Tap-strafing, a player-created, high-skill level movement strategy in Apex Legends, will be removed from Respawn’s battle royale. On Twitter, Respawn revealed that tap-strafing will be removed in Patch 10.1.
Tap-strafing is a move that allows players to turn on a dime, and can only be done on mouse and keyboard. The move involves a few steps, and includes binding forward movement to up or down mouse scroll.
After doing a slide jump, players must hold down a strafe key for whichever direction they want to go.
Players then must scroll the mouse wheel up or down while holding the strafe key but without moving the mouse, which will cause the player to be pulled diagonally in the direction the player is strafing.
Finally, players need to move the mouse in the direction they are strafing while scrolling the mouse wheel and holding the strafe button to be propelled forward.
The mechanic is not an intended feature, but is a skill players learned to do on their own from playing the game. Numerous competitive games, whether it’s Rocket League or Call of Duty, often times see players using mechanics that the developers may not have planned for or even knew existed, but become adopted by the community and integral gameplay components at certain skill-levels. Tap-strafing has all kinds of advantages for players who have learned how to do it consistently, and since it’s only doable on keyboard and mouse, has been a source of complaints for those playing on consoles with cross-play enabled.
But the mechanic will soon be removed, with Respawn saying the movement quirk is “inaccessible, lacks readability/counterplay, and is exacerbated by movement abilities.”
After much consideration and debate, we’ve decided to remove tap-strafing from @playapex in patch 10.1. Our reasoning: It’s inaccessible, lacks readability/counterplay, and is exacerbated by movement abilities. The next patch notes will include a more detailed note about this.
As outlined above, the actual steps to pulling off a tap-strafe are a little complicated, and is typically only used at high-skill levels, bringing in to question why, exactly, Respawn feels the need to remove it entirely after the move has become a key part of the game among top players. More details on what exactly the removal of the mechanic means for Apex Legends will be coming with the arrival of the game’s next set of patch notes. Judging from Twitter reactions to Respawn’s announcements, fans have a lot to say about the subject, with many calling on Respawn to keep the feature in the game.
It’s not the first time Respawn has removed unintended mechanics from Apex Legends. Way back in the game’s first season, Respawn removed the ability to bunny hop heal, which saw players essentially bypassing the slowdown effect that administering a healing item usually gives. In Season 5, Respawn removed the ability for players to zipline jump, adding a cooldown for how quickly players were able to reattach to ziplines. Both moves were used by higher-skill level players to get a leg up on the competition in ways the developers didn’t initially consider.
Apex Legends Season 10: Emergence, is now live, adding new character Seer, map changes to World’s Edge, weapon and character balance updates, and more. The game’s upcoming 10.1 update will be the first major patch of the season.
Deathloop, the latest new IP from Dishonored and Prey developer Arkane, is just around the corner, promising some high-octane antics within its time-loop premise. It’s launching exclusively on PS5 on consoles, which also means it’s taking advantage of many of the features the DualSense has to offer.
In the latest trailer for the shooter, Arkane does a pretty great job of getting across what you can expect to feel from your DualSense while playing. The first is with the controller’s triggers, which will feature different resistances depending on which weapons you’re using to give each a distinct feeling. The triggers will also jam when your gun jams in-game, giving you a tactile response to the event before you must watch Colt, the game’s protagonist, trying to fix it without dying.
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Now Playing: Deathloop – Official Next Gen Gameplay Immersion Trailer
Haptic feedback is also being tuned to make all your actions in-game feel realistic as you make them. The trailer shows how the vibration will change when walking through crunchy snow or how it will mimic the heart rate of an enemy you’re about to take down stealthily. The controller’s speaker is also used to make walkie-talkie chatter a bit more immersive.
All these options can be tweaked and turned off if you like or need, so you won’t be forced into it. But it does show how versatile the DualSense is when used creatively, and how all these features wouldn’t be possible on the Xbox Series controller by contrast. Xbox’s Phil Spencer has praised the DualSense in the past, and not ruled out a revision to the current Xbox controller during this generation.
Deathloop launches on PC and PS5 on September 14. A release date for Xbox Series X|S has not been announced, although it has been confirmed that the exclusivity deal lasts for at least one year.
The Suicide Squad director James Gunn has revealed that one character who many presumed dead actually showed signs of life if you looked close enough.
