Oh hey, new Overwatch short.

[Redryhno]

Well if you take a gander at Zenyatta's backstory the speaker in the video sounds like it fits the description of the ones from Zenyatta's monastery.

I didn't say they weren't from the same place...just that they serve different purposes. In fact I think it's been semi-confirmed that Mondatta was the bot that got shot.

 

[Erttheking]

Snip

I'm not crazy about Widowmaker, but according to her backstory she was kidnapped and brainwashed.

This makes her sexualization kind of freaking creepy to be frank.

 

[rcs619]

Okay, first off, can we keep the butt debate out of this? I'm sure there are a great many important things to be said on that subject, but there are least five other active threads in which to say them. We don't need to make this a sixth.

So... as someone who was a bit disappointed by the first Overwatch short, this one was downright delightful. Dialogue is utter cheese, but damn, that animation. The rooftop chase sequence is gorgeous.

As is often the case with pre-rendered trailers, this makes me wish Widowmaker was actually that mobile in gameplay, rather than being a mostly stationary head-clicker who can fire a grappling hook once every twelve seconds.

Oh, and I like that they actually made an episode in which their poster child character is bested. That might seem like an odd thing to fixate on, but it's actually rather rare. Usually in promotional material you'd just see the main characters beating on mooks with any encounters between them being inconclusive.

So am I the only one here who thinks that Talon might actually be the goodguys?

I mean, what do we really know about the Omnics? They're intelligent robots who led an uprising against humanity, and they lost. Now all of a sudden they want to be buddy-buddy? I don't know if I buy that. Is it really a coincidence that they just suddenly started spreading around this religion of theirs? Or designed the machines that would most interact with humanity to be as non-threatening as possible?

I think not! This is clearly some sort of long-game, machine-logic ruse to try to make the most out of their current position of weakness. Don't listen to those wannabe monks. Reject their Iris! Or else we'll all wind up plugged into machines, acting as living batteries as we calculate the 1934239749201927475920th digit of pi!

Seriously though, I thought it was quite a good little short, and I find myself enjoying Overwatch's media much more than I ever would the game itself. These sorts of characters and this sort of potential for lore is so horribly wasted on an arena FPS. Here's hoping they make some more open tie-in games, or at least a TV/web-series, or movie or something.

Also, I'm curious about Tracer's journey now. My understanding is that Overwatch was formed as a counter to the Omnic Crisis. So, she joined up and was trained to fight Omnics. Now the war's over, Overwatch is disbanded, and she's actually trying to save the life of an Omnic spiritual leader. I really want to know how she's changed and what has brought her to this point.

 

[Zhukov]

Oh, and I like that they actually made an episode in which their poster child character is bested. That might seem like an odd thing to fixate on, but it's actually rather rare. Usually in promotional material you'd just see the main characters beating on mooks with any encounters between them being inconclusive.

To be fair, Widow is just as much their poster child as tracer (and winston)

No, she really, really isn't [http://www.gamingcypher.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Overwatch-Box-Art-Gaming-Cypher.jpg].

Also, I'm curious about Tracer's journey now. My understanding is that Overwatch was formed as a counter to the Omnic Crisis. So, she joined up and was trained to fight Omnics. Now the war's over, Overwatch is disbanded, and she's actually trying to save an Omnic spiritual leader. I really want to know how she's changed and what has brought her to this point.

Well, in the first short it showed that old Overwatch actually had several Omnic operatives, so they clearly weren't all trying to do the Skynet thing.

Plus the spiritual leader in question was advocating peace which Tracer, being one of the good guys, is presumably a fan of.

 

[rcs619]

Also, I'm curious about Tracer's journey now. My understanding is that Overwatch was formed as a counter to the Omnic Crisis. So, she joined up and was trained to fight Omnics. Now the war's over, Overwatch is disbanded, and she's actually trying to save the life of an Omnic spiritual leader. I really want to know how she's changed and what has brought her to this point.

According to Zarya's bio the Omnic Crisis takes places three decades before the present. Tracer may not have even been alive during it.

When Tracer does her rewind ability, does it just place her back where she was, or does it literally rewind her? If the latter, she may be older than one might suppose, even if not physiologically.

That assumes she can even age at all, given her condition. Isn't she sort of disconnected from our timeline, and only able to hold a physical form because of that gizmo Winston made for her?

Did they ever say how long she was trapped out of sync with our time before Winston even found her and figured out how to help?

There's a lot of neat potential for Tracer as a character if they really go for it, I think.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

My understanding is that Widowmaker's lowered body temperature wasn't part of the effort to make her emotionless- the brainwashing did that- but is instead a side-effect from a lowered heartrate to make her a better sniper (less bloodflow means less involuntary movement of the hands?).

