Fortnite (PS4)

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VideoGameCritic
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Fortnite (PS4)

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 11th, 2018, 7:56 pm

This is a pretty popular online game you've probably heard about. I was playing it over my nephew's house today and I thought it was very innovative.

Fortnite is a third-person shooter with colorful, stylized visuals. The online play is very polished. A group of players from various teams are airlifted into a location on a floating bus. You skydive out of the bus, allowing you to choose your starting location. It's a really neat idea.

On the ground you can forage for resources and weapons. In addition to shooting people, you can build structures simple structures on the fly. The streamlined interface for doing this is very ingenious. You can effortlessly build steps to reach a high place or a platform to protect yourself. It's a useful building function without all the tediousness you normally expect. It's also very easy to destroy; you can bash a hole in a wall to find hidden items inside.

Another cool feature is the "storm" that gradually encroaches from all sides. Being in the storm drains you health, so it has the effect of corralling the players into an ever-decreasing sized battlefield. This ensures all matches will be fairly short in duration.

The shooting action is very fun, and the ability to resuscitate a fallen teammate is key. There's a counter on the screen letting you know how many people remain, and it's neat to watch it count down as you fight to survive. Even when you die it's still fun to be a spectator.

My nephew said this game is popular because it's free to download and play - you don't need any kind of PS Plus membership or anything like that. You can team up with three friends.

I'm not sure if the game is available in physical form, or if there are any offline modes. Still, I may try to review this because I like the concept and originality.

Sonicx9
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Re: Fortnite (PS4)

Postby Sonicx9 » March 11th, 2018, 10:53 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:This is a pretty popular online game you've probably heard about. I was playing it over my nephew's house today and I thought it was very innovative.

Fortnite is a third-person shooter with colorful, stylized visuals. The online play is very polished. A group of players from various teams are airlifted into a location on a floating bus. You skydive out of the bus, allowing you to choose your starting location. It's a really neat idea.

On the ground you can forage for resources and weapons. In addition to shooting people, you can build structures simple structures on the fly. The streamlined interface for doing this is very ingenious. You can effortlessly build steps to reach a high place or a platform to protect yourself. It's a useful building function without all the tediousness you normally expect. It's also very easy to destroy; you can bash a hole in a wall to find hidden items inside.

Another cool feature is the "storm" that gradually encroaches from all sides. Being in the storm drains you health, so it has the effect of corralling the players into an ever-decreasing sized battlefield. This ensures all matches will be fairly short in duration.

The shooting action is very fun, and the ability to resuscitate a fallen teammate is key. There's a counter on the screen letting you know how many people remain, and it's neat to watch it count down as you fight to survive. Even when you die it's still fun to be a spectator.

My nephew said this game is popular because it's free to download and play - you don't need any kind of PS Plus membership or anything like that. You can team up with three friends.

I'm not sure if the game is available in physical form, or if there are any offline modes. Still, I may try to review this because I like the concept and originality.


It is physical: https://www.amazon.com/Fortnite-PlaySta ... B071WNVX56, but is online only unfortunately: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/21 ... e/75592285

But it is likely to get a Nintendo Switch port with possible offline content added.: https://www.reddit.com/r/Kappa/comments ... ious_ones/

DaHeckIzDat
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Re: Fortnite (PS4)

Postby DaHeckIzDat » March 11th, 2018, 11:04 pm

The sad thing is, as well as Fortnite does the Battle Royale thing, it still pretty much stole it from Player Unknown Battleground (or PUBG as most people call it). They just gave it a more arcade-ish feel and implemented building mechanics. The other sad part is that that's only one mode the game has, but since that's the only piece the developer made free nobody knows what the full game is about. The main game is like a mix of Minecraft, tower defense, and Left 4 Dead. There are a bunch of machines you have to activate all across a big map, and when you do it attracts a wave of zombies. You have to defend the machine by scavenging materials and then building a great big fort around it to funnel the zombies into, and either set up traps to take them out or shoot them down yourself. I really want to try it out, but I'm holding out because the developers promised they'd make the full game free sometime this year.

Here's a good example of how the main game works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH3K0rcUUfw

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Re: Fortnite (PS4)

Postby Retro STrife » March 12th, 2018, 1:11 am

Whoa.. now here's a pleasant surprise! The Critic playing a download-only, online-only game - and a competitive shooter, at that - and liking it! I'm impressed. I hope you'll consider dabbling in these download-only games a bit more, as there are some true classics out there that could fly under your radar otherwise. Fortnite: Battle Royale is one of them, for sure. DaHeckIzDat and I raved about this game in the Modern Gaming forum, and rather than repeat that praise, I'll just post the link.
Check out our thoughts and tips here:

viewtopic.php?f=134797&t=16343

Despite our attempts to harass everyone here into downloading the game, I'm not sure whether anyone else did. Hopefully you have a little more sway! Considering it's not only a great game, but FREE for pete's sake, there is simply no good excuse for someone not playing this if they have a PS4 or Xbox One. (Also, I don't like competitive shooters and yet still love this game, so that's no reason to avoid it.)

