Things have been fairly quiet since the launch of Apex Legends’ first season of post-launch content, but the developers have revealed the plans for the next patch. The new update addresses PC crashes, hit detection, the Lifeline banner that is crashing PS4s, and more. It’s not an exciting collection of updates, but it is one that should improve the quality of life across the board.
Apex Legends came flying out of the gates at launch, surprising nearly the entire gaming community. It climbed rapidly to the top of concurrent players across platforms and had a solid debut season of post-launch content, but then things calmed. The reason? Respawn Entertainment executive producer Drew McCoy says that the company wants to stick to the plans laid out before Apex Legends became a massive hit so its employees can avoid crunch. McCoy also alluded to some of the changes this upcoming patch is focused on.
Hit detection has been a small point of contention with Apex Legends and other battle royales but Respawn is pushing forward a fix that should cut down on incorrect hit registration. The company is also implementing some new framework to be able to track bullet damage info so they can spot issues sooner for future updates. This new addition is an effort to see how much internet connection is impacting gameplay.
After issuing a temporary fix for PlayStation 4 players, Respawn will be putting out a full patch of the issue created by Lifeline’s “Pick Me Up” banner frame. Also, if you suffered from any audio dropouts, Respawn is issuing a fix that makes the audio engine more efficient and lessens the chance for those types of problems. There are additional audio-related changes coming and you can read about them in the team’s Reddit post.
One bug players are sad to see go is the ability to stick objects to Gibraltar’s Gun Shield. This bug has produced some hilarious results, including the famed “Gibraltoad” glitch, which occurred whenever players would attach Caustic’s Bounce Pad to Gibraltar’s Gun Shield and send him bouncing through the air. The Apex developers acknowledged that this was a fun bug but was not intentionally added and could be taken for granted. They’ve graciously added the ability to deflect Arc Stars using the Gun Shield in return.
Apex Legends Season 2 is in development and Respawn will be showing it off at EA Play in June, which is an event that runs alongside E3. As stated in McCoy’s letter to fans, the developers have been taking in feedback and are aiming to produce a Battle Pass with “more meaningful content, the introduction of a new Legend, the debut of a new weapon” and a change to the game’s map Kings Canyon.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.