Heeho weewo, it's-a Fortnite time! Me asf when I'm told we have soulless crossovers at the function. Hol on I'm dropping the Pit Fortnite log history bcuz shit goes uga bunga: I played for like, a month, july 2018 to have some fun with big friends of mine with wallets nearly as big. Then Unreal Engine 5 edition dripped circa recently idk, and that prompted to see what's poppin'. Hm, either much falsehood or I dont realize how much changed. A classic case of Mandela effect amongst PS3 fans "b-b-but the remaster looks the same!!" yes it does, but maybe you just haven't realised it didnt look as good looking back! It's a coin of the toss! Ahem ahem.

So, about the real noticeable changes, are a whole new map (it be rotating) and different core movement. Also more immersion when you gargle on Walter White's liquid blue meth. Hnnnh I love the obvious bots roaming around that a non-specific noob can kill! She's so crazy!! 🤪 No more are the days of tipping off the bus drivers and dropping on Tilted Towers then dropping in Tilted Towers to a suspiciously wealthy in construction materials mf. Same vibes as dropping on a villa and getting jumped by NPCs. Aint that some shit. Thankfully I had a teammate protecting me. Inshallah thank you I would not know of the new mechanics without a wonderful guide (and a great shot).

Before I knew it wouldn't be hard to find my footing, I went on the map creator and tested out a...well, test map. Wait no first I had to see a trailer and then it gave me a starter pack and then that. I havent touched Festival or anything aside from unranked really and I find it odd how they force me to check out lego skins when I'm browsing the shop, wallet thrown outside the window to make sure I dont act before I think. All of it was overthinking, I was a floss boy, she was a Legussy girl.

Fortnite is an incredibly important video game which has been dishevelled from it’s rightful place as a beloved titan of the video game landscape, missing out on the respect and legacy it so dearly deserves. It was a game that encapsulated the hearts of so many upon it’s release, but quickly drew controversy primarily as a result of it’s success. It became a hot topic in discussions around addiction in video games, the controversial use of microtransactions, and on it’s impact on children regarding screen-time and distractions from school. Whilst these criticisms are fair, it’s important to recognise Fortnite is praiseworthy on several fronts, and as a review on the experience it offers I can only find praise swarming my mind when it comes to this video game.

As much as people don’t want to admit, this game is innovative in fun. There are countless opportunities to make fun within the game. Fortnite not only has incredibly satisfying gunplay and unique building gameplay but also innovates on the movement aspect of the game. Since it’s inception, Fortnite has added several opportunities for fun ways to get around the map aside from utilising the building mechanics. This includes a huge array of power ups that grant the ability to move with style, such as flying with a jetpack, swinging with either a grappling hook, ODM Gear from Attack on Titan, or Spiderman’s iconic web shooters, but also use shockwave grenades to launch you or your friends into the action. This in combination with the huge array of vehicles leads to an exciting way to traverse the map in new and interesting ways. You can also vault, grab onto ledges, slide jump, and sprint around the various locales, offering one of the most entertaining movement systems in a video game currently.

The seasonal format keeps the game fresh, introducing new gameplay gimmicks, a brand new arsenal of weaponry to experiment with, the aforementioned new movement techniques, and varied locations to explore and loot. This keeps the game from growing stale as many others in the genre have fallen victim to. There are also live events, that vary from cataclysmic lore-changing battles, to live concerts with some of the most renowned music artists in the world. The cosmetic and seasonal aspect of Fortnite is a breeding ground for excitement and hype, to the point where there will most likely always be a reason to revisit Fortnite even if you decide to take a prolonged break from the game. Fortnite evolves on a regular basis, what began as a fort-building wave-based shooter, turned into an iconic battle royale, but has now established itself as a platform for experiences derived from user creativity. This allows Fortnite to thrive, creating a whole plethora of minigames and modes to experience alike Halo 3 custom games or Roblox, which adds even more replayability and discoverability within the game.

