Apex Legends' upcoming limited time Galactic Games event adds a whole new gameplay mechanic that's making me nostalgic for a world that doesn't exist: one where Respawn made Titanfall 3.

As revealed in the Galactic Games event's trailer, you'll soon be able to wall-run in Apex Legends like you're the Prince of Persia, or Ryu from Ninja Gaiden, or most aptly, a Pilot from Titanfall.

Titanfall 2 is one of my favorite first-person shooters ever, and I was crushed when I heard EA reportedly canceled a new game in the series back in May. Maybe, this new limited-time Apex Legends event is Respawn's way of quietly offering consolation to the legions of Titanfall fans who know a true sequel may never see the light of day.

The Galactic Games event kicks off on August 19 and runs until September 9, adding new mechanics to the fast-paced Wildcard mode. For the duration of the event, you'll unlock a new slot in Wildcard at the start of the first three rounds, which will let you equip up to three Wild Cards (inexplicably two words) that give you new abilities, including dashing, extra melee damage, and, yes, wall-running.

Other Wild Cards will let you recharge shields while running, increase your melee knockback, see enemy locations on knock, and charge your Tactical and Ultimate abilities faster than usual.

Respawn says the new Wild Card mechanic will stick around through the event and and get various updates, but come September 9, "Wildcard returns to its core experience."

On top of these new abilities, there's also a big bat. Aptly named the Grand Slam Bat, all Apex Legends players will automatically have access to the limited-time melee weapon for the duration of the event in Wildcard.

"This ultimate choice for fans of hefty melee damage also deals knock backs and an even bigger launch after the third successful hit with the potential to impact multiple enemies," Respawn says.

On top of all this, there will also be some limited-time cosmetics including Legendary skins for Seer, Sparrow, and Gibraltar, as well as bonus rewards automatically unlocked at various milestones during the event.

But, really, the ultimate reward for longtime Respawn fans is the ability to wall-run, which unfortunately sounds like will be the closest thing to Titanfall 3 for a very long time.

Find out where Titanfall 2 landed on our list of the best FPS games to play in 2025.

In a stunningly bleak encapsulation of the current state of the video game industry, EA has laid off an Apex Legends writer just 24 hours after revealing the character she had been writing for over a year.

A Bloomberg report surfaced on Tuesday that claimed EA had laid off between 300 and 400 workers, and Apex Legends studio Respawn soon confirmed that it had been impacted by the downsizing.

EA also confirmed that an unspecified number of employees had been let go as part of an effort that "allocates resources in service of driving future growth." Bleck.

We've now heard from a specific employee who was made redundant just one day after EA revealed the Apex Legends character she wrote, the new sharpshooter Sparrow.

On Monday, now-former narrative designer Heather Woodward was celebrating the launch of her character, who she had been writing "for well over a year," and who she referred to as "my first born." Today, she shared a screenshot of a marketing email promoting Sparrow sent the very day she was laid off.

"I mean it's objectively pretty funny to get a promo email for the character I wrote the day I'm let go," she said on Bluesky.

Talk about rubbing salt into the wound. Given the circumstances, I'm in awe of Woodward's composure here. If I was in the same situation, I'm really not sure I'd be able to indulge in the painful irony with the sort of grace and humility on display in her social media posts.

"Well, this is awkward but… I was just mass-downsized at Respawn," she said after learning of her position's redundancy. "These things happen and my time with Apex has been a top to bottom blast, my favorite job I've ever had. It's been a true joy to write Sparrow, I'll continue to be insufferable about him for weeks to come."

Helldivers 2 CEO says industry layoffs have seen "very little accountability" from executives who "let go of one third of the company because you made stupid decisions."

Months after ruling out Apex Legends 2 as a possibility, publisher EA now says that Apex 2.0 is planned to exist in the long-term future.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson confirmed as much via the company's most recent Q&A fiscal call when asked about the battle royale game's supposed underperformance. "We've had over 200 million people play the game," Wilson says, "however, the trajectory of the business of that franchise has not been headed in the direction that we have wanted for some time."

Wilson then states developer Respawn Entertainment is focusing on "three vectors" to get Apex Legends back on track. The first comes from supporting the "tens of millions of people" who play daily with smaller updates that cover "quality-of-life, anti-cheat, and all of the things that make the core experience great, as well as the creation of new content for that community."

The second supposed "phase" will apparently come in the form of "a more meaningful update of Apex as a broad game experience" - though, Wilson also says that this won't come out "on top of a Battlefield launch, and so, from a timing standpoint, our thinking right now is that would exist post-Battlefield." Battlefield 6 is set to release by April 2026, even though the publisher isn't opposed to delaying it in the midst of a very competitive year.

But EA wants to milk this cow in perpetuity and make sure it's a money-printer for the next "10, 20, 30 years and growing." Wilson then refers to these plans for "an even bigger, more meaningful update" as "an Apex 2.0, if you will," that'll come "on a longer-term horizon." The CEO adds: "This will not be the final incarnation of Apex."

It's an interesting revelation since EA said it wasn't interested in making an Overwatch 2-style follow-up to the shooter just a few months ago because "the version two thing has almost never been as successful as version one," and the company didn't want players to lose all the progress they've invested in. From my perspective, Wilson's missing the most crucial piece of this puzzle that'd surely turn Apex Legends' fortunes overnight: Titanfall 3.

See where Apex Legends lands in our best battle royale games ranking.

If you're finding yourself nostalgic for the heady days of 2019 battle royale games, EA and Respawn have just the thing with Apex Legends: From the Rift. The new season, which goes live today, features a mode hearkening back to the original 1.0 launch.

"Step back in time to the experience that started it all: Launch Royale," the devs explain in the announcement. "This new LTM drops players into the original Apex Legends circa 2019 - it’s the old school weapons, Legends, abilities, ruleset, and map that started it all. That means no EVO Armor or Ability Upgrades - just pure skill and your wits to survive the Apex Games."

The full patch notes at that link make clear that that Launch Royale isn't just a return to the original Kings Canyon map. Loot distribution and ring timings have returned to 1.0 values, Legends have had the "majority" of their kits returned to their original balance settings, and old-school movement tech like bunny hops and punch boosting are back on the menu.

Apex Legends isn't the first big battle royale to try an appeal to nostalgia. Fortnite OG brought Epic's battle royale back to its roots last year, to tremendous effect - the game smashed its concurrent player record as players flocked to re-experience Chapter 1. Whether the effort works as well for Apex Legends remains to be seen, but after big recent missteps like the aborted battle pass changes it feels like the game's in need of a little momentum.

Apex Legends was a top 50 Steam Deck game, but EA's dropping Valve's handheld because it can't tell if those players are actually dirty cheating Linux users.

EA has announced that it's pulling Linux support for Apex Legends, meaning that the game is no longer officially supported on Steam Deck. The devs say it's down to just how hard it is to catch cheaters on the operating system.

"The openness of the Linux operating systems makes it an attractive one for cheaters and cheat developers," the devs explain in the announcement. "Linux cheats are indeed harder to detect and the data shows that they are growing at a rate that requires an outsized level of focus and attention from the team for a relatively small platform. There are also cases in which cheats for the Windows OS get emulated as if it’s on Linux in order to increase the difficulty of detection and prevention."

Steam Deck is technically just a portable PC, so if you want to install Windows on the device and play Apex Legends that way, you'll still be able to do so. But if you prefer to use the handheld's official, Linux-based operating system, you'll have to find other ways to get your FPS fix.

EA isn't alone in deciding that it's not worth supporting Linux - or Steam Deck - because of anti-cheat headaches. As The Verge notes, Fortnite, League of Legends, and Valorant have all avoided Linux support for this reason. But Apex Legends was directly available on Steam, it had been verified for compatibility on Steam Deck, and was one of the top 50 most popular games on the handheld in the past year.

"We had to weigh the decision on the number of players who were legitimately playing on Linux/the Steam Deck versus the greater health of the population of players for Apex," the devs continue in the announcement. "While the population of Linux users is small, their impact infected a fair amount of players' games. This ultimately brought us to our decision today."

These are the best online games you can play today. 

Earlier this month, EA and Respawn announced some big changes to the Apex Legends battle pass that quickly met with a loud, definitive pushback from players. Now, they're walking back the most controversial parts of the change.

"You’ve spoken, and we’ve listened," the devs say in a message on social media. "With the release of Season 22 we will restore the ability to get the Premium Battle Pass for 950 Apex Coins. We recognize that we could have handled the Battle Pass changes better - that's on us. It’s our intention to improve the overall value and experience across our Battle Pass offerings."

You've historically been able to use Apex Coins to purchase battle passes, which would then - assuming you played enough - allow you to earn enough Apex Coins to purchase the next season's battle pass. When these changes were first announced, battle passes were set to go to cash-only purchases, removing the ability to earn them in-game. Players quickly made their displeasure known, dropping 72,632 negative reviews on the Apex Legends Steam page since the news was announced.

We're going back to Apex Coins for the standard battle pass, but some of the changes are still going forward. There are still set to be two battle passes per season, so you'll be reupping twice as often. There are also new cash-only Ultimate ($9.99) and Ultimate+ ($19.99) that come with additional rewards. An extensive infographic aims to lay out all the details.

"Moving forward, we recognize that we need to be more timely, transparent, and consistent in our communications with you," the devs add. "Your priorities are our priorities: cheaters, game stability, and quality of life updates are top of mind. We need to get better and it's why we're acknowledging them here. As a next step, there are a number of improvements and game stability bug fixes coming in Season 22 that will be outlined in the Patch Notes dropping on August 5, 2024."

What'll be the last title standing among the best battle royale games?

EA and Respawn have announced some major changes to the Apex Legends battle pass which will see seasonal content become far more expensive to keep up with. The community response has been about as negative as you would imagine.

Starting in season 22, there will now be two battle passes every season - one for each split - and each of these passes will now be $9.99. Previously, you'd get a whole season's battle pass for 950 Apex Coins, the game's premium currency, and if you completed that pass you'd get enough AC back to get the next one without shelling out any additional cash.

The battle passes still award 1300 Apex Coins apiece, but since the new passes are only available at a price measured in real-world currency, you can no longer spend your AC to get those passes. In one sense, the price of the battle pass is doubling, since there are now twice as many per season, but for truly dedicated fans who've been earning AC to buy these things, the price is skyrocketing from a previous tag of 'free.'

The official announcement goes some distance toward trying to present this as a good thing - there are now fewer junk rewards in each pass, and one premium track battle pass purchase is a bit cheaper than before - but nobody's really willing to look past the price hike. If you'd like to read comments from players such as "actually the worst thing ever," "this game is officially dead to me," and "this is how Apex dies," you can head over to the game's subreddit, where these plans are being properly eviscerated. 

There's a footnote in the blog post that notes "this announcement may change as we listen to community feedback and continue developing and evolving our Live Service & Content." Fans are certainly hopeful that something will change, but this message is a generic one that appears in every single announcement about Apex Legends.

Check out all the best online games you can play today. 

Apex Legends is finally introducing swimsuit skins, and fans are, somewhat predictably, going utterly feral over them.

Earlier today, on March 23, Respawn Entertainment unveiled the Sun Squad Collection Event, which will begin next week on March 28, and run until April 11. The draw of this event is that Respawn is finally unleashing swimsuit skins on the battle royale shooter, after many years of fan requests.

What everyone's having a meltdown over is Loba's swimsuit skin, because of course they are. Loba has always been the focus of the hornier part of Apex Legends' fan base, and now they've finally got a swimsuit skin after years of begging (and borderline harassing) Respawn for it.

This would normally be where we highlight some fans' responses, but they're a bit too deranged for anyone to see. We'd also perhaps show off some of the swimsuit requests for Loba, but again, the dreams of horny fans are nothing to which anyone should be unwillingly subjected.

Elsewhere, Catalyst, Ash, Gibraltar, Seer, and Mirage are all donning beach-appropriate attire and heading to the sea. There are also new summer-themed skins for the Flatline, Wingman, Havoc, Rampage, and Charge Rifle weapons, perfect for if you thought the murderous weapons lacked a little flair. 

Finally, there's a brand new mode for the event: Heatwave. Appropriately, this mode periodically deals sun-based damage over parts of the map, so you'll need to get to shade or shelter under structures to avoid taking damage. Mercifully, Heat Shields have a bigger radius, so better protect you from the sun if you're caught out in the open.

Loba thirsting aside, the Sun Squad Collection Event has a lot of exciting new features going for it. Here's hoping everyone can be a bit more normal about Loba in-game now.

Don't forget: Apex Legends' lore tab is a game-changer if you're looking to catch up on any story events. 

Respawn might've only just launched its Team Death Match mode in Apex Legends, but it's already getting some big changes.

