Overwatch update: Endorsements, team building, and much more

Blizzard has pushed out an update for Overwatch, one largely centered around two social features: "Looking for Group" and Endorsements. The first helps players craft the team they want by looking for players who meet certain parameters. The second is a way for players to acknowledge positive aspects of other players' behavior, such as being a good teammate. The update brings a bunch of smaller changes, as well as hero updates, map changes, and more.

The two aforementioned additions are the big highlights for this update. Endorsements in particular is an interesting addition, as it helps spread positivity around and may help encourage players to do their best in all aspects of the game, even if it's something simple like calling out shots or showing good sportsmanship.

Endorsements show up in the player's Career Profile, as well as the Group menu and in other unspecified game areas. This helps players see who they're playing with and what aspects of their gameplay other players found commendable. That's a good thing, as it leads us into the second big feature: "Looking for Group."

With this, Overwatch players can decide on specific parameters they want for teammates, using that to join other players who are of similar inclinations. Users get various options, such as choosing based on role enforcements, the game mode, and similar things. Blizzard will enforce these parameters by limiting the player to the specifications they chose (eg, being restricted to the heroes within the role they're playing).

Those two things aside, the update brings some Career Profile changes, including the addition of "Inspire Uptime Percentage" statistics for Brigitte. The character Symmetra has some statistics removed from Career Profile, there's a new "Scoped Critical Hit Accuracy" statistic for Widowmaker's Career Profile, and all profiles will no longer be public by default; only friends will be able to see them unless the player manually selects otherwise.

As well, the update brings smaller changes — you can now hear combat noises 25-percent farther away, you need SMS protect turned on to get into the Top 500 list, Offense and Defense heroes have been merged under the singular "Damage" category, and more. Find all the details in the update patch notes via the link below!

SOURCE: Overwatch