Overwatch's First "Open" Beta Stress Test is This Weekend

[Steven Bogos]

Overwatch's First "Open" Beta Stress Test is This Weekend

This will probably be the first chance for most of you to try out Overwatch.

been live [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/overwatch] for a few weeks now, but being an extremely limited beta means that most of you probably haven't yet had a chance to try it out. That should change this weekend, as Blizzard is having the first (of presumably several) weekend stress tests, where the beta will become considerably more "open" to allow fans to try out the game, and give feedback.

"From Friday, November 20 through Monday, November 23, we'll be conducting our first invitation-only Beta Test Weekend. During this three-day event, we'll be opening up Overwatch beta (for a limited time) to a lot more players from our Americas and Europe gameplay regions," wrote Blizzard in a blog post [http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/blog/19964704/].

While not quite as "open" as we had hoped these stress test weekends would be, it does sound like a fair few additional players will be invited to test the game. Blizzard will be flagging accounts for the Beta Test Weekend a little early, during a scheduled maintenance on Thursday, November 19. If your account is flagged, you'll see an "install" button in your battle.net client, allowing you to pre-load the game ahead of the weekend.

During the weekend, all players will have access to the full roster of 21 heroes and a limited selection of maps: Hanamura, King's Row, and Watchpoint: Gibraltar.

For more information, Blizzard has put together a hand F.A.Q [http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/blog/19964704/#faq] about the weekend.

Source: Blizzard [http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/blog/19964704/#faq]

Permalink

 

[kajinking]

Really interested in this game. Picked up a job as a Seasonal UPS driver helper so I can upgrade to a 970 and play it (Along with Anno 2250). Some people might complain about the price tag but I've seriously had enough of F2P grind-fests when it comes to unlocking stuff. At this point as long as every new character and map is always free and unlocked instantly I really think I prefer the $60 price tag and the old way of doing things (Was fine for TF2 at launch).

All Blizzard has to do is not come in at the last second with some bullcrap money draining scheme and I'll definitely buy this game.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Really interested in this game. Picked up a job as a Seasonal UPS driver helper so I can upgrade to a 970 and play it (Along with Anno 2250). Some people might complain about the price tag but I've seriously had enough of F2P grind-fests when it comes to unlocking stuff. At this point as long as every new character and map is always free and unlocked instantly I really think I prefer the $60 price tag and the old way of doing things (Was fine for TF2 at launch).

All Blizzard has to do is not come in at the last second with some bullcrap money draining scheme and I'll definitely buy this game.

My friend, let me introduce you to some short hand that might free up some time in your day.

"All Blizzard has to do is not overkill [http://www.destructoid.com/overkill-made-the-payday-2-microtransactions-worse-cash-and-xp-boosts-320649.phtml] and I'll definitely buy this game."

I'm interested in this game as well. Everyone has a good point with multiplayer only games (how it's stupid to pay for a game that has a life expectancy), and I know that I've been burned with a couple before.

Diablo 2 was released June 29, 2000. Blizzard still sells it on their client and people still play it on their client. Overwatch has a lot of time ahead of it.

I used to love Diablo 2. I paid full price. In this 15 years point, I feel no need to play it. If I get the same enjoyment in Overwatch as I did with that game? Money well spent.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Just let me into the full Beta already Blizzard! I mean hell, I played the crap out of Heroes from Closed Alpha through release, I'm up for testing!

 

[kajinking]

Really interested in this game. Picked up a job as a Seasonal UPS driver helper so I can upgrade to a 970 and play it (Along with Anno 2250). Some people might complain about the price tag but I've seriously had enough of F2P grind-fests when it comes to unlocking stuff. At this point as long as every new character and map is always free and unlocked instantly I really think I prefer the $60 price tag and the old way of doing things (Was fine for TF2 at launch).

All Blizzard has to do is not come in at the last second with some bullcrap money draining scheme and I'll definitely buy this game.

My friend, let me introduce you to some short hand that might free up some time in your day.

"All Blizzard has to do is not overkill [http://www.destructoid.com/overkill-made-the-payday-2-microtransactions-worse-cash-and-xp-boosts-320649.phtml] and I'll definitely buy this game."

I'm interested in this game as well. Everyone has a good point with multiplayer only games (how it's stupid to pay for a game that has a life expectancy), and I know that I've been burned with a couple before.

Diablo 2 was released June 29, 2000. Blizzard still sells it on their client and people still play it on their client. Overwatch has a lot of time ahead of it.

I used to love Diablo 2. I paid full price. In this 15 years point, I feel no need to play it. If I get the same enjoyment in Overwatch as I did with that game? Money well spent.

Owwwwww...

Yup, that's the crap I'm talking about.

I'm sick of boosters, crates, and grindwalls. I just want to pay my damn $60 bucks and get my game.

I'm looking for something to replace TF2 and this looks great so far. After so many F2P games it's actually getting to the point I just want to get back to the old way of doing things.

 

[Ukomba]

Forget Battlefront, this is the game I'm looking forward to .

