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

Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.