Today score the lowest prices of the year on the highly rated Sony WH1000XM4 noise cancelling headphone and LG OLED TVs. You can also save up to 15% off prepaid gift cards and up to 30% off Gloomhaven board games. Check these deals out below.
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In Fortnite, players and their friends lead a group of Heroes to reclaim and rebuild a homeland that has been left empty by a mysterious darkness only known as “the Storm.”
Toys R Us is looking to mount another comeback. The retail chain is planning to open stores in North America again under the new ownership of WHP Global, a New York-based brand management company.
WHP announced Monday in a press release that it has acquired a controlling interest in Tru Kids, the parent company of Toys R Us, Babies R Us and Geoffrey the Giraffe brands.
“We’re in the brand business, and Toys R Us is the single most credible, trusted and beloved toy brand in the world,” WHP chairman and CEO Yehuda Shmidman said. “We’re coming off a year where toys are just on fire… and for Toys R Us, the U.S. is really a blank canvas.”
Shmidman laid out a plan for Toys R Us stores to reopen in North America sometime ahead of this coming holiday season. These locations could take the form of flagships, pop-ups, airport shops or mini-stores within other retailers, according to the company’s early plans.
Toys R Us originally closed its 700 final stores in North America in June 2018, nine months after the retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Though their presence has diminished domestically, Toys R Us and Babies R Us together still have over 900 branded stores across 25 countries worldwide. WHP claims that the Toys R Us brand generates more than $2 billion in retail sales.
Since the retailer’s original closures, Tru Kids has attempted to revitalize the Toys R Us brand. The company launched two pop-up Toys R Us locations in Houston, TX and Paramus, NJ during the holiday season in 2019. These stores were intended to reinvent the retailer’s brand, offering more open floorspace to allow consumers to test products hands-on. Both locations shuttered as a result of bad foot traffic, a problem that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A big part of the Valheim survival experience is constructing a robust base where you’re protected while sleeping and crafting all your various gear. Constructing your buildings out of stone makes them much stronger than the Wood structures you can start with, but you’ll have to do some work to unlock the ability to work stone. Here’s everything you need to know to make a Stonecutter and start building stone structures.
Advance Through The Bronze Age
To access stoneworking, you need metal tools, and getting metal is a long, involved process. Your ultimate goal is to build a Stonecutter, which is the crafting station that makes building stone structures possible. Getting it requires you to have access to Iron, though, which means you’ll need to explore the Swamp biome and defeat the first two bosses in Valheim.
To get Iron, you’ll first need to unlock the ability to forge Bronze and make Bronze tools and gear. Check out our Bronze guide for information on how to do that. The gist is that, before you can start making seriously cool things out of stone, you’ll have to earn all the upgrades you can get from the Meadows and Black Forest biomes and defeat their bosses. You’ll also need a Bronze Pickaxe (made from 10 Bronze and 3 Core Wood).
The essential part of this step, apart from having the ability to smelt and craft from metal, is defeating The Elder. The boss of the Black Forest biome drops the Swamp Key, an item you need to get yourself into the places in the Swamp biome for the next step of the process. We’ve got a guide on how to take on The Elder, whether alone or with a Viking team, that can help.
Wade Into The Swamps For Iron
Once the Elder is defeated, you’re ready to head into the next biome: the Swamps. This is a tough location that’s full of dangerous, poisonous enemies, and you’ll want to upgrade your gear as much as you can before you start making your way to one. Your goal here is to find Sunken Crypts, the dungeons of the Swamp biome. The Swamp key you earned from the Elder will let you unlock the dungeons; inside, you’ll find Muddy Scrap Piles, big black gunk wads that block doorways. Smash those with your pickaxe for a chance to find Scrap Iron. Check out our Iron guide for more information about how to find and smelt Iron to use it in crafting.
Build Your Crafting Tools
Once you have Iron in your repertoire, you can build the rest of the tools and crafting stations you’ll need to start construction. Use 2 Iron, 4 Stone, and 10 Wood to make a Stonecutter (you’ll also need a Workbench), a new crafting station that works like a Workbench when building. Put it near where you want to start building with stone, because you’ll need to stay within the Stonecutter’s radius for building to work.
As mentioned earlier, you’ll also want a pickaxe, as well as a Hoe (which you’ll make from 5 Wood and 2 Stone). It’s recommended that you upgrade from the Bronze Pickaxe you made earlier to an Iron Pickaxe, which will have more durability and cut through rocks, Obsidian, and other materials.