Earlier this week, Apex Legends rolled out its Revelry update on Valentine's Day (no tie-in, sadly). The seasonal update included the much-anticipated Team Death Match mode, but Respawn has already made big changes to the mode, with the developer declaring in the tweet below that matches were simply too long.

Starting now, Team Death Match has been reduced from three rounds per match to just one. Having three bouts made matches "feel too long," Respawn writes in the tweet above, but with the removal of multiple rounds, teams will now need 50 kills instead of 30 to claim victory for the match.

This change has been met with pretty heavy praise from Apex Legends' fan base, which is a rare thing to come by. The most common response to the change is 'W', which can be interpreted by anyone who speaks internet as 'Win', and therefore a good thing.

Elsewhere, a Team Death Match will immediately end when one team completely leaves, and quitting players will be penalized like in Control. These changes, and just the general communication from Respawn, are being praised in the comments and quote tweet responses from players worldwide.

"Communication has been on point what a W," reads one response in yet-more internet speak. "Love how fast they work!!" writes one fan, while another adds that "the communication is on point [right it's and it’s making the game better "vRespawn's Respawn's clearly winning a lot of fans with their direct, rapid community responses.

Adding to the Ws for Respawn is a new lore tab for Apex Legends, which could well be a game-changer for live-service titles going forward. 

Apex Legends just introduced a potentially game-changing feature for lapsed players.

Yesterday on Valentine's Day (as it happens), Apex Legends' brand new season, Revelry, kicked off around the world. Accompanying the new season is a new section of the Apex Legends website, dedicated to chronicling every in-game lore event and story Respawn has ever told throughout the four years of the battle royale.

This is a huge deal for Apex Legends, and live-service games at large. A dedicated resource pooling together every lore fragment from events, comics, trailers, and in-game Episodes is amazing for those looking to touch up their knowledge of every character in Apex Legends, or even lapsed players.

As it happens, I'm weirdly a perfect case study for this feature. I haven't touched Apex Legends for around four months now, shelving the game shortly after Vantage joined the Apex Games. Putting down Respawn's game, a shooter I've loved since day one, wasn't deliberate on my part - I just found other things that interested me for a change.

As the months drew on, I felt tempted to return to my beloved battle royale game, and all the characters I'd left behind. I was fearful I'd missed dramatic events over the weeks and months though - especially the in-game Episodes, which tell stories over several instalments over every season, vanishing from Apex Legends entirely after the current season wraps up.

With this new resource on the Apex Legends website, I can catch up everything I've missed, not having to worry about scouring the internet for a recap, or trudging through YouTube for an overlong reminder. Every story development I've ever missed is right there, just waiting for me to return and relearn everything whenever I want. 

There's bound to be others like me, who've fallen off the bandwagon, and desperately want to get back in on the action. This new feature gives us all a welcome avenue back into Apex Legends, without any time-sensitive pressure. 

The lore section is also a major win for game preservation. With each new seasonal event, Apex Legends cycles out its Episodes, in doing so jettisoning all the in-game writing from its team contained within. Now though, all that hard work and effort is effectively stored away, so Respawn's writers have a place they know their work is saved, to go back to whenever they need it.

This isn't an in-game feature for Apex Legends, but it's arguably one of the most exciting updates surrounding the game in quite some time. If other live-service games like Destiny 2 or Fortnite follow suit, storing every in-game lore development and story in one easily-accessible place, this has the potential to be an industry-changing feature.

Earlier this month, EA reportedly cancelled a new Titanfall game that would've incorporated elements and characters from Apex Legends. 

The new Apex Legends season is called Revelry, and it's due to launch on Valentine's Day with some of the biggest changes the game has ever seen.

Headlining the changes is a rework for the class system. Apex Legends characters are already divided into various classes based on their playstyle, but the new system will actually have an in-game impact. The five classes - Assault, Recon, Skirmisher, Controller, and Support - will each confer the Legends within the category a new unique ability.

It sounds like these abilities will be shared by all the Legends within a given class, though the devs did not confirm that detail. Respawn also hasn't yet detailed exactly what the abilities will do, though they did give examples like changing "the way a Legend can interact with new loot bins" or adding "new ways to revive teammates."

This will be the first season since the game's launch without a new Legend. Instead, the devs say in a blog post that they're "adjusting all Legends," and specifically call out Lifeline, Seer, and Wraith as focus areas for changes. We won't see the specifics of those updates until closer to Revelry's launch on February 14, however.

Apex is also getting a new Team Deathmatch mode to replace Arenas. "At its core, Apex Legends is a Battle Royale and the team wants to help players master the core game mode, and in its current state Arenas is not meeting our goals," the devs explain. Once again, we don't have any official details on the rules for TDM, though it'll be available in a playlist for the first three weeks of the new season. In early March, TDM will become part of a permanent playlist called Mixtape, which will also feature Gun Run and Control.

Bots are also coming to the battle royale. New players will go through an Orientation Match system, primarily competing against bots before they're distributed into normal matchmaking. Once again, the blog is unclear about the details - bots are being billed as something to help new players get into the game, but there's no indication either way if they'll appear in normal matchmaking as in, say, Fortnite.

We'll get a lot more of those missing details leading up to the launch of Revelry on February 14.

Apex Legends Mobile is coming to an end as part of an EA cancelation spree.

After EA announced Apex Legends Mobile would be shutting down, fans of the battle royale shooter aren't pleased with the company.

Yesterday, EA announced a six-week delay for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and an end to service for Apex Legends Mobile on May 1. Over on the Apex Legends subreddit, players are frustrated with EA over the game's shutdown, primarily due to their purchased Apex Coins now being useless.

However, EA unfortunately won't be providing any refunds for players who purchased Apex Coins in Apex Legends Mobile. If you were hoping for a refund for your investments, you're fresh out of luck, as the announcement yesterday pointed to EA's User Agreement as eliminating any hopes of refunds.

Some players on the Apex Legends subreddit are comparing the situation to Rumbleverse, which also announced its closure yesterday. However, the Epic Games-published title is offering refunds to all players who invested money in the battle royale game, and Apex Legends Mobile players aren't pleased at EA's policy in comparison.

Additionally, Apex Legends Mobile players are disappointed the Mobile-exclusive characters will be going away with the shutdown. Rhapsody and Fade were added to the game as mobile-exclusive characters last year, both offering brand new story details and in-game abilities for players on the go, but they might never see the light of day again once the mobile game goes away.

The fact that a lot of time and effort spent from both players and developers will be worthless when Apex Legends Mobile is shut down isn't going over well with players, with some likening EA's handling of the situation as a "scam." 

Check out our new games 2023 guide for a look over all the titles set to launch this year. 

Development on Apex Legends Mobile and Battlefield Mobile has come to a close, as EA has announced plans to end both projects.

Apex Legends Mobile will shut down at 4pm PDT on May 1, 2023, less than a year after its launch. As developer Respawn explains in a new blog post, "Following a strong start, the content pipeline for Apex Legends Mobile has begun to fall short of that bar for quality, quantity, and cadence. It is for this reason, after months of working with our development partner, that we have made the mutual decision to sunset our mobile game."

In-game purchases for Apex Legends Mobile will not be refunded, but currency will no longer be purchasable as of today, January 31. Respawn says this shutdown will not affect Apex Legends on PC or consoles, and that "as a franchise, Apex Legends is strong and we’re looking forward to sharing exciting updates in the future."

The announcement came just ahead of EA's quarterly financial results report, during which CEO Andrew Wilson hinted that a different Apex Legends mobile game may be developed in the future.

EA has also announced that it's ending development on the unreleased Battlefield Mobile, which was originally announced back in 2021. The publisher has "decided to pivot from the current direction to best deliver on our vision for the franchise and to meet the expectations of our players". The company also says it's "evolving Battlefield 2042" and is in pre-production on "future Battlefield experiences".

EA also revealed news of a six-week delay for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor today.

There are plenty of big new games for 2023 to help fill the void on both phones and consoles.

Broken Moon, the new Apex Legends map dropping on November 1, looks like an absolute blast. Not only is it visually stunning, with a unique mix of rocky lunar terrain and lush interiors of human settlement buildings, but it has a network of zip rails zig-zagging across its surface. 

Yes, you read that right, zip rails, not zip lines. Zip rails are a new Apex Legends feature that increases your momentum when traveling along them, making them great for both attacking and escaping on the fly. They started as a fun little idea amongst the Respawn devs, lead level designer Jeff Shaw tells me during an interview. "Then we started to look more into just their usability and their versatility and stuff like that...these zip rails really help with fast rotations and interesting getaways," he explains.

Oh and the zip rails mean you can now joust in Apex Legends. Sort of. Shaw tells me that the dev team frequently jousted with each other while QA testing Broken Moon. "The jousting is where you have two teams at either end, and they kind of both decide to get on at the same time and clash with each other. So it kind of becomes, 'can I down you before I collide with you? Because once I collide with you, we're both knocking off this thing'."

Broken Moon doesn't just have a network of zip rails, but it also has larger-scale POIs to help shake up the flow of every match. "Our objective was to reduce or soften up the hot drop dog piles that we see at the early game," Shaw explained during a preview. When I asked him later if hot drops were something the team can't quite figure out, he was quick to correct me. "It's not like it's something that we're trying to remove from the game. It's just something that we're we've actively been looking at how we can shake this up or balance it because we do think that hot-dropping is still a really, really valid strategy." 

But with larger POIs, players will have a better chance to loot and get their bearings before getting into firefights. Shaw also told me that the team "cherry-picked" features from all of their past maps, looking at what worked and what players gravitated towards when designing Broken Moon. We haven't seen a fully detailed depiction of the new map yet, but expect this to be a wild ride. 

Apex Legends Eclipse launches on November 1. Here's what we know about new Legend Catalyst's abilities. 

An Apex Legends Stories from the Outlands trailer has revealed its newest Legend: Catalyst. Catalyst is a defensive hero who is the first transgender woman to enter the Apex games.

Respawn worked closely with both American NGO GLAAD and its transgender employees to ensure she respectfully represents the community. We spoke at length with Respawn, GLAAD, and Catalyst's voice actor Meli Grant, so expect more about that process in a story coming soon. Check out the trailer below, and read on for more details about Catalyst.

Catalyst's reveal trailer shows her talking with Rampart about what knowledge she can glean about the amped-up Legend from her crystals. Rampart asks Catalyst what the crystals say about her, and we're giving a flashback to a younger Catalyst with her coven of witchy friends - it's very much giving The Craft, and I love it.

The flashback shows Catalyst and her coven brainstorming on how to protect Cleo, the moon of Boreas, which is being mined by Hammond Robotics and is clearly in danger of being destroyed. While two of the coven members are reluctant to go any further, Catalyst gets roped into doing something slightly more dangerous with Margot (who's told by the other coven members she's "going too far"). During a moment of reflection before their mission, Catalyst speaks about her transition. "I feel like the whole world has opened up, now that I'm myself," she says.

The mission with Margot goes south, and the two women are separated, with Margot's fate unknown to Catalyst. The trailer ends with Catalyst saying that the crystals told her she had to come back to Boreas to help protect her true home. Yes, that's a new map they're hinting at. 

Apex Legends Eclipse launches on November 1 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and.

No game does pride like Apex Legends.

T-Pain, the Grammy Award-winning recording artist behind hits like Bartender, Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin'), and I'm Sprung, says you should stop harassing video game developers.

"Bro y’all have to fucking chill out," T-Pain says in a tweet. "It’s a fucking game my dude. Play something else if you hate it so much bro. Walk away from your pc/console if you’ve become so consumed by a game that you feel the need to threaten the ppl that work hard to make it. Chill bro."

T-Pain's tweet includes an image of a statement from Apex Legends developer Respawn, in which the studio says it has "seen increased harassment towards members of our development team" and notes that "we have a zero tolerance policy for threats and harassment of our developers."

You can regularly see T-Pain showing his gaming credential on Twitch, where he regularly streams titles including Apex Legends. You might've also seen T-Pain in gaming headlines earlier this year, when he was promoting the console release of Crusader Kings 3 by announcing a new religion called "Bootyism." Pope T-Pain of the Booty Papacy described himself as "a freaking paragon of virtue," and now that he's speaking out against online harassment I'm inclined to agree.

Game developers have been taking a much more active approach in standing up against harassment in recent months. Bungie filed suit against a Destiny 2 cheater who allegedly threatened to "burn down" their office earlier this year, and has said in interviews that suing cheaters and harassers is "good business."

For more great shooters, check out our guide to the best FPS games out there right now.

The developer behind Apex Legends has spoken out against the increased harassment its staff have been experiencing.

The official Respawn Twitter account has posted the statement within the image seen just below. The studio reveals that its staff members have been experiencing "increased harassment" and makes sure to draw a line between constructive feedback and criticism and outright harassment towards developers.

