Overwatch 2: New PvP Changes, Monte Carlo Map, and Everything Announced From the New Livestream

Today, Blizzard hosted a new Overwatch 2 livestream with a bunch of new details on the upcoming sequel.

While the biggest news was arguably changing PvP team compositions, there were plenty of other new details. Below are some of the biggest details we learned from today’s Overwatch 2 stream.

Overwatch 2 PvP Teams Will be 5v5, Not 6v6

As reported earlier, Blizzard has announced that Overwatch 2 will introduce 5-member PvP teams, down from the 6-person teams introduced in the first Overwatch. Along with the smaller team sizes, tanks will be adjusted so that they are more like brawlers in a fight, rather than stationary shields.

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Furthermore, each class will receive a new passive ability to complement their abilities. Tanks will have knockback reduction and reduce ultimate charge gain when taking damage from enemies; Damage heroes will get a movement speed bonus, and Support will self-heal when they don’t take damage for an extended period of time.

Overwatch 2 – New Monte Carlo Map Revealed

Blizzard also revealed a new map during today’s stream called Monte Carlo. Based on the luxury vacation destination, the fictional version of Monte Carlo is very much like its real-life counterpart, where beautiful buildings are situated on steep hills. It is still very much a luxury destination but given the slight futuristic makeover of Overwatch.

Assault Will be Removed From Competitive Play

Assault is a mode where an attacking team and defending team vie for contested Capture Points on a map. Attacking teams will have a set time to capture a point while a defending team must stop them, and the two teams will switch off.

While Assault will still be available in Custom, it will be removed from Quick Play, which is being designed to be similar to Competitive.

Blizzard Is Working on More Push Maps Than Just Toronto

Push is an upcoming game mode where both teams will play a game of tug-of-war using a robot that will be pushed in the direction of whichever team is losing. Blizzard has revealed it is working on more Push maps other than the upcoming Toronto map.

During the live stream Blizzard revealed Rome will be a Push map.

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Overwatch 2 – Blizzard Is Experimenting With New Modes Beyond Push, Too

As part of the discussion about removing the Assault game mode, Blizzard explained that it is constantly experimenting with new game modes, aside from Push. No word yet on what those maps could look like, but Blizzard is looking for ways to fill the void left by Assault while also giving players even more variety.

Keller hinted at least one more new game mode that he is excited to talk about soon.

Overwatch 2 – Not All Maps are Tied to Story Mode

Blizzard has already shown off new maps such as New York, Toronto, Rome, and Monte Carlo. But Blizzard says more maps are in the works aside from these initial four.

Blizzard also says these maps aren’t necessarily locations that will be present in the story mode and that some maps may be designed for their own sake.

Overwatch 2 – Gameplay and Design Changes

  • Overwatch 2 will update the HUD and feature an improved UI.
  • The healer UI now shows the portrait of the hero you’re healing.
  • Weapons will feel more visceral with a better sound system, animation, and feedback.
  • Overwatch 2 will continue to add new hero 2.0 looks, which are updated designs for every hero in the roster.
  • Various character reworks.
  • Zarya now has two charges for her bubble.
  • Movement acceleration for heroes has been very slightly slowed in Overwatch 2.
  • Overhealth and overshield will be combined into a single bar.
  • Blizzard is looking at improving crowd control mechanics, but this is still a work-in-progress.
  • Associate Art Director Dion Rogers teases some cosmetic customization.

Jeff Kaplan Tribute

As caught by Polygon, the New York map in Overwatch 2 has a fun tribute to former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan. Eagle-eyed viewers will see that New York has a store called Jephs Corner Pizza.

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“Jeph” is a reference to a 2017 tweet about the new Starbucks that opened on Blizzard’s Irvine, California campus where the baristas mistakenly spelled Jeff Kaplan’s name as “Jeph.”

For more check out IGN’s past Overwatch 2 coverage including 55 details revealed during BlizzConline, and our big interview with former Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan.

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Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor.

Overwatch 2 Push Gameplay Reveal – Rome (5v5)

Overwatch 2

Unknown Release Date

unreleased

  • Nintendo Switch
  • PC
  • PlayStation 4
  • Xbox One

Overwatch 2 is the globe-spanning sequel to Blizzard Entertainment’s acclaimed team-based game, building upon the original’s battle-honed foundation and carrying forward everything players have earned into a new era of epic competition and team play. Square off against rivals in PvP modes, and explore the Overwatch universe firsthand in all new, fully cooperative missions that challenge the world’s heroes to team up, power up, and take on an overwhelming outbreak of threats around the globe.

