Author: Trafficblast

Epic Games has begun the process of rolling out Fortnite‘s eighth season, which brings with it gameplay changes and tweaks, as well as a brand new Battle Pass. For those not familiar, the Battle Pass allows players to unlock cosmetics and customization features, provided they play Fortnite to accrue experience and level it up. The Battle Pass has over 100 levels, which means over 100 rewards.

Beyond that, the most notable change in Season 8 is to the Fortnite island. As with previous seasons, Epic Game likes to mix things up by introducing new themes and altering the play space. This time around pirates, ninjas, and creatures from within a newly emerged volcano are all set to tussle over some treasure. Along with the volcano, new locations for Season 8 include Sunny Steps and Lazy Lagoon.

In terms of weapons, there’s a new Pirate Cannon, which can be used to destroy structures from a distance. You can also get inside the barrel of the cannon and launch yourself across the map. The other big gameplay addition is lava, which will deal one damage per touch and will make the player bounce off the surface. There are also volcanic vents that shoot out gusts of hot air that players can use to launch themselves into the sky.

Excitingly, Epic has also introduced Party Assist which, when enabled prior to a match, will allow daily or weekly Challenges to be completed with the help of everyone in your party. In Season 8, daily quests will be automatically claimed and the reward will be delivered once they are done. Check out the full Fortnite: Battle Royale Season 8 patch notes below. You can head to Epic’s website to see what’s new for the Creative and Save the World modes.

Weapons + Items

• Pirate Cannon
  • Push the Cannon into position, take aim, and fire! Alternatively, climb into the barrel and launch yourself!
  • The cannon will fire cannonballs or players a great distance. Cannonballs and players can plow through a number of objects before stopping with a bang, causing damage and knockback to nearby players.
  • Deals 100 Damage to enemies on a direct hit and 50 Damage to enemies within a small radius.
  • Found throughout the environment.
• Vaulted
  • Sneaky Snowman
  • Chiller Grenade
  • X-4 Stormwing
  • Shopping Cart
  • All Terrain Kart
• Updated Hunting Rifle Icon
• Reduced the availability of high tier Assault Rifles
  • Total number of Assault Rifles available remains unchanged
    • Increased chance of receiving a Common quality assault rifle from 48.56% to 56.30%
    • Increased chance of receiving an Uncommon quality assault rifle from 26.83% to 28.15%
    • Reduced the chance of receiving a Rare quality assault rifle from 16.17% to 10.91%
    • Reduced the chance of receiving an Epic quality assault rifle from 7.02% to 3.52%
  • Reduced the chance of receiving a Legendary quality assault rifle from 1.82% to 1.13%

Bug Fixes

• Supply Drops now properly appear on the map.
• If the fire button is pressed while the shotgun cooldown is still active after swapping weapons then the shotgun will automatically fire once the cooldown is over.
• Fixed Clingers causing damage through walls / floors when stuck to a player.
• Fixed players accidentally sticking Remote Explosives onto themselves after applying a Consumable Bush.
• Fixed Legendary/Epic Pump Shotgun pellet tracers and muzzle flash sometimes not replicating to other clients.
• Fixed an issue where players couldn’t use Auto-Run while using a Hoverboard with a gamepad.
• Fixed items occasionally being invisible to some players.

Gameplay

• Added Lava
  • Lava will deal 1 damage per touch and will cause players to bounce off the surface. Watch out!
• Added Volcanic Vents
  • Volcanic Vents will boost players and vehicles into the sky in a gust of hot air!
• Party Assist Added
  • Prior to a match, enable Party Assist on a Daily or Weekly challenge to complete it with the assistance of everyone in your party.
  • Party members are able to provide progress to the selected challenge in addition to yourself.
  • This functionality excludes “fill” players who are added into the party during matchmaking or teammates from large team modes such as Team Rumble.
• Increased Infinite Dab duration from 11 hours to 12 hours in the lobby.
• Cozy Campfire now glows while active when viewed through a Thermal Scope.
• Starting in Season 8, daily quests will be automatically claimed once they’ve been completed.
  • Any Challenges that were ready to be collected will be auto completed and all rewards will be delivered. However, at this time there will be no in-game notification for you receiving these rewards.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the Lynx Outfit would jitter very badly when playing the original Wave emote in the lobby.
• Fixed an issue where players were able to aim down sights while jumping.
• Fixed an issue where weapons picked up would sometimes be incorrectly unloaded. This would happen if a player looted a weapon dropped by a player immediately after being eliminated.
• Fixed Bush consumable not being destroyed if player takes damage from a great distance.
• Fixed aim assist to work through windows.
• Fixed an issue where players could stop themselves from getting on a Zipline by standing too far behind it and colliding into the ground as they try to enter.
• Fixed an issue where the player couldn’t pick up items dropped around the Zipline pole.
• Fixed an issue where entering a vehicle while ziplining left the fall damage immunity visual effect on the player.
• Fixed auto-pickup of items not working when first landing from skydiving.
• Weapon auto-reloading no longer cancels emotes.
• Fixed an equipped Trap being swapped after dropping a stack of items or after using the last item of a stack of consumables or explosives.
• Fixed equipped traps being dropped when using hold to swap to pick up items.

