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

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 SLG game DLC 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

Yeah, yeah. I know, this list is for weapons. And really, the melee option isn't fantastic in terms of damage. But it has a few utility roles that often get overlooked or simply undiscovered by new players, making it largely more useful than the preceding collection of subpar weapo

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

It's not a bad weapon after you've obtained a few upgrades for it, but getting there is going to be a slog. The locked burst fire really drags it down in terms of DPS, limiting its ability to maintain pressure and remain useful inside of mid-range. There are definitely better ways to make use of the heavy ammo it consu

Another unique element to Apex Legends is the ability to revive downed allies. Like other battle royale titles, a player is downed before being killed off and they can hold a shield item in their inventory to prevent players from shooting them to finish them off. Enemies can however, get up close an employ a lethal execution animation (these are also battler royale fists). But even then, players can recover the tags of their downed ally and bring them to a revive point where they can then re-enter the match via a dropship, but without any of their loot. These layers upon layers add so much to the dynamic of the usual die and go back to the menu style of more punishing battle royale experien

Save The Peacekeeper For The Last Round - The Peacekeeper shotgun is rather useless early on in the match (though it can be charged for a stronger shot), but in the final circle, it can be quite dea

New players may feel the need to pick up everything - after all, you never know when a Skullpiercer will come in handy! The only thing is that certain items are only applicable with certain weapons, and that Skullpiercer is useless if you're using a Devotion and Peacekeeper. Picking up random items is a good way to needlessly clog your backpack, and worse, you could be inhibiting your teammate who DOES have a gun compatible with the Skullpiercer. Pay attention to what does w

That really is the summary, unfortunately. It's terribly inaccurate and leaves you with your pants around your ankles way more often than you should be comfortable with. Give this a hard pass as soon as something else comes up, but appreciate its limited charms if you really need

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

Opening a door is boring. Violently kicking it open is where it's at! There may come a time when you are unable to open a door - someone is on the other side, or there's a dangerous gas trap waiting to be tripped. Luckily, you can knock down doors by running at it and holding the melee button. Your character will burst down the door, which in turn will knock over an enemy or disable a gas trap! Respawn really did think of everyth

A lot of new players like to play cautiously. Therefore, they will sidestep around a massive ledge and find a way safe way down rather than just jumping. There is absolutely no fall damage in this game, so you are free to jump from any height, including from the supply ships. It helps keep the game flowing, and it allows for quick escapes if you find yourself in trouble. Seriously, go against your instincts and don't be afraid to j