This is an ongoing list where I attempt to do the following: Play, Complete, and Rank every video game in the known universe in order to finally answer the age old question "What is the greatest game of all time?" For previous entries find the links on the attached spreadsheet.

How did I do?

This is a review that I never thought I would write. You could argue that if I am to “complete” a list where every game was ranked that this would eventually find its way there, but I was initially thinking about sitting on this game until the end of time before writing the review. I will admit that having never played it before this month, I had a million thoughts about this game and the people that played it. Some of those thoughts ended up being true and others were completely false, but they legitimately held me back from starting the game. I will admit that I really only decided to give it a shot after watching the GB crew play it on the “4 Cena’s” stream and even then I was still cautious. What ended up happening afterward was a hectic two weeks where I may have been ever so slightly addicted to the game.

Let’s start at the beginning, we are talking about Fortnite, which is realistically the one game in the world that probably needs no introduction. It’s a video game that’s main loop is a battle royale that pits 100 people against each other, so that only one is the winner. There are nuances, such as an ever increasing smaller playfield to force people together, and differing strategies to help you get to the end, even quests you can go on that might not have anything to do with actual combat. The match does continue until only one person is alive, and they are crowned the champion. However, I want to go back to when GB streamed Fortnite to really talk about this game from my perspective.

But first, Fortnite has existed for years before this point. It was even championed by Abby Russell, previous Giant Bomb employee who I genuinely trust her opinion on a lot of games, but it never drew me in. I, by nature, am someone who does not give into the mainstream. I am struggling for the name of person that is, but it has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Now I like popular things, I grew up playing the Mario’s, the Zelda’s, the Final Fantasy etc. that were all super popular and well loved. I loved those games as well, but I was always on the lookout for things off the beaten path. While everyone was creaming in their jeans playing First person Shooters, I was getting deep into RPGs and Adventure games. When everyone was listening to pop music and watching MTV growing up, I was listening to Alternative, Punk, Metal and watching old movies. I don’t subscribe to the hive mind and while I won’t actively dislike something popular just to be a contrarian, I also won’t blindly follow everyone else there just because. Sometimes that means I come to things late, and sometimes it means I miss things completely that had a short but powerful popularity hit.

Fortnite was one of those games that I never had any interest in playing. In it’s original concept it seemed like an Evolve, or Left-4-dead where the real fun is playing with your friends, and truth be told I am too old to scrounge up 3 other buddies who can all set aside time to play video games on the regular. Playing the game with random teammates online or with A.I. never interested in me. When it pivoted to a battle royale mode with building, I was even less engaged. Here was a company that was blatantly ripping off competition because they were losing in the online world. (I know companies are constantly chasing the hot new thing, and I don’t begrudge them from doing so, but seeing one game, already made, pivot to ideas after launch bothered me). I would occasionally see people playing it on streams or in quick videos, and it just never looked right to me. Getting shot once and then building skyscrapers to escape into the sky just looked annoying, but that was the only clips I ever saw. I figured that if this is how people play that game to win, I would hate playing it.

Then the Murder Island streams with GB would start, with a bunch of them playing PUBG and despite not playing PUBG I found myself rooting for that game to overtake Fortnite. Serve them right for stealing your idea (of course they might have all been stealing the idea from the “Battle Royale” book, which lets be honest they missed the theme of that thing completely), but despite never playing a game, I wanted to see it fail. I liked watching the PUBG streams, but again didn’t have the friend group that I could convince to squad up with me, so I chalked PUBG up to being one of those games, like so many recently, that are really only meant to be played with friends online. This only drilled the idea further into my head, when I tried playing PUBG solo and found that I did not enjoy the game. It felt like I would come against people who either dedicated their life to playing this game, thus killing me rather quickly, or I would come across no one for 90% of the game and then lose in my first fire-fight with 10 people left. I was bored with the game in under a week, and while I still enjoyed the streams, I never had any desire to go back and play it again.

