KRASH Presents ... Fortnite #12 by Nuclear Media

THE 100% UNOFFICIAL HOW-TO GUIDE

PRESENTS

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(C O N D I T I O N S A P P LY )

#12

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SEASON 9 READY ?

CREATIVE KRASH PRESENTS FORTNITE ISSUE 12 $7.95 (INC GST)

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AWESOME POSTERS INSIDE!

GUIDE

CONTENTS 06

PATROLLING THE FORT

FORTNITE WORLD CUP

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MARVEL-OUS

BOMB GUIDE

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REBOOT VAN

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IF YOU’RE A PLAYSTATION®PLUS MEMBER, YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THIS EXCLUSIVE PACK AND KEEP IT FOREVER. NOT A MEMBER YET? SUBSCRIBE TO PLAYSTATION®PLUS FOR LOADS OF PLAYSTATION® EXTRAS! GRAB AN OUTFIT AND BACK BLING TO REPRESENT YOUR VICTORY ROYALE IN STYLE WITH THE PLAYSTATION®PLUS CARBON PACK.

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We want you to play Fortnite in ultimate style, so this prize not only incudes a PS4 1TB Pro Console, but an annual PS Plus membership that enables you to download this awesome new Carbon Pack! Get entering if you want to be the coolest player on the island!

This pack includes: ● Carbon Commando Oufit Battle Royale & Creative only ● Carbon Pack Back Bling Battle Royale & Creative only (all items are cosmetic and do not affect gameplay.)

MEG A POSTERS

There’s only one place you can win this incredible Fortnite prize - and that’s right here in KRASH Presents... Fortnite! So enter NOW and enter OFTEN - as long as each individual entry is unique. Good luck!

INCLU D CARBO ES COMM N AN OUFIT DO !

To celebrate the AWESOMENESS THAT IS PLAYSTATION we have five PS4 1TB consoleS + CARBON PACK to give away!

ENTER TO WIN!

Publisher, Children’s Titles: Natasha Amallos Special Edition Editor: Chris Stead Art Director: Luke Shaddock Managing Director: Michael Downs Advertising & Marketing enquiries: Natalie Downs Distributed in Australia / NZ by: Ovato Retail Distribution

FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN, EMAIL KRASH@NUCLEAR.COM.AU WITH THE SUBJECT ‘PS4CARBON’ AND A 50-WORDS-OR-LESS ANSWER TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTION: HOW WOULD A PS PLUS CARBON PACK IMPROVE YOUR FORTNITE EXPERIENCE? All copyright reserved by Nuclear Enterprises Pty Ltd Trading as: Nuclear Media PH: +612-9363-1464 PO Box 230, Double Bay NSW 1360

FOR FULL TERMS AND CONDITIONS PLEASE GO TO WWW.KRASH.COM.AU/TERMS, OR JUST CLICK ‘TERMS AND CONDITIONS’ AT THE BOTTOM OF THE HOME PAGE. CONDITIONS OF ENTRY: Total prize pool is $3,044.75 as at 3/4/19. Five prize winners will each win a 1TB PS4 Pro console ($529) and an annual membership to PlayStation Plus, where you have access to the new Carbon Pack ($79.95). Enter as many times as you wish, but each written entry must be an original entry, email or letter. The competition commences on 15/4/19 at 9am EST and closes on 7/7/19 at 5pm unless otherwise stated on the promotion. Entry is open to all residents of Australia and New Zealand (unless otherwise stated) except employees and immediate families of the promoter and associated companies and agencies unless otherwise stated on the promotion. The promoter is Nuclear Media. Phone: (02) 9363-1464. All prizes will be drawn on 7/7/19 at 5pm unless otherwise stated on the promotion. Prizes are not transferable, exchangeable or redeemable for cash (exceptions being cash prize). The judges’ decision in relation to any aspect of the competition is final and binding on each person who enters. Chance plays no part in determining winners of all promotions. No correspondence will be entered into.

PATROLLING

THE FORT As Season 8 transitions into Season 9, it’s time to reflect on another huge month on the world of Fortnite. Have you stayed on top of it all?

