Thes Best PC Games of 2018

5 Reasons To Play 'Fortnite' Instead Of 'PUBG'

Fortnite is the clear winner in its battle royale meta-game versus PUBG.CREDIT: EPIC GAMES

Fortnite: Battle Royale has quite literally taken the gaming world by storm. If 2017 was the year of PUBG, then 2018 is shaping up to be the year of Fortnite, and with good reason.

The game is incredibly popular because it's incredibly fun. It's the number one most watched game on Twitch because it's not only fun to play, it's fun to watch others play. Everything from the fast gameplay to the colorful graphics and quick matches make this the perfect game to stream or play, and with over 40 million players and counting its developer and publisher, Epic, is set to have a pretty remarkable year.

I've written previously that while I very much enjoy playing Fortnite, I still like some things about PUBG better. But there's more than a strong case to be made for why you should pick up Fortnite instead. Here are five reasons why I think Fortnite edges out PUBG when it all comes down to it.

1. It's free-to-play.

PUBG will cost you $30 to play and then sells you loot keys to unlock certain loot boxes with. You can also purchase items found in these loot boxes from other players, sometimes to the tune of hundreds of dollars.

On the other hand, Fortnite: Battle Royale is entirely, 100% free-to-play. You can buy seasonal Battle Passes (more on that below) but you never need to buy anything to play the game and enjoy it. There is literally no better reason to play this game than that, and it's a clear winner over PUBG in this regard.

3. You don't have to deal with as many cheaters.

Cheaters ruin games. Nothing ruins a competitive match in a game so quickly as a cheater. And while Fortnite does have its share of cheaters, PUBG has turned into a swamp. This is largely due to the influx of Chinese players in the game---virtually all PUBG cheaters hail from China---and the developer's unwillingness to region lock. This has resulted in a truly astonishing number of bans, but cheaters simply buy another copy and keep cheating.

If you don't want to get pwned by hackers and would rather just play and enjoy a game, Fortnite is a safer bet. And all the resources that the PUBG Corporation sinks into combating cheaters are resources that aren't going to game updates, new maps, and performance fixes.

4. Epic does right by its fans, with new content and communication.

Epic is great about communicating the studio's plans, intentions and just...everything related to the game. The studio is also great about adding new content and modes to the game, like the recently announced 20 vs 20 mode which pits five teams of 20 players against one another. This followed a 50 vs 50 mode that Epic is currently refining and plans to re-release down the road (because the original 50 vs 50 mode wasn't very good.)

The point is, Epic is great about communicating, putting out new content, and just keeping the game great and its community happy. Meanwhile, PUBG Corporation just doesn't do as much to keep its community happy---including the company's refusal to adequately address the Chinese cheaters problem, but not limited to that. Of course, PUBG Corporation is nowhere near as big as Epic so it's a little unfair to compare the two, but it is what it is.

Yes, Fortnite does copy more than a few things from PUBG, but it does it all so well.CREDIT: EPIC GAMES

5. The Battle Pass system is better than loot boxes.

Loot boxes---or gamble boxes as some have taken to calling them---are the hot new revenue stream in video games. In countless games---from PUBG to Overwatch to Call of Duty WWII---you can both earn loot boxes in-game or purchase them with real money, despite these games being pay to play to begin with.

But in Fortnite: Battle Royale, Epic has ditched loot boxes in favor of its Battle Pass system. The Battle Pass is essentially a seasonal subscription players can purchase. As they rank up from tier to tier, they earn rewards. These rewards are guaranteed so long as you get to each tier, so you know exactly what you're going to get. There's no RNG and no gambling. Here's my colleague, Paul Tassi, on why this matters:

The Battle Pass system creates a sense of meaningful, purposeful progression that other games lack. Yes, it’s true that if you just play a lot of Overwatch you’ll get loot boxes which will get you skins and other prizes. But I would argue there’s something a lot more gratifying about seeing a clear roadmap of where you’re trying to go, in this case 100 tiers of reward items, where you can see exactly what comes next as you make progress. Ah, I’m only five tiers away from that glider, or I’m only twenty tiers away from that wicked John Wick skin.

And if you don't think you can unlock everything through play, you're able to just buy items individually instead, though often this is a much more expensive way of getting new skins than just paying for the Battle Pass. It's still fair, however, as you know what you're paying for and the game is free-to-play to begin with. Battle Passes cost just $10.

Bonus: It's available on PS4 also.

My final reason is a bonus for PlayStation 4 gamers. Currently, PUBG is only available on PC and Xbox One. Not so with Fortnite. Epic's battle royale is available on PS4 as well as PC and Xbox One. Hopefully someday it also comes to the Switch, though I'm not holding my breath. For PS4 gamers this is a no-brainer, since you can't play PUBG anyways.

And that's all folks. I still think PUBG is a great game. It's not the first battle royale type game, but it popularized and revolutionized the genre, and I still think everyone should go give it a chance (or at least, if the cheating problem is fixed you should give it a chance.) But Fortnite is free and it's great fun and if you have to decide between the two at the moment, I'd go with that one every single time.

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