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Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, the multiplayer survival shooter that has taken the PC gaming world by storm, has so far stuck to its promises. The team at Bluehole has been rolling out patches on a consistent basis, all in the hopes of leaving Steam’s Early Access by the end of the summer. The latest patch, which is dropping on May 25, promises a bunch of bug fixes and content updates.
We have added the ability to control the motorbike in the air in @PUBATTLEGROUNDS, allowing you to pull off stunts like this... pic.twitter.com/5LBmdCchKG
— PLAYERUNKNOWN (@BattleRoyaleMod) May 23, 2017
Also, some sick flips.
Battlegrounds has had a motorcycle with a sidecar for a while now — a vehicle that was fast but drove a lot like a small car, while offering none of the protection of, say, doors. The new sidecar-free bike seems to offer a lot more mobility, as well as the opportunity to do some crazy stunts. Look for it to be a hit with Twitch streamers eager to show off for their fans.
The bike clearly has a huge tactical advantage, allowing players to more easily follow the terrain and stay behind cover while they rapidly maneuver to or around enemy locations. Skilled squads kitted up with bikes will be able to attack quickly and from multiple directions at once. The trade off is that riders are extremely vulnerable to incoming fire. Our own Awful Squad proves that out in the clip below around the 23-minute mark.
Also coming in the update this week is a unique Russian weapon called the Vintovka Snayperskaya Spetsialnaya, or the VSS. This very special sniper rifle is chambered in 9 mm and features an integrated suppression system. Players will need to place their shots carefully because of the low bullet mass and subsonic speeds, but targets will have little to no idea where incoming fire is coming from.
The VSS will be available via airdrops and, rarely, as a loot spawn.
Another highlight in the patch notes, which you can find here, deals with the speed at which the playspace contracts during the endgame.
In Battlegrounds, players are constantly driven closer together by a deadly wall that closes in from off the map. Those left outside the wall are dealt continuous damage over time. Bluehole’s patch notes indicate that the speed at which the final two zones contract has been reduced. This should allow players to engage each other more freely, rather than simply running for their lives toward the center of the map.
