Category: Games

Epic Games is rolling out Fortnite update 6.31 and has detailed the tweaks, changes, and new additions in the patch notes. The headliners in the Battle Royale mode are the Team Rumble Limited Time Mode and Epic and Legendary Pump Shotguns. For the save the world, meanwhile, there’s a new Constructor called Airheart, who arrives with a Rotating Omni-directional Sentry Integrated Exoskeleton (R.O.S.I.E).

Team Rumble, as you may have guessed, involves two teams of 20 players battling each other, with the first to reach 100 eliminations crowned the victor. To spice things up players will respawn five seconds after they are killed and will keep their inventory when they re-join the battle. Furthermore, eliminated players spawn a random type of ammo and a random stack of either 120 Wood, 90 Stone, or 60 Metal materials when they’re taken out.

The new Epic and Legendary Shotgun, meanwhile, does 105 / 110 maximum damage, and is available from floor loot, chests, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines. There have been various other changes to the way other weapons work, and their availability. Take a look at the full patch notes for Battle Royale below, and click here for more on the Save The World mode.

Limited Time Mode: Team Rumble

Summary

Two large teams fight for the Victory Royale in an action-packed mode where the first team to get 100 eliminations wins!

Mode Details

• Two teams of 20 players.
• Players will respawn after 5 seconds when eliminated, keeping their inventory.
• Eliminated players spawn a random type of ammo upon elimination, as well as a random stack of either 120 Wood, 90 Stone, or 60 Metal materials.
• Only Uncommon weapons (or better) are available.
• The first team to 100 eliminations wins.

Weapons + Items

• New Epic and Legendary Pump Shotgun
  • 105 / 110 maximum damage
  • Available from floor loot, chests, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines.
• Shotguns will now always apply at least 3 pellets worth of damage if only 1-2 pellets hit the target.
  • NOTE: Bonus pellets can never be critical hits.
• Pump Shotgun maximum damage and fall-off changes.
  • Pump Shotgun maximum damage increased from 80 / 85 to 95 / 100
    • Pump shotguns will do higher damage in shorter range buckets but damage falls off quicker. This means you’ll do more damage to closer targets but less damage to farther targets.
• Added Stink Bombs to Supply Drops
• Removed Double Barrel Shotguns from floor loot
• Mounted Turret
  • Adjusted Mounted Turret collision to make it easier to land shots against anyone occupying it.
  • Removed the ability to repair the Mounted Turret
  • Fixed players being able to clip into turret barrels and get stuck.
  • Supply drops will automatically open if landing on a Mounted Turret
  • Drop rate reduced from 1.719% to 0.915%

Bug Fixes

• The Mounted Turret can no longer fire through its own floor.
• Fixed an issue with players not having an audio cue while gliding after respawning.
• Fixed an issue with Chiller effects not applying properly to players’ feet.

Gameplay

• Reduced the in-air speed when using the Glider Redeploy feature in supported game modes.
• Added functionality that allows the placement of map markers in the world without needing to go into the fullscreen map.
  • You’ll be able to look at a position in the world and use the “Place Marker” keybind to place a map marker. This command will only be available by default while in Combat Mode.
  • This command is defaulted to Left on the D-pad for controllers and the Middle Mouse button for PC and Mac.
  • For Mobile players, this command will be bound to an optional button in the HUD Layout Tool.
• Added the ability to pick up and throw back Dynamite with a lit fuse.
  • To throw the Dynamite with a lit fuse, get near it and use the interact key.

Bug Fixes

• Increased the Dynamite explosion height against players from 192 units to 300 units.
  • This was done to prevent players from being able to jump over the explosion area on flat ground without taking damage.

