Apex Legends moderators banned more than 16,000 cheaters since the game’s Feb. 5 launch, and promise more punishment for anyone not getting the message. It may be a little tricky, for now, as the battle royale does not have a reporting feature directly in the game. The ban info came in an overall update posted to Reddit on Friday. The game’s second patch will come sometime this week, although Respawn shared no details about what it entails. Respawn is getting a soundstage and a set for live stre

Operation: Burnt Horizon is set to kick off year four of Rainbow Six Siege, and Ubisoft intends to ramp up post-launch support and continue to grow the game. This includes a team focused on player behavior and toxicity, to ensure that playing the game is as pleasant as it is balanced. An upcoming feature will punish players who are trolling their team with friendly fire by reflecting that damage back at them. Fans of Siege can expect the same cadence of eight new operators per season, but there

Evo Japan, the companion event to fighting game tournament Evo Championship Series, kicked off on Friday in Fukuoka, Japan. It’s the Japanese tournament’s second year, and it’s off to an auspicious start, thanks to a segment that focused on upcoming fighting game Dead or Alive 6. That segment, ostensibly meant to promote Dead or Alive 6, lead organizers of the tournament to take their Twitch broadcast offline and apologize to viewers. Evo Japan organizers shut down the stream shortly after. We s

Anthem, which doesn’t officially launch for most players until Feb. 22, relies on users to be online to access the game, let alone play any kind of missions. Early in the morning of Feb. 15, the day the game went live for early access, Anthem started to experience server issues that prevented players from launching any missions. This isn’t the first time that Anthem has experienced connection issues. Those early problems remained persistent throughout the game’s first day, but were mostly cleare

Overwatch League season 2 kicked off last night with a rematch of the 2018 Grand Finals competitors, Philadelphia Fusion and London Spitfire. As the teams were introduced, an unexpected orange guest made an appearance: Gritty, the creepy and meme-able mascot for the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, clad in a Fusion jersey. In the clip above, Gritty can be seen walking down the aisle, handing out high-fives and pumping up the crowd. At one point, a fan appears to offer him a flower bouquet, but Gritty

By “big,” I really mean “long,” as the Japanese Pokémon Center’s life-size Furret plush puts a very fine point on. The Pokédex tells us that Furret is 5 feet, 11 inches long, and weighs (a very concerning!) If you want to own a Pokémon plush that straight-up dwarfs you in size, have at it for a cool 30,240 yen, or roughly $273. The big Furret looks like a lovely, adorable body pillow/tube/yardstick, though. Pre-orders open Feb. 23 on the Pokémon Center’s online shop.

Ten games are leaving Xbox Game Pass at the end of February, headlined by Shadow Warrior, Massive Chalice, Sonic CD, and Resident Evil Revelations 2. Xbox Game Pass offers a “curated selection” of about 200 titles to subscribers, with the catch being they can disappear from the library at any time. Outgoing games can be found under the “Leaving Soon” category in the Xbox Game Pass tab on the Xbox One dashboard. Xbox Game Pass subscribers can buy the games outright for 20 percent off if they want

Trials of the Nine — known as Trials of Osiris back in Destiny, referred to together as “Trials” — was a competitive multiplayer mode in Destiny 2 that ran every weekend. But Bungie put Trials of the Nine on hiatus for Season 4, hoping to rework it after players stopped playing it as fervently as Trials of Osiris in Destiny. In this week’s blog post, Bungie announced that Trials won’t be coming back in Season of the Drifter, and that its future is looking grim for the rest of this year. “When we

God of War, the open-world adventure game from Sony Interactive Entertainment and SIE Santa Monica Studio, was a big winner at the 22nd annual DICE Awards. The PlayStation 4 game took top honors in nine categories, including Game of the Year, at today’s award show. In addition to winning Game of the Year, God of War won awards in game direction, game design, story, and art direction. The only other game to win multiple awards at DICE was action-platformer Celeste, which won action game of the ye

Today the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released the results of its study focused on hate and harassment online. The study shows that Americans’ exposure to online hate and harassment is on the rise, and that targets are disproportionately members of vulnerable minority groups. The study includes data on social media giants Facebook and Twitter, but also includes emerging platforms like Twitch and Discord. “37% of Americans have experienced severe online harassment,” says the ADL, “which includes