Start Your Stone Construction
Stone makes for some big, impressive buildings, but you’ll probably want to include Wood as well because stone’s large blocks can be difficult to work with.
With everything made, you’re ready to start building. Place the Stonecutter near where you want to work (unlike the Forge and Workbench, it doesn’t need a roof) and use your pickaxe to mine stone from the ground–you can get it by just digging or by crushing rocks in the area. You’ll probably need a ton of Stone in your inventory, so get ready to spend some time sourcing it. The good news is that you can get it just about anywhere.
When you’re ready to build, use the Hoe where you want your structure to be, either leveling the ground or building it up where it’s low. You’ll want a good level place to work because stone blocks are a lot heavier than Wood. Where Wood can attach to other pieces of your structure and hang out over space without anything to support it, stone will crumble without a solid foundation.
Stone walls are thick and unwieldy, so you’ll probably want to combine your stone construction with wood structures. You can also use Core Wood beams in the corners of your stone building to plug holes and shore up places where the stone doesn’t make a tight seal. With enough stone, you’ll be able to build some pretty huge and involved fortresses.
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PlayStations Communities on PS4 will soon be removed, Sony has announced. The console manufacturer announced that the social feature will no longer be available in April. PlayStation Communities allowed like-minded players to form parties, send each other messages, compare screenshots, among other activities.
According to TechRadar, Sony removed the PlayStation Communities app in March of last year, as well as removing the ability to create private parties on PS4. However, it seems players can still make parties by sorting their friends into groups. Additionally, the PS5 does not support the PlayStation Communities feature, and Sony hasn’t announced any plans to bring it to the current-gen console.
Sony hasn’t been shy about removing features from older consoles. Late last year, the company removed the ability to buy PS3, PSP, and PS Vita content via a computer or phone, as well as discontinuing the wishlist functionality. Sony recently confirmed that the PS5 is being sold at a loss, which is common for game consoles. If you’re one of the many people who are still trying to get a PS5, check out our restock guide.
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It was late 2019, during the second season of Mayans MC, that it was revealed Sons of Anarchy creator and Mayans co-creator Kurt Sutter had been fired by FX. This came on the heels of Sutter announcing that his co-showrunner Elgin James would take full control in Season 3 of the series. Now, well over a year later, the motorcycle drama is finally ready to return, and–according to the cast–the creative shakeup has made everything much better.
“It’s night and day,” Clayton Cardenas, who plays Angel on the series, told GameSpot. “It’s like the best thing that could have ever happened for the show. The environment that we get to work [in], it’s such a fun–it’s a welcoming, comforting environment. You know, everybody’s excited to come to work. I personally feel like I’m at an advantage, finally. I feel like I’m put in the position to succeed. I feel like the writing is meant for me. I feel like I’m not having to force dialogue, you know? I feel like the writing just rolls off my tongue now.”
The actor was also quick to point out how the show’s new leadership structure under James allows everyone’s work to shine. “Elgin is such an amazing creator and writer and, you know, he creates this familial bond on set,” Cardenas continued. “So again, it makes it welcoming. And everybody’s proud of what’s being done, everybody feels their voice is heard. And what more could you want? You know, what more could you want from a creator and director?”
Series star JD Pardo, who plays Angel’s younger brother EZ, also notes the new season is a showcase for James’ talent. “Elgin James is a genius,” he said. “He’s a genius. And he hasn’t even peaked yet as far as a storyteller, as far as a director, as far as producer, as far as creator.”
That said, while Sutter is gone, Pardo makes it clear that everyone knows that without his creation in Sons of Anarchy, they wouldn’t have this job in the first place.
“Obviously, we’re very respectful to the Sons of Anarchy world,” he explained. “You know, if it wasn’t for that world and for the universe we wouldn’t be here. That’s the truth. And I think that in discovering a show, you go through the initial phase–some shows take longer than others… We all recognize that Mayans needed to find its own identity and the fans wanted that–we wanted that as actors. And I understand with everything that had happened, and the fan base out there, they’re very passionate about the Sons of Anarchy world–and therefore Mayans, as well–a lot of things were said, a lot of things were sort of put out there.”
One of those things Pardo mentions is what influence Disney might have on the series. Disney purchased 21st Century Fox–and by extension, FX–in early 2019. At that point, though, production on Season 2 was underway. For some fans, there was a fear that the company’s family-friendly image could have impacted how the series played out from Season 3 onward. According to Pardo, though, those fears were unwarranted.
