You Can Download and Play Overwatch for Free this Weekend

[ffronw]

You Can Download and Play Overwatch for Free this Weekend

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1362/1362522.jpgYou can try out Blizzard's team-based shooter for free this weekend on every platform.

If you've been waiting for the price on Overwatch to come down before you give it a try, you're in luck. Blizzard has kicked off a free weekend for the popular shooter, so all you need to do is download it and try it out.

Starting today, all you need to do is head over to PlayOverwatch.com [https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/] and click on the banner at the top for your platform of choice to get directions on how to get started. The free weekend runs from today through Monday, the 21st at 7 PM ET.

There is one big restriction: you can't play Competitive. Honestly though, that's probably for the best. You'll still be able to check out Quick Play, Custom Modes, and more. You'll also get to play as all 23 heroes on all 13 maps. You can also look forward to earning loot boxes, customizing your characters, and all that fun stuff. If you wind up buying the game, your progress will carry over.

If you want to make the most of the free weekend, you should probably get started now.


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[Imre Csete]

If you've been waiting for the price on Overwatch to come down

Haha, Blizzard games and price drops, good one!

 

[Neverhoodian]

The game's also on sale, at least for the PS4 version.

I've been curious about trying the game for some time. Now's as good a time as any, I suppose. I've been a diehard TF2 player since '07, but years of updates and stupid hats have resulted in a haphazard, poorly optimized mess of a product that barely resembles the game I originally fell in love with. Frankly, I'm burnt out and need something new to scratch my team-oriented, class-based shooter itch.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

The game's also on sale, at least for the PS4 version.

I've been curious about trying the game for some time. Now's as good a time as any, I suppose. I've been a diehard TF2 player since '07, but years of updates and stupid hats have resulted in a haphazard, poorly optimized mess of a product that barely resembles the game I originally fell in love with. Frankly, I'm burnt out and need something new to scratch my team-oriented, class-based shooter itch.

as someone who was an avid TF2 supporter and skeptical of overwatch, I've since ate crow and barely go a day or two without playing overwatch. You'll notice similarities, but also plenty of differences to spice it up enough, if you've got any classes you favor in TF2, I can give recommendations for heroes that player similar in overwatch.

(be prepared to suck for the first few hours, knowing the maps and heroes is vital to doing well, something I'm sure you know about tf2 )

If you've been waiting for the price on Overwatch to come down

Haha, Blizzard games and price drops, good one!

my thought as well, between them and nintendo I don't know who is stingier about bringing their prices down, apparently nintendo has taken the lead.

 

[Zydrate]

If you've been waiting for the price on Overwatch to come down

Haha, Blizzard games and price drops, good one!

Isn't it like 40% off right now?

 

[Charli]

If you've been waiting for the price on Overwatch to come down

Haha, Blizzard games and price drops, good one!

???? Literally all blizzard games have a sale twice a year. Infact it's half price in retail right now.

 

[VinLAURiA]

Seriously, why don't they just make it permanently free? They already have that stupid crate system in there.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Snip

as someone who was an avid TF2 supporter and skeptical of overwatch, I've since ate crow and barely go a day or two without playing overwatch. You'll notice similarities, but also plenty of differences to spice it up enough, if you've got any classes you favor in TF2, I can give recommendations for heroes that player similar in overwatch.

(be prepared to suck for the first few hours, knowing the maps and heroes is vital to doing well, something I'm sure you know about tf2

Oh yeah, I fully expect to be dead weight my first few matches. I've heard the matchmaking system tries to pair you with players of a similar skill level, so hopefully I'll be flailing about with a bunch of other newbies.

My favorite class in TF2 is the Spy, and I've heard the new character Sombra has some sneaky skills vaguely reminiscent of the class. That said, I'll probably go with Mercy at first. I often play Medic in TF2 pubs on account of nobody else willing to step up and play the class, and I know Mercy is very similar in her role. It'll allow me to contribute to the team in a meaningful way while I observe how the other heroes perform. I was thinking of trying out Soldier 76 next, as he appears to be a basic "jack-of-all-trades, master of none" hero.

Once I feel comfortable with the basics I'll start branching out more. I've heard Hanzo plays very much like a Huntsman Sniper, which is one of my favorite "dicking around" TF2 play styles. Decisions, decisions...

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

My favorite class in TF2 is the Spy,

*eye twitch and grits teeth*

Once I feel comfortable with the basics I'll start branching out more. I've heard Hanzo plays very much like a Huntsman Sniper, which is one of my favorite "dicking around" TF2 play styles. Decisions, decisions...

*full blown mental breakdown in rage*

you.....you were the person I hated in tf2 and actively did everything in my power to ruin their day. Pyro was my most used class for that one reason.

(But honestly, soldier just got a really good buff, so he's back to being one of the better dps heroes again, so he's worth trying out unless they debuff him into uselessness again.)

hanzo and widowmaker are really polarized snipers, just like tf2, you're either absolute shit and your team is going to grief you to death to change, or you're going to be stupidly good with the character and everyone still gets annoyed with you.

Class balance and countering the other teams hero picks seem to be the new patches focus, before there were tons of standard "must have" picks, but with sombra available now there isn't a *must* pick besides running a possible 2 dps-2 tank-2 healer setup and constantly changing to counter whatever the other team is trying to do.

honestly the practice range is a really nice way to learn abilities and distances for heroes.

