Technologies

Stadium Is a Hit: Here’s What’s Next for Overwatch’s Wild New Mode

Players have spent several million hours in the game mode already, and new heroes and maps are already lined up.

Overwatch launched a new game mode, Stadium, last week as part of its 16th season. After playing the mode ahead of launch for a week, I called it «the first thing that has felt truly new in the game since it came out.»

Well, it seems like players are enjoying the new taste. In a Director’s Take blog post, Blizzard announced Thursday that, in the first week after its launch, about half of all the play hours in Overwatch were spent in Stadium. «While we often see a big spike in play time shortly after a sparkly new event launches, play time in Stadium has been a bit stickier,» the game developer said.

That’s good news for a game facing stiffer competition since December, largely in the form of Marvel Rivals, which was a smash hit of a hero shooter right out of the gate. Earlier this year, Overwatch introduced a new perks system that provided more progression within each match, which at the time felt like a major change. While that shifted up gameplay for the game’s core quick play and competitive modes, it wasn’t nearly as radical a departure for Overwatch 2 as Stadium.

Blizzard said the first week of launch led to 2.3 million Stadium matches (which translates to 7.8 million hours), more than doubling Overwatch Classic’s popularity.

Game Director Aaron Keller said in group interviews ahead of the Stadium launch that the Overwatch team was investing heavily in Stadium, including the mode having its own separate resources and a fresh influx of new heroes and maps every season. We’ve already seen a couple of hotfix patches to address overpowered builds and heroes.

We’ll get the first big taste of that commitment to Stadium when Freja joins the chaos in the midseason patch. But that’s only the start.

After some time in Stadium, I noted that some team strategies had different viability than in mainline Overwatch. In particular, rush compositions felt a bit overturned, thanks largely to a combination of available heroes (especially tanks) and more compressed maps. I hoped that future hero additions would prioritize different macro strategies, «enabling more ranged compositions with heroes like Sigma and Zenyatta or dive compositions with Winston.»

As it turns out, Sigma and Zenyatta are joining the mode in season 17, along with Junkrat. That’s a significant boost to ranged damage. Then in season 18, Stadium will add Winston, Sojourn and Brigitte, which should complement the mode’s existing heroes like Genji and Ana for more powerful dive setups.

Sure, it’s still just matchmaking, so most people are just picking whatever hero they feel like playing, probably without much thought to overall team synergy, but I like that the devs are giving us the ability to pursue those types of strategies, even if it’s rare for it to come together. And the new heroes are coming alongside new maps and modes, unranked crossplay, and an eventual draft mode over the next several seasons.

Overall, it’s a bunch of good news for a mode that seems to be a hit. I’ve been playing the mode semi-frequently since launch (not wanting to neglect the standard modes so I can play Freja, who feels like the most fun new hero since Kiriko) — the mode varies from thrilling to rage-inducing, but it’s certainly never boring. The updates announced Thursday are a strong signal that Overwatch is poised to keep the momentum going.

Technologies

Tinder Users Must Start Logging In With Their Faces, Starting Nationwide

The social app now has new US requirements including face identification to help quell longstanding problems with catfishing and more.

US Tinder users will find a new feature when they open up the dating app starting Wednesday: A mandatory Face Check on their phones will be required before they can log into their profiles.

The Face Check step will begin with a new request to record a video of your face, a more casual version of setting up Apple’s Face ID login. Tinder will then run checks comparing your face data to your current profile pics and automatically create a small face badge for your profile. We already know how it works, because Tinder has already launched the feature in Canada and California before the full US rollout.

The technology, powered by FaceTec, will keep biometric data of the user’s face in encrypted form but discard the scanning video for privacy. Tinder will be able to use the face data to detect duplicate accounts, in an effort to cut down on fake profiles and identity theft.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Tinder’s facial recognition rollout is also made to prevent catfishing, or people pretending to be someone else on Tinder to scam or blackmail them. But that also points to a deeper problem on the rise in dating apps — a growing number of bots, many controlled by AI, are designed to glean personal information or fool users into scammy subscriptions, among other problems.

Tinder’s working against these bots on several fronts, including this Face Check push as well as ID Check, which requires a government-issued ID and other types of photo verification.

The dating app also recently released a feature in June to enable double-dating with your friends, which Tinder reports is especially popular with Gen Z users. If you’re worried about the latest hazards on Tinder, we have guide to safety practices.

A representative for Tinder did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, Oct. 23

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Oct. 23.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Like some weather, memories and I.P.A.s
Answer: HAZY

5A clue: Statement that’s self-evidently true
Answer: AXIOM

7A clue: Civic automaker
Answer: HONDA

8A clue: What fear leads to, as Yoda told a young Anakin
Answer: ANGER

9A clue: Foxlike
Answer: SLY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Verbal «lol»
Answer: HAHA

2D clue: Brain signal transmitter
Answer: AXON

3D clue: Hits with a witty comeback
Answer: ZINGS

4D clue: Sing at the top of a mountain, maybe
Answer: YODEL

6D clue: Name of the famous «Queen of Scots»
Answer: MARY

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 23 #599

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 23, No. 599.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle might be Halloween-themed, as the answers are all rather dangerous. Some of them are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Please don’t eat me!

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Remember Mr. Yuk?

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

POND, NOON, NODE, BALE, SOCK, LOVE, LOCK, MOCK, LEER, REEL, GLOVE, DAIS, LEAN, LEAD, REEL

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers: