Epic Games Unveils Fortnite

[Andy Chalk]

Epic Games Unveils Fortnite

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Epic's new Big Idea is a fortress-building, zombie-shooting action-strategy game called Fortnite.

Epic rolled out Fortnite at the Spike Video Game Awards this past weekend with a trailer and not much else. Cliff Bleszinski, Epic's design director, said during the show that Epic wanted to "switching things up a little bit and do something different and fun" with Fortnite, describing it as "a world where you explore, you scavenge, you build and ultimate you survive."

He was a little more forthcoming in an interview [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhqu-kPySpY] after the show, although he maintained that the studio isn't prepared to get into detail right now. "Traditionally, we make shooters and shooting is in there, but it's really not what the game is all about," he said. "It's really a game that is more about survival than anything else." The game was pitched internally several months ago and came together "lightning fast," he added, so at this point Epic is still "figuring out what to do with the lightning we have in a bottle."

The Fortnite teaser has a definite Team Fortress 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Team-Fortress-2-Pc/dp/B00140S21O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323704351&sr=8-1] vibe and indicates that the game will involve fortress building by day and fortress defense by night. So there you go - what do you think? Platforms, release date and other such information isn't even close to being announced, so don't bother asking.

Source: Forbes [http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2011/12/10/epic-games-new-franchise-fortnite-blends-survival-horror-with-tower-defense-strategy/]


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[Soviet Heavy]

Well, I'd say it looks nice, and it reminds me of Orcs Must Die: adopting a concept like tower defense, or in this case, those "defend the castle" flash games and giving it a new coat of paint.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

When I saw the name Cliff Bleszinski, all of my interest in the game instantly disappeared. Gods, I hate that douchenozzle.

 

[emenar]

cos it looks like TF2 and dungeon defenders and stuff like that, im thinking its gonna be a steam game, or perhaps one of the Xbox live downloadables ones.

Makes me think of a more animated version of that Starcraft 2 campaign mission. Build ur fort at day, slay zombies at night... wonder if u can send ur little fire spitting cars around the map at midnight in this too ^^

 

[The Wykydtron]

That's a win! That's an "Epic moves on to colorful tower defense game" win!

Roll the next clip Steven!

The only way I could see this failing is if everyone just got sick of zombie games in general... Considering the amount of zombies in games this year it might actually be a possibility.

 

[bobmus]

I think using the Team Fortress font for the logo at the end was perhaps a little too on the nose, but the game idea sounds intriguing at least...

 

[TheDooD]

Another Zombie game that really doesn't do anything new. Well at lease it ain't brown yet I think Epic is making colorful to denounce those that say they can only make brown games. I'll give it a pass because of Cliffy B

 

[Terminate421]

It's like gears of war 3s horde mode, only with zombies

 

[synobal]

When I saw the name Cliff Bleszinski, all of my interest in the game instantly disappeared. Gods, I hate that douchenozzle.

This, just this.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Concept? Good.

I'll be waiting for game play information before I get too excited though. It's going to be a while.

 

[TheDooD]

Another Zombie game that really doesn't do anything new. Well at lease it ain't brown yet I think Epic is making colorful to denounce those that say they can only make brown games. I'll give it a pass because of Cliffy B

Woah woah woah, you're assuming a lot of things there from a 1 minute teaser trailer.

I'd hold onto your pants and wait for some more information to come out.

If a teaser makes me go "meh zombies" then everything else won't change the fact that it has zombies which are over done in gaming. Plus the fact it's castle defense which is also overused doesn't help'em either. Until proven otherwise Epic is just shining shit so they won't get called out for making another brown game.

 

[wooty]

You sure this is Epic games? Theres not a single muscle bound fuck head in that trailer, unless they're saving that for DLC

 

[sheah1]

This looks.... really awesome actually. I love the "scavenge/build/defend" vibe. Honestly I'm surprised this hasn't been done before, like taking the best bits of Resident Evil 4, my only worry is that it won't come to PS3 (please Cliffy? I'll be your friend?).
Wonder how big a part multiplayer will be....

