Overwatch 2 – Second Closed PvP Beta is Live on PC and Consoles With Crossplay

The second closed beta test for Overwatch 2’s PvP is now live for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and PC. If you weren’t selected for the beta, then the Watchpoint Pack can be purchased for access. Blizzard has released patch notes for the same, indicating what’s new and what’s changed.

The newest addition is the Junker Queen, an aggressive Tank wielding an axe. She can attack from mid-range with a shotgun, throw a knife and recall, and inflict Wounds on enemies which deal damage over time. Damage over time from Wounds regenerates health but she can also use Commanding Shout for a temporary HP boost (along with increasing her allies’ movement speed).

As for other changes, Paraiso in Rio is a new Hybrid map set in Lucio’s home town. Cross-platform multiplayer is also live, allowing console and PC players to match together. It’s worth noting that since there’s no Competitive Play, Hybrid and Payload maps in Quick Play – regardless of which Queue – will use Competitive rules. All other aspects remain unchanged.

Check out some of the patch notes below and full notes here. The Overwatch 2 PvP beta is live until July 18th.

Overwatch 2 Beta Patch Notes – June 28, 2022

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Console and Cross-Play Testing

• The Overwatch 2 Beta will be cross platform and available to players on Windows PC and Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4 consoles. Our primary goal for the Overwatch 2 Beta is to test our console and cross-play capabilities. Players from different platforms can play with and against each other. This gives the team the opportunity to stress-test our game and see what players from different platforms think about Overwatch 2!

Temporary Change to Quick Play

• With Competitive Play currently unavailable in the OW2 beta, we’ve made a temporary modification to our Quick Play queue, providing both Role Queue and Open Queue as options. Quick Play games will also use competitive rulesets for each map’s game mode.
• For Hybrid and Payload maps, both teams play Offense AND Defense in the same manner as competitive play, with the winner determined by which team performs better on offense. All other features of Quick Play are unchanged. This includes elements such as matchmaking, handling of leaves, and allowing players to backfill into games in progress.

NEW HERO

Junker Queen

Scatter Gun (Primary Fire)

• Pump Action Shotgun

Jagged Blade (Secondary Fire)

• Active: Throw the blade and re-activate to pull it back, along with any impaled enemy
• Passive: Wound enemies with Quick Melee or Throw, dealing damage over time

Commanding Shout (Ability 1)

• Temporarily increase health and movement speed for yourself and nearby allies

Carnage (Ability 2)

• Wound all enemies in front of you, dealing damage over time

Adrenaline Rush (Passive)

• Heal from all damage over time dealt by wounds

Rampage (Ultimate)

• Charge forward and wound enemies; dealing damage over time and preventing them from being healed

NEW FEATURES

New Hero Looks

• All heroes have new Overwatch 2 exclusive looks. Select “Classic II” from the Skin select screen in the Hero Gallery to check them out.

Dynamic Rendering Scale

Added “Dynamic Render Scale” to PC to improve performance when GPU limited.

• If Dynamic Render Scale is enabled, “Render Scale” can be set to “Custom” and supersedes the previous “Limit FPS” option, allowing for the ability to specify a minimum and maximum resolution scale.
• Minimum resolution can be lowered to improve performance
• Maximum resolution can be increased to improve visual fidelity

UPDATED FEATURES

Push

• Total game time extended from 8 minutes to 10 minutes

PING SYSTEM

New Hero Pings

• Symmetra can now ping her teleporters for her allies
• Ana now has unique ping VO and visuals when pinging sleeping enemies
• Junkrat can now ping the location of enemies in his traps through walls
• This places a unique type of unmoving Last Seen ping

Ping Visual Updates

• Ping icon visuals updated but are still a work in progress – pending final art
  Low and Critical health indicators added to enemy ping icons
• These indicators appear when you can see an enemy’s health and subsequently ping them. The following abilities/events can cause you to see an enemy’s health:
• Sombra’s Opportunist
• Sombra’s Hack
• Mercy’s Valkyrie
• Widowmaker’s Infra-Sight
• Confirm and Cancel visuals added
• Canceling a ping removes it from the world
• Confirming a ping informs your allies that you see their communication with contextual responses
• Last Seen pings now have unique visuals
• Last Seen pings are unmoving pings and are only placed when you lose line of sight of an enemy that was previously pinged
• Offscreen pings now animate to draw attention

Ping Wheel Updates

• Opening the ping wheel now also automatically fires a contextual ping
• This will help with pinging enemies when you accidentally open the wheel
• The ping wheel now remembers the location your crosshair was aimed when the wheel opened (instead of when you make a selection on the wheel)
• World pings will now be placed at that location
• The ping wheel now has a bespoke dead zone, smaller than all other wheels (Comms, Emote, Voice Line, Response)
• The ping wheel now has a back button
• All wheels have the back functionality for controller

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