Respawn reminds players that it has a "zero tolerance policy for the threats and harassment of our developers." The studio goes on to say that it will take "appropriate action" against those instigating and partaking in the harassment of its developers but stops short of citing the action they'll be taking against such individuals.

A ResetEra thread sheds some light on why Respawn developers have been experiencing increased harassment recently. As reported by Dextero, a popular streamer called HisWattson has apparently been inciting hatred towards Apex Legends developers in particular of late and has allegedly been messaging hackers in an attempt to make life miserable for staff. 

Elsewhere, the changes to iron sights haven't gone down well. Earlier this month, Respawn acknowledged that some iron sights on weapon skins gave players an advantage, and announced they would be altering the iron sights on the skins to level the playing field for all. This decision seemingly hasn't sat well with a small but vocal minority of the Apex Legends player base. 

It remains to be seen how this statement from Respawn affects the behaviour of its audience, but so far at least, its developers are giving a resounding thanks on social media. 

Check out our full Apex Legends Gun Run impressions for how the new limited-time mode is making an impact on the wider game. 

Apex Legends Gun Run is the battle royale's take on gun game and it's a bombastic blast. It's also the easiest way to get frustrated at your lack of skill, as there's very little room for anything other than rock-solid gunplay and clever map movement. And boy, am I getting my ass kicked. Choosing the right Legend may not be as important as in the battle royale, but choosing the wrong one can be catastrophic. Gun Run is yet another example of Respawn's ability to drop a fantastic limited-time mode that capitalizes on Apex Legend's strengths: guns, movement, and its cast of characters.

Running guns

Like any other gun game, Apex Legends Gun Run starts every player off with the same weapon. The weapon you get differs every match, but you always start off with the "easier" ones like ARs and move up until you're in the final rounds wielding a pistol. Every kill you get with that weapon swaps you to the next one on the list until you make it to 25. The ultimate goal? Get a kill with the new throwing knife weapon – which isn't easy.

But unlike other gun games, which are often played solo, Gun Run is all about the squad. Your teammate's success is your own – if one of them is further ahead on the gun track, you'll leapfrog past the other levels on your next kill so that you end up in the same spot as them. 

Combine that with an ability to drop enemy teams down a level with melee kills, and you've got a wickedly fast-paced mode that may be Apex Legends' hardest yet. That's why the few times I get a squadmate with a mic, I make sure that we move together as a unit – they can sweep up any kills I don't finish off, or cheekily punch out an enemy who may have just pulled ahead of us. Playing without your teammates can be brutal, especially if you aren't as well-versed in every weapon as others may be. One match is particularly brutal, as I spend it stuck on the third weapon for almost the entire time, cursed by my inability to effectively wield a Devotion.

Sweatfest 

Gun Run is, as the kids say, a sweatfest. Nearly every match is full of players who know movement and weapons better than I could ever hope to, which makes for rather punishing matches. And it can certainly get frustrating – the aforementioned match where I stayed stuck on a Devotion had me grunting in anger as I watched enemy squadmates get the last potshot on someone whose shield I had cracked multiple times. And not every Legend is a good fit for this mode, which is detrimental to those of us who have favorites. 

Since Legends can use their abilities and charge up their ultimates during Gun Run gameplay, you'll want to choose carefully at the start of every match. Lifeline is virtually useless since we're all equipped with unlimited med kits and there's no downing, just eliminations. Crypto's surveillance is unnecessary on such a small map where you can easily seek out enemies thanks to incessant gunfire. I've yet to see a single person play Revenant, and that may be because his totem ultimate isn't useful on smaller maps either. 

Legends like Bangalore, Horizon, Valkyrie, Octane, Wattson, and Caustic are popular choices in Gun Run – Bangalore for her smoke and Rolling Thunder ultimate; Horizon, Valkyrie, and Octane for their mobility; and Wattson and Caustic for their traps. Wattson is particularly lethal, as she can snake her traps through one of only a few small spaces and catch players in her electric webs. While much of the Gun Run experience is about your skills with Apex Legends' gunplay, the other half is about smart Legend choices and knowing how to make the most of their kits. 

Respawn is flexing into Apex Legends' best features with Gun Run, so, naturally, players are already asking that it become a permanent mode and not an LTM. While you may jump into a match and find you can barely make it past the R301, you can't deny that Gun Run condenses down the Apex formula into a potent shot of shooter excellence. 

Check out our interview with Respawn on how it's making Apex Legends "a forever game" and what that means for Season 14.

A new season has dropped, shocked, and rocked in Apex Legends, sending the player count soaring and setting a brand-new Steam concurrent player count record for Respawn's fan-favorite battle royale.

As recorded by Steam Charts - a handy website that keeps a running tally on all the stats and science-y bits on Valve's Steam platform - Apex Legends set an all-new concurrent peak of over half a million Legends the day after the new season launched: 510,286 to be precise.

That means it now joins the likes of PUBG: Battlegrounds, Lost Ark, CS:GO, Dota 2, Elden Ring, New World, and Cyberpunk 2077 as one of only a handful of games to have ever broken the half-million milestone on Steam.

Of course, Steam represents just a fraction of the players enjoying the new season - Apex Legends is available on most main platforms, including EA's own Origin client (which, ironically enough, had problems on Season 14's launch day) - but Steam concurrent counts, whilst not perfect, are a good way of measuring a game's current popularity. Not bad for a three-year-old game, eh?

Apex Legends Season 14 launched on August 9, but PC players using the Origin client had trouble downloading the update. That meant that they couldn't drop into the new season and enjoy Vantage, the brand-new Legend, or the major updates to OG map, Kings Canyon. 

An hour after its launch, Respawn tweeted to say that it was "aware of an issue preventing players from installing the [Apex Legends] update through Origin and are actively investigating". Things should hopefully be okay for Origin-playing Legends now, though.

Want to know more about Apex Legends Season 14? GamesRadar+ spoke with several members of the Apex team about the changes coming with Season 14, the new design philosophy, and their goal of making Apex Legends "a forever game, the game you will teach your kids how to play," as senior design director Evan Nikolich told us.

Apex Legends tips | Apex Legends best weapons | Apex Legends best characters | Apex Legends crafting metal | Apex Legends heirlooms | Apex Legends crossplay | Apex Legends skydive emotes

Is Apex Legends still considered one of the best battle royale games?

A whacky Apex Legend bug is giving characters the wrong abilities.

Yesterday on August 9, Apex Legends launched Hunted, its brand new season, along with new legend Vantage. The new seasonal launch hasn't gone as smoothly as developer Respawn might've hoped though, as players are now reporting instances of their characters being given the abilities of other legends by mistake.

As you can see for yourself in the clip above, the player character in question is playing as Ash, but for some unknown reason they've been given the abilities of Loba, complete with her tactical and ultimate abilities. On the other hand, you can see a Valkyrie player in Apex Legends just below, who mistakenly has the abilities of Mirage, even activating his Decoy tactical for viewers to see.

However, there's good news for those plagued with the new problem. According to the information just below, it seems developer Respawn is well aware of the issue in Apex Legends, and are currently working hard on a remedy for the new bug. It seems as though the bug is caused by the player selecting a different legend than the one they have 'Featured' on the home page of the battle royale game.

For now then, you might want to stick to playing as the legend you have on the home screen of Apex Legends, instead of switching out to a different character on the pre-match menu. If you're unfamiliar with this, you can actually change the legend you have featured on the game's home screen by tabbing over to the 'Legends' tab and selecting any unlocked character from there.

Last month, Respawn was hiring for a new single-player FPS set in the Apex Legends universe. 

Apex Legends Season 14 was meant to launch today, August 9, but PC players using the Origin client are having trouble downloading the update. That means they can't drop into the new season and enjoy Vantage, the brand-new Legend, or the major updates to Kings Canyon. 

Apex Legends Season 14 officially launched August 9 at 1pm ET / 10am PT / 6pm BST. An hour after its launch, Respawn tweeted that it was "aware of an issue preventing players from installing the [Apex Legends] update through Origin and are actively investigating." 

It seems players were getting stuck on a 'Verifying Game Files' message when trying to download the update via the EA-specific Origin launcher. Not long after the tweet acknowledging the issue, Respawn responded in a thread, stating that it was "seeing the issue with Origin start to resolve," while offering support options for players who still can't download the update. 

If you're on PC and use Origin and are still running into issues, there are a few things you can do to try and download the Apex Legends Season 14 update:

• Restart your Origin application
• Uninstall and reinstall Origin
• Clear your cache by following these steps

Here's hoping that works for Origin players. This won't make you feel any better, but Season 14 downloaded just fine on my Xbox Series X/S - but don't worry, my favorite Legend Valkyrie got a massive nerf, so this will be a rough season for me.

Check out our interview with Respawn on how it's making Apex Legends "a forever game" and what that means for Season 14.

Update: Respawn has unveiled a brand new Apex Legends character called Vantage.

Earlier today, the developer debuted a brand new Stories from the Outlands cinematic, unveiling the newcomers to the Apex Games. This is the introduction to Mara, also known as Vantage, the brand new character joining Respawn’s ever-evolving battle royale shooter.

Mara looks like a natural hunter, stalking prey through the frozen tundra with a sniper rifle. The cinematic reveals how she crash-landed on a planet as part of a team and has been forced to adapt to the surrounding environment since she first landed there.

Mara looks like she has the tracking skills to rival Bloodhound if this new trailer is anything to go by. We can see the character use whistles to communicate with her allies out in the frozen world and interact with creatures, including, most noticeably, a white bat. We could see this cute little thing arrive in the Apex Games along with Vantage, although a blood sport probably isn’t the best place for it to be.

Vantage will be the new hero gracing the Apex Games in the next season of the ongoing game, which was also revealed in the new trailer to be called “Hunted.” In fact, we won’t have to wait long to find out more about the brand new season, because there’s a special launch trailer debuting later this week on July 28.

Original story: Apex Legends developer Respawn might have leaked its new character before an official reveal later today.

Over the past weekend, Apex Legends players logged into the battle royale shooter to find the screen just below greeting them, appearing to depict a brand new character joining the game. The screen has since been deleted from the game, but not before quick players chronicled it via a Reddit post.

This character might be what developer Respawn reveals later today, on July 25. Yesterday, the studio tweeted the message below, showing a brand new story-focused Stories from the Outlands episode that would be debuting on July 25 right around 8am PT/ 11am ET/ 4pm BST.

If the since-deleted image from Apex Legends is accurate, this new Stories from the Outlands episode will reveal the new Legend joining the game next month. What’s more, it’ll also show the new season title, “Hunted,” and a release date of August 8 for Season 14 of Apex Legends. 

We’ll have to tune into the showcase later today to find out for sure. If past Stories from the Outlands episodes are anything to go by, we should be in for a real treat, with a brand new cinematic trailer revealing the new Legend, along with their existing connections to any currently playable heroes. 

Here’s our Apex Legends Pride feature boasting interviews from Respawn themselves on why Pride is such a huge focus for the game. 

It looks like Apex Legends players are being kicked to and from matches and the training area by cheaters.

As first reported by Charlie Intel, Apex Legends Twitch streamer Camms, seen just below, was playing a match earlier this week when somebody suddenly kicked them out of the competition. They then found themselves in the game's Firing Range test area, with another player, who proceeded to type "owned" into the in-game chat.

This appears to be the work of a hacker in Respawn's battle royale shooter. You could chalk this up to a bug, but the fact that the player takes responsibility for teleporting Camms into the Firing Range leaves little to doubt.

In the replies to the original tweet by Camms, an EA support representative acknowledges the "bug". They ask Camms to report the glitch through the official EA forums, which doesn't go down well with fellow Apex Legends players who want the hacker dealt with.

Looking to the Apex Legends subreddit, other players have reported something similar happening to them. While some have also been punted to the Firing Range, one started there voluntarily before ending up in a match with five others.

 Here's hoping developer Respawn has an eye on this issue before it becomes a more widespread move from hackers and affects the game's player base at large. The developer has a lot on the go, though, between the Star Wars Jedi: Survivor sequel to 2018's Fallen Order, and a new shooter set in the broader world of Apex Legends and the Titanfall franchise. 

Here's our interview with Respawn themselves on why no game does pride like Apex Legends.  

Apex Legends developer Respawn is recruiting for a new singleplayer shooter set in the Apex/Titanfall universe.

For now, little is known about it other than its placeholder name: "Apex Universe FPS Incubation Title".

As spotted by Dextero, Respawn's careers page is currently recruiting all manner of roles for all manner of titles, including Apex Legends, Jedi: Survivor - the sequel to the brilliant Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order - at least one unknown IP, and that mysterious Star Wars FPS which as yet has no official title. 