“Disney has supported us, along with FX, all the way through,” the actor revealed. “You know, it is interesting at times to kind of read some of the comments and naturally people think that, you know, there might be sort of like a dumbing down of Mayans or there might be a place where we’re not as authentic or maybe a little soft. But the truth is that Disney has come along and said, ‘Do what you do, do what you need to do.’ And they support us fully. And that’s what this season has been about for us as actors. I think when you see the performances and you see the episodes, you’re going to see heart. You’re going to see a cast and a crew that is being fully supported to be creative and to tell a story that is just entertaining, exciting, dramatic, and beautiful.”
Naturally, you’re also going to see the appropriate amount of violence, vulgarity, and motorcycles. Mayans MC airs Tuesdays on FX.
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Steve Rogers’ legendary shield has been stolen, and the original Cap is teaming up with the other Captains to get it back. Along the way, Steve will meet other people using the Captain America moniker, inspired by Steve to take up their own shields and defend their communities. The first new Captain Steve will meet is Aaron Fischer, the first LGBTQ+ Captain America.
Marvel announced last week an upcoming limited comic series set to launch this June called The United States of Captain America. The story is written by Christopher Cantwell with art by Dale Eaglesham, and will have Steve roadtripping across the United States with the other canonical Captains–Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, and John Walker.
Captain America is a mantle, not a person, as the above characters have proven, and anyone can wear it. Aaron Fischer will be just the first of a number of unofficial Captains that Team Cap will get to know.
“Aaron is inspired by heroes of the queer community: activists, leaders, and everyday folks pushing for a better life,” explained guest writer Joshua Trujillo, who created the new character alongside artist Jan Bazaldua. “He stands for the oppressed, and the forgotten. I hope his debut story resonates with readers, and helps inspire the next generation of heroes.”
“I want to thank Editor Alanna Smith and Joshua Trujillo very much for asking me to create Aaron,” Bazaldua said. “I really enjoyed designing him, and as a transgender person, I am happy to be able to present an openly gay person who admires Captain America and fights against evil to help those who are almost invisible to society. While I was drawing him, I thought, well, Cap fights against super-powerful beings and saves the world almost always, but Aaron helps those who walk alone in the street with problems that they face every day. I hope people like the end result!”
The United States of Captain America #1 hits shelves and comic book apps on June 2. To get your fill of Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes ahead of this book, check out our coverage of the upcoming Disney+ show The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
When you first start out in Valheim, you’ll not only create your Viking character, you’ll also create a “seed” for your game world. The seed is a code that corresponds to the locations of all the elements of the world when it’s generated, dictating where biomes, resources, bosses, and everything else in Valheim is located. The game will randomly create seeds for you, but if you want more control, you can put in the seed code to spawn into a specific world. We’ve gathered all the info you need to know about how seeds work in Valheim, how to evaluate them, and which ones you might want to use as you’re planning your Viking excursions.
Keep in mind that this guide is for Valheim players who aren’t interested in the joy of exploration–much of what makes the game interesting is exploring your game world, finding what secrets it hides, and working to survive with imperfect knowledge of what you’ll face. But if you want to fast-track your way through a Valheim run, set up the perfect place to build an awesome Viking base, or just have more control over your experience, use this information to pick the right seed for you and get everything you want out of your Valheim game world.
How To Find Your World Seed
Use the Select World screen to generate new random seeds or input codes to use pre-generated ones.
Your seed is determined by a code that’s a combination of capital and lowercase letters and numbers. You’ll find that code on the Select World screen when you first fire up Valheim. This is where the game stores your game worlds and allows you to spawn into them–it’s also where you can set up single-player, local, or dedicated servers. The “New” button allows you to create a new game world, which allows you to either specify the seed you want to use or generate a random one.
Valheim Seed Map Viewer
Check your seed’s map online with Valheim map generators or by using console commands to reveal the map in-game.
When you generate a random game world, you might still want to know what’s in it and how things are laid out. Normally, you wouldn’t have anything to do but jump into the game and start exploring it, which is a process that can take a very long time. Alternatively, if you’re willing to cheat and you’re playing in a single-player game world, you can use console commands to view the entire game map (check out our console commands guide for how that works).
