The Overwatch closed beta began a few weeks ago, but if you remember Blizzard announced even then that there would be opportunities for large numbers of players to try the game from time to time.
The first one will take place tomorrow, with the Overwatch beta test weekend scheduled from November 20 9AM PST to November 23 9AM PST. While it will still be an invitation-only test, the publisher said that it would open the gates to "a lot more players in North America and Europe".
According to Blizzard, your Battle.net accounts should be flagged for participation in this Overwatch beta test weekend during today's scheduled maintenance. As soon as the maintenance is done, you'll be able to download the game (provided that you've been chosen, of course) and therefore be ready for tomorrow.
As for the content available in this beta test, players will able to pick any of the 21 characters. There will only be three maps, though: Hanamura, King's Row and Watchpoint: Gibraltar.
If you're not selected this time, the next Overwatch beta test weekend will take place next year. The publisher also shared minimum and recommend settings:
Minimum (targeting 30fps):
- Operating system: Windows® Vista/7/ 8/10 64-bit (latest Service Pack)
- Processor: Intel® Core™ i3 or AMD Phenom™ X3 865
- Video: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460, ATI Radeon™ HD 4850, or Intel® HD Graphics 4400
- Memory: 768 MB VRAM, 4 GB System RAM
- Storage: 7200 RPM with 5 GB available HD space
Recommended (targeting 60fps on Medium settings):
- Operating system: Windows® Vista/7/ 8/10 64-bit (latest Service Pack)
- Processor: Intel® Core™ i5 or AMD Phenom™ II X3, 2.8 GHz
- Video: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660 or ATI Radeon™ HD 7950
- Memory: 2 GB VRAM, 6 GB System RAM
- Storage: 7200 RPM with 5 GB available HD space
Overwatch will be available in Spring 2016 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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