Now that Respawn has shared more details on the new character, Octane, and the first Apex Legends battle pass, it's confirmed that the battle pass doesn't feature any Fortnite-style challenges. In a blog post, Respawn said it might consider adding challenges or quests in future battle passes, but not in the first one because the studio wanted to instead give players more time to learn and experiment with the initial roster of characters."You'll notice the first version isn't built around a complex quest system where you need to do a 720 backflip off of Watchtower Artemis and get two Wingman headshots before hitting the ground," Respawn said in a sentence that appears to be referencing Fortnite. "While we think there’s really cool design space in quests and challenges for future Battle Passes, we wanted the initial version to allow our players to just play and learn the game."While there are no challenges in the first Apex Legends battle pass, which is called the Wild Frontier Battle Pass, there is a progression system that rewards players who try out a number of different characters. "This season is about exploring the new meta and variety of team comps driven by the launch of our first new Legend, Octane," Respawn said.Respawn also confirmed that almost everything in Apex Legends' first battle pass will be forever exclusive to Season 1. The only exception is that Apex Packs will be available every season, and their content won't be exclusive to any one season.Looking ahead, Respawn said you can expect future Apex Legends battle passes to include more "improvements, updates, and tweaks." The studio teased that it has a "lot of cool ideas in the works," and you can expect those to release over time.For more on the first Apex Legends battle pass and Octane, check out the stories below.Apex Legends Battle Pass, Octane Release Set For TomorrowApex Legends Battle Pass Detailed; Here's How Season 1 WorksApex Legends' Season 1 Battle Pass Costs The Same As Fortnite'sApex Legends Battle Pass Will Let You Unlock Enough Coins To Buy Season 2The Cheapest Way To Get Apex Legends' Battle PassApex Legends Adding Octane Tomorrow, But He's Not Part Of The Battle PassApex Legends Battle Pass Has Free Rewards For EveryoneInfo from Gamespot.com

Destiny 2's Jokers Wild expansion is slowly adding to the story of the Drifter, the character who runs the competitive Gambit mode and whose agenda and morality aren't quite clear. The Drifter acts nice, but he advocates for using less-than-noble methods to fight the enemies of humanity, and there are elements in the Vanguard--the military body governing the immortal Guardians players embody--who don't trust him.After spending a bunch of time with the Drifter and participating in his Gambit events, Jokers Wild presents you with a choice: either help the Vanguard spy on him, or side with him and his unorthodox methods. Your choice kicks off a quest line specific to each side, and it has long-term repercussions, including special rewards depending on where your allegiance lies.Bungie explained exactly what rewards you can expect on its This Week At Bungie blog. Once you choose a side, you're with them for the long haul, and you'll get a reward from that side every Tuesday at Destiny 2's weekly reset through the rest of Season 6.If you choose the Drifter, you get one of each kind of Gambit Prime Synth each week, plus 100 Infamy points in Gambit. On the Vanguard side, you get 10 Vanguard Tactician tokens, a Boon of the Vanguard item that gives you extra tokens during Strikes, and an Enhancement Core each week. Both sides give a piece of Powerful gear each week--if you pick Drifter, you'll get a piece of Gambit gear; if you pick Vanguard, you'll get Powerful Vanguard gear.Both sides also offer special lore options. Working with the Drifter teaches you more about him, while siding with the Vanguard lets you fill out the lore book called "The Warlock Aunor."You're stuck with your choice when you choose either Drifter or Vanguard, but luckily, it's possible to make both choices to check out everything. Your allegiance choice only applies to one character, so you can make a separate choice with another one to get both sets of rewards and lore.Info from Gamespot.com

A bug in The Division 2 has been discovered that prevents proper use of skills, and Ubisoft has assured that a fix is on the way very soon. The bug apparently impacts both the length that skills are deployed and their cooldowns. Players on the Division subreddit say the bug causes skills to deactivate only a few moments after triggering them. Then, in an odd fluke, the cooldown timer resets to 15 seconds, significantly shorter than usual. The community has tried testing the bug and so far hasn't been able to identify a specific cause.The good news is that it won't be a problem for much longer. In a maintenance note, Ubisoft says it will be fixing the bug with a brief maintenance period today, March 18, but it warns there may be "remaining issues" related to the bug. The team is aiming to resolve those with another patch later in the week. In the meantime, Ubisoft suggests avoiding the "Extra" and "Overlap" talents, which it says appear to be the main culprits. If you're struggling with The Division 2 even without the bugs, we have you covered. Check out our beginner's tips and how to level up fast, or just read up on the best guns. Or read up on reviews from around the industry."After spending 30 hours completing the campaign and beginning to dabble in the endgame, I'm still enamored with The Division 2," Edmond Tran said in our review-in-progress. "The range of enemy types continues to keep combat encounters challenging, the equipment I earn and pick up continues to feel different and valuable. The ravaged environments continue to intrigue, and sometimes they're so stunning I find myself needing to take a screenshot before I move on. There is still so much to see in The Division 2, but I want to take the time to see it. I have absolutely no clue why I'm here or what anyone's motivations are, and I wish I had a narrative purpose to my endless hunger for progression. But I'm glad to be here right now."Info from Gamespot.com

Avengers: Infinity War ended in dramatic fashion. The evil Thanos snapped his fingers and half the entire galaxy's population--including many beloved superheroes--perished. Writer Stephen McFeely said in a new interview that "the snap" wasn't always part of the movie.Instead, McFeely told Empire that the writers considered waiting until the second act of Avengers: Endgame for Thanos to cut the world's population in half."We had so much story in those early drafts of Infinity War that, if anything, we thought we maybe shouldn't do 'the snap' until the end of act one of Endgame," he said.Marvel boss Kevin Feige is also quoted in the story, saying that the writing and creative teams spent "years" considering the best way to tell the story of Infinity War and the overarching narrative. It was ultimately decided that Infinity War would end with "the snap," and this was truly a dramatic way to end the film."We talked about that ending for years and years and years," he explained. "It was the reason to adapt Infinity Gauntlet. What was the most shocking thing we could do? End the movie with 'the snap.'"While the ending to Infinity War was unquestionably dramatic, many fans believe "the snap" may be undone in Endgame, given that many of the characters who perished have future movies in the pipeline. According to writer Christopher Markus, the deaths from Infinity War are "real," at least in some fashion."It is a different movie than you think it is," Markus said about Endgame. "We broke your heart. Now we're going to blow your mind."Endgame is Marvel's next movie, and it's set to release in late-April around the world. It follows Captain Marvel, the Brie Larson-starring film that broke box office records. Endgame wraps up 10-plus years worth of storytelling, and it's expected to be the final film in Marvel's Phase 3 of its cinematic universe. You can see the latest Endgame trailer embedded above.Info from Gamespot.com

The upcoming Black Widow movie starring Scarlett Johansson continues to add to its cast. Sources told Variety that Florence Pugh, who will be seen next in the eerie Pagan horror movie Midsommar, is joining Scarlett Johansson in the Black Widow film.Pugh will play the second lead in Black Widow alongside Johansson, though it's unknown who she's playing. According to Variety's sources, Marvel considered "several candidates" for the role before deciding on Pugh after her won praise for her part in "Fighting With My Family."It's still early days for the Black Widow film. It's unknown currently if it's an origin story for the character or how it'll factor into whatever happens in Avengers: Endgame. That film is believed to be the final entry in MCU Phase 3, so Black Widow would take place in Phase 4 at the earliest.Australian director Cate Shortland (Somersault, Lore) is directing the Black Widow movie that's based on a script by Jac Schaeffer (Timer, The Hustle). Johansson is reportedly being paid $15 million to star in the Black Widow film.Despite all of the news about the Black Widow film, Marvel has yet to officially announce it.Black Widow the character will be seen next in April's Avengers: Endgame, with Johansson returning as one of the surviving members of the Avengers.Info from Gamespot.com

As part of Netflix's push to make more choose-your-own adventure style TV shows, the company has partnered with outdoorsman Bear Grylls for a new program.The show is called "You vs. Wild," and it premieres on April 10. "Viewers join survival expert Bear Grylls on exciting adventures all over the world. Dense jungles, towering mountains, brutal deserts, and mysterious forests await, with tough decisions around every corner," reads a line from the press release announcing the show.Viewers make "all the decisions," but we hope that whatever you choose, Grylls survives. There are eight episodes in You vs. Wild, all of which premiere on April 10.Check out the interactive teaser video above to learn more about You vs. Wild.Grylls served three years in the British Special Forces before going on to find mainstream success with his Discovery Channel show "Man vs. Wild," which inspired the 2011 video game of the same name.The new Bear Grylls show appears to be part of Netflix's wider ambition to make more interactive shows after the success of the Black Mirror Bandersnatch episode.Netflix VP Todd Yellin recently discussed Netflix's ambitions to make more choose-your-own adventure shows."We're doubling down on that," Yellin said during an event in Mumbai recently as reported by Variety. "So expect over the next year or two to see more interactive storytelling. And it won't necessarily be science fiction, or it won't necessarily be dark. It could be a wacky comedy. It could be a romance, where the audience gets to choose--should she go out with him or him."Info from Gamespot.com

Following the announcement of Halo: The Master Chief Collection for PC, many wondered if the title would be included in the Xbox Play Anywhere program. As it turns out, it won't.Halo studio head Bonnie Ross recently confirmed during a livestream that it won't be an Xbox Play Anywhere title, so those who bought it on Xbox One will have to buy it again if they want to play on PC. That being said, Ross teased that those who buy it twice may get some bonuses."While MCC shipped before the XPA Play Anywhere, we are exploring ways to make sure that we show our appreciation and recognition for the support we've had from the amazing fans on MCC and we'll have more to announce as we get closer to launch," she said during an HCS stream recently (via Kotaku).Xbox Play Anywhere is a program that Microsoft announced in 2016 that lets you buy select digital games on Xbox One or PC and get a copy on the other system