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Apex Legends Battle Pass Detailed; Here’s How Season 1 Works
EA has announced that the Season 1 battle pass, titled Wild Frontier, for Apex Legends is launching tomorrow, March 19. The battle pass releases alongside Octane, the ninth and newest Legend to join the battle royale game. Octane is not a part of the battle pass and will release separately, allowing you to buy him with Legend Tokens or Apex Coins. He’ll be the same cost as Mirage and Caustic–12,000 Legend Tokens or 750 Apex Coins.
Apex Legends’ Season 1 battle pass can only be purchased with Apex Coins, one of the three in-game currencies. Buying into the battle pass will cost you 950 Apex Coins. However, you don’t have to buy the battle pass right away to avoid missing out on rewards. “You’ll receive all the rewards up to your Battle Pass level (which is your current level for the season) retroactively!” EA wrote in the battle pass FAQ. “For example, if you’re on level 20 for the season when you buy the Battle Pass, you’ll unlock all rewards for every level up to 20, plus three special Battle Pass skins.”
The Season 1 battle pass has 100 levels in total, and contains an assortment of weapon skins, stat trackers, Legend voice lines, and Apex Coin and XP drops as rewards. Leveling up is entirely XP based, as there are no challenges–at least for this season. Respawn has suggested that the exact structure of the battle pass could change for future seasons.
Like other games that feature seasonal battle passes, all rewards unlocked with Apex Legend’s Season 1 battle pass remain during follow-up seasons. However, once Season 1 ends, you can no longer unlock the items included in this specific pass. Regardless, whether you buy the pass or not, you’ll be able to unlock free rewards during Season 1. You can get 18 new stat trackers, five Apex Packs, and a new skin for Octane. Most rewards are only available for those who buy the battle pass; that includes free Apex Coins–up to 1,000 are available if you level up enough, effectively letting you earn back the cost of the pass and giving you enough to buy next season’s.
Another reward of note is the game’s “first-ever three-stage evolving Legendary weapon skin.” This is for Havoc and, as you earn kills during a match, Respawn says the gun’s “eyes glow and its nostrils emit smoke,” among other things.
If you want to buy yourself a little help in unlocking the Season 1 battle pass rewards, there’s also a bundle–which you can purchase for 2,800 Apex Coins–that unlocks the next 25 levels for you. Like many other aspects of Apex’s battle pass, this essentially mirrors the way the wildly successful Fortnite has operated.
Apex Legends is available for 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-detailed-heres-how-season/1100-6465641/
Bethesda Confirms E3 2019 Showcase, Jokes About Walmart Canada Leaks
Bethesda has announced it will once again host an E3 presentation , eschewing the recent trend from publishers like Sony and Electronic Arts to step back from the industry event. It will take place Sunday, June 9 at 5:30 PM PT, and will be livestreamed for viewers at home.
The company teased the announcement with the #BE3 hashtag on Twitter. The theme for this year’s presentation is “Be Together,” and Bethesda says it will be inviting more fans to join in the live audience. The only game formally announced to make an appearance is Doom Eternal, though the teaser image shows silhouettes of lots of characters from across Bethesda’s franchises. Last year the studio mentioned both Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6, so we may hear more about those.
The teaser even includes a cheeky reference to Walmart Canada, which exposed several games planned for last year’s E3–including Rage 2 from Bethesda. The company riffed on the leak, and then marketing director Pete Hines cracked a joke at the store’s expense during the E3 2018 presentation.
This is par for the course for Bethesda, which began having large-scale E3 presentations five years ago. It is swimming against the tide of the industry as a whole, however. Nintendo stopped giving press conferences in favor of pre-recorded Nintendo Direct presentations and week-long Treehouse streams. Sony announced this year it wouldn’t be presenting at E3 at all. EA recently followed suit, still planning its E3-adjacent EA Play event, but declining to do a press conference.
That leaves Microsoft, Ubisoft, and now Bethesda as the last remaining publishers planning old-fashioned E3 stage shows. Microsoft, for its part, appears to be capitalizing on the opportunity and claims it will be “going big” this year.
from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/bethesda-confirms-e3-2019-showcase-jokes-about-wal/1100-6465643/
Nintendo Really Wants You To Try Switch’s Splatoon 2 This Week
Nintendo is giving Switch owners a chance to try out one of the console’s best games free for a limited time. In an uncharacteristic move, the company is offering a special week-long demo of Splatoon 2, which lets prospective players dive into the colorful shooter and its suite of online modes at no charge.
The Splatoon 2 Special Demo will be available on the Switch Eshop later today, March 18. Much like the full game, you’ll need an internet connection and a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to play the demo. If you don’t already have the latter, you’ll receive a code for a free seven-day trial for the service via email after downloading the demo, even if you’ve already tried the previous free NSO trial.
The Special Demo will run from March 19-25. During that time, players will be able to try out Splatoon 2’s signature Turf War mode, which pits two teams of four against each other in a contest to cover the most terrain with your color ink, as well as the game’s various Ranked Battles and the cooperative Salmon Run mode.
If you’re interested in purchasing Splatoon 2 after your time with it, Nintendo of America is offering 20% off of the game in the Eshop until March 28, bringing its price down to $48. Players in Europe will get an even bigger savings; the base game will be 33% off, while the Splatoon 2 and Octo Expansion DLC bundle will be discounted by 25%. You’ll also be able to carry any progress you’ve made during the free trial period over to the full version.
Nintendo Switch Online subscriptions run for US $4 / £3.49 / AU $6 for one month, US $8 / £7 / AU $12 for three months, and US $20 / £18 / AU $30 for one year. Along with online play, the subscription offers a handful of other benefits, including cloud saves for most games and access to a catalog of classic NES titles, including Kid Icarus and StarTropics, which were added to the library earlier this month.
from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-really-wants-you-to-try-switchs-splatoon-/1100-6465637/