During a virtual watch party for the movie on Monday night, Gunn took to Twitter to share some behind-the-scenes secrets and tidbits of trivia about The Suicide Squad that fans may have missed on their first viewings of the film. In one tweet, the filmmaker encouraged fans to look out for a very important detail surrounding the supposed death of Nathan Fillion’s T.D.K.
“Important to note if you look at the life signals in the Comms hub TDK isn’t dead,” Gunn tweeted during the watch-along. T.D.K. actor Nathan Fillion retweeted the director’s note, adding in his own thoughts. “I noticed that very loudly when I saw this in the theater,” he quote-retweeted in response. “Apologies again, for the disturbance.”
Early on in the movie, T.D.K., aka The Detachable Kid, is called into action during Task Force X’s beachhead assault on Corto Maltese. He detaches his arms, which hover across the beach to slap around the rebel gunmen. Needless to say, his slaps prove ineffective and the armless T.D.K. finds himself riddled with bullets, but that might not be the end for him after all.
At another point during The Suicide Squad watch party, Gunn was asked how many of The Suicide Squad characters will show up in his upcoming Peacemaker series on HBO Max. The director reeled off a list of names, including the most obvious one, John Cena’s Peacemaker, together with “Emilia Harcourt, John Economos, and, well, heck maybe one more.”
This prompted fans to speculate over which character Gunn may be alluding to in his tweet, with some now citing T.D.K. as a potential candidate for a return. Fillion reteamed with Gunn for The Suicide Squad after appearing in a cameo role in Guardians of the Galaxy as well as starring in Slither and co-starring in Super, all of which were helmed by the director.
Apple AirPods are currently down to just £70.96 at Amazon, sold via Amazon Warehouse (see here). With a list price of £159, you’re saving almost £80 on Apple AirPods, an incredible discount. This is a limited time deal, however, so don’t hang around and miss out.
Amazon Warehouse is where Amazon sells off items that they can’t sell at full retail price, normally because of damaged packaging. Not only that, the majority of goods are completely fine and certified by Amazon themselves. I’ve personally used Amazon Warehouse purchases before and everything has gone smoothly, so I can’t recommend this deal enough.
Get Apple AirPods for just £70.96 (was £159)
As you’re buying from Amazon Warehouse, you’ll need to make sure you’re adding the correct item to your basket. If you’re buying the right item, you’ll see ‘Save 30% at Checkout’ in the product description. The discount won’t show up until you’re at the checkout phase, but once you’re there, you can secure your AirPods for just £71.
More Amazon Warehouse Deals
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
Several members of the Cyberpunk 2077 modding community have been hired by CD Projekt Red to work on a number of projects related to the game.
As announced in an update on the Cyberpunk 2077 Modding Community Discord Server (and shared on Reddit), modder Hambalkó Bence (who goes by the online alias Traderain) said that they would be joining CD Projekt Red alongside fellow modders Blumster, Nightmarea, and rfuzzo. The modders are set to team up with CDPR under Yigsoft, a development company run by Traderain and Nightmarea.
In the update, Bence spoke further about their new role at CDPR. “We will be working on various projects related to the Cyberpunk 2077 backend and the game’s modding support,” the update said. “We are really excited for this and we really hope we can help to bring Cyberpunk 2077 to the next level.”
Since then, a number of patches to Cyberpunk 2077 have been carried out and CDPR said in June that it was finally ‘quite satisfied’ with the game’s stability and performance. With patches for the game continuing to roll out and new features being created by the modding community, it will be interesting to see what impact the new additions from Yigsoft make to Cyberpunk 2077 over the coming months.
If you’ve kept up with the recent gaming landscape, it feels like we’ve seen Far Cry 6 again and again at every event to the point where Ubisoft might be oversharing a bit. So it was kind of relieving to get my hands on the game instead of passively observing. And after playing about five hours, let me tell you, this sure is a Far Cry game.
A huge open world, missions spread across a wide map, explosions and firefights, camps to clear out, weapons to unlock and upgrade, you name it. I have a bit of a “been there done that” feeling, albeit with some legitimately fun moments in between. It’s a variation on a formula from a gameplay perspective, but there are ways in which it seems to be forming its own identity. That’s primarily because of its setting, Yara.
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The team behind Far Cry 6 has been trying to make Yara as much a character as Anton Castillo, the main villain played by famed actor Giancarlo Espositio. The easy parallel for Yara would be real-life Cuba–it’s a Latin American country composed of islands in the Caribbean West Indies in the midst of an armed revolution.
