Fortnite x Pirates of the Caribbean collab – everything we know so far after Epic releases it by mistake and quickly removes it

Ah-ha me hearties. Let’s get that out of the way right at the start so we can concentrate on the news of Fortnite’s latest tie-in with the mega-movie franchise Pirates of the Caribbean. Yup, Jack Sparrow is about to take on land-lubbers everywhere when the crossover officially comes to Fortnite in the middle of next month.
Here’s what we know so far.
When is Pirates of the Caribbean coming to Fortnite?
Fortnite lives with a lot of leakers, but you don’t need to be a Tier 1 ITK to have spotted that Epic accidentally set the Pirates of the Caribbean event pass live a month early before swiftly removing it and making whoever put six instead of seven in the wrong field of the database walk the plank.

For players who purchased the Cursed Sails Pass ahead of its intended release on July 19, please note you are currently unable to progress the Pass until the start of the event, but will retain your Jack Sparrow outfit in the meantime.
If you wish to instead refund this purchase… pic.twitter.com/i3FdtuNSLW
— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) June 22, 2024

The Cursed Sails Pass was released ahead of schedule – it should have been on July 19th – and people snapped it up, forcing Epic to issue a message saying that those who did would be unable to progress the Pass beyond the start of the event, but that the Jack Sparrow outfit that came with it could continue to be used.
Slightly embarrassing all around but at least you could have unique skin for the next month before getting to play with what you bought when it does finally arrive.
Since then, leakers such as HypeX and ShiinaBR have now basically unveiled the majority of Pirates of the Caribbean content that is coming, including loading screens and skins. So if you don’t like spoilers, you are in the wrong place.

FORTNITE x PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN pic.twitter.com/sXyUgLQ4ky
— HYPEX (@HYPEX) June 22, 2024

Meanwhile, Fortnite has also brought back the original Tilted Towers map from way back when the game launched in 2017 – so if you missed out on that originally or just want to spend a little time reminiscing, you need to check out the Fortnite Reload – and you can find out all about that right here.
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Dystopika review: Mesmerising cyberpunk city builder lets you make the Blade Runner metropolis of your dreams

We have followed the progress of the one-man chill/cozy, whatever you want to call it, futuristic city construction game Dystopika since its first demo months ago. We recently got a more fleshed our demo but now, finally, and it has been much anticipated by me, we have our hands on the final version that just released on Steam.
To save you the trouble of reading my old articles on the game, here’s a quick recap to tell you how much I love the aesthetic of Blade Runner. I have since I was a child and remember seeing the trailer and the opening of the movie for the first time. A lot of that was added to by the droning ambiance of the Vangelis score.
So if you had sat me down over the course of my life and said what kind of game would you like to play most as I creep towards the end of another decade in games journalism I might very well have suggested a nice chilled-out city builder where I can recreate the ambiance of Blade Runner’s dystopian Los Angeles, and if I could not have to make sure all my water pipes joined up, that would be even better.

Maybe Dystopika’s programmer, who has coded the game single-handedly while traveling around countries such as Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia over the past year, and I have some kind of weird neural network going where I feed him subconscious ideas about what I want to do in a game like this.
Dystopika is an unashamedly tiny game and it comes at a tiny price, costing just over £5 at the time of asking. Is it telling that I have played for more time over the past couple of days than I played UbiSoft’s ‘AAAA’ $70 Skull and Bones when that came out?
From the moment Dystopika boots up and the swirling, spacey music starts up this game, which is billed as “the darker side of cozy”, oozes the atmosphere that many a cyberpunk-themed game can only dream about. After a short message from the programmer, you are into the “game” itself – an empty, dark landscape with a UI consisting of a few options on the left of the screen.
From there you are left to discover what does what in a similar way, and I realize this is going to sound pretentious, to an artist with a blank canvas and a set of new unused colors.

At this point, if you choose to left-click anywhere on the landscape you will place a building. If you choose to investigate the menu you will discover there are several zones – a central business district (and presumably all its futuristic Starbucks and ramen bars), Lowtown, and New Eden – all of which have different building shapes, all of which can be adjusted (generally upwards) too.
New from the demos are Alpha and Omega Corporation buildings. These are huge corporate headquarters you can drop down on your map.
To make the buildings look different you can pop into the Props menu where you will find huge Blade Runner-style screens and signs to attach to the sides. You can even add your own lettering with editable text.
In between these zones, you can paint in vast swathes of light and this will leave a trail of smaller buildings and lights and screens in your wake, enabling you to create a huge, sprawling city with different, distinct looks quickly and easily. You can then save it, or head into photo mode where you can take screenshots or even move a camera between points to animate through it.
At certain points you will unlock new buildings – there aren’t a ton to unlock but that doesn’t matter – this isn’t a game that will constantly feed you rewards and achievements. So don’t look for that here.

