Brendan Greene, better known by his online persona PlayerUnknown, has announced today that he will be leaving PUBG developer and publisher Krafton to form his own independent studio, PlayerUnknown Productions. Greene has been credited with pioneering the battle royale genre, after creating PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds as an Arma mod, and later developing it into a full game with South Korean publisher Krafton.
In 2019, Greene moved to Amsterdam to set up PlayerUnknown Productions under Krafton’s PUBG Corporation, moving away from development on PUBG to work on new projects. Now, PlayerUnknown Productions will officially be splitting from Krafton to become an independent studio, with Krafton holding a minority stake in the studio. The studio’s first project, Prologue, was announced at the 2019 Game Awards, though it’s unclear whether the project will be impacted by the studio’s split.
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“I’m so very grateful to everyone at PUBG and Krafton for taking a chance on me and for the opportunities they afforded me over the past four years,” Greene said in a press release. “Today, I’m excited to take the next step on my journey to create the kind of experience I’ve envisaged for years. Again, I’m thankful for everyone at KRAFTON for supporting my plans, and I’ll have more to reveal more about our project at a later date.”
The press release adds that the team at PlayerUnknown Productions “are exploring the systems needed to enable massive scale within open-world games.”
After taking last year off, Halloween Horror Nights is back at Universal Studios in Hollywood, California and Orlando, Florida. This year features a slate of massive movies and TV shows getting adapted into haunted attractions, including The Exorcist, The Forever Purge, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Walking Dead.
At Universal Studios Hollywood, though, there might be no maze more highly anticipated than Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House. Based on the first season of Mike Flanagan’s 2018 anthology series, the Hill House haunted attraction is bringing the massive mansion to life and sending guests through it to encounter iconic spirits, terrifying scenes, and some of the most heart-wrenching horror in recent memory.
Before Halloween Horror Nights opens at Universal Studios Hollywood, we had the chance to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the maze, while chatting with the park’s creative director John Murdy about the work that went into it. For a taste of what to expect when Hill House opens for business, take a look below.
Halloween Horror Nights opens Thursday, September 9 and will run select nights until Sunday, October 31.
SPOILER WARNING: Be careful! No More Heroes 3 is a game filled with surprises, and sometimes boss fights don’t always go as expected. In other words, we recommend not reading the boss strategy until you’ve actually started fighting the boss to avoid spoiling some of the game’s best moments!
Sonic Juice is one of FU’s most trusted companions, so you know you’re in for a crazy battle against this XL-sized intellectual. At this point, you’re probably wondering what sort of random direction things are going to go this time around. This time, it’s… turn-based. For more guides, be sure to check out our No More Heroes 3 beginner’s tips.
How To Defeat Sonic Juice
Considering all of the genre-swaps that have happened so far, turning No More Heroes into a JRPG almost feels natural at this point. Unfortunately, Travis brought an action-game skillset to a menu-driven fight, so many of the commands you’re presented with are useless. You’ll need to puzzle out a solution to deal any real damage to Sonic Juice.
There are two ways to go about this. You’ll notice that Sonic is in a sea-like environment and uses water-based attacks. What’s the typical JRPG elemental weakness water has? Electricity–the very thing that powers Travis’s Beam Katana. Using the katana by itself will barely do any damage to Sonic Juice, but if you go to Magic and use the Thunder spell, the Beam Katana will power up immensely. Once you’ve done this, select Fight on the next turn, and you’ll deal a tremendous amount of damage. Repeat this process, healing and recharging your Beam Katana energy when necessary until he goes down.
The other method is significantly more meta. Instead of selecting Sonic after hitting “fight,” try moving your cursor elsewhere on the screen! You can attack the menu windows and essentially “deconstruct” the game, forcing Sonic into a more traditional action-driven battle.
Since Sonic Juice always follows the same pattern (charge up, attack for about 50-70 damage, then attack for 400-500 damage), there are ample opportunities to heal up. Make sure you don’t dip below 500 HP, or your quest shall come to a tragic end!
Afterward, you will fight a more traditional battle against Sonic Juice. The basic strategy is to dodge his attacks, run in, get in as many hits as possible, and then retreat before the next round of attacks happens. The techniques he uses in his first phase are pretty simple, mostly mirroring those in his RPG phase: a fist-smash, a swinging-arm attack, the Legendary Water spell (which will hone in on you and is fairly easily dodged), and a flurry of small projectiles. If you dodge his punches with good timing, you can enter into a slow-motion mode, allowing you to strike back for some decent damage.
At 2/3rds health, Sonic Juice gets two new attacks. For the first attack, he will create a hub made of water in the middle of the field, with damaging liquid “spokes” that circle around it. You can either move alongside the water to keep yourself from touching it or jump over the damaging bits as they come at you. Soon afterward, Sonic will lunge at you with a massive spinning pinwheel of rotating water blasts. Time a dodge correctly to weave in-between the liquid spikes, and you’ll be in the clear–and in a good spot to deal some damage.
He gains some more attacks once you’ve shaved his life down to one-third. When you see Sonic reeling back, he’s preparing to launch a massive wave of water at you. Move to the very left or right edges of the platform (opposite of what side he’s on), and the tidal wave should barely miss you. Afterward, water will emerge from the center of the platform in three consecutive circular ripple formations, starting from the center. You’ll have a second to see where they’re coming from and react by getting out of the way.
Sonic isn’t terribly mobile, though he’ll sometimes rear back a bit just out of range of sword swings. If you want some extra damage, try using Death Slow when you have an opening. Death Rain works very well, too, since he doesn’t move out of a small radius very often. Don’t get yourself too wet, and you’ll hang him out to dry with ease.
SPOILER WARNING: Be careful! No More Heroes 3 is a game filled with surprises, and sometimes boss fights don’t always go as expected. In other words, we recommend not reading the boss strategy until you’ve actually started fighting the boss to avoid spoiling some of the game’s best moments!
Finally, it’s time for the showdown with the Asshole Prince of the Cosmos. The entire game has been building up to this battle, and you’d better believe that it’s going to be quite a challenge! For more guides, be sure to check out our No More Heroes 3 beginner’s tips.
How to Defeat FU (AKA Jean-Baptiste VI)
As is fitting of a final boss, FU comes with an arsenal of extremely dangerous close- and long-range attacks. Close-up, he fights with blazing-fast claw swipes and hair whips. At a distance, he can summon a wave of huge spikes to emerge from the floor. He also creates drills out of wind energy and sends them to hone in on Travis. (Alternatively, he may send them out in a wide fan pattern instead.)
FU’s most annoying move is a wrestling grab, where he’ll dash up to Travis and headbutt him several times before tossing him to the ground. You can’t escape this once you’re caught in it–the only way to not take damage is to simply not get hit.
What makes this battle so difficult is FU’s rarely-relenting defense. Death Force is almost useless, and Death Kick is very frequently nullified when FU puts his guard up. You’ll need to counter when he’s missed a close-range attack, either with a Perfect Dodge or by catching him in his brief recovery phase (such as when he tries to grab you and misses). If you dodge and try to hit him while he’s still in his attack animation, you’ll find your strikes deflected. Do not attack until you are sure you have an opening because otherwise, you’re in a terrible position and will likely be eating a headbutt (or worse).
At 2/3rds of his life, FU gets two new attacks added to the mix. The first attack has his floating up into the air to shoot a massive blast of dark energy down to the ground. The blast radius on this attack is enormous, so once you see him preparing it, prepare to duck-roll and run far away! (Use the dodge+B button skill learned from the Power-Up machine for easy extra movement range.) The second new attack is a series of dark energy waves radiating out from his body. He’ll send out several of these in a row, and while the damage radius isn’t too large, it’s still not something you want to be caught in. For easy damage, get behind FU during this attack and use Death Rain, or use Death Kick to interrupt and potentially dizzy him.
At one-third life, he becomes his most dangerous. He’ll begin using a swift, leaping claw strike to try to catch Travis off-guard. Be prepared to guard if you see him rearing back. He also gains a technique where he’ll hover in the sky and cause pillars of spikes to emerge from the ground where Travis is standing, one after the other. Keep on moving during this attack, and you should be able to outrun the hazards.
Don’t get complacent, though–it’s not over yet! Prepare to take on FU’s final form!
The good news is that the second fight with FU is considerably easier. Fu’s claw will pop out of the rainbow-colored portals surrounding the arena. Sometimes it will retract, and other times, it will lunge out in a straight line to attack Travis. After this attack, the arm remains vulnerable briefly. Now’s the time to go in for some strikes. If you’re feeling saucy, you might try to hold a charged heavy attack until one of the arms lashes out, then smack it for a big chunk of damage–the hitboxes on the limbs can be a little wonky, however, so if you attempt this it’s best to go for the bigger hand part. You can also put yourself in a position to Perfect Dodge and work to score more damage that way.
When you’ve shaved off a quarter of FU’s life, he’ll opt to attack with a slower, meatier arm instead. It’s not too much more dangerous than the first phase, so just keep looking around to see where you’ll need to attack. At half of his life bar, he’ll add some dark energy lasers shooting down from the walls as an environmental hazard, restricting your movement space while also switching back to swift strikes. Finally, when he’s on the ropes at a quarter of his life, the big beefy fists will return to try to pummel you.
FU’s final form fight is more of a test of patience and alertness than anything else. Keep your wits about you and strike when you can to give FU a big ol’ F-U.
In the latest update to the ongoing conversation around Pokemon Go’s pandemic-related bonuses, Niantic has released an update stating it’ll be standardizing bonuses across countries. This means some bonuses have been removed for the US and New Zealand, and some have been added for all other regions.
In early August, Niantic prompted fan backlash when it removed pandemic-related bonuses for New Zealand and the United States, even as the Delta Covid variant caused new lockdowns and increased restrictions across the world. That decision was reversed in response to outcry from fans, and Niantic promised an internal task force would review further changes.
Now, the task force has completed its job, with the outcome being that bonuses will now be standardized across all regions globally. For instance, an extra boost to the effectiveness of incense while a player is walking, which was already implemented in New Zealand and the US, will now be available to players globally.
Trainers, As a result of our recent task force discussions, we will be replacing the two current sets of region-based bonuses with one set of global bonuses at the start of the Season of Mischief.
The change will also remove some bonuses, however, with New Zealand and the US losing an exp bonus for spinning a PokeStop for the first time, and one that awarded a second free raid pass each day.
Bonuses no longer in effect: 10× XP for spinning PokéStops for the first time Up to two free Raid passes per day by spinning Gym Photo Discs
All regions will receive a handful of brand-new bonuses, which will be rolled out with the Season of Mischief. These include 3 times bonus exp for spinning a PokeStop for the first time, and a doubled lure duration.
During the Season of Mischief, Trainers outside the United States and New Zealand will see the following bonus updates: New: Increased Incense effectiveness while walking 3× bonus XP for spinning PokéStops for the first time 2× Lure duration
The new bonuses seem to be designed to incentivize players to leave their homes to play Pokemon Go, even though many countries are now grappling with the Delta variant, with some implementing harsh new lockdowns.
