Blizzard is making a big change to Overwatch matchmaking, aimed at helping team balance and composition. The new “Role Queue” system will have you pick your favored team roles before even heading into a game, and then pick a character from within those roles. It’s now available in the public test realm (PTR) server on PC, and will roll out as a beta from August 13-September 1.

With Role Queue, you’ll pick from tank, support, or damage classes first in Competitive and Quick Play modes. Then the matchmaking system will find two tanks, two supports, and two damage players, and match them together to make a team. From there you’ll pick which specific character you want to use within your designated class preference. Once a match ends, you return to the main menu and select your role again.

“Currently in Quick Play and Competitive Play, a lot of important decision-making happens in the 40 seconds before a match even begins, as everyone selects their heroes and responds to others’ role choices,” Blizzard explained. “It’s not uncommon for players–who may all have different goals and play styles–to feel tension, pressure, disappointment, or even hostility as a team composition comes together. The Role Queue system is designed to help take the edge off this process, ultimately leading to matches that feel fairer and more fun, where players are in roles that they want to be in.”

Since the roles are being split into three avenues, each role will have its own queue and you can see the estimated wait time for each role. Queuing up for a role that’s currently in high demand may grant rewards, but what these rewards are hasn’t been confirmed. Blizzard notes that behind the scenes, the Role Queue will allow it to rate players’ proficiency on each role individually, which will ensure better matches of similar skill levels.

You’ll also get a your own separate Skill Rating (SR) for each role in Competitive Play, from 1-5000. These numbers correspond with tier ratings: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, and Grandmaster. Completing a season will also give you a reward of Competitive Points (CP) as always, but the CP totals have been changed. It’s now less per tier for each individual role, but more total if you play all three roles. There will also be four separate Top 500 Leaderboards–one for each role, and one combined average.

You’ll have to complete five placement matches at the start of each competitive season to get your SR for each role–or 15 total, if you want a SR for all three. Completing your placement matches will get you a special spray and player icon per season.

Finally, Blizzard notes that the Role Queue system was paired with a balance pass on existing heroes. So far the only disclosed change is coming to Brigitte, who is being updated to make her a better healer but decreasing her overall survivability. Blizzard says Brigitte was most effective as a third Healer or Tank, so these changes are intended to make her a better Support character.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/overwatch-makes-big-matchmaking-changes-with-role-/1100-6468478/

This month has certainly been a busy one for Pokemon Go. Armored Mewtwo recently made its debut in Raid Battles, and a special One Piece crossover event is set to kick off next week. Before that, however, Niantic is hosting another Community Day. This month’s event takes place this Sunday, July 21, giving players around the world another chance to capture some rare Pokemon and take advantage of extra in-game bonuses.

Most Pokemon Go Community Days typically only run for three hours, but the specifics of each event–such as what time it begins and what its featured Pokemon will be–tend to vary month by month. To help you prepare for this month’s event, we’ve rounded up all of the most important details about July’s Pokemon Go Community Day below, from its start times to the special event move this month’s featured Pokemon will be able to learn.

What Is July’s Featured Pokemon?

Ahead of each Community Day, Niantic designates one featured Pokemon, which will spawn much more frequently than normal during the event hours. This month, the featured Pokemon will be Mudkip, the Water-type starter from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. Throughout July’s Community Day, Mudkip will appear in the wild more often than usual, making this a good opportunity to stock up on Mudkip Candy. On top of that, you’ll have your first chance to come across a Shiny Mudkip during the event.

What Is July’s Community Day Move?

In addition to spawning more frequently than normal, each featured Pokemon is also capable of learning a special event-exclusive move during its Community Day. To obtain this move, however, you’ll need to evolve the Pokemon into its final form by the end of the event. That holds true for this month. Any Mudkip you evolve all the way into Swampert will learn the powerful Water attack Hydro Cannon, even if you originally captured it before the Community Day began. However, the Pokemon will only learn the move if you can evolve it up to an hour after July’s Community Day ends, giving you a fairly brief window of time to obtain it.

What Time Does July’s Community Day Start?

During the first year of their run, each Community Day would take place during a specific window of time, which would vary depending upon what region you lived in. Beginning this past March, however, Niantic changed the Community Day schedule so that the event runs from 3-6 PM local time, no matter where you live. To make the event a bit more enjoyable during the grueling summer months, Niantic has pushed July’s event times back slightly to 4-7 PM local time, when the weather is a little cooler. Niantic says the schedule will return to normal once summer is over.

What Other Bonuses Are There?

On top of increased Pokemon spawns, Niantic offers a few other bonuses during each Community Day as an extra incentive to participate in the event. This month, you’ll earn triple the normal amount of XP for capturing Pokemon during the Community Day. Additionally, any Lure Modules you use will last three hours, rather than their usual 30 minutes.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/pokemon-go-july-2019-community-day-start-times-shi/1100-6468479/

It’s been a wild month for deals, from E3 deals to Steam Summer Sale and Amazon Prime Day. While many retailers launched their own sales to compete with Prime Day this week, digital game store Green Man Gaming has taken a refreshingly different approach, politely launching its own sale the day after Amazon’s blowout sale ended. If you’re a PC gamer, consider this Steam Summer Sale round two, as there are huge savings to be had between now and August 7, when the sale ends.