Whilst many players, especially more disgruntled older player bases, will see collaborations with media titans like Marvel, Dragon Ball, and DC as cash-grabs, I see these as a fulfilment of childhood wonder. I would have dreamt for an experience like this as a child, to be able to play as your favourite characters across fiction in a near infinite number of game-modes, its just an opportunity for some innocent joy. I am not an advocate for microtransactional battle-pass oriented games, and a lot of criticism has been directed to Fortnite for these reasons which I completely empathise and understand. However, I think for what the market is, the game offers fair prices, with interesting and varied collaborations with licenced properties sprinkled in with some excellent original designs.

The art style that Fortnite has embodied is colourful and vibrant, setting itself apart from other shooters and battle royale games that focus on realism. The visual design allows for the game to achieve a timeless look that facilitates crossovers with various franchises whereby the characters are well-represented but also means that the game is accessible to more people on more systems with lower specs and allows cross-play so friends aren’t locked out of playing together. Although a certain portion of the video game community as a result sees the game as childish, it is insecure to think that of the game purely because of the art style especially in spite of the fact that it tends to look and function better than most.

Fortnite’s reputation was soured following updates and the increase in skill-level of those devoted to playing, especially when it came to the building mechanics. For those who struggle to meet the pace of experienced builders in the default battle royale mode, Fortnite also offers a no-build mode which is structured entirely around the gunplay and movement of the game. This focuses on the aforementioned movement and gunplay taking the spotlight, providing even more opportunities for casuals or newer players to enjoy the experience without the added pressure of learning the unique building mechanics that are specific to Fortnite. This is also a testament to the committed development team at EPIC that listen extensively to the community to bring new and exciting ways to play to their player base.

Despite the high skill cap within the player base it remains a game whereby anyone can win. It encourages different playstyles, you can play aggressively running in any direction you hear gun fire to get involved in the action, or you can play mostly passively, avoiding confrontation and waiting for your time to strike. Fortnite is a fantastic vessel for entertainment for both competitive players and casuals alike. It accommodates those who play videogames for fun and those who compete at the highest level to win. It is accessible to all ages.

Aside from the extremely valid criticisms around the monetary issues of Fortnite, I feel the vast majority of resentment towards the game is unfounded and unfair. Video games like Fortnite wouldn’t stick around simply due to having licenced characters and following hot trends, look at Fall Guys for example. The truth is the fundamentals of Fortnite are enjoyable to their core, it is filled to the seams with content, challenges, lore, and makes for an excellent game to play with friends or solo. I will defend this game to the death of me, it is a generational game and excels in everything it wants to be and more.

I have never understood Fortnite.

I get why people love it so much. My siblings, god bless their hearts, fell in love with this thing a year ago, so I've played with them a few times and seen the dances they bought for their characters and the skins they've unlocked. And I get the appeal of that. I don't get the appeal of the game itself.

I like the individual aspects on display. The respawn mechanic would be a great idea in a game with smaller maps and more to do (See: The Finals). The little side-quests and distractions are cute and add a lot of flavor to what is otherwise a pretty bland experience. The art style is very well-developed, and each area on the map is distinct enough to serve as a fun little playground on its own. I love the shrinking circle mechanic—again, give me smaller maps, and I'll appreciate it more.

Put all of those aspects together, though, and... I don't know, it just feels kind of unfocused? There are certainly rounds where everything clicks into place, and there's a high-voltage rush to the finish line that permeates through every shot fired. But there are twice as many rounds where over half the time you spend playing is dicking around, waiting for conflict to happen. And then conflict does happen; everybody dies, game over, and the next round is the exact same fucking thing. Ad nauseam. The last five minutes of those rounds are suuuper fun, if you ignore the fact that everything before them was just whatever.

As someone who tried to get into Fortnite to play with my siblings, I also have to say that I'm not a fan of the bots. Listen, I loved playing botmatches on Unreal Tournament 3 and TimeSplitters Future Perfect back then. The thing is, I chose to have those experiences. I was given an option. It's called an option, a fucking option. If you want newer players to play around with bots so they get used to the game, encourage that. Please, don't hoist your 10 IQ, braindead bots on the siblings of those who just want to connect with their family. It's not fun, and it makes me appreciate your game less because it shows you have absolutely no confidence in giving me any choice. Also, what if I wanted to play with bots more often after I escaped the bot gulag? Why is it "We add bots to fill a lobby sometimes" and not, "Hey, if you wanted to play exclusively with bots, there's a mode for that"? You might say that Fortnite is targeting a much younger audience than Unreal or TimeSplitters, to which I have to respond that I played both as a child.