There’s a better way to check out a seed now, though, thanks to Reddit user wd40bomber7, who created Unofficial Valheim World Generator. The browser-based program lets you input a seed code and see the map it creates. You can also choose to have specific elements, like bosses, camps, crypts, and resources. The generator can generate seeds randomly too, so you can check out a map ahead of time and then use that seed code in Valheim when you find one you’re happy with.
What Makes A Good Seed
Seeds vary, but for a generally easier experience, pick ones with ample Meadows for starting out and that keep bosses and biomes near your beginning location to minimize travel and sailing.
Seeds in Valheim are pretty subjective–what makes a good one depends on the experience you want to have. If you’re just starting out, you likely want a seed with a lot of Meadows in your immediate spawn vicinity, which will keep the difficulty from ramping up on you too early as you explore Valheim and make your first few tiers of gear. However, if you want reliable progression with consistent pacing, you also want a starting location that’s pretty close to multiple biomes–particularly the Black Forest, Swap, and Mountain biomes. Those three biomes contain metals for making Bronze, Iron, and Silver gear, and if you have to travel to other islands to get them, you’ll probably wind up creating multiple outpost bases. So a good seed keeps those locations nearby to where you intend to put down a main base, minimizing the amount of boat travel you’ll need to do to make higher-tier equipment.
It’s also handy to start in seeds that have bosses relatively nearby–especially the first three. Again, you don’t want to have to travel far and wide seeking out the bosses you need to kill, because that can hamper your ability to fight them effectively or heal up in an emergency. If you get into trouble seeking a boss who’s several islands away and requires sailing to reach, you increase your risk of dying in inconvenient places and creating situations in which you have to recreate a lot of your gear.
So in a general sense, seeds with lots of biomes close to their start, but not so close you get hit by tough enemies right away, are pretty solid. But your needs will likely vary. If you’re a veteran player with a high-level character, you might want something that’s a bit more of a boss rush; if you’re hoping for a tougher experience out of the gate, you can opt for seeds that throw you into higher-difficulty biomes earlier. And so on.
Best World Seeds To Check Out
Reddit users have been compiling useful seeds for quite a while now, providing all sorts of different starting experiences when you first load in. There are a few solid ones in the Valheim wiki as well. While, again, you might just want to generate a random seed when first starting out, which will give you the purest form of the Valheim experience, these seeds can help you tune your entry into the game world to be easier, tougher, or faster, as the case may be.
wVJCZahxX8 — A relatively normal seed that provides useful biomes pretty close to your starting point. You’ll find Black Forest to the east and west, and mountains to the south. You’ll find the boss Eikthyr close to the spawn, with the Elder boss to the south on an attached island.
sBIkiadtIh — This starting seed is good for getting into the Black Forest, Swamp, and Mountains pretty quickly. It also has the merchant Haldor to the west of the spawn point on the starting island, which adds a lot of convenience.
9934622021 — Use this seed for maximum biome coverage on the starting island. You’ll have all five in close proximity to your start, which is great if you want to centralize your metal works. Be careful of the risks of accidentally stumbling into areas with enemies that can clobber you, though.
maypoleplz — If you want to add a maypole item to your own base, use this seed. You’ll find the maypole, which is an item you can’t construct but can occasionally find in destroyed camps throughout Valheim, to the west of the starting point. The maypole increases your Comfort rating in the area around it by 1, enhancing your Resting bonuses.
HHcLC5acQt — Redditor InfernoFPS shared this seed on the r/valheim subreddit, and it’s a pretty useful one. It finds all five of the game’s bosses pretty close to the start, minimizing the travel you’ll have to do to hunt each one down. That’s good, because it also increases your chances of killing them without dying–or at least leaving your corpse in a spot where you might be able to get to it fairly easily.
Helloworld — Redditor Previlein is responsible for this seed, which has four of the five bosses in close proximity to the starting island and a whole lot of resources just a close walk away, thanks to lots of biome-mixing. Check out the maps on r/valheim.
t9n3WG6dFk — If you’re looking for Iron, redditor livincorrupt has this seed, which puts you on a big island that stretches way to the east. At the far eastern end is a large Swamp that’s full of crypts, making Iron manufacture very convenient.
MXNQwUDQGm — This seed from redditor Sphagne puts the trader Haldor very close to the start, and while it puts you on a series of small islands, they have a bunch of various biomes and bosses within easy reach and short sails.
[Editor’s Note: With Apex Legends’ recent release on Switch, we’ve taken a fresh look at the whole game in 2021. This review replaces our original from 2019, and you can find our new Switch-specific impressions below. Read more on IGN’s re-review policy.]