Continuing bonuses: Increased Incense effectiveness Additional Incense effectiveness while walking Boosted damage for Trainers battling remotely in raids Guaranteed Gifts from PokéStop spins Buddy Pokémon will bring you Gifts more often
Many of the bonuses designed to make the game more playable from home remain in effect in all regions, however, including the increased PokeStop radius, increased Incense effectiveness, boosted damage for remote raids, and an increase in the number of Gifts you can collect from Buddy Pokemon and from PokeStops.
In this video, Persia talks about the latest news in gaming for August 31st.
Gunner Wright returns in the Dead Space remake as the voice of Isaac Clarke after voicing the character in Dead Space 2 and 3. Developer Motive Studios made the announcement during the Dead Space early gameplay reveal stream this morning. We also got our first look at the game in a very early build, graphics, enemies, and damage effects.
She also talks about Windows 11 launching this October and Respawn’s decision to remove Tap Strafing from Apex Legends – a technique used by mouse and keyboard players to change the trajectory of their air strafe that is inaccessible to controller players.
Lastly, she goes over some brand-new details revealed about NBA2K22’s gameplay mechanics as we approach its September 10th release date which includes a major revamp on shooting, defense, and more.
Be sure to like, subscribe, and visit GameSpot.com to stay up to date on all of the latest gaming news.
Zombies have been a staple of video games for decades now, almost becoming an annoying cliche. If you need an easy monster, throw in a few shambling undead bullet sponges and call it a day. But while zombies can be a dull addition to a game in the wrong hands, in the right ones, they can be terrifying, funny, fascinating, or intelligent, creating harrowing stories or leading to brilliant game mechanics.
We’ve compiled a list of zombie games that are next-level–titles that use the monsters to create intense tension, or look at the idea of a zombie apocalypse in new and interesting ways. From real-time strategy titles to horror shooters, these are the itchy, tasty zombie games that you should absolutely check out.
For years now, Call of Duty games have packed in a “Zombies” mode, and that mode and its various iterations have turned out to be fun, fascinating additions to the Call of Duty repertoire. While the Zombies mode of Black Ops – Cold War is the latest, each has offered its own unique spin on the inventive mode. It requires players to fend off waves of increasingly tough zombies, earning money from their kills to buy better weapons. But that’s only the surface level–your actual goal is to accumulate cash to spend removing barriers that expose more and more of each Zombies map, where you fight to solve puzzles and figure out how to advance further. The entire mode is predicated on figuring things out through repetition and exploration, with no waypoints and few hints to tell you what to do. Add to that Zombies’ penchant for bringing in famous actors and big names in horror and Hollywood–like Night of the Living Dead director George A. Romero–and you’ve got something that’s wholly different from every other zombie game out there.
Beginning its life as a mod, DayZ really tapped into the “survival” side of survival-horror. The game drops you on an island overrun with zombies, tasking you with finding everything you need to survive when you get there. While the computer-controlled undead are a major problem, your real worry is the fact that you might run into other player-controlled survivors. They might choose to help you, or they might try to kill you and take everything you’ve got. Never knowing what you might face is part of DayZ’s appeal, and it left such a strong impression that it helped give rise to the survival genre of games, and later, battle royales.
The Dead Rising games take the opposite approach to titles like The Last of Us, Resident Evil 2, and The Walking Dead. These titles put you in places overrun by zombies, but the atmosphere is a little campier and there are quite a few more ridiculous costumes at play. Navigating through the hordes is less about terror and more about creatively overcoming a big, mindless obstacle–and you get some ludicrously fun ways to do that. Dead Rising 2 lets you craft ridiculous weapons to shred, cook, electrocute, explode, and otherwise dismantle zombies, while also offering a big world with lots of other characters to find and rescue. It’s a funny, overwrought take on the end of the world, and if you like killing zombies in ridiculous ways, this one’s for you.
In video games, it seems that there are quite a few places overrun by zombies. Dying Light drops you onto an island swarming with the undead and tasks you with making your way through its open world by running and parkouring across its half-destroyed buildings and deserted vehicles. There are all sorts of missions to complete as you run around the game’s island, working with different factions and trying to save survivors and procuring weapons to help you stay alive. But the best part of the game is undoubtedly its movement system, and the terror you face as night falls and the really frightening monsters come out.
The Last of Us is about a world overrun by “infected,” and while they’re not actually zombies–the mindless humans have fungus growing in their brains and that’s what turns them into killing machines–the game is basically set in a zombie apocalypse. What makes The Last of Us work is its well-drawn characters and the realism and intensity it brings to its setting and premise. It’s hard to separate the two games in the series, since their narrative and mechanics are so essentially intertwined. In both The Last of Us games, developer Naughty Dog has created a story that feels populated by real human beings stuck in an impossible situation. Both games are incredibly emotional and often raw, while also putting you into frightening, violent fights for your life.
When you think of quintessential zombie game experiences, it’s impossible not to come up with the Left 4 Dead series. Developer Turtle Rock Studios used a zombie apocalypse to define a whole subset of multiplayer games, placing you both in the role of a group of survivors fighting their way through the horde, and in that of some vicious special zombie creatures that can ravage those poor humans. The essential part of Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 is teamwork, whether you’re the human crew blasting your way through hordes of infected enemies, or you’re the monsters themselves, trying to lure the humans away from one another to pick them off. The zombie apocalypse is a perfect setting for a cooperative game, and Left 4 Dead created some phenomenal gaming moments by leveraging it.
