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Apex Legends Battle Pass Lets You Unlock Crafting Metal Instead Of Loot Boxes
If you’re not a fan of loot boxes in Apex Legends, changing your Origin account region to Belgium removes them from the game. Instead, leveling up will unlock crafting metals bundles, which allows you to make the cosmetic items you want.
In Belgium, there are laws against loot boxes in video games. As Reddit user UnicornPL pointed out, this results in Belgium Apex Legends players earning crafting metals instead of Apex Packs when they level up. Rock Paper Shotgun went one step further to discover changing your region to Belgium allows you to take advantage of this as well, but adds on that it’s possible EA will block this trick soon.
Season 1: Wild Frontier has started in Apex Legends, and it’s added a battle pass and brand-new playable character, named Octane, to the game. The standard battle pass costs 950 Apex Coins. If you sign up for a one-month subscription to EA Access on Xbox One or Origin Basic Access on PC, you can effectively grab the battle pass for half off. There’s currently no cheaper option on PS4. For 2,800 Apex Coins, you can purchase a bundle that includes the pass and also unlocks 25 of its 100 levels of rewards. Like Fortnite, Apex Legends Season 1 battle pass lets you unlock enough Apex Coins to purchase next season’s pass. However, unlike Epic’s game, Apex Legend’s first battle pass does not include challenges.
Octane is the ninth Legend to join Respawn’s battle royale game, and he’s specifically designed for players looking for a little bit more speed. Like Mirage and Wraith–who have new battle pass skins–Octane is an offense-focused character. Octane’s tactical ability gives him a six-second boost of speed at the cost of his own health. His passive counteracts this, allowing the speed demon to regenerate his health while he’s out of combat. Finally, Octane’s ultimate ability allows him to throw out a launch pad that he, his allies, and enemies can use to launch into the air.
Apex Legends is available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. In our Apex Legends review, Phil Hornshaw gave the game a 9/10, writing, “Apex Legends is a mix of smart shooter ideas that makes for a competitive, team-based game that gets at all the best parts of battle royale while addressing a lot of the weaknesses. Respawn’s intense focus on team play makes Apex more than just a worthy addition to the genre; it’s an indicator of where battle royale should go in the future.”
from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/apex-legends-battle-pass-lets-you-unlock-crafting-/1100-6465727/
Nintendo Switch Spring Nindies Showcase: Watch All The Trailers
Nintendo showed off a ton of games during its annual Nindies Spring Showcase on Wednesday. The nearly 30-minute-long broadcast was packed with reveals and announcements, giving us our first look at more than a dozen indie titles coming to Switch this year–including a few that are available now.
Nintendo bookended the showcase with two big announcements. First, the company revealed that Microsoft’s acclaimed platformer Cuphead will arrive on Switch on April 18, and it’ll add Xbox Live integration down the line, allowing players to unlock Achievements even when they play on the hybrid console. Nintendo later closed out the presentation with the first trailer for Cadence of Hyrule, a Zelda-themed Crypt of the NecroDancer crossover coming to Switch this spring.
There were plenty of other announcements in between, from the retro-style Stranger Things 3 game to Blaster Master Zero 2, and nearly every title featured during the showcase was accompanied by a new trailer. If you missed the presentation, you can watch all of the new trailers from it below. You can also catch a replay of the entire broadcast here, and if it inspires you to pick up some indie games, Nintendo is holding a big sale right now in the Eshop.
Cuphead
Cadence of Hyrule – Crypt Of The NecroDancer Ft. The Legend Of Zelda
Blaster Master Zero 2
Katana Zero
Rad
The Red Lantern
Stranger Things 3: The Game
My Friend Pedro
Nuclear Throne
Super Crate Box
Creature In The Well
Pine
Bloodroots
Overland
Neo Cab
Swimsanity
from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-switch-spring-nindies-showcase-watch-all-/1100-6465725/
Epic Store Lands Another Exclusive With Online Action Game The Cycle
As the Epic Store grows in influence, we’re seeing a number of games–including Hades and the PC releases for Metro Exodus and The Division 2–release as exclusives on the new online marketplace. Another game launching as an Epic Store exclusive is The Cycle, coming from Yager Entertainment–the same developers behind Spec Ops: The Line and 2018’s multiplayer combat-sim Dreadnought. With the full rollout planned later this year, The Cycle will be Yager’s first self-published game, it blends PvE gameplay with the pace of an online shooter.
The developers explained why they felt the game was such a good fit for the Epic Store, crediting the success of Fortnite and flexibility of the Unreal Engine for online games. As a live game, Yager has plans to work on The Cycle for the long-term, adding in new content and features over its lifetime.
“We wanted to have a different type of relationship with the community than what we’d had before on Dreadnought,” said Jonathan Lindsay, Executive Producer at Yager Entertainment. “There’s been a lot of lessons learned from that, on a technical level, and also, we’ve gotten a lot of benefit out of the lessons we’ve learned from Epic on Fortnite, since they’ve worked on the Unreal Engine. The engine itself is really great for a live game and it supports that format really well.”
The Cycle is a PvPvE game (player-versus-player-versus-environment) that blends together different genres for a somewhat unorthodox approach to an online shooter. Landing on the hostile alien world Fortuna III, your character will have to explore the surface of the planet and collect resources to craft new gear to survive. In addition to fighting off the local wildlife, you’ll need to complete a number of contracts from your chosen faction in order to gain enough credits to call in better gear. However, you’ll also come across other players who are doing the same.
When reading that particular premise, it sounds like a game trying to take a crack at the battle royale genre. Though it features a very similar setup, complete with a map that has themed areas, The Cycle is not a battle royale game. Along with contending with dangerous alien creatures and tackling new missions thrown in during a match, you’ll need to actively collect materials to haul back to the extraction point. You’re certainly free to shoot other players on sight and try to take some of their resources, but you might be better off trying to form a squad with other players you can meet in the world.
The end goal is to make it to the extraction with your set of resources by the end of the match, but unlike other online shooters, multiple players can come away with a win. Resources kept with you during extraction can be used to craft new upgrades for your gear. These upgrades are persistent, allowing to you flesh out your character and loadouts, letting you bring a slightly more prepared character into the next game. However, you’ll still start fresh in every match, and you’ll need to collect credits to call-in the more high-end gear you’ve acquired.
The developers at Yager Entertainment state that The Cycle will be a community-driven game, with feedback collected from players helping to inform what comes next for the online game. At the end of this month, from March 28-30, a new alpha test will open up for players who sign up for access on the official site, allowing newcomers to check out what the online shooter has in store.
from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/epic-store-lands-another-exclusive-with-online-act/1100-6465701/