Good and bad, you can’t argue that Season 8 of Fortnite has been the most riveting yet. It started with such a bang – literally – thanks to a volcanic eruption, the arrival of pirates and the continued threat of the Ice King. The Creation Mode has kept growing at an astounding rate, too, with a stunning catalogue of user-created experience appearing every week. But the main focus has been the upcoming Fortnite World Cup. As you know, the World Cup offers a different set of competitive rules than the standard Battle Royale experience, and to help players train for the big event, midseason these rules were added into the main experience. However, they only lasted a short time before they were taken away, with Epic Games revealing that the new

Did You

? w o n K

PR ES ENT S

A Fortnite player called _t0xicity has suggested a pretty cool idea to Epic Games and a lot of fans have supported it. They suggest there should be an esky, which acts like a chest, but always has health items in it like a Slurp Juice, Chug Jug, Big Shields and Mini Shields. You could find them on the beaches, in the deserts and stored in homes. What do you think? Cool idea?

rules were simply making the main game too aggressive. You didn’t have to look that far across the internet to see what the pro players thought of that idea. They were very angry indeed. Frustrated that they couldn’t practice properly in the main game, and that the queues for the Arena mode (where the new rules still applied) were too long, pro players took to social media to vent their frustration. Many famous Fortnite streamers, including the likes of Ninja, even started playing Uno instead. (A strange way to protest, but actually kind of funny.) Ninja even said taking the new rules away made “Squads boring and dumb!”

Did You

MEANWHILE, ? w o n K ON THE ISLAND… Of course, while all this chaos was going around the internet, the Fortnite world itself was continuing on its long journey of upheaval and change. One of the additions we quite liked were the excavations sites. The first in Paradise Palms, the second in Dusty Divot and then two in Loot Lake. They required thousands of players around the world to chip away at digging out these sites, slowly whittling away each chunk’s 100 million health points. The idea of mass collaborate play like this is really super cool! But what did player’s find? Under the Paradise Palms dig there were three chest spawns and a Volcano Vent. Under the Dusty Divot dig there were six chest spawns, but then also a second dig site deeper down. Naturally players started excavating this second site, and when they got to the end there wasn’t a reward. Instead lava flowed up

into the hole, drowning all of the chests. That cheeky Epic Games!

The third site to appear at Loot Lake generated a whole lot of mystery, too. When players fully excavated it, a large, locked metal door was found at the bottom. At this time players began to realise that the dig sites were connected to the helicopter that had begun flying around the island earlier in Season 8. Then a second dig site emerged in Loot Lake it seemed like it was all tied together in a big season event! While the World Cup will cast a huge shadow over Season 9 of Fortnite as it unfolds in the background, there will still be plenty going on for the rest of us normal players in the Battle Royale experience. We’ll give you the full breakdown and tips for Season 9 in next issue, as well as reveal what happened in this big event.

While it has not been officially confirmed yet, it’s understood that one of the most famous developers in the world of first-person shooters has joined Epic Games. Jason West is famous for launching three massive series – Medal of Honor, Call of Duty and Titanfall – so it will be a huge win for Fortnite if he is now involved with the game.

Not Fit For A King Prince Harry may have seemed like the coolest member of the Royal Family, but not anymore. During the last month, he came out with some strong words against Fortnite. He called the game irresponsible and tried to convince parents around the world not to let their children play it. He said: “The game shouldn’t be allowed. Where is the benefit of having it in your household? It’s created to addict; [produce] an addiction to keep you in front of a computer for as long as possible. It’s so irresponsible.” Bad prince!

Did You

? w o n K

If you didn’t catch the changes that were added to Fortnite and then taken away, upsetting all the pros, here they are: ● 50 Health (or Shield) based on your health when the Elimination occurs. ● 50/50/50 materials dropped on Elimination. ● 500/500/500 cap on materials. ● Harvest rate increased by 40%.

a company called PDP has released their own Switch controller called the Faceoff Deluxe+ Audio Wired Controller. It allows you to connect your headset directly to the controller, but be warned, it is then wired to the console (not wireless). It does come in some cool colours, and offers some additional buttons, too.

One of the more annoying things about playing Fortnite online through the Nintendo Switch is that there is no voice chat. Instead you have to use an app on a mobile phone, and then connect your headset to that if you want to have a proper voice chat experience. And voice chat is pretty important in Fortnite! Now

P R ESEN T S

New Nintendo Switch Controller

PRESENTS

FORTNITE WORLD CUP

GETS BIGGER Just when we thought the Fortnite World Cup couldn’t get any bigger, Epic Games has revealed there’s even more in store for creative players.

The Creative Mode in Fortnite has been an absolute hit! You’ll see in our monthly wrap-up later on in this issue just how many cool things have been added to the fun as the mode continues to grow at an extraordinary rate. Now things have gotten really exciting, with Epic Games making the surprise announcement that the Creative Mode will feature at the Fortnite World Cup in July!

where all members of the Creative Mode community are free to compete in a trial map created by one of the fans. These fans are called Fortnite Captains.

