerly 3-out-of-5)
- Due to the shortened season length, fewer Competitive Points will be rewarded at the end of each season
User Interface
- Added an “Outline Opacity” option under the custom reticle settings (found under Controls > Options > Advanced), which allows players to control the opacity of the black outline surrounding the reticule
You can read the full list of patch notes on Blizzard’s website, as well as Game Director Jeff Kaplan’s thoughts on player reporting and where it’s going on the official forums.
Up next for Overwatch, Blizzard will be adding the Junkertown map and making some big changes to Mercy, which may negatively impact Trophies.
[Source: Battle.net, Reddit]