I don't know. I guess I like this game? But I don't love it. I can tell it's the sort of thing that's more fun after you've poured a ton of time into it on your own. The battle passes in this weren't influential enough for every multiplayer game following its smashing success to have one for no reason. But I dunno; I just don't feel like it. It doesn't click with me, and that's a real shame.

guy who has played 10 video games: we gotta hop on Fortnite dude this new season is peak

guy who has played 100 video games: final fantasy 6 is a narrative masterpiece [6 hour video essay]

guy who has played 1000 video games: dude we have to hop on Fortnite this new season is peak

Não me orgulho, mas fui crítico e tive preconceito com Fortnite por muito tempo, acho que muito disso deve-se ao modo construção, que era praticamente impossível de competir com a criançada que não tem responsabilidades e possuem tempo de sobra pra tryhardar o dia todo.
Porém, quando fui experimentar, tive uma grande surpresa; UMA EXPERIÊNCIA DIVERTIDÍSSIMA.
Por mais que as vezes o jogo coloque uns itens quebrados, na maior parte do tempo a grande variedade dos itens são muito boas.
Diferente de League of Legends, no Fortnite você consegue se divertir mesmo se seu time for muito ruim e/ou você perder a partida.
A melhor coisa do jogo, em minha humilde opinião, é o modo sem construção, pois ele remove a barreira de tempo/complexidade que o outro modo oferece.
A skins e os modelos 3D do jogo então, sem comentários, feitos com muito carinho pela equipe artística (menos aqueles de animes aí que ficam meio esquisitos, como Naruto, Goku e etc...), e as parcerias com outras franquias tornam tudo ainda melhor, com o único ponto negativo sendo que muito dos conteúdos são conteúdo legado, tornando impossível começar uma coleção ou algo do tipo para jogadores iniciantes.
Em suma, um jogo que oferece diversão mesmo se você tiver a habilidade cognitiva de um esquilo caolho.
Tempo de jogo: 100+ horas

A cultural phenomena and zeitgeist of the mutiplayer experience

The multiplayer experience has never been so varied and open as it has been before. So many titles and genres to jump into and various ways to play them. From playing a fighting game against someone across the street to having that same match from someone across the world or gathering friends in a discord call to play "the usual" team based/battle royale game after a shift of work or getting home from school. We can even emulate consoles and play their initial local multiplayer counterpart with people from across the country, I can finally get a partner for Ratchet: Deadlocked since finding a partner will be nigh impossible in this day and age. I can't speak for everyone but from my experience talking to people online and in real life, we tend to have that "usual" title we jump into that we love despite the modern grievances that the mainline multiplayer titles have. I've essentially gone on a journey of playing Fortnite seriously for the first time this year playing every season of Chapter 4, playing Save the World to endgame and exploring the bottomless void that is Creative and what it brings to the game. There's so much to unpack and I apologize if things get extremely long winded. This is the longest I've played something other than Team Fortress 2 or Overwatch that I wanted to dedicate my thoughts to.

Crossing over

Getting a little ahead of myself and going a bit backwards at the same time, Fortnite has become this huge collaboration of media and pop culture to the point it has become part of Fortnite's identity. Despite this, I feel like there's a popular progenitor to this sort of crossing over that multiplayer shooters that somehow feels overlooked and not at the same time. My cumulative coming of age multiplayer experience has been playing Team Fortress 2 during the worst of times growing up. Valve was really ahead of times with some of the best (and worst) of things that would become huge mainstays in multiplayer experiences such as lootboxes and battle passes but that wasn't all they did. I might be wrong since I'm having trouble finding earlier examples but it was one of the first multiplayer shooters if not the first one that has collaborated with media and video game franchises bringing them into their own universe. From big names such as Assassin's Creed, Bioshock and even Alien at the time, there was something cool about playing Team Fortress 2 wearing the hood from Assassin's Creed while using the same hidden knife as a spy knife reskin. Something I've always wanted to mention is that Fortnite sort of just has this "TF2 energy" to me that feels like game isn't focused on purely a competitive spirit but more about just having fun.

