Blizzard Testing A Server Browser For Overwatch

There’s a new update in testing in Overwatch’s Public Test Region, or PTR for short, and it brings and heralds some rather interesting changes to the game. Capture the Flag, which is currently featured in the Year of the Rooster event, is set to become a permanent Brawl mode in the game, but the PTR now puts a server browser into testing.

Of course, standard matchmaking will still be the main way you get into a game for Quick Play and Ranked matched, but here’s Game Director Jeff Kaplan explaining what the server browser adds.

So what this really means is that you’ll be able to find all manner of custom games online. Custom game set up is being boosted with more flexibility as well, so that you could, taking Capture the Flag as an example, toggle whether or not heroes can use abilities, if using a mobility ability causes you to drop the flag, if you can capture while your flag is out of base or not, and plenty more.

This kind of customisation applies to all game modes, altering heroes and abilities, and simply giving you near limitless ability to tweak the game. It’s actually impressive how much Blizzard are going to be putting into player’s hands in custom games, and they’re planning to add even more.

For the regular modes, there’s tons of other smaller fixes and tweaks to balancing that you can read about here. As always, the way that Sony and Microsoft control updates mean that the PTR is only available on PC, but once Blizzard feel all the kinks have been worked out, they’ll be rolling these changes out across all three platforms.