News

Fortnite Season 4 Adds A New Map, Dirt Bikes & More

Plus, a fresh battle pass lets you play as the Witcher, Geralt of Rivia or Doom Slayer from Doom and Doom Eternal.

Published

4 years ago

December 5, 2022

Nour Nasir

fortnite season 4 adds a new map, dirt bikes, and more

Epic Games

After an explosive finale to the third chapter of Fortnite, a fresh season has arrived, with a completely new island for players to wage battle over.

The new map features a bunch of landmarks that draw inspiration from fantasy themes, including a castle dubbed “The Citadel” that’s home to “The Ageless Champion”, as well as “Anvil Square”, a medieval town surrounded by autumn foliage. On another part of the island, players can explore an abandoned farm with the ominous title of “The Frenzy Fields”.

As well as a scenic new map, chapter four of Fortnite introduces updated gameplay elements. Dirt bikes called Trail Thrashers allow players to perform stunts and tricks while firing their weapons from the saddle. When on foot, it’s now possible to vault over obstacles by sprinting into them, and you can also use a pickaxe to create a snowball which can be rolled over enemies.

One of the game’s most intriguing new elements is being dubbed Reality Augments, which lets you choose between two random buffs you can keep until your character dies, or you win a match.

Also Read: Nvidia Announces RTX 6000 Ada Professional GPU

As for the behind-the-scenes technical updates, Epic has updated Fortnite to the newest version of Unreal Engine, and players on the latest platforms will now enjoy ray-traced reflections and other graphical improvements.

Finally, this season’s battle pass includes the ability to play as Doom Slayer, the protagonist of Doom and Doom Eternal, as well as Geralt of Rivia, the lead character from the Witcher. If you’re excited to get started on chapter four, season one of Fortnite, then you’ll be pleased to know the game is available to play right now.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.