Depending on when you read this, you should have a few weeks still left to compete in one of the trial events. From the week starting April 29 to the week ending June 7. Each period is actually a bit longer than a week, and they overlap slightly, too. During that period, Epic Games will issue an event challenge

We’ll use the first Fortnite Captain as an example; it’s the famous Cizzorz. This player has built some of the most challenging death runs in creative mode and is well known throughout the Fortnite community. During his week, players had to compete one of his death run worlds and then record clips of their performance. You then must upload your video clip of YouTube with the correct hashtag to be in the running for selection. That way the week’s Fortnite Captain can see your video and judge your

performance. Each week the three best performances as decided by the Fortnite Captain are then given a spot in the World Cup finals. As a result, there will be 15 Fortnite players selected to compete in a special World Cup Creative event at the July finals, with a huge US$3m (that’s AUD$4m+!) up for grabs. How awesome is that?! Surely, the Fortnite World Cup is set to be the biggest event in the history of video games.

When are the Start Times? You must submit your video for each trial period during the challenge window. To make that tricky, the start and end times are based on the East Coast of the USA. So what does that convert to in Australia? Here’s a helpful table. START TIME: SYDNEY, BRISBANE, MELBOURNE, CANBERRA, HOBART

END TIME: SYDNEY, BRISBANE, MELBOURNE, CANBERRA, HOBART

START TIME: ADELAIDE, DARWIN

END TIME: ADELAIDE, DARWIN

START TIME: PERTH

END TIME: PERTH

START TIME: NEW ZEALAND

END TIME: NEW ZEALAND

Period 1

12:00am Tue, Apr 30

1:59pm Sat, May 11

11:30pm Mon, Apr 29

1:29pm Sat, May 11

10:00pm Mon, Apr 29

11:59am Sat, May 11

2:00am Tue, Apr 30

3:59pm Sat, May 11

Period 2

12:00am Tue, May 7

1:59pm Sat, May 18

11:30pm Mon, May 6

1:29pm Sat, May 18

10:00pm Mon, May 6

11:59am Sat, May 18

2:00am Tue, May 7

3:59pm Sat, May 18

Period 3

12:00am Tue, May 14

1:59pm Sat, May 24

11:30pm Mon, May 13

1:29pm Sat, May 24

10:00pm Mon, May 13 11:59am Sat, May 24

2:00am Tue, May 14

3:59pm Sat, May 24

Period 4

12:00am Tue, May 21

1:59pm Sat, May 31

11:30pm Mon, May 20

1:29pm Sat, May 31

10:00pm Mon, May 20 11:59am Sat, May 31

2:00am Tue, May 21

3:59pm Sat, May 31

Period 5

12:00am Tue, May 28

1:59pm Sat, Jun 7

11:30pm Mon, May 27

1:29pm Sat, Jun 7

10:00pm Mon, May 27

2:00am Tue, May 28

3:59pm Sat, Jun 7

11:59am Sat, Jun 7

The hashtag for each qualifying week will be different and will be chosen by the Fortnite Captain, so make sure you keep an eye on the Fortnite social networks to find out what it is.

TIP

P R ESEN T S

PRO

FORTNITE

GOES BOOM! There’s been some significant changes to combat through the end of Season 8, and it’s important you know how to handle them.

As you well know, you can never rest on your laurels in the world of Fortnite Battle Royale. There are constantly changes, deletions and additions being brought to the game through patches, and we’re going to take you through the latest, and give you some tips on how to best use them. Let’s start with some of the smaller changes. The Baller, which has been a huge addition this season, has received yet another health point reduction. It’s dropped from 300 to 200, which means you have to be more

Did You

Know? PR ES ENT S

With the Boom Bow’s current damage, a wood structure will drop in two hits, brick structure in three hits, and metal structure in five hits.

cautious with the way you approach combat zones. Where at first you could swing in head on, create havoc, and then swing out, now you’re better off considering a more stealth-like approach. You can now cycle through items in your hotbar while you are gliding. It may seem like a small change, but if you re-deploy – for whatever reason – you can now better select what item or weapon will you have active when you land. Make sure you keep a keen eye on what is going on below you,

and any notes from your teammates, so you can switch to exactly what you need. Finally we have the Infantry Rifle, which has been in constant flux ever since it was introduced. It has received yet more changes, with its overall damage reduced from 40/42 to 38/40 for its Uncommon and Rare variants. However, as part of this balance, the range has been extended, giving it a bit better damage value on longer shots. Plus more powerful Epic and Legendary variants arrived, offering 42/44 damage.

The Boom Bow

The Boom Bow isn’t as easy to masters as a normal gun. You need to be able to judge the curve of the arrow as it goes through the air, often while moving or following a moving target. It’s a good idea to jump into the Playground Mode and get some practice in. Try building little bits of cover, like a ramp, and then popping up and trying to hit targets at close, mid and long range. This will get you used to the distances and judging arrow curve from the bow.

Charged shots do more damage. Sometimes you just need to get a few shots off as quickly as possible to defend yourself, but if you’re on the attack, always charge. It takes 1.6 seconds to fully charge, so it’s also a wise idea to practice getting familiar with that amount of time so you are super-efficient with charging and firing.

