Overwatch Winter Wonderland Event Is Back With An Exciting Game Mode

Now that we're on the other side of Thanksgiving and barreling toward Christmas, it's time for many games that have persistent player bases to kick off their holiday events. One such game is Overwatch, which will host its Winter Wonderland event for the second year in the row beginning next week. Like Overwatch's other seasonal events, the second helping of Winter Wonderland will be a healthy mix of new and old.

In a new developer update, Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan explains all of the skins introduced during last year's event will be returning this year. There will be plenty of new skins too, and Kaplan specifically hints at skins for Hanzo, Junkrat, and Roadhog. We'll probably hear (and see) more of those skins over the weekend, so sit tight for that.

On top of the returning skins, last year's Winter Wonderland game mode, Mei's Snowball Fight, will also be making another appearance. That game mode became very popular with fans last year, so we're sure a lot of them will be happy to see it make a comeback.

The most interesting thing about Winter Wonderland 2017, however, it entirely new. Kaplan announced a new game mode in the developer update, this one once again featuring Mei. Called "Mei's Yeti Hunt," this game mode will task five different Mei players with hunting down and defeating a Yeti, who just so happens to be Winston in his holiday skin.

The Winston they're hunting will be player-controlled as well, and he or she will have to avoid the group of Meis until they can collect enough meat and super-charge their abilities. Once that happens, the Yeti will prove a formidable foe for the six Mei players. When the Yeti is defeated, the group of Meis wins, whereas if a certain number of Meis die, the Winston player wins.

All in all, Mei's Yeti Hunt sounds like a blast. We'll get to see it in action soon enough, as Overwatch's Winter Wonderland event returns on December 12 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. Once it's live, we'll likely see it last three weeks, ending on January 2, 2018.