Torbjorn’s annoying auto-targeting turret is getting a damage nerf just for the Overwatch console players.
Jeff Kaplan, game director of Blizzard’s Overwatch, recently made a new announcement on Reddit meant for the console players of the first-person team shooter.
The Overwatch team has decided to lower the damage on Torbjorn’s turrets, only in the case of the console version of Overwatch.
PC gamers can still avidly complain about the unfair disadvantage of being auto-targeted by a turret (which takes little to no skill to just set on top of the payload). For consoles, however, being auto-targeted is seen as a much bigger deal. Even professional tournament controllers with perfectly tuned sensitivity and recoil cannot compare to the precision granted by a PC mouse.
Overwatch is not the first console game that seems to be treated as an entirely different entity versus its PC counterpart, however. Diablo III Ultimate Evil also has significant gameplay differences, to the point where many agree that it feels like a different game with the same end-goal.
This turret damage nerf, as well as all future console-only or PC-only changes, will be reinforcing the fact that Blizzard currently believes that consoles, or better said console shooters, are not e-sports ready.
PC and console gamers are not able to queue together because it is evident that even in optimal console setting, the PC platform does offer several default advantages in a first-person shooter.
Does this make Overwatch for consoles a bad game? No, it does not. It is still a very fun game which can also be played by competitive people. For PC gamers, Overwatch is a competitive game which can also prove to be very fun.
The McCree and Widowmaker changes will be coming to console soon as well. The later scheduling of the changes is only proving that Jeff Kaplan and his team value and respect their console player-base just as much as the PC player-base but that balance changes on console need to be more “aired out”.
The console medium is less competitive, so there is more room for fun, instead of just perfect meta-balance.
Also in regards to the meta, once the first big Overwatch e-sports events start coming, Torbjorn players can expect either effective counterplay from pro players who figured out how to effectively kill turrets or long term minor tweaking.
Image Courtesy of Blizzard.