Zombies make for solid opponents in the tower defense genre. Their insatiable hunger and one-track minds make them great cannon fodder, and Plants vs. Zombies allowed players to use a variety of fun, goofy plants as weapons to fend off brain-munching foes. With Garden Warfare 2, developer Popcap mixes tower defense with a third-person class-based shooter, allowing you to take on the roles of a bunch of different plants and zombies in a huge battle for the neighborhood. There’s a whole lot of content here, with lots of multiplayer shooter options, giving a whole other spin to the idea of fighting zombies–and that of having a green thumb.
With Project Zomboid, the zombie apocalypse gets a sandbox survival approach. You’re a survivor of the zombie apocalypse, as usual, but here the work of staying alive requires a whole lot more effort. You not only have to deal with hordes of the undead, you also have to construct buildings and defenses to protect yourself, craft items so you can make food, and stave off other problems, like depression or infections. Project Zomboid brings a whole lot of additional depth to the usual tasks of scoring headshots on zombies, and while it’s still not a “complete” game, it’s constantly being updated with new features as it goes through the development process.
In no small part, the popularity and straight-up terrifying nature of the Resident Evil games is responsible for the zombie trend that has lasted for more than two decades. Several of the games in the franchise capture the best and most frightening parts of the horror subgenre and are worthy of your attention–including Resident Evil Remake and Resident Evil 3–and others aren’t quite “zombie” games but are still excellent riffs on the genre. But the remake of Resident Evil 2 might just stand above the rest. It puts you in the midst of a city tearing itself apart as it’s ravaged by a horde of zombies, and while there are plenty of other creatures vying to scare the hell out of you, there’s nothing quite like the realization that the entirety of Raccoon City is shuffling toward you, arms outstretched and hungry.
The bigger the world, the more frightening the zombie apocalypse that annihilates it, which is what makes State of Decay work. It puts you in a huge open world that’s filled with zombies, in which you have to think seriously about risk and reward if you want to survive. Fighting the horde is never advisable, so what’s the best path to your next objective? How can you avoid the undead to keep yourself safe? You can address your problems in different ways, especially as you meet more characters and add them to your group of survivors–and control them as you see fit. Each character has their own stats and capabilities, requiring you to harden them through combat and allowing you to use them to their strengths to help your entire group survive. Having access to lots of characters fighting for survival gives State of Decay a different strategic spin on surviving the undead.
Lots of games let you fight zombies, but few let you be one. Stubbs the Zombie was the imaginative tale of one such member of the undead just trying to get by in a society that hates him. In order to keep from being killed, uh…more, you have to use Stubbs’ various powers to snack on the living and create your own zombie horde, while fighting off police and the military and slowly taking over a 1950s town on a quest for revenge. Stubbs is a goofy game with a lot of fun ideas and some interesting spins on the comedic elements of the zombie genre, and does a great job of making you feel like patient zero, creating your very own zombie apocalypse.
Before The Walking Dead had quite become a full-on television phenomenon, there was Telltale’s take on the iconic comics. Another story of the zombie apocalypse as it unfolded all over the country, the point-and-click, narrative heavy adventure game followed Lee, a former convict, as he worked to care for and protect Clementine, a young girl who’d lost her parents. The bond created between Lee and Clementine, as well as the often terrible choices the game would put to players as they fought to stay alive at the end of the world, turned The Walking Dead into a classic, and one that works to make the zombie apocalypse something frightening to play through.
Zombies are useful to a lot of genres of video games. In They Are Billions, zombies are the antagonists of a real-time strategy game in which you’re tasked with protecting the colonies of the last surviving humans. As the title suggests, however, the zombie hordes are enormous and overwhelming. You’ve got steampunk technology at your disposal, though, allowing you to fight back the enemy with some unconventional approaches. And while They Are Billions is a real-time strategy game and thus requires you to act on the fly to use tactics to stop the zombie advance, it also allows you to pause so you can think about your actions before you commit to something that might get you and your colonists turned.
While it originally showcased the Wii-U in some cool ways, Zombi (or ZombiU as it was previously titled) eventually made it out to other platforms, where it revealed that it wasn’t just the Wii-U’s singular controller that made the game cool. The first-person title sends you into a zombie-infested London where you fight to survive, but each time you die, the character you were controlling is lost for good–along with all their stuff. While all the progress you previously made remains, you’ll have to find your past character’s corpses to recover your old gear–and you might have to fight them as a zombie as well.
Way back in 1993, Zombies Ate My Neighbors pitted players against all sorts of brain-crunching undead as they worked to save their suburban neighborhood. What makes the top-down action-adventure game is its sprawling levels that are all themed after classic horror movies like Night of the Living Dead, Them!, Tremors, Dracula, and a whole bunch more. With some inventive kid-themed weapons, fun level design, and a whole lot of movie Easter eggs and callbacks, Zombies Ate My Neighbors became a classic for anybody who loves old horror and sci-fi movies. It recently received an update to bring it to modern consoles, so you can enjoy the old-school shooter on just about any machine.
EA is bringing back its college football franchise with a new release at some point in the future, but ahead of that, Madden NFL 22 is offering a glimpse at college football gameplay through a new mode in the professional sports game.
10 college football teams are now in Madden NFL 22 through the Campus Legends limited-time event for the game’s Superstar KO mode. Of note, this is the first time since EA’s NCAA Football 14 that a college football experience is fully playable in an EA title. Madden NFL 22’s story mode does include some college football elements, but it’s limited in nature. The Campus Legends event, meanwhile, lets you play real games against teams of your choosing and against other people.
College football comes to Madden NFL 22
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To promote the launch of Campus Legends, iconic college football players that went on to NFL careers, Vince Young (University of Texas) and Reggie Bush (USC), will compete in the mode at Rose Bowl Stadium inside Madden NFL 22. You can watch it live at 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET through the NFL YouTube Channel and Madden NFL Twitch.