Its people are being crushed under the weight of a violent dictatorship, and you see this in explicit detail in just the opening hours. You, playing as a woman or man named Dani Rojas, get rolled into a larger Guerilla movement called Libertad, and they gradually buy into this revolution and the means necessary to carry it out. Gameplay-wise, this means seizing checkpoints and territories, gunning down Castillo’s army and cronies, and carrying out missions for various leaders across Yara’s islands. Narratively, it means taking control of the resources that turn the tides of conflict and understanding why this collective effort is worth the struggle.
The hesitation with Far Cry is that Ubisoft games often tip-toe around its thematic backdrops or settle for generic political tales for set dressing, simply using them as playgrounds for wild open world action. I had the same reservations previewing Watch Dogs: Legion last year. I suppose Far Cry 6 could get away with that, but drawing inspiration directly from a real-world revolution, only a few generations removed, comes with the expectation of a somewhat earnest portrayal. Its narrative director Navid Khavari has said as much and that this game is embracing its political themes.
Five hours with what’s presumably a game that could take upwards of 50 hours to reasonably complete isn’t going to show you every facet of its narrative. But I will say that it sets a strong tone from the start and has moments that show promise. When character dialogue in the main story isn’t leaning into goofiness or simple platitudes, it seems to be genuinely laying the groundwork for understanding the intricacies of what Yarans are really fighting for and why it’s important to the larger revolutionary group.
A conversation emblematic of this takes place as you finish the mission to leave the first island. After sabotaging two of Castillo’s warships, you take a speedboat with Clara, Libertad’s leader, and have a brief, affecting exchange asking: what now?
Clara:What’s your plan when you reach America?
Dani:Me and my friend Alejo were going to work shit jobs until we could scrape up some money. Open a body shop. If the Yanqui blockade taught us anything, it’s how to keep things running when you got nothing.
Clara:That’s the dream? Sure, Yanquis might pay you to park their cars or pick their fruit, but you’ll never be one of them. The American Dream doesn’t come in our color.
Dani:Okay, if we’re shitting on dreams, what are you going to do if you win, “Presidente Garcia?”
Clara:The next president won’t last six months before they are assassinated.
Dani:Wait, what?
Clara:It’s the truth.
Dani:Won’t free elections solve that? What happened to your list?
Clara:It’s a vision, Dani. But I’m not as naive as you think. This revolution will free Yara, but won’t fix it. When we take the capital, Yara will be burning. Could be civil war, factions, warlords, foreign-backed coups. Take your pick.
Dani:Yarans will be killing Yarans for a generation.
Clara:Aja. This fight will take the rest of my life. Yara is stuck in a cycle of tyranny and revolution. My job is to show us how to break it.
This sets a bold tone, but also the expectation for Far Cry 6 to follow through on what’s distinctly a Latin American story. It’s not a throwaway conversation in a side quest or one that’s happening in the background of a mission. It paints a picture of the rebel group you’re fighting for. It establishes a basic but clear understanding that America isn’t the answer. Rather, it’s often part of the problem, and that liberation is much more than taking up arms and killing tyrants–although that is primarily what you’re doing as a player.
Anton Castillo looms over the main story beats, and his violent, imposing presence fills each scene. Alongside his reluctant 13 year-old son Diego, who still has a moral compass, it creates an uneasy tension. However, I don’t think there’s a clear understanding of Castillo’s motivations or any particular depth in the early hours. He has complete control of the workforce and production of a potential cure for cancer called Viviro, enforced through violence and oppression, and is manipulative in using his “love for Yara” to excuse everything. The hope is that there’s more to his deal than evil for evil’s sake. If anything, Diego seems more intriguing from a narrative perspective.
Some scenes aren’t for the faint of heart, as they can be quite gruesome. But Far Cry is also goofy in its open-world action hijinx. The inherent bombast that comes with the series doesn’t necessarily preclude it from featuring more poignant moments of storytelling. When done right, a dash of levity can help personify its world and characters. The “legends” who fought Yara’s previous regime are an interesting bunch with their ability to influence the movement and their tendency to just be washed up old timers. But then there’s this oddball farmer who has a superpowered chicken named Chiccharon who you chase around in a series of side quests, and it’s all rather annoying and grating–and uhh, yeah, I’m not a fan of shooting dogs like fish in a barrel, no matter how rabit they may be. On the flip side, there’s an upbeat but careless loose cannon Jonrón, whose fiery edge brings some attitude to the cast. This is scratching the surface considering the size of the game, but I’ve found supporting characters to be hit or miss in this brief play session, so your mileage may vary.