What you also won’t do at any point is worry about finances, transport, or any aforementioned water piping. None of that is what Dystopika is about – it is purely about painting a cyberpunk city and enjoying it.
And that’s kind of it, but that’s all it needs to be. There will be a 1.1 version coming over the next couple of months with more props and features, but when you save your game you are given a Seed, which presumably means you can bring in other people’s creations at some point and develop them, a la Minecraft, and that really does open up the options.
Dystopika has only been out a day or so and already has a Very Positive rating on Steam and apart from a few Steam reviews saying “You can complete it in 15 minutes, there is no game here”, which fundamentally and monumentally misses the entire point of what the dev has set out to do, the talk is glowing, as it deserves to be.
That one guy can make this in his spare time gives hope that game development doesn’t all have to be huge studios laying people off after a project is completed to appease shareholders. It isn’t for everybody, but at the price point, it almost is. We all need to chill out sometimes and very often these days games do not let us do that – it’s all about being sworn at by kids who are better at Call of Duty than you are, or wondering whether that latest skin is worth dropping another 20 on. Correct Answer – it’s not.
So turn your lights off, put your headphones on, load this up, and just, whether it’s for 15 minutes or six hours, get lost in its magic.
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War Thunder devs apologize for accidental use of image of Space Shuttle disaster in latest update

Gaijin Entertainment has reacted quickly to apologize for the use of imagery from the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger that killed seven astronauts, in 1986 in a graphic advertising the games’ newest update Seek & Destroy,
The image is so recognizable to people familiar with the tragedy due to the unusual debris trails that it was quickly noticed and pointed out.
A post soon appeared on the War Thunder forums stating:
“Hey guys, we have accidentally used the explosion from the Challenger disaster in one of our key art images. Please accept our sincere apologies for this, the picture was part of an aerial explosion reference pack used by our artists and the context was lost.
We’ll be altering this artwork as soon as we can and will take measures to ensure that this doesn’t repeat again in the future.”
The Seek & Destroy update for War Thunder is the game’s second major update of 2024 and includes new missiles and vehicles.
The Seek & Destroy key artwork features a montage of three fighter jets all releasing missiles, while the image on the bottom left features the iconic trails from the disaster that was watched live by millions around the planet at the time.
There is no indication the image was used with any knowledge of what it portrayed and Gaijin’s swift apology would indicate a genuine mistake.
As of the time of writing the image is still present and can be downloaded as a wallpaper but Gaijin’s representative has said that it will be removed and replaced on Monday (today) hopefully by a less well-known explosion.
What happened to Challenger?
On January 28th, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds into its 10th flight killing all seven astronauts on board. It was the first time American space crew had died while in flight.
The accident was later attributed to the failure of the O-Ring seals in the right solid rocket booster.
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The 10 Best Python Courses That are Worth Taking in 2024

Today’s best Python courses offer hands-on experience with data analysis, web development, machine learning and more.

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Apple’s App Store breaches EU’s Digital Markets Act

A few months after opening a non-compliance case on Apple and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European Commission has shared its preliminary findings with Apple. And the bottom line is that the current App Store rules are in breach of the DMA. Confirmed violations of the DMA can lead to fines of up to […]
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Mixhalo’s latest feature uses AI to beam real-time translation to phones at events

Mixhalo Translate couples the startup’s ultra-low latency in-person streaming with AI-generated audio translations.
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Bitcoin tumbles back to $60,000 to start the week

Bitcoin is on pace to end June down 9%.

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Apple in breach of law on App Store, says EU

It is the first time a company has been found to be in breach of the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

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EU says Apple’s App Store Is in Breach of Rules

Apple has been warned that its App Store is in breach of EU rules, and has backtracked on plans to roll out AI tech in Europe over regulatory concerns.

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The Eternal Truth of Markdown

An exegesis of the most ubiquitous piece of code on the web.

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