The 10 teams in Campus Legends are:
Clemson University
University of Miami
Louisiana State University
University of Florida
University of Oklahoma
University of Texas
University of Southern California
University of Oregon
University of Nebraska
Michigan State University
Not only are these teams in Madden NFL 22, but their squads are made up of a roster of alumni, including the aforementioned Young and Bush, as well as Tim Tebow (Florida), JuJu Smith-Schuster (USC), Odell Beckham Jr (LSU), Adrian Peterson (Oklahoma), and Patrick Chung (Oregon), among many others. You can see the rosters for all 10 teams on EA’s Campus Legends site.
The Campus Legends event runs until September 27.
As for EA’s upcoming college football game, it might not launch until 2023. A big point of contention and uncertainty around it is regarding player names and likenesses. The NCAA recently approved legislation allowing college athletes to earn profits from their name, image, and likeness, and EA said it is taking this into consideration for its new game.
The game will feature over 100 teams and replicate their logos, stadiums, uniforms, and gameday traditions; however, EA is not working with the NCAA at all on the new game due to various ongoing lawsuits and these legal proceedings. This is also why the company is doing away with the “NCAA Football” branding moving forward.
Apex Legends has a different character for every playstyle. The squad-based battle royale offers 18 different Legends, each with their own set of abilities and lore. Respawn has also added a new Legend every single season, so the game is always evolving. Below is a complete guide, offering lore details for each Legend and a description of all their abilities.
Both of Apex Legends’ modes–battle royale and arenas–are traditionally played in squads of three, although there is a duos playlist for battle royales. Each Squad can only have one of each Legend, so players will need to figure out the best combination of three Legends for their own playstyle.
Anita Williams, also known as Bangalore, is from a military family where she, along with her four brothers, served in the IMC. Anita, along with her brother Jackson, were aboard the IMS Hestia when it was attacked. Jackson died saving Anita, who was stranded on a Syndicate planet. Now, she fights in the Apex Games in an attempt to raise enough money to pay a pilot to take her home to her family.
Bangalore is an attacker focused on dispersing large groups of enemies.
Passive Ability: Double Time
Bangalore runs faster for a short period of time after being shot while sprinting.
Tactical Ability: Smoke Launcher
Fires a smoke canister that explodes into a smoke wall on impact, used for obscuring enemies’ line-of-sight.
Ultimate Ability: Rolling Thunder
Calls in an airstrike that drops an airstrike across an area. Missiles sit on the ground for a short period before exploding.
Bloodhound
Bloodhound is known in the Outlands as one of the best game hunters ever seen. The child of two engineers at the New Dawn industrial plant on Talos, they were raised by their uncle Artur after their parents were killed in a meltdown. Bloodhound was raised to believe in the Old Ways, a system that rejects technology and focuses on nature. However, they always had an interest in technology and ended up combining their knowledge of nature with technology to save their village from a goliath.
Bloodhound is a recon Legend, with skills focused on locating and following enemy squads.
Passive Ability: Tracker
Bloodhound can see tracks recently left behind by opponents and how long they have been there. Bloodhound can also use Survey Beacons to reveal the next circle’s location.
Tactical Ability: Eye of the Allfather
Bloodhound can briefly reveal enemies, traps, and clues directly in front of them.
Ultimate Ability: Beast of the Hunt
Beast of the Hunt enhances Bloodhound’s abilities, allowing them to run faster and highlight enemies in the environment. It turns the environment black-and-white and highlights enemies in red.
Caustic
Andrew “Caustic” Nox is a brilliant scientist employed by Humbert Labs, where he works on pesticide gases. Nox attempted to create better pesticides to protect the crops of the Outlands but eventually grew tired of only testing on tissue, moving to live subjects. He became obsessed with the beauty in his destructive gas, eventually leading to conflict with other scientists, destroying the lab in the process. Now he competes in the Apex Games as Caustic, employing his deadly gases.
Caustic is a defender focused on fortifying his squad’s position.
Passive Ability: Nox Vision
Allows Caustic to see enemies through his gas. Caustic is also fortified, taking 15% less damage and not being slowed by bullets.
Tactical Ability: Nox Gas Trap
Drop canisters that release gas whenever players get near them or they are shot. The gas deals damage over time, ignoring shields.
Ultimate Ability: Nox Gas Grenade
Caustic throws a gas grenade, which covers a large area in deadly gas.
Crypto
Tae Joon Park, also known as Crypto, is a brilliant hacker and an expert in drone technology. While he uses his drone to find hidden enemies in the Apex Games, his real purpose there is to find the people who framed him for murder. Park, along with his foster sister Mila Alexander, worked as computer engineers for the Mercenary Syndicate. They discovered an algorithm that could predict the result of any Apex Games match. This caught the attention of the wrong people and Alexander disappeared and Park was blamed for her murder.
Crypto is a recon Legend, focused on revealing enemy locations with his drone.
Passive Ability: Neurolink
Enemies scanned by Crypto’s drone within 30 meters of your position are visible to you and your teammates. Crypto can also use Survey Beacons to reveal the next circle’s location.
Tactical Ability: Surveillance Drone
Crypto can deploy a controllable drone that can scan enemies in the surrounding areas. Enemies within range are scanned and visible. The drone can be left unmanned and will still scan enemies that come into range. If destroyed, the drone has a 40-second cooldown. The drone can also recover dead teammates’ respawn banners.
Ultimate Ability: Drone EMP
Crypto’s drone sets off an EMP, which damages shields, disables traps, and slows enemies.
