I already touched on Fortnite by Epic Games a little bit in my PAX wrap-up, but I thought I would go a little more in depth for the three of you that read my blog. Well okay all two of you (sorry I included myself), but I love you guys!
Fortnite is as mash-up of Minecraft and a third person shooter. You start off with a stick and you run around hitting things to break them apart for their materials. Things like cars give you metal and gears, houses and trees give wood, and so on. Unlike Minecraft there is no mining. You can only harvest what is above the ground. However, just like Minecraft you use the materials that you gained to build better stuff. Like pick axes and guns, and of course the titular forts.
You will need to build goods forts too because when the zombies come, they come in force, and they destroy everything in their path. They will make you pray that you built enough bullets (Build a lot of bullets!). There are a good verity of zombies: there are the standard walk up to you and start to bite ones, ones that throw bombs, ones that explode, and even ones that throw other zombies. They will attack from all sides and above, so if you built a crappy fort, you will loose.
The game is fast paced and visceral meanwhile the graphics are fun and cheery. If I had one complaint it is that it looks a little too much like Team Fortress 2. Still that is a very minor complaint, and since this game is still in Pre-Alpha to Alpha, that may change. The other thing that I am worried about is how the Free-To-Play mechanics are going to work. It would be lame to come up against a team that just bought all the resources to win without trying.
The base of what they have now for Fortnite is fantastic, and I really hope that I get in to the upcoming closed alpha, because I really want to play some more. You can sign up for the alpha here. Keep your eye out for Fortnite because it may become your new video game addiction!