'Overwatch' News: Blizzard tests major changes for Lucio; game director hints at development documentary in the works

Promotional image for Blizzard's fighting game "Overwatch." Facebook/overwatchSEA

The latest "Overwatch" patch has been added to the game's Public Test Realm, along with major improvements for the support hero Lucio.

According to reports, one of the notable changes for Lucio is his Crossfade ability. From 30 meters, the song's area-of-effect radius has been lowered to 10 meters. An in-game visual feature is made temporarily available to Lucio and his teammates to illustrate the radius. The healing-per-second of Heal Song, on the other hand, has been increased by 50 percent to compensate for the decreased radius. The tweak applies to both regular and Amp It Up circumstances.

Other improvements include a change to the Eichenwalde map, which now links the capture point to the attacking team's spawn location. A tracking system has been added to the Assault and Assault/Escort maps in Competitive Play. This feature lets the game effectively break ties by declaring the winner based on progress made toward reaching the goal.

To avoid ties in Competitive Play, the said system tracks each team's progress on the objective. It works similar to the existing system made for Escort and Assault/Escort maps, which favors the team that successfully "pushes the payload the furthest." More details about each fighter's backstory have also been added to the game.

In other news, Kaplan took part in a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) segment last week where he hinted that a development documentary about the game may be in the works. The big news came out when a fan suggested that it would be interesting to see a behind-the-scene look at how the development team creates the unique heroes.

Kaplan responded to the fan with a vague but very promising comment, saying: "We have something for you!"

The director did not give out further information about it for the rest of the AMA session, so fans will just have to wait for more updates in the near future.

Developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, "Overwatch" is can be played on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

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