The new Alienware m15 is quite possibly one of the loveliest gaming laptops I’ve ever tested. I’m a sucker for anything red (it’s my favourite colour) but when you stick it on a chassis that stands just 21mm high off the ground and weighs a comparatively non-brick-like 2.16kg with a Core i7-8750H and a GTX 1070 inside it, you have my full and undivided attention.
Fortnite hides a deceptively high skill ceiling beyond its veneer of seeming simplicity. In order to win fights and matches with any consistency, you’ll have to familiarise yourself not only with the game’s many weapons, items, and locations across its giant map, but also a whole heap of interlocking mechanics such as health and shields, building and editing, escaping the Storm, piloting vehicles, and much more.
So we’ve put together the below Fortnite guides series, packed with all the most up-to-date information on how to get set up, how to build and edit properly, weapon stats, best locations to drop, in-depth explanations of weapon classes and weekly challenges… All with the ultimate goal of equipping you with the knowledge to improve your game ten times over.
Season 8 of Fortnite is looming closer and closer, set to arrive in just over a month. So it’s about time we set a weather eye on the horizon and delve into all the theories, easter eggs, and information we’ve found on what to expect in this new season.
Our Fortnite Season 8 guide is full to bursting with everything we know about the upcoming Season 8 release, detailing its start date as well as the most likely theories regarding map changes, skins, themes, and much more. So without further ado, let’s dive in!
Thursday 28 February is when Season 7 of Fortnite is set to end, and Season 8 to begin. According to Epic Games, the end of Season 7 was delayed by two weeks beyond the customary ten weeks, so that the team could take a two-week break over Christmas.
Epic’s usual approach is to bring their servers offline at around 8 AM GMT to start off the new season, and the downtime usually lasts three-to-four hours. But after that, we’ll all be free to explore the new map and Battle Pass together for (presumably) the next ten weeks, meaning Season 8 will be with us until Thursday 9 May, whereupon Season 9 will begin.
One recent discovery hidden in Fortnite’s map, which may indicate the theme of Season 8’s skins and Battle Pass, was a cluster of what appear to be giant dragon eggs under the castle atop Polar Peak. What’s more, you can clearly hear heartbeats emanating from the eggs if you are near enough to them – so whatever is inside is definitely alive, and waiting for the right moment to hatch.
This prompted reddit user LethalSnowmeme to post a lengthy theory explaining how we might soon see a resurgence of medieval and Arthurian-themed skins and phenomena for Season 8, much like we saw in Season 2, which brought with it numerous knight skins and accompanying cosmetic items. Backing up this claim is a recent update to Fortnite’s Save The World mode, which introduces a new medieval weapons set; and the previous release of the (hilariously game-breaking) Infinity Blade, which also resided atop Polar Peak, and alluded to Epic Games’s mobile game of the same name, which features a great deal of knightly and medieval imagery and themes.
Oh, and guess what? The Infinity Blade game also features dragons.
Whether we’ll see dragons taking the form of cosmetics such as dragon-bone pickaxes, or just as part of the spectacle which brings about the change in seasons remains unclear… But now that Epic have dipped their toes in the waters of aerial combat with the Stormwings, many players are asking whether it’s too far out of the realms of possibility that we might get rideable dragons. Or might we somehow be able to harness the power of the dragons in order to create new elemental weapons? Only time will tell; fortunately we won’t have too long to wait.
(Above footage source)>
Rumours of what the overarching theme of Season 8 might be were also kickstarted by the appearance of a mysterious giant sphere of ice, poised in the sky just above Polar Peak, within which the Ice King resided for a short time. Just this past weekend, an in-game event witnessed by many thousands of players simultaneously saw the Ice King emerge from his icy bubble and cast an ice storm which blanketed the entire map in snow, and unleashed icy versions of the zombies we last saw around Halloween of 2018 across the island. If you missed it, take a look at these cinematic shots caught by Reddit user “savage_star_gaming” below.
All this points to one thing: fire and ice both have major roles to play in the coming weeks. The Ice Storm was predicted by a great many people after the sphere first appeared, and we believe this only consolidates our theory that Season 8 will bring a great deal of water to the map as the ice and snow thaws away in the transition from Winter to Spring. It may even be that the eggs hatch in the next in-game event, and fire-breathing dragons cause the island to thaw into its Season 8 form in a matter of seconds.
But, I hear you ask, if we’re to see a multitude of springs and lakes crop up across the map in Season 8, won’t this be treading on Loot Lake’s toes a little? And water isn’t exactly the most fun terrain to navigate through, anyway, right?
That’s why some players are theorising that we’ll see some changes made to how players interact with water for Season 8. Perhaps instead of treading water we’ll be able to submerge ourselves completely? And with the recent expansion of Fortnite’s arsenal of vehicles, might we expect boat and submarines to make their first appearances? If this is indeed the case, it’s fun just imagining how the introduced verticality of underwater play might affect build battles and final circle fights.