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Apex Legends is the only battle royale where I can launch myself up into the sky and dodge bullets in the air while throwing a mini black hole at an enemy squad as my teammate simultaneously rains a hellfire of mortars down upon them. Since its release in 2019, Apex has continued to grow and evolve in exciting ways, adding both more content and fresh new ideas to a genre that too frequently feels derivative. The fast-paced matches never fail to get my heart racing as I jump, slide, and dodge bullets while hip-firing a sniper rifle to win a 1v1 duel and revive my teammates. Mobility, versatility, and teamwork combine for a thrilling and rewarding feeling that I haven’t experienced from any other battle royale.
While the structure here is familiar – drop into a large map, pick up randomly scattered loot, and fight inside an ever-closing circle to be the last team standing – it’s the 16 playable characters (called Legends) themselves that keep Apex from feeling like your run-of-the-mill battle royale shooter. Where traditionally you start a battle royale as a blank slate and have your role defined solely by the gear you luck into, here each has their own set of special abilities and strengths that you can choose from to fit your personal playstyle. I especially love how different Legends can interact and work with each other on a three-person team to get more out of those powers than they could alone. For example, if someone on your team is playing as Caustic or Bangalore and tossing smoke bombs around, choosing Bloodhound for their ability to see through the smoke and highlight nearby enemies will be a natural fit.
And even though some Legends do feel stronger than others in certain situations, I like that who would win in a toe-to-toe shootout isn’t always going to be what determines your victory. The abilities can be used to amplify your own knowledge of where enemies are with Bloodhound or being able to get a height advantage with Horizon. But Apex relies on your personal skill more than the specific moves of your Legend, particularly when compared to a hero shooter like Overwatch where abilities really matter while building a good team composition with restrictive roles to be filled.
Each Legend also has a backstory built off of the same world from developer Respawn’s Titanfall series. Apex takes place 30 years after the events of Titanfall 2 and further expands that already compelling universe through a continuous story that progresses with each major event. While you may not see much of it in the middle of a match, it’s still told well through comics and cinematic shorts that include in-world explanations for how the Apex Games you’re fighting in came to be, how each of the Legends found their way into them, how they are affiliated with each other, and even how they all interact outside of the Games. There’s great creativity and lore being explored here, and considering the Titanfall games never really got their due it’s exciting to see Respawn continue their universe through Apex.
Skill Or Be Skilled
I really appreciate the fact that if you get into a fight with an enemy who has a fully kitted-out weapon and you have a gun with no attachments, you still have a chance to win the encounter based on skill alone. In Ubisoft’s battle royale Hyper Scape, part of the problem with the gunplay was the fact that unless you had a level five weapon, you couldn’t really put up enough of a fight to come out alive or even truly damage your enemy no matter how good your aim was. Fortnite does a better job of rewarding skill over gun rarity, but the level of a gun is still a significant factor. In contrast, all of Apex’s weapons are viable without the best attachments, which makes it really stand out as a game of skill.
Apex has a wide arsenal of extremely satisfying futuristic weapons (some directly taken from Titanfall) that test your aim more than your luck. If you’re into long-range fighting, there’s a varied collection of sniper rifles that run the gamut from lighter burst shots to slow but heavy-hitting slugs, or if you prefer to get up close you can choose from an array of SMGs and shotguns. Every other season a new weapon is added, increasing the assortment of guns to choose from. Gun attachments allow you to further personalize a weapon to your preference in how it handles rather than straightforward damage increases, making how you use that weapon more important than what’s bolted onto it.
A battle royale should be about testing your skills of survival, and adapting to changes both in and out of a match is a huge part of that. Each season update, which changes things up every few months, comes with weapon adjustments that keep the gunplay everchanging. For example, in Season 6, the SMG R-99 was removed from the ground loot pool and put inside special loot packages that randomly drop during matches, while the previous drop weapon the Devotion was brought back into the ground loot pool. This change was implemented after the Volt, a new energy SMG, was introduced for the season, encouraging previous R-99 main users to use the Volt in its place. In the currently running Season 8, the Mastiff shotgun is the strongest close range weapon that most players are using, with a midseason update giving it a slight fire rate nerf in an attempt to keep the weapon viable but less dominant. While these consistent updates can occasionally be frustrating when it feels like I’ve just gotten the hang of the previous season’s strongest weapon combinations, I do appreciate that the changes and balance tweaks help keep one weapon from being stronger than the rest for too long and generally make each gun a good choice in fights.
