When searching for a new shooter to check out, whether it be the best FPS games on PS5, the best FPS games on Xbox Series X, or the best FPS games on PC, battle royale games will always be on the list. This new subgenre exploded in popularity after PUBG showed how much potential there was in the format of dropping into a map with a hundred other players to scavenge for supplies and fight to be the last man (or team) standing. Since then, tons of new games have attempted to refine and reinvent the genre with some standout successes and some colossal failures. We’ve hit the point where almost every genre has a battle royale to try, with most being cross-platform games and free-to-play. If you’re on the hunt for a new battle royale game to test your survival skills in, we’ll show you which ones are worth dropping into.
The battle royale genre is crowded, but there are some upcoming video games that have the potential to make it on this list when they launch.
Nintendo did it again. Just like with Tetris, it made a game (and genre) we never would’ve thought could fit into the battle royale mold work like a charm. This time, it’s F-Zero 99. Featuring graphics ripped right out of the SNES title, you will race, boost, and jockey for position against a swarm of other crafts. This one is all about maintaining your lead, which is much harder than you expect with so many other players on the track. It’s a bit on the simple side, but easy to jump into and have a blast with.
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.
Imagine tapping a Zelda icon on your iPhone and jumping straight into Hyrule. A new open-source project called nxnative makes that possible by repackaging Switch games you’ve bought into apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with no emulator in the middle.
Why does this run so well on Apple devices?
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.