Overwatch update reduces 'Play of the Game' awards to Mercy

Overwatch patched the game with gameplay tweaks and bug fixes. The patches are live on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC.

The most significant change is the reduction in the number of times Mercy gets ‘Play of the Game’ features. Mercy is one of the most, if not the most powerful support characters in the game. Mercy plays the role of a healer, and her resurrect ability can revive dead allies around her.

This ability used to constantly score high points and regularly feature in the ‘Play of the Game’ animations at the end of a game or match, which highlights the most dramatic moments in the match. With this ability showing up so disproportionately, gamers started complaining. Overwatch has now reduced the featuring of just the Resurrect ability in Play of the Game.

Another big change is the speed of the payload in the Eichenwalde map. This is an escort mission, where one team has to transport a battering ram to the gates of a castle in the middle of the Black Forest, while another team stops them. The speed at which the battering ram moves has been increased in this map.

There are a number of user interface tweaks as well, for competitive games. A new Competitive Tier icon has been added to the Competitive Play information screen. For competitive matches, a Match Complete flash screen has replaced a Round Complete Flash screen.

There are a number of bug fixes as well. The triple kill animation would not play at times after a kill streak of three or more enemies. This issue has now been fixed. A small number of players had obtained a higher skill rating than their actual rating because of a bug. The bug has been fixed to accurately represent the skill rating, and the rating for the affected players has been adjusted.

Hanzo’s Bow would show a wrong arrow at times, or disappear at times. The right arrow would still fire and animate properly. The ghost arrow has been removed. JunkRat is now being awarded the appropriate amount of credits for kills and achievements, the awards used to be buggy. Finally, the Offense Hero Reaper, no longer Shadow Steps into unintended locations on the Hollywood Map.

Some of the fixes from the previous patch made it to this update for the PlayStation 4.