Jump cut to, lets say a day before the Fortnite stream. My opinion on Fortnite was still pretty low, I had watched or heard how they introduced every property into the game, some I was interested in and others I wasn’t. I watched as they stole even more ideas from games like Among Us, and had their lawsuit where they (and I’m paraphrasing here) “Complained they weren’t making enough money” despite having the biggest game in the world. Even when they debuted a No-build mode, nothing moved the meter from “absolutely not” to “Give it a shot.” I wasn’t looking to start a game I felt was potentially predatory in its use of its store currency and knowing that Fortnite had been around forever and made streamers popular, I wasn’t looking forward to joining a game where everyone presumably who was still playing was going to be competent enough to kick my ass before I really get started.

So I watched the Fortnite stream, because I’m back on the Giant Bomb ship, and like their content. What I saw, was general enjoyment out of people who I would have guessed were also grumpy old men like me. Sure Abbey and Jan liked it, but they were young and hip, but to see Dan and Grubb really enjoy it when they seem to be more in line with my thoughts and feelings was surprising. I can chalk some of that enjoyment up to playing with your friends, again something I would not be able to accomplish, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves, and the competition didn’t look insurmountable. Now I didn’t immediately install the game minutes after the stream, because I was still skeptical. I have seen numerous games played on stream that look like a hoot, only to find that the fun is 100% on the friends you play with. I can say I don’t like playing Among Us, and there have been countless streams and streamers who love that game. I didn’t care for PUBG, or Apex Legends, or Overwatch and they were all games that looked like a blast on stream, but didn’t translate to playing by oneself. I assumed Fortnite was going to be in the same boat.

A day or two later, I was looking in the switch e-shop and decided to download it just for shits and giggles. I told myself that I would give it a shot one night when I was sitting with the kids, or if I couldn’t think of something else to play, and it say un-played until the Goku’s stream. Now, I need to state for the record that I do not care about Dragonball Z. I watched it as a teenager when it was on Cartoon Network when I would get home from high-school, but I don’t follow the show and haven’t cared about it for close to 20 years. That is not what got me to start playing it, hearing that the GB crew have basically been addicted to it since they did that stream, meant that it was worth that shot I was going to give it.

So I fired it up, and while it loaded I told myself that I was not going to pay a dollar for this game. If I disliked the game, then it was no sweat off my back for deleting it, and if I did like it then I would see just how far free could get me, before I would have to cough up money. Turns out I enjoyed the game, I ended up winning my first match and then winning my second match to get a crown royale. I had heard that if you are just starting off that you might get matched with bots, so no matter how fun it was to win, I knew that it was probably more a clever trick to get me to keep playing rather then my own skill. I did keep playing, and keep playing, to where I was probably playing 4-5 matches a day, and the thing was that I kept doing pretty well. I don’t know at what stage Bots get subbed out for people, or even how matchmaking works (is it by a player rank, is it by matches won, is it by matches played, etc.) but it was incredibly rare for me not to finish in the top 15 every match. Sure occasionally I would lose early, but after 20 games played I had 6 wins and finished in the top 25, around 17 times. Again, I was in disbelief and thought that it was possible that maybe I was in matches with 50% bots. I knew for a fact it wasn’t 100 because the closing of the game was definitely real people, doing real people maneuvers, like flying on nimbus the moment they get shot, or jumping in between every reload of their rifle.

So 50 matches in, I now have 12 wins and finished in the top 25, around 35-40 times (the wins are included in the top 25 finishes). It turns out that not everyone that is still playing Fortnite is some top tier streamer that is killing me from miles away with sniper rifles while I’m on the move. In fact I can almost always hold my own in a firefight if either I see them first, or they alert me to their position with a missed shot on me. I have had rounds where I have finished 5+ enemies and lost and ones where I only finished 1 and won. My strategy hasn’t changed much since I started, and it doesn’t involve sitting in a bathroom hoping to just make it to the end. I am almost always out and moving around, I know what 3 guns I like to have, and areas of the map I like to aim for.