If you’re a longtime Green Man Gaming customer, you’ll notice this sale works a bit differently than their usual sales. All the discounted games have a tag–either Gold, Silver, or Bronze–which indicate the type of rewards you’ll get with your purchase. All the tagged games come with a 100% off voucher for a free game, but the offering of games to choose from varies by each tag level. For Gold and Silver-tagged games, the free rewards also include an Intel Starter Pack code that lets you select four free games out of 10 total, such as Star Trek Bridge Crew, Raw Data, Gas Guzzlers Extreme, and in-game content for Dreadnought.

Here’s a full breakdown of what each tag level will get you and an overview of some of the best deals available per category.

Gold

Resident Evil 2 – on sale for $39.59 / £29.69

Rewards

• 100% off voucher to use on Gold selection of games
• Intel Starter Pack bundle with four free games
• 15% off voucher for your next Sale purchase

Best deals

• Frostpunk — $15 / £12.50
• Resident Evil 2 — $39.59 / £29.69
• Resident Evil 7 — $20.09 / £13.39
• Devil May Cry 5 — $39.59 / £29.69
• Monster Hunter World — $30 / £25
• Warhammer Vermintide 2 — $10.20 / £8.09
• Dark Souls Remastered — $24 / £21
• SoulCalibur VI — $20.40 / £17
• Dead Cells — $16.74 / £14.73
• Just Cause 4 — $24 / £18
• Life is Strange 2: Complete Season — $30 / £24.74
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider — 24 / £18
• Civilization VI — $15 / £12.50
• Grand Theft Auto V — $15 / £12.50
• Overcooked 2 — $17.49 / £14
• Supraland — $13.39 / £10.38
• PC Building Simulator — $14 / £10.49
• Arizona Sunshine — $14.80 / £11.10
• A Hat in Time — $15 / £11.50

Silver

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection – on sale for $6 / £5

Rewards

• 100% off voucher to use on Silver selection of games
• Intel Starter Pack bundle with four free games
• 10% off voucher for your next Sale purchase

Best deals

• Human Fall Flat — $7.50 / £6
• Cities Skylines — $7.50 / £5.75
• Stellaris — $10 / £8.75
• Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20-Year Celebration — $12 / £8
• Borderlands: The Handsome Collection — $6 / £5
• Kerbal Space Program — $10 / £7.50
• Moonlighter — $10 / £7.75
• Surviving Mars — $10.20 / £9.18
• Strange Brigade — $15 / £12
• Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen — $9.90 / £7.92
• 7 Days to Die — $8.50 / £6.46
• Tabletop Simulator — $10 / £7.50
• L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition — $9 / £7.50
• Dungeons 3 — $10 / £7.50
• Resident Evil 6 — $7.50 / £5
• Holdfast: Nations at War — $10 / £7.50

Bronze

This War of Mine – on sale for $6

Rewards

• 100% off voucher to use on Bronze selection of games
• 7% off voucher for your next Sale purchase

Best deals

• Everspace — $6 / £4.60
• This War of Mine — $6 / £4.50
• Limbo — $2 / £1.40
• Fear Effect Sedna: Collector’s Edition — $2.50 / £2
• Project Highrise — $5 / £3.75
• Flashback — $5 / £4.50
• Just Cause 3: XXL Edition — $6 / £4.40
• Life Is Strange: Before the Storm Complete Season — $5.10 / £6
• Project Nimbus — $15 / £11.62
• The Watchmaker — $3 / £2.28
• Life is Feudal: Forest Village — $6.25 / £4.75
• Symmetry — $3 / £2.25
• Aegis Defenders — $8 / £6
• Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story — $1.50 / £1.50
• Little Nightmares: Secrets of the Maw Expansion Pass — $5 / £4
• Imperium Galactica 2 — $2.50 / £2.25
• Husk — $4 / £3.20

See all deals at Green Man Gaming

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/huge-sale-on-2000-pc-games-kicks-off-at-green-man-/1100-6468487/

EA has revealed Plants Vs. Zombies 3, the third mainline entry in its garden-based tower defense series. What’s more, there’s a free-to-play pre-alpha version playable right now.

“At PopCap, we’ve been working on PvZ for years and want to bring our beloved plants and zombies to current players and the next generation of players everywhere,” the developer said. “We’re hard at work testing out a lot of fun things that we want your feedback on, and hope you will come on this journey with us!”

Details on the game’s new features are scant at present. The most noticeable change, judging by the screenshots you can see above, is that the series appears to have switched from a landscape orientation to portrait. Otherwise, things look largely familiar, with old friendly plant faces getting in on the action.

The pre-alpha is a limited release–meaning not everyone who downloads will actually get to play–on Android only. If you can’t get access, PopCap says to try again another day as it will be opening up the pre-alpha in phases. At present, it appears the game’s Google Play listing is only accessible in the US.

A final release date, meanwhile, has not yet been announced; PopCap says it wants “to make sure we have everything ready and in tip-top shape for you to enjoy, so we’ll let you know when we have a worldwide release date.”

EA had previously listed a new Plants Vs. Zombies game for release in the final quarter of 2019. However, that game was listed as a shooter, so it’s unclear if PvZ 3 is that same game launching this year given this appears to be a tower defense game.

The original Plants Vs. Zombies launched on PC in 2009, before later coming to mobile, Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo DS, and PS Vita. The game’s success attracted EA, which acquired developer PopCap in 2011. A number of sequels and spin-offs have since launched, including Plants Vs Zombies 2 and the Garden Warfare series.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/plants-vs-zombies-3-announced-early-version-playab/1100-6468505/