Respawn Entertainment has detailed the Apex Legends Season 2 Battle Pass challenge system. On the game’s website lead product manager Lee Horn said the implementation “should allow for significantly greater Battle Pass progress with less grind over less time for players who return on a regular basis and maximize their challenge resets.”

Challenges for Apex Legends will be split into two types: daily and weekly, and completing them will contribute towards leveling up your Battle Pass. To minimize the grind, Respawn has said over half of the challenges will grant a Battle Pass level. The rest of the challenges will grant the player Stars which, when combined with match experience points, will work towards fulfilling a repeatable weekly challenge that also gives the player a full Battle Pass level with each completion. Importantly, Horn notes that Stars are XP specific to the Battle Pass and don’t impact account level progression.

Daily challenges come in the form of three tasks chosen randomly from a pool of 200. Examples include “deal 200 Damage in Bunker” and play one game as Lifeline.” They are designed to be achievable in short sessions and award 3,000 Stars each.

There will be seven weekly challenges and these are intended to be completed over several play sessions. They range from “get 20 Kills as Gibraltar, Bangalore, or Mirage” to “loot 100 Epic items.” Four of these weekly challenges award 6,000 Stars each and three grant an entire Battle Pass level upon completion. If you get a Battle Pass part-way through the season, challenges from previous weeks will also be accessible to latecomers.

On top of those, there will be three additional challenges that reset every week. This special set is the same every week and will refresh whether they are completed or not, as they relate to overall challenge progress. Take a look at a list of them below:

• Complete five Daily Challenges: Rewards one Battle Pass level
• Complete 10 Daily Challenges: Rewards one Battle Pass level Earn 9,000 Stars and/or match XP: Rewards one Battle Pass level
  • This quest may be repeated an unlimited number of times each week.
  • Each completion increases the Stars and/or match XP required for the next by 9,000, up to a maximum of 54,000. You need 9,000 for the first level, 18,000 for the second level, etc. This challenge resets to 9,000 each week.

Apex Legends Season 2 is set to begin on July 2 and, along with the new challenge system, there will be a new character: Wattson, the daughter of the man who built the Kings Canyon arena.

King’s Canyon will have several of its landmarks destroyed, as strange creatures instigate a change in the map. Titanfall 2’s L-Star is also being added as a Legendary Gold energy-based weapon, randomly dropping in Supply Drops like the Kraber and Mastiff. There are plenty of other Apex Legends Season 2 changes on the way, so fans of the battle royale game have lots to look forward to.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-apex-legends-daily-and-weekly-challenges-work/1100-6468137/

Pokemon Sword and Shield are coming to Nintendo Switch this November. The games will be compatible with the new Pokemon Home service when it launches next year, allowing players to import their older monsters to the titles–albeit with some restrictions. As we learned during E3 2019, players won’t be able to transfer every old Pokemon over, and future games similarly may not support every monster–a controversial decision that has resulted in backlash from many fans. Now series producer Junichi Masuda has responded to the controversy.

In a message shared on the official Pokemon website, Masuda thanks fans for their love of the series and reiterates the decision to exclude Pokemon from the titles wasn’t made lightly. “Just like all of you, we are passionate about Pokemon and each and every one of them is very important to us. After so many years of developing the Pokemon video games, this was a very difficult decision for me,” Masuda said.

Despite the fact some Pokemon won’t be transferrable to Sword and Shield, Masuda assures that those monsters won’t be excluded from the series permanently. “I’d like to make one thing clear: even if a specific Pokemon is not available in Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, that does not mean it will not appear in future games.”

Masuda first revealed that some Pokemon wouldn’t be compatible with Sword and Shield during at Treehouse Live demo at E3 2019. Masuda acknowledged this decision was a change from previous games and said it was ultimately made in part due to development time. As he explained through an interpreter:

“In previous games that worked with the Pokemon Bank service, you were able to–for example, in Sun and Moon–bring over any Pokemon, even if they weren’t in the Alola Pokedex. But with the transition to the Nintendo Switch hardware, being much more powerful [and] allowing us to be much more expressive with each of the individual Pokemon…at Game Freak we really spent a lot of time thinking about what the best way to move forward was, really preserving the quality of all the different Pokemon while also taking into account the battle balance, having so many different Pokemon available, all within a limited development time so we don’t keep fans waiting too long for every new entry in the series. And after a lot of discussion, we decided to come to a new direction.”

Sword and Shield launch for Switch on November 15. The games take place in the new Galar region. We don’t yet know how many monsters will be in the Galar Pokedex, but we’ve already gotten a glimpse at a variety of new and returning Pokemon. The games also introduce a new battle mechanic called Dynamaxing, which allows you to supersize a Pokemon for three turns during certain matches. For more on the titles, be sure to check out our Pokemon Sword and Shield pre-order guide.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/pokemon-sword-and-shield-dev-understands-youre-ups/1100-6468135/

Like clockwork, Xur has returned to Destiny 2 with another slate of Exotic items for purchase. There’s a lot happening in the game right now, with even more to come in the near future, but as always you’ll likely want to set aside a moment to head to the tentacle-faced merchant for some easy Exotics. Here’s where Xur is located this week and what Exotic weapon and armor he has for sale.

