This past week was crammed full of AAA game releases, with Friday alone having seen the simultaneous launches of Crackdown 3 , Far Cry New Dawn , Metro Exodus , and, for a select few PC players , Anthem . Despite this incredibly hectic launch window, Apex Legends _ continues to reign over all its newly released competition in terms of both popularity and acclaim. When a free-to-play battle royale title so handily beats back an entire wave of full-priced games, developers and producers alike are left to scratch their heads and wonder what Respawn Entertainment's _Apex Legends has that their titles do

Eradicating duplicates is just one of the for-the-player quality of life improvements Apex Legends offers. When starting a match, there's virtually no load time, nor is there a lobby waiting area. Players get into matches almost immediately. During gameplay players can mark and highlight enemies, loot, or any point of interest on the map (a version of the marking system from Rainbow Six Siege mixed with enemy marking from Battlefield ) for very welcome in-slg game News intel sharing/communication. When picking up mods and armor, items are automatically equipped where they should be instantaneously and there's already ammo in the weapon. Every thing a player would want or imagine should happen with fundamental game mechanics, simply does in Apex Legends and it just goes to show how other shooters and battle royale games are missing out on some key featu

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

Caustic's gas traps are one of the most frustrating things to encounter in the game. Finding yourself in the middle of a gas maze almost always results in elimination, and the traps can seem way too OP as a result. Luckily, there IS a way to counter the traps (aside from utilizing tactical abilities). Simply shoot the red portion of the trap (located near the bottom) in order to disable it, allowing safe passage for you and your team. Easy pe

It's clear that the game is generating an enormous audience, and as such, more and more people are flocking to it. But this isn't like most games. Yes, it has a tutorial, but that is very brief and hardly goes into the mechanics and complexities of the game, its controls, and its various strategies. This obviously results in many ignorant players, many of whom could probably be better players if they knew the intricate mechanics of the game rather than just the base contr

And while we're on the topic, you can absolutely interrupt an enemy's execution. Like I said, performing executions are very slow and they leave the player wide open for attack, so you might as well take advantage of the opportunity. But beware, attacking an enemy snaps them out of their attack animation, allowing them to defend themselves and/or perform counter attack against you. So you better make it count - a nice shotgun blast or two should do the tr

But while it's decent at mid-range, it shines at long range, and you'll find that a lot more fights are truly decided in closer quarters. If you absolutely need to have a sniper rifle in your hands, this is a great pick. The ammo's common and you could do a lot worse for DPS. But I'd still suggest something a little more pressure intens

On top of being initially perceived as a somewhat desperate attempt on EA's part to chase market trends, Apex Legends launched on February 4 with almost no fanfare leading up to its surprise arrival. Nevertheless, Apex Legends has ballooned into nothing short of an enigmatic triumph for EA and developer Respawn, shattering player count milestones at speeds that would have made Fortnite wince. On its surface, it would seem that Apex Legends does little to nothing that this week's major releases don't, lacking the graphical spectacle of Metro Exodus and Anthem , the open-ended sandboxes of Far Cry New Dawn and Crackdown 3 , and the pop culture mélange that Jump Force provides. But it stands out from the throng, largely thanks to its simple-yet-enthralling gameplay loop, well-refined Titanfall gunplay and movement systems, and refreshing additions and improvements to the battle royale form

Use the Tagging System - Apex Legends has one of the best non-verbal forms of communication in gaming today with its tagging system. Calling out the location of extra weapons and armor, tagging nearby enemies, and marking ideal drop locations are all possible with this tool. Put it to

Metro Exodus is a diamond in the rough here in terms of its gameplay and story, with the other releases this week falling agonizingly flat in one area or the other. While Apex Legends is being universally lauded for its impressive blend of frenzy and strategy, as well as for its revolutionary ping system that makes teamplay easier and more integral than in any shooter before it, February has brought little else in the way of gameplay innovation. Crackdown 3 is a fairly mindless power fantasy sandbox, which is great for players seeking that experience, but disappointing to others due to how few additions it brings to the table when compared with the 12-year-old initial entry into the ser