Newbie and Console-Friendliness 

All the great graphics and gameplay in the world would come to naught if the game isn’t optimized for the platform you are playing it on. So without holding anything back, in this category, we declare that PUBG and Fortnite are terrible ports for home consoles. Sure they play really well on the PC – almost perfect even but once they hit the console realm, they melt like cheap butter on a Korean BBQ hotplate set on high.

The Fortnite building mechanics just doesn’t translate well into console while PUBG’s weapons inventory is atrocious unless you have a mouse and keyboard at your fingertips. Blackout and Apex Legends, on the other hand, were (or at least appeared to be) built with home consoles equally in mind, rather than as an afterthought. Apex Legends’ ‘Ping’ system circumvents the need of microphone to communicate; it was a godsend. We are also huge fans of Blackout’s weapon layout system.

Mapping controls to suit one’s play style should not be a chore and again, in this section, Blackout and Apex Legends excelled where PUBG and Fortnite faltered. It was as if Epic and PUBG Corp assumed that those who are going to pick up the console version of their games are strictly confined to their PC player base. In short, newbies who missed out on PC PUBG and Fortnite would end up having a hard time getting into grips with these games early on.

Look. Battle royale is one of, if not the easiest premise to understand and games in this genre should be inviting and inclusive enough for new players out there. Newcomers should be able to pick up the controller, get into several rounds and feel competent enough to not drown in the sea of more seasoned rivals on the map.

Winner & Walks Home with the Prom Queen: Black Ops IIII’s Blackout. You jump in, you scrounge, you kit yourself up and you kill the other players before they kill you. That’s it. New to BR? Not to worry. If you played any team deathmatch games in the past, you’d do well in Blackout without having to worry about team compositions, what legends are on the other team or how to out-build your rivals. And yeah – you’d have less chance of getting killed while trying to swap out the scopes and stock for your assault rifle.

Scores a Date With the Senior: Apex Legends.

Overall Winner: Apex Legends

While it is still too early to decipher how long will Apex Legends hold up against ‘older’ titles, we’ll go ahead and say it anyway: this is hands-down the best-made battle royale game available on the console at this moment.

Whether you’re a tryhard who goes into every map trying to garner as many kills you can muster, a tactician whose sole aim is to finish in the highest position possible or a casual whose mechanical skill leaves so much to be desired, there’s a high chance of you actually enjoying and coming to love this game. The fact that it’s free and well-balanced AND backed by folks who have a long lineage of producing great shooters are extra bonuses.

And it doesn’t come with a dancing emote. Thank the maker for that.

Disagree with our call? Well, the numbers don’t lie. We’ll let the CEO of Respawn, Vince Zampella back his case:

Apex Legends hit 50 Million players worldwide! We are humbled by all your support and can’t wait to show you what’s next. pic.twitter.com/QTDH57lfvB

— Apex Legends (@PlayApex) March 4, 2019

Yes. 50. Honkin’. Million players.  All within a month!