Apex Legends new patch, which brings friendly fire to the firing range, a brand new level cap for those who were previously at 100, and a few bug fixes and game tweaks, is now live on consoles. It was delayed for over a day because of an unforeseen issue which caused huge performance problems on PC.
Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legend has received a number of updates in the last couple of weeks, a few of which had made players unhappy with the state of the meta. The Peacekeeper shotgun was buffed, with its spread damage increased, leading to top Apex streamer Aceu to have a “Times Peacekeepered” counter at the top right of his screen.
Alongside the nasty change to the PK, there has been a lack of content releases in the last few weeks, with only Black Friday continuing the steam seen from the Halloween event and the new content from Season 3. It’s hoped that Respawn are building up to a big release for Christmas, with a Caustic Santa Claus skin already leaked through Reddit.
The most recent patch went live on PC yesterday but had a delayed release on consoles because of performance problems. It’s supposed that the update was released on PC by accident, thus leading to a bit of a panic over at RE headquarters.
Apex Legends’ latest patch is now ready to download on PS4 and Xbox One after a Reddit comment from one of the Respawn devs said that they had been working around the clock to resolve the problem.
Alongside some gameplay tweaks – as they’ve spoken about the PK buffs and a few other issues – this update looks to increase the level cap for those who’ve already hit max level. You’ll also be able to earn a number of free Apex packs, as the amount earned from 0-100 is increased alongside those you earn for continuing to progress in the game.
One issue that wasn’t touched upon in the patch notes was SBMM, or Skill Based Matchmaking. This has been a hot topic over the last week, as many players are frustrated at the secretive inclusion of matchmaking based on your skill level. Many suggest that, as a casual BR game, Apex Legends shouldn’t feature SBMM. There has been no word from the devs, as of yet, whether they will address this community outcry.