Weird confession: Playing this game so much since release has given me a... renewed appreciation for PUBG and what it does.
For a long time I never really liked any other BR because they didn't capture what I love about that game. Fortnite has building and third-person only and awful bloom shooting and constant tiring content updates; Realm Royale was neat and fun for a day but died quickly due to Hi-Rez Hi-Rezing; Islands of Nyne looked interesting but died on launch due to being such a niche thing; Blackout just felt like a cobbled together "polished" PUBG with zero real tension and extreme repetition; Ring of Elysium just looked like a mobile clone of PUBG and it was always changing into some new thing and I felt like I'd get my credit card hacked if I installed it, CSGO Danger Zone is lol
So while I had an inkling I'd like a take on the formula by Respawn more, I was shocked at how much I loved it, given that it's the polar opposite: a AAA fast agile game with heroes with abilites and super high TTK and forced squads and a relatively tiny map. But they really made it work, and that made me happy, because when PUBG took off I kept waiting for someone to actually change and advance the BR formula in a way that felt meaningful and impactful (Fortnite's building is a weird inherited thing that no other game does, Realm Royale came the closest with its fantasy stuff and forge but then it went tail up), and Apex is the first real example to actually succeed at that.
Anyway, the "renewed appreciation" part comes from the fact that after a month+ of playing Apex exclusively, I started dipping back into playing PUBG, and despite having to shake the rust off (remembering that I can't loot while sprinting, and on the first day back I kept instinctively wanting to slide while running or ping loot/enemies)... it actually complimented Apex perfectly for me. Like I could have fun zipping around as Pathfinder and getting half-carried to my daily 1-2 wins with clean kills and snappy looting and guaranteed teammates with a genius pinging system, and then later that day I could be solo in PUBG racing into the zone in a car getting shot at from houses and having no safe place to stop, or feeling super proud of a clutch spray at range or sniper headshot, or feeling my heart racing as I realize there's 3 people left, and having fun even if I inevitably die at #2 or #3 because it felt like a desperate journey. The two games don't even feel like they're actually competing, they both perfectly cater to what they're going for.