The game also does a rally nice job, of constantly pushing you towards leveling up, so even in a loss you can feel like you made some progress. Ultimately my main goal in every match is to win, but I will usually track a quest that if I happen to be near I try to check off as well, but even if I don’t do that, I gain experience from opening chests, ammo boxes, outlasting opponents, etc. What could potentially seem like an insurmountable climb to level up to unlock whatever reward you are looking for, is really just a few matches away as long as you aren’t dying like 1 minute after landing. The quests also give you something to shoot for, if you aren’t feeling like you are the best at combat, but still want to unlock that level 50 skin.

Now not all my early conceptions about the game are un-true though. This game is probably infinitely more fun playing in squads with friends, and while I am having fun playing solo.. I don’t think this game will pique my interest if I am still playing solo for another full season. I am already seeing it wane and I haven’t even played a full season yet. Yes, I can get sucked back in after playing a round and winning or coming in 2^nd-5^th, but I was at the point where I was looking for opportunities in my day to fire up a match, and now I can just wait to play late at night. Maybe they partner with Money Island, or the Simpsons, or old Final Fantasy, and I pour money into the game so I can play as Lenny and Carl from the Simpsons, or Locke from FF6, and I’m hooked for a full season. Regardless, I still feel that the V-bucks issue is predatory towards kids.

Part of playing Fortnite is by playing fashion show with your character. What items have you unlocked by ranking up high enough, or what character skin or emotes have you paid for to make your character unique. No one wants to play as generic soldier dude or lady with nothing to show for themselves outside of the generic items you start with. Now I know people will say “It’s just cosmetics, its not required to play” and you are completely right. I have still not put in a single dollar to play Fortnite, and I am winning matches without dressing up as a banana or Goku, but I am not a kid who might see their favorite streamer dressed up as Darth Vader, or be playing as a friend group that are different avengers. I think its predatory to them, as it preys on them not wanting to be vanilla or potentially seen as poor. It is no different then kids who show up to school in Jordans, versus kids that show up in hand-down shoes. Every family is in a different place, and there is no shame there, but I can understand that as a fully grown man who does not care what people think of him, kids are less able to make that distinction. Even playing for free, winning matches, and collecting the free rewards from the season pass, I have a whopping 200 V-bucks in my bank account which can buy you….. nothing or next to nothing. If I rank all the way up to 90 before the season ends, I will finish with 300 V-bucks and still 0 skins to change my character off of default soldier. Some people will chime in to say that if you play that much, buying the season pass allows you to make back any money that you spent, and then you have all these cool skins. In theory you are correct. I think the Season pass costs 900 V-bucks which is close to, if not $10.. If you rank up to level 90 and collect every reward you will get more then $10 worth of items and V-bucks, but obviously the trade off is that the season pass items are set, so if you have no interest in Darth Vader (This season's big reward) then your $10 might be better suited to buying the one character you want to actually play as. Epic is banking on the fact that you will spend your season pass V-bucks buying a new emote or skin, only to have to buy into next season's pass as well. Its also frustrating that you can't just straight up buy a skin you want, you have to wait for it to re-appear in the store. I haven't played every season of Fortnite, I don't know all the characters they have released, but I can't buy say Captain America, or Wolverine from the get go, and I am assuming that is by design.

