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Posts Tagged ‘Fortnite’

Fortnite: PC ‘First And Foremost,’ Launching As Beta

By Nathan Grayson on September 4th, 2012.

Generally speaking, Epic’s a company that likes to put its best foot forward. When it debuts a new game or engine, everything’s polished to a gloriously gritty sheen – even if a look behind the curtain tells an entirely different tale. So Fortnite‘s PAX presentation was – for many reasons – a strong reminder that the crayola-colored survivor is Different. It began, for instance, with Tanya Jessen, Cliff Bleszinski, and co running us through very early Unreal Engine 3 prototypes of Fortnite’s combat – complete with desolate checker box backgrounds and near-superheroic levels of Aliasing-O-Vision. But that’s the point: Epic considers its construction-centric opus a “living project,” and it wants fans in on the ground floor.

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Fortnite’s Jessen Talks Minecraft, PC Gaming, UE4

By Nathan Grayson on July 20th, 2012.

It’s been ages since Epic last took up PC gaming’s banner and affixed some sort of completely bonkers weapon to it. Instead, the Unreal creator has been off duct-taping chainsaws to other platforms while we spill warm tears onto screenshots of Jazz The Jackrabbit. But no more. Epic recently announced that Fortnite – at least, for the time being – will be leading on PC and debuting Unreal Engine 4 to boot. So I had a massive chat with producer Tanya Jessen about that, during which we discussed Minecraft comparisons, the not-so-obvious benefits of Unreal Engine 4, Fortnite’s cartoony art style, online aspects, and why Epic never really left the PC behind. It’s all after the break.

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Epic Considering Always Online For Fortnite [Updated]

By Nathan Grayson on July 19th, 2012.

Update: Epic’s issued a statement clarifying its meaning, noting that – while nothing’s off the table – it hasn’t entered serious talks about how it’ll implement online play at this point. Here’s the official word, in full: “We’re not talking about our plans at this time, mainly because that plan doesn’t exist yet. Fortnite is an iterative, living project and many things are still being decided prior to its release in 2013.”  

Original article: Let’s start with some good news, shall we? First off, Fortnite’s looking quite nice and – based on an interview I just wrapped with producer Tanya Jessen (which you’ll see all of tomorrow) – the Unreal-Engine-4-powered survivor is, by and large, taking full advantage of every tool at PC gaming’s disposal. In other words, expect a constant flow of new content, some form of mod support, and impressively open-ended, procedurally generated worlds. It’s not all uncharacteristically colorful cartoon roses, however. At this stage, Jessen told me, a constant Internet connection requirement ala Diablo is still a possibility. She assured, however, that it’d be used first and foremost to improve the game – not as a last line of defense against piracy’s nighttime pillages.

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Cliffy Returns: Fortnite PC-Exclusive, First To Use UE4

By Nathan Grayson on July 12th, 2012.

Well now, this scene doesn't make a lick of sense. I mean, why's he using a fire axe? I don't see any fires.

After a long, harrowing journey in which he was forced to duct tape an assault rifle and chainsaw together to escape the vacuous innards of a consolebox, Cliff “Don’t Call Me CliffyB” Bleszinski (and, I suppose, Epic’s legion of insanely talented guys and gals) is back on PC. So then, what does the formidable devourer of puppies have in store for us this time? Well, in short, Fortnite‘s an Unreal-Engine-4-powered exclusive that, er, sounds a whole lot like Minecraft.

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Scavengers Assemble: Fortnite

By Adam Smith on December 12th, 2011.

A Primark store prepares for the January sales

Fortnite’s reveal trailer suggested that the game could be borrowing ideas from Minecraft, Fort Zombie and Team Fortress 2, along with many other things. Now that details are beginning to emerge, Epic have admitted that Mojang’s block ‘em up was indeed an inspiration. Lead designer Lee ‘Unscratch’ Perry took time to broadcast the following messages through his personal Tweet-o-Tron: “Minecraft lets you build ANYTHING, we are focusing on constructing ‘buildings’ specifically”. A later tweet contained this: “Minecraft was an inspiration for sure”. With that out in the open, the obvious thing to do was to ensure Notch backed our demand that the game come to PC. A few more details about the game await below.

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Epic Announce “Explore”-y Game: Fortnite

By Jim Rossignol on December 11th, 2011.


So here’s a genuinely interesting twist. Epic’s next game steps away from space marine bombast to be a thing where “you explore, you scavenge, you build and ultimately you survive.” It’s called Fortnite and it sounds like my kind of game, frankly. There’s no word of this formats it is coming out on, so might not be PC, but I think we can assume that it will be, given the clear Minecraftian inspiration. Like Minecraft, enemies come out at night, so players will be spend the daytime scavenging to bolster their defences for the night.

Teaser-y trailer below. Thoughts, Internet?
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