The longer you draw back the bow before releasing it, the faster the bow will go. Remember this when you need to get an arrow a fair distance against an enemy that is moving. The faster the arrow is travelling, the less time the enemy will have to move while it is in the air, allowing you to make a more accurate shot.

You actually have to be pretty accurate with the bow, too. The area-of-effect on the explosion is quite small – only one-third of a tile. If you want to see what this like, put down a piece of floor on the ground, and then imagine just one third of it. It’s not that big, is it? So don’t try to shoot at an enemy’s feet like you might with a Rocket Launcher: go for the body.

When taking down structures, aim for the corners. Because of the area-of-effect of the explosion, this allows you to damage two walls at once. Same with high ground, if you shoot the corner where multiple tiles connect, you can not only take them all out at the same time, but also any pyramid sitting above it.

The Boom Bow is an excellent defence against The Baller. Now that the HP of The Baller has dropped to 200, you only need to make two shots to destroy it.

If you are being chased by an enemy, try quick firing (so no charge) an arrow straight up in the air. The arrow will come back down right where you were standing moments later and with any luck will land on, or scare off, your pursuer.

The Boom Bow is near silent in operation, making it a handy choice for those who enjoy stealth play. Since it explodes on impact, without a sound to help enemies it can be hard for them to pinpoint where the shot came from, so use this to your advantage.

In the end game, when squads are fortifying their positions, it can be handy to have a couple of players in your squad with the Boom Bow and a lot of shotgun shells. Having two of you attacking enemy structures at the same can quickly whittle down their protection quicker than it can be rebuilt.

The Boom Bow is a risky proposition when you are in a close-quarters situation because of the explosion. If you intend to sneak up to an enemy position, or head into a tight area of the map where space is limited, consider having a shortrange weapon as your alt.

P R ESEN T S

The bow does come with a rapid reload time of 1.3 seconds, which means you can get your shots away quickly. It uses shotgun shells, too, which means you can combine this with long to mid-range weapons to easily transition between the two without consuming too much of the same ammo. Here are some more tips on how to use the Boom Bow.

Added in the second half of Season 8, the Boom Bow had an explosive impact on the Fortnite Island straight away. The arrow itself doesn’t do too much damage, only taking 15 HP off your opponent with a direct shot (or 30 HP for a headshot). That doesn’t compete very well with any other weapon in Fortnite. However, it does also bring with it 100 HP of explosive damage, which is where the heart of its power lives.

BACK FROM THE DEAD The Fortnite landscape has changed forever with the introduction of the Reboot Van, which can help turn depleted squads into full squad before the end game.

It was somewhat fitting that ahead of the Easter break, Epic Games introduced a resurrection feature into the Fortnite landscape. Many had seen it coming. Hackers had already found references to a Reboot Van hidden in the code. Plus, the respawn feature that was introduced in rival game Apex Legends had been such a hit that it always felt like Epic Games might copy it and bring it to Fortnite. And copy it the studio has: the way it works is very similar to Apex Legends. When a player in your squad dies, they drop a Reboot Card that you can pick it up and take it to a Reboot Van to activate it. You

can carry multiple cards at once, too, and as soon as one player in your squad picks it up, everyone has access to it. When you get to the Van, each token must be loaded in – leaving you vulnerable for ten long seconds – and then each player you are respawning appears one-by-one on top of the van. The addition of the Reboot Van will no doubt play a key role in getting the famous Siphon rule changes implemented back into Battle Royale. These were removed for making the game “too aggressive,” and Epic Games didn’t like that few players were making it to the end game. Since you can now Reboot back into the game world, this allows squads

to rebuild before the end game. In fact, if all goes well with the Reboot Vans, by the time you read this the Siphon mechanics may already be back in action. Reboots are not easy, however. First off, the Reboot Card is only available to be grabbed for 90 seconds after a death, so you can’t hang back and wait for enemies to leave. Plus, once you start loading a Card into a Van, a beacon shoots into the sky and an alarm goes off. This means that any nearby players will know exactly what you are doing, and that you are vulnerable for 10 seconds. It gives them an opportunity to attack!

Did You

Know? It takes 0.5 seconds to pick up the Reboot Card, so make sure you build some cover if you are worried about being fired upon.