But while many of us may weep that there's, as yet, no mention of Titanfall 3, the job listings trying to recruit new devs to the "Apex Universe FPS Incubation Title" project suggest that it will be a single-player first-person shooter, albeit one that's in very, very early development.

"You will be working on an early stage incubation project so a flexible mindset is a must, and your opportunity to participate in design and have your voice as part of the product will be high," one of the programmer adverts explains. 

"This new single-player title is a developer’s dream playground with the freedom to innovate made possible by the unique universe it inhabits," says another, this one recruiting a hard surface artist. "Our critically acclaimed, multi-platform games have always established a 'fun comes first' sensibility created with the notion that great ideas can come from anyone, which allows creativity to shine and individuals to shape the game in meaningful ways."

ICYMI, in celebration of Pride Month, we spoke to Respawn about Apex Legends and its inclusive cast of LGBTQIA+ characters.

"Since its launch in 2019, Respawn has been loud and outspoken about queer rights both within Apex Legends and outside of it," Alyssa wrote in her fabulous feature, no game does pride month like Apex Legends.

"From its inception, it's been clear that the team is dedicated to creating characters that are reflective of both its community and a large, global community, and its efforts have resulted in a game that's as vibrant and diverse as it is enjoyable. 

"We might be a Battle Royale game, but we are a squad-based community who I believe have each other’s back," narrative director Manny Hagopian said at the time. "The more we build representation, the more support we will all have for each other in the end."

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The latest Apex Legends Ranked changes are the biggest adjustments to the mode since its 2019 debut, and players are reeling from the effects. Respawn details the ideology behind the massive shakeup in a blog post, and a lot of the changes make sense – but the application of these changes is a different story. 

Apex Legends Ranked now favors survival over death-dealing, and can be a tough place for lower-tier players to find enjoyable experiences. Sure, you can play unranked Apex Legends to avoid getting rolled by players who belong in higher ranks, but have otherwise ended up in low tiers because of the rework, but if you're like me and favor competitiveness over casual play and tend to solo queue for matches, Ranked is rough right now. 

The rework 

The Apex Legends Ranked rework largely focuses on its nature as a battle royale and how players should be rewarded for survival, which is the game's "primary objective." In the past, players fond of a hot drop will land in zones that are heavily populated with enemy teams and get a ton of kills early on in the match. This style of play often means squads are wiped within a few minutes, with the remaining playtime functioning like a big game of team deathmatch rather than a battle royale. 

In Apex Legends Ranked play, your rank is determined by RP, or Ranked Points, which you earn at the end of every match. The more points you earn, the higher your ranking – and you can lose RP and drop down ranks, as well. The blog post explaining the Season 13 Saviors ranked update makes Respawn's stance on RP rewards clear: "In a battle royale, placing worse than the bottom half of the lobby is losing. Placements and kills are both important metrics in Ranked. Having kills without the placement should not constitute a success. In response, we have pulled down Kill RP gains for placing worse than 10th." 

That means that you'll get a lot more points for surviving with your squad than you would going out in a blaze of glory early on in a match – even if you take a few enemies with you. The base value of each kill is worth less overall, so your goal is to stay alive into the top 10 squads – not get a few team wipes and place 15th. The new participation points give you some RP for what seems to be your teammates' kills and assists, but it's a very small amount. The new RP calculations combined with what looks like a two and a half rank drop across the board (Masters players are now in Silver, Plat players in Bronze, while I'm, laughably, in Rookie) means climbing up the Apex Legends Ranked ladder takes longer than ever.

The consequences 

In my first Apex Legends Season 13 Ranked match, my teammates have no microphones and hot drop into Antenna. We're the first team eliminated, and I walk away with no points. In my next game, we hot-drop and place 16th, and I walk away with one kill and two RP points from that match – one for my kill and one for participation. I solo queue for over an hour and don't make it out of Rookie 4 as my squad consistently hot drops and gets eliminated before the top 10. Just when I'm about to lose my patience and swap to Overwatch, however, I play a round with two squadmates who are communicating well and we manage to place fourth. To my delight, I made the jump to Bronze 4, but the grind it took to get there almost wasn't worth it.

I'm not the only player who finds Apex Legends Ranked is now a bit too grindy. Reddit users have posted the Apex Legend Status chart, which shows ranked distribution among the player base, to point out how tough the new system is. The majority of players are in Rookie, then Bronze 4, then Bronze 2, then Silver 2. According to the chart, there are no players in Platinum 1 or higher, which means few people have made Diamond, Master, or Apex Predator this season. Although I can understand why Respawn would want Master to be a seemingly unattainable rank reserved only for top-tier players, the grind to get to a more middling rank can be a bit demoralizing. 

The Ranked rework is also a serious blow for players who solo queue. I don't have many friends who play Apex Legends, and the ones that do aren't big fans of playing ranked, so I'm almost always playing with random teammates. And while Apex Legends' groundbreaking ping system makes it easier for me to communicate with mic-less players, it doesn't help when the majority of them insist upon hot-dropping. I'm not the Apex best player by a longshot, but I can usually walk away from a hot drop with a kill or two. Now that doesn't matter, as the new RP calculations favor teamwork and survival above all else.

These changes make sense on paper – after all, Apex Legends is a squad-based battle royale and you should be rewarded for outliving other squads by working together as a team. But for lower-skilled and solo-queuing players, the Apex Legends Ranked rework is rough as hell. I may be a masochist who will continue to grind my way to the middle, but will the rest of the player base do the same?

The best battle royale games to prove you're number one

Apex Legends Mobile finally gets a release date of next Tuesday, May 17. 

Apex Legend developer, Respawn Entertainment, announced in an official tweet from @PlayApex that the launch date is just around the corner. To be exact it’s May 17 and the game will be rated T for Teen.

Respawn Entertainment has confirmed that the mobile version comes with exclusive maps, battle passes and a new character. According to industry leaker Tom Henderson, the game will launch with a roster of 10 characters including a new one: Gibraltar, Caustic, Lifeline, Bangalore, Mirage, Pathfinder, Octane, Wraith, Bloodhound and Fade.

Fade, also called the Phasing Punisher, will be the first mobile-exclusive character. His kit gives him speed boost and the ability to flashback to a previous location and his ultimate is called Phase Chamber, which sends all legends into the void. He sounds like an epic addition to a team.

The conversion from console to mobile will not allow for cross-play between platforms, as Apex Legends Mobile has been built as a separate title. The game remains free-to-play just like the PC and console versions, and it will include the same options for cosmetic microtransactions.

Apex Legends Mobile was originally discussed back in 2019, with a launch date sometime after spring 2021. However, the game was then quietly pushed into 2022, with the conflict between Ukraine and Russia pushing the launch date back further again. Apex Legends Mobile has been in beta since March 7 this year in 10 different countries: Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Argentina and Colombia. The full launch next week will finally bring Apex Legends Mobile to a global audience.  

You might need some Apex Legends guides to help you get started when it does arrive:

Apex Legends tips | Apex Legends best weapons | Apex Legends best characters | Apex Legends crafting metal | Apex Legends heirlooms | Apex Legends crossplay | Apex Legends skydive emotes 

Apex Legends is changing the support game with its newest hero, Newcastle. The shield-wielding knight is bringing a very unique kit to the battle royale, one that deviates from existing support Legends in very interesting ways. Newcastle may very well become a top choice for support players in Apex Legends Season 13, as well as a fan-favorite character thanks to his dad jokes and dad bod. We got a chance to get a sneak peek at Newcastle during a deep dive presentation last week, here's how we think the new Legend will shake up the Apex games.

Newcastle's character arc was written by a fellow dad, Respawn's Ify Nwadiwe, who says he wanted some "cool dad representation" in Apex Legends. 

Dad Knight 

Everyone loves a daddy, and Respawn is leaning into the father figure with Newcastle (aka Jackson). When the hero known as Newcastle is killed by mobsters coming to collect on a past due payment, Jackson reluctantly puts on the armor to protect his town and his family. The new Newcastle may be Bangalore's long-thought dead brother and former IMC soldier, but he's also a father looking to protect his family. 

That "cool dad" ethos Nwadiwe mentions struggles a bit to fit into Newcastle's armor, as he's got a quintessential "dad bod" according to designer Christina Laviña Ferez. "He used to be super fit, he used to be a soldier, but now he has more of a chill life, he put a bit of weight on, the suit's a bit tight," she says. The team also brought "a bit of an outdated feel to him," with Newcastle's old school idea of cool seeping into his design and attitude. As Newcastle's name and design would suggest, the Legend is something of a futuristic knight, complete with helmet, armor, and a shield bearing his logo. Newcastle is also something of a superhero, and his movements suggest that. This guy is a superstar, and incredibly loveable – a testament to Respawn's ability to write fantastic characters that add depth to what could easily be a superficial battle royale. 

Jackson's status as former IMC soldier, dad and brother to Bangalore, and the man currently pretending to be a famous hero sets the stage for some great stories. How will Bangalore react to her brother entering the games? Why did Jackson leave the IMC and start a new life as someone else? The opportunities for great in-game dialogue and events are endless, and players who appreciate Apex Legends' clever weaving of lore throughout the gameplay and season trailers will love this.

Mobile defense 

Jackson's story and status as Newcastle are certainly interesting, but it's his kit that will have people talking. Newcastle is an aggressive support character, a "heroic defender" according to the dev team. "This guy needed to be someone who could leap into the fray heroically to protect his squad, somebody who is going to lead that charge, shield their advance, and he's a guy who would leave no man behind," explains game designer Devin Weise. "He's not afraid to lay his life on the line to bring his team back into the fold and pull them out of the fire. So we knew that the abilities couldn't fall into that classic bunker defense style, it couldn't be someone who's like, 'Hey, you guys come to me' – he needs to go to them." With that playstyle in mind, Respawn has given Newcastle a kit that puts defense on the offense. 

His passive ability allows him to drag downed allies away from the fray as he revives and protects them with a wrist-mounted shield that is as strong as the knockdown shield in your kit. This will give players the confidence to go out into the line of fire and drag a downed player back to cover. His active ability is a mobile shield that can be directed after it's placed, which again allows for hypermobility behind the safety of cover. And his ultimate ability sees Newcastle leap up in the air, pull the shield from his back, and slam it into the ground to build a massive, fortress-like wall. Enemies in the vicinity of this quick construction will get knocked back, while those who try and push will get slowed down by an electrical barrier, not unlike Wattson's. 

While many players may feel like another shield character is unnecessary in a meta largely dominated by Gibraltar, Respawn believes Newcastle brings an entirely new support style to the round table (lol). "Gibraltar has his own problems that we're looking at very seriously because we want to take on that shield meta that he brings to the table," Weise says. "But Newcastle has been designed to make sure that his counterpoint that he brings with the different shield aspects are very clear. And you have an option to deal with that, whereas with Gibraltar, you can't break down his shield, you basically just push and hope that you can survive the 1v1 fight… Newcastle on the other hand, his walls are directional, which means that you can flank them, you can throw items over them, you can break through them if that's the only option you have on the table."

It seems like Newcastle, whose kit has been worked and reworked in some way for the past two years according to Respawn, is the perfect new addition to the game. He's a great Legend for players who like to support but don't necessarily love hanging back, or for those who have never played support before but are usually super aggressive. While upon initial inspection it looks like Newcastle's abilities crossover with other Legends, a closer look reveals a hyperspecific kit that slots in well with the existing lineup. After a few aggressive Legends were added in Valkyrie, Ash, and Fuse, Newcastle is a great support character that will help further round out the meta. With Newcastle, Respawn once again shows its dedication to keeping Apex Legends fun and fresh.

Apex Legends Control mode is nearly perfect and should be permanent

The latest Apex Legends trailer lets you get acquainted with shield-specialist Newcastle.

The new season of Apex Legends is fast approaching, and Respawn has released a gameplay trailer giving us a sneak peek at what's in store when Saviors finally drops. The footage shows the game's newest hero Newcastle in action. The 'Hero of Harris Valley' looks set to be a solid addition to any team needing a good defence. Wielding a massive shield, he can protect comrades from a storm of bullets, helping them live to fight another day.

Along with the new Legend, the trailer also shows Storm Point's massive map rework. We're treated to high-octane firefights in and around the carcass of a giant sea monster as well as a look at the IMC Armories, cashes that provide handsome rewards for those seeking a challenge.

Additionally, the game's ranked mode is getting a revamp. The trailer didn't go into detail on what specifically is changing, but it does highlight the importance of working together. Lastly, the Saviors battle pass offers daily and weekly challenges with loot like legendary skins up for grabs.

Apex Legends: Season 13 launches on May 10. You can see everything being added to Respawn's battle-royale blaster in the trailer below. 

Storm Point was designed with the future firmly in mind. Find out how Apex Legends Season 13 delivers on that forward-thinking by adding to the map, not taking away. And if you're curious as to how many people play Alex Legends, wonder no more as we've got the answer.

