Overwatch Origins Edition - Windows

I got this for nearly the same price as what Blizzard is selling the regular Overwatch (not origins) for thanks to my gamers club discount. Plus you get a physical copy. I love it This game is awesome, my friends wanted me to play with them on battle.net and now we are enjoying many matches together, would recommend - the heroes are fun and it's simple enough to just jump in and play whenever!

This brief review is not so much about the game (which is an enjoyable team-based shooter which I haven't had much chance to dig into), but rather the physical media. For those who wonder, you do get a physical installation DVD, but once you register your key, you can just download the full game from the Battle.net client. Great for those (like me) who are too lazy to deal with external DVD drives.

I bought this to replace the PS4 version of the game. It's better in just about every possible way -- precise mouse and keyboard controls with no aim assist, and Blizzard's trademark top class optimization that can run like a champ on a budget gaming PC, yet still look incomparably better than the console versions if you have the hardware to push it to the max. (My specs: i5 2500K @ 4.3GHz, 8GB of 5-year-old grandpa slow RAM, GTX 760, easily runs 60FPS at high settings.) Otherwise, it's still the same great game that took 2016's gaming offerings by storm. I haven't really been much into competitive first person shooters since the Q3A & Unreal Tournament days, and I still love this game to bits. Can't get away from it. Tons of replay value, and easy to hop right into a 10-minute quickie or a 10-hour marathon session. The only caveats worth mentioning are the sparse number of maps, and that the game hardly has anything resembling a single player mode -- you can fight training dummies and maybe bots, but that's it. The game's dripping with character and charm, but there's not much story to speak of; you'll need to visit the Overwatch website if you care at all about that. It's just an extremely solid team-based online shooter with very mild MOBA elements (namely, the benefits of group member synergy.) If you like either of those genres, it's absolutely worth giving a shot. Even if you don't -- I don't! -- you may still fall in love with it. Definitely Blizzard's best new IP since World of Warcraft, and considering its success, it'll hopefully continue to receive plenty of developer support for years to come.

I used to play a lot of Call of Duty and Battlefield until I realized it was all the same stuff with a different coating. The moment you play your first game of Overwatch you realize that this is something entirely different and refreshingly so. Blizzard did an amazing job at making each character unique and it all works together so well. I've been playing since alpha and the game has only gotten better post launch. The developers have stated that they will not charge people for heroes because they feel that it is a crucial part of the game to strategize and change heroes based on the needs of the match/situation and I agree. If you're into first person PVP shooters and want to play a new type of game then you'll want to pick this up.

I bought this game a year ago and I still play it all the time. The frequency of updates with new content, characters, and special events and is great! It's a shooter that is pretty easy to pick up, but challenging enough to keep you interested in the long term. I like how casual it feels and the humor in the game's voice lines, emotes, character abilities, etc. is a nice touch. I seriously love this game! You don't have to buy expansions or map packs. You can buy loot boxes if you want or just earn them. The matchmaking can be kind of slow - that's probably my biggest criticism of the game. I have a really powerful gaming PC that I built, but the game does not require it. The minimum/recommended specs are not demanding, so it runs great on a modestly powered PC (I know based on my friends' PCs). Of course the more powerful your machine, you'll appreciate extra detail and it will just feel smoother and faster, but you can say that about any game. In the last year, I can't remember having a game error or glitch, unexpected server downtime, or bad experience. It's refreshing the level of polish in this game - something seldom seen in an industry where garbage is rushed out to meet a release date, and later patched. Seriously, buy this game and have fun!

Overwatch is a fun first-person shooter. It's Team Fortress 2 with "moba" abilities. As of release there's 21 heroes to choose from, 12 maps, and ~3 modes (one is a hybrid of two). It is pretty casual in terms of learning how to play and mastering compared to something like Dota 2. Each hero feels very unique and powerful. Any hero can give the other team some trouble, some has higher skill caps than others. The fact that there's 21 heroes to choose from is what draws me to this game. There are micro-transactions, however, all of them are cosmetic only (skins, voice lines, spraypaints, taunts, etc.). Each level up you get 1 loot box that contains 4 cosmetic items. Most of the time you will get common things like sprays or voice lines. Every once in a while you'll get a skin. Duplicates grant you coins which can be used to unlock cosmetics without having to go through loot boxes. I think this is the right approach to micro-transactions. I don't like how there is only 3 modes to play and especially how you can't queue for one you actually want to play. Sometimes matchmaking can take a couple minutes (it'll put you into a skirmish match while you wait). Since there's only 1 queue (not including the weekly custom match) I would expect it to be a lot faster especially since occasionally you'll join a match that is halfway over. Being able to pick the same heroes is both a pro and a con. When playing with friends it's fun but when you're team is losing because of it, it can be frustrating as well. The game is really fun and sometimes frustrating. Most of it's flaws I mentioned are not that big of a deal. I would rate it 96/100

This has been a fantastic year for gaming. Many blockbuster titles have launched or been expanded, including the likes of The Division, Pokemon GO, Skyrim SE, No Man's Sky (to much controversy), Warhammer: Total War, FF XV, Battlefield 1, Dark Souls III, DOOM, Gears of War 4, and copious quantities of content in every Blizzard mainstay. So when I say that Overwatch is the hands-down GOTY, it's not to be taken lightly. Blizzard is dead serious about making their first new property in over fifteen years a good one. In the six months since launch, the Overwatch esports industry has gone absolutely nuclear compared to any other launch. It boasts a varied hero roster, loads of flavor & storytelling, competitive and casual game modes, a high level of polish in graphics, stability, and features, and addicting gameplay. Mechanics are somewhere between classic FPS and MOBA, with unique, cooldown-based abilities for each character, and several "classes" of characters (offense, defense, tank, support). Anyone on the fence about buying this game should just do it. It will be a household game for a long time to come, and you're all but guaranteed to enjoy it.

This game is very fast paced, fun, and intricate. The character design makes this game great, and the maps are fairly straight forward and competitive. I purchased this game with the understanding that it's easy to get into but difficult to master. Pros: Ability to run on older hardware: I have tested on an older computer with a GTX 660. Runs on medium setting at 1080p but still looks absolutely gorgeous. Short games: On busy days, I am able to log in about 2 or 3 games since they tend to last less than 10 minutes. With short games, I don't get frustrated like I do with DOTA. Business model: I am in agreement with Blizzard's model with regards to DLC (You can pay more money up front if you want to unlock cosmetic goods or you can unlock them through putting in time to unlock game lootboxes. also blizzard has promised that non-cosmetic dlc will be free going forward) Cons: Limited modes: There are only a couple of objectives with regards to gameplay now. Blizzard is going in the right direction with arcade mode, but perhaps implementing a custom mode where hosts can modify damage %, ultimate refill rate, etc would help.