PR ES ENT S

TIPS TO RESPAWNING Here are some other key tips for when you need to Reboot. ● Make sure you and your team have thought about the best tactics for picking up a Reboot Card before it disappears. Thinking of who draws fire, who builds cover and who races for the Card, is key. ● I t should go without saying, but make sure you set up some cover before you start loading Reboot Cards into a Van. The last thing you need is for an enemy sniper on a nearby hill to hear the horn and take you out. ● When a teammate is revived they come back with only a common pistol, some ammo and 100 wood: it’s not much! Therefore, it’s a good idea for you to drop a weapon and some supplied on the ground next to the Van for them to grab as soon as they reboot. ● If your squad gets annihilated, getting to a Reboot Van is your first challenge. Especially if you’re the last standing in the fight, you’re

probably going to be quite low on health, so be smart. Concentrate first on getting your health and shields fully charged. Then maybe see if you can locate a Baller or a Rift-To-Go that can help you get a fair distance quickly. ● Your squad may be dead, but you can still hear their voices. Work as a team in these situations and try to feed as much information as possible to your remaining teammates. Keep your eyes peeled for threats and venture any good ideas you might have. ● Think about Reboot Van locations when choosing your initial landing zone. You may want to be close enough in the early game that if you do have an encounter and lose some of your team, they can be more easily revived. ● Having Reboot Vans does allow you to be more aggressive with your team tactics, but it also makes it more important for your best player to hang back. If the team does

Which Reboot Van?

an you go past a Baller C spawn location?

If you’re wondering how the developers of Apex Legends feel about Epic Games stealing their respawn idea and putting it in Fortnite, it’s probably pretty bad. Especially as this isn’t the first time. Soon after Apex Legends came out in February, Epic stole its excellent Ping system, too. This means that two of Apex Legends’ more distinctive selling points over Fortnite are now gone. However, the games still remain very different. Apex Legends’ character-based gameplay, super-fast movement and more realistic style ensure it feels different.

REBOOT VAN LOCATIONS

hat is the cover like? Will W you be able to sneak along out of sight?

id you notice the Reboot D Van being used recently? Because they have a two minute cooldown.

re there any Ziplines that A can help you make the distance quickly?

I s there likely to be much loot left near that Reboot Van so your team can gear up?

P R ESEN T S

1 2

hich direction is the A W Storm coming from?

What About Apex Legends?

Here is a map indicating all the Reboot Van locations.

Depending on where you are, deciding which Reboot Van to head towards needs to be at the top of your thinking. You’d think the obvious choice would be the closest, but that is not always the case. There are a couple of factors to take into account, and depending on the answers, you may want to go for a Reboot Van that is a little further away. These include:

not perform well, the squad’s best player is going to be tasked with taking down any remaining enemies and then reaching the Reboot Van alive.

IS IT

MARVELOUS? We’ve just seen an unprecedented event in the Fortnite world, when The Avengers came to our favourite island in their own Limited Time Mode. Was this a good thing?

Did You

id you get a chance to play the Endgame Limited Time Mode? It was awesome. We had seen some previous links between Marvel and Fortnite in the past, but nothing as big as this. Timed with the release of the Avengers: Endgame movie, the Endgame LTM – as well as some new Marvel-themed skins – transformed the Fortnite Island into an all new game experience. It was almost like some of the creative competitive modes of a Call of Duty or Battlefield , only super-powered! In this mode, the player base was split into two teams: the heroes and the villains. The villains’ job was to capture the six Infinity stones scattered around the island map. The heroes’ job was to stop them by killing all the villains. Luckily, the heroes would respawn whenever they died, meaning they were always available to fight. However, the villains weren’t without their own benefits. Each villain started with some cool loot – including a laser rifle, jetpack and structure destroying grenade – plus one player would become the super powerful Thanos. Also, every time they discovered one of the Stones, the whole team would be given a cool buff. This meant that as the game went on, even though there would be less villains on the battlefield, they would become stronger and stronger.

Know? The next big Marvel film is Spider-Man: Far From Home in early July: will we see a Spidey LTM?

Plus, as soon as Thanos was killed, a new villain would become Thanos, meaning that at the end of the game, the last villain standing would also be the most powerful player in the game, making for some very tense final moments. Using this set of rules is such a good idea as it totally turns the Fortnite experience on its head. You have to approach each match with different team tactics as the strengths and weaknesses of every strategy is altered. So, would we be happy to see more sponsored partnerships like the Endgame LTM?

PR ES ENT S

Absolutely! While some might consider it “selling out” to take millions of dollars off a company to show off their brand – in this case Marvel – Epic Games approached it in just the right way. As a Limited Time Mode, the changes are separate from the main Battle Royale game. Plus, the changes in that mode also fit into the world organically and still ensure it feels and plays like Fortnite. It’s actually something of a win-win for both Fortnite and Marvel. It gives Fortnite a chance to explore new game

mode ideas with the freedom to experiment with an expanded set of gameplay parameters (for example, the Infinity Stones and Thanos). Plus they get a heap of money to invest back into the game to improve upcoming seasons with cool new features. We’d actually like to see Epic Games do more of this kind of content. Perhaps they could do something around Star Wars or Harry Potter, or what about cross-promoting with another popular game, like Super Smash Bros. or Halo?

