Hey, remember Time Takers? Probably not, so here’s a recap: NCsoft announced it’d be publishing a “time survival” shooter back at the end of 2024, and last summer at Gamescom, it revealed the game as Time Takers. It sort of got overshadowed because NCsoft announced Cinder City (an actual MMO shooter) at the same show, […]

Apex Legends' early days were a simpler time. There was a smaller roster of characters, fewer weapons, and it didn't seem like people had 'solved' the meta in quite the same way they have now. The Wingman took heavy ammo and Skull Town was the hottest drop - like I say, life was simple. However, it all changed in Season 4, when Respawn announced the next legend, Forge, and promptly killed him off. It was a move that fans didn't see coming, and an ambitious piece of storytelling that hasn't been seen before or replicated since by any major live-service game.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Here's the real story of the Apex Legends character that never was, and how he was born from "pure frustration"

• Category: Games

February 17, 2026

EA Play: Bring Glory Home in EA Sports College Football 26, Available February 19

• Juliet Niczewicz, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, EA

Bring glory home in EA Sports College Football 26. Get unlimited access with EA Play, then score a Supercharge Pack in Ultimate Team by March 20.

Rep your colors with unlimited access to all the new explosive gameplay and feature updates.

Members can blitz for days with unlimited access to all the new explosive gameplay and feature updates.

• EA Sports College Football 26 is available on the Play List on February 19.
• Play with Xbox Cloud Gaming or Game Pass Ultimate with EA Play.
• Members can also score a Supercharge Pack in Ultimate Team, available from February 19 – March 20.

Game Pass Ultimate members can get unlimited access today, as well as 10% off EA digital purchases including College Football Points.

Snag your Supercharge Pack, filled with 10 91-93 OVR player items, simply by entering Ultimate Team before March 20. Get a head start on building your roster so you can take on Challenges, face other players in H2H, and more.

Take your career from high school recruit to Heisman or coach your team to the top. With thousands of new plays, players, and upgraded abilities, there are more ways than ever to Bring Glory Home.

February Member Rewards

Love is in the air, along with a fresh batch of member rewards for EA’s hottest games. Celebrate the love of gaming by claiming special items for your favorite titles.

• Apex Legends
  • Pick up the Gold Fortune Cat Weapon Charm, available through March 2.
• EA Sports F1 25
  • Get a 5,000 XP Boost, good for unlocking tiers of the Podium Pass, available until February 28.
•  EA Sports FC 26
  • Play Clubs mode by March 12 to grab a special membership reward that’ll help you compete in style.
• EA Sports Madden NFL 26
  • Keep building your dream team with a Madden Ultimate Team EA Play February Pack (available until February 28) & EA Play Supercharge Pack (available until March 6).
• EA Sports NHL 26
  • Score 2 Season Pass Multiplier Tokens & 3,000 CHEL Coins by March 12.
• EA Sports College Football 26
  • Available until March 20, grab an EA Play Supercharge Pack, which comes with 10 91-93 OVR Players.
• Battlefield 6
  • Equip yourself with the Season 2 EA Play Pack, available until May 11

Membership for EA Play is included with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscriptions at no extra cost.

Whether you’re scoring an unbelievable hat-trick in the EA Sports FC franchise, showing no mercy on suburban battlegrounds in the Battlefield series or timing a perfect hit to dominate the gridiron in the Madden NFL franchise, you can feel the thrill with EA for just $5.99 a month. Membership unlocks unlimited access to a collection of top titles, trials of select new games, in-game member rewards and more. Members also save 10% off EA digital purchases — including game downloads, points packs, and DLC.

For more details on all the EA Play member benefits this month, visit: EA Play Member Benefits

Conditions, limitations and exclusions apply. See EA Play Terms for details.

The post EA Play: Bring Glory Home in EA Sports College Football 26, Available February 19 appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Vince Zampella, known for co-creating the Call of Duty series, among many other roles, has died. Zampella, 55, died in a car crash in Los Angeles on Sunday. The fatal crash killed him, along with the occupant of his car.

Read more

Arc Raiders was Steam's biggest-selling game over the holiday period.

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Respawn Entertainment has admitted that a new security breach has happened in Apex Legends, and a hack is allowing for remote control.

The post Apex Legends Hackers Are Taking Control of Your Character Again appeared first on Insider Gaming.

Decided to kick off your weekend with a couple of rounds of Apex Legends and a couple of cold brewskis? Well, if you ended up heading to bed early when your Ballistic lived up to his name by slamming every bullet you own into a cliff face without your involvement, don't go blaming the ol' liquid courage. Turns out someone has managed to find a way to "control the inputs of another player remotely," says Respawn Entertainment. While the studio says it was able to curb the issue within a few hours, it's never a good thing for the reputation of one of the best FPS games with a huge competitive following.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Apex Legends hackers wrestle control of characters from other players, but Respawn urges that it's under control

Have you ever wanted an Apex Legends x SSX crossover? Me neither. Who would ever come up with a concept like that? Respawn, apparently. But I've seen Lifeline snowboarding across World's Edge, there's nothing I want to do more than pop Misty 900 no-scope headshot from across the map. With the addition of pseudo-wall running and buffs for some fan favorite characters on the cards, too, there's only one question left on my lips: where's the snow?

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Apex Legends' latest update adds fan favorite Titanfall mechanic, but there's a catch

Who’s ready for a big chonky pile of Not-So-Massively game news pieces? You must be since you clicked here, so welcome! Pull up a chair. Read through about some of the most recent updates to the smaller scale multiplayer games in our orbit. Have a cranberry scone and maybe some of this chai. It’s pretty […]

It appears the internet is once again going down with no applause whatsoever. For the third time in about a month, global services are suffering outages, slowdowns, and general connectivity issues, including popular live-service games.

What couldn't have been said of the early 2000s, when everything you owned you could play offline, is now a grim reality. As per Downdetector, nearly every popular gaming and gaming-related service is suffering significant outages, slowdowns, and problems with connection, including games like ARC Raiders, Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Palworld, but also Steam and the Epic Games Store.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1p7fbuv/worldwide_web_down_again_huh/

Whereas the last major outage was caused by Cloudflare going down, and a previous one by massive AI-backed DDOS attacks, there does not seem to be a clear cause this time around.

I've even noticed that platforms like Reddit, WordPress, Trello, and others are loading forever, and that was after making sure it wasn't just my wi-fi being dumb.

And it's a crying shame that we live in a world where everything is always online. Sure, the games above are live service multiplayer experiences that could not be otherwise played without an internet connection, but so many other experiences that are broadly single-player are bound to be affected.

Always-online singleplayer games are our reality because publishers simply cannot let us enjoy things off the grid, and so even if a game has no online features, it still has to connect (and can, therefore, crash if stuff like this happens).

The timeline is only getting worse, but if you're among the affected, then check out some of our guides (like the one for ARC Raiders) in case the issues resolve, but you're still stuck in the dark. Literally.

The post For the third time this month, the internet is crashing—your favorite online games included appeared first on Destructoid.

My favorite Apex Legends weapon is probably the 30-30 Repeater, and not just because of the buffs that marksman rifles have received in recent seasons. After that, I've always loved the sound of the Volt SMG, as well as the baroque Dreamweaver skin that I will never change. As you can tell, my tastes are based more on look, feel, and sound more than power, but it's still fun to run about with something completely broken whenever it appears. The latest overpowered weapon is a special R99 variant known as the Bird of Prey, and I can't remember ever seeing something this busted in Apex before.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Apex Legends' new gun may be the most broken weapon in its history, but boy is it fun to shoot missiles from an SMG