at no extra cost. All progress and saves carry between platforms, so it's a nice way to ... play anywhere. There are dozens of games in the Xbox Play Anywhere catalog now, including Cuphead, Crackdown 3, Forza Horizon 4, Gears of War 4, and many others.Also during the broadcast, community director Brian Jarrard confirmed Halo: MCC won't support cross-play between PC and Xbox One at launch, though this feature could come later if the community wants it and if it makes sense for the studio. While there is no cross-play between Xbox One and PC, people who buy MCC on Steam and the Microsoft Store can play together.Finally, 343 confirmed it will hold a Reddit AMA on March 19 where it will answer questions about Halo: MCC on PC, the newly announced Halo Insider Program, and more.Halo: MCC is coming to PC later this year, beginning with Halo: Reach, which is also headed to Xbox One. On PC, the releases will follow individually, for separate purchase, in chronological order: Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo 4. Info from Gamespot.com

Activision is bringing a new Call of Duty game to mobile devices, and now what appears to be the first trailer for the title has come online. The game, which appears to be simply titled Call of Duty: Mobile, is a free-to-play game that promises "heart-pounding, adrenaline-fueled action of Call of Duty with you wherever you go."The game features "multiple game modes" across a number of different maps, including popular ones like Nuketown and Crash. According to Activision, the game is "optimised for mobile," but it's not exactly clear what that means in practice. At the end of the video, it appears Activision is teasing a battle royale mode, but it's not confirmed at this stage.Call of Duty: Mobile also includes weapons and characters from previous Call of Duty games, including Black Ops and Modern Warfare. However, it's described as a standalone game that is not directly connected to any previous entry.Activision is making Call of Duty: Mobile with "high-end" phones in mind, but the studio is also working to allow it to be "broadly accessible for as many other devices as well."Call of Duty: Mobile is coming to Android and iOS, and you can pre-register now. Signing up gets you access to the opportunity to earn in-game rewards and learn about upcoming beta tests, which are set to begin later this year.Last year, Activision announced a new Call of Duty mobile game for China that it was developing alongside Tencent. This is that same game, developed by Tencent's studio Timi, but now it's being expanded to other regions like North America, South America, Europe, and other places. Call of Duty: Mobile isn't the only new Call of Duty title coming this year. This year's mainline instalment is on the way, and it's expected to feature a campaign mode which is notable since 2018's Black Ops 4 left it out. The game is rumoured to be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 from developer Infinity Ward, but this is not confirmed. Info from Gamespot.com

The first teaser for System Shock 3 has arrived. Developer Warren Spector revealed the trailer during Unity's Game Developers Conference keynote today in San Francisco.You can check out the eerie teaser in the video below from Boston-based developer OtherSide.Spector produced the original System Shock game back in the '90s when he was working for Looking Glass Technologies. He joined OtherSide back in 2016."Working on System Shock was one of the most fulfilling things I've done in my career and it's hard to describe how much I'm looking forward to sharing with players what SHODAN has been up to since the last game was released," Spector said.OtherSide is headed up by Paul Neurath, who worked on the original System Shock with Spector at Looking Glass. The first System Shock was released in 1994, with sequel System Shock 2 arriving in 1999, so it's been quite a while since the latest mainline entry.An enhanced edition of System Shock from Nightdive Studios was released in 2015. No release date has been announced for System Shock 3, nor do we know what platforms it's headed to.What do you make of the first teaser for System Shock 3? Let us know in the comments below!Info from Gamespot.com

I don't know why I'm in Washington DC; some lady just told me to be here. But there are civilians in distress, armed gangs roaming the streets, and me, my pals, and the second amendment are apparently the only ones who can actually do anything about it. I have no idea what, if anything, is going on with the bigwigs I met in the White House. But so long as I'm helping folks, sending relatively bad people to bed, walking the pretty streets, and picking up a new pair of gloves every so often, I'm very happy to hang around.In the world of Tom Clancy's The Division 2, the USA has been ravaged by a virus and society has crumbled. While those who remain try to survive by banding together in groups of various dispositions, the Strategic Homeland Division activates highly specialized sleeper agents to try and restore order. It's a setting ripe in potential, perhaps to tell a ripping techno-thriller story that scrutinizes the structures of our modern society and government, or perhaps to make a video game that leverages the chaos that occurs when multiple idealistic groups clash in a vie for power in a lawless city. The Division 2 only does one of these things.It's not the story. Throughout the entirety of The Division 2's main campaign, never did the game spend a satisfactory amount of time on any semblance of an overarching plot, or the predicaments of its supposedly important figures. There are no character arcs, only abrupt setups and consequences. Narrative devices, like audio logs found in the world, add nothing of consequence. Even the game's biggest macguffins--the President of the United States and his briefcase containing a cure for the virus--have a minimal amount of absolutely forgettable screen time. The