Respawn has temporarily disabled both the Rampage LMG and Sentinel sniper rifle in Apex Legends following fan feedback that an exploit in the battle royale was making both weapons unfairly overpowered. The legendary MIL-SPEC Bangalore skin has also been disabled, following repeated issues where the cosmetic was causing the game to crash.

The exploit in question for both the Rampage and Sentinel involves how both weapons can be uniquely charged, the former with thermite grenades and the latter with shield cells. A charged Rampage will fire more quickly, while a charged Sentinel will deal immense amounts of damage. The discovered exploit allowed players to keep both weapons charged indefinitely, creating a cheap way to decimate enemies throughout an entire match.

The infinite charge exploit was actually first discovered last year, and Respawn implemented a hotfix patch to fix the issue in December. However, the exploit has reared its head again in recent weeks, as players found a new workaround for exploiting the Rampage and Sentinel.

On January 4, Respawn producer Josh Medina tweeted that the team had returned from holiday vacation, and were starting to work on a fix for the exploit. Apex Legends live balance designer John Larson also tweeted about the exploit, hinting that those who used it might be getting an account ban in the near future.

In the meantime, Respawn has decided to just remove the Rampage and Sentinel from ground loot, preventing anyone from being able to use the exploit. The two firearms are disabled in all modes, so you can’t use the Rampage or Sentinel in Trios, Duos, Ranked, or Arenas.

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The Fortnite Item Shop has been refreshed once more and today’s inventory lacks any major new crossovers, but it’s rather loaded with Epic-made heroes dating back as far as Chapter 1, Season 2. Spanning all four-plus years of the game so far, the Item Shop inventory has a bit of everything today. Here’s what you’ll find in the digital store for January 6, 2022.

The headlining item really comes down to personal preference. Nothing in the shop today has been absent more than a month or two, so it doesn’t really have any rare items at the moment, unless you count the soon-to-be-leaving Boba Fett and Cobra Kai cosmetics.

Manic’s alternate style comes without her mask. No covid on the Fortnite island, I suppose.

On the Epic side, you can find fan-favorites such as Manic, with her two styles and Scarlet Sai pickaxes, as well as Love Ranger and his Tat Axe pickaxe. Heroes from the in-universe anime, Battle Breakers, have also returned in the form of Razor and Kurohomura, two of the fake series’ lead characters.

Elsewhere in the shop, you can grab Geometrik, the Cube Legion-inspired hero (or villain, really), or Tactics Officer who first debuted way back in 2017’s Season 2. The simplicity of that one, while perhaps preferred by some players, still manages to remind us how far the game’s art design has come over the last several years.

For a complete breakdown of the shop inventory today, check out FireMonkey‘s tweet.

We’ll be back tomorrow with another Fortnite Item Shop update.

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This week marks three weeks since employees across Activision Blizzard went on strike to show solidarity with twelve Raven Software QA employees unexpectedly laid off late last year and, subsequently, three weeks of silence from the company’s leadership regarding the incident. In an attempt to initiate conversation with Activision Blizzard once more, the former Raven QA team sent the company a letter Monday, January 3 outlining the conversations they hope to have with the company. Following the letter being sent to Activision Blizzard management, ABetterABK (A Better Activision, Blizzard, and King)–a Twitter group which was formed after reports of sexual harassment and sexism at the publisher surfaced earlier this year–shared the piece online.

Among the topics of discussion listed in the letter were the details of the Raven QA team’s demands (as well as what the expectations were from both sides going forward), relocation packages for the Raven QA team who had previously moved for their position, and additional context regarding the situation from the leadership’s side. The team emphasized these conversations were in the interest of making a positive change in the company, and had the company’s best interest in mind. They then went on to write it was their hope that together they could “foster a transparent and trusting relationship” in the future.

The strike first began last December, when management at Raven Software informed their contracted QA staff that several of their contracts would not be renewed the following year. By the end of the day, it was revealed that 12 employees–or approximately 1/3 of the team–would ultimately be losing their jobs. To make matters worse, the news came after the team had spent the past five weeks working overtime to launch the new Call of Duty: Warzone Pacific map, and was reportedly promised by Activision “positive departmental changes” in the future after they were denied promotions and raises. While the strike began solely among the Raven QA team, several other QA teams operating under Activision Blizzard’s umbrella were quick to join the walkouts, backing the studio’s demand of permanent positions for the laid off QA testers.

In a statement given to GameSpot last December, Activision wrote that the layoffs were a part of an “internal restructure,” during which it plans to convert around 500 temporary employees to full-time employment.

“Activision Publishing is growing its overall investment in its development and operations resources,” the statement read. “We are converting approximately 500 temporary workers to full-time employees in the coming months. Unfortunately, as part of this change, we also have notified 20 temporary workers across studios that their contracts would not be extended.”

Since then, the company has provided no further comment.

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An official date hasn’t been confirmed for Call of Duty’s Season 1 Reloaded update for Vanguard and Warzone, but we’ve officially reached the middle of the season. Call of Duty’s mid-season updates generally bring more content and weapon tuning across multiplayer, Zombies, and Warzone, but few details have been revealed by Activision. Here’s what we know so far about the big update.

Season 1 Reloaded start time

Call of Duty’s Season 1 update went live on December 8 for Vanguard and Warzone, and now there are less than 28 days left in the battle pass, so we’ve officially reached the halfway point for the season. Updates are always subject to change, but this means a roadmap and details should be arriving soon. And if this mid-season update follows the past update times, Season 1 Reloaded could arrive around 9 PM PT January 11 and 12 AM ET on January 12.

Multiplayer

It’s uncertain what content players can expect for Vanguard’s multiplayer without an updated roadmap, but Sledgehammer Games has given a small update regarding some of the mode’s planned changes. The list includes a tweak to the Mortar Barrage killstreak, changes to Panzerfaust weapon challenges, perk adjustments, and a weapon tuning pass. These updates weren’t mentioned to be specifically coming with the Season 1 Reloaded update, so we may see these changes sooner than the big mid-season update.

Additionally, the Welgun submachine gun was announced with the Season 1 roadmap to be coming later in season, so that new weapon will likely be part of the Season 1 Reloaded update for Vanguard and Warzone. Like past mid-season weapons, the Welgun will be available either through an unlock challenge for free or with purchase of a store bundle.

Welgun submachine gun

Zombies

Zombies mode has been light on content since Vanguard’s launch, but the Season 1 roadmap detailed a few updates coming to Der Anfang for the later portion of the season. This includes the new Tome of Rituals feature to allow players to get more power from their Artifacts, Von List’s Office will be a new area to explore on the map, and support killstreaks will be added.

Players are still waiting for the pause feature to be implemented into Zombies, and this addition was mentioned to be coming later in the season. Hopefully, everyone will be able to pause for snacks or a bathroom break with the start of Season 1 Reloaded.

Warzone

We don’t have any real details of what’s coming to Warzone for the mid-season update, but hopefully there will be new events and game modes to keep the new Caldera map feeling fresh. The battle royale is also suffering from a slew of bugs and performance issues, so a major quality of life update for Caldera would be welcomed as well.

Activision should be releasing a roadmap and full details soon. We’ll keep this page updated as more Season 1 Reloaded information emerges.

Call of Duty’s seasonal content carries on as walkouts continue in protest of surprise contract terminations within Raven Software’s QA team. Activision Blizzard faces lawsuits and other investigations related to alleged sexual harassment and discrimination against women.

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