 

[Tharwen]

Well... it's Epic. They make good games. Hopefully, since this looks like a very simple game, they'll be able to spend a lot of time maximising the goodness they put into it.

 

[Sarpedon]

I for one hope this is a little minecrafty in design. The concept sounds interesting, but it depends on what it means by "build a fortress." Does it mean construct the fortress from scratch the way you want it built? Or, does it mean that you are given a prebuilt fortress that you can modify with certain defenses?

 

[TheDooD]

Another Zombie game that really doesn't do anything new. Well at lease it ain't brown yet I think Epic is making colorful to denounce those that say they can only make brown games. I'll give it a pass because of Cliffy B

Woah woah woah, you're assuming a lot of things there from a 1 minute teaser trailer.

I'd hold onto your pants and wait for some more information to come out.

If a teaser makes me go "meh zombies" then everything else won't change the fact that it has zombies which are over done in gaming. Plus the fact it's castle defense which is also overused doesn't help'em either. Until proven otherwise Epic is just shining shit so they won't get called out for making another brown game.

Well, you just went out and said "it doesn't do anything new" when we really, really have no clue what the game is about. Trailers like these mean absolutely nothing about the title in progress, they just garner interest.

Remember Dead Islands first trailer? You know, the one that made it look like a sombre, edgy story with little girls falling out of windows? How was that for a misleading trailer!

Seems to be like you've just got an itch in your ass against Epic Games. Also, Castle Defense hasn't been done too much afaik. Minecraft's pseudo survival mode? Call of Duty's nazi zombies?

Hardly castle defense. If you've played some Warcraft 3 mods, you'd know what castle defense actually is. Hopefully Epic Games will get it right.

They've got good resources and a talented team, I'm excited to see what they do with this title. Dismissing it just because it has zombies in it is really unfair, and quite frankly, sort of funny.

It's unfair that its another meh zombie game on the market when they have like you said they have the resources and the talented team. So they can do WAY better the zombies and castle / tower defense. Overall it still gets dismissed because it's nothing really worth getting hyped about. Epic is a one trick pony and they barely did that right.

 

[BoredDragon]

I don't think the cartoon-ish graphics really fit a zombie game very well. If the game is supposed to be sillier than what the trailer shows then it would make sense, but they are trying to go for a somewhat serious approach which I don't think will work very well.

 

[Aprilgold]

Little late to say but cue all the whining about zombie games. Sure, nobody complains about the 90,000 generic war shooters copying off of CoD and Battlefield, or 20,000 Generic Fantasy Games, or 10,000 peggle rip offs, or the 1,000 Tower Defense rip offs this year. All anybody ever complains about is the un-dead. Sure I'm exaggerating numbers here but thats the whole market at the minute. Seriously, whenever this comes up I always say the same thing, there are not all the games that are strictly DEDICATED to zombies, but have zombie MODES in them.

A big example is Call of Duties Zombie mode, its not a game in and of itself, its a mini game. Or the Saints Row Zombie game, its a mini game, not a game. The only big Zombie release I remember from this year is Dead Island, which sucked major balls to the PC audience.

If we want to get down to it, there are plenty of games that have zombies or variants, such as the Dragur from Skyrim, those are technically zombies.

Main point, there aren't as many Zombie Dedicated Games out there as there are Zombies IN a game.

Heres a list of games that have zombies / Zombie dedicated games, its missing some, but its worth a look:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_zombie_video_games

 

[Dirty Apple]

I don't think the cartoon-ish graphics really fit a zombie game very well. If the game is supposed to be sillier than what the trailer shows then it would make sense, but they are trying to go for a somewhat serious approach which I don't think will work very well.

I welcome the idea of a more light-hearted zombie romp. I'm kinda sick of the over the top gore and grittiness. There's enough of that ilk already.

 

[cricket chirps]

Me and a friend of mine came up with this idea two years ago but didnt imagine so cartoony. At the time i thought it would be the best game ever, and in the hands of EPIC it could be!