PRESENTS

EYE OF THE

BEHOLDER

A big evolution has just come to the world of video games graphics and it’s not just about good looks, but improving the way you play.

verybody loves great video game graphics! When we jump into one of our favourite worlds and set off on an epic adventure, it’s the visuals that first immerse us into the experience. Even in games like Fortnite, which aren’t trying to be photorealistic, graphics are extremely important. A high-speed competitive game, you have to be able to clearly see what is going on around you and react quickly.

For example, if you see an enemy in the distance, you need to be able to work out what they’re carrying, where they’re heading, how fast they’re travelling and more instantly, where they’re firing. It may not be a realistic game, but it must feel realistic in order for it to work as a competitive experience. It’s why graphics cards and their makers are so important to not just PC players, but also to

consoles, mobiles and every other device you can game on. Plus, more powerful cards produce better visual clarity at a higher framerate. The higher your framerate the more you can see in a shorter amount of time. This is vitally important in competitive online shooters as you can react faster to changes in the gameplay. If you don’t believe us, just look at the data in the boxout!

Did You Know? Be sure to check that your PC is compatible with a new graphics card you are thinking of buying. You want to be sure it will work with your motherboard and CPU, that it will fit in your case and also that your power supply offers enough juice.

Frames Means Frags While you can’t do much to improve the power of your console or phone, with PCs you can always look to put in a better graphics card and use a better monitor. Nvidia recently released some amazing data where they got gamers to play Fortnite with different types of cards and monitors. Then they looked at how each player’s kill/death ratio changed as they got access to faster cards and monitors. The improvements are huge! Basically, with each new generation of card, you get way more frags and die less!

PR ES ENT S

Introducing Ray Tracing

The old-school way of handling light is a technique called Rasterization. In this system, the source of light in a scene is set, and then each polygon – which is a small triangle that, when combined with other polygons, becomes an object - approximates how it should look based on the light source. For example, if there is a light behind a cup, then we should see a shadow behind the cup: so, during Rasterization the colour of the cup on the shadow-side is darkened. This works ok, but isn’t awfully realistic. It’s just a computer guessing. What if next to the cup there was a mirror, which is bouncing light back towards the cup? What if the surface of the cup is shiny and should show a reflection of that mirror? What if it is a curved cup, and that reflection changes with the curve? What if the cup is a dark colour, so would absorb some of the light? What if the cup is made of glass and the light refracts through it and then bounces off the mirror?

Ray Tracing is a new technique that has taken graphics card gurus Nvidia ten years to make and it’s now available to gamers. It ignores polygons and instead looks at every individual pixel in a scene. It then traces a line from every light source to every object and then off it towards the player. This means the computer is no longer guessing, but knows exactly how the light is moving and what the impact is on what you see. The results are stunning, with details in games popping in such a way they look like photos. While it’s not yet incorporated into Fortnite, when it is the improvement it will make to judging weapons, distances, speeds and more in an instant will be huge! Let’s hope that all developers embrace this technology moving forward so our eyes can feast on game worlds more stunning that real life.

What if the rooms has a hundred cups, a hundred lights and a hundred mirrors?

P R ESEN T S

The latest and greatest graphics card from Nvidia is the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and it’s pretty much the best we’ve ever seen. As well as being ready and capable of displaying games using Ray Tracing, it can also deliver 4K resolution at a blistering 60 frames per second. Inside it’s got more cores, a faster processor speed and better memory than anything that has come before it. It’s a beast, but yes, it’s also very expensive. So while this might be the ultimate card if you have the money, you may want to opt for one of the lowerpowered cards in the GeForce RTX range. These can still produce Ray Tracing, and will still make a massive improvement to your kill count.

You can begin to understand how complex lighting gets if you are depicting a scene in a neon city street filled with puddles at night. Or a car driving under a tree with lots of little leaves casting shadows.

CARD IN THE SPOTLIGHT

One of the most important aspects of getting a game to feel realistic is its lighting. There is no natural light inside a computer: no sun shining down on the world. Everything is created by the developer; not just the source of a light, but how it travels, reflects, refracts and absorbs as each ray of light moves through a scene.

GET

CREATIVE Fortnite’s Creative Mode has become a massive part of the game’s community and whether you’re a builder or a player, there’s a lot happening each month.

arlier this issue we took you through the exciting news about the Creative Mode joining in the Fortnite World Cup fun, but that is far from the only activity going on over the last month. As usual Epic Games has added a number of new features and ideas into this experience, giving creators even more tools to make their own, unique play styles.

types of play experiences you can build, there have been a couple of notable additions. The Capture Area Device is particularly intriguing, as it allows you to effectively create capture-the-flag, or capture-the-base, styles of experience. We also like the addition of Rounds, which means you can link multiple games together and give teams a certain number of rounds they must win in order to take a complete victory.