Events

• New Tournament: Alchemist Pop-Up Cup
  • Pop-Up Cups are tournaments testing temporary, Limited Time Modes. Alchemist will continue our testing of several gameplay adjustments and may differ day to day.
  • Initial Mode Settings:
    • A material cap of 500 Wood, 500 Stone, 500 Metal
    • Harvesting Rate Increased by 40%
    • +50 Health on Eliminations
    • Storm Surge
      • If a certain amount of players are remaining by the time the Storm finishes closing, a Storm Surge will activate. This periodically deals damage to players who have the least amount of damage dealt during the match.
        • Circle 1: 60 Players Remaining
        • Circle 2: 44 Players Remaining
        • Circle 3: 30 Players Remaining
        • Circle 4: 20 Players Remaining
        • Circle 5: 16 Players Remaining
        • Circle 6: 14 Players Remaining
        • Circle 7: 12 Players Remaining
        • Circle 8: 6 Players Remaining
        • Circle 9: 2 Players Remaining
        • Your highest score or pin during any event session will now be displayed on the tournament poster in the Events tab.
        • Pins will now reflect tournament colors on the Event Details screen.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where players would receive points during warmup island which would be later removed.

Performance

• Improvements to level streaming performance on Xbox One and Switch (improving building load times during skydiving)

Audio

• Player in-air falling audio cue volume has been increased.
• The Mounted Turret overheat audio loop volume has been reduced.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the Glider in-air audio cue wouldn’t play for players who glide in after respawning.

Social

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a crash on Nintendo Switch that occasionally occurred when logging in for the first time.

Art + Animation

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where player nameplates disappear after scrubbing a replay.

Mobile

• Map Marker button added to the HUD Layout Tool

Fortnite is also having another crossover with Disney. While the last one resulted in Thanos appearing on the island, this time it’s Ralph from Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph movie series. He popped up recently in Fortnite as part of an unpublicised Easter egg, likely to help promote the new film Ralph Breaks The Internet.

Not that it’s much of a surprise, but the signs are pointing to a successful launch for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate when it launches in early December.

Nintendo has announced that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the best “pre-selling” Super Smash Bros. game of all time, and it’s also the best “pre-selling” Nintendo Switch game ever. Pre-order figures may not be as important or reliable as they once were, but it remains a notable achievement, and one that likely signals a strong performance for the upcoming title.

High pre-order figures may or may not be indicative of future performance, but whatever the case, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has big shoes to fill. 2014’s Super Smash Bros. for Wii U sold 5.35 million copies, while Super Smash Bros. for 3DS told 9.35 million copies. The Wii Smash Bros. game, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, sold 13.29 million copies. It is a very popular franchise.

The best-selling Nintendo Switch game is Super Mario Odyssey, which sold 12.17 million copies, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (11.71 million) and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (10.28 million) following closely behind, according to Nintendo’s publicly disclosed sales data. With Nintendo announcing that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has set a new pre-selling record, it will be interesting to see how the game fares commercially relative to the best-selling Switch games.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has leaked ahead of launch, so be careful out there on the internet if you’re wary of encountering spoilers.

The original Mary Poppins will be voicing a character in the upcoming Aquaman film. Julie Andrews will voice the undersea creature Karathen, an instrumental figure in the title character’s quest to unite the undersea and surface worlds.

“We wanted the Karathen to have the voice of a classic British actress, albeit somewhat digitally altered,” producer Peter Safran told EW. “And when we found out Julie was interested and available and excited to do it, casting her was a no-brainer.”

Coincidentally, Aquaman is already prepared for a head-to-head box office competition with Mary Poppins Returns, a sequel to the role that Andrews made famous. Emily Blunt is starring in this new interpretation, and Andrews declined to appear in cameo. She has reportedly stated that she didn’t want to distract from Blunt’s interpretation of the character.

Andrews hasn’t appeared on the big screen for years, but has starred in the Netflix series Julie’s Greenroom and has voiced characters in movies like Shrek Forever After and Despicable Me 3.

Mary Poppins Returns opens on December 18. Aquaman will follow on December 21, though Amazon Prime members will have access to advanced screenings on December 15. For more on Aquaman, check out the dozens of things we learned from its director.