Comparing **Apex Legends ** to Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 's Blackout reveals two fairly similar gameplay experiences, but what sets the former apart is its major quality-of-life improvements and marriage of the hero shooter and battle royale genres. If the game industry avoided pre-launch gaffes like Metro Exodus ' and changed the answers on its copied homework a bit more than Anthem seems willing, perhaps a free-to-play title wouldn't have so easily trounced so many expensive AAA titles in the first pl

That situation is likely salvageable due to the otherwise full-priced game's instant addition to the subscription-based Xbox Game Pass service, but missteps taken by Metro Exodus publisher Deep Silver have all but overshadowed the launch of the fantastic post-apocalyptic experience when they made the boldly abrupt decision to snub Steam and limit the game's PC release to the Epic Games Store . It's unknown how deeply this last-minute choice made from the top-down has affected Metro Exodus ' sales, but it generated enough online backlash among outraged PC players to drown out any positive news about the g

Just yesterday, Respawn Entertainment announced the _ Apex Legends _ Iron Crown Collection Event, which will coincide with a limited time Solos Mode. But because _ Apex Legends _ has its roots in team play, some people believe this is an unusual option for a battle royale that thrives on a team dynamic. But, for those ready to jump in, Spitfires blazing, here are TheGamer’s top picks on which characters to use while aiming for that cr

However, the potential benefits of an Epic or Legendary body shield may make it worth it as these shields, which sometimes appear in Lifeline’s package, provide 50 additional hit points over a regular white shi

In the modern age, there's an obsession with a younger generation to perform incredible feats and post them to Youtube in hopes of getting tons of views, subscribers, and eventually money. Octane is exactly this and in the world of Apex Legends , he would film and post his insane stunts so everyone could see what he was willing to sacrifice to do something that's never been seen or attempted bef

We have lots of other work going on behind the scenes and this remains high priority for us. We won’t be able to share many specifics of what we’re doing but we’ll strive to provide updates on progress for the things we can talk ab

When Octane decided a course record was more important to him than his body he found himself in a world of hurt. It also didn't help that he now had no legs and would likely live the rest of his days in a wheelchair. Luckily for him, his friend Lifeline helped him get situated with a pair of bionic legs that he can now replace at a moments not

Highlights from the patch notes, shared by Respawn via Reddit , include a rundown of newcomer Octane’s abilities. The previously leaked Legend sports a Passive skill that lets him heal while not taking damage (+1 health every 2 seconds). Octane’s Tactical Stim increases his movement speed at the cost of health, but increases his resistance to slowdown attacks. Finally, Octane’s Ultimate lets him deploy jump pads launch characters across the

And in many cases, it's much easier to climb up buildings than you think. With certain techniques, Apexlegendshq says you can actually run short distances up walls, which often enables you to grab ledges and work your way up a building that looked unclimbable. You can also use other familiar tactics, such as jumping on an open door to give you a ledge to step

Of course, that's impossible to truly ascertain from our experience so far with Anthem 's early hours , meaning players will have to wait and see if they will be undergoing the gauntlet of tedium that constitutes for the genre's standard end-game. However, it will undoubtedly be nigh impossible for Anthem to be able to suitably compete with a free-to-play battle royale like Apex Legends when it comes to keeping players interested with a steady flow of content. For those in the industry seeking to recreate Apex Legends ' sleeper success, or at least successfully leech away some of its massive player base, there are a couple of lessons to be learned from this week's cramped mix of launches. First, consider the option that prolonged marketing and over-exposure might actually serve to hurt games; while not all games can capture the attention of millions overnight, producer's should at the very least take steps to avoid Crackdown 3 's five-year gap between announcement and release. Second, and most importantly, developers should innovate where others have not within their genre, even if it doesn't amount to reinventing the wh

That leaves only Anthem , whose global February 22 launch will mark the only proper live-service competitor to Apex Legends . Though Anthem is unquestionably beautiful and has thrilling combat and movement that Crackdown developers ought to take note of, there is the unavoidable fact that it is EA's answer to Destiny , and the online loot-shooter genre Anthem 's obvious source material spawned is marred by a series of hard-to-avoid caveats. It does more to ensure that players won't be locked out of certain time-limited content by providing matchmaking in areas that the Destiny franchise neglects, but (as EA has clearly done its homework) it's difficult to not fear that launch content will prove much more sparse than initially expected, much as it was in both Destiny entr