Saving the World

In 2011, Epic Games announced a new project that shows off a post apocalyptic setting, cartoon artstyle and the process of building your own structures. It must have been an interesting direction to go in considering 2011's current trends in gaming, Skyrim has just released last month and Call of Duty and Battlefield are duking it out for the first person multiplayer title. I can't speak much on the earlier state of Save the World because I wasn't there and I'm sure a plethora of updates have changed the experience substantially so I'll be describing my own experience into "completing" Save The World. This consists of completely every main quest up and reaching a power level of 100 at the writing of this review. Playing Save The World is fun yet extremely grindy to say things in the most simplest of terms. The main fun factor of Save The World is the hero build variety, huge weapon variety, trap variety and how you can set up these structures and traps. There's so many ways you can tackle objectives and flexibility in how you can build death tunnels or a fort of death that really tickles the creative part of the brain for me. There's also a huge amount of weapons that do different things and I'm almost certain you'll find that exact weapon you're looking for. From hard hitting shotguns, bows that split into several arrows, bows that go through the entire map, burst rifles, light machine guns and so forth along with goofy modifiers. The same can be said about the traps too and how you can combo some of them for great effect. The only main thing I feel like that can deter people from really getting into this mode is the lack of support and how much time it's really gonna take to get into the higher echelons of the game. In essentially grinding for 6 hours a day for a month, it took me that long to finish the main quest and reach said power level of 100 and that's a huge amount of time to put into a game. The game doesn't really give you enough of anything in a proper pace to do fun things like make the traps and weapons of your liking and if you even want a specific weapon, you're going to need to find that schematic for it and level it up properly. The main things that you'll be improving and progressing is your commander (the character you'll play), a squad of survivors that server as your power level approximation, schematics for traps and weapons that need to be upgraded at certain points along with perk resources used to respec said schematics and improve the traits of them to your own liking. Getting survivors and heroes really feels reminiscent of a gacha game except you can't spend any money on trying to pull more anymore. As of the writing of this review, you can only spend in game resources to get more chances to get something and you cannot use V-bucks (Fortnite's micro-transaction currency). Doing the Storm Shield defenses is probably the most it felt like the original point of the game in that you make a huge base and defend against huge waves of enemies. I really enjoy this aspect in its most simple aspect but grinding the materials to make even more traps to my liking is already taking too much time as it is. Save The World eventually just becomes a game I play in the background while listening to a podcast or long form video.

An important thing to mention is that people who have gotten Founder's Editions of Fortnite during the early days have a special perk in that not only do they get X-Ray Tickets (the in game resource for getting llamas which are essentially lootboxes) but they also get V-bucks for every daily and mission alert as well. This is a huge incentive for a lot of people to play Save The World if you manage to become a Founder, you can technically still grab a Founder's code but the price approx for one is around the $200 USD range, if you love the game that much then it might be worth it but know what you're getting into

Addendum: Ventures

Something I once again forgot to mention is what keeps people playing after they get the max power level and the maxed schematics they want. This brings us to Ventures, Fortnite's Save the World seasonal mode in a sense. It lets players start from scratch in the simplest of terms and work their way up in a more accelerated pace in exchange for extremely hard to get endgame rewards. Ventures progression is separate but you can get evolution materials and other schematics for the main game doing this so it might be worth doing this especially for the vouchers and other hard to get stuff. It's more of a grind to take advantage of this but if you love Save The World, there's a rotational seasonal mode for you to always start fresh. There's no new seasons exactly and it's all more of a rotation of the usual stuff at this point though so don't expect much changes after experiencing Ventures after a year.

Experiences with Battle Royale: Chapter 4


I can't stress this enough that I'm fairly new to the Fortnite experience, I got into it via a friend in Chapter 4: Season 1 playing Zero Build and I was surprised which how fluid the game felt and the variety in the gameplay for each situation had. It's hard to deny that without the out of nowhere battle royale inclusion in 2017 that I wouldn't be writing this review but it's worth having a conversation about the stereotype Fortnite's multiplayer experience seems to have throughout the years with an older demographic that Fortnite is just mostly for cringy kids or something when I feel like Fortnite is more of a game for every single age group compared to other battle royales in the market. I was one of the people to quickly dismiss this game because of that association while I ended up playing Apex and Warzone, fun games in their own rights but taking things for granted in a sense. I'll talk more about this when I go over monetization. Something I've learned to appreciate about this game is that it's really easy to get people in general to play it which is a miracle in my friend groups as they vie for different titles. I'll be giving quick thoughts about every season I've played and then follow by what I like and don't like that Fortnite does in the general state of Battle Royale.


