While it may not have earned quite the same level of attention that Blizzard's announcement of World of Warcraft: Classic did, Overwatch generated its own excitement at this year's annual BlizzCon. The villainous, Irish-born character Moira made her debut as the game's 26th playable hero, while the reveal of the amusingly-named "Blizzard World" map promised of yet another setting for players to do battle in.
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Moira may have reached live servers last week, but Blizzard World itself has eluded players until quite recently. According to a recent post over the game's website, Overwatch's latest map is now playable over the Public Test Realm (PTR) for PC users.
The setting is described as "an amusement park celebrating the universes of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo," and will fill the role of a hybrid Assault/Escort map. If you haven't seen it already, check out the trailer for Blizzard World below:
Other changes in the latest PTR patch include a number of fixes regarding visual bugs for some of the Overwatch heroes' skins. Doomfist's Seismic Slam, for example, will no longer cause performance drops when used with no cooldown, and Moira's Biotic Orb shouldn't take the appearance of her Biotic Grasp's healing spray effects. Sound effects should now also play appropriately when navigating the Options menu with a controller, too, while Ana's ammo clips will now remained attached when wearing the Captain Amari skin.
As is usually the case with Blizzard's test servers, the PTR is only accessible for Windows PC users from eligible regions (specifically: anywhere but China). Progress on the PTR isn't kept between servers, either, meaning that players who obtain ranks or cosmetic rewards will not retain them when returning to live Overwatch.
To download the PTR, simply navigate to the Overwatch tab of the Battle.net desktop app, select "PTR: Overwatch" from the REGION/ACCOUNT drop-down menu, and select "Install."
For more information Blizzard's latest PTR patch, check out the full summary below, or read through the developer post on the official blog.
GENERAL
A.I.
- An option to "Remove All A.I." in the custom game lobby can be accessed by Right Click > Remove All Bots
BUG FIXES
General
- Fixed an issue that caused the arcade card for Limited Duel and Mystery Duel to not list all currently disabled characters
- Fixed an issue that prevented certain sound effects from playing when navigating the Options menu with a controller
Heroes
- Fixed a visual bug that caused Ana's Biotic Rifle ammo clip to detach when her Captain Amari skin was equipped
- Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist's Seismic Slam to create performance drops when repeatedly used with no cooldown
- Fixed a bug that prevented Mei's Cryo-freeze from clearing the healing debuff caused by Ana's Biotic Grenade
- Fixed a visual bug with Moira's Biotic Orb that sometimes caused Biotic Grasp's healing spray effects to display instead
- Fixed a bug that prevented Moira from being able to pass through enemies when using Fade
- Fixed a bug that caused Moira's eyelashes to detach from her face during her Heroic highlight intro
- Fixed a visual issue with Moira's Oasis skin that caused her knees to clip through her knee guards while crouched
- Fixed a bug that caused Reaper's shotguns to animate incorrectly when discarded on the ground
- Fixed an issue that prevented highlights captured by Zenyatta players from recording correctly when the Cultist skin was equipped
Maps
- Fixed a bug that caused a performance drop when players shot at the gold coin piles in the last Defender spawn of Junkertown
