PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds used to have spooky weather like heavy fog and drizzling rain back before the game’s official launch in December 2017. When launch came, weather effects were axed for the game’s stability. They’re back now, bringing a random variable to matches that will complicate engagements and breathe a bit more life into all the battles royale.
In addition to a few new maps, a major focus for PUBG since launch has been improving stability and giving the game’s older maps a new coat of paint. The original forest map Erangel recently received a major redesign, and it’s now been announced that previously cut features like fog are returning to the game. The announcement came via a YouTube Patch Report, and I couldn’t be happier.
PUBG’s always been a more tactical and complicated battle royale with a slow pace that emphasized moment-to-moment tactics over raw gunplay. Bringing back fog that obscures vision or rain that makes it harder to to hear footsteps is a great way to add variety to matches. It’s also, if I might brag, pretty fantastic to, say, nail an enemy 400m away in the rain with only a Kar98, holo sight, and some grit:
Bringing back dynamic weather is just another step to adding some new excitement to PUBG. After losing out to games like Fortnite and Apex Legends, PUBG’s been quietly chugging along and improving. Players are returning, and little touches like this are a reminder of what made PUBG the game that popularized one of gaming’s freshest (if not somewhat oversaturated) new genres.