Rocket League gets Dropshot mode and Easter treats
New competitive season too!
Rocket League [official site] was already our favourite game of 2015 but today it finally becomes proper football with the addition of a new mode where players will smash a load of windows to score points. Dropshot is its name, and bopping the ball to break open goalholes in the floor of your opponent's half of the arena is its game. Today also sees the start of Season 4 of competitive play and the addition of some silly fun Easter-themed items for cars to wear. Here, check out Dropshot in this trailer:
So! Dropshot goes down in a new hexagonal sportscage where the floor is made of hexagonal panels. These break after two hits, becoming goalzones for the other team to score in. In its natural state the ball only breaks the one panel it hits but juggling the ball in the air with successive knocks charges it up, damaging seven panels at level two then nineteen panels when mega-charged. The combination of acrobatics and destruction sounds great.
Competitive Season 4 will kick off with today's update, bringing a few changes to the format. It will be shorter, for starters, running around four months. The ranking now has more skill tiers, with fewer divisions each to compensate. The Neo Tokyo arena is pulled from the competitive playlist. And matchmaking ratings will be based purely on Skill values, removing the element of uncertainty.
"Good players with high uncertainty aren't under-ranked anymore, leading to fairer and more fun matches with more consistent skill gains and losses," developers Psyonix say. And "Players will more quickly reach their appropriate rank, which means less unbalanced games overall."
As for colourful trinkets, the Easter doodads arriving today are the Easter Egg Antenna, Easter Basket Topper, and Bunny Ears Topper. They'll be available as random post-match drops in all online playlists until April 17th. Get 'em and they're yours for keepsies. It can be Easter all year round. Nothing but chocolate eggs every day. Creme Eggs are in shops from January to June anyway, and Screme Eggs are perhaps July to November by now.
Today's update is due to launch at 3pm PDT, which is 10pm UK time.