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Fortnite Season 5 Map: 5 Ideas We Want To See
'Pokémon GO' Raid Reward Day: How To Get Yourself A Shiny Articuno
Why the latest big 2018 iPhone leak is bad news for Apple fans

Fortnite Season 5 Map: 5 Ideas We Want To See

Posted: 07 Jul 2018 08:02 AM PDT

We're sure you're familiar with the Fortnite: Battle Royale phenomenon at this point. We've been keeping you up to date on the weekly challenges, the latest updates and changes, and offered some perspective on things we'd like to see added to the game. And although we still enjoy battling it out against 99 other players on the game's current map, it's easy to imagine how a new map could keep us coming back for more Victory Royales in the long run.

There is currently one map in Fortnite: Battle Royale, but to Epic Games' credit, it has evolved over time. With new seasons comes new content and actual changes to the lone map's layout and features. When Season 4 hit, so did a comet that destroyed Dusty Depot to create a new area called Dusty Divot, which fed into the superhero theme the game was going for. Now with Season 5 on the horizon (starting July 12), we started to think about how Fortnite's world is going to evolve further given the recent appearance of mysterious tears in the sky. Could they lead to a new map, and if so, what might that look like?

For the latest on Fortnite, be sure to read through our stories on the new Playground mode and when it'll be going away, Epic's user-made short-film competition, or how the latest patch changes up the game. Week 10 of Season 4 tasked players with a slew of new challenges, like the search between movie titles, which we have a complete guide for.

A Snow Map Where You Need Warmth

In creating a new map, Epic could take the approach of releasing something that isn't meant to be much more than a simple alternative to the existing island, offering a different look and feel but not much else. Alternatively, it could release something that is much more specialized, with its own custom set of rules, almost like a new playlist that happens to have a map that is catered specifically to it.

One such possibility: a winter map where snow has a real impact on gameplay. A snow-covered map would make distant enemies easier to see, making long-range weapons more valuable. But snow could periodically fall during the match, reducing visibility and thus emphasizing close-range combat for a period of time.

Movement speed could be impacted by the amount of snow you're walking through, but what's even more intriguing is the prospect of needing to keep yourself warm. Similar to Company of Heroes 2, which requires you to garrison units or get them near a fire periodically, Battle Royale's gameplay could really be shaken up if you also had to account for your body's temperature. If you're cold, do you risk suffering damage to grab that desirable weapon in the distance, or do you find a place to warm up first?

So many new wrinkles would make for a technical challenge, but a new map that impacts gameplay in so many ways would be a great way to show how meaningful new locales are going to be in Fortnite.

Flat Terrain Map With Max Resources

Admittedly, this sounds a lot like an experimental limited-time mode, but a map that's essentially a flat, wide-open field could be a ton of fun. Here, players would have to put their building skills to the ultimate test. Matches would probably boil down to a build-your-own map type of game, where things would play out in even more unpredictable fashion than they already do. We imagine players would have to do more than just protect themselves; with the storm closing in and not much in the way of natural defenses, creativity would be pushed and building structures with mobility in mind would change the way Fortnite is traditionally played.

To make this work, you'd probably have to start players with maximum (or unlimited) resources so everyone can get to building as soon as they land. Weapon scavenging might be tricky to implement in this type of map, but maybe weapons stashes can act as hot dropzones for players to start building out from. This type of map can highlight one of Fortnite's strengths and the feature that has helped distinguish itself from other battle royale games in the first place.

A Volcano Map

What really sets Fortnite apart from other battle royale games are building mechanics, and while they are used in fast combat situations, it could be really cool to require them during the running phase of a match to overcome obstacles. A giant volcano map with peaks, chasms, and lava tubes would add another layer of thinking and movement. A volcano map could also vary the distances at which players fight in the final circle. Maybe there'd be close-range final circles in caves, long-range final circles over a giant magma chamber, hilltop-to-hilltop fights similar to those that take place now, and possibly small island battles in the water around the base of the map.

Epic has been really good so far at planned events, such as the recent rocket launch, but why not take this one step further with random events? Matches a lava tube could be open, then next flooded, or one match the lava chamber is empty and cavernous while the next it’s overflowing onto the rest of the map. With dimensional rifts opening up, the possibilities for random events are endless. The volcano map could even take place during different eras-- dinosaurs, anyone?

