You should try Apex again, Nevin. It’s in the best state it’s ever been right now (unless you’re a Pathfinder main, but hey, we manage).

It truly is amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game that hits the same way as Apex. Literally every time I play the game I am astounded by how good it is, I notice one more thing that shows how thoughtful they are when it comes to balance and how the game feels to play.

It's also one of those games where the weapon balancing feels great. They don't just nerf the popular meta, they retool it and the weapons around it. They cycle weapon hop-ups, they shift power weapons into the normal sandbox, and buff solid weapons into power weapons. It genuinely feels refreshing to experiment every season. I never thought I'd see the day where I'm dumping a Flatline to be able to run with a Mozambique.

I’m not sure any game can match the intensity of something like the game we had last night, where every time we turned around we faced down a new squad. We won that game, and it was incredible. Apex is the rare game where we could have died at any point during that match and it would have still felt good, been just as compelling an experience. We died within two minutes of dropping how many times last night? And it was never frustrating. Every single match is different, and every death feels like learning something. There is no equivalent to the other team running a super train on you for three minutes straight and not being able to do anything about it, at least not that I’m aware of. Even getting third-partied, which the thing I see the most complaints about, never feels frustrating to me. It always feels like a lesson in awareness, and it’s nearly always preventable by smart play.

Whether you die 10 seconds in (lol dropping Salvage), 15 minutes in, or you just barely miss those final shots that would have won the game, it never feels like there was a balance/fairness issue. You always had a solution available, even if that solution was "Do not engage in a gunfight with your fists" (which, honestly, isn't always a bad decision). Losing in Apex pretty much always feels deserved, and you can always check the damage report to understand exactly why you lost an engagement, and learn from it.

I truly think Apex is one of the best multiplayer games ever made. I understand why folks don’t like it with the looting phase and sometimes slow ramp into the action, but I have never played anything that feels quite as tense (in a good way). They haven’t always got it right with the monetization, but I think they’re in a good spot with that right now, for the most part (I still think $18 for weapon skins is silly, though).

Check out these clips!

Repositioning on an enemy has never felt so satisfying:

A Finisher that I would have gladly paid real money for:

My teammate bringing his fists to an entire squad:

When they bringing that 9-round mag Mozambique back?

A Caustic in an enclosed space is a scary thing:

Sammy clipping through the Supply Ship and taking on a Duo in a home invasion horror flick:

And finally, this three-way fight/rescue operation that highlights the neat ebb and flow of encounters that play out regularly in the game.

Unfortunately I ran out of online storage for the game where 7 of my 11 kills were with the Mozambique. Should have some footage later.

Ah, for some reason I thought that I'd seen it was exotic. That makes sense though.

Looks like fun! I already regret making the hard drive space, I can’t believe I’m missing out on such important and amazing seasonal content.

How’s that thing with the Almighty going? Nothing? Still too busy playing catch with Rasputin?

There was no need for and /s tag, and it's glorious! I mean, it may get lost in the future, but right now...

Perfection.

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Yeah, yeah, I saw...it's just that my head exploded that this is where it's come to; where I can 100% nail the next grind in a quest. Considering I usually say my thoughts out loud, the fact that the game proved my guess right mid-sentence is almost comedic in its timing.

Speaking of shotguns, I guess this is as good a time as any to say this—I know everyone's going to say it's irrational or selfish; or that I should just do it too; or that not a single person here has ever run into this problem or how much fun it is for them(making them the problem)m but I want to get it off my chest anyway—I paid for a first-person shooter with RPG elements and interesting story, not a fucking Slip-N-Slide. Sliding in this game needs a cooldown....SO goddamn bad.

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