As it comes with the territory, Far Cry 6 has its wild gameplay shenanigans like summoning planes and helicopters to drop into a base and go in guns blazing before fending off waves of soldiers. Or burning down a whole farm that’s producing Viviro with a flamethrower to the tune of a Spanish rendition of the Italian revolutionary song “Bella Ciao” (a la Far Cry 3‘s infamous level with a Skrillex beat drop). Companions in combat, called Amigos, basically function like Guns For Hire from the previous game, except now they’re animals that await your command like the gator Guapo or the little pup-that-could Chorizo. All the while you have NPCs shouting “Coño! Coño!” more times than The Kid Mero’s AKAs at the end of a Bodega Boys episode.
Overall, the game uses its familiar design philosophies and typical open world shooter conventions. And if you’ve played the modern entries of Far Cry, you’ll know what to expect: solid gunplay, the ability to mix stealth and action, and a bunch of conventional and unconventional weapons to toy with. At workbenches, you’ll craft mods and upgrades, customize your loadout and perks, and tinker with Supremos which are your various super-abilities strapped onto you like a backpack. And it’s imperative you keep up with this since parts of Yara aren’t very friendly to the ill-equipped.
It’s a formula that seems to still be working for those who aren’t burnt out on these types of games. Whether or not the formula can evolve throughout the game’s runtime and hold your interest is always the question, though. Yara is huge and there’s a lot of open space, we’ll see if it makes the most of it.
Armed rebellion in a country plunged into chaos under a ruthless dictator? Yeah, I can believe a band of guerillas would pull up guns blazing. But I think Far Cry 6 is more promising if and when it gives you a reason to fight. A compelling narrative can help carry you through the mundanity or repetition that tends to creep up the deeper you get in a game like this.
Stories of revolution are infinitely more complex and nuanced than what can be packed into a Far Cry, let alone any video game. And some of us come from countries shaped by Spanish colonization and more recent histories of revolutionary movements have grown up aware of it. For me, it’s at least enticing that Far Cry 6’s story is trying to be more than a veneer for a spicy shooting gallery. That much I can appreciate.
More importantly: remember that people make games. If you believe that basic fact, then you owe it to yourself to at least be informed about Ubisoft’s employees taking action for changes to company culture in response to hostile work environments, abuse, and sexual harassment that’s been documented across Ubisoft’s various studios. Open letters and signatures in solidarity with the workers of Activision-Blizzard are also indicative of how Ubisoft’s leadership has failed to respond accordingly. How lawsuits and movements affect the way you engage with Ubisoft games, that’s your choice. But to ignore it is to deny that the people who make these games deserve a stable workplace free of hostility.
It’s the more important revolution happening in video games with actual, tangible effects on people’s lives. And it’s showing the very real effect of collective action. Far Cry 6 is only a video game, but understand that taking action to make the world around you a better place is always the move.
Far Cry 6 attempts to make the island of Yara as much of a character as the brutal dictator ruling over it: Anton Castillo, played by famed actor Giancarlo Esposito. We recently got to play a five-hour hands-on preview of Far Cry 6 and were able to experience a lot of the game’s main systems, including the custom Supremos and Resolver weapon classes and the supporting slate of Amigos who join you in battle. Our hands-on also allowed us to dive into the many activities and avenues for customization. Along with spending time modding weapons, we also took down checkpoints and bases, drove around in tanks, and recruited a bloodthirsty rooster named Chiccharon.
In this video, GameSpot editor Michael Higham gives a detailed account of his hands-on time with Far Cry 6 and how every new feature comes together to form its own identity. While you can expect the familiar Far Cry mechanics, there is a sense that the new open-world feels more active than ever when players can wield Supremos, which are basically super-abilities, which might help the game avoid getting too repetitive. We also managed to get in a few co-op missions and experienced how the game’s gear and level systems play when you have a friend with you. Overall, Far Cry 6 tries to elevate its story above a mere shooting gallery by tapping into the themes of real-world revolutions, potentially making it the most impactful and nuanced entry of the series to date.