Apex Legends Season 13 is focused on improving the core battle royale, specifically, the latest map Storm Point. During the Season 13 preview, the dev team calls the changes "additive" rather than "destructive", with design goals focused on bolstering points of interest and increasing the competitiveness of the map. With Season 13, it's clear that Respawn has a concise understanding of what makes Apex Legends great, and is looking to add even more ways to engage fans of the BR and beyond.  

The Apex Kaiju 

The Apex Legends Season 13 trailer sees the Legends team up to fight a giant sea monster that emerged from the turquoise waters surrounding Storm Point. That monster's carcass is the new POI on the map, and you can fight within its rotting body and on top of it. Metal. Lead level designer Jeff Shaw says that the decision to add what they refer to as a "kaiju" was simple: the team wondered "what it would be like to fight inside and around a stranded sea monster." Plus, the devs wanted to add another POI with the latest update (there's now 18) in an attempt to make Storm Point "more competitive as a map." Shaw calls the downed beast a "loot piñata," filled with the best loot on the map, so you can expect it to be a hotbed of activity that pulls the heat away from the other high-tier loot spot, Barometer. 

Brilliantly, Respawn is also tweaking Storm Point's PvE elements for Season 13, adding and shifting around the existing prowler and spider nests, while also dropping four IMC Armories into the mix. The armories, which emerged from underground due to the seismic activity from the kaiju, are brand new additions to the game that are filled with valuable loot. However, they have on-board defenses, so you'll need to fight your way through them in order to get the goodies that lie within. Senior game designer Samantha Kalman refers to them as "map toy minigames," sort of like the Bloodhound trials on World's Edge, in that you'll trigger a 60-second encounter when entering them and have to survive the countdown. 

But unlike the Bloodhound trials, these IMC Armories protect you from being third-partied by enemy squads, and they offer you loot based on your current loadout. New, "smart loot" bins will scan what you already have as a loadout and provide you with loot based on that. "The loot is always valuable," Kalman promises. "Either it's upgrading what you have already or it's supplementing your equipment and weapon attachment that you don't yet have." This means that the IMC Armories could be a good place to initially drop, as you'll get a good starter kit, but may be the place you want to go after you've already looted an area or two. 

"We've been excited about PvE features for a long time in battle royale. Storm Point is our PvE-rich map," Kalman explains while pointing out that the team really wanted to add a PvE experience that couldn't get third-partied. The IMC Armories will be a favorite addition to the map, mark my words - and if they are, Respawn is open to adding them to other maps.

Looking forward 

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the upcoming Apex Legends Season 13 changes is the philosophy the devs have around it: it's all about adding - not removing - content. Considering how major map changes in battle royales (and in previous Apex Legends Seasons) are so often built around destroying existing areas, this Storm Point update calls back to Respawn's previous conversations around creating a map specifically with live service in mind. It is, after all, the biggest of the games' battle royale maps, so there is much more room to slot in a new POI. 

"We love updating our maps and looking at them critically, I don't think we're done with Storm Point yet," Shaw says. And that shouldn't be a surprise. "With Storm Point, we really set ourselves up for success. It was built through this lens of looking forward and looking at updates. Building it with this method really allowed us to be additive with new content rather than destructive," he explains. So, when adding a giant decaying sea monster to the game, Respawn's foresight when first designing the map meant that there were no sacrifices necessary to ensure the Kaiju made it to Storm Point's shores. 

Respawn has plans to carry this philosophy forward through future Apex Legends updates. "We really hope to continue this trend with the future of Apex maps," Shaw says. Working on Storm Point helped the team find its "Goldilocks zone" when it comes to BR maps' elevation, scale, and size, so don't be surprised if you see the other, smaller maps getting updates in the future. "I don't think our maps are ever really truly finished," Shaw admits. 

As far as live service games go, it really feels like Respawn takes in player feedback in droves, and actively applies that feedback wherever possible. Storm Point is the culmination of all of that feedback, iteration, and ideation, and it's great to see the team returning to it so soon after its launch. And as far as Apex Legends' future goes, senior design director Evan Nikolich has promised that Control will return later in the season, and that the team is looking to add even more LTMs that will welcome in new players and give veterans a chance to play with different Legends and loadouts. 

How many live service games are too many live service games? We know that live service game fatigue is real - but can it be fixed? 

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The first Apex Legends season 13 trailer introduces the shooter's next hero: Newcastle, who happens to be Bangalore's long-lost brother Jackson.

The cinematic trailer sees Newcastle team up with Bangalore and other Apex Legends heroes when a massive sea monster invades Storm Point in the middle of a match. It's here that Respawn seems to establish Newcastle as primarily a defender, as you can see him using his massive shield to protect the other Legends, even dragging a downed fighter away from the action to rest behind his protection. 

The trailer does show brief snippets of Newcastle shooting at the monster, but most of what's shown is him defending against attacks using his shield. EA calls Newcastle "the Hero of Harris Valley" and says he'll "need to shield his squadmates and his secrets to survive the Apex Games."

Apex Legends' 13th season, titled Saviors, launches May 10, but a more in-depth "hero reveal" is happening this Thursday, April 28. Along with brand-new hero Newcastle, the new season will introduce big changes to Storm Point related to the creature from today's trailer, as well as a reworked ranked system and a new battle pass packed to the brim with goodies. There will probably be a laundry list of smaller changes in the new season too, but we'll have to wait a couple more weeks for the patch notes to arrive around launch.

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The Apex Legends Unshackled Event brought back the fan-favorite limited-time mode Flashpoint, and with it a reminder of how versatile and vibrant this game is. Whether you're looking for a traditional battle royale experience, a small-sided Team Deathmatch-style match, or an exciting spin on a classic formula, Apex Legends has something for you. That I repeatedly take breaks from Apex Legends and return for new events just to be wholly consumed by it yet again is a testament to the game's depth and diversity of experience.  

The Flashpoint 

Flashpoint is a great way to jump back into Apex Legends after a brief break. Set on a traditional battle royale map, the respawn beacons have been replaced with Flashpoint zones, and all healing items are removed from the loot pool. The Flashpoint zones are the only way to restore your lost health (unless you have a few specific Legends on your team), but they're also always incredibly hot zones full of enemies who are looking to do the same thing. And the storm is set to 'Always Be Closing' so you'll need to constantly move towards a Flashpoint zone within a safe area or suffer the spicy consequences. 

As a result, Flashpoint games are over pretty quickly and feel more casual than your average battle royale match. I don't feel as much pressure dropping into a few Flashpoint games because the nature of them is so chaotic and fast-paced. Instead of worrying about staying alive, I can focus on getting my wits about me after weeks of playing Elden Ring. I can remember the gunplay, fiddle with my settings, and be reminded once more that I have a very real crush on Valkyrie.

Flashpoint's unique healing mechanics invites players to revisit Legends they may have stopped playing in recent seasons. You won't find a Flashpoint trio without a Lifeline or a Wattson (both of whom can heal their entire teams), and the smartest squads post up just outside a Flashpoint zone with heals in their back pocket, shooting all of the other players like fish in a barrel.

Variety is the spice of life 

Flashpoint is fantastic, but its true brilliance lies in how it adds to the depth of Apex Legends' matchmaking pool. Rotating LTMs like Control and Flashpoint offer unique ways to jump into battle that deviate from the permanent playlists: Arenas and the traditional battle royale. Casual players can easily jump into a game of Flashpoint and mess about in a mode that feels less high stakes, while veterans can continue to grind matches to try and become the Apex Legend. Ranked playlists in both Arenas and Battle Royale add another layer of competitiveness, separating the playerbase into three tiers: casual, competitive, and hyper-competitive. 

That's a difficult balance to strike in a live-service game whose core IP is a large-scale battle royale. When Fortnite removed building, a mechanic that many casual players feel is too difficult to master, it split the community in two. Games like Warzone and PUBG have notoriously high skill ceilings that may feel unapproachable to casual gamers, with the former's alternate game modes still requiring some serious skill. Warzone's Rebirth Resurgence is the closest you'll get to casual gameplay, and even that can feel overwhelming. 

But Apex Legends feels like it hits that "just right" sweet spot, with a variety of experiences available that feels like a lovely little tasting menu. I can drop into Flashpoint and lose a few rounds brilliantly and in rapid succession, hop over to the traditional battle royale to settle in a bit more, and then swap to Ranked Arenas to really test my gunplay abilities. As long as Respawn keeps an LTM in the rotation, Apex Legends will remain my favorite battle royale. 

Apex Legends Control mode is nearly perfect and should be permanent

Flashpoint is back in Apex Legends.

The fan-favorite time-limited mode - which sees Legends seeking out Flashpoint zones on the map in order to re-gen their health and shields - is back again as part of Apex Legends' upcoming new event, Unshackled.

Unshackled will run for two weeks, kicking off on April 19. There'll be 40 new "event-themed" cosmetics up for grabs, including new skins, charms, and badges to unlock.

"Unleash your Legends’ full power in the Unshackled Event!" developer Respawn says in an update on the official website. "Play on Olympus as you never have before in limited-time mode Flashpoint. You won’t find shield or health items: instead, regenerate health and shield in flashpoint zones that you’d better be ready to fight for!

"Unlock 40 event-themed cosmetics and play your way through two unique weekly challenge tracks, each packed with new items."

Did you know the new-gen version of Apex Legends is now available for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S players?

The new-gen versions of Apex Legends were surprise-launched at the end of last month alongside the Warriors Collection Event. Xbox Series X/S players will automatically have their Xbox One version of the battle royale shooter upgraded, while PS5 players will have to download the new-gen version of the game from scratch.

Right now, new-gen versions of Apex Legends will boast native 4K output, as well as full 60Hz gameplay and HDR as well as higher resolution shadow maps and greater LOD distances. However, some new-gen features won't be coming to Apex Legends until later on including 120Hz, which offers the ability to play at a smooth 120FPS but isn't launching for new-gen players right now. Adaptive triggers and haptic feedback will be coming to the PS5 version in the future, too. 

Alyssa thinks Apex Legends Control mode is nearly perfect and should be permanent.

"The popular Apex Legends Control mode has once again come and gone, but I think it's about time it became a permanent fixture in the multiplayer rotation," she said. "The mode returned in the latest Limited Time Event - the Warrior Collection - and only for a two-week stint after it was previously available for just three weeks in February of this year. Despite its limited availability, Control is the kind of mode that should remain readily available to players."

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The popular Apex Legends Control mode has once again come and gone, but I think it's about time it became a permanent fixture in the multiplayer rotation. The mode returned in the latest Limited Time Event - the Warrior Collection - and only for a two-week stint after it was previously available for just three weeks in February of this year. Despite its limited availability, Control is the kind of mode that should remain readily available to players. 

Not only does the mode give veterans a chance to test out new Legends and new tactics, but it's the best game mode to court newcomers. There's a reason a Reddit thread asking if Control should be permanent has nearly 4,000 upvotes - players want a chance to enjoy Apex Legends in a variety of ways. Perhaps Respawn is only soft-launching Control in spurts as a way to test it out - after all, it could use a few tweaks to make it a rock-solid option when compared to the larger battle royale mode and more tense Arenas playlist. Apex Legends Control mode is nearly perfect, and with some small tweaks it should become a permanent game mode.

A need for Control

Apex Legends can be rather unforgiving, especially for newer players. The depth of its weapon pool and Legend lineup coupled with the sheer size of its matches makes it one of the more difficult battle royales to get into, and perhaps the hardest to master. "Control is an example of how the Apex team wants to push boundaries and experiment with our LTMs," Respawn PR tells me via email. While the Arenas mode that debuted last year gives players a chance to play something other than a battle royale, there's still a fairly high skill ceiling, and with a finite amount of deaths, it isn't exactly the place for experimentation. 

But Control is a different story. As described in our Control mode hands-on preview, the 9v9 mode lets players change Legends on the fly, choose from a set of loadouts, and most importantly, come back after every death. The teams compete to gain control over three zones, with points ticking up faster for the team with the majority. Control maps are set on larger sections of the battle royale maps, which affords just a bit more breathing room than the tighter Arenas maps - I say a bit because there are 18 players in a match as opposed to six. 

With very little punishment for dying and a preset loadout that means you won't have to go searching for a weapon, Control is the perfect mode for new or lapsed players. There's ample opportunity to get used to the game mechanics and movement, the gunplay, and try out each Legend to see which kit is the best fit. These luxuries are an impossibility in any other Apex Legends mode, which is why many are puzzled by the decision to remove it from the matchmaking lineup again.

As someone who didn't play for a few weeks, Control was an excellent way for me to get my bearings again. Veteran players consider Control the perfect warmup for battle royale matches, and new players can get the most authentic Apex Legends experience without the threat of permadeath - but Control isn't perfect. 

