Blizzard has updated the beta for Overwatch, its upcoming team-based shooter. Along with making a number of tweaks to the game's characters, the patch adds in a new gameplay mode called Weekly Brawl and a new map called Route 66.

　　As you can imagine, Weekly Brawl is inspired by Hearthstone's regular battle events and, according to Blizzard, is a "fun, alternative way to play Overwatch."

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　　"We'll rotate in a different Weekly Brawl featuring a set of unique (and sometimes crazy) rules from our Custom Game system," it explained. "For example: In one Weekly Brawl, you'll only be able to play Soldier: 76, while in another Weekly Brawl, a random hero will be selected for you each time you respawn. Other Weekly Brawls will restrict you to Support heroes only, or Tank heroes only, or Defense heroes only--and more!"

　　To test the gameplay mode ahead of the game's release, Weekly Brawls are currently set to rotate once per day rather than once per week.

　　Route 66, meanwhile, is an escort map that's described as a "testament to a simpler time."

　　The description continued: "Though the travelers and road trippers who used to cross the US on historic Route 66 are gone, the Main Street of America still stands, a testament to a simpler time.

　　"The gas stations, roadside shops, and cafes have gone into disuse, and the fabled Deadlock Gorge is mostly seen from the comfort of transcontinental train cars. But amid the fading monuments of that earlier era, the outlaws of the Deadlock Gang are planning their biggest heist yet."

　　For a closer look at the changes to characters and other tweaks to Overwatch, take a look at the full patch notes below.

　　New Escort Map: Route 66New Play Mode: Weekly Brawl!Highlights: To complement our Play of the Game feature, personal gameplay “highlights” may now be surfaced to players via the main menu after they’ve completed at least one match. The game can currently store up to five of the most recent highlights from your active gaming session. Please note that there is currently no way to export your highlights from the game client and that all highlights will be reset whenever you log out.Play of the Game: Overall, the Play of the Game feature has been a lot of fun and well-received by the community. However, there are still a lot of improvements we’d like to make so that the gameplay highlighted at the end of each match is more varied and interesting to watch. To that end, we will now be capturing different types of gameplay during a match—based on four new categories—and then comparing those moments against each other to find the best Play of the Game for that round of play. The new Play of the Game categories available in this patch are as follows: High Score: This category is intended to feature large multikills and quick killstreaks. The larger the multikill, the quicker the kill streak, and the closer one is to an objective will all increase a player’s “High Score” score. (Note: This is the category under which all existing Plays of the Game would fall.)Lifesaver: This category is intended to feature situations where one player is able to save another player (or players) from imminent death. For example: If a Reinhardt has an enemy pinned, and that enemy’s teammate stuns or kills the Reinhardt, the teammate would be awarded a large amount of “Lifesaver” score.Sharpshooter: This category is intended to feature difficult or skillful kills. For this category, the game will be looking at factors like movement speed, the distance at which the attack occurred, whether or not the attack was a headshot, and if the victim of the attack was in the air at the time, etc. Each of these variables will increase a player’s “Sharpshooter” score.Shutdown: This category is intended to feature moments in which one player kills another player (or players) right as they were about to do something particularly impactful. An example of this would be if a Widowmaker snipes a Lúcio in the middle casting Sound Barrier for his team. In this instance, the game will predict how impactful that Sound Barrier would have been and then award the Widowmaker player an appropriate “Shutdown” score in return.The player who has the highest score in any one of these four categories at the end of the match will receive the Play of the Game. If the winning Play of the Game category is Lifesaver, Sharpshooter, or Shutdown then the category name will be called out during the highlight intro. If the winning category is High Score, however, no callout will be provided.

GENERAL

Player Progression

Achievements have been added All available and unlocked achievements can be viewed in the Career Profile > Achievements tabSelect achievements will now unlock general and hero-specific sprays (which can be equipped in the Hero Gallery)Players will now unlock a new portrait frame every 10 levels, instead of only at levels 10, 25, 50, and 100Promotions have been added Players will now receive a promotion every 100 levelsWhen a player receives a promotion, they will unlock a new portrait frame themeWith each new promotion, the player’s level (and the EXP required to level) will be resetNew Legendary skins have been added for several heroes: "Antique" Bastion“Junker” D.Va“Stinger” D.Va“Jester” Junkrat"Hip Hopper" Lúcio"Riverboat" McCree"Vigilante" McCree“Nevermore” Reaper"Stunt Rider: 76" Soldier: 76"“Barbarossa” Torbjörn“Blackbeard” Torbjörn"Cybergoth" ZaryaPlays of the Games have received a polish pass (see above)

Joining and Leaving Games

Consecutive Match Bonus Players will now receive an EXP bonus for playing multiple matches in successionPlayer Backfill Match Bonus Players who backfill into a match will no longer receive a loss for that match (even if it ends in a defeat), but can still receive a winThese players will also receive an additional EXP bonus for the match, if completedLeaver Penalty Players who leave an in-progress match will now receive an automatic lossPlayers who repeatedly leave in-progress matches will also receive a temporary penalty on EXP gained from future matches (this penalty will persist as long as the player continues to repeatedly leave in-progress matches)Developer comments: The consecutive match bonus, along with the leaver penalty, should hopefully incentivize players to complete the matches they begin. Unfortunately, many players have been leaving in-game matches at the first sign of difficulty, even in games where their team could still win. As a result, the leaving player’s team would be at a large disadvantage until a backfill could be found. Speaking of backfills: We want the process of joining an in-progress match to be a positive experience, even if you happen to enter right as the game ends. To assist with this, players who backfill matches will still receive a notable amount of experience, regardless of how long they played.

