Elsewhere, the patch introduced a new Ranked mode for solo players, meaning you can now climb the rankings on your own. It's a good time to start, too, since this marks the beginning of Season 9 and ranks have been reset along with leaderboards. Here are the new rules for Ranked Mode Seaso

With cooperative multiplayer, players can team up with friends to take on challenging bosses and levels together. It's pretty much the definition of a perfect sequel, and the fact that Risk of Rain 2 is still wildly popular to this day is proof of just how brilliant this title really

This fighting type Pokémon carries its own special weapon - a massive steel beam ready to bash its enemies. It's always seen with its girder, just like Rampart has Sheila. It's also worth mentioning that Gurdurr's nose bears a striking resemblance to Rampart's signature gum bub

And look - I'm not against sexy character designs. Actually, I usually like them! I'm a big fan of Senran Kagura and Dead Or Alive, and love the lengths fighting games go to make characters as horny as possible. But there's a way to have something be sexy and make sense, which Overwatch just never does. Plus, the Overwatch designs pander to the dullest and straightest among us - not to mention the whitest. They uphold the hegemony of white, European beauty standards and apply them to characters of color, which just flat-out su

It's fine when games aim for realism, but that should never come at the expense of having fun. As rational as the concept of fall damage is, it never translates to anything meaningful in a gaming experience. Even FromSoftware - the master of having your character die as a result of irritating fall damage - eventually saw the error of its ways and made Sekiro, a fps game release date where you jump around like a samurai sword-wielding Ma

Then you have Bloodhound, the non-binary espionage expert. It’s a cool way to put a non-binary character in a AAA game, I feel, because whatever perceived "gendered" physical characteristics they might have are obscured by a gas mask and bulky clothing. Their appearance is calculated very deliberately to be genderless and ambiguous, which is a great artistic choice. Oh, and let’s talk for a second about Gibralter. Here's this goofy and sweet beefcake who's gay and doesn’t have some sort of sad backstory about it. He’s not cuckolded and sad like Soldier 76, whose story echoes literally every Hollywood movie ever written about gay men that’s not called Moonlight, or if he is, we don’t know about it. That’s rad as h

Fall damage makes logical sense. After all, it's possible to suffer an intense sprain or broken bone from something as simple as tripping on the sidewalk. Gravity can be one of reality's greatest villains. So when a game is aiming to be as realistic and authentic as possible, having severe, painful consequences for a high fall is a perfectly reasonable design cho

Here's the thing though: reality is stupid. While it's certainly true to life that a mistimed fall will lead to injury and perhaps death, that doesn't mean it's fun. Fall damage has never been enjoyable and always hinders how you can play a game. So it's time for game developers to thumb their nose at Isaac Newton and eliminate fall damage once and for

Whether you're roleplaying as a super soldier, heroic knight, or even a cartoon bear, it can be deflating and embarrassing to see your protagonist crumble to the ground in a heap from a fall. Do you mean to tell me that this burly, super-powered character who's supposed to save the entire world can't handle a crash landing? Sounds like a wimp to

To me, where Apex Legends truly succeeds is in its strength of character. That is to say, its diverse and robust cast of eclectic player-characters are unlike anything else in the genre. Fortnite‘s characters are colorful in the same way that '80s cartoon characters are, but they lack personality or depth. Meanwhile, PUBG’s got some military gear and overpriced Suicide Squad costumes that look like they’re from Party City’s bargain bin. Warzone? More like snore zone. Against this limp competition, Apex has the edge by defa

Other changes include the ability to remap keys to your controller and changes in bot ratios. Instead of quickly filling the match with bots, each session will now wait up to five minutes to try and fill to 100 players before making up any shortfall with b

There's little to no debate here. Weezing is the obvious Pokémon for Caustic. Caustic spends his time in Apex Legends setting traps of noxious gas to slowly suffocate his opponents. Weezing was quite literally born to do the exact same thing. Together, these two could clear a room in seconds. This combination could perhaps be the most deadly of all between Caustic's Nox Gas Grenade and Weezing's signature Poison Gas move. If these two are in the fight, players must be sure to bring a gas m

What better Pokémon could there be for the tech-genius Crypto than Rotom! Crypto was introduced to Apex Legends in season 3 as an encryption expert, always seen either at a computer or buried in his customized drone. With Crypto's understanding of machinery, there is no doubt that he would find a perfect companion in the ever-transforming Rotom , who is capable of possessing various machines to affect its type. These two hackers would make a lasting and sensible union, but Crypto's friendly drone would surely have opinions about being repla