Let’s start with the base island types: you will now find new Tropical and River’s Edge islands to begin your creation on. When you combine this with the range of new pyramid prefabs and Moai statues that have landed in the game, you can make some islands that look very inviting indeed. Alternatively the new Military prefabs can make you turn these lush islands into secret army bases.

When you combine these with a host of new options for creating and customising scoreboards, and indeed your scoring systems in general, you can see how much Epic Games is pushing fans to come up with new modes and even genres that we’ll ever see in the main Battle Royale experience.

While we are talking prefabs and the new island types, we also have to mention the arrival of the Pirate Ship: finally! There is also a new array of geometric shapes on hand, so it will be interesting to see how players add to and tweak this Pirate Ship prefab to create some interesting new takes on the vessel. In terms of expanding on the

Did You

Know? Have you experimented with the new MultiSelect tool? It’s quite handy as it allows you to not just grab and shift a single object, but multiple objects at the same time. This is much more efficient if you need to shift a whole connected structure to make space for something else.

Did You

Know? Two old favourites from Fortnite’s vault have been added into Creative Mode: you can now place Hop Rocks and Jetpacks in your world.

Explosive Addition

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Is Epic Games using the Creative Mode to experiment with new items and weapons? That could be the case when a recent patch added the Explosive Device into the list of available objects. This can be fully customised on how it behaves, and you can have up to 100 of them on your island at the same time, but they effectively behave like any other explosive barrel in a game. Taking down not only players, but structures, depending on where they are placed, explosive barrels could become a key part of team tactics. We wonder if Epic Games will see what works best across player created maps before adding the item to the main game?

BEASTS OF THE BLOCK The jewel in any Fortnite creator’s crown remains The Block. Getting your creation chosen by Epic Games to star in the main game for a week (or so) is a quick way to become a leader in the community. If you want some tips on how to get your map chosen, it’s a good start to look at analysing what Epic Games has chosen previously. Here’s what made it this month.

Did You

Know? Some of the best creators in the Fortnite space have started to become celebrities and influences within the community. So if you want to get Fortnite famous, then there is now another option outside of being a pro player or entertaining streamer. The trick is to make sure each of your creations stick to a similar name or style, so players can instantly recognise it was you who made it.

Tropical Treetops by GingerJay91: We really like this map. It’s a number of tree houses, each with interesting décor and layouts to explore, that are linked together by long wooden bridges. Under these bridges is a swamp, so falling off can really leave you exposed. With such a great combination of lineof-sight, and tight indoor areas, it’s awesome for combat. Plus it showed of Epic’s new Tropical Island theme.

Mysterious Mansion by FurryNenja:

This spooky creation tied into the mystery Epic Games was trying to create with the underground door at the dig site, and the bunkers in general players have been discovering around the island. It’s complex, cluttered and huge, focused mostly on internal combat. Even the main external highlight – a hedge maze – still makes for tight fighting and great trap potential.

Llama Sphinx by Prudiz: This is far from the first time The Block has seen an animal as its star: it’s definitely an approach Epic Games likes. The trick is to be creative in the way you use the game’s items to build the shape of an animal, but also to show off the latest prefab additions. This is what we got here, with the pyramid shapes and lava used to good effect to create a visually spectacular temple.

Epic Games has shown quite a like for massive castle builds, and when this map appeared at the same time as Game of Thrones Season 8 begun, it wasn’t hard to guess why it got picked. Epic Games like The Block maps to tie into the latest craze going around the world. A sweeping castle with a courtyard, bell towers and big walls, it’s easy to imagine yourself as a Stark or a Lannister as your roam across all the stone.

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Cordial Courtyard by GonzoTheWizard:

AROUND THE

WORLD There is more than just Fortnite happening in the world of video games, so let’s take a look at the other big announcements and releases you need to keep your eye on.

One of the biggest stories of this past month is the announcement of Borderlands 3 by Gearbox Software. Famed for its addictive coop gameplay and near endless combination of guns, it’s more RPG than FPS, even though the open-world combat is as sharp as anything in the genre. This time we will be leaving the planet of Pandora, too, exploring an all new planet with four new vault hunters. It’s coming to XBO, PS4 and PC, with the latter exclusive to the Epic Games Store. It’s out on September 13.

