Fortnite - A New Game by Epic

God this is so dumb.

It is also the best.

I played a few games last night. I never got the Gauntlet myself but I did have a blast and almost won a game. In that specific game I had multiple eliminations of other players although the final Thanos kill eluded me because I didn’t realize how fast the circle closed once it reached its last white circle closing mark.

Eventually, it just starts to close without a new available circle to move to. When that happened, I was stuck behind a steep hill and had no way to keep up with it. Thanos was stuck outside in the storm with me but his high health allowed him to outlast me.

It was a ton of fun, though. I sniped a guy from over 100m as he was about to pick up the Gauntlet. He had to be very unhappy. Watching Thanos leap all over the map is very cool, and imposing. You really need to keep your head and if you use cover wisely, you can surprise a LOT of players. The key is to remember you’re still playing a winner take all match. No one is truly your friend but when Thanos comes calling you probably have to switch focus to him or else.

I think the basic gunplay has been tightened up significantly since I first started playing. I’ve also improved a lot, but it just “feels” better now. Explosives also have become a lot more useful too, I think. @Lenkenobi and I played Duos last night too and we’re partial to Tomato Town. Imagine our surprise when it was a goddamn meat grinder! It’s the “Get three kills in Tomato Town” challenge location this week. :)

First of all this Thanos / King of the Hill mode is CRAZY, you should definitely check it out. They did a pretty good job of balancing it, 500 health (does not replenish) and 200 shield (replenishes on kills) … plus he’s not particularly mobile, sure he can superjump, but spends a lot of time powering up to jump, and when using his beam attack he has to stand still. And the calculus of when to attack Thanos, versus attacking the other players attacking thanos, is fascinating in its own right.

I am now thinking the 3 shot burst rifle may be one of the best weapons in the game. If you are crouching and aiming at someone you can do obscene damage pretty accurately, if all 3 of the shots in the burst hit you’re looking at almost 75 damage, and if you get a headshot, I’ve seen it go up to 54 + 54 + 24 in some cases.

Obviously at long and super long distance the single shot rifle is way better, and if you’re in a closeup bunny hopping fight you want a shotgun, but I find the triple shot incredibly versatile overall and kinda underrated TBH.

The burst rifle is the best weapon at midrange without a doubt. Get a blue one and you’re going to get some kills with a reasonably steady hand. A gold SCAR is better for the endgame, but until that time I’m always using a burst.

Don’t sleep on the silenced sub at short range either. High rate of fire with a big clip means you’ll always win against a pump shotgun and most times against an auto too, especially if you get headshots with a blue. It’s also quiet. Sound is always the enemy in Fortnite.

I wish I could like this game more. It is put together better than PUBG, but I just can’t get into the actual gameplay. The shooting is a bit too jumpy for my tastes, and the map is so condensed that you really don’t have any downtime in the game. Like I don’t get a minute to breathe. One of the reasons I like PUBG so much is that it feels almost like a horror game, with long bouts of silence punctuated by brutal violence.

Fortnite is a great game, and the modes are really fun and well put together, the seasonal changes, progression, all A++ But I just can’t get hooked into the gameplay loop.

Will keep coming back for the special events though, those have been a blast so far. 50v50 was awesome, with crazy co-op fort building and mass shoot-outs.

Was it?

https://twitter.com/codinghorror/status/990881919737839616

I had some fun with Fortnite, but now that it’s a kids game I am moving on to other things. Same scenario as Minecraft.

This is not even remotely the same scenario as Minecraft – that is barely a game.

Try jumping to one of the corners or little used areas, especially near the end of the bus trip. The swamp works great as people avoid it, unless it’s near the start. You can usually have a whole area to yourself this way, then slowly work your way towards the circle (or scavenge locally if you’re already in it.)

You guys.

you.

guys.

THE ULTIMATE TRIFECTA!

Beatlemania + opioid crisis + eating tide pods 🤯

I find it weird how little interest there seems to be here for Fortnite and other battle royale games, given how huge they are in the gaming community now.

then again, I guess I’m with my people, because I haven’t played any of them. But if I were to play some competitive multiplayer online, I’d much rather play a battle royale game than capture the flag or any of the Battlefield/CoD/Halo type stuff.

While people here are complaining about how the genre is saturated, I think it has a lot of growth potential still, while the Battlefield/CoD stuff isn’t going to have as broad appeal to solo players and non-kids.

I also don’t personally get the jaded-ness. But I think it’s because we all lived through the MOBA explosion, in which everyone wanted a piece of the Dota and League pie, which resulted in a lot of hot garbage and some shuttered studios. But we got a few neat things out of that, even late in the timeline, like Heroes of the Storm, Smite, and Paragon, rest its soul.

It’s easy to look at the battle royale genre, see the same thing happening, and focus on the garbage - the low effort entries trying to make a quick buck. But we’re still pretty early on. If PUBG is the Dota and Fortnite is the League of Legends, I think the genre is still going to get its Heroes of the Storm or its Smite.

Where would H1Z1 fit? Dead now, but played a big role in getting this genre started.

H1Z1 (and the Arma mods, I’m not sure what predates what) are like the Dota Warcraft 3 mod. Influential but rough. Instrumental in getting the genre started, and definitely popular in its time, but completely eclipsed and devoured by the later games it spawned.

I mean, there aren’t always perfect parallels. But I don’t think it’s crazy to see a similar arc here.

Amazon must have some incredible smart people. Their cross promotion for Amazon Prime using skins in BR is genius.

Today we got a amazing patch for STW.

There’s a lot to like about Fortnite although some of its successes may well be serendipity - not being able to choose your skin or gender is now a feature rather than an incomplete gap, for ex. So much of the environment being destructible is another.

But… it’s kids all the way down. I feel not just uncomfortable but downright creeper playing a game where a bunch of 13 yr. olds are screaming into their mics. It’s not even a bunch of 20 yr old bros, which is somewhat survivable.

I’d be happy to play Fortnite with a bunch of adults. But i don’t know where they are.

I think it’s the best thing I’ve played in 2018. Fortnite is amazing. I can’t believe I’m still having so much fun with it given that I know the ONE map like the back of my hand! It creates so much emergent gameplay through the simple goal of being the last one alive and just moving that final location around on that one map. Every endgame is different because of where it’s fought, and that goes for modes like Thanos, 50v50, all of it. The geography of Fortnite is as much the star as the actual shooting bits, which like almost an Epic game are fantastic.

This game is so much fun for me because I’m always engaged. The moment I let down my guard is the moment I die. You’ve got to be considering the map, the possible approaches from other players, choke points, and just plain movement because if you make too much noise, that can be your undoing.

It’s awesome. Jaded old Qt3 gamers not liking it doesn’t surprise me one bit. Everything popular is mostly ignored or hated here much of the time.

What do you mean about skin and gender? You earn male and female skins through the Battle Pass and the ones they sell come in both flavors much of the time. Do you mean when you play for free that it just randomly assigns you one?

The bit about kids is weird since I either play with people I know or when I do join random games I get people of varied ages. I’ve played a LOT of hours of this game and I don’t feel like every game is all 13 year olds. What platform are you playing on? I’m on PS4, which probably has the largest number of younger players.