Limited Time Mode: 50v50

Summary

Two teams of fifty players fight to the finish!

Mode Details

• Each team has a bus, approaching the island from opposite directions. On the map, the friendly bus has a blue outline, enemy has red.
• The map has a dotted line, which indicates the “battle lines” between the two teams. Crossing the line will make running into enemies more likely.
• Farming materials increased 25% over default.
• Chests & Ammo Crates spawn more often than usual, and carry extra ammo.

Limited Time Mode: Close Encounters

Summary

Close quarters combat with Shotguns & Jetpacks!

Mode Details

• Players start with a Jetpack in their inventory.
• The only guns in this mode are the various types of Shotguns.
• The Storm moves in more quickly than normal mid to late game.

Audio

• Above/below footstep improvements.
  • More distinct sound for above footsteps.
  • Tuned the distance at which above/below footsteps travel to be more realistic.
• Improved footstep audio timings when the game simulation is under heavy load.
• Set Down-But-Not-Out alert sound spatialization from the location of the downed player.
• Added stereo sounds for all weapons for those carrying the weapon.
• Added foley audio feedback when crouching and ADS’ing with a weapon.
• Improved Rocket Launcher incoming audio. It now plays an additional warning layer if the rocket is coming towards you.
• Added distant perspective to the enemy glider audio tell.
• Improved damage/elimination audio feedback.
• Added a new shield break sound.
• Improved the “weak-point” hit sound when harvesting.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed in-air wind audio restarting when eliminating an enemy while they’re in mid-air.
• Fixed sniper projectiles not playing impact audio.
• Fixed “Hootenany” emote getting stuck on infinitely.
• Fixed Suppressed SMG sound effect occasionally looping continuously incorrectly.

UI

• Added the ability to access the Patch Notes website from the News Screen.
• Visual improvements made to squadmate names and indicators.
• World Marker Improvements
  • World Markers are now visible in the world when placed close to you.
  • Double-clicking the World Marker hotkey will place a “danger” version of that marker. World Markers placed while aiming with a weapon will also place the danger version.
  • Added 2D UI indicators to the World Markers, making them easier to see through objects.
  • World Markers now have an off-screen indicator and display the distance your character is from them.
  • Placing a World Marker on an item will display that item’s icon and rarity.
  • Placing World Markers remains on the same key for PC and console (KBM: Middle Mouse Button, Controller: D-Pad Left).
    • This button can be remapped to any button you want. Let us know on our social channels what works best for you!
  • Mobile also has a button that can be added to the HUD. Place this button by using the HUD Layout Tool.
• Added filter tabs to the locker for animated loading screens and pets.
• Added a card corner icon for certain types of animated cosmetics.

Bug Fixes

• Fix cases where the Bad Network Indicator would appear at the beginning of the match due to slow loading conditions.
• The Battle Pass / Battle Bundle purchase screen now shows your supported creator if one is set.
• Fixed an issue where the team elimination count was sometimes inaccurate.
• Fixed an issue where eliminations weren’t properly counting when playing in Playgrounds.

Replay

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where scrubbing through a replay could cause the player’s hero model to disappear in the lobby.
• Fixed issue with cosmetic styles not displaying properly during replay playback.
• Fixed elimination damage numbers being inaccurate in replays.
• Fixed weapon firing animations sometimes playing twice in replays.