Chapter 4: Season 1 "A New Beginning"

My first foray into Fortnite and it was actually great, I didn't experience too much of this season as I got really into it at the tail end but it was just fun and ridiculous with the hammer and using Deku's Smash against buildings. Wish I had the chance to play this season more.

Chapter 4: Season 2 "MEGA"

This was where I started to get serious about the game. It was definitely a decent season due to the vast mobility options this season gave with ODM gear, the kinetic blade and the eventual Spider-Man gloves making a return. Only caveat was it felt like you had to do the same things every game to win like getting to loot island to get slurp juice and the overpowered pulse rifle, it was really giving people like a 30% extra chance of winning if you got that stuff and there wasn't much variety in the weapons this time around. It was still pretty fun and wasn't the worst thing in the world but the aesthetic was great.

Chapter 4: Season 3 "WILDS"

The lead up to WILDS was pretty cool actually but unfortunately for this year's summer season, it did not live up to the expectations the community had. The jungle biome was mixed on me as I did like that it did spice up the map layout but after enough time, it felt extremely annoying to traverse and this wasn't help but the complete lack of high mobility in the game. We've gone from ODM gear, the Spider-Man mythic and the kinetic blade to literally nothing but shockwave grenades if you're in zero build. The new weapons were extremely cheesy barring the mammoth pistol which felt really fun to use actually. The season eventually got better with the addition of previously stated weapon and grapple gloves but it felt too little, too late by the time they arrived. A few of my friends almost quit the game because of this season and we were hoping the next one would make up for it.


Chapter 4: Season 4 "Last Resort"

At the time of writing this segment, we are around a little over two weeks into the new season with the first update right around the corner so these will be first impressions. It's a huge step up from the previous season in every way. The theme of it being a heist season is immaculate, the new weapons are fun to use along with the Rocket Ram and additional ways to grab shockwaves now much alleviating the past few problems with the last season. It just feels more chaotic and varied which I feel Fortnite truly shines in this aspect. Who knows how this season will pan out but it's a strong start so far.

Fortnite always changes things up every season which I've come to really respect and it helps make each season feel really different when competitors usually just bring minor additions to gameplay or the map itself that don't really help it differentiate from each other. I do want to talk about Battle Royale's two main modes here, regular Battle Royale and Zero Build. I haven't had that much experience playing the regular Battle Royale but it's true to the original Fortnite's roots of having building as a integral part of the gameplay and one of the main things that make it different to the other battle royales. My main problem with this is that it makes the game much harder to get into than other games that mostly rely on only movement and aiming, building can probably be mastered with muscle memory if you're serious enough but a lot of people in my age group don't have the time or play other games to really commit to this idea. The main mode I usually play is Zero Build, it's essentially Fortnite without building of any kind so you rely on the map more and movement in general. Players in Zero Build are generally more tankier to make up for this but it provides a shorter skill floor so new players can get into Fortnite and not feel intimidated when they go against someone who builds an apartment complex and rely on one shot shotgun fights to really play. I got nothing against the regular mode in saying this and I'm really glad Fortnite gives people the option to really let people play how they want to play which a lot of battle royales don't even do. A huge appeal to letting new players get into Fortnite is how it handles giving players bot games, I think it really helps with keeping players playing your game if they're getting kills even if they're not human because going against a complete sweat lobby like in Apex where there's no bots unless you're starting out is not fun in the casual playlist. Battle Royale means the crown jewel of the Fortnite experience (for now at least), a lot of progression ties into this mode and a lot of the changes that each season bring also tie into it.

