For the first time in many years, Blizzard announced a new franchise today: Overwatch, a team-based multiplayer shooter with Pixar-like graphics.

The game looks great. It’s a PvP shooter with classes, very reminiscent of Team Fortress 2. Here’s the cinematic trailer:

And, more importantly, here’s gameplay footage from the newly-christened Overwatch, which really does look fantastic:

Here’s Blizzard describing the game in a press release:

The action of Overwatch takes place in a technologically advanced, highly stylized future earth. In a time of global crisis, an international task force of soldiers, scientists, adventurers, and oddities known as Overwatch had come together to restore peace to a war-torn world. After many years, the group’s influence waned, and it was eventually disbanded. Overwatch might be gone now . . . but the world still needs heroes.

 

With an emphasis on accessibility and pure fun, Overwatch brings Blizzard’s signature easy-to-learn, hard-to-master gameplay to the FPS genre. Harnessing the power of their hero of choice, players will join forces in teams of six and battle each other across a range of futuristic global locations, from the hologram-lit streets of London to a bazaar in the shadows of a high-tech Egyptian pyramid. Every battlefield is iconic and built to highlight each character’s unique abilities, and fights can shift from streets to rooftops to open skies within the span of a breath.

 

“Overwatch is our take on a vibrant, near-future universe with amped-up characters and action-packed team-based gameplay,” saidMike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “With every new Blizzard game, we look at our favorite aspects of a genre and put our own spin on things. Our goal with Overwatch is to create an awesome FPS experience that’s more accessible to a much wider audience while delivering the action and depth that shooter fans love.”

 

The heroes of Overwatch each bring their own distinct weapons and superabilities to bear. Here’s just a glimpse of the numerous heroes that will ultimately fill Overwatch’s rosters:

 

– Tracer, a former British test pilot who shrugs at danger, can execute impossible acrobatic assaults thanks to her ability to teleport, drop energy bombs, and even reverse time.
– Reinhardt, a hulking German soldier in battle armor, can charge great distances and pin his enemies to a wall or slam the ground with his rocket hammer to knock them off their feet.
– Hanzo, a bow-wielding Japanese mercenary, has the ability to scale walls with his bare hands, fire off a tracking device that illuminates nearby enemies for his team, and unleash a huge spirit dragon that does grievous damage to all enemies in its path.
– Symmetra, an Indian architech, manipulates light and energy to shield her allies and damage her enemies—and she can turn the tide of any battle by building a device that instantly transports her teammates to the front lines.

The beta will be out in 2015 and you can sign up HERE!

Overwatch is a reworked version of the PVP portions of Blizzard’s Titan, the long-in-development MMO that was overhauled in mid-2013. Despite reports earlier this year that Titan had been cancelled, the game was actually turned into Overwatch last year, according to a person familiar with the project.

Ever since Nintendo hit on the concept of using online video to communicate the latest information about upcoming games, new DLC or any other news related to Nintendo to its fans and gamers, the company has developed a habit of encouraging people at short notice to come to the website or Twitch to watch live the latest Nintendo Direct as Nintendo employees (mostly Iwata) reveals the next little titbit from the company.

And so it came to pass that at 10pm on Guy Fawkes’ Day (that’s November 5th for you non-Brits), Nintendo put live its latest Nintendo Direct, which this time was focused on “new information about upcoming titles”. One of these titles was entirely new – I’ve covered the reveal of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D in the last article; and Digmbot has covered the Xenoblade Chronicles X reveals elsewhere on the site – but here’s a quick summary of everything else that was revealed during the 30-odd minute discussion:

Code Name: S.T.E.A.M

Code Name: S.T.E.A.M imagines a world where Steam power is still king. One fateful day, a steam-powered bridge over the River Thames is due to open, but as crowds gather to witness the event – suddenly, a monster invasion breaks out! A gang of four unlikely heroes, spearheaded by Abraham Lincoln (yes, that Abraham Lincoln – the trailer even refers to him as “United States President”) have to use steam-powered technologies to bypass or defeat the monsters and… save humanity, I guess? I don’t know, the Trailer doesn’t explain the plot… or make much sense at all if I’m honest! Check it out below:

Amiibo support in Mario Kart 8

Nintendo announced earlier in the year that their popular Wii U racer, Mario Kart 8, will receive DLC for Amiibo suppoort in the near future – and now, thanks to a trailer revealed in this Nintendo Direct, we now know what it consists of. When you touch a compatible Amiibo figure (currently any Wave 1 character) on the Wii U gamepad while playing Mario Kart 8, you will unlock a special Racing Suit depicting your character. Then, whenever you race as a Mii, you can have it don the suit and it’ll dress up as that character – so your Mii can pretend to be Mario, Yoshi, Kirby, Captain Falcon or any of the other Amiibo figures you may have. It’s unknown at this point if the racing suits have any other purpose besides cosmetics.

Mario Kart 8 DLC

And staying on the topic of DLC in Mario Kart 8, Nintendo also revealed what will be coming in the first two DLC Expansions:

Hyrule Warriors: Spinner Link

Something that WAS a little shocking of late was Nintendo revealing that Hyrule Warriors – which had not previously announced to be getting any support for Amiibo – WOULD be patched to add in support in the future. A new Trailer in this Nintendo Direct revealed just what this support will be; and for once it’s actually pretty cool. Use the Amiibo figure of Link while playing Hyrule Warriors and you’ll unlock Link Spinner, a new form of link who rides atop a bladed Spinning Top which he can use to slice through enemies and other cool tricks! Check out this bad-assery below:

Mario & Luigi in Monster Hunter 4? WTF Capcom?!?