Mobile

• Added more visual feedback when buttons are pressed.
• Changed gliding/freefalling HUD visibility to be more consistent between mobile/other platforms.
• Player are now able to toggle between crouch and standing states while in build and edit modes.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug which caused the lobby background to disappear when closing the Report Player dialog.
• Fixed an issue where trying to switch to build mode and tapping the quickbar at the same time would switch back to combat mode.
• Fixed an issue where attempting to place a trap using a mobile controller made the player animate as if they were trying to open a door several times before the trap is placed.
• Fixed players ability to un-crouch while gliding.
• Fixed action button remaining on the UI during the Battle Bus phase.
• The ‘Resources’ HUD setting now properly shows in-game after making changes on mobile devices.
• Fixed an issue where using touch to edit a structure breaks the ability to continue crosshair editing until the button is pressed again.
• Fixed an issue where dragging an item off the hotbar triggered a double click.
• Fixed an issue where pick up and zip line activation icon’s default position overlapped with the aiming icon.
• Fixed controller art sometimes missing in the Controller Setting screen.

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The news keeps getting worse for Overkill’s The Walking Dead. After Walking Dead rights-owner Skybound announced it would terminate its agreement with Starbreeze for the co-op shooter due to the poor quality of the game, Starbreeze has now confirmed the PC edition will be removed from sale while the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions are now in question.

In a news release, Starbreeze said it was in communication with Skybound to try to find “a solution.” In the meantime, Starbreeze said sales of the PC edition of Overkill’s The Walking Dead will “likely be disabled,” and should no agreement be met, the game would never return to Steam. Additionally, the PS4 and Xbox One versions “would not be released” if no new deal between Skybound and Starbreeze can be reached. It appears the game has already been removed from Steam.

Starbreeze added that Overkill’s The Walking Dead generated sales of 34.1 million Swedish Krona, which comes out to around $3.7 million USD. However, “costs related to development of Overkill’s The Walking Dead has so far exceeded revenue,” Starbreeze admitted.

505 Games was announced as the publisher of Overkill’s The Walking Dead for PS4 and Xbox One. Digital Bros, which owns 505 Games, said in a statement to GI.biz that it is “very sorry about the relationship between Skybound and Starbreeze.” The statement doesn’t outright confirm that the console editions have been canceled, however.

Skybound announced it would end its contract with Starbreeze because Overkill’s The Walking Dead “did not meet our standards nor is it the quality that we were promised.”

The statement added: “We are exceedingly sorry to our fans and share their disappointment in the game. We remain dedicated to providing our fans with the most premium quality content we can offer, and will continue to look for alternative video game options for the IP.”

Ray Liotta, who played Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s classic mobster movie Goodfellas, is joining another gangster film. Liotta will play an unspecified role in the Sopranos prequel film The Many Saints of Newark, joining other cast members such as Alessandro Nivola, Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, and Billy Magnussen, according to Deadline. Michael Gandolfini will play Tony Soprano, a role his late father portrayed in the HBO show.

The Many Saints of Newark is set in the ’60s during the Newark race riots. Sopranos TV show creator David Chase co-wrote the script with another Sopranos veteran, Lawrence Konner. Game of Thrones and Thor: The Dark World director Alan Taylor is directing.

Liotta grew up in Newark in the ’60s, and according to Deadline, the actor has a “personal connection to the story.”

“David’s talent is unmatched and the directing of Alan Taylor makes this even more exciting. I respect them both immensely and look forward to making this special project with New Line,” Liotta told Deadline.

Nivola plays Dickie Moltisanti in The Many Saints of Newark. He is the father of Christopher Moltisanti, who was played by Michael Imperioli in the TV series.

In other mobster movie news, the eerie first teaser for Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman starring Robert de Niro and Al Pacino has arrived–watch it here.

The upcoming Suicide Squad sequel has lost one of its biggest stars. Sources told Variety that Smith, who played Deadshot in the 2016 Oscar winning film, is not expected to return for the follow-up reportedly due in part to scheduling issues.

Smith and Warner Bros. reportedly parted ways amicably. It’s also worth nothing that Smith was never even officially confirmed to return as Deadshot in Suicide Squad 2. According to the report, producers wanted Smith and Margot Robbie, who played Harley Quinn, to return for the sequel. No official casting announcements about Suicide Squad 2 have been made as of yet, however.

Suicide Squad might not have been a critical hit, but it made $746 million at the global box office, which basically guaranteed a sequel. As mentioned, it won an Oscar–for Makeup and Hairstyling.

The sequel is to be written and directed by James Gunn, who directed the Guardians of the Galaxy movies before Disney fired him. Production on Suicide Squad 2 is expected to begin this fall, and the movie has a release date of August 6, 2021.