The latest title to take inspiration from the battle royale is not what we would have ever expected — it’s better. Tetris 99 is available today as a free download exclusively for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers, Nintendo revealed during today’s Direct presentation stream. It’s a competitive, online multiplayer version of classic Tetris gameplay, where 99 contestants vie to be the last player standing in the fierce puzzle game. Players can attack one another with “garbage” — i.e., tetrominoes

Here are the highlights: The PlayStation Classic, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Marvel’s Spider-Man are all on sale for $39.99. Best monitor deal: Alienware 34-inch Curved Gaming MonitorThis Alienware monitor is a beast, both in terms of size and power. Best console deal: PlayStation ClassicYes, the PlayStation Classic was, on the whole, a disappointment. Best game deal: Red Dead Redemption 2 and Spider-ManTwo of last year’s biggest hits are discounted to $39.99 today: Red Dead Redemption 2 and Marv

The first Nintendo Direct presentation of 2019, which came more than three months after the previous show, was chock full of announcements and details regarding Nintendo’s slate of Nintendo Switch games for this year. Super Mario Maker getting a sequel for Switch, not a portNintendo isn’t porting the beloved Wii U game Super Mario Maker to the Switch. Instead, the company is working on a brand-new follow-up, Super Mario Maker 2. PlatinumGames’ Astral Chain coming to Switch this summerThe next pr

Tactical Ability: Nox Gas TrapCaustic throws a canister of gas on the ground, which inflates and arms a moment later. Caustic can only keep six Nox Gas Traps out at a time before they start to disappear. Nox Gas Traps don’t take long to regenerate, and you can always pick up traps that haven’t gone off to reclaim them. Ultimate Ability: Nox Gas GrenadeCaustic arms and then throws a grenade filled with Nox Gas, which then spreads over a large area. The biggest hurdle to learning the Nox Gas Grena

You can use his abilities to misdirect enemies with decoys. Passive: EncoreMirage drops a decoy and turns invisible when he goes down. Enemies who shoot the decoys are automatically revealed with a ping. While it can be used to escape a firefight, consider saving it to confuse enemies and push the advantage. If you’re trying to escape or flank, you’ll want to break line of sight as soon as possible.

Lifeline is Apex Legends’ support-focused hero. For most Legends, reviving a teammate takes too long in the middle of a fight. Thanks to her passive, Lifeline can get her allies up fast enough to catch enemies off guard. Ultimate Ability: Care PackageCall in a drop pod full of defensive gear. If Lifeline uses her ultimate, her revived ally’s defensive needs should be covered.

Gibraltar is Apex Legends’ biggest and beefiest character so far. But even with all his extra shielding, Gibraltar still takes quite a bit of finesse to master. In this guide, we’ll make sure you know how to keep you and your team alive with Gibraltar’s skills in Apex Legends. Passive: Gun ShieldWhen aiming down sight, Gibraltar puts up a small personal shield. Tactical Ability: Dome of ProtectionGibraltar lays down a dome that blocks attacks.

Pathfinder, Apex Legends’ lovable robot friend, is always there to help get you where you need to go. Between his grappling hook and zipline, Pathfinder has plenty of ways to get around the map in a flash. But just because you can go somewhere in Apex Legends, it doesn’t always mean you should. The grappling hook is good for getting places other players may not expect, but it’s also great for mobility. Few abilities in Apex Legends have the potential for disaster like Pathfinder’s zipline does.

Bloodhound is Apex Legends’ resident tracker. No hiding enemy, but Bloodhound’s ability to reveal enemy positions has some drawbacks. Here are some tips to help you track down the enemy, without giving away your own position. If you’re backed up against a building or standing at a door, the pulse won’t reveal the entire building. Use it before going into a fight, rather than trying to activate after the shooting starts.

Wraith is one of Apex Legends’ most versatile characters. To help you make sense of Wraith and her abilities, we’ve got a few tips. Passive: Voices from the VoidA voice warns Wraith when an enemy is aiming at her. As simple as it may sound, this warning is Apex Legends’ best scouting tool. Wraith also has the ability to warn her teammates, but that isn’t always the best decision.