Fortnite

Competitive Fortnite Is About To Experiment With Controlled Chaos

Last weekend, a vault opened beneath Loot Lake in Fortnite. Players were given the option of bringing back one of the game’s previously retired weapons. They chose the Drum Gun, one of the most overpowered weapons in the game’s history. Then, on Thursday, Epic announced the Drum Gun would be coming to the game’s tournament…

Nothing Lasts Forever In Fortnite

Fortnite Battle Royale’s season nine has transformed the game’s world once again, with a futuristic Tilted Towers and trippy, robotic character outfits. It’s also brought balance changes, including the curious decision to retire one of the game’s oldest weapons. The pump shotgun is going in the vault, and it’s a reminder that nothing really lasts…

Fortnite‘s New Season Gives Tilted Towers A Cyberpunk Overhaul

Fortnite Season 9 is here, and things look pretty different. There are new buildings, new ways to get around the map, and a lot of things floating in the sky. Over the weekend, the game’s volcano erupted, causing molten rocks to destroy different parts of the map. With the dawning of Season 9, we have…

Fortnite‘s Vault Opens, Volcano Destroys Tilted Towers

Fortnite’s vault opened today in Loot Lake, after weeks of chasing runes across the map. There were conflicting opinions about what it would do, but it seems to have done…everything? At 3pm Eastern, the countdown over Loot Lake ended, the sky darkened, and the vault opened. Jumping into the brightly-colored pit sent players to a…

Esports team Rise Nation has released Fortnite players XXiF and Ronaldotv from its roster following World Cup cheating allegations, the team tweeted last night. XxiF was accused of teaming, and Epic later removed him from the World Cup rankings. According to Dexerto, Ronaldo has been accused of teaming with the players who allegedly helped XXiF…

Epic Games announced that based on its own internal investigation, a group of players colluded during last weekend’s World Cup Open Qualifiers and as a result will undergo a 14-day competitive ban. Though Epic did not name him, XXiF, accused of cheating earlier this week, has been stripped of his qualification spot.

That Video Game Scene In Avengers: Endgame

Ever since Tony Stark exclaimed “That man is playing Galaga!” during the first Avengers movie, gamers have been waiting for another video game reference to show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Okay, not really, but Avengers: Endgame sure did give us a big video game scene, right? Let’s talk about it. The first chunk…

Epic Removed A Popular Fortnite Mechanic Because It Made People Play Less

Epic has finally addressed Fortnite’s controversial 8.20 patch, which removed a popular mechanic from the main game by which players would get health and shields when they eliminated opponents. According to Epic, the mechanic, called “siphoning,” made players avoid the main battle royale mode. In a competitive update today, Epic reiterated their initial reason for…

Fortnite‘s Endgame Mode Is Fun Whether You’re Wielding Avengers Weapons Or Being Thanos

Even if you’re not a Marvel fan (I’m not), Fortnite’s Avengers tie-in, Fortnite Endgame, is a lot of fun. It continues the game’s recent trend of unique limited-time modes that barely feel like Fortnite but still fit right into its world. As my colleague Mike Fahey detailed this morning, Fortnite Endgame pits two sides against…

Thanos Returns In Fortnite‘s Avengers: Endgame Event, And He’s Got Company

Last year Thanos rampaged across Fortnite Battle Royale’s island, taking out players left and right as part ofan epic Avengers: Infinity War tie-in. Now the Mad Titan is back, backed by a team of Chitauri warriors and opposed by a team of heroes wielding Avengers weapons in the limited-time Fortnite Endgame event. Rather than pitting…

The Fortnite World Cup Is Worth Watching, Despite Its Flaws

Over the last two weekends, I’ve obsessively watched the Fortnite World Cup tournaments. I turn on the long broadcasts while cleaning the house or cooking, certainly tormenting my neighbors with hours of esports shoutcasting. It’s introducing me to new players and techniques, and it’s inspiring me to get better at the game. Watching competitive Fortnite…

Report: Fortnite Developers Describe Severe Ongoing Crunch

Crunch is a widespread disease in the gaming industry, sometimes forcing developers to pull 16-hour workdays or six-day work weeks to finish a game on an over-ambitious timeline. Today, a new report from Polygon detailed how the developers of Fortnite, a game that technically is never finished, can suffer through crunch to keep the blockbuster…

Epic Has Caught Over 1000 Fortnite World Cup Cheaters So Far

Epic Games revealed some statistics about cheating in last weekend’s Fortnite World Cup opens today, including actions taken against over 1,200 accounts for various forms of cheating. Cheating has been a hot topic in competitive Fortnite this week. The esports team Kaliber released one player, Johnathan Kosmala, for cheating during the World Cup qualifiers; Kosmala…

The Fortnite World Cup will have a Creative competition, Epic announced today. Trials will run from April 29 to June 7 and feature five different community-made Creative games. Players can submit clips of themselves running the modes, and the top selected player from each trial will earn a spot in the finals in New York.…

Fortnite’s Dog Petting Sucks

Fortnite’s latest update brings aerial battles, but it also quietly introduced what should have been a very welcome feature: the ability to pet dogs (and cats, and other animals). It’s a pity, then, that it sucks. Before we go any further, for reference here is some good video game dog petting, courtesy of Far Cry…

Fortnite‘s New Air Royale Mode Is Chaotic Fun

While I played Fortnite’s new limited-time mode, Air Royale, my colleague Cecilia looked over my shoulder and said, “This isn’t the game I used to play.” Air Royale barely feels like Fortnite, but it’s a lot of fun. The new LTM showed up in today’s 8.40 patch. In it, 12 duos are put in Stormwing…

Here’s Brazilian Fortnite player zCharlees_ pulling off a wild three eliminations with the Boom Bow in the Fortnite World Cup Week 1 finals. North American East and West finals are still to come if you want to join me in saying “OK, just one more match” and then continuing to watch.

The Good And Bad Of Fortnite‘s New Respawn System

Fortnite’s reboot vans are here, and now I have even more time to yell “please get over here!” at my teammates. Last week, Epic announced reboot vans for Fortnite. The vans let teammates in the popular battle royale game respawn each other. They were added to the game today, appearing at points of interest around…

Fortnite Battle Royale: The Kotaku Review

It’s hard to say how Fortnite is turning out because it keeps turning into something else. Skins and storylines come and go. Landmarks appear and disappear. Weapons are added and removed. Recently, a mysterious excavation site appeared, but it was dug up and abandoned by the time I got there the next day. As I’m…

Epic Games Is Spending $500,000 Just So Competitive Fortnite Players Can Practice

It’s a light weekend for esports, save for Epic Games’ Fortnite World Cup Warm Up. It’s a two-day mini-tournament which, because it’s Fortnite, will nevertheless include a $500,000 prize divided up among hundreds of winners. Competitive Fortnite’s World Cup event is slated to take place in July. Before that, teams will compete in a series…