Epic Games’ survival shooter Fortnite has been out in “paid early access” for less than two months, but a portion of the game will soon be completely free to play across all systems.
“Battle Royale,” a mode inspired by both the Japanese film of the same name as well as the recent success of Buy Now , will be free on Tuesday, September 26 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Mac. Go to your respective storefront and you will see an option to download the individual mode, rather than the full game.
“We launched a public test [for the mode] and it worked better than we expected,” Epic Games explained on its forums. “We want the game to reach as many players as possible, so we decided to release Battle Royale for free sooner than we anticipated.”
Much like Battlegrounds, the Battle Royale mode in Fortnite takes place on a single huge map, with 100 players attempting to murder each other, but Epic Games has also worked in its structure-building mechanics in order to make it a little more strategic. An elevated position in Battle Royale doesn’t guarantee success, as launch pads can be used to quickly reach sniper positions, and traps can be set for unsuspecting combatants. In the trailer, we see one player walk through a doorway only to be zapped to death by bolts of electricity.
Squads will also be added to Battle Royale, allowing players to team up and take down opponents together. More maps are planned for the future, and Epic is working on adding vehicles but isn’t sure how they will be implemented yet.
Epic Games stressed in its announcement that the mode won’t be “pay-to-win,” and at launch, it doesn’t appear that there will be microtransactions in the mode at all.
“At some point in the future, we will sell other things including cosmetics or compendium-like content,” the announcement added.
If you purchased Buy Now within the last week specifically to play Battle Royale, Epic Games will be offering refunds, as well. The “Save the World” campaign currently available through the paid version will become free to play at some point in 2018. Currently, there is no connection between the two modes, even for cosmetic items.
Remember when transparent gadgets were the coolest things you could own? Sony is bringing that late '90s aesthetic back with its new PS5 Prism Collection. The gorgeous lineup gives your DualSense controller and PS5 console a glossy, see-through makeover in three eye-catching colors.
https://twitter.com/PlayStation/status/2115459064981512662?s=19
For years, Call of Duty’s campaign mode has used big, scripted set pieces to tell the overarching story amid all the adrenaline-pumping action. The 2023 Modern Warfare 3 tried to shake up the established formula by introducing a handful of short open combat missions, and I genuinely liked the idea, but the game's overall negative reception seeped into how those missions were received.
I feared the next iteration might abandon the idea because of the backlash, but I am glad it didn't. MW4’s “Stranded” mission uses the same approach, but instead of fragmenting it across the campaign, it puts it all in a single large-scale open-world mission.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.