Fortnite - A New Game by Epic

I played PUBG something like 6 months ago and while I thought it was OK I kind of bounced off of the idea. Most matches seemed to be 45 minutes of scrounging for equipment that was often hard to spot or hiding under cosmetic clothes in boring empty houses only to be sniped by someone lying prone in a bush a mile away.

On a whim I tried Fortnite’s Battle Royale recently and had a far superior experience. The game is much better optimized (even runs like butter on my OG Xbox One). The art style is consistent and the Saturday morning cartoon vibe just has me laughing when I am killed where PUBG just left me sour.

Being able to build and destroy the environment is quite fun and allows for more creativity than PUBG’s dour self-seriousness.

Most importantly I love the initial exploration phase in Fortnite Battle Royale. The fact that loot glows colorfully and chests emanate a chiming sound elevate the excitement and joy of discovery. I love just happening to spot a purple or orange glowing weapon in the far distance exploring Fortnite’s island or seeking out hidden chests that might be in a nearby sealed room or attic.

Due to the microtransaction-riddled endless-treadmill PVE ‘Save the World’ release a while back I almost entirely wrote off Fortnite, but for me, Epic hit a homerun with Battle Royale. Such a fun game to boot up and play a quick round between other tasks.

To be fair to PUBG, the release version runs much better than the early access version did 6 months ago. That said, it’s nowhere near getting a 60fps mode on console like Fortnite is. Epic obviously has the advantage of engine optimization being a core competence.

I personally have tried the BR mode in Fortnite in a while. I’m interested to jump in and try it again once the new ballistic model is added.

Big update for season 3, which begins today – now you can buy or earn contrails to look at while you dive down, and different cosmetic backpacks can be equipped. I also noticed if you are building a wall and run out of materials, it’ll auto-switch to the next available material type which is super handy. You can also equip different loading screens.

The final prize for season 3 is an awesome John Wick clone model. I can get behind this, gentlemen!

(In fact, based on the rate of development and interesting goal additions in the seasons, plus the fact that it’s free to play to begin with, I’m calling it: Fortnite will be bigger than PUBG. It’s just a matter of time.)

I seem to have locked myself out of Fortnite on Xbox. Tried the game a while a go on PS4 but decided to give it another go on Xbox this morning. Apparently that is not possible if both your Xbox Live and PSN account are connected to the same Epic account. I keep getting a “Your Account can not play on this Platform” message. It is also not possible to disconnect my Xbox or PSN account from my epic account without going through customer service. But they seem to have removed any reference from their website on how to actually contact that customer service. Making a new account doesn’t work either since my Xbox Live account is already connected to a account. So there is no way for me to get into Forntine on Xbox, I’m stuck. :-(

@Dirklectisch

I had a similar issue but with Xbox and PC. I think I couldn’t use my Epic account on PC due to it being linked to Xbox. I think I solved that by creating a secondary Epic account to use on my PC. Though your situation is different. I think the source of this problem is that PC and PS4 can share items(?) but you can’t between Xbox and other platforms.

Maybe try contacting Epic support?

I should have mentioned, you can build walls that freely intersect other world objects now. So a random tree or building edge no longer stops you from placing a new wall. So much easier to deal with under stress, which is almost always the case in Battle Royale…

Creating a new account would be the solution if I was able to disconnect my Xbox account from my Epic account. But unfortunately that’s not possible without going through customer support. Anyone know how to contact them? I sent an email to [email protected] but got a reply that they are no longer responding to emails on that address. I imagine they can’t handle the increased support volume now that Fortnite blew up in popularity.

Try that?

Oh nice that page didn’t work yesterday. Thanks!

From internal chat:

lol fortnite is crushing PUBG
the fourth biggest streamer in fortnite has more viewers than the entire pubg game in twitchtv

Also, they have a temporary “solid gold” mode (squad only) where all drops are legendary, and you get more resources from mining. It’s … way more interesting than I thought it would be, I think because:

  1. There is less looting going on as people get fantastic items from the get-go.
  2. Combat is generally more equal since everyone has great weapons, no more “I have a legendary rifle versus your grey one, so GG”
  3. Way more fort building and turtling, I think because of point #1 above…
  4. Rockets and Grenade launchers are only available in the balloon drops

(Also, is there really no legendary shotgun? That kinda sucks.)

They said they are going to bring 50v50 back as well, with one key change – the teams will drop together on different sides of the island, which addresses my key complaint from the last time they tried this, where the first group to roll together with 10 or 15 people on the same side would just stomp everything in their path.

So, I guess the PvE game is just not really being developed anymore.
How are the making money on the “free” Battle royal mode?

Battle passes, skins, gliders, … All kinds of cosmetic stuff.

https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/battle-pass

Just got 22 items from a blue piñata, this is awesome! :)

You have to buy the PvE game. This is all free to play. Which do you think will interest people more?

Yes, but also the free Battle Royale has a built in upsell to the PvE game as well. Pay extra to unlock that bit.

Understand. It’s the free part that’s pulling in everyone, though. Kids like free.

Sure but that is fundamentlly no different than the classic Doom shareware model of free levels 1-6 delivered on a set of floppies. Pay $30 to unlock the rest of the Doom levels!

It’s two different games. People are playing this to play against other people, not to unlock a mode where they play co-op against the environment. My kids and all their friends have zero interest in that part of it. It’s PUBG without having to pay a penny. That’s the selling point.

I still like the co-op PvE and have yet to play battle royale. There’s room for both, and the PvE has had updates and new modes coming out pretty often.

Sort of, it’s the same engine and same gameplay, both are multiplayer, just one is PvE and the other is a very specific type of PvP.