Why was Apex Legends able to rest on its laurels this week while Respawn works on future content? The simplest answer can actually be found in what was likely perceived by EA to be its greatest weakness: it's near-total lack of pre-release marketing. Leaked only a day prior to launch, Apex Legends set the internet abuzz with the immediate promise of an all-new and well-polished experience that players could get their hands on for the tantalizing price of "free." Meanwhile, Crackdown 3 has suffered from a grueling, years-long embarrassment for Xbox Games Studios that began when it was revealed all the way back at E3 2014, greatly reducing the impact of the exclusive's largely overlooked February 15 release d
Potential ideas include slowing down the regeneration of Pathfinder’s zip line, introducing a way to tear down the zip lines similar to the way players can break Wattson’s fences, or introducing a grapple gun-type tool in the environment that allows other characters to grapple a limited number of times. Wraith may be a bit tougher, but perhaps certain player attributes, such as Caustic's gas, can cause the character to still take damage while in the void. Of course, it's worth noting that players are likely to push back against such major nerfs to either of these favorite charact
Sometimes they're also playing on the real names of the characters like Octane, whose real name is Octavius. Her or her father could also be big fans of Sherlock Holmes and decided since she was her father's sidekick the name Wattson just made se
Sometimes mobility is the most powerful mechanic in the game, and the ability to fly up on command to ambush an opponent seems too powerful. There would need to be a daily quest called "This isn't flying, this is falling with style", where you manage to eliminate a number of opponents from the air or shortly after land
Mobility with stealth infiltration sounds like a nightmare to unorganized groups. An entire minute of having one’s location revealed is terrible news, especially in the late game. As always, disabling abilities can swing a fight entirely, so this Legend might be far too powerful in a coordinated gr
Respawn could also strive to make sure that the lobbies are evenly distributed or, at the very least, not heavily weighted to consist of one character. However, that may pose challenges from a development perspective due to issues rerouting players to new servers based on their character selecti
This past week was crammed full of AAA game releases, with Friday alone having seen the simultaneous launches of Crackdown 3 , Far Cry New Dawn , Metro Exodus , and, for a select few PC players , Anthem . Despite this incredibly hectic launch window, Apex Legends _ continues to reign over all its newly released competition in terms of both popularity and acclaim. When a free-to-play battle royale title so handily beats back an entire wave of full-priced games, developers and producers alike are left to scratch their heads and wonder what Respawn Entertainment's _Apex Legends has that their titles do
Metro Exodus is a diamond in the rough here in terms of its gameplay and story, with the other releases this week falling agonizingly flat in one area or the other. While Apex Legends is being universally lauded for its impressive blend of frenzy and strategy, as well as for its revolutionary ping system that makes teamplay easier and more integral than in any shooter before it, February has brought little else in the way of gameplay innovation. Crackdown 3 is a fairly mindless power fantasy sandbox, which is great for players seeking that experience, but disappointing to others due to how few additions it brings to the table when compared with the 12-year-old initial entry into the ser
To be clear, Solos Mode is an excellent solution to the problem of matching with sub-par random teammates when the only option is team play. Often, players find themselves matched with others who are lousy players, poor sports, or just generally to
Of course, that's impossible to truly ascertain from our experience so far with Anthem 's early hours , meaning players will have to wait and see if they will be undergoing the gauntlet of tedium that constitutes for the genre's standard end-game. However, it will undoubtedly be nigh impossible for Anthem to be able to suitably compete with a free-to-play battle royale like Apex Legends when it comes to keeping players interested with a steady flow of content. For those in the industry seeking to recreate Apex Legends Linux Legends ' sleeper success, or at least successfully leech away some of its massive player base, there are a couple of lessons to be learned from this week's cramped mix of launches. First, consider the option that prolonged marketing and over-exposure might actually serve to hurt games; while not all games can capture the attention of millions overnight, producer's should at the very least take steps to avoid Crackdown 3 's five-year gap between announcement and release. Second, and most importantly, developers should innovate where others have not within their genre, even if it doesn't amount to reinventing the wh