Changing it up

Respawn introduced a new Control map during the Warrior Collection event: Caustic Treatment on Kings Canyon. Adding a third map to the rotation helped make the mode feel fresher, as the longer games (when compared to Arenas) can get a bit tedious rotating between the same two maps. But the introduction of Caustic Treatment highlights the same problem the other two Control maps have: point B. 

Control matches are won by maintaining majority control over three points: A, B, and C. One of each of those points is near either team's spawns, while B is always a little ways away. On maps like Olympus, point B can feel a bit too far away for players not using hyper-mobile Legends - especially when the map's Trident vehicles are snatched up and driven away by solo players with several empty seats in the back. And point B on Olympus is inside of a building with only a few ways in, which means by the time you finally schlep over there, you'll likely die within seconds. As a result, Olympus matches end up being lopsided, with the team who secures B first maintaining a vice-like grip on it the entire time. 

Now, the newest map doesn't have an issue when it comes to distance, but it does have the same problem in terms of accessibility. Point B on Caustic Treatment is - you guessed it - inside of a building, so if you secure the point early and have a few Wattsons and Ramparts on your team, you can safely camp there the entire time. It makes for some seriously frustrating matches that feel unwinnable from almost the very beginning. 

Respawn should take this Control downtime to open up the points on all three maps - whether that's by reworking the existing locations specifically for Control matches or readjusting where the points themselves are. It would make for much closer matches that feel more even-keeled - but that's not where the potential changes end. Control's predetermined loadouts could use a rework to offer players a bit more variety, as well. And it would be brilliant if we could queue up for matches in a stack of nine, instead of each match consisting of three separate teams of three. While there's no word on if and when Respawn plans to brings Control back, when pressed via email Respaewn did say that they've "learned a ton since the release of Control in Apex Legends: Defiance a few months back and are excited to continue to innovate and refine this game mode."

Control is a brilliant game mode that should be a permanent part of the Apex Legends experience. If Respawn is using these small tastes of the mode as a way to iron out any wrinkles, then here's hoping it'll be here to stay sooner rather than later.

The question of how many people play Apex Legends is asked a lot. Whether it's for bragging rights from fans, or to diss by people who play something else, the numbers are important to some. When EA's Titanfall themed battle royal launched it had a strong start with over 50 million players in less than a month, but how's it all going now, a few years down the line? 

Apex Legends has continued to do extremely well since launch but what does that mean in terms of actual numbers? Well, we know from an EA financial report in August 2021 that Apex Legends averaged 13 million weekly active players during Season 9, which ran from May to August that year. The game apparently set a "set a new record for peak daily players across all seasons". That include a record setting 300,000 players in a single day on Steam alone according to communications director Ryan Rigney: 

How many people play Apex Legends?

Currently the monthly player count is just below 120 million players, reaching the high 118 to 119 million players. That's a slight drop from a 122 million peak at the end of last year. Despite that EA talked about a 30% increase year on year generally in its 2021 financials, so despite minor fluctuations in the shorter month to month window, there's been a lot of growth overall for the free-to-play shooter. 

We also know, direct from Apex Legends itself, that April 2021 hit 100 million players. Although it's not clear if that's active or registered, with the latter being most likely.  

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While there isn't much in the way of concrete numbers recently that's probably because once you've reported peaks, you aren't going to talk about lower numbers, even if they are still amazing. Apex is, by all accounts, doing well right now, even if EA isn't day by daying the numbers. Way back at launch analyst Daniel Ahmad compared the numbers for Apex Legends versus Fortnite to illustrate just how quickly Apex Legends found a high count player base. 

If we'd seen decline after that impressive start then there wouldn't be any numbers to talk about this year. So while we've not heard much since EAs 2021 financial reports, everything points to Apex Legends player count continuing to do well. 

Are you looking to make some quick progress in the game? Then here's how to level up fast in Apex Legends.

The new-gen version of Apex Legends is launching for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S players today, but some features are coming later on.

As announced earlier today on the tweet below, the new-gen versions of Apex Legends are surprise launching today alongside the Warriors Collection Event. Xbox Series X/S players will automatically have their Xbox One version of the battle royale shooter upgraded, while PS5 players will unfortunately have to download the new-gen version of the game from scratch.

Right now, new-gen versions of Apex Legends will boast native 4K output, as well as full 60Hz gameplay and HDR. Additionally, higher resolution shadow maps will be popping up on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions, and finally greater LOD distances will also be implemented.

However, some new-gen features won't be coming to Apex Legends until later on. For example, 120Hz, which offers the ability to play at a smooth 120FPS, isn't launching for new-gen players right now, and adaptive triggers and haptic feedback will be coming to the PS5 version in the future. 

Right now, there's no indication when these features could potentially be launching. What is available in Apex Legends later today is the return of the fantastic Control mode, which launched earlier this year and was widely celebrated by players, until it was pulled out of rotation. The mode returns alongside the Warriors Collection Event, which offers a bounty of new in-game cosmetics, as well as a special Heirloom weapon for Crypto.

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Get ready, Legends - Control is coming back in Apex Legends.

From March 29th to April 12th, the fan-favorite Control returns, albeit for a limited time. We also get new Arena map Drop-Off, a new Crypto Heirloom, and rumors that Caustic’s "been up to something", too.

"Our limited-time 9v9 mode Control is returning for two weeks with the Warriors Collection Event!" developer Respawn explains on the Apex Legends website.

"This time around Caustic Treatment on Kings Canyon has been added into the mix. So, squad up, select your loadout, and fight for total control over Olympus, Storm Point, and Kings Canyon. Brought to you by Silva Pharmaceuticals."

As part of the changes, Caustic Treatment has been "converted into a three-point battleground for control over Kings Canyon", and it now boasts new ziplines, skydive launchers, added cover, and "even a hover tank" in a bid to balance the area and improve "flow to the points". Players can also use Caustic's terminal within his lab to raise toxin levels and catch out enemy players capturing B point, so be careful you're not caught out.

As for that new Arena map? The fully automated Hammond Manufacturing Tower that sits above Malta's skyline is our setting for Drop-Off, a place that's in operation during the day but repurposed as an arena at night. 

The Warriors Collection Event also introduces 24 themed, limited-time cosmetics, including new Legendary skins including the Synthetic Huntress Ash Skin, Riding Dirty Octane Skin, Jewel Olympus Horizon Skin, and Combat Survivalist skin for Lifeline. For the full details, head on over to the official website.

"Apex Legends Control will feel familiar if you've played multiplayer shooters before - but it'll feel a helluva lot different if you're expecting a traditional Apex Legends experience," we wrote in our Apex Legends Control review. 

"It's a Call of Duty multiplayer match meets a competitive Control match in Overwatch. It's frenetic, chaotic, and somehow still well-balanced."

ICYMI, Apex Legends PS5 and Xbox Series X versions have been rated in Europe and America, signaling the imminent arrival of next-gen versions of the popular strategic hero shooter. And so far, over seven million of us have signed up for the global pre-registration of Apex Legends Mobile.

How many live services games are too many live service games? We know that live service game fatigue is real - but can it be fixed? 

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A gargantuan Apex Legends leak seems to reveal two years worth of unreleased characters, maps, and more.

An anonymous leaker shared a folder containing the supposedly leaked materials to Reddit, which of course sent the Apex Legends community into a tizzy. The folder has since been taken down, but Charlie Intel reports that it included a whopping 15 videos showing off several new Arena maps, an updated roster with nine new Legends, some new guns, and loads more. Some of the leaked content was obviously unfinished, while other stuff appeared to be ready to go live.

We won't be including anything from the big Apex Legends leak here just in case you'd rather experience new updates unspoiled as they're released, but suffice it to say this is the biggest leak in Apex Legends history, and there have been a few. If you want to see everything leaked, just head to the ApexUncovered subreddit and have a scroll through today's posts; the leak is the topic of the day (and probably the whole dang month) over there, so it won't be hard to find all the new videos and pictures.

As with any leak yet to be confirmed, take this one with a grain of salt. Though it seems authentic, things change behind the scenes all the time, so what we wind up getting could be different from what we're seeing here today. Regardless, we've reached out to EA for comment and we'll keep you updated if we hear back.

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Global pre-registration for Apex Legends Mobile has officially begun.

EA has announced that players across the world can now pre-register to play Apex Legends Mobile. Earlier this year, the game had a limited launch which saw the pocket edition of the award-winning battle royale game rolled out across ten countries. 

You can now sign up via the Google Play Store to be notified of when Apex Legends Mobile releases in your region. If you’re an iOS device user, you can register on EA’s website to receive the latest updates on when you’ll be able to play Apex Legends on the go.

Like its console and PC cousins, the mobile edition of Apex Legends will be free to play, and if you pre-register on Android through the Play Store, you’ll be treated to exclusive in-game cosmetic items at launch. EA is “hopeful” that the game will release this summer.

EA is promising optimisations that give a streamlined experience when playing Apex Legends on mobile, but as the game has been built specifically for mobile devices, it won’t feature cross-play with either the PC or console versions. 

Apex Legends PS5 and Xbox Series X versions have been rated in Europe and America, signalling the imminent arrival of next-gen versions of the popular strategic hero shooter.

EA’s battle royale offering could be a real game-changer as Apex Legends is courting traditional FPS fans with all-new Control mode. And with so many games like Apex Legends, live service game fatigue is real, but can it be fixed? Read our feature to find out.

Apex Legends' new season is making a big change for quitters, and a hugely welcome one at that.

Just earlier today on February 8, the official patch notes for Apex Legends Season 12: Defiance arrived. Among the extensive list of in-game changes for Respawn's battle royale game was the section highlighted just below, revealing that quitting players won't deny their enemies a kill/assist when they exit the game.

This has gone over, as you can probably tell from the Apex Legends subreddit post above, really well with the game's community. Many are seeing this as a problem that's plagued Apex Legends for years now, whereby quitting players would rob their opponents of a rightful kill or assist.

In short, when a player quits a match of Apex Legends, the person that last damaged them will be granted a kill. Alternatively, if a player quits out while they're in a downed state, the player that knocked them down will immediately be granted the kill. This might not sound like it, but it's a big change that has the potential to satiate a lot of the Apex Legends player base.

This change will be going live in Apex Legends later today, when Season 12 formally kicks off on all platforms. The new season heralds the arrival of chaotic attacker Mad Maggie, a new limited-time mode called Control, a new Battle Pass, the return of the Olympus map, and much more. It's set to be a big season for Respawn's game, and you can head over to our Apex Legends retrospective feature for a look back on three years of the game with the developer.

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Update: New-gen versions of Apex Legends have been rated for release in America, Europe, and Taiwan.

As per the two tweets from Gematsu just below, a PS5 and Xbox Series X version of Apex Legends was rated earlier today. Additionally, the ESRB just rated the PS5 version of Apex Legends for North America, seemingly pointing to an imminent launch for both new-gen versions of Respawn's battle royale shooter. We've seen the PS5 version of Apex Legends pop up on a PSN database previously, but this is a much more public-facing hint to the new-gen versions of the game.

Original: A PS5 version of Apex Legends has been spotted in the wild.

Earlier today, the tweet below surfaced from @PlayStationSize on Twitter, an account that trawls the PlayStation Network database looking for new entries. According to the account, a native PS5 version of Apex Legends has just been added to the PSN database, indicating that Respawn's battle royale shooter may be getting an imminent upgrade.

Right now, Apex Legends only supports PS4/Xbox One versions, and runs both on PS5/Xbox Series X|S through backwards compatibility. Because of this, the shooter runs at a stable 60 frames per second on all console platforms, and doesn't offer any new-gen bonuses like adaptive triggers or haptic feedback for the PS5's DualSense controller, for example.

Apex Legends could take a similar path to Call of Duty: Warzone. Activision's battle royale game has always maintained a stable 60FPS across all platforms, but PS5 players were treated to a nice 120FPS boost last year in June, despite the fact that a new-gen version of the game isn't officially out yet, and Warzone is still running in backwards compatible mode on the PS5.

Nonetheless, this is great news for Apex Legends players on PS5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S consoles. While the new listing was only for the PS5 console, it's seems unlikely that Respawn would put out an upgrade for PS5 players, and ignore Xbox consoles entirely.

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As far as live service games go, Apex Legends is the gold standard. Since its surprise launch in February 2019, it's consistently provided fun and fresh gameplay alongside regular updates, making it not just a top-tier battle royale, but one of the best multiplayer games out right now. Sure, there have been hiccups, like a Bangalore skin crashing the game, or the bizarre audio thump that keeps happening in the current season, but when you hold Apex Legends up next to other big live-service titles like Call of Duty: Warzone and Halo Infinite, it shines especially bright. And when you consider the brilliant addition of arena shooter game modes like Arenas and the upcoming Control limited-time mode, it's clear that the team behind Apex Legends is eager to expand the reach of its first-person shooter.