Apex’s armor system stands apart from other games too, pushing a fairly simple concept far forward with the introduction of Evo Shields (a super cute name for its evolving shield tiers). With the exception of the Gold shield that heals you for double the amount with smaller heal items, there are four tiers of shields. Only the first three can be found during a match, and after that, you must “level up” your shield to the next tier by dealing damage to enemies. What I really like about this system is that dealing 100 damage while you have no shield at all will even automatically earn you the lowest tier, so if you don’t find something right away you’re still encouraged to fight through the initial drop.
I love the feeling of earning new armor, encouraging me to push more fights earlier so that I can level it up – that’s opposed to armor mechanics in other games that can sometimes make taking fights feel like a mistake because even if you win you’ll come out weaker than you were when you started. You can still armor swap through looting better options or taking it off of enemies you’ve killed, but the idea of having to work for the best tier makes fights feel more rewarding throughout. Also, the sound effect that plays when your armor levels up is extremely satisfying.
In my 800 hours of playtime, Apex has never stopped being fun, no matter if I’m playing competitively or casually. However, you can’t play a game that long without noticing some recurring problems. Annoying audio bugs have been prevalent for quite a few seasons, with missing footstep cues from enemies being the biggest culprit. Usually, that system works beautifully, and I’m able to hear enemies walking across a specific platform above or below me – but way too often, my squad has been taken by surprise when an enemy team approaches without the usual heads up.
With its Titanfall roots, it makes sense that Apex has the best movement in any battle royale I’ve played. While you can’t wall run, the plethora of other running, sliding, and climbing mechanics it does have can be combined to make moving around the map feel magnificent. The slide move in particular is the smoothest I’ve felt in any game (other than Titanfall itself), and being able to slide down an entire mountainside without losing momentum before jumping at the end to continue running is one of the best feelings in all of Apex. Respawn’s FPS movement systems are still unmatched.
On top of that, Apex’s revolutionary contextual ping system was the first of its kind at launch and has only gotten more robust since. It’s special because it allows you to quickly communicate with your team in detail without having to use voice chat at all, pointing out items, threats, and pretty much anything else with little more than a single button – with uncanny accuracy, Apex understands what you mean when you look at something and push the button, then translates that into spoken feedback for your team. And even if you do choose to talk with voice chat, the ping system can still help you better describe where an enemy is, where you’re watching for trouble, or where you’re about to move to. Not only is this a great accessibility feature, but it’s also a clever way to improve teamwork when queuing up alone.
Keeping Things Fresh
There are currently three maps in Apex that make the rounds each season: Kings Canyon, World’s Edge, and Olympus. Each map almost encourages a specific playstyle due to the landscape and size difference. Kings Canyon was the first map that Apex launched with and has had numerous location changes over the seasons, but it remains the smallest map out of the three. This makes it the worst offender for getting attacked by a third party when you’re already fighting an enemy team. The small map structure allows for you to hear gunfire from several points of interest (POIs) over and makes rotations very quick since those areas are pretty close to each other. World’s Edge is Apex’s second and biggest map that has the most varied POIs that make it harder to get suprised by a third party as frequently as in Kings Canyon, and has more options for rotations due to the size of the map. Olympus is the latest map to be introduced a few seasons back and is definitely the prettiest map of the three – it’s also the only map to have a vehicle. Olympus is a gorgeous map with the easiest rotations since there are multiple ways to get from one point to another, especially when driving your very own Trident, the map’s hover car. Each season, two maps are selected to be kept on one hour rotations, which stops any one map from getting stale and keeps queuing up repeatedly from feeling overly repetitive.
Alongside its permanent game modes that have teams of two or three, the addition of various limited-time modes added to Apex with different events have also kept it from feeling stagnant or boring. A particular favorite of mine is the recurring seasonal mode called Winter Express in which your squad and two other teams have to hold control of a train that stops at various stations around the World’s Edge map. In it, each Legend has a specific loadout that only that character can use, so you have to choose the best character and gun loadout you feel comfortable with before diving into a chaotic close-quarters skirmish to hold a point. Participating in limited-time events like this is optional for those who just want to play a normal battle royale, but I really like the fact that Respawn is constantly adding and testing new ideas that aren’t quite so focused on the battle royale genre specifically, but rather just the multiplayer aspect around it.