Far Cry 6 releases October 7 on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.
Mobile games and console games used to be very clearly distinct, but those lines are getting blurrier every day. Thanks to higher-powered mobile devices and the advent of streaming and remote play, you can play console-quality games–or stream actual games from your console–right on your iPhone or iPad. Here’s how to play PS5 games on your iOS devices.
This functionality is done via Remote Play, a feature that streams games from your PS5 console to your phone, using the screen as a display device. Contrary to the name, Remote Play can’t be done very remotely, as you need to be connected to the same network as your PS5. But Remote Play is a great option for moments when you’re in your home but don’t have access to the TV–laying in bed, watching a show, or yes, sitting on the toilet.
First thing’s first, you’ll want to pair your PS5 DualSense controller to your iOS device. Even though the PS5 is being used as a display for the system, you can’t simply pick up your DualSense and use it as normal; it needs to be paired with the phone. With that done, download the PS Remote Play app from the iOS App Store. While it downloads, you can get your PS5 ready to link up with your phone.
How To Enable PS5 Remote Play On iPhone Or iPad
Enable Remote Play Go to Settings > System > Remote Play and check the “Enable Remote Play” box.
Link iOS Device After enabling Remote Play, go to “Link Device.” You’ll be given a unique 8-digit code to input to your mobile device through the Remote Play app. That will link the devices.
(After Initial Setup) Select Your Console These steps will enable Remote Play for the first time. Subsequent times starting the Remote Play app, you may be prompted to enter your PlayStation username and password. Then simply select your console from the list of linked devices to start Remote Play.
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Again, keep in mind that Remote Play is meant to be used at your home, using the same broadband wired network that is connected to your PlayStation 5. Sony recommends at least a 5Mbps broadband internet connection, though 15Mpbs with a LAN connection is advised for the optimal experience. You cannot use Remote Play with a cell network. And naturally, you’ll need a free PlayStation Network account to login to your account across the devices.
What Can You Play?
Since Remote Play is simply using your phone as a display device, there are no hard limitations on what you can do versus playing on PS5 as normal. You’ll be able to play games, switch between games, start downloads or make purchases on the PlayStation Store, manage settings, or anything else you would ordinarily do on your PS5.
However, some games that use special controllers, like PlayStation VR games, will not work with Remote Play. Some text-heavy games might also prove to be a challenge to read on a smaller iPhone screen, so keep that in mind as you plan your play sessions.
Chances are you have a powerful gaming system in your pocket right now. Newer models of iPhone are even more powerful than some recent dedicated gaming hardware, and more developers are being sure to put controller options into their mobile games. Whether you want to play the wealth of games on Apple Arcade or stream a game through the cloud, it’s a great time to sync up your handy gaming controllers to your iPhone.
And because games on mobile devices are bearing more and more of a resemblance to full-blown console games, a controller is sometimes a must. Fast-paced action games can technically work with virtual buttons, but it’s not ideal for gamers looking for precision sword swipes and parries. It’s also nice to have a controller for meaty games that lend themselves to longer playing sessions, like the Apple Arcade RPG Fantasian.
Just follow these simple steps to connect your DualSense PS5 controller to your iPhone or iPad. Before you get started, make sure your iOS device is updated to software version 14.5 or later.
How To Connect PS5 DualSense Controller To iPhone Or iPad
Turn your DualSense into Pairing Mode
To activate Pairing Mode, press and hold the Share button and the PS button simultaneously until the light bar located at the top of the controller flashes.
Connect DualSense to your iOS device via Bluetooth
Tap the Settings app on your iOS device
Go to the Bluetooth sub-menu near the top of menu settings
Make sure Bluetooth option is toggled on
Find “DualSense Wireless Controller” under a list of Other Devices
Tap on DualSense Wireless Controller to pair
Playing iOS Games With DualSense
With your controller paired you can get started playing. Some games might be designed with Xbox controller support in mind, so you may have to do some mental math to map the controller’s button prompts to the DualSense layout. And while most games will map the controller buttons automatically, some might require you to do your own mapping.
Keep in mind, also, that while the DualSense has some advanced features like haptics and motion controls, those features aren’t compatible with iOS and won’t be enabled for use with iOS games. That means some of the most standout features of the controller won’t be used, so it’s not quite exactly like playing on a console.