Perhaps initially Apex Legends was considered a second-tier FPS under EA's umbrella when compared to blockbusters like the Battlefield series and Star Wars: Battlefront. But as it has been shaped by the deft hands at Respawn, it's come to supplant the two as the publisher's flagship shooter. It isn't just a cracking good battle royale, it's EA's best FPS right now. 

Concept and cadence 

Apex Legends' hero-shooter-meets-battle-royale concept piqued the interest of Overwatch and Fortnite players alike – and its brilliant in-game features (like a still-unmatched ping system) made it an instant hit. "The amazing response coming out the gates caught everyone off guard," says game director Steven Ferreira. "There was a lot of having to react fast and get our feet under us in the early days, for sure." For Respawn, the experience of creating a game that didn't "exist already" meant "everything was an experiment" in the early days. "We were trying to react to a lot of moving targets," Ferreira explains.

But Apex Legends' key ingredients were clear: characters that bring unique abilities to the battlefield, gunplay and movement streamlined from Titanfall, and a loot-based weapon system that relies on expertly balanced firearms. Since February 2019, Respawn has tirelessly fine-tuned this formula, balancing and rebalancing Legends, swapping weapons and add-ons in and out of the loot pool, and debuting (and further tweaking) new maps that take advantage of its movement systems. Like a Michelin-starred chef famous for their gnocchi recipe but determined to find a better substitute for Himalayan pink salt, Respawn has consistently improved upon Apex Legends' recipe.

Improvements are only half the battle when it comes to a successful live-service game – how consistently those improvements are implemented is the other half. Cadence is a perpetual problem in titles like Halo Infinite, which is currently in month three of an inexplicably long first season, or Warzone, which dropped a new map after nearly two years just for it to be riddled with issues. Luckily for Apex Legends players, Respawn has maintained impressive consistency when it comes to updates, although that cadence took Respawn "a couple of seasons"  to figure out, Ferreira admits. "We were learning and adapting, and honestly we still are today." 

Apex adaptation 

During a panel outlining Apex Legends: Season 12 Defiance, Ferreira spends nearly an entire minute listing all the things Respawn tweaked and adjusted during the first few seasons of Apex Legends. Big map changes that came as a result of research showcasing pain points, time-to-kill (TTK) that was adjusted based on player feedback, inventory management that disallowed you from carrying 10 thermite grenades, and more. "There was a lot of learning at the same time as all the players were learning, and so it was a bit chaotic but it was a ton of fun," Ferreira says. 

Despite the chaos, Apex Legends now has one of the most consistent and quality content cadences in the battle royale game. New seasons drop every three months, bringing with them a new Legend and a new weapon, whether it's entirely new to the game like the CAR SMG or a previously vaulted (AKA available only in care package drops) weapon like the G7 Scout. In its three years of existence, Apex Legends has given us four maps, each of which have gotten makeovers of varying severity to keep them fresh or temporary town takeovers centered around a specific Legend. Each season also includes a themed event with a unique set of cosmetics. 

While Respawn may have had to find its footing as a live-service game developer, following its work on two Titanfall games, the team's dedication to implementing lessons learned during its growing period is impressive. With lead times for Legends and new BR maps well over a year, the first few Apex Legends maps were adjusted as the team learned valuable lessons about pacing, map layouts, and more. The most recent map, Storm Point, "was the first new map where we started to take some of those learnings from the first season and make changes to the core design of the map," Ferreira explains.

And Olympus, the map that came out in late 2020, will soon receive a major overhaul, based entirely on three years' worth of lessons. It's the first map Respawn has adjusted without changing the makeup of its points-of-interest (POI) all that much, but by spacing them out more to help promote a better map flow. "Flexibility is an integral part of our development process," says Ferreira. And it's that flexibility that helps keep Apex feeling fresh. Coming up this season? "We've got things we've never tried before," Ferreira promises.

Going for FPS gold 

Respawn made moves to establish Apex Legends as more than a battle royale back in May 2021 with Arenas, a permanent 3v3 mode. Arenas is nothing like the core battle royale offering: matches take place on much smaller maps, players choose their loadouts in the pre-round screen, and you win by pulling ahead by two rounds. It's a fast-paced and frenetic mode that showcases Apex's quality in movement and weapons. It's also a great way for new players to get their toes wet, or returning players to get the hang of the mechanics again.

But Respawn is bringing even more variety to the table with Control, a three-week LTM that starts as soon as Season 12 Defiance kicks off. The 9v9 mode matches you in a squad of three before joining you with two other three-stacks. Control tasks you with capturing three zones across maps that are quite a bit larger than in Arenas, pulled from sections of the battle royale maps. Holding zones generates a score, and the first team to reach the score threshold wins. Control has quite a few key differences to Arenas: there's infinite ammo, your shield regenerates, and there can be multiple Legends on the same team.

Game designer Mark Yampolsky explains the ideology behind LTMs like Control. "We knew from the get go that we wanted Control to carve out a space for casual play within Apex. We heard a lot of feedback from our players that even our non-ranked queues can feel pretty sweaty at times, so we wanted to make an experience that takes all of the things that makes Apex awesome – our movement, our gunplay, our characters, and their abilities – and put them in a context that's less stressful for players."

Control, like Arenas, won't just function as a testing ground for potential Apex converts, but will also be a practice space for seasoned vets. "It's a place where you can get a lot of reps in to try out new weapons and tactics," Ferreira says. Come February 8, Apex Legends will have not one, but two playlists offering up arena-style gameplay alongside its traditional battle royale format, making it a formidably flexible beast. 

EA has had a challenging few years in the first-person shooter space. Star Wars Battlefront 2 endured a controversial launch and developer DICE spent three years battling back against the bad reputation that formed in the aftermath – it's telling that the series is now on hiatus, as Respawn begins work on a Star Wars FPS of its own. And EA's star franchise hasn't had an easy time of it either, with Battlefield 2042 struggling to retain its playerbase amidst yet another difficult launch window for the series. In this environment, Apex Legends has been able to flourish. As Respawn celebrates the shooter's third anniversary, it's stronger than it has ever been – breaking down barriers and expanding its scope of play with wild abandon. Apex Legends isn't just one of the best battle royales and arena shooters on the market, it's now EA's flagship FPS – an accolade it has more than earned. 

Apex Legends Season 12 Defiance kicks off February 8 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch. 

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Apex Legends has rolled out a brand new trailer for Mad Maggie, detailing the newcomer's abilities and more.

Mad Maggie's new trailer firstly reveals her Passive ability: Warlord's Eye. Maggie can actually track enemies she's injured through walls and cover, and also moves faster with a shotgun equipped. Next, her Riot Drill Tactical ability can burrow through cover like Gibraltar's shield, an excellent ability that'll surely shift the balance of power in Apex Legends.

Finally, Mad Maggie's Ultimate ability is Wrecking Ball, a rolling ball of death that spews out small grenades at enemy players, and gives speed boosts to Maggie and her allies. All things considered, Mad Maggie is shaping up to be one of the more dominating Legends added to Respawn's battle royale game since it first launched.

Additionally, Respawn revealed earlier this week that the returning Olympus map will see a slate of changes. As revealed over on the official Apex Legends website, Olympus is actually getting bigger, and features brand new areas like the Phase Driver, which has an interactive terminal that players can use to gain loot at the risk of alerting nearby enemies.

There's also Terminal, a brand new opening in the Phase Runner tube consisting of a large outdoor space, and Shifted Grounds is an entirely new region of Olympus located on the southern edge of the map. Finally, Season 12's Olympus will add a tonne of new ziplines and other props around the map to alleviate choke points and better even-out the flow of battle.

There's also the new limited-time mode called Control. This pits three teams of three players against one another, vying for control of a central area until one squad emerges victorious. This is, apparently, an effort from developer Respawn to carve out a more "casual" space in Apex Legends, as players can respawn freely.

For a better look at some of the additions with Season 12: Defiance, check out the graphic below. Additionally, we can see there's a big Third Anniversary event for Apex Legends, as well as the Warriors and Unshackled events, which we can only assume will be dropping further on into the season.

Finally, three Legends will be offered for free to all players over the next three weeks. All you'll need to do is sign into Apex Legends to grab Octane, Wattson, and Valkyrie for free over the next respective three weeks, a pleasant surprise for anyone who's new to the battle royale shooter.

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A new trailer for Apex Legends' Stories from the Outlands series reveals Mad Maggie as the game's newest hero, and she's really living up to her name here.

Apex Legends season 12 continues the game's tradition of borrowing older non-playable characters and adding them to its playable roster of heroes. We've met Mad Maggie before, during season 8 when she was introduced as the childhood friend of fellow Salvonian legend Walter "Fuse" Fitzroy. There should be an interesting reunion between her and Fuse; the latter left Salvo to maintain peace between his home planet and the Syndicate after staging a failed insurrection with Maggie, which is what led to the bloody end of the pair's long friendship.

Maggie was the announcer for season 8's limited-time War Games mode, but the comics that accompanied that season seemed to kill her off. The first trailer for Defiance confirms she's back and madder than ever - you have to be pretty mad to slam your head into a table to break your own tooth and shoot it at someone's dang eye.

Her anger is somewhat justified though, as she's now been arrested and charged with crimes against the Syndicate and sentenced, rather cruelly, to spend her days in the Apex Games. It's unclear what sort of abilities Maggie will have, but we'll probably learn more when season 12's launch trailer drops on Thursday, January 27.

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An Apex Legends player has discovered a trick to hiding underwater.

In the clip below, which has blown up in popularity over the last day on the Apex Legends subreddit, you can see a player demonstrating the new exploit. They begin by crouching down at the deepest point of water on the Storm Point map, thereby rendering themselves invisible to the unsuspecting players that they ambush with a Kraber sniper, dealing massive damage without being seen.

It's a brilliant play and exploit, but quite the temperamental one. It's highly likely that this exploit only works at this particular point of water on the entire Storm Point map, as you'd imagine this is something developer Respawn tested prior to launching the map earlier this year.

Nonetheless, we'd be interested to see if there are any other lakes and rivers on Storm Point that are deep enough to let the player conceal themselves. Either way, there's no way Respawn hasn't picked up on this exploit, considering the post's popularity on the game's subreddit, so it's likely a matter of time before this exploit is gone.

In the comments section of the post, a user notes that they've actually been hiding in trees while playing as Revenant. Because the synthetic assassin can climb higher than other characters in Apex Legends, they can scale trees that are just wide enough to accommodate them, and lie in wait for a passing team. These are two pretty creative exploits we've seen here, credit where credit's due.

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When you're challenged to win a game of Apex Legends solo versus squads on the new season 11 Storm Point map, it's not going to be easy. But that was basically the whole point of our No Filler All Killer challenge. And, if you've been following our introduction to everything the new season has to offer, then you'll know we've come prepared with finely tuned knowledge on new legend Ash and her abilities, the new CAR SMG, and how to play the new location to our advantage. 

Eventually, that is, because taking on an island full of trio squads alone is no easy feat, and even with all our preparations there were always going to be a few… let's call them warm up matches, to get in the zone. Alright, a lot of warm up matches, but give us some credit here - a single person against 19 three-player teams is one hell of a hill to climb. But, with the power of Ash and the CAR SMG, we got there via squad wipes, dogged persistence, and some tactical running away.   

Our road to victory started slowly, with the energy ammo double whammy of the HAVOC assault rifle and the Volt SMG to take down our first team. While fighting off interference from a line of smoke-happy Bangalores, Ash's Phase Breach ultimate gave us the perfect tactical edge as we used it to teleport to higher ground, losing the enemy's line of sight while also giving us the perfect opportunity to get a better look at the battlefield. From there we easily chalked up another team wipe. So far, so good.  

Ash's unique skills saved us again when we came up against a Rampart, laying down heavy fire from behind their Amped Cover shield. While that normally would have been game over for a lot of legends, Ash's Ark Snare held the heavy gunner in place while we repositioned and, with the help of a high-balled grenade, got the knock on Rampart and another team wipe. 

From there, high on wins, we checked out some of the Storm Point map's caves to take out another team, before killing a pack of the local prowlers to grab some ammo and attachment drops. With help there again from the Ark Snare to trap one of the creatures and even out the fight a little.  

However, by this point, with so much on the line, nerves were setting in and when a long distance ambush from a nearly invisible opponent caught us off guard we used the island's gravity cannons to bravely get away… Straight into another squad. However, by now we had another edge - the new CAR SMG. Using its ability to fire both light and heavy ammo we were able to lay on some long distance hurt with the heavy rounds to get another squad wipe; before switching to the rapid fire light ammo for our final wipe of the game to take our well earned place as match champion. Thanks Ash, couldn't have done it without you. 

