In just two minutes, PUBG’s developers show off a whole bunch of new stuff coming to the game with the upcoming release of its latest map, Rondo.
First up, two planes instead of one.
I’m curious to see how this could influence the mid-game. Most matches tend to have a very frantic start as many players jump to the same spot. This sometimes leads to a boring mid-game, especially on the larger maps, as we make our way into the safe zones before the action ramps up again and the blue zone pushes everyone together. Splitting 100 players into two planes of 50 could help solve the mid-game slog as long as both planes are far enough away from each other. The devs have teased that Rondo is the biggest 8v8 map (as far as playable area goes).
We get a quick look at the new 9mm rifle, JS9, and the Stun Gun.
The Stun Gun seems more like something to troll folks with than anything else.
There’s a new Ghillie skin.
Here’s where it gets intriguing. A buy station:
The trailer shows the player buying a 2x scope for their M4. The image above shows various items for purchase including sights, attachments, smokes, and two items we haven’t seen before – a pair of flares and new medical gear.
The flares let you call in an airdrop of huge chunks of concrete cover.
This will be an absolute game-changer in the end game. We’ve seen portable shields added to PUBG in the past, but they don’t offer anywhere near the amount of cover seen in today’s trailer.
The Armored UAZ returns.
The new medical gear appears to be a multi-use heal. We see one player heal with it and then toss it to another player. Or maybe we’re seeing an animation for dropping gear now. We’ll have to wait for the devs to drop the patch notes to see exactly what’s happening here.
Today’s trailer is slick, showing all the new goodies Rondo has to offer. I want to see more about the deployable cover and whatever that buy station is. Is the entire loot pool in those buy stations? Or only what we see on the outside of it?
Rondo is set for release on PC on December 6 and console on December 14. We usually see the new maps hit test servers a week earlier, but there’s been nothing official from the devs. Notably, tonight’s weekly maintenance will not see any server downtime.