The endless spiral of Creative

Something Fortnite has going for itself is that it's made by Epic Games, creator of the Unreal Engine which is one of the most popular game engines used today in gaming. Whenever tech gets updated for the Unreal Engine, Fortnite is usually one of the first if not the first game to utilize this tech and this also ties into letting players create brand new game modes, maps and even games within games themselves. The most recent notable example is someone creating an Only Up! map in Fortnite and it gaining as much traction as the original game. I think creative shines the most when it creates different game modes in my opinion, you can play the Fortnite version of gun game, team deathmatch and even prop hunt with creative. The best part about this is that this also helps with progression too since it counts towards leveling up as well. If you ever felt burnt out with Battle Royale, you can probably just hop into a gun game map or join a 1v1 map if you feel like improving your gameplay. There's a lot of options here making Creative really fill out the rest of the gameplay niches people are looking for in shooting games. I wouldn't be surprised if Epic tries to make this game like Roblox and focus more in this mode in the future.

The state of progression in multiplayer games

Like every modern multiplayer game in the space, we don't or rarely have lifetime progression systems anymore due to the fact that companies want to promote consistent playtime over huge bursts and then heavy burnout later on thus bringing in the battle pass system. A brief description of the battle pass system is usually a time limited (usually seasonal) progression system that promotes you playing every day to get the most value out of it once bought in and incorporates huge amounts of FOMO (fear of missing out). If you're someone like me though (sadly), you're probably grinding like two or three battle passes at a time in different games because those cosmetics you really want are only gonna be there for a season and then they're usually gone forever. I overall do hate the notion that battle passes make playing the game feel like a second job but I don't actually mind this system as long as they respect your time which a lot of them rarely do. Apex Legends has two progression systems which consists of a lifetime one granting you legend tokens and loot boxes and the battle pass progression system that grants you the seasonal rewards once bought in. I actually like that Apex is one of the few games that still have this lifetime progression system but I don't like how much time Apex really takes for you to finish their battle passes. If you do your dailies every day and complete a huge amount of the weeklies, it would take around an average of 50-60 days to fully finish it and that's a lot of time to play to finish it and that comes from my over ten seasons of finished battle passes in Apex Legends. The worst case example for a battle pass is Overwatch 2's battle pass system. I can go on a tirade about how they screwed up Overwatch 2 but I'll just talk about how they gutted their lifetime progression system just to fall into a more modern monetization method. The only saving grace is that Overwatch 2's battle pass doesn't take terribly long to finish but their seasons are usually shorter too. The worst part is that you don't even get the premium currency back for buying it meaning you are going to be consistently spending money on a game every two months that already takes a bunch of your time. I don't like when battle passes don't pay back in premium currency because the initial benefit for companies to do battle passes is to keep you playing every day and checking out their item shops and tempting you to buy something extra. It's skins for our time playing and boosting their metrics in the end of the day.

The state of progression in Fortnite

Despite Fortnite popularizing this system, I really think they do this the absolute best in the entire medium that it's a shame nobody has really come close. Fortnite battle passes can take a very short amount of time to finish depending on the effort and you can level it up in a huge variety of ways that it's not even funny. If you just want to get levels for free without even trying, you can always do a creative exp glitch and gain 5 levels for 10 minutes of afking and 5 minutes of actual effort. Fortnite's experience system is extremely generous too with weeklies giving half or a full level for completing them. Playing Save The World or Creative just grants you a bunch of experience that it's very hard for me to not finish even with not playing much at all. For context, I've only really played a week of battle royale and a week of save the world for the new venture season, zero intention of grinding experience at all and I'm already level 140 only after two weeks of the new season starting, you only need to reach 100 to get every skin and 125 for every variation of said cosmetics not to mention that battle passes pay back 1.5x in Fortnite meaning you get an extra 500 vbucks as well. Fortnite's battle pass feels like a premium meal at a a michelin star restaurant while the other feels like grabbing some gas station hot wings that are gonna make me toilet bound for two days.