I hope you do review this game. In case you do, here's a few helpful notes:
-I think, as with all PS4 games, you do need a PS+ membership in order to play this game online, since it is online-only.
-The game is currently in "early access" mode, so it's not technically the final version.
-The game you played is not the full version of Fortnite. As DaHeck noted, Fortnite's main game is a co-op zombie survival game. What you played is a standalone mode called "Fortnite: Battle Royale". In a way, it's almost like an entirely separate game from Fortnite. Yet, when most people talk about "Fortnite", they actually mean the Battle Royale mode. It's much more well known than the main game.
-To my knowledge, there is no physical release of Fortnite: Battle Royale. This makes sense, since the game is free, so there were no physical copies made. The Amazon page that Sonicx9 linked to is for Fortnite, rather than Fortnite: Battle Royale.
-There are also no offline modes. (Not sure if Fortnite has offline modes, but the Battle Royale mode doesn't.)
-Fortnite Battle Royale is a blatant rip-off (but a very good rip-off) of Player Unknown's Battlegrounds (or PUBG), which is the most acclaimed and best-selling PC game in yearssss. I haven't played PUBG yet, but it's too big to ignore, so I will eventually. The final version of PUBG is out for PCs, but there is an early access version on Xbox One right now. Since you liked Fortnite Battle Royale, strongly consider trying PUBG on Xbox One as well.

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Re: Fortnite (PS4)

Postby Retro STrife » March 12th, 2018, 1:28 am

Want to hear some funny stats? If you go to that link in my above post (linking to the topic in the Modern Gaming forum), you'll see me talking about how absolutely terrible I am at the "shooting" aspect of this game. I play Fortnite Battle Royale more like Metal Gear Solid than Call of Duty. It is all about stealth for me and I'm very good at that, but the minute I get stuck in a confrontation, I get killed every time. I'm awful at combat. In solo mode (1 vs. 99), here are my current stats:

Time played: 7 hours, 0 minutes
Matches: 43 (so, on average, I survive around 10 minutes per game)
Top 10 finishes: 10 out of 43
Top 25 finishes: 20 out of 43


AND........

Total Kills: 5


Yes, you read that right. I suck so bad that I have only managed to kill 5 people during the entire 7 HOURS (43 MATCHES) that I have played in the game! And most of those were by complete luck, rather than skill! Despite that.. check out my finishes. Out of the 100 players per match, I finish in the Top 10 approximately 25% of the time. I think that's pretty impressive considering how much I suck at combat. In a way, that proves my point that people who play this game aggressively and have high kill counts are actually playing it wrong. When you only have 1 life, you have to play conservatively. It's the Hunger Games out there! Obviously I must be doing something right...now, if only I could learn to kill someone, so that I can actually win a match...

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Re: Fortnite (PS4)

Postby Crummylion » March 12th, 2018, 1:56 am

I tried it on pc and eventually uninstalled after losing an important piece of data for it to work.
Also, it's getting a mobile port and crossplay between mobile, PC, and PS4 as well, which is cool. Will be trying the android version if it will work on there.

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Re: Fortnite (PS4)

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 13th, 2018, 6:36 pm

My nephew Jordan didn't need a membership to play online. He says this is a big reason he and his friends play it.

Unfortunately it would be difficult to review a game like this, considering how online games are in constant flux.

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Re: Fortnite (PS4)

Postby Retro STrife » March 13th, 2018, 6:57 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:My nephew Jordan didn't need a membership to play online. He says this is a big reason he and his friends play it.

Unfortunately it would be difficult to review a game like this, considering how online games are in constant flux.


Lol, well I'm an idiot then- I bought my brother a 1-month PS+ membership just so we could play this game together. Oh well..

I googled this to confirm, and you are correct. (To be honest, I thought every online game on PS4 needed PS+, so this is good to know for future reference.) However, from what I just read online, the Xbox One version does require an Xbox Live Gold subscription to play.

As for reviewing it, it is a little tricky, but I think it could still be worth doing. You could just make a note that it's online only and might change over time, or servers might go offline. Either way, probably best to wait until Early Access is complete though, so that you review the official release version.

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Re: Fortnite (PS4)

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 13th, 2018, 8:15 pm

Maybe it's the early access that's free, and the real version will cost money.

DaHeckIzDat
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Re: Fortnite (PS4)

Postby DaHeckIzDat » March 13th, 2018, 8:24 pm

I would encourage you not to review just the Battle Royale mode. That'd be like getting Black Ops and only reviewing the online death match. Maybe review the actual game and then if you think this one mode is worth it write a separate review for Fortnite Battle Royale.

Alternatively, you could download PUBG on Xbox. It's pretty much the same thing, except the one mode is all there is and it's more realistic than Fortnite. It's not free, though


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