Fortnite’s Court Royale, Minecraft Gets Switch Freeze Hotfix

Epic turns lawsuit into Fortnite event

Epic Games is turning their on-going lawsuits against Google and Apple into an in-game #FreeFortnite event.

From August 23rd, players can earn prizes themed around Epic’s recent parody of Apple’s famous 1984 commercial. The #FreeFortnite Cup marks the end of the current season, which will wrap up early since both Apple and Google have kicked Epic off their respective stores.

You can win a Tart Tycoon outfit, the Big Brother character from Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite and Epic will also hand out 1,200 prizes including Alienware laptops, Xbox One X, PlayStation 4 Pro and Nintendo Switch consoles.

Epic is going all-out to keep the Fortnite community on their side and be victorious in the court of public opinion. Following Epic’s PR campaign, Apple has also terminated Epic’s developer accounts and tools access, meaning Epic is unable to maintain the Unreal Engine on Apple platforms. In response, Epic petitioned for a restraining order to protect their customers.

Who was supposed to both voice and play Agent 47 in Hitman: Absolution?

• William Mapother
• Johnny Cruz
• Rupert Friend
• Timothy Olyphant

The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today’s issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be.

F-Zero: GP Legend supported e-reader

F-Zero: GP Legend from Nintendo and Suzak for Game Boy Advance featured an interesting way to unlock more characters, courses and challenges.

You could scan special e-reader cards, but since the device wasn’t very popular outside Japan there was no support for it in Europe or North America. Us primitive Westerners would simply have to complete cups and challenges to unlock content, like a caveman.

In Glorious Future Japan, you could get two kinds of e-reader packs; the Pillow Pack and the Carddass Pack. The game was based on the anime that ran between October 2003 and September 2003 on TV Tokyo.

Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today’s fact.

Mojang issues hotfix to deal with severe bugs in Minecraft for Switch

Minecraft for Switch has struggled since the latest update, and many players complain about the game locking up.

The latest update brought the Switch version in line with the PC and other console versions, introducing Piglin Brutes, a new crafting interface and other new features. Mojang has already issued a hotfix for the reported problems.

Freeze hotfix: “This hotfix is being rolled out on Nintendo Switch to address stability issues introduced since the launch of 1.16.20. Please continue to engage with us through bugs.mojang.com and keep the bug reports coming, we really appreciate your help!” according to the patch notes.

Issue remains: Unfortunately, the fix isn’t solving the problems for everyone, so expect Mojang to issue another fix as soon as the full range of problems is discovered.

New Pokémon Sword & Shield VGC ruleset, Pokémon Virtual Fest expands

The sixth series of the Pokémon Sword & Shield ranked battle tournament has started, the latest VGC ruleset has been announced and the Pokémon Virtual Fest in Japan has been extended and expanded.

Pokémon GO

• Special Timed Research until August 26th addresses issues with Dragon Week Timed Research

Pokémon Café Mix

• Celebi as Special Customer from August 26th until September 9th

Pokémon Sword & Shield

• Series 6 VGC ruleset now available through Battle Stadium
• Pokémon Restrictions:
  • Galar Pokédex
  • Isle of Armor Pokédex
  • Alola Starters, Cobalion
  • Terrakion
  • Virizion
  • Requires Galar Mark or Battle Ready Mark
• Pokémon Limits:
  • Team of 3 to 6 Pokémon (Singles) / 4 to 6 Pokémon (Doubles) from Level 1 to Level 100
  • All Pokémon then set to Level 50
• Gigantamax:
  • Charizard
  • Blastoise
  • Butterfree
  • Pikachu
  • Meowth
  • Machamp
  • Gengar
  • Kingler
  • Lapras
  • Eevee
  • Snorlax
  • Garbodor
  • Inteleon
  • Corviknight
  • Orbeetle
  • Drednaw
  • Coalossal
  • Flapple
  • Appletun
  • Sandaconda
  • Toxtricity
  • Centiskorch
  • Hatterene
  • Grimmsnarl
  • Alcremie
  • Copperajah
  • Duraludon
  • Urshifu
• Banned Pokémon:
  • Venusaur
  • Gyarados
  • Porygon2
  • Tyranitar
  • Torkoal
  • Hippowdon
  • Magnezone
  • Togekiss
  • Excadrill
  • Whimsicott
  • Incineroar
  • Mimikyu
  • Rillaboom
  • Cinderace
  • Indeedee
  • Dragapult
  • Mewtwo
  • Mew
  • Celebi
  • Jirachi
  • Reshiram
  • Zekrom
  • Kyurem
  • Keldeo
  • Cosmog
  • Cosmoem
  • Solgaleo
  • Lunala
  • Necrozma
  • Magearna
  • Marshadow
  • Zeraora
  • Meltan
  • Melmetal
  • Zacian
  • Zamazenta
  • Eternatus
  • Zarude
• Battle Time: 20 minutes
• Your Time: 7 Minutes
• Team Preview: 90 Seconds
• Turn Time: 45 seconds

Pokémon Masters

• Legendary Arena Event based on Latios until September 3rd
  • Battle against Legendary Pokémon Latios
  • Up to 30 Sync Pairs to clear event
• Spotlight Scout for Lance runs until September 3rd
  • Only opportunity for Lance & Dragonite Sync Pair

Pokémon Virtual Fest

• Two new attractions added: Inteleon’s Shooting Shop and Let’s Catch Magikarp!

Dreamscaper Steam Codes

You have a chance to nab a Steam code for Dreamscaper if you refer DailyBits to a friend! Use our widget to start earning referrals, which you can build up throughout the year to increase your chance of being selected.

Dreamscaper is releasing today on Steam for $13.99 or £10.86, and we’ve got some codes to hand out this week, with the giveaway ending this Friday.

Dreamscaper is an ARPG Roguelite blending elements from brawlers, top-down shooters, and dungeon crawlers. Every slumber is a different dungeon in an ever-changing world with a multitude of unique events and challenges. Play as Cassidy, dive into her subconscious and take on the surreal nightmares she wrestles with in order to save her from a dark fate

70% off NordVPN

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• Animal Crossing: New Horizon update fixes various bugs such as the sumo ring issue, dream shutdowns and missing player mail
• 4K trailer for first-person thriller Martha Is Dead showing the discovery of a woman’s corpse near a lake in 1940s Tuscany
• New Hitman 3 trailer teases Dartmoor location where 47 must play detective to unravel The Thornbridge Mystery. It will also be an Epic Games Store exclusive on PC.
• Game Science Studio unveils Black Myth: Wukong gameplay with 13 minutes of official footage, which is targeting next-gen consoles and PC
• Tech preview trailer for Crysis Remastered compares the upcoming remaster to the original ahead of its September 18th launch

Who was supposed to both voice and play Agent 47 in Hitman: Absolution?

Answer: William Mapother!

It’s hard to imagine Agent 47 without David Bateson’s voice, but he was almost replaced in Hitman: Absolution.

Square Enix announced that William Mapother, best known as Ethan Rom in Lost, would provide motion capture and voice work for Agent 47. Fans were not happy, and David Bateson was brought back to do the voice work although Mapother’s motion capture work stayed in.

William Mapother appeared again in a bonus Summer mission in the 2016 Hitman reboot as Dino Bosco. He played a perfectionist actor and director on the verge of bankrupting L’Avventura Pictures in Sapienza. Good thing Square Enix managed to find a place for Mapother’s acting – even if he’s mostly just murdered in an embarrassing fashion.

Today’s issue of DailyBits was written by Gavin Herman, Erlend Grefsrud, Simon Priest, and Jamie Davey.