Apex Legends: The Most Wanted Tips, Tricks and Secrets

Apex Legends’ surprise launch early last week took the gaming community by storm, crossing the 25-million player mark within the first seven days alone. It’s been a busy couple of weeks for our guides team, as well, putting together all the tips, tricks, and strategies we can to help you become champions of King’s Canyon. Using a combination of traffic, comments and user feedback and search inquiries, we’ve been able to see what’s been most important to players jumping into the Apex arena these past two weeks.

There are currently 19 weapons that can be equipped in Apex Legends. Based on our experience, here is our take on the best to worst guns to use in Apex Legends:

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AFL-CIO Calls on Game Developers to Unionize

The AFL-CIO, the United States’ largest federation of labor unions at 12.5 million members, has put out a call to game developers to unionize.

The letter, which was written by AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Liz Shuler on Kotaku, is “the group’s first major public statement about organizing game developers.”

She begins by bringing up the fact that “growing by double digits, U.S. video game sales reached $43 billion in 2018, about 3.6 times greater than the film industry’s record-breaking box office.”

These sales numbers, she adds, are “built by legions of tireless game developers,” who have “built new worlds, designed new challenges and ushered in a new era of entertainment.”

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The Origin of Every Character in Jump Force

There are a ton of characters in Jump Force – 40 playable to be exact, – hailing from 16 different anime and manga series. I did the math, that means in order to be fully caught up enough to know all about all these characters and the anime they’re from, you’d need to have watched 3,781 episodes of anime (please don’t check the math).

Fortunately, you don’t have to do that. Here are the origins of all 40 anime/manga characters from Jump Force.

One Piece

Monkey D. Luffy

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Witcher Tabletop RPG Getting Free “Easy Mode”

R. Talsorian Games has announced that for Free RPG Day – an annual event in June where the tabletop roleplaying community aimed at introducing players to new games – they will be giving away a streamlined version of The Witcher: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game.

Called “Easy Mode,” the free version of the game consists of a 24-page booklet containing a condensed version of the Interlock rule system, pre-generated characters and a ready-to-run adventure path for whomever in your group opts to GM. We had an excellent time playing the full version of the game with its creator, Cody Pondsmith, and highly recommend you check out this free trial if you’re interested in getting into tabletop RPGs.

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5 Ways Black Panther’s Success Could Inspire Video Games

Nearly a year after its release, the cultural impact of Black Panther continues to be undeniable. Between unprecedented box office triumph, overwhelming critical love, award nominations and wins, the Grammy Award nominated soundtrack curated by Kendrick Lamar, and every mention of “Wakanda Forever,” director Ryan Coogler created more than just a highlight within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Black Panther has single-handedly pushed blerd (black nerds) lifestyle into mainstream pop culture. There’s even an annual three-day Wakandacon event in Chicago dedicated to this new phenomenon. With all the historic bullet points Black Panther checked off, it still comes at a time where video games are regularly outpacing box office sales. Red Dead Redemption 2 marked the biggest opening weekend sales in entertainment history at $700 million, for example. Now that gaming continues to be the dominant art medium in America, can the industry replicate the same societal effect?

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Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III to Conclude Trilogy

The 80th anniversary of Batman and the 35th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be celebrated this May with a six-issue conclusion to the crossover trilogy that has brought together these iconic characters.

Announced by DC, IDW and Nickelodeon, Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III will begin on May 1, 2019, and will see Batman and the TMNT fighting together against Krang once he “has gotten his hands on the most dangerous technologies in the DC Universe – and no universe is safe from his wrath!”

The first two volumes saw our heroes face off against the Foot Clan in Gotham and then against Bane in New York.

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Aspiring Engineer, Designer, or Product Manager? Check out our 2019 Internships!

TL;DR: https://www.ign.com/code-foo/2019

Hello internet! We are excited to announce that IGN’s 2019 paid internship programs are now accepting applications! For the past eight years, IGN has run a paid internship called Code Foo for aspiring web developers. This year we’re changing things up a bit. In addition to Engineering, we will also be offering paid internship programs for Product Management and Design! Each program will run in tandem for eight weeks. We’re looking for impassioned coders, designers, and product managers to learn and work alongside us on projects that are seen by millions of people.

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Ranking the Movie Batmans

With Ben Affleck confirming that he has hung up his cape and cowl and won’t be playing Batman again, the time has come to once again light up the Bat-Signal, call all the Dark Knights to action, and figure out who the best movie Batman truly is.

Whether they appeared only once as the Caped Crusader or starred in a full-fledged trilogy, these stars all hold the honor of donning the cape and cowl of Gotham’s one true protector. Whether it was an animated release, a colorful tongue-in-cheek romp, or a grounded and gritty take on the vengeful vigilante, the following actors breathed life, for better or worse, into Bruce Wayne and his cranky costumed alter ego. (And a note: We’re not including the Batmen from the old movie serials here because movie serials aren’t really movies.)

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Smash Bros. Tournament Bans Ice Climbers’ ‘Wobbling’ Technique

Get On My Level, a Canadian fighting game championship, is banning Ice Climbers’ infamous “Wobbling” technique in this year’s tournament.

Announced by GOML, the decision came following player feedback, and fans on Twitter and Reddit are largely pleased by the news – though some fans are less than thrilled by the news. This rule applies only to Smash Bros. Melee matches, as Wobbling is impossible in all other versions of Smash. The tournament, which takes place in Toronto, Ontario from May 17-19, 2019, will also feature Tekken, Dragon Ball FighterZ and Street Fighter V.

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