Overwatch Workshop shows off spaceship sims and Weeping Angels

The problem with D.Va, right, is that she's not a spaceship. Overwatch modder "Excors" has fixed that using the Overwatch Workshop, a tool Blizzard released last week that lets you twiddle with hero abilities and rule sets, then share them with the public.

Spaceship Simulator plops souped-up D.Vas into a low-gravity free-for-all, swooping about and firing missiles at each other, as spaceships are wont to do. I enjoyed it, but not as much being a Weeping Angel.

I'm not actually sure if D.Va refers to the mech, the K-pop star pilot, or a beautiful amalgamation of the two. What matters is that in this context the mech is a spaceship, albeit one that could really do with some more powerful thrusters. I'll level with you: the fun fades soon after the first time a bug sticks you to the space ceiling. But this is still a neat, pretty example of what the Workshop can do.

Here are some spaceships doing spaceships at each other.

My attempts to play have been a little less successful. I couldn't see anyone hosting the game in the custom server browser, and struggled to lure in more than a couple of people when I hosted a game myself. The (literally) floaty movement falls a little flat when you're just playing with one or two randomers, but I can see it being a lark with a gaggle of friends.

Weeping Angels, on the other hand, was immediately brilliant. A team of six Mercies has to sneak up on a Mei, instantly killing her if they can get within melee range. That's not easy, because all Mei needs to do to freeze each Mercy in their tracks is look at them. Then keep looking at them.

It works beyond the initial "oh look, it's like I'm in Doctor Who" allure. I haven't had a go as Mei yet, but watching her panic as we angels cornered her from multiple angles was delightful. It's got the same thrill as horror movies where you see a ghoul slowly creep up on someone from behind, only when they do you want to give the ghoul a high five.

If you want to host Spaceship Simulator, you need to create a custom game, click the Workshop button, then use the code "W2ZMG". The one for Weeping Angels is "R3S3D".

This Workshop is a good thing. It reminds me of hanging out in Fretta servers on Garry's Mod, which would plunge you into a radically different user created game mode every fifteen minutes. This doesn't come close to the same levels of freedom or outlandishness, but it scratches the same itch.

It's only been out a week and all! I wonder if anyone has made Hammondball yet.