I’m not saying this is a deal breaker, and as I stated, I have had a good time playing for free, but I do wish that there was perhaps a more generous dolling out of V-bucks so that people could realistically “earn” buying a skin without having to keep investing money to get there, or lower the prices of things at the store. For instance, even if I wanted to play as the same generic soldier dudes but in like black shirts, the outfit costs 800 V-bucks which doesn’t compute in my brain. I can understand the Banana, or Goku being 1,000 points… they are unique or licensed outfits that will stand out when you play the game, but you are telling me if I want to dress my dudes in black I have to give you $10 to do so? I did some quick math, and assuming Fortnite pays out the same free V-bucks every season (3-100 packs) then it would take me 3 full seasons of playing (and ranking up high) and a 4^th season of ranking low, just to buy one 1,000 outfit, assuming I don’t turn it in for the season pass. I know it’s a business meant to make money, and I’m not even saying every free player should be able to afford the season pass, but there should be a middle ground, where you can “earn” black shirts without having to throw down an extra $10. There is a reason on stream, that Abby couldn’t answer whether or not she put $300 into the game or not. Part of it might be embarrassment about how much she spent, but it also might be because it’s easy to keep throwing money into the hole and not realizing it. I am glad this game didn’t come out while I was in college or high school, because I had a regular gaming friend group and we would have all drop big dollars to dress up our characters to show off.

Now it might feel premature to rank this game, when I haven’t played all the modes that are constantly being made. I haven’t played squads or duos, and I’m still only in my first season of the game and have paid $0 for it, but I would argue that this is the best time for me to review it. I will admit that I don’t ever have a desire to play the mode with building in it. Even knowing now how the game controls and plays, I think building while playing does nothing for me. I haven’t played the original horde mode, and while I might have more of an interest to do that, Epic has moved it behind a paywall and that’s also assuming I have friends to play with, so it’s a no go. However, I highly doubt there is anyone reading this, that feels because I haven’t done the role-play mode I can’t truly rank this game. There are also some internet hitches that will impact your game, and while I won’t blame Fortnite for that, playing an always online game means that you always have to be online. I have been killed while hitching, and I never know if it is on my end or the server end, and it never feels good.

So the game is better then I initially thought and incredibly playable on nearly all devices. I have played exclusively on the Switch, which means I should be playing against mouse and keyboard PC people, and yet I am still holding my own is truly a testament to the game. I do find myself constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop for this game. Am I just matched with other newbies because its my first season, or because of the lure of Dragonball Z? If I played for another month am I just going to hit a roadblock of better players that sap the fun out of the game? Once the game wears out it’s newness on me, am I still going to want to play it? There are few games that can give you that emotional high of winning a match solo, or the tension you might feel being one of the final 5 players, but Fortnite gives you that boost. It is what keeps you coming back for more, to see if you can win again, or win for the first time. However, I don’t think any of us know how long we have left of Fortnite. I think it got a boost from the no-build mode, from Dragonball Z, maybe even a small boost from Giant Bomb, but I feel like the game was starting to stagnate before that. It could be that I just wasn’t keyed into the Fortnite world, but I feel I heard less about it, saw less streamers playing it, and felt it was hurting a little more then usual. Fortnite could be here forever, it might occupy that Minecraft and WOW stage where it just exists in perpetuity as kids age out, others age in and it never dies. I don't know how I feel about that idea, but at this point its already survived for years, it will at least survive another console generation. I just hope that kids that get started in Fortnite branch out and try other games, because I would be bummed to see some of the greater depths of games available go unplayed so the McDonalds of Video games can live on forever.

Is this the greatest game of all time?: No

Where does it rank: I won't lie, this game had the biggest jump from perception to actual ranking we will ever see. I went from having no interest in this game to binging it for a week straight despite not having any friends to show off for. I assume that I will burn out with it soon, I'll probably pop in to see what the new season holds, but I doubt I will be playing it non stop into October or November. While I can admit this game is fun, I will also say that it, in my eyes, won't be the greatest game of all time. Why? Well for one, your enjoyment out of this game is like 90% how good you are at shooters, yes there are quests you can do, and dances, etc. but if you just aren't good at fast shooters, then you will get very little enjoyment dying over and over again. My wife tried it once, and got 87th place and killed no one, for her that isn't worth loading into games over and over again. It's also ever changing and that makes ranking it so unique. 6 months ago this game would be ranked different, who knows what the next season holds or the one after that. In 10 years I can still point to Mario 64 and it will be the same game, every game on this list will be relatively the same minor perhaps a new patch or update, but Fortnite will be completely different. Do they pivot away from Battle Royale when the next popular game comes out, or is this where it stays for its remainder of days? I have it ranked as the 14th Greatest Game of AllTime. It sits between Super Mario 64 (13th) and TMNT: Turtles in Time (15th), but it is even something I have a hard time stomaching. I am basically ranking a game for a week of its lifetime, and only one mode of the game, so... uhhh.. I guess thats it.