 

[thewatergamer]

Meh...I am very cautions about this one since I was expecting a F2P shooter...then when I found out it had a forty dollar price tag for a multiplayer only game...IDK I think this is one I'll wait for a sale or some major free content updates before I consider getting it, I'm not a massive Blizzard fan and if I want to play a class based shooter there are plenty of those around that are also free (Overwatch, TF2)

 

[Hawki]

Y'know, it's really meta seeing the turnaround that went on with Overwatch. When its price tag was announced, I saw something I'd never seen before - people lamenting that it wasn't F2P. How times change.

To be honest, I'm one of them. I understand why, given how you can switch heroes after every death, a limited roster per player could seriously affect game balance. Yet $60 for a multiplayer-only game? I didn't play them, but I can't help but be reminded of Titanfall and Evolve.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Really interested in this game. Picked up a job as a Seasonal UPS driver helper so I can upgrade to a 970 and play it (Along with Anno 2250). Some people might complain about the price tag but I've seriously had enough of F2P grind-fests when it comes to unlocking stuff. At this point as long as every new character and map is always free and unlocked instantly I really think I prefer the $60 price tag and the old way of doing things (Was fine for TF2 at launch).

All Blizzard has to do is not come in at the last second with some bullcrap money draining scheme and I'll definitely buy this game.

Except that TF2 was like $20 at launch. It's not the idea itself of Overwatch being a priced game that ticked people off, it's the price.

 

[synobal]

So uh I hope no one expects to play this, because the servers are gonna be utter shit. I'm not even joking, right now they don't even handle the load of the open beta testers at peak well. Disconnecting every other match is more common than not, and a lot of times you can't connect at all. I'm sure they are going to be buffing up with server infrastructure for this stress test but I expect diablo 3 levels of connectivity.

 

[kajinking]

Really interested in this game. Picked up a job as a Seasonal UPS driver helper so I can upgrade to a 970 and play it (Along with Anno 2250). Some people might complain about the price tag but I've seriously had enough of F2P grind-fests when it comes to unlocking stuff. At this point as long as every new character and map is always free and unlocked instantly I really think I prefer the $60 price tag and the old way of doing things (Was fine for TF2 at launch).

All Blizzard has to do is not come in at the last second with some bullcrap money draining scheme and I'll definitely buy this game.

Except that TF2 was like $20 at launch. It's not the idea itself of Overwatch being a priced game that ticked people off, it's the price.

Fair enough although if I remember right you had to buy the Orange box to get it that was $60 at the time.

I can understand people not wanting to pay full price for a multiplayer only game, still I'm looking at getting it as long as I see a decent amount of content and not too much in the way of greedy nonsense. Ultimately it will be up to people to decide based on what they see if the price tag is worth it.

Considering some of the other crap people are willing to buy for $60 (Hello single player game with a 4 hour story and no replayability!) in my personal opinion Overwatch seems worth it right now but that could easily change if I start hearing news about crate drops and credit boosters.

 

[Yuuki]

Do I need to have pre-ordered Overwatch to have access to the upcoming open beta? Or is it completely free & open to everyone?

 

[Harlemura]

Do I need to have pre-ordered Overwatch to have access to the upcoming open beta? Or is it completely free & open to everyone?

It's free, but it certainly ain't open to everyone. You can opt in to the beta from your Battle.Net account page, and then it's just a case of hoping your account gets flagged for access. As far as I know that's the only way of getting into the beta, unless you're some big-name Twitch streamer that gets a special invitation from Blizzard.
... Which I'm not, so come Thursday when they start flagging accounts I'll be sitting here with my fingers crossed and staring at my inbox waiting for a confirmation email. Just like every other time they add another wave of accounts. Like I have been since the beta started.
Man I wanna play Overwatch so bad.

 

[shintakie10]

I actually got lucky enough to get into the second beta invite wave and let me tell you, this game is crazy fun.

The total lack of any form of matchmaking is a gigantic pain at the moment, but its extraordinarily well put together for how early it is in the beta cycle. Also since there arent that many people in the beta as it is, I doubt matchmaking would help that much anyway.

Also after having played it, this game absolutely wouldn't have worked as a traditional f2p model. I was sad about it bein buy to play at first cause I was expectin f2p, but after seein it in action I'm really glad its a buy to play model. The hero switching aspect is 100% central to the entire playstyle of the game. Being able to switch heroes to fit different needs of the map is probably the best thing ever.

Really really looking forward to more people.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Really interested in this game. Picked up a job as a Seasonal UPS driver helper so I can upgrade to a 970 and play it (Along with Anno 2250). Some people might complain about the price tag but I've seriously had enough of F2P grind-fests when it comes to unlocking stuff. At this point as long as every new character and map is always free and unlocked instantly I really think I prefer the $60 price tag and the old way of doing things (Was fine for TF2 at launch).

All Blizzard has to do is not come in at the last second with some bullcrap money draining scheme and I'll definitely buy this game.

Except that TF2 was like $20 at launch. It's not the idea itself of Overwatch being a priced game that ticked people off, it's the price.

TF2 also launched with only like 5 maps, which were gametype locked meaning you could only play 2 maps per mode or so. It also came with only 9 characters.

Overwatch currently has 8 maps and 21 Characters, and is a LOT better quality in Beta then TF2 was at launch. And its only $40 on PC, so....