Then again, we're talking about a game with a hovering robot monk. Roll wit' it.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

It's a nicely done clip, but I don't feel like we really learned much about Widowmaker from it. I was hoping it might cover some of her backstory from her bio, as that makes her some thing of a tragic figure, which would be more interesting than "generic sulty femme fatale". Still it had a bit more world building in it (more info on the Omnic crisis), and hopefully it leads in to Tracer as the next one (and probably Reaper as the last?). Blizz still suck at writing dialogue though; it sounds awkward even with top voice actors doing it.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Wait, which "first one" animation are we talking about? The one we saw at E3, with the museum and two brothers, or something else?

You guys are talking about a baby Winston and I can't recall anything like that, or a short with Reaper's goons.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

Wait, which "first one" animation are we talking about? The one we saw at E3, with the museum and two brothers, or something else?

You guys are talking about a baby Winston and I can't recall anything like that, or a short with Reaper's goons.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=I3WhdXPaUd8

 

[bliebblob]

I'm curious where they'll take it from here, having exhausted their obvious villains. My money is on a junkrat/roadhog comedy skit, the tale of genji and hanzo, or soldier 76 having a monologue while doing his lone wolf thing. Place your bets folks!

 

[Zhukov]

I'm curious where they'll take it from here, having exhausted their obvious villains. My money is on a junkrat/roadhog comedy skit, the tale of genji and hanzo, or soldier 76 having a monologue while doing his lone wolf thing. Place your bets folks!

I would bet actual money that they make a Hanzo Vs Genji one.

Mostly because I've already seen some early storyboards for it.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

So overwatch in general is animu girly FPS. great!!

 

[happyninja42]

Snip

I'm not crazy about Widowmaker, but according to her backstory she was kidnapped and brainwashed.

This makes her sexualization kind of freaking creepy to be frank.

It doesn't make it any less sexualized.

 

[KaraFang]

... why is Widowmaker grey?

She's actually kind of blue-ish. She probably looks grey in the short because it's night lighting.

Anyway, apparently [http://us.battle.net/overwatch/en/heroes/widowmaker/] it's because her heart beats really slowly which makes her emotionless to be a better assassin and turned her skin blue as a side effect.

Yes, I realise that makes no sense at all. Somehow I doubt a physiology expert was consulted when they were writing the lore.

Actually that does make a kind of sense; if her heart is beating slower she might be getting a lack of oxygen, which causes a blueish-gray discoloration of the skin, because iirc blood is blue unless oxygenated.

That's super unhealthy though <_<

Yeah, but heart rate doesn't control emotion. If I do star-jumps for a few minutes and get my heart rate up I'm not making myself more emotional. Likewise if I sit still and do breathing exercises to lower my heart rate (although I suppose that is kind of calming).

Plus someone whose blood was so de-oxygenated that their skin went blue wouldn't be in any condition to go running across rooftops.

I know, I know, I'm overthinking this.

I am too, wish I wasn't but I can't stop >.<

I know hormones and other neurochemicals are transmitted through the bloodstream, but I'm pretty sure you're right about the emotions part, at least the majority of them, I think are primarily intrabrain reactions.

(although in the case of star-jumps and breathing exercises, that's definitely related to heart-rate dependant chemicals like adrenaline and the ones that affect metabolism. So if you count "excited" and "calm" as emotions than yeah those ones would be affected.)

And yeah, everything else is basically nonsense regarding athleticism while under such conditions.

Why, Overwatch, why you do this to me.

Well, her Bio says she's blue due to the SIDE effects of the genetic and chemical manipulations Talon did to her to:

a) slow her heart rate to improve accuracy
b) enhance her reaction times, vision, and strength.
c) provide her immunity to the poisons she uses in battle

So that's why she's blue. However, you are correct that it could be a side effect of slowing her blood flow, but I think it could also be if they forced her body to change it's oxygen carrier from iron to copper. It's possible that, with some other chemical changes, could increase her cell oxygen transfer ability and how her cells chemically use the oxygen to generate energy to allow her athleticism without a high heartrate - Oh! Possibly adding Anaerobic function - gene biochemistry degree here peeps.

As an aside, Zhukov, what was cheese in the dialogue? She's explaining her original fears of spiders and now comparing herself to one? Was that what you meant? I thought that was rather good myself, explains why she goes to such lengths for the kill...

(but my god, could Blizzard ship them any harder? Widows sniper rifle looks more than powerful to shoot through tracers head and kill her actual target, but no she shoots through the time anchor letting tracer live. Are they going for the "erotic hate" thing? - all I know is prepare for Deviant art to get swamped again.)

Overall, I really liked this one as much as Recall... I think they're damn good world builders. (PS- did anyone see the blue hatted sniper in the picture Winston was looking at? Is that Marie before she was captured and brainwashed to killer her husband. If it is, man she looks awesome, I want that as a Widow-maker skin and voice change pack)

PS - Blizzards Overwatch creator may have issues with butts, the guys at Blizzards CGI scenes team (plus the new guys added from Pixar) apparently love them. as a grown man in his 30's I will simply say... I enjoy the eyecandy.