opportunity to use The Division 2 to create meaningful fiction is wasted.Instead, The Division 2 focuses its narrative chops into worldbuilding. The city, a ravaged Washington DC, initially feels a little homogenous in the way most Western cities do. But after some time, the personality of the different districts--the buildings, the landmarks, the natural spaces, and the ways they've been repurposed or affected by the cataclysm--begins to shine through. It's this strength of environment which lays a very strong foundation for The Division 2 as a video game, creating an engrossing, believable, and contiguous open world.Moving from your safehouse to the open world and your next mission area is almost entirely seamless. It's something that was also true of the original Division, but that doesn't take away from the fact that the simple act of going from place to place in The Division 2 is one of the game's more rewarding aspects. One road may lead to a skirmish with a rival patrol or an optional activity, another might simply give you another stirring scene of urban decay in the morning sun. An obscured shortcut through an apartment block might turn up some useful items in an abandoned home, which you might decide to donate to the makeshift settlements where civilians have attempted to rebuild their lives.Visiting those settlements--initially as hovels, before they gradually grow and become more charming, vibrant places thanks to your efforts in the world--becomes a strong motivator in the absence of a plot to chase. Outside main missions, which are dedicated to the weakening of rival factions and achieving indiscriminate objectives, the game's "Projects" are one of the most lucrative means of earning experience to better your character. Projects ask you to donate resources you find out in the world and participate in side activities, encouraging you to spend more time in the world, see new areas, fight new battles, search for new equipment to use, and find enjoyment in that. The Division 2 is, after all, a game devoted to providing you with a continuous stream of gripping conflicts, valuable rewards, and a perpetual sense of progress and satisfaction from doing these things. It does those things very well.You spend a lot of time hunkered behind cover, popping out to fire at any enemy dumb enough to expose themselves. With the large amount of weapon variety available, this familiar facet of combat is solid in itself. Add to that the ability to equip two special abilities from a possible eight--which include tools such as riot shields, drones, and from what I can gather, robot bees of some sort--and combat gets pretty interesting. But the vector that really keeps The Division 2's combat lively for upwards of 30 hours is the behavior and diversity of its enemy types.That time you spend in cover? The Division 2 doesn't want you to just stay there. You can go down very quickly if you're out in the open, but the game has a dozen ways to alway keep you taking those risks and finding better firing positions--aggressive melee units, remote control cars equipped with sawblades, even the regular assault units regularly attempt to outflank you. Those special abilities? You absolutely need to use them to their full potential to survive some encounters, whether by throwing out the seeker mines or the automated turret to keep enemies at bay while you focus on a priority target, or perhaps utilizing the chemical launcher to start a fire and create a zone of denial.The effort needed to take out an adversary is relatively reasonable for a shooter that prioritizes the RPG nature of its combat model, but some of the tougher enemies have additional, visible layers of protection which you need to focus on breaking if you want to land critical hits. On the flip side, some enemies have additional, obtuse weak points which can work to your advantage, but only if you can hit them. The fuel tank on the back of a flamethrower unit might be feasible, but when you start running into the terrifying robotic quadruped in post-campaign activities, whose tiny weak point only reveals itself seconds before it fires its devastating railgun, you have to assess whether you can afford to take on that challenge among all the other things pressuring you. The Division 2 throws a lot of hurdles at you, but also gives you the means to quickly counter and resolve them. Whether you can juggle that many balls at once is what keeps combat tense and exciting.What's also exciting is the treasure at the end of these gauntlets. These Washington locations, refashioned into memorable combat arenas, are often rewarding in their own right (a fight in a planetarium is an early standout). But improving your equipment is the vital, tangible part that keeps you feeling like you're making progress. You receive new gear in generous amounts, some dropped by an enemy or looted from a container found in the world, others rewarded for completing a mission, and the next dose always feels in reach. The weapon variety forces you to consider something completely different to take advantage of a power boost, and the armor variety provides an impressive number of different cosmetic looks. The Division 2 incorporates a microtransaction and loot box system for its inconsequential clothing options, though these can be found in the world and earned of your own accord, too.Like combat, gear remains intriguing throughout Division 2 not just because of the abstract desire to have bigger numbers attached to your person and progress further through the game's challenges, but also through a raft of "talents." These add unique perks that complement particular skills or styles of play, like doing extra damage within a certain range, when enemies are burning, or your armor is depleted. The brands of armor also have a part to play, whereby equipping a number of pieces from a single manufacturer provide additional advantages. These bonuses become particularly attractive to