New Mandalorian Funkos Are Up for Preorder

Funko is always putting out new batches of adorable figures. A new line of Star Wars figures based on The Mandalorian–and season two, specifically–has just gone up for preorder. They look fantastic. Just all around great work. You can preorder them now from Amazon or Walmart, and you’ll receive them on October 15.

So without further ado, let’s take a look at what’s available.

Preorder Mandalorian Funkos

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While there have been numerous Baby Yoda Funkos released in previous batches, I have to be honest: Grogu with Cookie might be the star of this release. He’s just too adorable.

Previous releases have included Mando himself in full Beskar armor, so this set goes full “season two” by giving us a helmet-less Mandalorian holding Grogu. It’s adorable.

Fans of Beskar armor need not despair, though, because this batch includes a Boba Fett figure, complete with his properly banged-up helmet.

star-wars-mandalorian-funkos-1There are also two Ahsoka figures this time around. One has her action-ready with dual lightsabers, and the other is an Amazon-exclusive hooded Ahsoka, also with two sabers, because why wouldn’t you want her holding two sabers?

Also available is an awesome-looking dark trooper droid, plus Bo-Katan. If you order the Bo-Katan, there’s a chance you’ll receive a rare variant of her wearing her helmet. Finally, a Target-exclusive figure finds Grogu with a soup creature attached to his face.

star-wars-mandalorian-funkos-2There will also be a Grogu with Butterfly figure that’s exclusive to GameStop, but at the time of this writing the listing hasn’t gone live yet.

And if these aren’t enough Star Wars-themed figures for you, take a look at these upcoming Star Wars: The Bad Batch Funkos.

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Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

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How To Open The CoD: Warzone Vault At Nakatomi Plaza

Call of Duty’s Season 3 Reloaded has arrived, bringing an ’80s Action Heroes event that features John Rambo and John McClane. And with Die Hard’s John McClane comes the movie’s iconic Nakatomi Plaza to Warzone, which has a lootable vault of $100,000.

Nakatomi Plaza has replaced the Broadcast Tower in Downtown, now serving as Verdansk’s tallest building. There are also optional missions around the plaza that will help you get into a vault loaded with cash.

The vault is located on the 31st floor, and it contains three safety deposit boxes that each require their own keycard to unlock. You can access the vault using any of the three keycards, but you’ll need all three keycards to cash out with all the money. Here’s how to obtain the Warzone keycards needed to loot Nakatomi Plaza’s vault.

I recommend attempting the cash grab in Warzone’s Plunder mode with a squad of friends, as Nakatomi Plaza is a pretty crowded place to land, and you’ll want to take advantage of Plunder’s respawning. You can also do this in three trips or with all the keycards at once, which will be a very difficult feat until the novelty of this map wears off and fewer enemies are crowding the area.

KEYCARD 1

Go to the Downtown area and look for the Unfinished Business contract. These special Warzone contracts can be found around the Nakatomi Plaza. You want to grab one quickly because there are limited contracts available for each match. Activate it and complete the contract, which is pretty similar to Warzone’s existing Scavenger contracts. Completing this will reward you with Keycard 1.

Take the keycard to Floor 31 of Nakatomi Plaza. It might be faster and safer to use the rappel to ascend the elevator shaft. This only gets you so far up the tower, then you’ll need to climb another set of stairs, or take another zipline to rappel up. The vault is opposite a wall with a large black and gold logo.

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There are monitors by the vault entrance. Interact with the screens to open the vault, then go inside and collect your cash. This doesn’t work without at least one keycard.

Once inside the vault, look for the wall of safety deposit boxes, and one can be opened with each keycard. Just look for the safety deposit box that correlates to your keycard(s) in hand.

Keycard 1’s safety deposit box awards you a Specialist Bonus and more cash.

KEYCARD 2

For this keycard you’ll want to access Nakatomi Plaza’s roof. As soon as you hit the rooftop, a mission will pop up on your screen that says: “Hostile Fire: find and disarm the C4.” And disarming the C4 is pretty easy, assuming there aren’t any hostile players in the area. The C4 is marked on your screen, so you simply need to go over to it and deactivate. Completing this mission will earn you Keycard 2.

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It’s also worth noting here that everyone on the rooftop gets this mission, but there’s only one chance to disarm the C4. If someone beats you to the punch and gets the keycard, you’ll have to kill them to loot the card off their body.

