Epic Games releases its latest update for Fortnite, bringing with it Xbox One X enhancements as well as quality of life improvements for Battle Royale and PvE content.
After its slow start earlier in the summer, Fortnite continues to be a major success story for Epic Games thanks in large part to Battle Royale. The free to play, PvP mode has managed to corner the market on consoles by offering an alternative to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. With over 20 million players having logged in to play the mode, Epic has been able to entice even more to stick around thanks to its constant updates and themed events. A new update has finally hit, bringing even more improvements and new ways to play.
For players who managed to snag an Xbox One X earlier this month, Epic Games is finally giving Fortnite the visual boost it needs to really take advantage of the new hardware. After update 1.9.1 launches, players using the new console will be able to utilize 4K and visual settings comparable to running the game on a high-end PC using Epic quality. According to the notes, the HUD is 100% 4K, while the game content is set to 80% and then upsampled to 4K using a high-quality software upsampler. Draw distances, post-processing effects, reflections, shadows, and foliage have also all received a visual boost as well.
The Xbox One X update isn’t the only item contained in this patch, however. In fact, update 1.9.1 continues the trend of adding quality of life enhancements to both the PvE side of the game, and the immensely popular Battle Royale as well. Mutant Storms have returned, replacing the Halloween themed events and with it comes nine new Vindertech weapons to collect in the PvE side of the game.
Battle Royale, on the other hand, is getting two new leaderboards for players to compete on as well. Global wins puts the spotlight on the top 50 players based on the selected match type, while Score displays top players based on the total amount of experience gained. From the gameplay side, players can now find smoke grenades in chests or randomly as floor loot. These weapons are non-lethal, thrown objects that are great for obscuring the vision of enemies.
Fortnite’s popularity has also seen the rise of cheating as well, which Epic has taken a no-tolerance policy on. While the developer continues to ban cheaters in waves, some players who the developer views have taken things to a new extreme are seeing lawsuits filed against them including a 14 year old. Though Epic’s aims were to clean up the experience and eliminate problems like third-party aimbots and paid cheating software, an unforeseen issue is the fact that Epic’s lawsuit involves an individual that is considered a minor and cannot legally be sued. Though it’s now in the company’s best interest to drop the case, it’ll be interesting to see how this incident shapes decisions going forward for the game.
Fortnite is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Check out Page 2 for the entire list of changes, features, and enhancements in update 1.9.1 for Fortnite.
