Ring of Elysium new map

Tencent's free to play battle royale game Ring of Elysium is kicking off its new season with a drastic change of scenery. The new map, Europa Island, moves the action from a freezing mountain resort to the lush tropics. Instead of a blizzard, players will be forced to flee choking ash from an active volcano, and in lieu of snowboards and snowmobiles they'll have BMX bikes and mini-submarines. Get a taste of the tropics from the trailer above.

Dynamic weather on Europa Island includes thunderstorms and typhoons, and along with the min-sub there will also be speedboats, dinghies, police cars, and the auto rickshaw known as a Tuk-Tuk. Players will have a choice of starting equipment, either a grappling hook, a glider, or the BMX bike listed above. The goal remains the same: pick a starting point, gear up, and battle other players on your way to the rescue chopper in the final safe zone. Don't forget your sunscreen.

You can read the full season two update notes here.

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.