obsess over in the endgame, when the world is retaken by a tougher, more merciless enemy faction called Black Tusk, and you need to ensure your ability to fight them is the best it can be.For the hundreds of pieces you will inevitably want to discard, the ability to sell or dismantle them for parts to either purchase or craft pieces you want gives value to everything you pick up. Or you might retain them in order to move their talents to better gear of the same type, And, as a wonderful convenience, The Division 2 implements numerous features to inspect, mark, dismantle, or equip things you find so quickly and elegantly--sometimes without ever having to enter a menu--that it improves the whole experience of being in its world.The same can be said of the game's multiplayer integration, which allows you to easily group up and progress with friends (the game will scale any underpowered players to match the most powerful). Alternatively, you can join a clan, which opens up a variety of weekly challenges, granting valuable rewards, and which features integrated game-wide group communication options. Even if you're only interested in playing alone (which is more challenging, but entirely feasible), the ability to matchmake with other players at any time, whether that be in the open world, before you start a mission, or when you're at a final boss, is a very welcome feature.And when you beat that final boss of the game's final mission (though, such is the Division 2's lack of plot framing, I honestly couldn't tell you his name to save my life) and you think you've finally run out of treasure to keep luring you through more fights, the metaphorical table gets flipped. Flipped hard. The Washington DC you spent so long liberating from rival factions becomes completely retaken by the aforementioned Black Tusk. You unlock three unique class specializations, each with their own skill trees to work at unlocking. Your focus on growing two-digit numbers on your character (your level) moves to three-digit numbers (the quality of your gear). Even after finishing the campaign, the game still feels enormous.More challenging, remixed versions of campaign missions and open-world challenges featuring Black Tusk become available. The idea might sound trite, but in practice, these "Invaded" missions often leverage the new enemy types to create terrifying new combat scenarios that maintain the steady ramp-up of challenges, and they give you a fantastic reason to revisit the more memorable combat arenas with a purpose. However, there's still a lot I haven't seen. I've yet to dabble in the three Dark Zones, reward-rich areas where players can potentially find themselves up against other, malicious agents as well as the usual enemies. I'm also yet to participate in Conflict, The Division 2's take on traditional team-based competitive multiplayer modes.But after spending 30 hours completing the campaign and beginning to dabble in the endgame, I'm still enamored with The Division 2. The range of enemy types continues to keep combat encounters challenging, the equipment I earn and pick up continues to feel different and valuable. The ravaged environments continue to intrigue, and sometimes they're so stunning I find myself needing to take a screenshot before I move on. There is still so much to see in The Division 2, but I want to take the time to see it. I have absolutely no clue why I'm here or what anyone's motivations are, and I wish I had a narrative purpose to my endless hunger for progression. But I'm glad to be here right now.Note: This review-in-progress will be finalized once substantial time has been spent in The Division 2's endgame content, including Dark Zones and Conflicts. Info from Gamespot.com

Apex Legends is doing very well for itself as the newest contender in the battle royale space, and now you can parlay those battlefield skills into a college education. Becker College has announced a scholarship program tied to an upcoming esports event, which will allow top-performing players to receive $5,000 for schooling.Becker has partnered with Team Genji and Helix Esports for the program. Helix is hosting an Apex Legends amateur tournament in New Jersey in early April, and Team Genji will be on-site to perform analytics. Those who score among the top players at the tournament can claim the one-time scholarship at Becker, if they apply and are admitted to the college. Eligible finalists will be invited to apply, so there will be no ambiguity whether or not you made the cut.Scholarship recipients will also be given a try-out for Becker's own Apex Legends team, which will begin competing in Fall 2019. You can read more details and sign up through the official site.Respawn is planning to launch the first Apex Legends battle pass in March, though it hasn't given a release date yet. We did get an apparent sneak peek at what it will consist of, though, given an accidental update to the Origin site. That showed a new hero named Octane, and suggested the battle pass will be priced at 950 Apex Coins (roughly $10). Respawn acknowledged that the leak was legitimate, but warned against putting too much stock in information gleaned from data mining.Meanwhile, the studio banned hundreds of thousands of cheaters, and said it has no plans for a reconnect feature--in part because of its potential for abuse by cheaters.Info from Gamespot.com

