When the clock reached zero, an alarm blared over the island, and the Cube Queen’s pyramid shone bright. Stay back! Screenshot: Jay Peters / The Verge Fortunately, weapons were added to everyone’s inventory, so players worked to fend off the incoming zombie troopers (though the zombies didn’t seem to pose any real threat). When the even’t countdown clock reached 10 minutes, the Cube Queen’s evil laugh echoed over the island and zombies started spawning in front of our base. Screenshot: Jay Peters / The Verge The Cube Queen floats menacingly in the distance. We also could look at the Cube Queen in the distance, which has been floating in an energy ball over the center of the island for part of the season. Jumping at the cube bounced players away, but it otherwise, didn’t do anything beyond loom ominously. The game’s latest season has been all about the cubes, and right when the event loaded up, a mysterious giant blue cube spawned on the map next to all of the players in my lobby. (Well, his in-game character.) Then, the island flipped over. After an all-out war against UFOs, zombies, and the Cube Queen, players were saved in a rescue mission led by Dwayne Johnson. Once the downtime was over, players washed up on the shore of the new island before getting a pep talk from The Foundation.Fortnite’s big chapter-ending event just ended, and it was a big one.

After that the game went down for hours as players stared at their characters adrift in a vast ocean. Many of these details leaked out earlier on Saturday, ahead of an intense live event that saw the previous island literally flip over. Plus, there are new weapons and items to help win a victory royale and earn the all-new, ultimate prestige - the Victory Crown. This new chapter brings camps, where players and their squad can heal and store items from match to match - bringing new persistent, social gameplay options to Fortnite. Outside of that, developer Epic is introducing some persistent elements to the game. And for those who spend time in the game’s creative mode, there’s now an option to earn battle pass XP in player-made experiences. Chapter 3 features two new mechanics - sliding and swinging - that could make the experience even faster and more vertical, particularly for high-level players. It also appears that the core gameplay will be shaken up quite a bit. (It’s been a busy weekend for spider-news, with a trailer for the sequel to Into the Spider-Verse also dropping.)

Fortnite live event