Overwatch Goes Footballing In Summer Olympics Event
Not Officially The Olympics
Overwatch [official site] isn't the first game to imagine "What if, instead of cars, football was played by people?" but heck, let's not scold Blizzard for unoriginality. To celebrate the Summer Olympics, or an unbranded equivalent, Blizzard have added a football-with-people mode to their FPS. I'm always happy to see more studios' takes on football-with-people, and Overwatch's six-player mode sees two teams of Lúcios trying to score goals with his blastgun and new footballing moves. Goooooooalúcio! Also, the Overwatch gang can pick up new generic-brand summer games-themed sportswear.
Lúcioball is the new 'Brawl' guest mode, stopping by as a special event with four-minute 3v3 footballing. It's a bit like ye olde Quake Soccer football-with-people mod but with Brazilian flair and fancier moves. The ballarena has bounce pads and speed-boosting walls, see, meaning Lúcio, Lúcio, Lúcio, Lúcio, Lúcio, and Lúcio can zip and zoom in sporty ways. It's not the same as punching the rocketboosters on your car but hey, we have to accept that football-with-people won't be as flashy as the real deal.
How does Lúcio play footie? "For this brawl, his primary fire has been replaced with a melee attack, allowing Lúcio to punch the ball—perfect for dribbling, passing, and shooting from short range. When you need to launch the ball across the map, Lúcio’s alternate fire emits a blast of sound that gets the job done nicely," Blizzard explain. "Unlike other game modes, the speed boost from Lúcio’s Crossfade only affects himself in Lúcioball (Amp It Up will still increase that boost, as normal), and his ultimate ability, Sound Barrier, now pulls the ball toward him from anywhere on the field."
And then there's all the Summer Not-Olympics sportsgear available now. During this event, Loot Boxes will contain at least one item of sportstuff. Over 100 sportswear skins, victory poses, medals, sprays, emotes, and so on can now be collected. I would very much like to see this year's US team in McCree's outfit:
You've got until August 22nd to sportsball and sportscollect.