As regular viewers of our YouTube channel will know, myself and the rest of the video team are huge fans of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. It's not just the game we've fallen in love with though, I've also been spending an unhealthy amount of my time with the Replay Mode.
Using this virtual theatre, players are able to re-watch past matches from whatever perspective they like, providing a great way to learn new tactics and flanking routes.
The Replay system serves another purpose though, that of making movies. I've already made two for our YouTube channel and you can find both embedded throughout this article.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds developer Bluehole has offered more insight into its plans to tackle cheaters, and shared further details on its new anti-cheat measures - which launched on the game's test servers in a recent update and will go live for all PC players next week.
Speaking in a new Steam Community blog post, Dohyung Lee, Bluehole's head of service management & anti-cheat, reaffirmed the developer's stance on cheating, and explained the measures it's currently taking to prevent it.
"'Play Fair and Respect Other Players' is a principle around which our game is built," said Lee, "To get the full Battle Royale experience, all 100 players must play fair. This is why we have been following the above principle of fair play and respect for others since the first pre-alpha test in July 2016. "
When Epic added a battle royale mode to Fortnite in September last year, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds publisher Bluehole was pretty upset.
"We are concerned that Fortnite may be replicating the experience for which PUBG is known," said Chang Han Kim, then its executive producer and now CEO of PUBG Corporation, which today runs the breakout shooter. The press release listed concerns over similarities in user interface, gameplay and 'structural replication' between the two games, and made a vague threat about potential legal action, which hasn't apparently gone anywhere.
Fortnite now has 45 million players, which is probably greater than the number which plays PUBG, and Battle Royale mode is what they play. That has to hurt. But it's not to say PUBG has much of a leg to stand on. "Look, I don't claim ownership," Brendan 'PlayerUnknown' Greene told Rock Paper Shotgun last summer. "So, it's a last-man standing deathmatch. That's been around since people could pick up clubs and hit each other. I would never claim ownership over that ... I love to see what the genre has created. It's various versions on something that I guess I popularised, you know? The idea itself is not mine."
Developer Bluehole has released a new update for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds on PC, this one aiming to improve the divisive play experience of the game's recently released desert map, as well as offering enhancements to its new anti-cheat system.
Battlegrounds' desert map, also known as Miramar, now features more off-road routes for easier vehicle navigation, changes to item spawning in certain areas for better loot balance, and additional buildings and cover across the map - all designed, says Bluehole in its latest patch notes, "to improve the engagement experience".
Many players in the Battlegrounds community have expressed dissatisfaction with Miramar and have, in the absence of an in-game map selection option (although one is apparently incoming), taken it upon themselves to find ways to remove it from play - ranging from manually deleting the relevant game files to deploying tools that automate the process.
Today brings another update to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds on Xbox One - this one themed around vehicles. In short, it's now a lot better to be on foot.
Weapon damage to vehicles has been increased, and "significantly" increased if you manage to get a shot in on a vehicle's tyres. Grenade damage to vehicles has also been buffed.
Alongside these changes, you'll take slightly less damage if you get rammed by a vehicle. Finally, for those behind the wheel, you'll take more damage if you crash into objects or other cars/buggies. The full patch notes can be found over on reddit.
The Xbox One version of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has passed four million players.
It's an incredible milestone for a game which launched barely a month ago, and which just passed the three million player milestone a fortnight back.
In celebration, all Xbox One players who own the game as of 31st January will be gifted 30k Battle Points to spend on cosmetic crates.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is making changes to its delightfully chaotic pre-match meet-ups in an effort to improve performance and reduce the strain on its servers.
Battlegrounds is somewhat known for its wonky performance issues, and developer Bluehole has pledged to do everything it can to improve the situation. As part of its latest update efforts, players will no longer spawn together at the same starting location before a match. Instead, according to the developer's most recent Steam Community post, multiple pre-match gathering areas have now been introduced on both maps to spread out players.
It doesn't stop there though; Bluehole has also removed weapons on the starting island before a match - all of which means that there'll likely be considerably less of Battlegrounds' wonderfully/obnoxiously ridiculous pre-game chaos (as briefly immortalised in the video above) before the serious business of frantically killing everyone gets underway.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds test servers are getting a series of tweaks to adjust the game's infamous blue zone - the electrical field of death which constricts play space.
Three main changes are on the way, all of which will impact the "mid-to-late phase" of a PUBG round.
First, blue zone waiting times will slightly decrease - so you'll have to hotfoot it a bit quicker.
In one month, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds - you might have heard of it - has amassed 3 million players on Xbox One. This doesn't equate exactly to sales (as many of you have pointed out - my apologies) as multiple accounts can access a game on an Xbox One. PUBG raced to 1 million players in 48 hours on Xbox One.
Microsoft announced the milestone overnight, clearly pleased with itself for bringing the gaming sensation of 2017 to Xbox One before Sony looks anywhere near doing similar for PlayStation 4.
Remember, PUBG is available unfinished on Xbox One via the Xbox Game Preview programme - a kind of early access service Sony does not offer in any form on PlayStation 4. Microsoft also worked on the Xbox One conversion itself, keen to strike while the iron was hot.
Forget the silly patch notes - there are new PUBG costumes in town (on the PC test server)! Now you can dress up like a Biker or a Desperado!
The words are capitalised because they're the name of two new PUBG crates, each of which come with a whole pile of fancy dress to pop on. There's all the leather you'd expect from a Biker crate, plus a polka dot t-shirt, gas mask - for some reason - and much more. The Desperado crate, meanwhile, has awesome-looking spiky punk knuckle gloves. There's no gameplay advantage to what you wear other than stunning players with your remarkable eye for an outfit, or lack thereof.
If you're on the test server you'll be given keys and Battle Points to access the chests. Which of the four chests you'll receive is random, as are the contents, but it's weighted 40 per cent to 10 per cent in favour of the new chests, apparently, and the drop rates of contents are openly divulged.