 

[Rastrelly]

Tried it. It's a mess. I cannot get the hype. It's extremely repetitive, extremely simplistic, messy as hell; teamwork is barely there, as well as any actual fun factor. It's just another FTP team shooter that for an unknown reason has an AAA price tag.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Tried it. It's a mess. I cannot get the hype. It's extremely repetitive, extremely simplistic, messy as hell; teamwork is barely there, as well as any actual fun factor. It's just another FTP team shooter that for an unknown reason has an AAA price tag.

did you actually play or watch a competitive match...? or are you basing this all off of quick play. There is a big difference, and teamwork is huge in competitive.

 

[Zydrate]

Tried it. It's a mess. I cannot get the hype. It's extremely repetitive, extremely simplistic, messy as hell; teamwork is barely there, as well as any actual fun factor. It's just another FTP team shooter that for an unknown reason has an AAA price tag.

I will say it's more interesting to play in a gaming group of 3-4 people to queue with at minimum. I had fun gunning down Medium/Hard AI for the first ten ingame levels or so but kind of gave the game up by level 16 (Which is only a few hours of play). Eventually the Halloween event hit and I REALLY wanted some of those skins, and then I found a very chill gaming group and now I'm level 61 and counting.

Also the new Arcade is neat, 3v3 is a very quick and casual mode that you can use, in place of AI games, to learn the kits of various characters.

I get it though; If I'm not having fun on something I don't do it either. I'm just left wondering if you actually tried, or just lost a couple times and gave up. I get demoralized quickly myself but there are things you can do to 'cool down' from losing (Like AI games) or just never solo-queue.

 

[Neverhoodian]

I just tried a few quick bot matches for the PS4 version as Mercy, Soldier 76, Hanzo and Reinhardt. I still haven't gotten the hang of their abilities, but my TF2 experience has served me well for the basics, particularly Mercy. I think I'll dive into some real matches later today.

My favorite class in TF2 is the Spy,

*eye twitch and grits teeth*

Once I feel comfortable with the basics I'll start branching out more. I've heard Hanzo plays very much like a Huntsman Sniper, which is one of my favorite "dicking around" TF2 play styles. Decisions, decisions...

*full blown mental breakdown in rage*

you.....you were the person I hated in tf2 and actively did everything in my power to ruin their day. Pyro was my most used class for that one reason.

You're a Pyro main? Now it's my turn to rage:

Let me guess, you're the player who ruined my Spy runs time and again by checking in the ONE corner everyone else ignored. Minutes of careful infiltration ruined by some yahoo flailing around with the M1 button held down...

In any case, I think we can both agree on one thing: Scout mains are assholes.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I'm glad that Blizzard is doing this. I tried it and my suspicions were confirmed. It's definitely a fun game, but only in short bursts. It makes a lot more sense to play this with friends. And since none of my friends are PC gamers I don't see the point. This is why Paladins exist. So if I ever start craving something like Overwatch I'll just play Paladins. In the meantime, all of my multiplayer needs are satisfied by CS:GO, TF2 and Insurgency.

 

[Denamic]

I usually only play quickplay to warm up going into competitive, but goddamn, this free weekend has made quickplay a nightmare. Or nightmarer than usual. I don't expect much out of quickplay to begin with, but more often than not, there's zero cooperation. 1 tank, 5 DPS. Awesome, let's do it. Let's make sure everyone's flanking from different directions, one by one. Careful so that you don't accidentally coordinate your attacks. You might be successful if you do. Nevermind that we're on defense and shouldn't be doing that in the first place.

I think I'll stick to 3v3s or brawls for warmups for now.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Holy shit. I'm so tired of these "free weekends". I NEVER participate in them. Just give me a demo already, give it to me completely for free for a limited time, or stop wasting my fucking time.

 

[Dr. Thrax]

Holy shit. I'm so tired of these "free weekends". I NEVER participate in them. Just give me a demo already, give it to me completely for free for a limited time, or stop wasting my fucking time.

I wish they'd just do what Sony did with FFXIV and do an X-Day trial period.
Play for free, get the same content as everyone else, for 3-4 days, then when it expires, offer $5 off for like 6 hours after the trial period ends. I'm sure they'd get plenty of new customers to justify the $5 discount.

Yeah, they might get some people who'll abuse the system by making multiple accounts, but honestly, they're not really losing anything if they do.

 

[Neverhoodian]

I usually only play quickplay to warm up going into competitive, but goddamn, this free weekend has made quickplay a nightmare. Or nightmarer than usual. I don't expect much out of quickplay to begin with, but more often than not, there's zero cooperation. 1 tank, 5 DPS. Awesome, let's do it. Let's make sure everyone's flanking from different directions, one by one. Careful so that you don't accidentally coordinate your attacks. You might be successful if you do. Nevermind that we're on defense and shouldn't be doing that in the first place.

I think I'll stick to 3v3s or brawls for warmups for now.

Maybe I got lucky, but I'm finding lots of teamwork on display. Lots of close matches and good team compositions.

Then again, this is coming from someone who's endured years of TF2 pubs. I'm used to teams with three Engies building at spawn, three Snipers who can't hit anything and three Spies that stay cloaked in a corner 95% of the match.