After obtaining Keycard 2, you can use it at the same vault. Pretty much the same process is used here. You grab the money and open the safety deposit box designated for Keycard 2.

This box will reward you with an Advanced UAV and cash.

KEYCARD 3

For the third keycard, you’ll want to search the base just outside of Nakatomi Plaza. Look for a small staircase just off the sidewalk that leads underneath the building, which will take you to the Plaza’s underground parking lot.

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There you’ll find a blue cargo truck with its doors open. The truck’s interior is lit up and there’s a table inside. Interact with the table to activate the Deal Gone Wrong mission, which spawns some AI henchmen to kill. You need to kill off two waves of the bot enemies, and wave two has a tough brute enemy that is a bullet-sponge. This is a very difficult fight to attempt alone, so bring some teammates and finish both waves to earn the keycard.

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Again, take the keycard back to the vault using the same process as before, and you’ll be rewarded with cash. Keycard 3’s safety deposit box gives you a Contraband weapon blueprint.

With this being day one of Season 3 Reloaded’s event, it’s going to be really hard to obtain all the keycards and cash in one match. I’d recommend dropping on the roof and going for the C4 mission straight away, or maybe try your luck with the henchmen in the basement. Assuming it’s like past Warzone Easter eggs, these vault missions will probably stick around throughout the entire event.

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Brooklyn Nine-Nine Debuts August 12 With Two Episodes

NBC has announced that the eighth and final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine will premiere on August 12 at 8 PM and 8:30 PM ET/PT. As stated in the release, that means the long-running, hit police sitcom will begin its last, abbreviated season by airing two episodes–and the remaining eight will air on subsequent Thursdays in those time slots.

Until as recently as last week, it was only known that Brooklyn Nine-Nine would be back sometime in August. Considering the series was once extremely close to never getting past Season 5, following Fox’s cancellation in May 2018, the show has enjoyed an unexpected renewal and rejuvenation on the new network. In a new trailer released by the show, the series insists it’s “going out in a blaze of glory.” Check it out below.

Plotwise, not much is known about this final batch of episodes. Last year, it was announced that the season may feature a storyline about the COVID-19 pandemic. Co-creator Dan Goor had mentioned in interviews last year that he and the show’s writing team “value[s] escapism, but at the same time, we don’t want to be ignorant… there is a debate about what next year will look like.” Most likely, Goor says, the show will explore more subtle ways of acknowledging the crisis rather than “toiling away in the depths.”

Since that quote was given in April 2020, before the pandemic really got underway, and as the show’s creative team was just beginning to meet and break new story ideas–and before several months of social unrest involving real police brutality–the show may wind up somewhere completely unexpected or not yet discussed in interviews. But in a few short months, we will finally know how Brooklyn Nine-Nine plans to take it all home.

Overwatch 2 Reducing Team Sizes To 5v5, Including The Original Game

Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 “What’s Next” stream has revealed a major gameplay change coming to its upcoming hero shooter. Rather than having standard matches played with six-player teams, Overwatch 2 will shift to 5v5 matches in PvP.

The 5v5 structure will consist of one tank, two support, and two DPS players per team. That’s a major change from the 6v6 matches of the original game. But with Overwatch and Overwatch 2’s multiplayer being compatible with one another, Blizzard confirmed to GameSpot that this change will also be introduced to the original game. However, that change won’t happen until Overwatch 2 releases, whenever that might be.

Now Playing: Overwatch 2 | PvP New Maps and Changes Livestream

Following the 5v5 announcement, the stream then went on to show new content, like the New York City hybrid map. It includes some landmarks like Grand Central Station.

No release date has been announced for Overwatch 2, though this is the first major update we’ve received since game director Jeff Kaplan announced he was leaving Blizzard in April. The game director role was taken over by Aaron Keller, who cohosted the What’s Next stream alongside associate art director Dion Rogers and lead hero designer Geoff Goodman.

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2 Xbox Games Are Free To Play This Weekend — Gears 5 And F1 2020

Microsoft has announced the latest additions to its Free Play Days promotion, which drops games to the low, low price of $0 for a limited time. The latest Free Play Days titles are Microsoft’s own shooter Gears 5 and the racing game F1 2020.

Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass Ultimate members can play both games at no extra cost now through midnight Pacific on Sunday, May 23, so it’s a full weekend of free play. You can download the games from Xbox.com through the Free Play Days hub or by navigating to the Subscriptions tab in the Xbox Store on console to get started.