Fuse
Walter “Fuse” Fitzroy is a demolitions expert with a knack for bombastic showmanship. Fitzroy grew up on Salvo, a planet ruled by a rotation of mercenaries and warlords. There Fitzroy was a mercenary alongside his friend Maggie. While Fitzroy felt the call of the Apex Games arena, Maggie felt the drive to become the next powerful warlord. Salvo eventually lost its independence, becoming part of the Syndicate, giving Fitzroy his chance to join the arena, but Maggie was not willing to let him go without a fight.
Fuse is an attacker focused on displacing enemies using explosives.
Passive Ability: Grenadier
Fuse can stack one extra grenade per inventory slot. Fuse can also throw grenades farther, faster, and with more accuracy.
Tactical Ability: Knuckle Cluster
Fuse can launch a cluster bomb from his arm that continuously fires off airburst explosives after landing, damaging enemies.
Ultimate Ability: The Motherlode
Fuse launches a bombardment, which creates a circle of fire that damages any enemies that try to move through its walls.
Gibraltar
Makoa Gibraltar is the son of two Search and Rescue Association of Solace volunteers, raised to understand the importance of protecting others. Gibraltar still has a wild side though. When he was younger, he and his boyfriend stole his father’s motorcycle for a joyride and ended up in a dangerous landslide. His father was able to save them but lost his arm in the process, causing Gibraltar to dedicate his life to helping people. He joined the Apex Games for a reason different than all the others: to protect his friends and squadmates from harm.
Gibraltar is a defender focused on shielding his teammates from harm.
Passive Ability: Gun Shield
Gibraltar has a gun shield that deploys when he aims down sights. The shield can absorb some incoming fire. Gibraltar is also fortified, taking 15% less damage and not being slowed by bullets.
Tactical Ability: Dome of Protection
Gibraltar can throw down a dome shield that blocks incoming and outgoing attacks. All allies and enemies can walk through the shield, but it cannot be destroyed.
Ultimate Ability: Defensive Bombardment
The defensive bombardment calls in a concentrated mortar strike on a position. This disorients enemies and damages them. It can also damage Gibraltar.
Horizon
Dr. Mary “Horizon” Somers is an eccentric astrophysicist and is over 100 years old, technically. With the help of her assistant Dr. Reid, Somers discovered Branthium, which she believed to be the key to limitless energy. However, Branthium can only be found within a black hole, so Somers and Reid set out on a dangerous mission.
Reid betrayed Somers during the mission, stealing the Branthium and sending Somers’ shuttle into the black hole. While she managed to escape, 87 years had passed. Now Somers competes in the Apex Games to raise money for her research into time travel, so she may go back and spend time with her son.
Horizon is an attacker focused on using her abilities to rush enemies and displace them.
Passive Ability: Spacewalk
Horizon has increased movement control in the air and recovers faster after hitting the ground, due to her custom suit.
Tactical Ability: Gravity Lift
Horizon throws a device that creates a gravity lift. It propels both teammates and enemies straight up, boosting movement when exiting the lift.
Ultimate Ability: Black Hole
Horizon can throw the N.E.W.T. device, which creates a temporary mini black hole that pulls in enemies and holds them there. It does not deal damage.
Lifeline
A combat medic, Ajay “Lifeline” Che is different from the rest of the competitors in the Apex Games. Che is the child of wealthy war profiteers, who left home after learning of the damage her family’s business caused. She joined the Frontier Corps, a humanitarian organization that helps those in the Frontier community in need of aid. She joined the Apex Games to raise money for the Frontier Corps and has no problem taking down anyone else in the games to do so.
Lifeline is a support Legend focused on healing and reviving teammates.
Passive Ability: Combat Medic
Lifeline uses her healing drone to revive teammates, leaving her free to move around and defend them. Lifeline can also open an extra compartment on blue supply bins.
Tactical Ability: D.O.C. Heal Drone
Lifeline can deploy a healing drone that will heal herself and her teammates over time, as long as they stand next to it.
Ultimate Ability: Care Package
Lifeline can call in a Care Package, which will fall from the sky. The package contains an assortment of healing items, gear, or weapon attachments of high quality.
Loba
At the age of 9, Loba Andrade’s parents were killed by the hitman Revenant in front of her. Left with nothing, Andrade survived by pickpockets. After developing her thieving skills, she stole the Jump Drive bracelet, which allowed her to take her heists to another level. However, when she learned that Revenant joined the Apex Games, she began to plot her revenge, putting thieving on the back burner.
She sabotaged a factory producing Revenant bodies, destroying Skull Town and Thunderdome in the process. However, this wasn’t the only hidden factory producing these, so Andrade joined the Apex Games to find a way to permanently end Revenant.
Loba is a support Legend focused on finding high-quality loot for her squad.
Passive Ability: Eye for Quality
Loba can see Epic and Legendary rarity loot through walls, with the same range as her ultimate ability.
Tactical Ability: Burglar’s Best Friend
Loba can throw her jump drive bracelet, which will teleport her wherever it lands. It can also be retriggered mid-flight to drop straight down, allowing Loba direct control over where she ends up.
Ultimate Ability: Black Market Boutique
Loba can set up the Black Market anywhere, which will allow herself and any other legends to pick up two items within its range. Players can also pick up ammo without it counting as one of the items. Loba can manually close the shop at any time by interacting with it, to prevent enemies from using it.
Mirage
Elliot “Mirage” Witt likes to stand out from the crowd. The youngest of four brothers, Witt only ever took one thing seriously: Holo-Pilot technology. Introduced to it by his mother, Witt learned everything he could about the technology, allowing him to create and control holograms of himself. His brother went missing during the Frontier War, driving Witt and his mother closer.
