Author: Trafficblast

Some of Bethesda’s biggest names in publishing and development are coming to PAX Australia this year. The company announced today that Bethesda marketing executive Pete Hines, who has been with the company since 1999, is coming to the Melbourne show, alongside 23-year Bethesda veteran Tim Willits, who heads up Doom developer id Software. Also coming to PAX Aus is Elder Scrolls Online boss Matt Firor, who is the president and game director at ZeniMax Online Studios.

Hines, Willits, and Firor will attend panels at PAX Aus, starting with Willits’ appearance on the Utopia/Dystopia: Environment-Driven Storytelling panel on Friday, October 26. Willits will be on hand to discuss id’s Rage 2. Later that day, Hines, Willits, and Firor will host a panel called “Bethesda In Conversation” with each talking to attendees about their time in the video game industry. This panel takes place just days after the Fallout 76 beta begins, so you can bet Hines talks about that game.

Also on October 26, Willits will host the “id Software Retrospective” panel in the event hall’s main theatre where he will discuss the history of id Software. This will include “the highs, the lows and the untold stories of some of the longest-running franchises in gaming, including Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein.”

On Saturday, October 27, Hines, Willits, and Firor will appear on a Bethesda trivia panel where they will have to answer Australian questions like: What’s the batting average of Australian cricket legend Don Bradman.

For more on the Bethesda’s plans for PAX Aus this year, check out this post on the event’s website.

PAX Aus kicks off on October 26 with a keynote address by Rhianna Pratchett, who worked on the Tomb Raider reboot and its sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider. She also wrote Mirror’s Edge, Heavenly Sword, and the Overlord series. During her PAX Aus keynote, she’ll be engaging directly with fans, answering questions about any number of topics.

GameSpot’s theatre, the GameSpot Dropbear Theatre, will have programming running Friday through Sunday. We’ll be hosting panels on Fortnite’s coverage in the mainstream media, voice acting featuring actors from Telltale’s The Walking Dead and Fallout 4, and hacking a video game, among other topics. You can see the full programming lineup for the GameSpot Dropbear Theatre here, while a full list of every PAX Aus panel can be seen here.

In addition to the panels, PAX Aus will include a show floor featuring juggernauts like Xbox, PlayStation, Ubisoft, Nintendo, and Bandai Namco. A list of playable games hasn’t been announced yet, however. Also new for this year is that PAX Aus and another big-time Australian gaming show, the EB Expo, are joining forces.

PAX Aus three-day tickets are sold out, but you can still buy single-day tickets for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday here on the event’s website.

Epic Games has launched patch 6.02 for Fortnite on PC, Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and mobile. The update introduces a funky new Limited Time Mode and a powerful weapon for Battle Royale, while the Save The World gets a special new weapon too. The new Limited Time Mose for Battle Royale is Disco Domination. “Break out your best moves and take control of the dance floor in this new Limited Time Mode,” Epic says on the official Fortnite website. This mode is effectively King is the Hill, with players capturing a specific point by dancing it and defending it from enemies.

“Five dance floors will appear on the map whenever the storm is not moving,” Epic explains in the notes. “Emoting on a dance floor when no enemies are present will raise a disco ball in the center of the floor, and capture it for your team. The more friendly players dancing on a floor, the faster it will be captured. Once a floor is captured, it will begin filling the team’s “dance bar” on the HUD, until either an enemy stands on it or the current storm timer ends and the storm begins to move. The first team to fill their dance bar to 100% will win the match.”

The new Quad Rocket Launcher, meanwhile, fires four rockets in quick succession. It is available in Epic and Legendary variants, details of which you can find in the full patch notes below, courtesy of Epic. Along with the full patch notes for the Battle Royale changes, there’s a video of the Quad Launcher in action. Head to the Fortnite website to see what’s new with Save The World.

Limited Time Mode: Disco Domination

Summary

It’s time for the ultimate dance-off. Dance Floors have spawned around the Battle Royale island. Take them over by clearing out any enemies and then dancing to raise a disco ball up from the floor. The team that fills their meter the fastest by capturing and defending the dance floors will win the match!

Mode Details

• Two teams of fifty players.
• Respawning will be turned on until the third (last) storm circle.
• Five dance floors will appear on the map whenever the storm is not moving.
• Emoting on a dance floor when no enemies are present will raise a disco ball in the center of the floor, and capture it for your team.
  • The more friendly players dancing on a floor, the faster it will be captured.
• Once a floor is captured, it will begin filling the team’s “dance bar” on the HUD, until either an enemy stands on it or the current storm timer ends and the storm begins to move. The first team to fill their dance bar to 100% will win the match.
• The dance floors in the later stages of the match fill the bar more quickly, so don’t give up if your team is behind!
• It is not possible to build on or over the dance floors, but they can be protected by surrounding them with a fort.
• Glider redeploy is activated in this mode, press jump while falling to use your glider.
• This mode uses 50v50 levels of loot and resources.

Weapons + Items

• Quad Launcher
  • Fire up to four lobbed rockets in quick succession.
  • Available in Epic and Legendary variants.
    • 80/84 base damage per rocket.
    • 300 unit explosion radius.
  • Can be found in chests, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines.
• The Port-a-Fortress has returned and can be looted in-game.
  • Port-a-Fortress availability lowered from 2.43% to 1.83%.
• Loot drop rate adjustments
  • Decreased common Pistol drop chance from 5.8% to 5.47%
  • Increased Epic Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle drop chance from 0.33% to 0.42%
  • Decreased Rare Semi-Auto Sniper Rifle drop chance from 0.92% to 0.71%
  • Increased Epic Heavy Sniper Rifle drop chance from 0.33% to 0.4%
  • Increased Legendary Heavy Sniper Rifle drop chance from 0.07% to 0.13%
  • Decreased Rare Grenade Launcher drop chance from 1.45% to 0.99%
  • Increased Epic Rocket Launcher drop chance from 0.59% to 0.66%
  • Increased Legendary Rocket Launcher drop chance from 0.08% to 0.21%
  • Increased Epic Guided Missile drop chance from 0.11% to 0.2%
  • Increased Legendary Guided Missile drop chance from 0.03% to 0.05%

​​​​Gameplay

Bug Fixes

• Removed a change that was inadvertently introduced in v6.01 which caused Bonesy to bark more than was intended.
• Fixed an issue that caused moving circles to be closer to the previous safezone than intended.

Performance

• Fixed some hitches on Switch caused by blocking loads of UI data.
• Increased the texture pool size on Xbox One, which should avoid some issues with blurry textures and improve rendering performance.

Art + Animation

• Skull Trooper styles have a visual issue when viewing the Outfit from the Locker.
  • The Outfit still appears properly in-game.
  • This issue will be fixed next patch.

For those that haven’t jumped into the world of Fortnite, Epic Games has partnered with Warner Bros. for a physical edition of Fortnite. Deep Freeze Bundle will hit the US on November 13 for $30 and the UK on November 16 for £25. You can find out what’s included here.

This week will also have more Fortnite challenges to complete, but before they arrive make you can get a little help getting Week 2’s challenges done using our guides. The big challenge that will require you to do a little extra leg work involves visiting corrupted areas. Completing these challenges level up your Battle Pass and unlock cosmetics rewards. You can see everything available to acquire in our Season 6 rewards gallery. For help completing other challenges, be sure to check out our full Season 6 challenge roundup.