'Battleborn,' 'Doom' And 'Overwatch' Betas Available This Weekend

If you’re looking for something fun to do this weekend, you might want to try one (or all three) beta events for Battleborn, Doom and Overwatch. These three games are coming out next month, and the developers are attempting to attract more players into playing their respective titles.

Battleborn

If you’re playing Gearbox Software’s latest game on the PlayStation 4, the beta has been available since last week, but for Xbox One and PC players, the session started two days ago. However, this weekend will give players plenty of free time to explore the game.

In addition to two story mode episodes, both of which allow co-op gameplay with up to five players, you can also take part in competitive multiplayer. Specifically, you can play two competitive modes: Incursion and Meltdown. In Incursion, your team must take out the enemy’s two Spider Sentry Drones before the opponents take out your own drones. For Meltdown, both teams must take out waves of minions to score points, and the team with the most points wins the game.

You’ll have access to all 25 heroes in the game, and the beta will be available throughout the weekend. However, it all ends on Monday, April 18 at 7am PDT.

Doom

If you want to shoot some demons, you could try the new Doom. The beta started this morning, and you’ll be able to try out the Team Deathmatch and Warpath modes on the Heatwave and Infernal maps. You’ll have seven weapons at your disposal, as well as the ability to play as a demon. Fans will also get to see new hack modules, taunts and armor sets. The beta ends this Sunday, April 17 at 11:59pm EDT.

Overwatch

Unlike Doomor Battleborn, Overwatch’s weekend beta is invite-only. This is the second and final session of the game’s Beta Test Weekend. Blizzard began selecting a few players for the beta yesterday. Participants can pick their favorite characters from the full 21-hero roster and play on three maps: Hanamura, Nepal and Route 66.

Similar to the previous Beta Test Weekend, the purpose of the session is to “push our hardware to the limit.” The developers are looking for technical feedback on issues such as bugs and overall experience with the game’s servers. Of the three betas, Overwatch will have the shortest play time at 36 hours. The beta started this morning at 9am PDT and ends tomorrow, April 16, at 9pm PDT.

If you weren’t invited to the Beta Test Weekend, you can always participate in the open beta, which starts on May 5 and goes through May 9.

Coming Soon

Even if you don’t have a chance to join in on the fun this weekend, you won’t have to wait long for the final versions of all three titles. Battleborn will come out first on May 3. Ten days after that, Doom will be available in stores. Overwatch will round out the trio when it arrives on May 24.

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  • CRITICALThinker
    Must all of the betas happen during finals?, now I have to ignore them... Thanks developers
    Reply
  • jasonelmore
    If Blizzard was really wanting to "push their hardware to the limit" they would have done a open Beta for this weekend, instead of a stupid invite system that gives invites to the same group of people on every single Blizzard game. (mostly streamers, and youtubers)
    Reply
  • Catacomber
    Open Beta May 5th, so i don't the point in the complaint since there will be one.
    Reply
  • dstarr3
    I really hope the rubbish multiplayer in Doom is indicative of them having spent much more time and energy into making the single-player campaign great. But, only time will tell.
    Reply
  • falcompsx
    Open Beta May 5th, so i don't the point in the complaint since there will be one.
    if you preorder, sure. Blizzard's definition of 'open' isn't the same as the rest of the world.
    Reply
  • therealduckofdeath
    I've not played arena type games since forever, but, I really enjoyed the Doom beta. Even though I didn't really know what was going on in Warpath. I just followed the arrows and shot at everything shooting back at me. :D
    Reply
  • CRITICALThinker
    Must all of the betas happen during finals?, now I have to ignore them... Thanks developers
    Caved in, played doom for a while, ran on a GT 940m at almost 30fps stable @768p, though it crashed on a 650ti 1GB
    Reply
  • cats_Paw
    Beta Doom had quite bad opinions on steam. Careful with you money.
    Reply
  • ninjustin
    Beta Doom had quite bad opinions on steam. Careful with you money.

    I was not impressed by Doom. The gameplay was bland and unbalanced and it ran pretty badly.
    Reply
  • RedJaron
    Overwatch wasn't horrible. Kinda like DotA meets TF2. Has some nice play mechanics and match modes, but only three maps doesn't give a lot of variety. One of them needs serious balance work as the attackers get funneled through a single choke point and are easily held in check by any semblance of defense on the other side.
    Reply