Anyone looking for it: here is the link to the list and more if you are interested in following along with me (this is not a self promotion).Here. I added links on the spreadsheet for quick navigation. Now if you missed a blog of a game you want to read about, you can get to it quickly, rather than having to scroll through my previous blogs wondering when it came up.

Thanks for listening

Good write up and thank you for your work as always!

I think it's not a stretch to say that omitting the building from Fortnite makes it a different, more accessible and, frankly, a more enjoyable game. I bounced off of Fortnite a couple years ago because I couldn't wrap my head around the building well enough to be any good at it. But now? I'm having a blast. I've been able to get my friends back in and we've been teaming up and playing online together, something I haven't done with friends in years.

@chamurai: thanks for the read and comment. Yeah I think no build mode is here to stay, but in the grand schemes of things it is just one mode out of hundreds. In their "play it your way" quests this week, epic is promoting community creations that do center on building modes. Both the monster one and goated one, you need to know building to get anywhere in them.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your take on Fortnite, even as a person who likes the FPS genre, many of your points are incredibly valid. 😁

I also think no build mode finally drew in more casual players not wanting to build massive towers while dodging bullets at end game, though the montages of those were cool to watch.

also I believe some people of the younger generation treat fortnite as some sort of "Metaverse" social media platform now, a place where they can hang out or so.

Epic even markets it that way a bit.

@armoredmachine: thank you for the comment.. I do wonder how long casuals stay on "no build mode?" After playing other modes that feature "pros" I very much would hate fortnite should no build get to that point.

There is definitely a turning point in the game. With this new stealth event, I'm now put in PC lobbies where I just can't compete with joy-cons. It's rough out there. Still playing every day though. I literally prestiged the battle pass just now. I'm a trendsetter like that.

@daavpuke: thanks for the read and comments.. yeah I think I hit the limit of my skill.. I went from winning 1 in 10 to now it being 1 in 20 or more. I switched to clearing out quests, but those don't offer the same excitement as actually winning. I can tell when I'm fighting someone on PC and it usually does not end well for me, at least not this ranked up.

Sadly I think that it's spell is wearing off on me and while I will revisit it again at the new season, I think I need a reset in order to enjoy it fully again.

@imunbeatable80: I have that exact same arc and feeling. Except when the battle pass completed, as well as prestige skins, there's no mission I even need to look at anymore. I can only hope a reset also means lobby reset.

...So since I'm not seeing a way to constantly practice with bots in order to set up some comfortable mouse and keyboard bindings and get comfortable with the game's responsiveness, I'm better off just growing some balls and learning with other newbies (starting with no build) until I git gud?

Also, I generally play first-person shooters on hard and sometimes without an aiming reticle, if that means anything.

@imunbeatable80: Well it's encouraging to know I'm not the only one with this dilemma. I have pretty much hit the same wall and I have been mostly playing with friends and hoping the new season will freshen things up. Alas! How the flame that burns the hottest also fizzles out quickly!

@facelessvixen: Thanks for the comment.. I won't pretend to know exactly how fortnites matchmaking works, but if you have never played "no build" my belief is that your first couple matches would be against bots and other people who are new. While that doesn't mean you can just sit still and win, you should be able to handle your own long enough to work out what controls work best for you.

@chamurai: thanks for the read and comment... yeah, you aren't alone, and the peak hit so fast for me it kinda makes me regret my ranking. I wish there was someway to see what level I am behind the scenes to know what group I am being matched with.. i would just hate if my love of fortnite was only it's opening week of me playing when the game didn't know where to put me.