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It’s a good time to jump into Gears 5, as the game’s big Operation 7 update just recently arrived. It adds a new multiplayer map, Ephyra, along with new characters Ukkon and Hana. Gears 5 is also available on Xbox Game Pass.

As for F1 2020, it hasn’t received a major update recently, but the game was praised by critics. The newest game, F1 2021, is scheduled for release in July.

All progress, including Gamerscore and Achievements, carries forward should you decide to buy Gears 5 or F1 2020 after the free weekend. And both games, as well as their premium versions, are on sale.

Xbox Free Play Days Deals (May 20-23):

  • Gears 5
  • F1 2020

For more games to play on Xbox, check out our guides to the best Xbox One games of all time and the best Xbox Series X games available so far. Plus, Game Pass subscribers should check out the best games available with Xbox Game Pass right now.

In other news, another big Xbox game sale is going on right now, so be sure to check out our roundup to find out how you can save on some of the best games on the platform.

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Huge Funko Pop Sale At GameStop Is Live Through The Rest Of Today

If you’re looking for a just one or plenty more Funko Pops to adorn your desk or collectible shelves with, GameStop has many deals on the popular collectibles today only. You can grab some Funko Pops for as low as $4, from a range of properties including Sonic, Death Stranding, The Mandalorian, Halo, and more. Given how great some of the prices are and how popular the collectible is, you’ll need to hurry to grab the ones that you want quickly.

Funko Pops reach far beyond just pop culture references. You can grab figurines of real-life athletes, brand icons (like Ronald McDonald or the Monopoly Man), and more. GameStop has a few of these on offer, too, including collectibles based on tennis player Maria Sharapova, the Lakers’ LeBron James, and even a tiger-striped Furby. If you can think it, Funko has probably made it into a Pop vinyl figure. Be sure to check out the full sale before it ends tonight.

Ni No Kuni II Is Coming To Switch September 17, Will Include All DLC

Level-5’s Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is getting a Nintendo Switch re-release, and this new edition will include all of the released DLC for the 2018 action-JRPG.

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom – Prince’s Edition will include all the original game’s DLC, including The Lair of the Lost Lord and Tale of a Timeless Tome. The game will be getting a physical release and will also be available on the Switch eShop September 17 for $60.

Players take on the role of Evan, the young ruler of Ding Dong Dell, after he is overthrown in a coup. From there he embarks on an epic adventure to rebuild his kingdom and unite the world, teaming up with a number of supporting characters along the way. Players will also team up with entities known as Higgledies over the course of the game. These are Pokemon-esque creatures which support the party during battle with various offensive and defensive buffs.

The series is well-known for its visual style. Acclaimed Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli produced the animated cutscenes for the previous game in the series, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, in 2013, and both it and its sequel recreate those visuals in-game. Though Studio Ghibli wasn’t technically involved in Ni no Kuni II, the game still uses the signature Ghibli style, with Ghibli character designer Yoshiyuki Momose and composer Joe Hisaishi both involved in the project’s creation.

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is currently available on PlayStation 4 and PC. An anime film based on the game series arrived on Netflix last year.

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Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Movie Plot Leaked By Copyright Listing

Well, this is an interesting way to find out what a movie is about. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is currently in production, and we know that both Knuckles and Tails will appear in it. Now, though, it looks like we know the plot of the film thanks to a government copyright listing for the project.

The synopsis, which was first noticed by Twitter user @Ninja_Risu, reads, “After settling in Green Hills, Sonic is ready for more freedom, and Tom and Maddie agree to leave him home while they go on vacation. But, no sooner are they gone, when Dr. Robotnik comes back, this time with a new partner, Knuckles, in search for an emerald that has the power to both build and destroy civilizations. Sonic teams up with his own sidekick, Tails, and together they embark on a journey to find the emerald before it falls into the wrong hands.”

What we can take away from this is that Knuckles is a villain, Tails is, of course, Sonic’s friend to the end, and it looks like Chaos Emeralds are being introduced. Also, while Jim Carrey’s Robotnik likely plays a big role, Sonic’s human friend Tom (James Marsden) might be out of town for the majority of the film.

In addition to both Marsden and Carrey returning for the film, Ben Schwartz will once again voice Sonic. Jeff Fowler, who directed the first movie, has also returned for the sequel. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is scheduled to hit theaters in April 2022.

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