Hello Games has announced its next big expansion for No Man's Sky. The "Beyond" update is slated for this summer and will be free to all players. It was accompanied by a brief trailer showing a hanger, the title, and not much more.A blog post introducing the update says that Hello Games had planned three large features, and ultimately decided to roll them all into one expansion. Though two of those are remaining under wraps for the time being, the first component the team is outlining is called No Man's Sky Online. The newly revised online component will allow players to meet up and play together more easily, but the studio cautions that it doesn't consider this a shift to an MMO. It will remain free for all players, won't contain microtransactions, and won't require a subscription (aside from Xbox Live Gold or PS Plus on consoles).As for the other pieces of Beyond, Hello says it will "talk more about each component when we know we can be precise."Last year, No Man's Sky had a large-scale update called Next that served as a major overhaul, and earned it a spot among our best expansions of 2018. Since then it's gotten a steady stream of content updates, like The Abyss that added more underwater exploration, and Visions with a host of new biomes, flora, and fauna. Beyond appears to be scaled similarly to Next.The game has come a long way from its initial release, which was criticized for not quite meeting its lofty ambitions. Part of that was simply not fulfilling some of the promotion surrounding the game, so the blog's comment about not opening up about pieces of Beyond yet seems as if Hello has learned how to manage expectations.Info from Gamespot.com

Respawn surprise-launched Apex Legends, which quickly rocketed to higher player counts than many competitors in the battle royale genre. From the start, though, the studio acknowledged it was planning to produce regular seasons with an optional battle pass, and now that launch is about to arrive. The studio has released some details, and accidentally leaked others, giving us an altogether pretty clear idea of what to expect. And as of March 15, it even seems to be teasing one of its major additions--the new character Octane--in the game.What's Included?In Respawn's year-one roadmap for the battle passes, it stated that all four of this year's battle passes will include new weapons and loot like exclusive cosmetics, and at least one new Legend character. Each battle pass is said to include about 100 rewards. Several seasonal items will be unlockable through the course of regular play, while others will be exclusive to battle pass holders. Battle passes will also include random Apex Packs, giving you an assortment of random skins and other items to earn.PriceRespawn has not formally outlined its pricing plan for the Apex Legends battle pass. Its year-one roadmap was the most detail the studio has given on its assorted battle passes coming through 2019, and it didn't mention price anywhere in the announcement.However, an accidental update on the Origin storefront appeared to disclose the price. Respawn later acknowledged the mistake and called it an "unintentional update about Season 1." All that suggests that the leak was legitimate. If that's the case, the price will be 950 Apex Coins--or roughly $10.A Founder's Pack is currently offered for $30, which nets you 2000 Apex Coins--likely enough for the first two battle passes--along with other goodies: exclusive character and weapon skins, banner frames, and a Founder's badge.Release DateSo far, all we know regarding the release date for Apex Legends comes from the roadmap released by Respawn itself. The first battle pass is set to release in March, with others following in June, September, and December. When the Origin leak occurred, some fans suspected the release was imminent. But just as Respawn acknowledged that the leak was legitimate, it also stated that the battle pass was not releasing that day. For now, we still do not have an exact date for the first battle pass release.New CharacterThe leak also unveiled what appears to be the Season 1 character, Octane. We don't have official confirmation of his abilities, but one that was rumored is the ability to place jump pads. Sure enough, launch pads have begun appearing in-game that match that description. Based on coy responses from Respawn developers on Reddit, this sure seems like a deliberate tease for the addition of Octane.The Origin leak did give us a good look at the character itself. As with the pricing information, the Respawn acknowledgement that it was an unintentional update likely means Octane is legitimate. That said, datamining has revealed several other possible Legends, and these are much less certain. Respawn appeared to address these purported leaks in its statement as well."There's stuff in there that is very old, or things we've tried in the past and cut--remember our design process is to prototype and play lots of ideas--and some of it may be things we're still building for Apex Legends," said community manager Jay Frechette. "Finding this stuff by no means confirms that it'll ever come out. At best you should treat any posts about this as a rumor and the real info will come from us when we’re ready to show off what's coming next."Info from Gamespot.com

Sony has unveiled another new color joining the PlayStation 4 DualShock lineup. This time it's a color scheme evocative of a forest ski trip, titled Alpine Green. It sports an evergreen shade across the front, and a white backing and white buttons and sticks.The announcement states it will be available in the US and Canada in April for $65 US / $75 CAD. You can get a look at the new controller below or pre-order now.Last August Sony introduced four new colors at once: Berry Blue, Sunset Orange, Blue Camo, and Copper. Alpine Green is getting the celebrity treatment by comparison with the spotlight all to itself. Sony has been offering color variants for its DualShock controllers for quite a while, including some that are exclusive to special edition consoles. Microsoft similarly offers special edition controller colors, but also has a Design Lab feature to let you customize your own paint.If you're looking for something to play on your PS4 while you wait for your Alpine Green controller, you may want to peruse the Great Indoors sale. The giant PSN sale has more than 600 discounts and runs through March 29. Info from Gamespot.com

