Rocket League celebrates Chinese New Year with a new map next week
New year new rims
Videogames are always willing to pounce on excuses to sell you hats, so naturally Rocket League is celebrating the Chinese New Year. The event kicks off on Monday. There will be new rims and such, available to buy on the recently reworked and now slightly cheaper store. I'm more interested in the new Forbidden Temple Arena, which looks like a colourful escape from this dreary January.
The Lucky Lanterns event starts on Monday January 20th and runs until February 10th. You earn Red Envelopes by playing matches, and can redeem them for special event items or a random old one from "Champion Series 1, 2, and 3". The still-overpriced shop will have new items, too, and you get a free one just for logging in.
Here's the event page, and here's the Forbidden Temple map.
Rocket League does more novel maps sometimes, changing the size and layout of the pitch. The appeal of this one just lies in the scenery, but it's pretty, innit.
I visited Beijing's Forbidden City once, which you are totally allowed into, apart from the actually forbidden bits. It's wild. There are 12 individual palaces with names like "Palace of Eternal Longevity" and "Palace of Accumulated Purity". The halls of the outer courts are organised in groups of three that reflect the Quian trigram, representing heaven, while the living areas in the inner courts are arranged in groups of six, representing the Earth. Which is interesting, because that's where the Emperor and his family lived, and my western brain makes me assume they'd be set up in the heavenly bit.
There was a paucity of rocket-propelled cars.
Rocket League's new year nonsense starts on Monday, if you've forgotten.