Play Path of Exile for freeFor this year’s April Fools’ Day joke, Path of Exile announced the creation of a Battle Royale mode… and then further surprised players by having that mode actually exist in playable format. So how did that happen? Well, the latest dispatch from the development team explains how they managed to take a silly idea that was originally meant to just be a fake announcement and flesh it out into a playable game mode. The core of the design was easy – mash up multiple tilesets, create a variant of the cutthroat ruleset, add monsters and treasure to the map, and so forth. Each developer had a different task that looked to take about a day, with a limit of one day of work for each team member to avoid delaying further patches. Of course, the mode also turned out to be a surprise hit, so players can be assured that it will come back in some form in the future; the question is just whether it will be persistent or a limited-time event. Source: … [Read more...] about Path of Exile mulls over reviving its popular April Fools’ Day Battle Royale mode
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Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan Talks About Battle Royale And The Overwatch Archives Event
Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, the Overwatch community has been nagging Blizzard Entertainment for a Battle Royale mode. And, because the devs are avid PUBG players themselves, they actually considered adding one into the game. Unfortunately, the MMO shooter just wasn’t made to be a Battle Royale game. Game Director Jeff Kaplan explains in an interview with Kotaku: “First and foremost, Overwatch is a game about heroes, and part of what makes the core loop work in a battle royale game is the search, the looting, and the fairness that everybody’s sort of equal. Overwatch wasn’t designed to be a 1v1. Every hero’s not balanced against every other hero.” Balance issues aren’t the only thing that’s stopping the team from creating a Battle Royale mode. ““I think there are also some technical challenges of large, open game spaces,” Kaplan said. “Our primary engagement distance is usually around 15 to 40 … [Read more...] about Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan Talks About Battle Royale And The Overwatch Archives Event
Overwatch downplays battle royale potential, introduces Overwatch Archives events
Is Overwatch getting a battle royale mode? Probably not. Blizzard Game Director Jeff Kaplan told Kotaku that the team has actually seriously considered wedging a battle royale effort into the game, both because gamers constantly request it and because Blizz devs themselves play PUBG. But technical and design and balance hurdles stand in the way. “First and foremost, Overwatch is a game about heroes, and part of what makes the core loop work in a battle royale game is the search, the looting, and the fairness that everybody’s sort of equal,” he explains. “Overwatch wasn’t designed to be a 1v1. Every hero’s not balanced against every other hero. […] Building those systems and getting that many players – I think battle royale for Overwatch starts to get into new game territory.” What is coming to the game? The return of last year’s Uprising Brawl modes as part of a much bigger Overwatch Archives event, which explores PvE stories … [Read more...] about Overwatch downplays battle royale potential, introduces Overwatch Archives events
Path of Exile Releases Battle Royale Mode
In a surprise update that went live April 1, 2018 New Zealand Time, Grinding Gear Games has revealed a major genre pivot. Now titled Path of Exile: ROYALE, the action-RPG has added a free for all Battle Royale mode! With only a day's worth of development time, the new mode pits up to 100 players against each other. All players start with no equipment and must open chests and defeat NPC monsters for exp and loot. Path of Exile's Battle Royale mode rewards hasty inventory management and knowledge about the game's mechanics. Players must quickly scan through a wide variety of loot and skill gems and constantly equip their character for battle. Only new characters specifically created for the Battle Royale league can participate, and it is possible to level up within each match. While Path of Exile clearly intends for this mode to be an April Fool's joke, its actually a lot more fun than the game's standard PvP mode. At the very least, this experiment proves that Battle Royale need not … [Read more...] about Path of Exile Releases Battle Royale Mode
The Weekly Raid: Are Battle Royale Games A Fad?
The Battle Royale genre turned from a niche game mod to industry leader in just one year. Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, developed by Bluehole, blazed that trail and hit a peak of 3.2 million concurrent players earlier this year. But what turned Battle Royale into a genre rather than a single hit was how quickly Epic Games was able to spin out their own version: Fortnite Battle Royale. Despite being second out the gate, Fortnite has managed to surpass PUBG by hitting 3.4 million concurrent users earlier this month. Despite being free to play, Fortnite has rakes in over $80 million USD per month according to Superdata Research. That places both PUBG and Fortnite on the list of top 10 highest grossing PC games. The only genre that has more entries in the top 10 is the MMORPG itself. Other studios were quick to realize to potential in this new genre. Games like Paladins and Warframe quickly announced their own Battle Royale modes. These and other Battle Royale games like Darwin Project … [Read more...] about The Weekly Raid: Are Battle Royale Games A Fad?