Though Capcom's character-action game series has always had a particular sound for its gothic-horror-aesthetic, the current game, Devil May Cry 5, features music that really goes the extra mile to get players to feel something more as they're working their way up to SSS rank. GameSpot recently interviewed DMC5 composers Cody Matthew Johnson and husband-wife team Casey and Ali Edwards about the making of the action game's main tracks for its cast of characters. During this talk, they spoke about their collaboration with Capcom, how the game's energizing and dynamic soundtrack is a game-changer, and what it's like having the internet embrace their new sound.Editor's Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.Can you talk about what it was like working with Capcom for this project, and how they first got in contact with you?Casey Edwards: Funny enough, even though I ended up writing the track Devil Trigger, I got found through one of Ali's older tracks that she did for another video game called Killer Instinct with Mick Gordon [B. Orchid's Theme, in particular]. I actually did some work on that game as well, assisting the composer.Ali Edwards: Yeah, it's like they wanted both of us without knowing that we even knew each other, or that we were married at all.Casey: Yeah, Capcom heard that particular track and they really liked the drive that it had. It really just stood out to everyone. When I wrote Devil Trigger, I pitched her as the vocalist and they just immediately fell in love with it. So, it kinda just worked out in a weird, coincidental, ironic way.And Cody, this is actually your third collaboration with Capcom, the first being for Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite?Cody M. Johnson: That is true. My career is still in the early stages, which is really exciting as all these things are happening. My collaborator Jeff Rona and I did three games back to back for Capcom. We didn't really stop. We started off with Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. Right after that came out, word got around to another development team about what we were doing, and they liked what they heard. So they came back to us. Right out of the gate I was working with Jeff, who wrote "Crimson Cloud" [V's Theme], and I ended up writing "Subhuman" [Dante's theme, in collaboration with Jeff Rona]. We worked on Devil May Cry 5 first, but then shortly after that, another team at Capcom hit us up to do Resident Evil 2 shortly after. So it's been pretty exciting.Were you fans of the series before you worked on this game?Cody: I had played Devil May Cry 4 and the previous games a lot. I was still young enough to sneak away and play them with my friends, but it was so hard, I didn't get very far. Even as an experienced gamer now, I've come back to try to play them, when I first picked up Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite--but they're just so hard. They're still one of the hardest games I've ever played to date.Casey: I actually grew up playing Devil May Cry. So I remembered the whole Devil Trigger aspect of the game pretty vividly, and that was what was sticking out in my head as I was writing the song. I couldn't get it out of my head and yeah, I don't know, I just wrote it and we just went with it. I thought for sure someone from Capcom was gonna send me an email back saying, "Hey, you need to change that."Ali: But that didn't happen. They all loved it.The big line of the song, "bang, bang, bang, pull my Devil Trigger," is such an earworm, and it feels so appropriate for the series.Casey: Right, I remember writing that. I wrote all these lyrics in one sitting, pretty much. For that particular part, I was looking at Ali, and then I verbalized what she was about to sing.Ali: You were so worried I was gonna hate it!Casey: To me, that was kind of a fun phrase. I just wasn't sure if it would latch on to the Devil May Cry fans, you know?Last I checked, Devil Trigger has over 21 million views on YouTube. Having those earlier reservations, are you surprised to see how much it has taken off?Casey: Well, first of all, it's pretty freakin' crazy. That's a lot of plays. It kinda blows my mind a little bit. I think there might be a few factors involved in that. People have been really excited to see a continuation of [classic] Devil May Cry. I guess in the sense that you say, the song is holding its own water a little bit as well, yeah, I don't know what to say other than it's pretty insane that people have played the song that many times.Ali: Yeah, it's definitely something we didn't expect. We were more worried that fans would hate the track, and it would become a meme. Instead, it became a meme in the best possible way.Both of you even got to perform the song live at The Game Awards. They had Rivers Cuomo from Weezer introduce your performance.Casey: Yeah, that was awesome. We actually got to run into Rivers after that, and it was pretty great getting to take pictures with him and nerd out. I mean gosh, yeah, I was listening to them back in high school, so that was pretty awesome. And yeah, getting to play at The Game Awards was, I mean, a dream come true. And I know it's a relatively new awards show, but they had so many awesome people on stage, and we got to share a stage with Hans Zimmer. That's nuts.Ali: Yeah, that was pretty crazy, it was a blast. It was such a crazy production if you think about it. It takes a huge team to put on a production of that magnitude. It's crazy seeing it all happen, and being a part of it, continuously.As far as working on Devil May Cry 5, I can only imagine how much planning went into writing the tracks and getting them just write. Can you talk about what the collaborative process was like with the other composers at Capcom.Cody: Yeah, from the very beginning, Capcom wanted, I should say, independence. They wanted to make sure each of these key tracks could exist separately from one other, but still work together within the Devil May Cry universe. We worked with Kota Suzuki [DMC5's main composer], who actually wrote the track "Legacy," which was in the final trailer. He was part of the development team that flew out to LA when we did the recording sessions for the bigger tracks, including "Subhuman" and "Crimson Cloud." Other than that, Capcom didn't really restrict us; they really wanted the score in these scenes to give identity to their characters.Casey: When we were working with Capcom Japan, they had some clear visions for what they wanted for some of these tracks, and it was really nice getting to implement previous work I had done in the game, and getting to bring it to new light towards the end of the gaming experience.Ali: After they heard me on "Devil Trigger," I guess maybe that's when they reached out for "Legacy" with me. I didn't think was going to happen until the game was released. I wasn't sure that was ever going to see the light of day in trailer form. And so I remember being pleasantly surprised when that came out. It's an exciting track, it's really beautiful, with swelling strings, and it was amazing for the fans to finally hear that. Working with Kota on that was a great experience as well.That song really comes up at such a great moment in the game. It also highlights how different a lot of the tracks are in the game, yet they work really well when you bring it all together.Casey: Yeah, for sure. I think that's one thing people can get lost sometimes. They forget, "Devil Trigger," for instance, is some weird hybrid rock pop thing, but I am also a classically trained orchestral composer and Ali does anything from soft, ethereal vocals to just mind-blowing powerful pop vocals, and stuff like that.Ali: I started out as a jazz singer, so there's that, too. But we got to be totally crazy with it. Working on a session musician, you can be asked to do anything, and I think your willingness to be a chameleon is really where your usability as a session musician really comes into play. The more I can become a chameleon and adhere to different genres of music, I mean, that's why I'm being asked to work on video games. If I couldn't do that, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to work on so many incredible games so far.Looking back on the history of the series, Devil May Cry has this really deep focus on presenting bombastic and energizing tracks. Another game in the series that had a really eclectic soundtrack was Ninja Theory's DmC: Devil May Cry--featuring Noisia and Combichrist. Did the style of that game have any influence on this one?Cody: Well from the very start, everything was based on Devil May Cry 4, as in all the references they sent us. But of course, it was something I personally looked into. It's important to understand the trajectory of all these games, where it's been, and how the fans reacted. And you need to make a decision about where you want your art to align with. It was very conscious from the very beginning that this game is Devil May Cry 5. That was a very conscious decision, not to stay away from that version of DmC, but to separate from it, stylistically. But yeah, the combat system that matures and alters the music was something we really liked about that game.It's really thrilling to hear DMC5's music evolve depending on how well you're playing.Cody: Yeah, It was just something we were very conscious of from the very beginning. We don't want to leave any players behind, but we didn't want to make it easier for players either. It's all about challenging yourself. But the worst thing that could happen would be if the game's music was boring. I know this as a gamer, I know this as someone who goes listens to the same 32-second track on loop for hours. It's the worst thing in the world: You're stuck on a level for three days, you don't wanna be listening to the same piece of music.We really tried to craft these songs in a way, that if you don't hit SSS rank, you don't ever hear the chorus or the breakdown. By doing that, those parts of the song will never get boring. The goal from the start was to incentivize the player. There is something more, you should do your absolute best to get to your SSS, and you'll get the payoff. There should be rewards for those players that accomplish that, and I think we achieved something beyond the normal combat music.Did you enjoy your experience working with Capcom on Devil May Cry 5?Cody: They've always been happy with what we've done and we're always happy to give it to 'em. They're such an amazing collaborator, and they really care about artistic vision, and they care about what you can bring to the table, and it's truly an amazing experience working with them.Casey: I was super excited to work on Devil May Cry. I've been playing this game since Devil May Cry 1, which came out in 2001. I remember my mom taking me to Blockbuster to rent it. And then you fast forward to 2017, when I was asked to work on it, I was already so freaking pumped to get started on it. We're classically trained and I play guitar as well in the STEM program, right? I love doing so many different things and different genres. So being asked to genre hop is one of the best things about working in the field. TV and video games and film, all alike, and one day you could be writing a solo piano piece and the next day you're writing "Devil Trigger."Ali: Yeah, for me, video games have always been a pretty large part of my life. It's always been a love of mine. So, I remember playing games with my cousins when we were all kids and it was this bonding experience for all of us. And I never would've imagined that I'd be working on video games today. It's kind of crazy to think about, but I absolutely love what I do. I love being able to work on various projects across various genres and kind of become a different person for a little while. And it's really, really humbling, seeing how the fans have accepted our work. It's very humbling, it's very exciting, and, all in all, we're very grateful to be a part of the Devil May Cry family.Info from Gamespot.com