Connecting it with Monetization

Despite my praises, Fortnite does still do every cardinal sin that a modern multiplayer game does in the end of the day despite its excellent battle pass system and the respect for time. It has an item shop and it relies on an incredible amount of fear of missing out that it border on complete fervor for when new or old skins will return. This rings more true in that some of that fear of missing out ties in with media and pop culture characters like Marvel, DC or even popular anime characters. If you start Fortnite right now, you would have missed out on the chance to gain one of the most notable characters in the superhero space, Spider-Man. Spider-Man is a Chapter 3 Season 1 battle pass skin and it's a slim to very none chance anyone will ever get him again. Fortnite really feeds off this with its item shop because of how inconsistent it is. You really can't calculate when skins will come back to a science unless they're regular 30 day item shop rotational skins. This just really stings the most when you just get into the game as a new player because it feels like you're very late to a very fun party. One thing I like about Fortnite's monetization surprisingly enough is its membership program of sorts, Fortnite Crew. It's actually a great value compared to what $10-12 would get you in any other game. Usually that amount in USD would grant you just a battle pass for the season but if you buy Crew at the right time which is what a lot of people usually do for $11.99 USD, you get the current battle pass for free if you don't have it yet and the next one if it falls into the 30 day subscription window for the month, 1,000 vbucks (premium currency) and an exclusive skin for Crew Members of the month which vary in quality. I like doing this since it actually lets me utilize the shop more instead of completely ignoring it like in other games which might be what Epic is trying to do anyway. Another thing to Fortnite's strength is that the premium currency is 20% cheaper and their item shop prices are around that much cheaper for the same cosmetics of the same quality. The dollar feels like it goes a lot farther which might be a good thing, bad thing or something completely irrelevant to you because you don't want to spend money on a game like this which is fine too but it's something I noticed and had the word vomit to type out and express.


The Secret Sauce: Collaborations

If you're an older Fortnite fan, you are probably starting to hate collaborations since a common sentiment I hear online is that it ruins the storyline Fortnite has and removes more of its identity when it does. As a much newer player and more biased, I have to disagree. I know I missed out on the magical moments of Fortnite's peak but there's something really special about collaborations when they happen. It also feels like a mini event when it happens and the fandom associated with the collaboration get really excited when it does happen, having their favorite characters in a game they play a lot means a lot to players. Being able to play as Bender with Goku and Spider Gwen doing the griddy is something special. It also helps that Fortnite usually doesn't really half ass it and bring different gameplay mechanics or attention to detail in the specific cosmetics they bring. One of the best parts is that Fortnite's style really makes anything fit as well, it never feels jarring due to the artstyle being extremely flexible in that having western animation characters with realistic looking people doesn't look that bad. I hope Fortnite continues to bring some new collabs and maybe hopefully bring out something super niche just for the reaction.


What I didn't and couldn't go over

With playing as much Fortnite as I have throughout the year, there's a few things I missed or didn't feel confident enough to really go over and I'll just scramble my thoughts here. Fortnite's battle royale mode technically has a story and I can't say I'm really entranced by it despite reading up on what has happened so far but that might be an issue of Chapter 4 in general. Another aspect of this is talking about live events and concerts, I didn't get to experience any of these yet except for the Kid Laroi creative map which I thought was decent. I hope I can still experience one someday since they sound like amazing multiplayer experiences that connect the community into what's happening in the general scheme of things. There's a few specific things in Save The World I probably could've got over such as seasonal modes and modifiers such as Dungeons and Hit the Road but it would've made this smorgasbord of a review/thoughts more long winded than it already is.


Last Stop

If you actually managed to read the entire thing or most of it, thank you. There's bound to be spelling or grammatical errors and I told myself I wouldn't really write reviews anymore but I guess when you play a game for long enough, the thoughts you want to share swell up enough that it was bound to happen. I'm sorry if this review is just a long winded personal thought explosion on why I've came around on Fortnite in the past year. In a very short summary, Fortnite reminds me of why I've enjoyed TF2 in the last decade. It doesn't strictly focus on the competitive aspect of things, anyone can enjoy it and there's a certain interactivity that it has with other players that other games usually don't. From blasting someone with a Rocket Ram to starting a jug band or a train conga line in the pre-game lobby, that shit speaks to me. I'll leave you with this, see you in the internet space.

Me: Oh wow it's Optimus Prime from Transformers! What are you doing here?

Optimus Prime:
I could have my ✨Gucci on✨
I could wear my ✨Louis Vuitton✨
But even with ✨nothin' on✨
Bet I made you look
I made you ✨look✨

Me:...Neat!