BORDERLANDS 3

Also securing exclusivity on the Epic Games Store for PC, as well as coming to consoles, is Solar Ash Kingdom by Heart Machine. This is the developer that produced the indie hit Hyper Light Drifter, and despite having a similar visual style, this time around it’s not pixelated. It also looks like we can expect to move through this world quite fast – almost sliding along – while encountering not just 2D levels but also 3D gameplay, and some truly epic boss battles. Another game that’s impossible to ignore is Maneater by Tripwire Interactive. This studio was original formed by the guys that created the popular Unreal Tournament mod Red Orchestra, but it has since gone on to make titles like Killing Floor and Rising Storm. This game stands out because you play a bull shark terrorising tourists on the beach, in swamps and along rivers. It’s graphic and over-the-top, especially as your shark evolves as you eat more people. It reminds us a little bit of Goat Simulator in the way the Shark behaves when it jumps on land or into boats, ensuring it will be a bit of silly fun.

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Operencia: The Stolen Sun is looking like a pleasant surprise. It’s being made by Zen Studios, who have forged a great reputation for quality titles with its Pinball FX series. However, this is a very different type of game, which pays homage to old-school FPS dungeon crawlers like Stonekeep. It’s shaping up to be quite an immersive experience, with stunning visuals, a real sense of magic and lots of puzzles and turn-based combat to think your way through.

List of PC Games Exclusive to Epic GameS’ Store. ● Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey ● Afterparty ● Ashen ● Borderlands 3 ● Close to the Sun ● Dangerous Driving ● Dauntless ● Fortnite ● Genesis Alpha One ● Hades ● Hello Neighbor: Hide and Seek ● Industries of Titan ● Journey ● Journey to the Savage Planet ● Kine ● Maneater ● Metro Exodus ● Operencia: The Stolen Sun ● Phoenix Point ● Rebel Galaxy Outlaw ● RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures ● Satisfactory ● Shakedown Hawaii ● Spellbreak ● Super Meat Boy Forever ● The Cycle ● The Division 2 ● The Outer Worlds ● The Sinking City ● Unreal Tournament ● World War Z

SOLAR ASH KINGDOM

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OPERENCIA THE STOLEN SUN

Out Now World War Z

(PC, PS4, XBO): You may not

have heard of developer Saber Interactive, but they’ve been tinkering away in the background on a number of big games for years. This includes NBA Playgrounds, a number of Halo titles and Quake Champions. The studio also impressed with its in-house titles TimeShift and Inversion. Now the studio has released World War Z, which is based off the 2013 Brad Pitt film. If you’ve seen that film, you’ll know the zombies here move at an incredible speed and in huge numbers, which has been accurately captured in the gameplay. Played from a third-person perspective, the focus is on tight cooperative play, as well as setting up traps and defences to help hold back the dead.

Anno 1880 (PC):

For over two decades the Anno series has been keeping the real-time strategy flame alight and the latest entry is quite excellent for those who want to revisit this genre. Your goal is to turn your little island into an empire capable of taking over the world, but as it is set in the 1880s, it’s during a time when the age of industrialisation is sweeping across humanity. On top of looking fantastic, with incredible attention to detail as your community evolves, the management aspects are addictive fun. As your population grows, keeping the people happy, active and contributing to your expansion is super rewarding, while combat and political sub-systems add more depth.

Mortal Kombat 11

(PC, Switch, XBO, PS4):

The original king of gore and combat is back and as badass as ever. With a huge roster of 25 characters, both new and familiar, and a remodelled combat system, it’s easy to pick up and play, yet offers stacks of depth for fighting fans who want to dive in deep with their strategy. The jaw-dropping array of Fatalities, Brutalities and X-Ray moves will have you and your friends laughing in delight. New Fatal Blows and Krushing Blows systems also help keep players in the battle for longer, with late fightbacks making each round one to remember.

Team Sonic Racing (PC, Switch, XBO, PS4):

Sonic and all his mates are back on the track this month in a classic, old-school karting experience. It sticks close to the beloved formula, with boosters, pick-ups, over-the-top circuits and a cast of colourful characters to choose from. There’s a healthy 21 tracks to master, but also some unusual modes for a kart racer. This includes a Team Adventure mode, with a story to follow and quests to complete during races. Plus, the cooperative nature of the races, where you compete not just for your character’s glory, but contribute points towards your whole team, is a nice way to mix up an age-old genre.

If you hadn’t heard the word, both Apple and Google are jumping into the gaming landscape with big new services. Apple Arcade is the more traditional of the two, giving subscribers access to a huge library of premium iOS game, all of which have been selected due to their lack of in-app purchases and for being more “core” in their style of play. Google, however, is making a streaming service for its subscribers, similar in many ways to Netflix (only for games). Apparently some pretty big games will be able to work on any device through the Google Stadia app, including the likes of Doom External and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Both services will be live in 2019, but Google Stadia may not hit Australia until 2020.

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Apple and Google Announce Subscriptions

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