Where Is Xur?

Xur is located in the Tower for this visit. He can be found in his usual spot in the Hangar. Simply spawn in at the standard Courtyard landing zone and head to your left, making your way into the Hangar and then taking a left when you see Amanda Holliday. In the back of this section, near the open area, you’ll find Xur hanging out on a set of stairs just behind where the Dead Orbit vendor would be situated.

What Exotics Is Xur Selling?

It’s the standard lineup of one Exotic weapon and one piece of armor for each class, as always. The weapon is the pulse rifle Vigilance Wing, which fires five-round bursts and heals you when an ally dies. Of the four items Xur has this week, it’s one of two Exotics from the base game, rather than any of the expansions.

Hunters are the unlucky ones this week, also getting an Exotic from the base game: St0mp-EE5, the leg armor that buffs your sprint, slide, and jump. Titans get the One-Eyed Mask helmet, which marks targets that damage you (in Crucible, this lets you track their location through walls for a short time, which is tremendously useful). Successfully killing that enemy then gives you an overshield and damage boost. Finally, Warlocks get the Chromatic Fire chest armor, which causes elemental explosions when you pull off precision kills with a Kinetic weapon.

• Vigilance Wing — 29 Legendary Shards
• St0mp-EE5 (Hunter leg armor) — 23 Legendary Shards
• One-Eyed Mask (Titan helmet) — 23 Legendary Shards
• Chromatic Fire (Warlock chest armor) — 23 Legendary Shards

Beyond this, you can get a Fated Engram, which you can only buy one of per week but will decrypt into an Exotic you don’t already own. That costs a whopping 97 Legendary Shards. You can also pick up an Invitation of the Nine for nine Legendary Shards, giving you some special objectives to complete, or the Five of Swords challenge card to adjust Nightfall Strike modifiers.

Xur will stick around until the weekly reset on Tuesday, July 2, so make sure to visit him before then if you’re interested. That week will see some new content arrive, include the Lumina quest for Annual Pass owners. Additionally, Crucible players will see the return of Breakthrough.

In the meantime, make sure to knock out Werner 99-40’s bounties; once you do, you’ll get a set of treasure maps pointing to a reward. Check out our guides below for help doing that.

• Salvaged Goods
• Golden Experience
• Gaze Into Death’s Eyes

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/where-is-xur-today-destiny-2-location-and-exotics-/1100-6468130/

Super Mario Maker 2 is now available on Nintendo Switch. Not only does the game feature nearly all of the tools available in its Wii U predecessor, it adds a ton of new features and items to tinker around with as well, such as some classic Mario enemies like the Angry Sun. But while the game makes most of its tools available from the outset this time around, there are still a couple of things to unlock, including an obscure power-up from the series’ past.

Spoilers follow for Super Mario Maker 2’s story mode.

Clearing Super Mario Maker 2’s new story mode will unlock a handful of goodies, including Game Boy graphic items for your Mii. The best rewards, however, are two new power-ups, one of which is the Superball Flower from the original Super Mario Land. This item can only be used in the Super Mario Bros. style and looks and functions similarly to the standard Fire Flower, except it allows you to lob “Superballs,” which will bounce around the level and ricochet off walls.

The other new power-up you receive for clearing story mode is the Super Hammer. This one can only be placed in the Super Mario 3D World game style, and it’ll transform Mario into his Builder form. It works somewhat like the hammer from the original Donkey Kong arcade game, allowing you to smash enemies and even break through hard blocks. Builder Mario is also able to conjure up boxes that you can then stand on.

Story mode is one of the many new features in Super Mario Maker 2. In this mode, Mario is tasked with helping rebuild Princess Peach’s castle. To do so, he’ll need to earn coins by taking on jobs, which come in the form of 100 Nintendo-made levels to complete. Mario Maker 2 also introduces local and online multiplayer. At launch, you’ll only be able to play online with strangers, but Nintendo will release an update that adds the option to play online with friends as well.

Super Mario Maker 2 has been received very positively by critics. GameSpot awarded it an 8/10 in our Super Mario Maker 2 review-in-progress. Critic Peter Brown wrote, “With the story mode and dozens of custom-built stages under my belt, I’m anxiously waiting for the floodgates to open upon Mario Maker’s 2 release. What I’ve played so far has proven, once again, that the Mario series is worth all the admiration it gets, and Mario Maker 2 is an excellent tool for picking it apart by pushing its enemies, mechanisms, and Mario, to their limit.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/super-mario-maker-2-brings-back-an-obscure-power-u/1100-6468125/