I won't be giving Fortnite a rating. I don't think it'd be fair. Almost everything about this game shouldn't work for me. It embodies almost none of the reasons I typically play video games. Yet, it helped me discover so many things about myself, my friends, and why I love video games. Though I can't thoroughly enjoy it now, my memories of Seasons 4,5, and 7 can and never will be replicated by any other media to ever exist.
I have over 300 hours in Fortnite, and to my memory, I never once won a solos game. But, what I do remember is my friend and his brother cheering me on as I got my first kill in loot lake. Running home from school to beg for the battle pass. Watching the cube slowly move across the map. Crying because I was the only one of my friends to not get the Ragnarok skin. Meeting new people in my school through Fortnite mutuals. The Season 7 Christmas BGM. Getting carried to my first squads win.
Fortnite is truly a "you had to be there" sort of experience. The vibe chapter 1 carried is like nothing else I've experienced in gaming. The meta was changing and evolving every single day. You could be certain every match would have 99 human players. Even if you were bad at the game, there was always that glimmer of hope that the next game could be the one. The events were simple, but incredibly memorable. The game still had a strong visual identity. It's so hard to put into words the truly unique experience this game was without listing memories, but that's because this game, for me, is intrinsically linked with my memories of it.
Though this game was a shooter, with little going on in terms of story or character, it captured me, and hundreds of my hours in a way no other game has. Like I said, I was never good. But I still grinded for hours on hours every single day. And while Fortnite is and always was without a doubt an incredibly addictive game, a good chunk of the reason I played was for community. From cosmetics to achievements, I ultimately did it all to impress the people I played squads with. Not because I felt I had to prove myself to them to be liked, but because I liked the feeling of improving, competing, and showing off around those I care about. From old classmates, to friends' older siblings, to randoms online, Fortnite bridged the gap between generations and cultures, and despite lacking the stories and characters I so adore, Fortnite will always be something I have fond memories of.

Fell into the trap of downloading it again with the OG map coming back, i’ve been only playing zero build as i have absolutely zero interest on the normal game mode that i’ve always despised even back in 2018.

It’s actually a decent video game, i still suck lol but managed a few top 1s. This game managed to bring back my friend group to the playstation for our classic late night game sessions, something we last did during the first covid lockdown.

I still hate what this games stands for though, with all this battle pass bullshit and all the skins and everything, it’s like the movie Ready player one, it’s cool when you see your favorites characters from other video games or tv shows but other than just being there to sell more vbucks they don’t serve any purpose.

But i feel like the hype is already going down, it’s obvious that there are bots in the lobbies. And i mean it was funny at the beginning of the week when all the new players (me included) were pretty bad, but now that everyone either left the game or got good it’s less fun to drop and instantly get fucked.

So yeah, pretty good game but it will probably get deleted by the end of next week.

A Circle comes from the sky; it has happened before, but for mincemeat, only once.

It was too late; it was all a play. In the waters of the aspen's gaze, stood only the cars and NickEh30. One blooming with the joys of nature, exploding with the sprouts of yarrow and sage and hollyhock. And one decaying into the midst of time, painting the picturesque, lush-green tapestry into streaks of fiery desperation, each stroke a story of loss. The forest itself were just rows of bountiful green lines interspersed with thousands of angry red circles, their shape of which was not-so-quite circular. And after that--darkness. The Circle was coming. Pitch-black, perfect solitude, tinted with the glint of a lavender sky.

There was nothing NickEh30 could have done. Perhaps it was at the tender age of 14, when he first heard the words "I'm from the government and I'm here to help", deracinated from his motherland to fight for a fortnight in an exotic land. Perhaps perhaps perhaps. Or was it when he ran away from the gunfight so many days ago? Whatever. The Circle was coming. There was nothing he could do anyways, with only a rare Stone's Burst Assault Rifle and 70 pieces of wood. Not enough to build a trench for the night, or a pile of stairs to hide behind, or anything really. Not that he needed to, anyways: The Circle exterminated all. Perhaps. The only thing that remained were regrets of the past, of memories forgotten in ennui and longing.

Perhaps. In Tenebrae comes Strepitus. Look up at the sky--can't you see it? And as NickEh30 ducked from the sound of lightning derooting oak, he took a final coup d'oeil at the interior of his resting place.The Circle was coming. It was here, at the intersection between idyll and oblivion, passivity and desperation, that NickEh30 first saw the sign.

"Welcome to Loot Lake"