The other question to ask is how existing locations might change, and whether new ones will be added and old favourites taken away. The advent of Season 7 disposed of Risky Reels, Greasy Grove, and Flush Factory. The first few weeks of Season 6 was dominated by a floating island that moved across the map from match to match. Travel back even further, and old favourites such as Moisty Mire were discarded in favour of new hotspots such as Paradise Palms and Westworld.
So how can we expect our favourite spots to fare against the onset of Season 8? A sudden thaw might well turn Polar Peak into an enormous 360-degree waterfall surrounded by lakes, or some similar striking landmark. We’ll presumably also see a new Loot Lake rival in the form of the frozen lake just north of Polar Peak.
But now that the snow has covered the entire map, we may well see major changes not just in the south-west corner but to other areas of the map which have remained untouched for a long time, such as Junk Junction, Pleasant Park, Lucky Landing, or Salty Springs. It feels like the north-east section of the island is overdue some major changes. They added The Block, admittedly; but compared to the major towns in the other areas of the map, there’s still comparatively little to lure players to the top-left corner.
Whatever the changes may be, it’s safe to expect they will be elemental> in nature, the result of either fire or ice – or perhaps both forces together.
That’s just about everything we know so far on the upcoming arrival of Season 8 of Fortnite Battle Royale; but do check back here for all the latest information, as we track the activities of the map, the sphere, and everything else we deem to be of interest. In the meantime, do check out our [cms-block] series, which contains all sorts of useful explanations, tips and strategies on how to become a seasoned Fortnite killer, including detailed explanations of all the [cms-block], guides on the various [cms-block], a full rundown of all the best [cms-block] for loot and safety, and much more.
Giants Software have announced that Farming Simulator 19 is moving into esports with the launch of its own league this year. Yes, I was also confused.
It seems that following the success of the first series of Farming Simulator Championships last year, Giants Software have created the franchise’s first, fully-fledged esports league. (more…)
Wargroove, the adorable looking Advance Wars-alike from Chucklefish is set to besiege my heart on February 1st. The fantasy turn-based strategy game was high on my 2018 most-wanted list until it slipped to this year, and I’m excited to see if it passes muster. It may be swapping out cartoony modern armies for fantasy kingdoms, but almost everything else is familiar, right down to the battle animations and a range of playable commanders (one of which is a dog) with their own perks. Below, a release date trailer that could only be more anime if it had lyrics to sing along to.
It s not often I get to play a game for 187 hours before reviewing it. Hell, it’s not often I play a game for 187 hours. Deck-building, singleplayer roguelite Slay The Spire, which gets a full release today after just over a year in early access, has me on its hook.
Traditionally, I look at a number like that and hate myself so much time wasted pursuing incremental item upgrades in an MMO or Diablolike, or, God help me, watching pretend numbers go eternally up in a clicker game. A number like that generally means I lost myself to something unhealthy, like a toddler set loose in a ball-pit full of popping candy. And so I snarl at myself in the mirror, and swear myself off such practices for life. Until the next time.
I look at those 187 hours in Slay The Spire and I don t feel that way. I feel… pride? I think all that time, and I m still not tired of this wonderful toy. Do it again, do it again! (more…)
Entering into its deeply peculiar world, Strange Telephone offered up so many things I love. A bizarre, bulky aesthetic, creepy undertones and surreal locations, and a unique mechanic that made exploration feel novel and interesting. Until it really, really didn’t. In words I never thought I’d type, this is a game that’s too strange.
Pre-loading has begun for the Anthem demo weekend, so you can download in advance if you fancy trying BioWare’s new cooperative sci-fi shoot-o-RPG. Given that it’s a 43.54 gigabyte download, you probably shouldn’t wait until the demo weekend starts next week to get that going. Because I’m a total goofus who’ll try any game which lets me fly around in a power armour I can customise, I have already started downloading it myself.
Oh look, a new SteamWorld game. What a juicy, nourishing videogame fact to share with all my friends, the readers. SteamWorld Quest: The Hand Of Gilgamech is a card-based follow-up to SteamWorld Heist and the SteamWorld Digs, all very wholesome games that can actually be completed by human beings. This new one is a turn-based fantasy card game that looks a bit like undying god of games, Slay The Spire. It was announced during one of Nintendo s state-sponsored broadcasts, because it s coming to Switch first. But it is headed to other platforms as well, say the developers. And that means PC. Here s a trailer, covered in filthy, disgusting Nintendo iconography.
Who says cheaters never prosper? Grand Theft Auto 5 has been wildly popular for years and if the internet is to be believed, you all still want to mess around with cheat codes in the single player campaign. Don’t worry, we’ve got ya and we won’t squeal. Our GTA 5 cheat guide will go over all of the cheats, in both cell phone number and command code variants. (more…)