Okay, so it’s not ACTUALLY Mario and Luigi, but whoever in Capcom decided to do this should be fired for damaging the serious nature of the Monster Hunter games. It’s been announced that the long term cat-like assistants in the Monster Hunter franchise, the Felynes – who, among other things, are known for their love of cosplay in various MH Titles – will be able to dress as Mario and Luigi in at least some part of Monster Hunter 4. Yes, really.

Though, given Mario and Luigi dressed as cats in Super Mario 3D World, maybe the Felynes just want to return the favour.

Pikmin make their movie début!

…Well, short movies at least! The loveable Pikmin will be starring in a series of three short movies which will soon be downloadable via the eShop on both Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.

Splatoon’s Single Player campaign revealed!

Rounding off this episode of Nintendo Direct, at E3 earlier this year we were treated to our first look at a third-party, cartoon-style, ink-based Shoot-em-up coming to Wii U next year, called Splatoon. The E3 Trailer and subsequent discussion focused mainly on the game’s Multiplayer aspect; so this time, the footage focused on the single-player Campaign instead – which looks AWESOME, if I do say so myself.

Until the next Nintendo Direct – Crimson out!

When Nintendo revealed the plan to remake the original Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the 3DS, many people thought it was a dream come true – and when the game came out, it certainly was. Link and Epona in stereoscopic 3D for the first time? Framerates improved to 30FPS instead of the slow 20FPS of the original N64 release? Touchscreen inventory management? The Water Temple fixed? Needless to say, Ocarina of Time 3D was a game that quickly hit people’s top 10 lists.

Following the success of Ocarina 3D, Nintendo caused even more excitement by announcing that they were considering using the same engine to bring other classic Zelda titles to the 3DS with improved gameplay and the modern, stereoscopic 3D graphics. To most Nintendo fans, there was only one real choice to improve this way that would instantly cause all Zelda fans to worship Nintendo as their god: Majora’s Mask.

Well, hardened Zelda fans – start bowing to the altar of Nintendo. Announced during a Nintendo Direct earlier today, it’s official: The Legend of Zelda – Majora’s Mask is getting a 3DS remake, due for release in Spring 2015. The two-minute Trailer includes a variety of gameplay clips which, while revealing little in terms of the technological upgrades we can expect, give a good tease as to some of the events of the game – as well as acting as a great reminder for just how creepy Majora’s Mask really was. While I go and try to stop myself getting nightmares and remember why I never played the game back in the N64 era (actually, I never had an N64 so I couldn’t have anyway – sue me), those of you who are already salivating from reading the above can hit up the trailer below:

Blizzard’s legendary MMORPG World of Warcraft will have a 20th anniversary, according to lead developer Ion Hazzikostas. Speaking with CNET, Hazzikostas said he had no doubt that there will be a 20th anniversary for WoW. He also mentioned Blizzard is hard at work planning for future expansions.

“I definitely can’t tell you what our 20th anniversary is going to be. I can tell you there is definitely going to be one. I have no doubt saying that,” he said. “We’re definitely planning into the future, talking about what the next expansion is going to be, and what the one after that is going to be, just in terms of big picture storylines, how can we start setting things up now, where do we want the game to go.”

The game has changed significantly over time. Hazzikostas said the World of Warcraft today isn’t the same game that launched in 2004. He mentioned different graphics, different combat mechanics, and the game’s overall engine is far different.

“It’s clearly not the same game it was 10 years ago, right? The engine is different, all the graphical assets are different, a lot of core combat mechanics have changed,” he said. “It’s hard to pinpoint one turning point when it changed, but we definitely have taken an incremental approach to the pressing problems the game has that we feel we need to solve and what we can add to it that will make it better and deliver the most value to our players.”

World of Warcraft began Nov. 23, 2004. It has gone on to become a cultural phenomenon through board games, books, action figures and plenty more.  According to the latest subscriber count, there are 7.4 million paying subscribers for the game at the moment. That count is expected to grow to over 8 million with the release of expansion Warlords of Draenor.

Warlords of Draenor will release for PC and Mac Nov. 13. Temporary world events are currently going on in-game to lead up to the release of the new expansion.

Blizzard announced the cancellation of Project Titan, an MMORPG project that was in development since 2007, back in September. Titan was supposed to be Blizzard’s next big MMORPG to stand beside – or even surpass – World of Warcraft, but the project suffered creative problems.

“We didn’t find the fun,”

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said.

“We didn’t find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that’s the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no.”

BlizzCon 2014, a convention for all things Blizzard, will be held in Anaheim, Calif. on Nov. 7-8 at the Anaheim Convention Center. The event is expected to reveal additional details concerning Heroes of the Storm, the upcoming Warcraft movie and additional details for Warlords of Draenor.

So what do you think of WoW being around for another ten years?

For the month of November, Xbox Live Gold members can look forward to three new free games on Xbox One and Xbox 360.

Volgarr the Viking, the newest ID@Xbox game, will debut on Xbox One as a free download. For Xbox One gamers, this is a journey back to the days of yore, when times were tougher, and you really only needed a couple buttons to play a game.

On Xbox 360, starting Saturday, November 1st, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise ($14.99 ERP) will be free for Xbox Live Gold members through November 15th.

Then on November 16th, Xbox Live Gold Members can download Red Faction: Guerrilla ($19.99 ERP) for free through November 30th

*Titles are available as free downloads for qualifying Xbox Live Gold members in all markets where Xbox Live is available. Some regions may offer different titles depending on market availability.