Surviving to be the champion in Apex Legends has always been as much about preparation and tactical awareness as it has been a good aim. And that's never been more the case than on Storm Point, the new Season 11 map. Whether that's preparing for the new wildlife you can encounter, or being ready to take advantage of the G7 marksman rifle's addition to the care packages that drop (replacing the Triple Take marksman rifle). However, one of the biggest advantages you can have is mastering two of the other freshest additions - the new legend Ash, and the CAR SMG - both of which are perfect for helping you survive everything Storm Point can, and will, throw at you. 

Our first tip, then, is to take full advantage of Ash's Ark Snare tactical ability. This electrical projectile can be thrown across the map to damage enemies but, more importantly, tether them in place. An enemy that can't run, can't escape, making them much easier targets to take down. 

While the Ark Snare can pin people in place and leave them at your mercy, Ash's Phase Breach ultimate gives you incredible mobility, letting Ash open a portal anywhere in her line of sight within a 60 meter radius. Mastering the ability to almost instantly reposition yourself when things get too hot is our second tip for surviving Storm Point. Being able to reach a more tactically secure position in the blink of an eye is a huge advantage to bring to a fight and with Storm point being a much more vertical map claiming the high ground has never been easier.

For our third tip, make sure to grab the new CAR SMG. This submachine gun, returning from the Titanfall series, can take both heavy and light ammo types. That gives you a huge advantage in terms of stockpiling rounds to take into a battle, as well as letting you switch between them depending on the situation. It's got one of the fastest times to kill in the game, meaning getting one in your arsenal gives you the ammo reserves and the versatility to become a real danger on the island.  

Which brings us to our last tip: take on the wildlife and clear out the nests for high tier loot. While the prowlers and spiders you can encounter aren't a push over to fight, they're less of a threat than rival players and will drop ammo and attachments depending on your loadout that will buff out your resources and lethal potential. Flyers, on the other hand, will drop death boxes full of loot to help you fight your way to being champion. 

Those are just a few tactical tips to help survive Storm Point. So remember, choose Ash to take advantage of her Ark Snare trap and Phase Breach teleportation, pack a CAR SMG for a versatile, heavy hitting weapon, and search out the local wildlife to stock up on ammo, attachments and gear. The question is, will this knowledge give us the advantage we need in our upcoming All Killer No Filler challenge when we take on a trios match solo... 

Apex Legends Season 11, Escape, is here and as the name suggests it will literally let you get away to an all new island map called Storm Point. There, you’ll be able to play as a new Legend with a familiar face, Ash, and earn tonnes of rewards with an all new Battle Pass featuring reactive weapon skins, holosprays and emotes. As well as cosmetic sets for the Legends Gibraltar, Mirage, Loba, Revenant and Wraith - including a character skin, weapon skin, banner frame and weapon charm for each one. 

Let’s get back to Ash, though: if the name sounds familiar it’s because the Simulacrum - a robot with a digitised copy of a human mind - who originally appeared in Titanfall 2. Formerly a scientist called Dr. Ashleigh Reid, her mind was uploaded into a robot body and now she fights as an offensive Legend, built for combat with some incredibly disruptive abilities to get the upper hand on her opponents. Her Marked For Death passive ability, for example, lets her interact with the Death Box dropped by a defeated player to reveal an attacker's position. With her targets located she can then use her Ark Snare tactical ability to launch a throwable projectile that creates an electrical trap to damage enemies and hold them in place. And, to land the killing blow, Ash can use her Phase Breach ultimate to open a portal to a targeted location, to aggressively close distances or reach a strong tactical location.

Those are the sort of abilities you’ll need to stay alive on the new Storm Point map. This island is a new map for Legends to battle on; where you can use gravity cannons to hurl yourself great distance to escape dangers like the storm or close in on opponents fast. Then there’s the local wildlife to worry about, including packs of aggressive prowlers or spiders, or the less dangerous flyers - all of which can be defeated for loot drops, shield boosting EVO points and crafting materials to help you win. Assuming you survive, that is. 

And if you really want to test those survival skills then get ready for our upcoming challenge, ‘All Killer, No Fill-er’. Think you’ve got what it takes to fight against full teams of opponents in Trios, while playing solo as Ash? Stay tuned to see how we did taking on teams on Storm Point alone. 

Respawn co-founding member, Chad Grenier, is leaving the studio after an "unforgettable ride" of eleven years.

In a blog posted to the studio's official website, Grenier said: "Few words can elegantly describe my 11 years at Respawn. After helping to co-found the studio, bring the Titanfall universe to life, and launch the incredible experiment that is Apex Legends - it’s been an unforgettable ride to say the least. But today, this crazy chapter comes to an end."

Grenier confirmed that Steven Ferreira – described as Grenier's "right hand" – will take over as game director, and promised Apex fans that the shooter is "in great hands".

"To Vince and the entire team at Respawn, making great games isn’t easy and it’s been an honor to create these worlds and experiences with you," he added. "I’m so proud of all that we’ve built together and excited about the possibilities these franchises hold for years to come.

"Even after all this time, I feel like a kid leaving the nest, and, as corny as it sounds, leaving a family behind. I’ll be bringing the experience and lessons learned from this incredible group to everything I do down the road. It will probably be tough to see the game continue to thrive and succeed in my absence, but that’s a good thing. So, I’m looking forward to the great things this team will achieve as they take Apex to the next level and further than we thought was possible when this journey first started. You can bet I’ll be cheering from the sidelines along the way."

Grenier's departure coincides with that of design director Jason McCord, too, who is also leaving the team after eleven years at the studio.

"Today is my last day at Respawn. 11 years, 11 seasons of Apex, 11 shipped maps. I thought that was neat," they tweeted.

"It's tough to leave a game and a team that you love. But, it's time to do something new."

McCord says they have "no plans quite yet", and wants to "walk the Earth for a bit and recharge".

ICYMI, a number of developers working on Apex Legends recently discussed how Respawn has avoided crunch, which is a period of extensive overtime – and overworking – that frequently occurs in game development to hit targets. 

Principal environmental artist Jobye-Kyle Karmaker retweeted a quote by Grenier, which said: "We also refuse to crunch the team, so we’ll probably be slower at making content than if we worked 15 hour days but that’s just not something we’re willing to do." 

Karmarker responded with: "Feel incredibly lucky to be on @PlayApex. It’s so nice to have leadership from @ChadGrenier & crew that value team health & that actively take steps to protect it publicly + internally."

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An Apex Legends developer from Respawn has confirmed that the team has "stuff in mind" for rebalancing the battle royale's plentiful weapon pool, acknowledging that "we know we can't keep releasing weapons without considering the health of the loot pool".

After being tagged into a tweet over the weekend that demanded the team "remove weapons for God's sake, nobody cares about P20, Bocek, or 3030 and actually help with the loot pool distribution", associate live balance designer John Larson responded to the tweet. 

After first taking issue about the cavalier remarks about the game's less impressive weapons – "You take that back. I care about the Bocek," Larson teased – John added: "We got stuff in mind. We know we can't keep releasing weapons without considering the health of the loot pool."

When challenged to consider a change to the game that could see players spawn in with weaker weapons like the P2020, Larson replied: "This was a hot topic when we were implementing starter kits.

"I was against it because of how quickly a coordinated team could wipe a solo on a contested drop. It's already a common strat in high-level ranked. The initial gun scramble buys some time for everyone to react."

While Larson stopped short of detailing what kinds of things the team might be considering, it's interesting that Respawn has publicly acknowledged that the wide array of weapons currently available in the battle royale may eventually need addressing, particularly if there are even more weapons on the horizon. 

ICYMI, a number of developers working on Apex Legends recently discussed how Respawn has avoided crunch, which is a period of extensive overtime – and overworking – that frequently occurs in game development to hit targets. Principal environmental artist Jobye-Kyle Karmaker retweeted a quote by Apex Legends’ game director Chad Grenier, which said: "We also refuse to crunch the team, so we’ll probably be slower at making content than if we worked 15 hour days but that’s just not something we’re willing to do." 

Karmarker responded with: "Feel incredibly lucky to be on @PlayApex. It’s so nice to have leadership from @ChadGrenier & crew that value team health & that actively take steps to protect it publicly + internally."

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Apex Legends Escape introduced a new Legend and a massive new map, but all I care about are the Gravity Cannons. Sure, Ash is a great new addition to the roster (although she may very well be nerfed soon), and the new map Storm Point is full of new hazards that make gameplay even more exciting – but the Gravity Cannons change up the game like nothing else that's come before them. 

Not only do the Gravity Cannons force you to approach map traversal in an entirely new way, and give players a chance to pull off some incredible trick play, but they offer an almost constant supply of hilarious moments. Respawn has captured lightning in a bottle with this new map addition, so much so that I haven't played any other battle royale since Apex Legends Escape debuted.

The cannon meta 

The Gravity Cannons almost entirely replace the traditional Jump Towers on Storm Point. The towers, which have been around since the launch of Apex Legends, allow you to reposition by sending you up high enough into the air to trigger the glide mechanic usually reserved for the initial drop into the map. Gravity Cannons don't let you cover as much ground as the Jump Towers, but they move you much faster, shooting you in a predetermined direction towards another Gravity Cannon that acts as a receiving point. You can somewhat shift yourself while in the air so that you don't land directly in the receiving point, but aside from that, you're going where the Gravity Cannon wants you to go. 

Despite the somewhat limiting movement options, players have already figured out myriad ways to use the Gravity Cannons for some serious galaxy brain plays. Like this Loba trick where a player uses her tactical ability mid-cannon jump and ends up right back at the start of the Gravity Cannon. This is a great way to escape teams that follow you into the cannon, giving you a chance to get behind them before they even land.

lobas_tactical_doesnt_maintain_her_momentum_in_a from r/apexuniversity

Wraith is another great example of how to hack the Gravity Cannons. During one match while being chased by an enemy squad, I pop Wraith's ult at the base of a cannon and hop through the portal she creates. I place the portal exit midway through my Gravity Cannon jump, way up in the air, and then drop to the ground and find cover. One member of the enemy squad follows me through the portal, but are stunned when they realize the end of my portal is in mid-air, and I take advantage of their temporary confusion, unloading a full clip into their face. The rest of the enemy squad stayed put, and I had enough time to get away and meet back up with my team.

But the Gravity Cannons aren't just about trick plays, as they provide unique ways to rotate around the map and avoid the ring – or other players. During one game, both my teammates quit as soon as we dropped out of the ship, leaving me in the highly-trafficked Antenna location with several other squads. As I try to quietly open loot crates to find a weapon, I get attacked by a squad. I manage to down two, but I hear their third teammate coming up the zipline to enact vengeance. I jump off the side of the structure and book it south towards Ship Fall, where I know a Gravity Cannon lies in wait. I successfully escape and manage to stay alive until the final three squads, before I'm taken out by a Fuse Mortar, but the thrill of using the cannons to escape a tense situation lasts for several matches afterward.

Cannon humor 

But the true value of the Gravity Cannon lies not in its ability to provide great gameplay moments, but in its power as a comedic tool. Naturally, it didn't take players long to discover just how much hilarity the cannons can provide, especially when coupled with Storm Point's new creature hazards scattered across the map.

Just a couple of days after Apex Legends Escape launched, I stumbled across a TikTok of a Twitch streamer and his teammates punching Prowlers into the Gravity Cannon loading area. The Prowlers will chase you if you wander into their territory, so these players used themselves as bait to draw them closer to the cannon before unceremoniously meleeing them until they're swept away by the cannon's green light. The screams of joy and hysterical laughter in the TikTok are enough to keep my serotonin levels somewhat stable this week. 

But it's not just TikToks and YouTube videos that have given me hilarious Gravity Cannon moments – my own playtime has provided plenty of giggles as well. Late in one match, my teammates and I take the long way around a rocky outcrop in order to avoid both a choke point and the tightening ring. Unfortunately, however, as soon as we round the corner we're met with an enemy team that has carved out a clever little camp spot complete with Wattson fences and Caustic traps. 

"Go right, go right!" I yell into the mic. "The cannon!" Ignoring the protestations of my teammates, I holster both my weapons so I can sprint faster and fling myself into a cannon – which has a receiving point outside of the ring. I let loose a string of profanities as I'm immediately downed by the late-game circle, but quickly join in laughing with my squadmates. "We tried to tell you," one says, gasping for air between chuckles. "That was a spicy cannon."

The Apex Legends Gravity Cannons are a brilliant addition to the battle royale that offer a seemingly endless stream of great gameplay options and laughable moments. It's rare that a new feature feels like it's always belonged in the game, but these cannons are clearly meant to be. Here's hoping they never leave. 

New Apex Legends: Season 11 Legend Ash is OP as hell, but that won't last long.