The epic game convention, BlizzCon 2016, held by Blizzard Entertainment happened this year last November 4 and November 5 in Anaheim, California. Here's your complete low down on video game announcements, world championships and other happenings in this year's BlizzCon.
"Overwatch" Officially Unveils Sombra, Introduces New Maps And An Arcade Mode
Blizzard Entertainment official adds Sombra to its roster of characters in "Overwatch". The Mexican spy Sombra's origin involves becoming an orphan due to the Omni Crisis and becoming a genetically enhanced hacker. Sombra's abilities include disrupting enemies, teleportation, can turn invisible momentarily and gets to see low-health enemies through wall barriers. Alternate skins for Sombra can also be unlocked.
Sombra is an offensive character that will be available to play this week in the Public Test Realm. You can also test out the new maps and the new Arcade mode. In the Arcade mode in "Overwatch", players can pick either from one-on-one or three-on-three modes. The arcade mode for "Overwatch" also allows players to get up to three loot boxes.
Blizzard Entertainment also announces the "Overwatch League", an organized e-sports that will tap on city-based teams. Blizzard Entertainment plans to follow traditional organized sports where the athletes get fixed salaries and benefits. An estimated seven-figure pot money will be the top prize on this new e-sport.
In "Diablo 3", you can now play the original "Diablo" game and introduces the return of the Necromancer class.
In the upcoming free update for "Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls", players can now play "The Darkness of Tristam" that will able the players to play the original "Diablo". The Necromancer class will also return to "Diablo 3" through an expansion of "Diablo 3* Reaper of Souls" as part of the character pack.
Hearthstone gets a Mean Streets of Gadgetzan expansion
The "Mean Streets of Gadgetzan" is based on the "World Of Warcraft" city of Gadgetzan. New cards representing the crime families in Gadgetzan will be available early December. The tri-class cards are also introduced for the Kabal.
"Heroes Of The Storm" gets two new playable characters and "Overwatch" skin
"Heroes Of The Storm" will get two new playable characters from "World Of Warcraft". Varian Wrynn and Ragnoras will be available on the Public Test Realm this week and on early December respectively.
Players can also unlock an "Overwatch" skin after playing fifteen games of "Heroes Of The Storm". The Oni Genji skin will transform your character into a demon masked-ninja.
"Starcraft 2" gets a New Co-op Commander and Missions; Open's "Starcraft 2" to Google AI
The third and final Nova mission will feature a new co-op commander and new missions. The new co-op commander will be Alexei Stukov. The new co-op commander and new missions are available to play this coming November 22.
Blizzard Entertainment is teaming up with Google's DeepMInd. DeepMind is the project where artificial intelligence will learn to play the game to its expert level. Google's AI was successful in playing the game of Go. Blizzard Entertainment plans to open "Starcraft 2" to Google's AI to test its capabilities with a real-time strategy game.
"World Of Warcraft* Legion" gets two new patches
"World Of Warcraft" unveils patches 7.1.5 and 7.2. In patch 7.1.5, the dungeons from "Mists of Pandaria" will become part of the time walking features of the game. It will also introduce "micro-holidays" that will enliven the gaming experience in "World Of Warcraft". The "World Of Warcraft" patch 7.1.5 will also tackle class balance. This is to mix the player's talents and to improve the class ability rotation.
"World Of Warcraft" patch 7.2, named "Tomb of Sargeras", will take the players back to the start of the "Legion" expansion. Player's reputation will be based on the faction and building chosen. In patch 7.2, players can also unlock the flying ability, get mounts unique to each class.
New world champions are crowned!
Blizzard Entertainment's e-sports programs crowned new champions. A total of $2,750,000 was up for grabs.
Player ByuN becomes the champion for "Starcraft 2" World Championship Series. "Hearthstone" World Championship crowns player Pavel from Russia. Korean team Ballistix Gaming won the "Heroes Of Storm" Fall Championship. Another team for Korea also won the "Overwatch Cup" and Splyce is the back-to-back champions for "World Of Warcraft" Arena World Championship.