Back in Season 2 Apex introduced a ranked game mode, which is a bit of a unique idea for the genre. I had my doubts about how well it could work since there are so many factors to gauging success in a match beyond the single team that manages to win. For example, randomized loot drops means even the most skilled players can sometimes just get unlucky, which is an exciting part of a given game but makes comparing a ranking across them trickier. Additionally, the relatively open World’s Edge changes team strategy and allows for more rotations than the more frequent, clustered fights on Kings Canyon, while Olympus, operates as a hybrid of the two. Ranked play switches between two maps for each half of a season, so the competitive meta is always changing.
However, the ranked mode in Apex overcomes these potential pitfalls, and has even become my favorite mode to play since it pits you against equally skilled players. The rank capping at your skill level works surprisingly well; I thought the ranked system would be strange because you could just keep racking up ranked points if you hold out to reach the top five, slowly but consistently raising your rank even if you weren’t taking many firefights head-on. But the skill-based matchmaking underneath that ranking makes it so you’re faced against people closest to your own skill level, making it feel balanced out so no one is just earning points without having the skill to back it up. For a game in a genre not known for having ranked play, this system works impressively well.
The real problem with ranked play is that Apex’s servers aren’t always up for providing a level playing field. Ping within servers can fluctuate on a dime, and there have been so many times I’ve directly hit an enemy, heard the impact, and seen blood fly out of them… only to realize that no damage had actually been dealt. I’ve had matches where no one could move without being completely slowed by lag until enough teams had been wiped to ease the server load, and others where it was impossible to switch weapons or heal because the server was so unresponsive. In fact, server desync has progressively gotten worse after major updates, and while there are maintenance updates every so often that smooth things out for a while, it’s not enough to excuse issues like this happening in competitive matches where every move matters. Respawn did announce it was monitoring server issue reports, but more work needs to be done. It doesn’t happen every day, but it’s at least frequent enough that I judge which days I’ll play ranked based on how the servers seem to be operating.
In celebration of Pokemon’s 25th anniversary, we asked YOU to help us decide which of the 200 most popular Pokemon is the very best. After thousands and thousands of 1v1 battles with matchups like Squirtle vs. Charmander and Pikachu vs. Mewtwo, the ultimate winner has been chosen.
So, who claimed the top spot in the battle for the greatest Pokemon ever? Drumroll please…
With a 86.3% win percentage, Charizard claimed the victory in 39,444 of the 45,726 battles it was in.
With Charizard being a mighty fire-breathing, dragon-looking Pokemon that evolves from Charmander – the starter Pokemon many began their journey with back in 1997’s Pokemon Red and Blue – it’s no wonder it took the top spot.
Mewtwo earned second place with a 86.0% win percentage, while Blastoise rose the ranks to third place with an 83.2% win percentage. Rounding out the top 10 were Dragonite, Lugia, Mew, Rayquaza, Gengar, Lucario, and Gyarados.
Seven of the top ten are from Pokemon Red and Blue, while Pokemon Diamond and Pearl’s Lugia and Lucario and Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire’s Rayquaza were the only Pokemon to breakthrough the everlasting popularity of the Kanto region.
Taking last place, with a win percentage of only 12.4%, was Pyukumuku. It just narrowly beat out the aptly named Trubbish for the last spot by 0.4 percentage points.
Rounding out the bottom were Alcremie, Snom, Bidoof, Whisicott, Tsareena, Lilligant, Appletun, and Goomy.
The bottom 10 were comprised of five generations, with Pokemon Sword and Shield and Pokemon Black and White accounting for three each. These least popular Pokemon include a goofy beaver, a Pokemon made of whipped cream, and a dragon-type that looks like an Apple Pie. Oh, and of course the previously mentioned Trubbish that that looks like… well… a trash bag.
Are you wondering where your favorite Pokemon landed, like maybe Pikachu? (It took spot #30!) For all the rankings, you can check out the full list of where all 200 Pokemon who competed in this Face-Off ended up.
With a 86.3% win percentage, Charizard claimed the victory in 39,444 of the 45,726 battles it was in.
Taking last place, with a win percentage of only 12.4%, was Pyukumuku. It just narrowly beat out the aptly named Trubbish for the last spot by 0.4 percentage points.
Are you wondering where your favorite Pokemon landed, like maybe Pikachu? (It took spot #30!) For all the rankings, you can