The second closed beta of Overwatch 2 started today, and marked the arrival of Junker Queen in the game. Besides, the crossplay feature is live, as well as a series of new features. Here are the full review notes.

Overwatch 2 Beta Patch Notes Today, June 28, 2022

Console and Cross-Play test

Overwatch 2 Beta will be a cross platform and available to players on Windows® PC and Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One, PlayStation®5, and PlayStation®4 consoles.

DUALSHOCKERS VIDEO DAY

Our main goal for Overwatch 2 Beta is to test our console and the ability to play the opposite. Players from different stadiums can play and face each other. This gives the team a chance to test our game pressure and see what players from different stadiums think about Overwatch 2!

Since Competitive Play is not currently available in OW2 beta, we have made temporary changes to our fast play line, offering both Role Role and Open Line as options. Quick Play Games will also apply competing rules to each game’s game mode. On Hybrid and Payload maps, both teams play Offense AND Defense in the same way as competitive play, where the winner is determined by which team performs better than the offense. All other aspects of Quick Play have not changed. This includes features such as matching, leaf handling, and allowing players to complete ongoing games.

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

Pinging While Dead

• For the first 3 seconds of a hero’s death, the dead hero can ping the enemy that killed them
  • This prevents spamming the ping on enemies to keep their position updated since your body doesn’t provide line of sight
  • Allies are not provided line of sight from where you die, meaning you’ll only be able to place Last Seen pings if none of your allies also see them
  • Many pings are not intended to work while dead, instead printing your remaining respawn time in the team chat
  • Aiming at the enemy is not required since players are unable to aim in this 3-second window
  • There is more stringent spam protection on these pings than on regular enemy pings

SCOREBOARD

Overall Updates

The game scoreboard has been updated in multiple ways based on all the amazing feedback we’ve received since the first beta.

• Completed reorganized layout, bringing the most important information together for an easier viewing experience
• Improved ultimate progress indicators that now show numeric values
• Increased transparency to allow you to see more of the game action while viewing the scoreboard

We look forward to more of your feedback on this feature, as we’re still looking to update and polish the scoreboard.Statistics Updates

A large reorganization is in progress for the statistics displayed on the scoreboard, as well as the statistics for each hero. The scoreboard now displays Eliminations, Assists, Deaths, Hero Damage dealt, Healing Done, and Damage Mitigated. Here are the new statistics:

SOUND

Home Theater Surround Sound Updates

• All ambience soundscapes are now mixed for surround sound

3D Audio Updates

• Xbox – Overwatch now supports Dolby Atmos for home theater and 3d audio over headphones
• PS5 – Overwatch now supports Sony 3d audio through headphones and TV

MAPS

Control

• Ilios
  • Evening Lighting
• Lijiang Tower
  • Dawn Lighting
• Oasis
  • Night Lighting
• Nepal
  • Morning Lighting
• Busan
  • (NEW) Night Lighting

Escort

• Circuit Royal
  • Night Lighting
• Dorado
  • Evening Lighting
• Route 66
  • Night Lighting
• Gibraltar
  • (NEW) Morning Lighting
• Junkertown
  • Morning Lighting

Hybrid

• Midtown
  • Morning Lighting
• King’s Row
  • Evening Lighting
• Eichenwalde
  • Evening Lighting
• Hollywood
  • Morning Lighting
• (NEW) Paraíso
  • In the heart of Rio lies our new Hybrid map, Paraíso! Take a bumping carnival float through the city streets, making your way from the sunny beach to Lúcio’s own Clube Sinestesia