Mirage worked as a bartender, hearing amazing stories about the Apex Games. The riches and glory interested him, but he didn’t want to risk leaving his mother childless. However, his mother gave him a custom-made set of holo devices and told him to chase his dreams, leading Witt to become the life of the party in the Apex Games.
Mirage is an attacker focused on distracting and confusing enemies with his decoys.
Passive Ability: Now You See Me
Mirage automatically cloaks when reviving teammates or using a respawn beacon.
Tactical Ability: Psyche Out
Mirage can deploy a holographic decoy to confuse enemies. The decoy can either run to a marker or mimic Mirage’s movements.
Ultimate Ability: Life of the Party
Mirage deploys multiple decoys at once, all mimicking his movement while running in different directions. Mirage briefly cloaks upon use, before reappearing.
Octane
Octavio “Octane” Silva is a natural-born daredevil. The son of the busy CEO of Silva Pharmaceuticals, Silva has always had everything he ever asked for. This led to Silva being bored, which resulted in Silva becoming a daredevil, performing stunts and posting holovids of them. Silva decided to beat the record for a nearby gauntlet by propelling himself across the finish line with a grenade. This stunt cost him his legs and the doctors told Silva his daredevil days were over. Silva didn’t like this and guilted his friend Ajay Che into forging an order to give him bionic legs. With the ability to repair his legs, Silva set his sights on the ultimate adrenaline rush, The Apex Games.
Octane is an attacker focused on quickly entering or leaving fights.
Passive Ability: Swift Mend
Octane automatically restores health over time when not in combat. Octane does not restore shields over time.
Tactical Ability: Stim
Octane moves 30% faster for 6 seconds upon use. Costs a chunk of health to use. Octane is slowed less by enemy attacks while active.
Ultimate Ability: Launch Pad
Octane can deploy a jump pad that propels Legends into the air. Legends can perform a second jump while in the air.
Pathfinder
Pathfinder is an optimistic and upbeat MRVN (Mobile Robotic Versatile eNtity) modified for location scouting and surveying. He booted up decades ago in an abandoned warehouse with no knowledge of his creator or why he was there. Pathfinder has spent his time searching for his creator but has not found any information. He joined the Apex Games in hopes to draw the attention of his creator and to make a few new friends along the way.
Pathfinder is a recon Legend focused on getting teammates and himself from one location to the next.
Passive Ability: Insider Knowledge
Scanning a survey beacon reduces the cooldown of Pathfinder’s ultimate ability. Pathfinder can also use Survey Beacons to reveal the next circle’s location.
Tactical Ability: Grappling Hook
Pathfinder can fire a grappling hook, which will propel him towards his destination.
Ultimate Ability: Zipline Gun
Pathfinder can set up a zipline for everyone to use.
Rampart
Ramya Parekh, or Rampart for short, is a blue-collar, small business owner who runs a popular modding shop on Gaea. Parekh made a name for herself in the underground gauntlet circuit, using her custom-modded gear. She took jobs from smugglers, Syndicate members, and anyone else willing to pay.
Parekh never had an issue telling people exactly what she thought of them, which may have led to a group of assailants burning her shop down. Left with nothing but an invitation to Apex Games, Parekh joined the games.
Rampart is a defender focused on setting up shields and a minigun, allowing her squad to deal high amounts of damage from a stationary position.
Passive Ability: Modded Loader
Rampart has increased magazine capacity and faster reloads when using LMGs and the minigun.
Tactical Ability: Amped Cover
Rampart can deploy a cover wall, which provides a crouch-height cover. The wall has a shield that goes up, which amps outgoing shots to do more damage and blocks a limited amount of incoming fire.
Ultimate Ability: Emplaced Minigun “Sheila”
Rampart deploys a mounted machine gun that anyone can use. It has a high ammo capacity but a long reload time. Rampart can only have three miniguns active at once.
Revenant
Revenant was once a man, one with flesh. He also used to be the greatest hitman the Mercenary Syndicate had ever seen. But after his programming failed, Revenant realized that he was no longer human. Hammond Robotics and the Mercenary Syndicate turned him into a simulacrum, a robotic form imbued with his personality. They had been making him forget every time he “died” and was put into a new body.
Revenant swore to destroy everyone who did this to him but two decades have passed since then. He thought they were all gone, but Hammond Robotics has reemerged, giving Revenant new targets to enact revenge upon. He joined the Apex Games to continue his quest for revenge and doesn’t mind taking down a few Legends along the way.
Revenant is an attacker focused on disabling enemies’ abilities and rushing their position.
Passive Ability: Stalker
Revenant can crouch-walk faster and climb higher than all other Legends.
Tactical Ability: Silence
Revenant can throw a grenade that silences enemies, leaving them unable to use their abilities. The grenade leaves behind an area of effect that will silence any enemies that walk near it.
Ultimate Ability: Death Totem
Revenant can place a totem that protects Legends when they use it for a limited time or until the totem is destroyed. Legends who use the totem take health damage instead of shields and are returned to the totem when they run out of health. Legends returned to the totem will have 50% health if they had 50% health or higher when the totem was activated. Legends below 50% health when the totem was activated will be returned with the same amount of health, (a Legend with 30% health would return with 30% health, but a Legend with 80% health would return with 50%).
Seer
Obi “Seer” Edolasim was cursed before he was even born. It was foretold that he would bring pain and suffering to the world, and the night he was born a meteor struck his world’s moon. The moment the community saw his pale blue eyes, they declared the child cursed and shunned him. Edolasim’s parents loved him unconditionally, seeing the empathic and creative child instead of the curse.
