Paladins plunking it up with new Battlegrounds mode

The Battle Royale genre brewed for a few years, shifting and gurgling trying to find a stable form until Playerunknown's Battlegrounds burst out the barrel and engulfed the world in its murderous foam. Now everyone's drunk on last-man-standing murder and--watch out!--here comes Paladins stumbling down the digital alley, announcing plans to mix its class-based shooter action with a new Battle Royale mode. It's shamelessly named Paladins: Battlegrounds but might at least turn up something different, as the different classes (sorry, 'heroes' or 'champions' or whatever) and team compositions mean everyone should bring more variety than the usual Royale 'em up blank slates.

In the usual Battle Royale way, Pladbat mode will plop 100 players into a big map to loot items, chase crates, and murder men until one team triumphs. The announcement from Hi-Rez Studios today blurbs:

"Designed from the ground-up to be played in teams, players must work together to survive in Paladins: Battlegrounds. Supports struggle to keep their Front Liners alive, while Damage Champions let the bullets fly and Flanks look for any possible assassination.

"Players spawn into a massive map -- over 300 times the square footage of a typical Paladins' Siege map. Then they hop onto their mounts and begin exploring, looting their way through more than four dozen outposts and tracking zeppelins that drop legendary gear."

Ayup, that's a Plunker all right. Pladbat is due to hit the free-to-play game later this year. Beyond Pladbat, Hi-Rez also announced another new champion and a team deathmatch mode.