Leaks indicate that Epic Games is adding an island to Fortnite that’ll allow players to hang out and play non-violent minigames together in a new Party Royale mode.
Party Royale is a limited-time event according to Fortnite leaker ShiinaBR on Twitter, who found a description after going through data added in the latest update. All the activities will take place on a new island called Papaya. Map icons indicate that the unannounced mode will feature skydiving, glider challenges, and races that take place both on foot and in vehicles. There’s even a soccer ball shown, which teases some sort of minigame based on “the beautiful game.”
(via @VastBlastt & @FNBRHQ) pic.twitter.com/DmKxeK0XUj
— Shiina (@ShiinaBR) April 29, 2020
“Welcome to the Party!” the leaked description reads. “Leave your weapons and mats behind and hang out with friends, play games, perfect your skydive, and more. The party’s just getting started!”
Also found on the Papaya map is a central plaza filled with phone boxes that allow players to swap skins during play sessions. The Devourer skeleton from Fortnite‘s original map is also seen on the shoreline.
There will also be nine communication emotes specifically made for Papaya. These include waving your hand, sitting down, shaking your head no, an affirmative nod, clapping, cheering, calling players over, pointing at objects, and waving your phone.
Beyond the Party Royale mode, files point toward another limited-time event called Operation Payload being added. Similar to Overwatch, this round-based mode tasks two teams with either escorting or attempting to stop a payload. Roles will switch each round, and it’s said that players will also pick different tech abilities.
As with Party Royale, it’s unknown when or if Epic will add Operation Payload to Fortnite. Epic recently teased “a couple more surprises” when it extended the second season of chapter 2 from April 30 to June 4.
The possible addition of a non-violent mode isn’t completely unexpected as Fortnite has been experimenting with activities inside the popular shooter since last year. This includes the recent Travis Scott concert, which saw 27 million players check out over its five showings and helped the game set a record for the most concurrent players. If added soon, it will also give kids and adults a way to hang out safely with their friends while adhering to social distancing.
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.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.