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Latest Overwatch Update Kicks Off Winter Wonderland Event, New Loot And Game Mode Now Available

Blizzard is getting in the holiday spirit a little early by launching the Winter Wonderland event for Overwatch today, December 13.

Ready to indulge in some Blizzard-themed festivities? The Overwatch Winter Wonderland event is officially here, bringing with it a slew of holiday loot boxes touting more than 100 new cosmetic items – character skins, emotes, victory poses, highlight intros, as well as other cosmetic items are all included.

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The holiday event is wrapped up in the shooter’s latest update, which went live earlier today for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. It clocks in at 1.5GB in size, and comes packing the 6v6 Mei’s Snowball Offensive game mode. It’s a single-elimination brawl, essentially, where all players are placed in control of Mei. There is a twist to the seasonal special, as Mei’s trusty Endothermic Blaster has been retrofitted to shoot a single, super-powered snowball, which ought to make for some thrilling firefights over the next few weeks.

Here’s the official overview, courtesy of Blizzard:

In this brawl, Mei’s Endothermic Blaster no longer unleashes a stream of frost or shoots icicles. Instead, it’s been modified to fire a single, super-powered snowball. Taking down an enemy only takes one hit, but a miss can be costly. Once your weapon is empty, your enemies will have the advantage as you search for the nearest snow pile to reload, so don’t forget to cover your retreat with ice walls and cryo-freeze to block their attacks—and when the battle starts to heat up, you can activate Mei’s Ultimate, which turns her blaster into a semi-automatic snowball launcher, allowing you to fire continuously as your enemies scatter.

What’s more, the Hanamura and King’s Row maps have undergone a wintry makeover (see below), while the patch notes for today’s update confirms that Blizzard has added a new ‘Boop’ unlockable voice line for Sombra. PS4 Pro users should find that UI glitches and bugs have now been fixed, too.

Overwatch‘s Winter Wonderland event kicks off today, December 13, and is expected to run through until January 2, 2017. The only question left now is, will you be partaking in Blizzard’s seasonal shenanigans?