　　

Group Improvements

Players can now request to “Join a Group”When a group leader leaves a game, he or she will now have the option to leave with the group intactExpanded preferences for groups have been added to the Options menu: Option to allow current group members to invite other players to the groupOption to allow “Anyone,” “Friends,” or “No One” to join your group without an invite

Miscellaneous

The new player experience has been updated

　　The Tutorial and Practice Range have received a polish pass

　　Dialogs will now guide new players through the Tutorial, Practice Range, and Practice vs AI modes before recommending Quick Play

　　Players can now browse the main menu while queued for Quick Play, Play vs AI, or Weekly Brawl! games“Healing Done” has replaced “Final Blows” as an available end-of-match medalEnd-of-match commendations have received another tuning passAI heroes will now melee and use Health Packs

Map Balance Changes

Nepal

New routes have been added for the first and second control pointsRemoved some walls around the second control point

Hero Balance Changes

General

The following hero abilities will now ignore payloads during Line of Sight checks:

　　Lúcio > Crossfade and Sound Barrier

　　Mei > Blizzard

　　Reinhardt > Earthshatter

　　Soldier: 76 > Biotic Field

　　Zenyatta > Transcendence

　　Developer comments: We’re relaxing the line of sight restrictions payloads can cause for certain abilities, where it makes sense. This change should hopefully make these abilities feel more consistent when playing on Escort maps.

　　

Zenyatta

Orb of Harmony and Orb of Discord Now automatically return if their targets are out of line of sight for more than 3 secondsDeveloper comments: We realize this is a pretty major change, but it’s one we’d like to test and see how it plays out. The “fire and forget” playstyle that many Zenyatta players utilize for orb placement not only has caused several balance issues, but also made the hero a lot less interesting to play. With this change, instead of putting Orb of Harmony on a single person and leaving it on them until they die, Zenyatta players will now need to move the orb around more frequently to effectively heal their team. This change also allows for enemies to be able to shake off an Orb of Discord if they disengage for some time.

　　

User Interface

Options Menu

Gameplay Players can now choose to skip “Skirmish Mode” while in queueControl Players can now save/set hero-specific keybindingsSound Support for Dolby ATMOS Headphones has been added For optimal performance, use regular headphones and change the default playback device to stereo. For USB headphones that emulate 5.1 or 7.1, you may need to turn off any surround emulation in the headphones drivers.Any recording or streaming done with ATMOS Headphones setting enabled will contain the same ATMOS encoded mix. The viewing audience should also be using headphones for optimal viewing.Switching the ATMOS mode while music is playing will kill the music that is playing until new music is retriggered. This is a known issue and we are investigating a fix.

In-Game UI

The payload progress bar now shows checkpoints as well as the distance to upcoming checkpoints (if < 5m)Capture point UI art has been updated

Social Menu

All social menu screens have been updated with new artA “Recent Players” list is now availableThe ability to “Rate Players” has been moved to the social menu (from the end-of-match screen) This means that players can rate their teammates at any time via the social menu, rather just at the end of a matchNote: “Rate this Match” can still only be accessed via the end-of-match screenPlayers can now report other players through the social menu

Bug Fixes

General

Keybindings should now always save and carry over between sessions correctlyPlayers with full health, but less than full shields will now appear to have “taken damage” to healers (when looking at their hero outlines)It is no longer possible for some AoE weapons to deal damage to an enemy player if that player is on the other side of wall they’re partially clipping into

Heroes

Ultimate charge should no longer reset whenever a player selects a different hero and then cancels while deadLúcio’s Crossfade buff should now properly reapply to all allies after a round transition on Control mapsMei’s Cryostasis and Ice Wall should now always display the appropriate team colorsSymmetra’s Sentry Turrets should no longer acquire targets from inside Mei’s Ice WallScoped shots against enemy turrets should no longer count as “misses” when calculating Widowmaker’s “Scoped Accuracy” statisticFixed several issues where the slow effect applied by Mei’s Endothermic Blast and Blizzard were being resetFixed an issue where Reinhardt’s Charge would sometimes knock back a target that should have been pinnedFixed an issue where Symmetra Sentry Turrets couldn’t be placed in select (but otherwise intended) areasFixed an issue where some damage sources prevented by Zarya’s Particle Barrier weren’t increasing her Ultimate charge

User Interface

Left Mouse Button and Right Mouse Button icons should now render in the F1 help menusUI notifications for objectives should no longer persist on screenThe current open beta for Overwatch is scheduled to run from May 5-9. It is available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The full game will launch on May 24.