Edolasim began fighting in the arenas and the crowd was unsure of him at first. As his success in the arenas continued, members of the crowd that also felt like outsiders began to see themselves in Edolasim. Now, he has joined the Apex Games, as a Legend instead of a curse.
Seer is a recon Legend focused on finding and revealing enemy positions nearby.
Passive Ability: Heart Seeker
Seer can hear and see a visual representation of nearby enemies’ heartbeats when aiming down sights. The heartbeats are shown by a yellow indicator that points towards the heartbeats and creates a full circle when aiming directly at enemies. Seer can also use Survey Beacons to reveal the next circle’s location.
Tactical Ability: Focus of Attention
Seer fires off a cylinder blast of micro-drones that marks and interrupts enemies. The blast shows an indicator of where enemies are and shows their health bars to Seer and his teammates.
Ultimate Ability: Exhibit
Seer throws a drone, which creates a large sphere of micro-drones around it. Enemies within the sphere who move quickly or shoot are highlighted for Seer and his teammates. The sphere stays active for a limited time but can also be destroyed by shooting the drone in the center.
Valkyrie
Kairi “Valkyrie” Imahara has always been brash and hard-headed. She even stole a Titan when she was a child. It was her father’s, callsign Viper. She wanted to be just like her father, but one day he left on a mission and never returned. For awhile, Imahara had her own ship, smuggling goods for money, while searching for the man who put her father in harm’s way: his captain, Kuben Blisk. She tracked Blisk, but he spoke about her father with nothing but respect and challenged Imahara to be better.
Imahara took this to heart, shooting him non-lethally and stealing his Apex Games invitation. Equipped with a jetpack made from her father’s Titan’s flight core, she joined the Apex Games to establish her own legacy.
Valkyrie is a recon Legend, focused on finding enemies from an elevated position.
Passive Ability: VTOL Jets
Valkyrie can use her jetpack to fly. It has limited fuel, which refills over time. Valkyrie cannot shoot while the jetpack is active. Valkyrie can also use Survey Beacons to reveal the next circle’s location.
Tactical Ability: Missile Swarm
Valkyrie can fire a barrage of missiles that damage and disorient enemies.
Ultimate Ability: Skyward Dive
Valkyrie can launch herself and her teammates into the air, allowing them to skydive back into the map. Nearby enemies are marked during the ultimate, giving Valkyrie and her teammates knowledge of enemy positioning.
Wattson
Natalie “Wattson” Paquette might be one of the youngest competitors in the Apex Games, but she has been around the games the longest. The daughter of the Apex Games’ lead electrical engineer, Paquette studied her father’s manuals to become closer to him, finding her calling in the process. She became such a talented engineer that she was commissioned to build the Apex Games Modified Containment Ring. The day the ring was revealed, her father passed away, leaving Parquette alone. Her friends invited her to return to the Apex Games, assuring her she always has a home there.
Wattson is a defender, focused on protecting teammates from incoming attackers.
Passive Ability: Spark of Genius
Ultimate Accelerants fully charges Wattson’s ultimate ability. Wattson also gradually regenerates shields over time.
Tactical Ability: Perimeter Security
Wattson can place electrical nodes that create a fence of electricity when connected. Enemies take damage and slow down when moving through the electrical field.
Ultimate Ability: Interception Pylon
Wattson can place an electrified pylon that destroys incoming ordnance, like grenades and airstrikes. It also repairs the shields of anyone standing within range. The pylon can be destroyed by enemies or will break automatically after a set amount of time. Wattson can only have three pylons active at once.
Wraith
Wraith used to be senior science pilot Renee Blasey. She once volunteered to be the guinea pig for her own experiments, who was betrayed and locked away by her partner. But the experiment that gave her the ability to phaseshift also took her memory. All that was left was a scared woman, imprisoned and haunted by the voices in her head. Eventually, another voice convinced her to listen to them, allowing her to escape that prison and reality.
Wraith joined the Apex Games to explore the old IMC bases that the games take place near. Wraith competes for a chance to find out more information about what happened to her.
Wraith is an attacker focused on being able to quickly and safely escape firefights.
Passive Ability: Voice from the Void
Wraith is alerted when someone is aiming at her. Wraith is prompted to make a call out to her teammates when this occurs.
Tactical Ability: Into the Void
Wraith can shift into the void, allowing her to move through the world without taking damage. Wraith cannot see enemies while shifting and is only visible as a stream of light to other Legends.
Ultimate Ability: Dimensional Rift
Wraith can set up two portals that any Legend can travel between. Wraith begins the ability by placing one end and running to the location where she wants to place the other. Wraith cannot shoot while setting up the portals.
Konami is phasing out online support for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Metal Gear Online on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 beginning today.
A post on Konami’s website says that Metal Gear Solid V’s purchase system on PS3 and 360 are shutting down. All DLC for Metal Gear Online will no longer be available for purchase beginning on November 30.
The full shutdown of online play won’t happen until May 31, 2022. Konami does confirm, of course, that the main game will still be playable offline on the impacted systems.
Metal Gear Solid V includes two multiplayer modes. One is Metal Gear Online, a PvP mode that supports up to 16 players hunting each other down with the game’s stealth and espionage mechanics across three game modes. The other is an online version of the game’s base-building feature, which can be used to get items and money for the main game.
The Phantom Pain released back in 2015. At the time, IGN called it a masterpiece in our Metal Gear Solid 5 review, saying, “The Phantom Pain doesn’t just respect my intelligence as a player, it expects it of me, putting it in a league that few others occupy.”