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A Land Filled With Stuff From Other Worlds

Fortnite's island has variety, as you've got everything from swamps to suburban towns to junkyards to (more recently) a giant crater with some kind of scientific base built inside of it. But it all generally makes sense and seems like it fits in the same general area.

With Season 4's rifts causing objects to disappear, it would be fun to see that serve a purpose. What if these rifts are not just on the Battle Royale island, but all over the world--or even different dimensions? Rather than having these things blink out of existence, maybe these rifts are instead transporting them elsewhere. That elsewhere could be the setting for a new map.

It might be a bit extreme as the concept for what would only be Battle Royale's second map, but it would be great to eventually see a location full of weird juxtapositions. A jumbo jet inside of a gym? Sure. Alien plants that attack you lined outside of a toy store? Why not! Fortnite already embraces silliness, and this would allow Epic to truly go all-out with a map that's unlike anything else in the battle royale space. It would also feature a perfect, built-in excuse to continue updating the map with new elements as more things are teleported in and out.

Fighting In A Post-Apocalypse

Epic has the flexibility to take Fortnite in almost any direction it wants to, thematically. And given the premise of the original Save The World mode--defending yourselves from the undead and mutated monsters--going with a post-apocalyptic theme for a new map is well within the realm of possibility. This would be more than just a cosmetic overhaul, too. It'd be interesting to see how radiation zones could factor into matches; clever ways to build around dangerous areas on top of avoiding enemies and the deadly storm might spice things up a bit. Maybe irradiated zones can be randomized just like the storm to ramp up the tension even more. Geiger counters going off when you least expect it while thinking you're building into a safe zone could make for a real curveball.

A post-apocalyptic map may serve as the impetus to bring in new weapons as well. A nuke launcher could be wildly devastating, but highly sought out by players. We'd be hesitant to ask for hostile hordes as a factor when it comes to a battle royale match, but it's an aspect that could be cleverly implemented in this specific type of map.

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'Pokémon GO' Raid Reward Day: How To Get Yourself A Shiny Articuno

Posted: 07 Jul 2018 05:08 AM PDT

Community Day may be tomorrow, but Pokémon GO has a different sort of special event going on today. That would be the unlock reward for the Dortmund Safari Zone, one that is spawning three hours of pure Articuno raids, with a chance for the legendary bird to be shiny.

Unlike Community Day, Articuno caught today don’t know any special move, but the fact that you can get yourself a shiny version is enough for players to go nuts raiding everywhere.

As we’ve learned from other regions which are already live, Niantic has gone the whole nine yards and made every single gym spawn an Articuno raid that lasts three hours.

To maximize your chances of getting a shiny version, you’re going to want to plan to travel to a city or park with a lot of landmarks and gyms if you can. If this is doable for you, I’d recommend it, because you’re never going to see another three hour window like this, and unlike Community Day, getting more shots at shiny Articuno, because of how legendaries rotate, is going to be pretty tough in the future. I would make a day of it and when 11 AM PT rolls around, I’d make sure you’re somewhere with the maximum amount of gyms.

Unlike some of the other shinies, shiny Articuno doesn’t look all that different on first glance. He’s essentially just a lighter shade of blue, which you can see above, so there’s no crazy color change like a red or yellow version. Instead you’re going to have to look for the sparkles around him.

The good news is that once you find him, he has a 100% catch rate. Niantic knows how frustrating it would be to finally land a raid shiny, only to have it flee, so they’ve made it a guaranteed catch when you do come across one.

Pokemon GO

So again, the problem is sighting rate, not catch rate. From the sound of it, it seems like shiny Articuno has a similar spawn rate to what we see during Community Day. I would say that on average, shiny Articuno has a 5% spawn rate, or 1 out of 20 raids will get you one. Of course there’s a range there, and it could be 3-7% depending on your luck, 1 in 10 or 1 in 30 or so. Or you could just have terrible luck and do 50+ raids and not see one. That’s just kind of how it goes.

But this is why I’m telling you to go somewhere with the maximum amount of possible gyms for raids. This isn’t Community Day where you can just pop incense and lures and sit there farming Dratini and Larvitar spawns, there are only going to be a limited number of these in your area, so you want to make sure your find as many of them as you possibly can in three hours.

Once you find him? We have a whole separate guide for how to beat and catch Articuno, based on new Pokémon that are available since we last wrote such a guide. Hint: Tyranitar is always a good choice.

I think this is going to be frustrating for those who don’t manage to land a shiny today because it’s such a limited time offering, so try to make the most of these three hours. At least Niantic has given us endless, lengthy raid spawns, but you’re going to have to jam in as many as you can for the best shot at shiny Articuno. Good luck!

Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Pre-order my new sci-fi novel Herokiller, and read my first series, The Earthborn Trilogy, which is also on audiobook.

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Why the latest big 2018 iPhone leak is bad news for Apple fans

Posted: 06 Jul 2018 05:51 AM PDT

There is no question whatsoever that Apple’s upcoming new 2018 iPhone models are the most hotly anticipated smartphones of the year. In fact, there’s really no close second this year. Samsung has some truly exciting new smartphones planned for 2019 like the Galaxy S10 and the new foldable Galaxy X, but the company’s smartphone division basically decided to take 2018 off. The current Galaxy S9 and S9+ are boring rehashes of last year’s S8 phones, so sales have been beyond disappointing as a result. The handsets had their prices slashed at three major US carriers within a month of being released, which is unprecedented, and now they’ve dragged down Samsung’s otherwise impressive second-quarter earnings guidance. Sadly, we’re expecting more of the same from the Galaxy Note 9 set to be unveiled on August 9th.

Google’s upcoming new Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL seem like they’re getting a lot of buzz online, and they are. But the hype surrounding upcoming new Pixel phones exists almost entirely online. Pixel handsets are niche phones that aren’t widely marketed or widely distributed, so sales thus far have been quite low.

That leaves Apple’s upcoming 2018 iPhone lineup, which will become the best-selling new smartphone line of the year during its first few weeks of availability alone. Apple is set to release three new iPhone models this September for the first time ever, and Apple fans couldn’t be more excited to finally get their hands on a plus-sized iPhone X. Unfortunately, if the latest leak from the world’s top Apple insider turns out to be true, it’s going to be pretty bad news for all the Apple fans out there hoping to see exciting new iPhones launch later this summer.

To explain why Apple’s 2018 iPhone lineup may wind up being boring, we first have to go back to 2016, which marked a major change to Apple’s iPhone strategy.

Ever since all the way back in 2008, Apple stuck to a strict pattern when it came to new iPhone models. First the company would launch a brand new model featuring a new design, new specs, and new features. Then the following year, Apple would launch an “S” model that sported the same design but still offered new specs and new features. Things continued that way for seven years until 2016, when Apple released the iPhone 6ss and iPhone 6ss Plus. Sorry, we meant the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

Despite sporting a new number in the name, Apple’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus marked Apple’s most boring iPhone update in the history of the company’s smartphone line. They featured the exact same design as their predecessors, but for the second consecutive year. In hindsight it’s understandable that Apple chose to reuse the same design again in 2016 since it wanted to save its big iPhone X redesign for the iPhone’s tenth anniversary, but of course that didn’t make the 7 and 7 Plus any less boring.

So how did Apple get fans to upgrade to these boring new iPhone models after already spending the past two years with iPhones that looked exactly the same? After all, these new iPhone models weren’t like the new model numbered iPhones that came before them, since they had the same exact design and offered no exciting new features whatsoever. First, Apple added a dual-lens camera to the larger iPhone 7 Plus model. Meh, it was neat. Second, it added two new colors to its iPhone lineup, including the Jet Black color with a mirror finish that people loved. Meh, they were neat.

Fast-forward to 2018, and it appears as though we may be in store for a repeat of the iPhone 7.

TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is the most accurate source on the planet when it comes to leaking plans surrounding unreleased Apple products. On Thursday, Kuo sent a new note to clients as well as a few Apple blogs. In it, the analyst revealed for the first time that each of Apple’s three new iPhone models in 2018 will be available in new colors.

According to Kuo’s note, the next-generation 5.8-inch iPhone model and the larger 6.5-inch “iPhone X Plus” will be made available in black (Space Gray), white (Silver), and gold. The new lower-cost 2018 iPhone model that features a similar design with less impressive specs will supposedly be made available in blue, red, and orange in addition to the standard Space Gray and Silver colors.

New color options sound nice, but let’s remember how Apple has used the addition of new iPhone colors in the past. Black and Jet Black were added to the iPhone 7 since the phone was a boring update. The iPhone 5c was released in several different colors because it featured a less attractive design and year-old specs. With those things in mind, it seems that Apple might not be planning to add any exciting new features at all to its upcoming new iPhone lineup. Instead, we can expect a faster iPhone X, a bigger iPhone X, and a cheaper iPhone X with an LCD screen with performance on par with last year’s model.

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